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09/01/2009

Even the small group of men led by Weizsäcker and Army Chief of Staff Ludwig Beck, which was increasingly critical of the regime and included some who would later join the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler, joined in the widespread German consensus that there was a "Czechoslovak problem (possibly also an Austrian problem)" that "had to be rectified," as Beck put it.

All the same, after 1945 Weizsäcker managed to argue that the group had been opposed to a world war, and that it supported diplomatic pressure instead of tanks and bombs. Weizsäcker compared the approach he advocated toward Prague to a "chemical process of dissolution."

It should be noted that Hitler already had plans to subjugate the two neighboring countries, but not until the 1940s. Now he decided to drop all pretense of restraint.

A now-legendary scene unfolded at Hitler's mountain estate near Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps. The Führer had summoned Kurt von Schuschnigg, the Austrian chancellor and member of the Christian Social Party who ruled Vienna with dictatorial powers. Hitler wanted Schuschnigg, a devoutly Catholic lawyer with the appearance of an accountant, to finally accept Austrian Nazis into his cabinet.

At first, the two chancellors discussed the magnificent view. Yes, Hitler said dreamily, "this is where my thoughts mature." But then he brusquely changed the subject and said: "But we haven't come together to talk about the nice view and the weather."

Hitler told the Austrian that he was on an "historic mission," and that Schuschnigg should not delude himself into thinking that he could stop him "for so much as half an hour." "Who knows," the German chancellor said ominously, "perhaps I shall be suddenly overnight in Vienna: like a spring storm. Then you will really experience something!"

'One Reich, One Führer'

Like any born gambler, Hitler loved to bluff. When Schuschnigg periodically excused himself to consult with his advisers, he heard the Nazi leader -- apparently beside himself with rage and determined to go to war -- shouting for Wilhelm Keitel. Keitel, the head of the Wehrmacht's high command, hurried to see what the Führer wanted. Hitler took him behind closed doors and said: "Nothing at all. Sit down." The two men chatted for a while, and then Keitel was dismissed.

Meanwhile Schuschnigg, waiting in the other room, feared the worst -- and eventually agreed to Hitler's ultimatum.

On March 11, the Nazis finally brought down the Austrian chancellor. That afternoon, after being bombarded by Hermann Göring with repeated threats of war in several telephone conversations, Schuschnigg resigned. The Wehrmacht marched into Austria the next day, without a single shot being fired.

It was the result of gangster tactics, and yet the people applauded.

When Hitler crossed the border near his hometown of Braunau at about 4 p.m., the jubilant crowd was so thick that his motorcade was almost brought to a standstill. The masses on both sides of the street could hardly be subdued, as they shouted ecstatically "Heil Hitler" and "one people, one Reich, one Führer."

Read part two of this article here.

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• Part 1: Why Wasn't Hitler Stopped?
• Part 2: 'Long Live War'
• Part 3: Mouthpiece of the Nationalist Masses
• Part 4: 'There Never Was a War Easier to Prevent'
• Part 5: An Historic Mission