|
|
|
The Unloved Democracy of the Inter-War Period |
|
|
|
Page 4 of 11
The Fight for Survival
Following the National Socialists' unsuccessful coup, the President of the Republic, Wilhelm Miklas, asked the former Minister of Justice, the Christian Socialist Kurt Schuschnigg from Tyrol, to form a government. Schuschnigg sought to pursue the same course as before, with the aim of gaining time against the aggression of the German Reich. Prompted by their escapades in Abyssinia, in the course of 1935, Italy, which just one year before, in July 1934, had amassed troops on Austria's borders, began to side with National Socialist Germany. Schuschnigg's attempts to interest the Western powers in Austria's fate fell on deaf ears, largely because of the poor image projected by his authoritarian government.
Furthermore, England was pursuing a policy of appeasement, which meant tolerating the expansion of the German Reich. As a result, Germany's occupation of the Rhineland did not meet with any opposition internationally, while the Olympics held in Berlin during 1936 restored Germany's reputation as a "normal" country. In order to take account of these new developments, Ambassador von Papen advised negotiating a compromise with the German Reich, which was signed in July 1936. While this "gentlemen's agreement" on the one hand guaranteed Austria's independence, at the same time it officially gave the Austrian National Socialists renewed political scope, which they then used to the full.
Schuschnigg thus felt cornered and the agitation of the National Socialists within the country reached new dimensions. Again, it was Ambassador von Papen who recommended a personal meeting with Adolf Hitler at Obersalzberg in Bavaria. The outcome of these discussions was, however, disastrous. Hitler put Schuschnigg under enormous pressure: the concessions granted to the National Socialists led to a Cabinet reshuffle on 16 February 1938 and, for the first time, the Austrian Federal Chancellor was forced to include some Nazis in his government. Much too late, Schuschnigg sought the support of the Social Democrats, who had been liquidated as a party some time before.
In the German Reich, it was mainly Hermann Goering, the minister responsible for armament, who was pushing for a strategy of union with Austria as against a policy of economic penetration. This was because Germany, which was bent on rearmament, had a dearth of workers and foreign currency, both of which it hoped to procure quickly by enforcing a violent solution towards Austria. Major protests were hardly to be expected, either from the countries of Western Europe or from Italy. Schuschnigg's last desperate attempt to ward off this strategy was to announce a plebiscite, which, however, only served to accelerate German aggression.
The Anschluss with Germany, which was proclaimed in March 1938 with the aid of false documents and massive propaganda, was not counteracted with any military action from Austria, since-both morally and strategically-the country felt too weak to respond. Internationally, there was little reaction: only Mexico, the Soviet Union, Chile and China protested against this measure. With the help of the Austrian National Socialists, power was seized without a hitch.
The Austrian cabinet leaders were arrested and then deported to concentration camps. During the following months, Austria's Jews were exposed to unprecedented terror, subjected to mental humiliation and physical torture, robbed of their possessions and expelled from the country. In order to give these actions a quasi-legal basis, on 13 March a mock Council of Ministers was convened which adopted the resolution for the Anschluss. This was followed by a referendum held in Greater Germany on 10 April. With the outrageous use of propaganda, the votes of the people were misused to "legalize" an act of violence.
|
|
|
