1938: Hitler's Gamble

by MacDonogh, Giles

  Himmler and Heydrich immediately unleashed a week of the ‘wildest manhunt’ followed by wave upon wave of arrests. Between 50,000 and 76,000 people were arrested in March. Classified as ‘damaging to the nation’, they included intellectuals, public figures and businessmen. Most of them were released after the plebiscite was carried out under Nazi scrutiny on 10 April.125 Communists were also at risk. The Communist Party had been banned by the Corporate State, and its members were locked up in the concentration camp at Wöllersdorf. There were still active cells, however, and the Nazis took over the job of hunting them down with renewed vigour.

  Well-paid police narks went about their business. Kurt Koppel and his mistress Grete Kahane were thought to have been responsible for the arrests of around a thousand communists, leading to about a hundred executions. The fourth central committee of the Communist Party was probably founded by police spies.126 Himmler went to look at some of his catch in person. He was rather surprised at the aspect of Louis von Rothschild, who had been arrested at Aspern airport. He did not look sufficiently like a Jew, with his bright blue eyes and uncowed manner. When Himmler asked if he knew who he was, Rothschild replied, citing name and rank. The Reichsführer SS was so taken aback that he ordered that Rothschild’s cell be made more comfortable. He was to get fresh furniture and a new lavatory seat and basin.127

  Himmler and Wolff joined their master in Linz. Himmler then accompanied the chief of his economic administration, Oswald Pohl, as he travelled to Upper Austria to look at suitable quarries where they might establish concentration camps. Their eyes lighted on Mauthausen and Gusen. Between April and August various plots of land were bought and the site in Mauthausen rented from its owners, the city of Vienna. (Mauthausen stone was used to make Vienna’s pavements.) On 8 August the first prisoners were transferred from Dachau. Mauthausen was to gain the reputation of being one of the grimmest of them all.

  Hitler’s desire to bind his old country to the land he had adopted had incurred fresh problems. Germany had now acquired 200,000 or so more Jews, who needed to be encouraged to get out. Certain Jews were to be made an example. One of those singled out in Linz was a Dr Eduard Bloch, whose sign was smeared with the word ‘Jude’. In 1907 Bloch had taken care of the Führer’s mother, Clara Hitler, who was suffering from cancer. Hitler had expressed his gratitude in a letter he wrote to the physician at the time. The desecration of the sign came to the attention of Kaltenbrunner, who sent two SS-men to clean it up.128

  Department II-112 was responsible to Himmler. It dealt with emigration, and Eichmann was installed as the expert on Zionist organizations. Ironically, the Nazis and the Zionists had shared aims, and Eichmann was keen to make this work in his favour. They both wanted the Jews to go, and they both were keen on choosing Palestine for their promised land. Eichmann promoted Zionism ‘with all means’.129 Members of the Zionist organization B’nai B’rith topped his list of possible collaborators. The assimilated Jews, on the other hand, were the principal enemies of the National Socialists. As Eichmann’s colleague Dieter Wisliceny put it, they were there to ‘crush the assimilatory organizations’.130 With the Nazis’ favourite tactic of divide and rule, the assimilated Jews and the Zionists could be played off against one another; there was little love lost between them.131

  Hitler had been making slow progress. Leaving Göring to manage the shop, he flew to Munich with Keitel. It was Keitel who witnessed his telephone conversation with Mussolini: ‘Duce, I will never forget what you have done . . . never, never, never . . .’132 Hitler reached the Austrian border at around noon and stopped to confer with General Fedor von Bock and receive a report from his press chief Otto Dietrich. At 4 p.m. he crossed into Austria at his birthplace, Braunau on the Inn, where he was received by the mayor; then he drove on to his adopted home town of Linz.

  For the first time he was revisiting the country he had quit as a ‘penniless vagabond’.133 The reception accorded him by the Linzer was so ecstatic that he was moved to tears. Indeed, the Austrian response to the Anschluss surprised Nazis and non-Nazis alike. Most people had shared Schuschnigg’s optimistic view that a clear majority of Austrians were opposed to the merger. In Berlin, Klepper noted that the larger and most active part of the population must been in favour, ‘otherwise these scenes of brotherhood would not have been possible’.134

  Beds were hastily prepared at the Hotel Weinzinger.xvii It was not ideal: there was just a small porter’s lodge and one telephone. Ribbentrop, who was angry and frustrated in London, could not get through to Spitzy until 7 a.m. on the 13th. The RAM was told to stay put. Seyss together with Glaise-Horstenau had travelled up from Vienna to await Hitler’s arrival. Seyss later made a speech in which he announced the scrapping of Article 88 of the Treaty of Saint Germain, which forbade the unification of Germany and Austria. In Nuremberg, ‘Fips’ of Der Stürmer celebrated the end of the ‘shameful’ treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain, while in another cartoon a Jew was concerned at reading that ‘Italy was not at all opposed’.135 On 13 March Hitler indulged in a moment of filial piety when he went to nearby Leonding to put flowers on his parents’ grave and visit their home.

