The Anschluss, or Anschluß before the German orthography reform of 1996, refers to the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. It began after the unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire in 1871. A plebiscite held on 10 April officially ratified Austria’s annexation by the Reich.
About Anschluss in brief
The Anschluss, or Anschluß before the German orthography reform of 1996, refers to the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. It began after the unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire in 1871. In early 1938, under increasing pressure from pro-unification activists, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced that there would be a referendum on a possible union with Germany to be held on 13 March. The referendum was canceled. On 12 March, the German Wehrmacht crossed the border into Austria, unopposed by the Austrian military; the Germans were greeted with great enthusiasm. A plebiscite held on 10 April officially ratified Austria’s annexation by the Reich. After 1933 desire for unification could be identified with the Nazis, for whom it was an integral part of the Nazi concept, which sought to incorporate as many Volksdeutsche as possible into a \”Greater Germany\”. In the early 1930s, there was still significant resistance in Austria—even among some Austrian Nazis—to suggestions that Austria should be annexed to Germany and the Austrian state dissolved completely. The idea of grouping all Germans into one nation-state had been the subject of debate in the 19th century from the dissolution of the Holy Roman empire in 1806 until the break-up of the German Confederation in 1866. In 1866 the feud finally came to an end during the German war in which the Prussians defeated the Austrians and thereby excluded Austria.
Besides ensuring Prussian domination, the exclusion of Austria also ensured that Germany would have a substantial Protestant majority. The Austrian-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 provided for a dual dual sovereignty, with the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, under Franz Joseph I, under the sovereignty of the Austro-Hungarians. This controversy, called dualism, dominated Prusso-Austrian diplomacy and the politics of theGerman states in the mid-nineteenth century. It was settled and in 1872 the German Empire was formed – based on the leadership of Joseph Bismarck and the Prussia’s Kingdom of Bremen. The German Empire, based on this leadership, included various different ethnic groups, including Hungarians, Croicats, Czechs, Slovaks, and ethnic groups such as Croats, as well as ethnic groups of German-speaking Austrians. It also included a few German states, aside from a few in the southwestern region of the Germany-inhabited lands, and further expanded the power of Prussia. The Treaty of Saint Germain and the Treaty of Versailles forbade both the union and the continued use of the name \”German-Austria\” ; and stripped Austria of some of its territories, such as the Sudetenland. In 1918, the newly formed Republic of German.Austria attempted to form a union with. Germany, but the treaty forbade it.
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This page is based on the article Anschluss published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 23, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
