Effects of the Anschluss (Austria's Annexation by Nazi Germany, 1938)

On March 12–13, 1938, German troops entered Austria; Hitler proclaimed the Anschluss (union) on March 15 in Vienna. Consequences:

1. Immediate: German Power Surge

• +6.7M people, industrial base (steel, machinery), gold reserves, foreign exchange
• Strategic position: flanked Czechoslovakia, bordered Italy, Yugoslavia, Hungary
• Wehrmacht gained 5–6 divisions of Austrian troops

2. Czechoslovakia Encircled

• Now surrounded on 3 sides (north, south, west)
• Enabled Munich Agreement (Sept 1938) — Sudetenland ceded without fight
• March 1939: Rest of Czechoslovakia occupied

3. International Relations

• Britain/France protested but acted weakly (appeasement)
• Italy (Mussolini) acquiesced — Rome-Berlin Axis solidified
• U.S. condemned but remained isolationist
• League of Nations paralyzed

4. Domestic Repression

• Immediate arrest of 70,000+ opponents (socialists, communists, Jews, monarchists)
• Nuremberg Laws applied — 200,000 Austrian Jews persecuted; 65,000 murdered in Holocaust
• Plebiscite (April 10, 1938): 99.7% "yes" — coerced, Jews/Roma excluded

5. Path to War

Anschluss proved Hitler could expand by force unchecked. Next: Sudetenland, then Poland (Sept 1939).