Third Reich Day by Day: March 1938

Though the early years of World War II saw a string of German military triumphs, 1938 was probably the most successful year for Adolf Hitler. The removal of Blomberg and Fritsch ensured the total loyalty of the army, which de facto became an unthinking tool of Hitler’s will. On the international front the union of Austria and the Sudetenland with the Third Reich was a stunning coup, and one achieved without firing a shot. At home Hitler was viewed as a genius, a leader who could do no wrong and who had kept his promise to bring ethnic Germans back into the Reich.

12 March

Austria, Politics

Nazi troops march in Vienna following the Anschluss with Germany. Chancellor Schuschnigg was sent to Dachau.
Nazi troops march in Vienna following the Anschluss with Germany. Chancellor Schuschnigg was sent to Dachau.
Ribbentrop, the new ambassador to Great Britain, had a wretched time in his new post. He was disliked by the British.
Ribbentrop, the new ambassador to Great Britain, had a wretched time in his new post. He was disliked by the British.

The Anschluss (Union) with Austria. Seyss-Inquart becomes Reich Governor of Ostmark. All laws of Germany, including racial laws, are now in operation in Austria.

In July 1934, Austrian and German Nazis together attempted a coup but were unsuccessful. An authoritarian right-wing government then took power in Austria and kept perhaps half the population from voicing legitimate dissent; that cleavage prevented concerted resistance to the developments of 1938. In February 1938 Hitler invited the Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg to Germany and forced him to agree to give the Austrian Nazis virtually a free hand. Schuschnigg later repudiated the agreement and announced a plebiscite on the Anschluss question. He was bullied into cancelling the plebiscite, and he obediently resigned, ordering the Austrian Army not to resist the Germans. President Wilhelm Miklas of Austria refused to appoint the Austrian Nazi leader Arthur Seyss-Inquart as chancellor. The German Nazi minister Hermann Göring ordered Seyss-Inquart to send a telegram requesting German military aid, but he refused, and the telegram was sent by a German agent in Vienna. On March 12 Germany invaded, and the enthusiasm that followed persuaded Hitler to annex Austria outright on March 13. A controlled plebiscite of April 10 gave a 99.7 percentW approval.