How Did the Anschluss Actually Happen? | Why Austria Fell to Germany in 1938

How did Germany annex Austria?
In 1938 the German army faced no resistance when it invaded Austria. Within two days the 'Anschluss' or 'Joining' of the two countries had been decreed and many newly minted Germans believed they could look forward to a prosperous future. But it had taken two decades of social chaos in Austria - plus a coercive pressure campaign by Berlin - to bring most Austrians into line. The ease of the Anschluss of March 13th, 1938, was due to both the virulence of a Germany readying to march to war and the ineptitude of the Austrian regime.
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Sources Consulted:
Bukey, Evan Burr. Hitler’s Austria: Popular Sentiment in the Nazi Era, 1938-45. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. archive.org/embed/hitlersaust...
Miller, Stuart T. Mastering Modern European History. London: Macmillan Education LTD, 1990.
Pauley, Bruce. Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the 20th Century. 4th ed. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2015.

[@colindaniels945]

I'll quote History Matters: "Austria wanted to be part of Germany, just not THAT Germany."

[@jonoc3729]

Most austrians supported unification, even with Hitler's Germany.

[@colindaniels945]

@@jonoc3729 The fascist government prior to Anschluss didn't. In fact, they even allowed opposition parties,after banning them years earlier,on the condition that they oppose the Nazis. Even the video points that out

[@wolfgang6517]

@@jonoc3729 source?

[@occam7382]

I see you are a man of culture.

[@mnd9166]

​@@colindaniels945 Yeah because Austrofascists were clerical, civic nationalist, anti-socialist and werent big on racism except Jews. Austrofascists werent even proper corporatists in economic manner, they practically copied things were they thought might work but never had the philosophical nor the ideological reasons behind them.

[@user-os2yp6ph2z]

It's almost like a trope throughout history. H1lter was from Austria, Napoleon from Corsica, Stalin from Georgia and so on..

[@colindaniels945]

Except for one thing: Napoleon Bonaparte was Italian not French

[@chiefchuck3897]

@@colindaniels945 and Stalin was Georgian, not Russian. And Hitler was Austrian, not (necessarily) German. Your point?

[@Frd2004]

The difference is Austria is German cultural and historical, corsica and Georgia werent

[@LookBackHistory]

Churchill was half- American. The founder of the current Swedish royal family was French. Catherine the Great was German.

[@bcvetkov8534]

​@@colindaniels945This is incorrect but okay to off I guess.

[@TheMexxodus]

Amazingly Schuschnigg was arrested after the Anschluss and imprisoned in a concentration camp. And survived. He was liberated by the Americans in 1945. After the Second World War he went to the United States, became a professor of constitutional law at the University of St. Louis and acquired American nationality. In 1968 he returned to Austria, but did not enter politics again. Kurt Schuschnigg died in November 1977, four weeks before his 80th birthday.

[@JustAPintOfMilk]

yeah i dont see him having much political support in austrian after his huge political failures and him selling off austria to the germans.

[@NathanS__]

Saying Austria was separate from Germany for centuries is just plain incorrect. At best you can date Austria's separation to the rest of Germany to 1866 when Prussia broke the German Confederation, which the Austrian Emperor was President. Protestant Prussia purposely pushed catholic Austria away so Prussia could unite Germany and then the Habsburgs tried to stay independent from the Hohenzollern Germany so the Habsburgs would remain an imperial power. The idea that Austrians are not German at all is a post WWII idea.

[@inactiveaccount]

austria was independent way before 1866

[@10Tabris01]

@@inactiveaccount So was every other state in Germany. Doesn't change the fact that an Austria led unified Germany was a real possibility until the German Brothers War

[@inactiveaccount]

@@10Tabris01 no austria became independent during the habsburgs germany was still part of the hre, also austrians not being the same as germans isn’t a ww2 concept it is a fact if you look at a genetic map of europe you can see that austrians have a 25% slavic part in their genes that germans and swiss don’t have because of the austro hungarian empire, austrians are genetically more similar to hungarians than they are to germans, an austrian german unification only became possible because austrians wanted to be a part of an empire after the fall of austria hungary since austria went from being one of the richest countries to one of the poorest in europe after ww1, austria and austrians accepted the fact that their a small country and are happy to be an independent country after ww2

[@janzjenau8400]

​@@inactiveaccountWtf are you even saying? Austria became independet, while Germany was still part of the HRE? Austria was a part of the HRE to the very last day. Nearly every HRE emporer was an austrian Habsburg, including the last Emporer. After the Vienna congress Austria was also part of the german confederation and the austian Emporer was literally the president of said german confederation. Austria was THE most important german state and if you told anyone in the 19th century that Austria wasn't as german as Prussia, Hannover or Baden they would have laughed in your face.

