The Anschluss War of 1938

The Anschluss War of 1938

Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss of the Federal State of Austria is not assassinated on July 25th 1934 during the July Putsch, a failed coup d'état attempt against the Austrofascist regime by Austrian Nazis. Thus on February 12th 1938 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss (not his successor Kurt Schuschnigg) meets with Adolf Hitler at the Berchtesgaden where Adolf Hitler demands that the Chancellor signs an agreement which will see the transfer of power in Austria to the Austrian National Socialists, appointment of pro-Nazi ministers, hundred officers to be exchanged between the Austrian and the German armies and all imprisoned Nazis to be amnestied be reinstated.

After hearing this the Chancellor who is not amused by the demands that Hitler has made refuses to sign the Berchtesgaden agreement as it is called and despite abusive and threatening from Adolf Hitler to sign the agreement he leaves informing him that Austria will remain a free country as long as he lives, two days later he is wounded in a failed assassination attempt (the July 25th 1934 never happened do the people being arrested before they could kill him) which causes the Austria people to stand behind their chancellor while in the capitol of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler decides that if Austria will not join under be pressure or treat then he will have the German army invade Austria instead.

So my question is how the Anschluss War look like and what will Great Britain and the French Republic responds be.

Here is also something interesting that might show that Austria might not be able to fight Germany of for long as it seems they only had ammunition for three days of fighting: Austrian 1938 Army Capability (click on the PDF link to read it).
 

LotusFlower

Banned
The Austrian people would never unite behind their chancellor, you do know that National Socialism was much more popular in Austria than it was in Greater Germany?
 
The Austrian people would never unite behind their chancellor, you do know that National Socialism was much more popular in Austria than it was in Greater Germany?
So you are saying that even with Engelbert Dollfuss in charge of the country, Austria is still going to become part of Germany.
 

LotusFlower

Banned
So you are saying that even with Engelbert Dollfuss in charge of the country, Austria is still going to become part of Germany.
It was completely unavoidable, any notion of a war between Austria and Germany would be seen as being absurd on both sides as they were both Germanic.

Germans fighting Germans? Would never happen in 1938. Even Hitler regretted and disliked having to fight the English given they were Aryans and closely genetically similar to Germans, never mind Germans.
 
It was completely unavoidable, any notion of a war between Austria and Germany would be seen as being absurd on both sides as they were both Germanic.

Germans fighting Germans? Would never happen in 1938. Even Hitler regretted and disliked having to fight the English given they were Aryans and closely genetically similar to Germans, never mind Germans.
So how would Engelbert Dollfuss responds, i doubt he would allow the 1938 referendum to take place as that would mean he could be out of a job.
 

LotusFlower

Banned
So how would Engelbert Dollfuss responds, i doubt he would allow the 1938 referendum to take place as that would mean he could be out of a job.
He was a stubborn man but the people within his own party and in the government would remove him, either that or a violent overthrow by the people.
 
He was a stubborn man but the people within his own party and in the government would remove him, either that or a violent overthrow by the people.
But there would be some who would support him, could we then not have a 2nd Austria Civil War instead between the independence faction lead by Engelbert Dollfuss and the Austrian Fascist (supported by the Germans of course) which happens after the 2nd assignation attempt mention in the first post, we could have Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss crack down on the Austrian Fascist which starts the 2nd Austria Civil War end ends with Germany intervening in it with its armed forces.
 

LotusFlower

Banned
But there would be some who would support him, could we then not have a 2nd Austria Civil War instead between the independence faction lead by Engelbert Dollfuss and the Austrian Fascist (supported by the Germans of course) which happens after the 2nd assignation attempt mention in the first post, we could have Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss crack down on the Austrian Fascist which starts the 2nd Austria Civil War end ends with Germany intervening in it with its armed forces.
Him refusing to hold a referendum on unification would of slowly ebbed away his support, any support he would of had left when he was deposed would of either of been in street scuffles but honestly nothing much would of happened. If anything would of happened in form of a civil war the Germans would intervene immediately and crush it.
 
Him refusing to hold a referendum on unification would of slowly ebbed away his support, any support he would of had left when he was deposed would of either of been in street scuffles but honestly nothing much would of happened. If anything would of happened in form of a civil war the Germans would intervene immediately and crush it.
What about the Fatherland Front, they would surely follow Engelbert Dollfuss.
 

