How Much Austrian Support for Anschluss?

Now, the actual Anschluss we know was a power play by Adolf, but I've always wonder just how much support any unification with Germany had among Austrians of the time. Yes, Republic of German-Austria wanted to be part of the German Republic, but after almost two decades, were such sentiments the same?

I guess this is a pretty open-ended topic, but it's something that had been bugging me for years. Was it inevitable that (independent) Austrians would have tried to join Germany until the Nazis made the whole thing taboo, or was there any strong political will among the people to be separate?
 
This is very difficult to judge as the only figures we have are from the Nazi -controlled plebiscite. Almost certain that there was less support than the Nazis claimed but most commentators and diplomats from the period accepted that there was significant Austrian support, at least in the region of 50% of the populace. The inter bellum Austrian economy had not really been doing well and there was little or no evidence of significant Austrian resistance to Nazi rule prior to 1945 when it had become blindingly obvious that the Third Reich had a glorious future behind it.
The "first victim of Hitler" myth was a useful one for the Russians, Americans, British and French (as it divided Austria from Germany weakening the latter for the future) and for the Austrians themselves as it allowed them some self respect and an escape route (or alibi) from the odium of Hitler's Germany. However it does not really reflect the situation on the ground. Austrians resented the downgrading of Vienna but generally served loyally throughout the Third Reich

The fact that der Fuhrer was himself originally an Austrian from Linz probably also helped. Unification sentiment might have been weaker if the proposals had been coming from a Prussian Protestant like Goerdeler who was more antithetical to their religious and cultural background.
 
A man like Arthur Seyß-Inquart comes to mind. Loyal Nazi to the end.

Or Otto Skorzeny. In his biography, admittedly hardly an un-biased source, there were crowds of students actively protesting in favour of the Anschluss.
(Then again German Universities still have duelling societies, so who knows?)
 
FWIW, the 1957 Encyclopedia Britannica (article "Austria", p. 748) states "It would be an error to dismiss this vote as meaningless or forced. Though many Austrians were not yet nazis. they welcomed the Anschluss almost unanimously. Even the Socialist Karl Renner, then living in retirement, did so."
 
According to Der Spiegel 52% of Austrians were against an independent Austria and in favor of unification with Germany in 1965.
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13531257.html

Tirol and Salzburg both had votes in 1921 to join Germany which passed both by a 98+ % in favor. It was blocked by the Entente powers which threatened to invade in case they tried to join Germany.

And it should be remembered that the first Unification attempts after WWI were started by the Austrian socialists. Austro-German unification had support through all parties and classes of society.
 
When I was working in Vienna in the early 2000's there was an article in one of the local papers which quoted a very high number for Austrian membership of the SS/SD - 65% of the total strength springs to mind. Anyone have better data?
 
According to Der Spiegel 52% of Austrians were against an independent Austria and in favor of unification with Germany in 1965.
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13531257.html

Tirol and Salzburg both had votes in 1921 to join Germany which passed both by a 98+ % in favor. It was blocked by the Entente powers which threatened to invade in case they tried to join Germany.

And it should be remembered that the first Unification attempts after WWI were started by the Austrian socialists. Austro-German unification had support through all parties and classes of society.
To be fair, 1918-1922-ish was a very awkward time in Austria, which was still reeling from a traunatizing defeat-and-dismemberment. While Tyrol did vote for union with Germany, they also voted for union with Switzerland within that timeframe. Take that as you will, but IMO it was a sign of confusing time and massive difficulty filling the vaccuum left by the collapse of the Imperial-Royal government (ironically, the Reichsrat continued operating well into 1919 despite the existence of German-Austria) and the very important issue of Austrian national identity which had completely disappeared with the Empire. Plus, I would take in consideration the results of the elections right after Saint-Germain-en-Laye, when the nominally anti-Anschluss Christian Socialists narrowly won. Anschluss obviously had popular support, but it certainly wasn't as garanteed as people sometimes claimed.

Anyways, that's not entirely on-topic. By 1938, the situation was just as unclear: the Social Democrats, whom had been chased out of power during the Civil War, still mostly supported union with Germany, but heavilly opposed thr Nazis and they, along with the Communists and Monarchists (both were anti-Anschluss) formed the backbone of the resistance in Austria. Which brings me to question this:
FWIW, the 1957 Encyclopedia Britannica (article "Austria", p. 748) states "It would be an error to dismiss this vote as meaningless or forced. Though many Austrians were not yet nazis. they welcomed the Anschluss almost unanimously. Even the Socialist Karl Renner, then living in retirement, did so."
I seriously doubt this statement. From what I read, he saw the Nazis as just as bad as the Austrofascists and that they wouldn't last (i.e. he massively underestimated them). He supported union with a democratic Germany, not the Nazi invasion.