[@inactiveaccount]

@@janzjenau8400 learn history not olaf scholz (propaganda) history austria got independent because prussia didn’t want vienna to be the capital of the hre austria gained its independence in the 1000s germany was still a part of the hre there

[@colindaniels945]

Yes Mussolini was against the German takeover of Austria, mainly because he had his own designs on it. He went along with it for 2 reasons: 1. He had no desire to piss off Hitler. 2. He saw Germany as the leading power in Europe at that point

[@amogus948]

No, it was because France and GB opposed his invasion and conquest of Ethiopia and sanctioned him (even though the sanctions were not really strictly enforced and were short lived) This opposition left Italy with no "allies" at the time and so Mussolini seeked closer cooperation with Germany given H*tler's rivalry with London and Paris Mussolini in 1938 (or in 1939 for what it matters) neither was scared of Germany nor it considered it the strongest power in Europe

[@colindaniels945]

@@amogus948 Not according to the History Matters video on the world wide view of Anschluss, unless you have a source that says differently

[@marcelbork92]

How did it "happen"? Two German divisons crossed unopposed the "border" and marched straight to Vienna, being greeted and welcomed all the way through with cheers and flowers. That was it.

[@nexxuzthenoble]

annexion

[@zerosuitsamus2340]

Welcome to Black Prade

[@SkalliDE]

@@nexxuzthenoble unification

[@nexxuzthenoble]

@@SkalliDE that's how hitler called it. Are you a hitler lapdog? A foreign military marching into another independent country is an invasion country

[@AEIOU05]

What you forgot was the government being couped and Brownshirts staging riots in every city. Nazi germany wanted either a pro Nazi government to take power or spin the narrative that the current Austrian government was no longer able to handle the riots and instability. In the end they got their wish and Schuschnigg resigned, however they still went ahead with the invasion anyway (probably because they wanted to test their logistics). Also it wasn’t only two divisions but the entire 8th army marching into Austria

[@FulmenTheFinn]

0:15 Austria had NOT been separate from Germany for hundreds of years. Until 1866 the German Confederation, which included the German-speaking parts of Austria, and then some (most notably Bohemia and Moravia), was essentially synonymous with Germany. Hence why you have things like the German Civil War being another name for the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Vienna had been the de facto capital of Germany for centuries, with the HRE becoming synonymous with the concept of Germany in the Middle Ages. To quote Wikipedia: "From 1250 onward, the association between "Germans" and the whole Empire became stronger. [...] At the same time, the replacement of Latin with German in official documents entrenched the German character of the empire at large. In 1474 the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" appeared, becoming more common after 1512. However, even after 1560, only 1 in 9 official documents mention "Germany", and most omitted the rest as well and simply called it "the Empire". In 1544 the Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster) was published, which used "Germany" (Teütschland) as synonymous with the empire as a whole. Johann Jacob Moser also used "German" as a synonym for "Imperial". This conflated definition of "German" even included non-German speakers.[39]" During the 1848 nationalist revolutions throughout the German Confederation, the German nationalists naturally wanted to make the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph I, the Emperor of Germany. He turned it down, only for them to then offer it to the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who also turned it down. The latter saw Austria as the leader of Germany, and did not want a Germany separate of Austria. "Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria had made it clear in November 1848 that he would not accept the title of "Emperor of the Germans" from the Frankfurt National Assembly because the Frankfurt Constitution would have required German-speaking Austria to have a separate constitution, government and administration from the rest of the Empire.[59] On 28 March 1849, the Assembly elected Frederick William IV as Emperor of the Germans, but he refused the crown. In a letter to a confidant, he wrote: "I can call God to witness that I do not want it, for the simple reason that Austria will then be separated from Germany."" Austria being something separate from Germany only really came about as an idea c. 1866-1871, and even then it was flimsy at best for the next nearly 100 years, as witnessed by the Austrian desire to join Germany in the aftermath of WW1 and during the interbellum before WW2. I'd even make the case that the first widely spread Austrian identity separate from that of Germany only became a thing when the first post-WW2 generations began reaching adulthood in the 1960s and 1970s.

