The Austro-German War of 1934

Engelbert Dollfuss survives the assassination on July 25, 1934. The rest of the attempted Nazi coup is put down within two weeks. Dollfuss, upon recovery from a flesh wound sustained, proclaims that this "German attack on the very sovereignty of Austria will not go unpunished," and declares war on Hitler's Germany.

How plausible is this, and what happens?
 
Seeing as Austria is the one to attack Germany in this situation, Britian and France will support Germany while Italy will support Austria.
 
Seeing as Austria is the one to attack Germany in this situation, Britian and France will support Germany while Italy will support Austria.

Why would they support Germany? I don't think either of them would have an interest in Germany getting an excuse to re-arm.
 
To be honest, France and Britain have no interest in seeing Germany strong again, will probably quietly support Austria with arms and maybe volunteer brigades similar to the Spanish Civil War.

Italy will likely declare war as Mussolini was a strong proponent of Austrian independence at the time. Regent Horthy may very well bring Hungry into the fray as well.

The Czechs and Poles may very well also quietly help the Austrians.
German military strength wasn't ideal at the time, so it might be possible for the allies(I give the Fascist states this label with a lot of irony) to sieze Munich or Nuremburg. Though more than likely it will be a static front bogged down in Alpine warfare.

If the allies can sieze a major german city and humiliate the german military you could see France and Britain forcing mediation upon Germany and making them pay repirations to Austria and downsizing it's military again. Though I can't see any border changes from this.

Though a coup seems very certain in Hitler's future over this.
 
Interesting - a war of the fascist states. Austria and Italy versus Germany; I omit an arguably fascist Hungary as I'm not sure which side that nation would choose to fight alongside.

Would the democracies take sides? After all, this is set in 1934 when both Mussolini and Hitler had many admirers in Britain and France.
 

Markus

Banned
German military strength wasn't ideal at the time, so it might be possible for the allies(I give the Fascist states this label with a lot of irony) to sieze Munich or Nuremburg. Though more than likely it will be a static front bogged down in Alpine warfare.

By 34 virtually nothing had been done. The draft wasn´t even introduced yet. Germany had stockpiled weapons for two or three dozen "border defence divisions" but no trained soldiers.

About the Alps, they are inside Austria, not along the border with Germany.

alps.jpg
 

Susano

Banned
Of course, Austria didnt exactly have large forces, either. And they might get a, hm, loyalty problem. So, it would mostly be a German-Italian War in Austria, I think.
 

Markus

Banned
Of course, Austria didnt exactly have large forces, either. And they might get a, hm, loyalty problem. So, it would mostly be a German-Italian War in Austria, I think.






Use troops from Tyrol and tell them it is all the Bavarian´s fault. That should work. *grin*
 
How big was the Austrian army in 1934? And, while the German army was limited to about ten divisions, there was also the SA at full strength to deal with.

How likely is it for other European nations to join in the fight? Czechoslovakia or Poland would have something to gain from beating on Germany, for example.
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
How big was the Austrian army in 1934? And, while the German army was limited to about ten divisions, there was also the SA at full strength to deal with.
This is only weeks after the so called "Röhm-Putsch" so the SA is, well it is complicated. I really don't know what would happen, but full strength isn't correct any more, there definetly is a problem with the command structure.

Whatever happenes Paul von Hindenburg has 7 days left to get himself a new Chancellor;)
 
Really, before Hindenburg died on the 2nd of August 1934 he was bed-ridden, senile and confused. I doubt he had the strength to do anything.
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
Really, before Hindenburg died on the 2nd of August 1934 he was bed-ridden, senile and confused. I doubt he had the strength to do anything.

That's why I used the smiley...

But if somebody told him (I doubt anyone would have) he might have thought that the Austrian Gefreiter probably wasn't the right man to fight a war against Austria.

Well, even if he had ordered something nobody would have followed anyhow.


And now for something completly different:

Could this lead to Mussulini marching through the Brandenburg Gate with his victorious Italian army?
 
Some units no doubt could be relied upon to defend Austria; others would be suspect and either left inactive or kept 'in reserve.' I doubt little Austria will be able to advance very far into Bavaria - perhaps occupying the border towns? When that happens, Britain and France side with Mussolini, who is preparing to augment the Austrian forces with 'volunteers.' Will the generals in Berlin oust the little corporal?
 
Some units no doubt could be relied upon to defend Austria; others would be suspect and either left inactive or kept 'in reserve.' I doubt little Austria will be able to advance very far into Bavaria - perhaps occupying the border towns? When that happens, Britain and France side with Mussolini, who is preparing to augment the Austrian forces with 'volunteers.' Will the generals in Berlin oust the little corporal?

I can't see there being much support for this war in Germany, especially when Italy and Hungry would be directly aiding them, and I could see Britain and France declaring an embargo against Germany and indirectly sending supplies to help.

There might be a half-hearted invasion, a counter attack, and then the coup attempts start.

If they're successful, I would see a treaty involving repirations to Austria(and maybe Italy?), and a demilitarized zone along the southern and western borders, though I can't see Austria claiming any territory out of this.

Though Mussolini's fascist experiment will last a lot longer though. Maybe even Stalin ends up as the bad guy in World War II?
 
Welllll.... Versailles and St. Germain forbid the annexation of Austria by Germany, but IIRC there is no provision about annexation of Germany by Austria. :D
 
It is clearly unlikely that Austria would attack Germany. In 1934 the Austrian lacked any capacity to launch a war. They could however encourage a coup by the German Military against Hitler.
As far as Germany was concern in 1934 they lacked enough weapons to equip its army. There was a shortage of every weapon from rifles to artillery pieces. The Luftwaffe did not have any of the aircraft that it could threaten Austria with.

There is no way that France or Great Britain would support Germany Austria.In fact France secretly was supporting a Hapsburg restoration, something that Mussolini was also in favor of.
 
Top