LotusFlower

Banned
What about the Fatherland Front, they would surely follow Engelbert Dollfuss.
The Fatherland Front was mainly made up of Catholic traditionalists many of whom supported unification whom would never think of rising up against their fellow Austrians.
 
So how would Engelbert Dollfuss responds, i doubt he would allow the 1938 referendum to take place as that would mean he could be out of a job.
I think his best way would've been to let the Austrian referendum happen, but disallow the ultimatum in Austria about Germany ordering Austria to allow nazis into Austria "to make the referendum fair and count the votes". He probably would've disagreed with that instead, giving him the moral high ground in a war as most Austrians would be pleased he held a referendum and the more democratic ones who definitely protest against them forcing it, while the local fascists would see it as useless, thinking that Austria would anyway join even without the German ultimatum and so with the exception of Austrian nazi's, I think most would've probably fought and he would've had international opinion on his side, so maybe Czech and French volunteers? Then again I might be wrong, but that's my view
 

LotusFlower

Banned
Ban
I think his best way would've been to let the Austrian referendum happen, but disallow the ultimatum in Austria about Germany ordering Austria to allow nazis into Austria "to make the referendum fair and count the votes". He probably would've disagreed with that instead, giving him the moral high ground in a war as most Austrians would be pleased he held a referendum and the more democratic ones who definitely protest against them forcing it, while the local fascists would see it as useless, thinking that Austria would anyway join even without the German ultimatum and so with the exception of Austrian nazi's, I think most would've probably fought and he would've had international opinion on his side, so maybe Czech and French volunteers? Then again I might be wrong, but that's my view
You're missing the racial aspect which is extremely important. Austrians would never fight fellow Austrians neither would they fight fellow Germans and Germans would never fight fellow Germans.
 

LotusFlower

Banned
And what about the Heimwehr.
Low level violence was a rarity e.g which happened between the Heimwehr (basically the same as the Freikorps, same ideology) and Nazis in 1933, they threw eggs at them! They would never want to kill Austrians even if they disagreed with them.

Both you and Adam don't seem to realize how big of a thing that both Germany and Austria are of the same ethnicity, culture and language.

After all Hitler was Austrian! But he was welcomed by the most ultra nationalistic forces in Germany, the same would be the case for a German in Austria they were the same.
 
You're missing the racial aspect which is extremely important. Austrians would never fight fellow Austrians neither would they fight fellow Germans and Germans would never fight fellow Germans.
But wouldn't that apply both ways? Wouldn't germans not fight Austrians either in an offensive war when their whole ideology emphasizes the racial aspect? Or am I missing something?

Edit: Also The Wehrmacht was independent of the government and even planned a coup in 1938 against the Sudetenland, so if the Austrians rejected the ultimatum, would those 2 factors along with international hostility not affect them?
 

LotusFlower

Banned
But wouldn't that apply both ways? Wouldn't germans not fight Austrians either in an offensive war when their whole ideology emphasizes the racial aspect? Or am I missing something?
Of course it would apply both ways, they were never going to fight people they considered to be fellow Germans.
 
Of course it would apply both ways, they were never going to fight people they considered to be fellow Germans.
So then why would they invade Austria in the first place, if Austria rejected the German demand for German troops to monitor the elections and see the votes?
 

LotusFlower

Banned
So then why would they invade Austria in the first place, if Austria rejected the German demand for German troops to monitor the elections and see the votes?
The Anschluss as it really happened was non violent, soldiers marched peacefully into Austria to be greeted by Nazi salutes, flowers and flags. Hitler on that afternoon just rode in a car to his home town then in the evening he went to Linz where he was greeted by tens of thousands of cheerful supporters celebrating unification.
 
The Anschluss as it really happened was non violent, soldiers marched peacefully into Austria to be greeted by Nazi salutes, flowers and flags. Hitler on that afternoon just rode in a car to his home town then in the evening he went to Linz where he was greeted by tens of thousands of cheerful supporters celebrating unification.
If anything that makes it less likely the Germans would've invaded Austria had the referendum been held, but not controlled by germans. The end result would most likely be the same, but the germans did most likely falsify a minority of the results, since 99.5% is a bit too high and it is generally believed the support was more in the 60-80% range
 
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