[@ryanhassett4720]

Finally someone gets it. Austria was not some distant independent German state it only stayed independent when the empire formed because of its own empire

[@wolfgang6517]

Ah yes, the famous German confederation of Germans that includes…. Poles, Czechs, Dames, Belgians and Lithuanians. Almost as if politics doesn’t care about language

[@FulmenTheFinn]

@@wolfgang6517 It seems you've somehow managed to completely miss the point of the post you're replying to.

[@MuiltiLightRider]

I think what he means is that Germany and Austria were never unified under one centralized state since the HRE and German Confederation were very decentralized

[@wolfgang6517]

@@MuiltiLightRider Germany as a nation state is a completely modern invention

[@davidbraccini4770]

The reason why Mussolini approved the annexation of Austria, besides the alliance after the Ethiopian war, was because Hitler promised that he would renounce all claims to south Tyrol and even relocate all of its inhabitants who didn’t want to stay in Italy. Even after the eight of September 1943 and the subsequent german occupation of Italy Germany kept its promise and still never formally annexed South Tyrol.

[@gtaquizmaster]

Thankss for making this

[@FREE_PALESTINE_4444]

Austria Painter Conquering His Own Country 💀

[@michaelowino228]

Good video.

[@LookBackHistory]

Thanks!

[@colindaniels945]

I'm a bit surprised that you didn't mention the Stresa Front. For those who may not know, the Stresa Front was a treaty/agreement between Italy, France, and the UK signed in 1933/1934. It was an agreement between the three aforementioned countries to protect/guarantee Austrian independence as they knew Hitler had his eye on the place. Sadly, the Stresa Front went down the toilet in 1935 when Italy invaded Ethiopia.

[@Reichsritter]

what? they had been separate since 1866, that's 72 years not "hundreds of years "

[@quedtion_marks_kirby_modding]

Great vid. Only small issues is that the social democratic party logo you used is the post war logo.

[@glitchy6449]

Using the double headed eagle as the official coat of arms was a chad move, it's just so iconic!

[@micahistory]

interesting, never saw anyone explain the details that led up to this event before

[@LookBackHistory]

Nor had I, hence...

[@micahistory]

@@LookBackHistory thanks, your channel is great

[@mypropmp4057]

Bold and respectable decision for you to use the swastika despite KZbin’s censoring spree! Please, continue the amazing work!

[@LookBackHistory]

To be fair to KZbin, I think its mostly KZbinrs themselves imposing that sort of censoring. KZbin's automated systems tend to flag videos like this (limiting potential income) but everything I've ever requested a manual review on has been approved swiftly.

[@theconqueringram5295]

It was pretty strait forward.

[@lucianoosorio5942]

“This enraged the Allies, who punished Germany severely.” Oversimplified Winston Churchill: I was saving the planet from an Axis of Darkness, while you were back home opening National Parks! Yes!

[@Edits-with-Niko]

Genius reference! 👏

[@ElectrostatiCrow]

Erb and oversimplified referrences. Noice.

[@colindaniels945]

Also,if History Matters is right, the only country to publicly condemn Anschluss was Mexico. But given where Mexico was in relation to Germany and the fact that it was Mexico, it was pretty much ignored

[@semsemeini7905]

My family were Austrian nationalists. Supporters of the Habsburgs. Fortunately they fled before March 12th, 1938.

[@nicolasmarazuela1010]

Austria was forced to left the German Federation in 1866. At this point Austria wasn't even seperated a century from "Germany".

[@nusantaranbrony7283]

Because they can deploy 400 thousand active troops

[@Hunter-cx6]

*Ballot paper: YES. Shot me.*

[@LookBackHistory]

It definitely made clear what you were supposed to vote for...

[@oliverschulte9659]

Mistake right in the beginning of the video: Austria was not separate from Germany since hundreds of years. Austria was one of the various German states who first formed the Holy Roman Empire until year 1806 and then the German Confederation from 1815 to 1866. It was only in 1866 that Austria was forced by Prussia to go separate ways. The German Federation ended in a war between its states with Prussia and its Northern allies winning and forcing the others under their rule, then calling the whole new thing "Germany". But Austria was explicitly excluded. It is a bit like as if the US Union had excluded Texas from the US after the Civil War in 1865. Back to the mistake in the video: Austria got kicked out of Germany in 1866, wanted to rejoin in 1919 (after WW1) and finally was semi-voluntarily joining Nazi-Germany in 1938.

