!!!Anschluss

Anschluss (Anschluss), common term for efforts to unite Austria with 
Germany and for the actual annexation of Austria in March 1938. The 
basis for the striving for annexation was found in the centuries-old 
links within the Holy Roman Empire, which was wrongly seen as being 
tantamount to a German national state, in the position of the 
Habsburgs as "Roman-German" emperors up to the abdication of the 
imperial title in 1806, and in the Austrian presidency of the  German 
Federation founded in 1815. The growing hegemonical struggle with 
Prussia  Germany - Austria resulted in the conflict, at the Frankfurt 
National Assembly of 1848/49, between the "Great Germans" 
(Grossdeutsche), who pleaded for integration of the Austrian empire 
and the Slavic areas into the planned national state, and the "Little 
Germans" (Kleindeutsche), who favoured the unification of Germany 
under Prussian leadership without the inclusion of Austria. The 
exclusion of Austria from the German unification movement became 
reality with Austria's defeat in the  Austro - Prussian War of 1866 
and the establishment of the German Reich in 1871.

\\
In the second half of the 19th century Pan-German groups and parties 
established themselves in Austria (particularly under G. von  
Schoenerer); they called for the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian 
Monarchy and the union of the German-speaking parts of Austria and 
Hungary with the German Reich. The anschluss movement became 
politically important when the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy disintegrated 
and the successor states were established in 1918, since few people 
believed in the viability of the residual parts of Austria. On 
November 12, 1918, the National Assembly of German-Austria 
declared that Austria was part of the German Republic, and a second 
declaration to that effect, largely inspired by O.  Bauer, was made on 
March 12, 1919. Article 88 of the peace treaty of  
Saint-Germain then stipulated that Austria was forbidden to join 
Germany without the express consent of the League of Nations. With 
financial support from Germany, plebiscites were held in Tirol in 
April 1921 (145,302 votes for, 1,805 against union with Germany) and 
in Salzburg in May 1921 (98.546 for, 877 against) but 
international pressure prevented any further plebiscites. In 1922 
Austria waived its claim to union with Germany in the Geneva Protocol. 
However, the anschluss movement continued to play an important role in 
Austrian economic, domestic and cultural politics. Great Germans, 
Social Democrats and some Christian Socialists still favoured 
anschluss, and many private associations, mostly financed by Germany, 
were formed (such as the "Oesterreichisch-deutscher Volksbund, the 
"Oesterreichisch-deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft", the "Deutscher Klub" 
and the "Deutsche Gemeinschaft"). Throughout this period Austrian 
policy-makers clearly pursued policies aiming at harmonisation and 
assimilation. A customs union between Germany and Austria was agreed 
upon on March 19, 1931 but interdicted by the International Court 
of Justice in The Hague. In July 1932 Austria signed the Lausanne 
Protocol, in which it reiterated its waiver of the right to establish 
a union with Germany.

\\
As Hitler ascended to power in Germany in 1933, calls for anschluss 
within Germany became louder. They were, however, for the most part 
based on the old conceptions of German imperialism and the Weimar 
Republic. A pro-German policy on the part of Austria was sought to be 
achieved by an economic boycott, terror and political pressure were 
brought to bear on Austria to force the  Dollfuss government to adopt 
pro-German policies. The anschluss was promoted in Austria by the 
NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party), which gradually 
absorbed virtually all members of the nationalist camp, while the 
Social Democrats and Christian Socialists abandoned their claims for 
union with Germany. When the NSDAP was banned in Austria and 
Chancellor Dollfuss was assassinated in July 1934 by a Nazi contingent 
including many Germans, efforts to press for union with Germany came 
to a standstill. The July 1936 agreement between Germany and Austria 
and the policy of the "Deutscher Weg" (German Way) failed to achieve 
normality and actually resulted in Austria's independence being 
increasingly undermined economically, politically and militarily. When 
an gradual development of pro-anschluss sentiment appeared 
impracticable, Germany intensified its pressure for union from the 
summer of 1937 onwards, which finally resulted in the invasion of 
Austria by German troops on March 12, 1938 and, one day later, 
the implementation of anschluss or annexation by the Law on the 
Reunification of Austrian with the German Reich  Austria 1938-1945.

\\
On the basis of the  Moscow Declaration of 1943, the effects of the 
war and the fact that Austrians had by and large abandoned all ideas 
favouring anschluss, the Declaration of Independence of April 27, 
1945 declared the union with Germany null and void. The prohibition of 
union with Germany was reiterated in Article 4 of the  Austrian 
State Treaty of 1955.

!Literature
F. Kleinwaechter and H. Paller, Die Aschluss-Frage, 1930; 
N. Schausberger, Der Griff nach Oesterreich., %%sup 2/%1979; A. 1938, 
1981; E. Schmidl, Maerz 38, 1987; H. Arnberger et al. (eds.), A. 
1938, 1988; G. Stourzh (ed.), Oesterreich, Deutschland und die 
Maechte, 1990.


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