[Scott # 484, A95]

"One People, One Empire, One Leader"

The unification of Austria and Germany (Anschluss) was explicitly forbidden in the Treaty of Versailles. This had not been a major issue during the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the break up of the Empire, however, many right-wing Austrians saw Anschluss as the only way to preserve Austria's Germanic culture in central Europe. Hitler was himself an Austrian, and made Anschluss a major part of his dream of a pan-German empire.

In 1934, Austrian Nazis murdered the Austrian Chancellor, Dolfuss, and it looked like Hitler would walk right into Austria. Ironically, Mussolini - still an ally of Britain and France under the Stresa Front - sent his tanks to the border and forced Hitler to back down. Within a year, however, Hitler and Mussolini had become allies and Austria's fate was sealed. Anti-Nazi patriots struggled on, but in 1938, after months of terror and near civil war, the Austrian government collapsed due to Nazi pressure. In March, German tanks rolled through the streets of Vienna, and on April 10, 1938, Austria was formally declared a German state - after a rather dubious plebiscite. Britain and France did nothing.