[@jonnyminogue]

Another good video about the, as History Matters says, the “toothbrush mustache having Austrian man”

[@Julian-tf5rb]

Not all Austrians wanted the Anschluß. My grandparents were just those type of Austrians. My Grandfather was more loyal to the old Austro-Hungarian union. When WW1 ended and the A-H empire ceased to be, he took his family and got out.

[@LookBackHistory]

Absolutely. Cool to hear about your family history!

[@Julian-tf5rb]

@LookBackHistory Truth be told, there's a lot more to the story then what I told you. But long story, short.... that's how my fathers sidebof the Fam ended up in America.

[@ElfenThorne]

We literally have the same story, My grandfather also left after the annexation.

[@AEIOU05]

Modern estimates divide the approval by 3. One third was in favor of the annexation, one third against and one third was undecided. When Germany took over and promised economic growth and prosperity the undecided third got swayed. When the war started to go badly, many Austrians became disillusioned with being part of Germany, which is reflected with Austrian born soldiers being more willing to capitulate than their comrades from the „altreich“.

[@markuskalmi2745]

Imagine saying nazis and fascists are the same when history showed that if intrests collide, fascists are ready to wage wat against nazis.

[@lythd]

important to note is that support for anschluss fell after hitlers rise to power

[@KrokLP]

Austria was part of Germany until the German Confederation was ended in 1856 and a customs union continued to exist long after. That's not "hundreds of years" before the Anschluß, but 82. And 18 years since the last loud calls for unification were forcibly suppressed by the Entente. And yeah, Hitler from even before taking power was solely focused on war and taking over the world. Seriously??

[@edwinsparda7622]

Austria has been part of Germany for centuries until 1866. It's people wanted to join a centralized unified germany (but its leaders thought otherwise). Austria rejoining germany would be like Northern ireland rejoining the republic of ireland.

[@callnight1441]

slight correction: the shortening "N*zi" comes from the German pronunciation of the word "National" (pronounced "Nah-tsio-nahl")

[@janzjenau8400]

Socialist = shot form "Sozi" National Socialist = short form "Nazi" That's where it comes from.

[@liberalizzzm4908]

8:16 wtf are you talking about 😭😭😭

[@nexxuzthenoble]

*annexed

[@ADULFGETULER]

Austrian troops also marched into german cities the same way the germans did and they were greeted well

[@corneliussulla9963]

Spam crap

[@bryant-fr7sr]

They wanted and they got what they wanted

[@kgius7434]

because nobody helped, the Italians betrayed us

[@janzjenau8400]

Help with what? The Austrians literally wanted to join the rest of Germany after ww1, even naming their country "Republic of German Austria" and the second sentence in their self choosen consitiution was "Austria is a part of the Republic of Germany. The only reason they didn't was because the Entente forced them not to. They also forced them to change their name into the "Republic of Austria". If any foreign powers intervened against the Anschluss the Austrians would have fought side by side with the other Germans against that enemy.

[@Lockfly]

Italy only didn't want the annexation in the first place because they wanted to take Austria first lol

[@kgius7434]

@@janzjenau8400 that resulted due to the political and economic situation after loosing 90% of the Empires territory. but in general election the Austrian nationalist party which opposed the Anschluss kept on winning the elections until the 1970s.

[@kgius7434]

@@Lockfly never heard of that, but would have been great to reunite with south tyrol and the Austrian coastlands .

[@patrickjeffers7864]

99% of the vote 😂

[@kayhoorn]

Imagine calling your nation 'Eastern empire' aka Österreich. They always knew they belonged to the Germanic tribe. Vienna is an eastern outpost.

[@fabianauer1986]

It means easter realm. Austria started as a small province and not as a empire

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

The nazis where imperialist, not nationalist. Nationalists respect nations rights to self determination. Imperialist subjigate other nations.

[@BritishRepublicsn]

Nationalists respect THEIR OWN right to self determination, they generally don't care too much about other nations. Imperialism is just an extreme version of nationalism

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

@@BritishRepublicsn Nationalists respect EVERY nations right to self determination within their borders. Imperialism is the polar opposite of nationalism. Imperialists and nationalists are arch enemies and its the most common form of right wing vs right wing war, for example right now Russijan imperialists vs Ukrainian nationalists.

[@raressipoteanu2827]

Is bro for real

[@bernd_das_brot6911]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 They don’t tho if their nationality or national interest is being hurt by that nations internal affairs. Nationalism is just the belief that your country is the best and deserves to spread her influence, not any other bullcrap

[@BritishRepublicsn]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 just because 2 nations are fighting, doesn't mean they're ideologically opposite. Your version of nationalists fight each other all the time