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Anschluss was the subject of inconclusive debate prior to the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, whose loss, by Austria, allowed Otto von Bismarck to build the Prussian-dominated German Empire of 1871. Bismarck deliberately excluded Austria because he perceived that the power of the Austrian elite would be a harmful counter-balance to that of the Prussian Junkers in the reunified Germany.
Austria excluded from the new Germany charted a new course within the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, attempting to reconcile multiple nationalities within one state. When the multinational empire broke up in 1918 many German Austrians hoped to join with Germany in the realignment of Europe in order to avoid persecution in the new nation states of central Europe. However, after World War I, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 explicitly vetoed the inclusion of Austria in Germany — largely because France and Britain feared the power of a larger Germany. The fears of many German Austrians were assuaged though because the majority of them remained within the new Austria.
In the early 1930s, popular support for union with Germany remained overwhelming, and the Austrian government looked to a possible customs unionA customs union is a free trade zone with a common external tariff. That is, the same customs duties, quotas, preferences and so forth apply to all goods entering the area, regardless of which country within the area they are entering. Examples of customs with Germany in 1931. Hitler's rise to power in Germany and the plain hostility of Austrian Nazis left the Austrian government with little enthusiasm for such formal ties. Hitler, originally from Austria, was in favour of Anschluss, and had stated he would attempt a union, by force in necessary.
Austria's First Republic, dominated from the latter 1920s by the Catholic nationalist Christian Socialist Party , was dissolved in 1934 in favour a fascist, corporatist model of one-party government which joined the Christian Socialists and paramilitary HeimwehrThe Heimwehr (German Home Guard were a Nationalist, initially paramilitary grouping, operating within Austria during the 1920's and 1930's; they were similar in methods, organisation, and ideology to Germany's Freikorp. Formed mainly from de-mobolised sol with absolute state domination of labour relations and no freedom of the press. Power was centralized in the offices of the President and ChancellorThe Federal Chancellor of Austria Bundeskanzler is the head of government in Austria. First Republic (1918-1938) Chancellors of Austria of the First Republic Name Term of office Party Karl Renner 1918- 1920 SDAPO Michael Mayr 1920- 1921 CSP Johann Schober, empowered to rule by decree as had been practise since the dissolution of parliament in 1933. Christian Socialist Chancellor Engelburt Dolfuss was assasinated by the illegal, competing, and Hitlerian Austrian Nazi party on July 25July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 159 days remaining. Events 306 Constantine I proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops. 1261 Constantinople is captured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael, 1934 in an attempted coup.
Christian Socialism was an Austrian phenomenon in that Austria's national identity has strong Catholic elements which were incorporated into the movement by way of clerical authoritarian tendencies which are certainly not to be found in Nazism. Both Dolfuss and his unelected successor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, turned to Austria's other fascist neighbour, Italy, for inspiration and support. The statist corporatism which emerged in 1933-1934 bore more resemblance to Italy fascism than German national socialism. Mussolini was able to support the independent aspirations of the Austrian dictatorship until his need for German support in Ethiopia forced him into a client relationship with Berlin that began with the 1937 Berlin-Rome Axis.
After a lengthy 1938 standoff over the status of the Austrian Nazis and continuing demands for union (not just from the Nazis) which escalated through direct meetings between Hitler and Schuschnigg, to a German war ultimatum, a Nazi lawyer, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, was appointed Interior Minister and another Nazi, Edmund Glaise-Horstenau , Foreign Minister. On March 12, Germany accepted the Anschluss with Austria, now the province of Ostmark. The radio broadcast by von Schuschnigg on the preceding day, in which he announced his resignation, argued that the government accepted only to avoid bloodshed. The Anschluss was given immediate effect by decree, subject to ratification by a popular vote under secret ballot thirty days later in which it was overwhelming approved. The new Chancellor requested German troops be sent to restore order before the referendum was held. Immediately thereafter and still before the referendum, the Vienna where he had failed as a painter, greeted Hitler with a crowd of several hundred thousand in the Heldenplatz . Hitler later commented thus:
This melding of the German nation lasted until the end of World War II in 1945.
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