Appeasement and the Road To War

The Anschluss 1938

Aims:

To identify why Austria was important to Germany.

To examine the events leading up to the Anschluss.

Europe 1938

Class Discussion

Why do you think union with

Austria was so important to

Hitler?

Hossbach Memorandum 1937

‘The aim of German policy was to

secure and preserve the racial

community and to enlarge it. It was

therefore a matter of space..’

‘Germany would always be faced by

two hate-inspired antagonists,

Britain and France’

Hossbach Memorandum 1937‘Germany’s problems could only be solved by means of force…’

‘Germany had to act before 1943 1945 or the other powers would catch up in the arms race, just as Germany’s weapons were becoming obsolete’

Hossbach Memorandum 1937

‘For the improvement of our politico-

military position our first objective, in

the event of our being embroiled in

war, must be to overthrow

Czechoslovakia and Austria

simultaneously in order to the remove

the threat in our flanks in any

possible operation against the west.’

Hossbach Memorandum 1937

‘Difficulties connected with the Empire, and the prospect of being once more entangled in a protracted European war, were decisive considerations for Britain against participation in a war with Germany…An attack by France without British support …was hardly probable’

Key Figures

Kurt von SchuschniggAustrian Chancellor

Neville ChamberlainBritish Prime Minister

Artur Seyess-InquartAustrian Nazi Party

The Anschluss – Timeline of Events

January 1938

Austrian police raid Austrian Nazi Headquarters

11th February 1938

Schuschnigg meets Hitler in Germany. Schuschnigg arranges plebiscite for 13th March.

The Anschluss – Timeline of Events11th March 1938

Czech government told

‘Czechoslovakia has nothing to fear from the Reich’.

Hitler demands cancellation of plebiscite. German troops are moved to the border. Schuschnigg resigns and is replaced by Seyss-Inquart who telegrams Germany for ‘help’.

The Anschluss – Timeline of Events

12th March 1938

German troops move into Austria.

13th March 1938

Hitler incorporates Austria into the Third Reich.

April 1938

Plebiscite held. 99.75% of Austrians voted for the Anschluss.

Consequences of the AnschlussGermany’s Position

• Strengthened – Hitler’s actions had again been unchallenged.

• Control of Austria’s iron and steel industries.• Now had the combined strength of the

German and Austrian armies.

Consequences of the AnschlussCzechoslovakia’s Position

* Now in a vulnerable position surrounded by the new ‘Greater Germany’

Consequences of the Anschluss

British Reaction

* Chamberlain – reproached Hitler for the Anschluss, but there was no use ‘crying over spilt milk’

• Chamberlain – ‘nothing short of an overwhelming show of force would have stopped it’

• Churchill – ‘ a programme of aggression, nicely calculated and timed’. This was a minority view

Consequences of the Anschluss

British Reaction

• Austria could not be defended due to its geographical position.

• Anschluss gave Germany what she had been denied by Treaty of Versailles.

• Appeared to be popular support in Austria for the Anschluss – welcome received by troops and result of plebisicite.