It's clear that Austria had a big share of very loyal and committed Nazis, but it's definitely not clear how the majority of Austrians felt; especially with how the Fatherland Front ruled pre-Anschluss Austria with no significant issue until thr Nazis began seriously pressuring them. IMO, it's more fair to say that the vast majority of Austrians were apathetic towards Anschluss and the Nazis. Thus, the Nazis were easily able to win over the majority of right-leaning Austrians and silencing the rest.

I might also add that once German troops had crossed the border and Schuschnigg was bullied out of office, there was no chance of armed resistance; it was far too late. Had the planned plebicite been held without the Nazis interfering, it seriously could have gone either way.
 
There's lots of post war revisionism surrounding the Anschluss in modern day Austria - the whole "first victim of Hitler" thing and all that. The idea of a union was popular even before WW1 when Franz Josef was firmly on the throne, for example Hitler came into contact with pro-anschluss propaganda while still in school - while Austria-Hungary was Austrian and Hungarian dominated it was far away from a true nation state which was what a lot of the right wingers wanted, the idea of the Hungarian right wingers was to magyarize the minorities, the one of the Austrian ones was to ditch the empire and join Germany. After WW1 one of the first things the newly independent state did was.... renouncing its independence by calling itself German Austria and claiming in the new constitution to be a state of Germany and unlike Germany there was no 20s boom to make people content with the new situation, cue Great Depression and the complete collapse of the belief that the nation had any future on its own.
 
In current scientific works on the subject you often find the simplification of thirds that acutally has some merit. They all agree that it's not really that accurate, but better than a lot of other thesis. It's roughly a third for unicifation with Nazi-Germany, a third against and a third undecided. There are a lot of factors however that changed those numbers quite often.
German national parties often got something around 10% of the votes in elections, showing the hard core of Anschluss supporters. But among the two big parties, CS and SP, there were a number of people for an (re-)unifictation. Schuschnigg himself as a student in the 20s, before he became a politican, participated in agiation for joining with Germany. IIRC that was however mainly out of a anti-Italian position on the South Tyrol question, but still.

Tirol and Salzburg both had votes in 1921 to join Germany which passed both by a 98+ % in favor. It was blocked by the Entente powers which threatened to invade in case they tried to join Germany.
And Vorarlberg overwhelmingly voted for joining Switzerland. Those votes are more representative of their time and the Zeitgeist than much anything else. IIRC the Tirol vote wasn't anything officially organised, so numbers there are even more suspect. Those who voted were those interested in it anyway. Also already mentioned - South Tyrol and Italy.

When I was working in Vienna in the early 2000's there was an article in one of the local papers which quoted a very high number for Austrian membership of the SS/SD - 65% of the total strength springs to mind. Anyone have better data?
I somewhat doubt the 65% number. It is however the truth that Austria as a whole was propotionally slightly overrepresented in various party organisations. Where they were significantly overrepresented is however on leading positions in various war crime related subjects. That's in big part because of timing. When Austria was incorporated loyal German Nazis were rewarded with leading positions there. When Austrians then showed their own loyality and competence they were rewarded with leading posts in the newly occupied areas. Including several in positions running KZs or whole occupation zones. An example here would be Seyß-Inquart.

There's lots of post war revisionism surrounding the Anschluss in modern day Austria - the whole "first victim of Hitler" thing and all that. The idea of a union was popular even before WW1 when Franz Josef was firmly on the throne, for example Hitler came into contact with pro-anschluss propaganda while still in school - while Austria-Hungary was Austrian and Hungarian dominated it was far away from a true nation state which was what a lot of the right wingers wanted, the idea of the Hungarian right wingers was to magyarize the minorities, the one of the Austrian ones was to ditch the empire and join Germany. After WW1 one of the first things the newly independent state did was.... renouncing its independence by calling itself German Austria and claiming in the new constitution to be a state of Germany and unlike Germany there was no 20s boom to make people content with the new situation, cue Great Depression and the complete collapse of the belief that the nation had any future on its own.
An Anschluss before 1918 was something of a fringe idea. And mostly under the vision of a restored Habsburg HRE - though as unifed as Germany was at the time. Though it is possible that Hitler came into contact with it. After 1918 "Le rest c'est l'Autriche" was a sentiment that was wide ranging. And I'm aware it's unlikely Clemenceau actually said that.
 
