The German Question, Part One Hundred Twenty-Three

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/B
"Foreign Policy & The German Question" (Part Four/3)
"Hitler Goes Home; Austria Joins Germany" (Part 3)

Just a little over a week after Hitler and Schuschnigg signed their agreement in February 1938,* Hitler gave a speech to the Reichstag (the German Parliament).** He thanked Chancellor Schuschnigg for his efforts over their recent agreement, but he also threw in lines about how Austrian sentiment to join Germany after the Great War (World War I) had been stopped by the Versailles Treaty, and how "ten million" Germans were being kept separate from other Germans.*** The speech brought more calls by Austria's Nazis for joining with Germany. By March, Schuschnigg made a decision that brought everything to a head. He announced on March 9th that a plebiscite (referendum) would be held on March 12th! Whether such a vote could have even been held on such short notice is questionable, but he cleverly worded the ballot issue to make it almost impossible for anyone to vote "No."****

Having thus tweaked Hitler's nose, Schuschnigg now paid the price. Hitler met with his military commanders and ordered them to cross the border into Austria early on March 12. German forces, aided by Austrian border guards, took down the barriers and streamed into Austria, to the jubilation of much of the populace. Hitler followed soon afterwards, driving through hysterical crowds who presented him with bouquets of flowers. He visited his birthplace just over the, now previous, border in Braunau-am-Inn and the city of Linz where he had spent much time as a boy. German radio and press reports (controlled by the Nazis) stated that German troops were only helping to restore order, but during a speech in Linz, Hitler announced that Austria was being incorporated into Germany. It was then on to Vienna and ecstatic crowds, and ringing church bells. The call to German nationalism was strong, and in Austria, where unemployment was high, people hoped for a better life. They got it in many ways, as unemployment dropped dramatically in less than a year, but they also got the ugly side; Jews beaten and arrested, anti-Nazi politicians (including Schuschnigg*****) arrested, and worse was to come.

Just a few weeks later, Hitler, in an ironic turn of events, used a national plebiscite to sanction Austria's absorption into Germany, with more the 99% voting "Ja." (Interestingly, the "Ja" vote in what had been Austria was a couple of tenths of a point higher than in the rest of Germany.)

* Schuschnigg later claimed he had been bullied into signing the agreement, and that is undoubtedly true, but he also signed the agreement undoubtedly to keep himself in office.

** Hitler kept the Reichstag to use for important speeches and ceremonial purposes. It was really no longer a true legislative body, and of course, it had only one party represented, the Nazis. After the damaging fire to the Reichstag Building in 1933, the Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House ("Krolloper," in German) in Berlin, but only when summoned by Hitler.

*** Austria had about 6.5 million people and the German population of Czechoslovakia was about 3.5 million. He seems to have already been setting up a situation to deal with Czechoslovakia.

**** He used terms like "independent, German Austria," and "Fatherland."

***** Schuschnigg was not freed from captivity until the end of World War II. He later went to America, where he was a teacher, but returned to Austria where he died in 1977, just short of his 80th birthday.

WORD HISTORY:
Hail-This is the noun meaning "frozen rain/frozen precipitation/ice pellets." It goes back to an Indo European word for "pebble," which was "khaglo/kaghlo." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "hag(a)laz," which meant "hail." This gave Anglo-Saxon "haegl" and "hagol" (according to dialect). The "g" sound eventually died out, leaving English with "hail." The verb came from the noun and in Anglo-Saxon was "hagolian," and meant "to hail." Common throughout the other Germanic languages: German has "Hagel" (originally "hagal"), Low German also has "Hagel," and some dialects "hoagel," West Frisian has "heil" (notice the missing "g," as in English), Dutch has "hagel," Norwegian, Icelandic and Danish have "hagl," and Swedish has "hagel."