And Vorarlberg overwhelmingly voted for joining Switzerland. Those votes are more representative of their time and the Zeitgeist than much anything else. IIRC the Tirol vote wasn't anything officially organised, so numbers there are even more suspect. Those who voted were those interested in it anyway. Also already mentioned - South Tyrol and Italy.



An Anschluss before 1918 was something of a fringe idea. And mostly under the vision of a restored Habsburg HRE - though as unifed as Germany was at the time. Though it is possible that Hitler came into contact with it. After 1918 "Le rest c'est l'Autriche" was a sentiment that was wide ranging. And I'm aware it's unlikely Clemenceau actually said that.


The Vote was organized by the Landtag.

And as you can see from my previous post there was more than 50% support for unification with Germany even after the Staatsvertrag was signed.


Pangerman ideas were already common before WWI (as evident by the 1848 revolutions and the Autrian contributions to the Frankfurt parliament) and they were multiplied by WWI due to the close cooperation between the Austrian and German army and a feeling of betrayal twoards the slavic parts of the empire.
 
I think it is pretty clear that a majority of people was in favour of joining Germany. Before and after the 1930s the majority of Austrians considered themselves Germans. We shouldn't forget that Vienna was the most important German city for centuries and the fixpoint of the Empire. For many in Europe, Austria and Germany were almost synonymous. Just one example, in Rossini's opera Il viaggio a Reims the anthem of Austria (Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser) was presented as "the anthem of Germany".
It all started to become complicated with the wars of German unification. Now there was a state called Germany which only encompassed parts of the cultural nation of Germany. When Austria was excluded form the German federation in 1867, an identity crisis ensued for Austrian intellectuals. The poet Franz Grillparzer famously said: "I was born a German, am I still one? Only what I have written in German nobody can take from me" (1). Grillparzer went as far as to congratulate the Prussian royal family for their coronation as German Emperors. He wrote that he considered himself a subject of Queen Augusta because she was from Weimar, which he regarded as the cultural capital of Germany.

All of this was almost prehistory by 1938, but my point is that for Austrians identifying as Germans was the norm, not the deviance. In fact the Dollfuß/Schuschnigg state was the first that tried to emulate the concept of an Austrian nation. Another point is that being in favour of joining Germany in 1938 did not equal being a National Socialist. Social democrats or conservatives could be either pan-Germans or 'national Austrians'. It was only after WW2 when it became a matter of partisanship, with the FPÖ taking up the pan-German vote.


(1) https://de.wikiquote.org/wiki/Franz_Grillparzer#Anderes
 
The Vote was organized by the Landtag.

And as you can see from my previous post there was more than 50% support for unification with Germany even after the Staatsvertrag was signed.


Pangerman ideas were already common before WWI (as evident by the 1848 revolutions and the Autrian contributions to the Frankfurt parliament) and they were multiplied by WWI due to the close cooperation between the Austrian and German army and a feeling of betrayal twoards the slavic parts of the empire.
Okay, I stand corrected on the plebicite.

That Spiegel article, well it deals with Austrian identiy, not support with unification. Even if there is a correlation, I doubt that 48% claiming they are Austrian is equal to 52% for unification with Germany. Not at least because in those polls there is always the category no answer, but also, because even then there were people living in Austria who would not identify themselves as German, even if not as Austrian.

Okay, I put in 1918 as shorthand. There was already a change in opinion earlier during WWI, but the big changes came with the Parisian Treaties and the conduct of the various national movements in the last couple months of that war.
However equating 1848 with post 1871 Germany and corresponding support is not really that honest. 1848 was mainly a movement among the elite and always had this byline of Austrian domination of a more or less unifed Germany. After 1871 this was far less possible. See for example the sort of ideological structures you find commonly among CS supporters of a unification. Hantsch for example. They very much draw on the idea of a catholic Reich with the implicated Austrian leadership in such a construct.
Maybe fringe was a bit extreme with what I said, but then again the idea of splitting of from the Habsburg Empire and to join the German one in a relative weak position likley was fringe, without actually having numbers. Actual german-national ideas did better in elections pre-1918 than they did after, but that is down to different voting systems and in part earlier on also that the two mass parties weren't as settled as they were post-1918.
If you look at longer durations than just specific events like 1921 or yes, even 1938, you get a somewhat different picture. It becomes more of a coin toss and "yes, but only if". In the end with Austria never fully stabilising and prospering after WWI a unification sooner or later wasn't all that surprising in the end.
 
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