  While Hitler was in Linz, he had a change of heart about maintaining Austria as a separate state. It seems he may have been swayed by the enthusiasm of the crowds.136 He chose to ‘manage’ the revolution instead. He had originally planned to create a National Socialist Austria, closely linked to Germany with himself as Federal President. Now he decided that he was going to incorporate Austria as a self-governing province of the Greater German Reich.137 The federal states were to be replaced by Nazi territorial divisions or Gaue, under the control of a Party boss or Gauleiter. Vienna, expanded to take in much of the land to the south, was placed under the command of Odilo Globocnik, and the controversial Burgenland disappeared altogether as it was incorporated into the Gaue Niederdonau and Styria. Seyss legitimized the constitutional changes and Austria duly became a province of the Reich on the 13th. Even the prime mover behind the Anschluss, Hermann Göring, was amazed at the speed at which the changes were made. A plebiscite conducted under Nazi rules was now ordained for 10 April.

  Seyss was to relinquish his post as Chancellor of Austria under the new constitution, and become Reichsstatthalter (governor). Under him served a small group of ministers.138 Bürckel was brought in from the Saar-Palatinate as Reichs Commissioner for the Reunification to manage the plebiscite, as he had done successfully before in the Saar. His appointment from outside was significant: Austrian Nazis were to play a paltry role in the new territory. Bürckel imported his own men, who were surreptitiously mocked as members of the Pfalzer-Postenjäger or ‘Palatinate-Job-Hunters’ Regiment, while Austrians dubbed their drunken Gauleiter Bierleiter Gaukel. The man who would have been Gauleiter, Leopold, ended up as a lowly Party inspector in Munich, before dying with his ambitions in the Russian campaign. Walter Riehl, who had founded the NSDAP in Austria after the First World War, was actually imprisoned on 18 March and only released on Hitler’s orders. He was given no work by the new administration. Theodor Habicht, who had been the strong man in Austria before the Anschluss, was compensated with the town hall of Wittenberg in Saxony.139

  Hitler did not trust them, and preferred to have Germans from the Altreich (as it was now called) occupy almost all the important positions.xviii He may have doubted, and even had cause to question, their loyalty, but he used a rather more German justification: laziness. As he had said in his first speech in Linz, the Austrians needed to lose their fondness for Gemütlichkeit and put their shoulders to the wheel. The only exceptions were Carinthians such as Klausner and Globocnik.

  The cold-shouldering of home-grown Nazis led to considerable resentment in Austria, where the Nazis from the Altreich were quickly transmogrified into ‘Prussians’, the traditional enemies, although most were no such thing. Bürckel very rapidly became a more powerful figure in the land than the ‘governor’, Seyss, who was shifted off to Poland when the war started, the
n to Holland in 1940. Reich law, on the other hand, was only gradually brought in to replace elements in the constitution of the Corporate State.

  As Hitler had hoped, there were no great international repercussions. The Duce was satisfied that Hitler would not create problems in the South Tyrol. Britain declined to act to secure Austrian independence. Chamberlain told the Commons on the 14th that Britain had no obligations towards Austria. The British confined themselves to a pious hope that the Germans would not take revenge on their political and racial enemies. Two days later Lord Halifax told the Upper House that Austria’s status had been bound to change in the long run. The French could not respond, for the simple reason that their government had resigned. They were in no position to act on their own anyway. The United States’ Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, forbore from comment until the 19th, when he more or less recognized the Anschluss by saying that the Germans were now responsible for Austria’s debts. On 17 March, the spokesman for the Soviet regime, Maxim Litvinov, called for action against German aggression, but had nothing specific to say about Austria.140 Only two countries protested: republican Spain, which was shortly to be eclipsed by Franco’s forces, and Mexico. The Austrian Second Republic later renamed a Viennese square in Mexico’s honour.

  On 15 March, the Daily Mail published an interview with Hitler that George Ward Price had conducted in the Weinzinger.xix Ward Price had been waiting for the Führer in Linz and as a keen Hitlerian had enjoyed the privilege of mounting the tribune and offering the Austrian people his warmest wishes for the future. His view was that Hitler was a man of peace who represented the only bulwark against bolshevism, a view echoed by many high-ranking officials in the Western world.141 Four days later Ward Price was in Prague and in his cups he told officials that Hitler’s next move would be to recover the German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia.142

  On 14 March, Hitler finally drove from Linz to Vienna via Amstetten. Vienna was seething with excitement over the prospect of his arrival. He was a day late, hindered by the unpreparedness of his army and his own desire to create a frenzy of anticipation. Even then, no one could explain the massive enthusiasm of the population. The city was filled with 40,000 Hitler Youth and Bund Deutscher Mädel (German Girls’ League) waiting to salute their leader. His cavalcade made for the Imperial Hotel on the Ring. Once upon a time he had earned a few Kreuzer digging snow in front of the hotel, and he had always cherished a desire to stay there. Also in his entourage was his mistress, Eva Braun. Her presence did not prevent him later that day from visiting the grave of the previous incumbent, his niece Geli Raubel.143

  Hitler had left word that he was ‘too tired’ to address the public, but after repeated requests from the crowd he appeared on the balcony of the hotel to enormous acclaim. There was no denying the enthusiasm of the Viennese, although some maintained that they were less delighted to see the German army, and turned away in silence.144 Others have pointed out that the crowds were swollen by hordes of provincial Nazis who had been bussed in to boost numbers. Quite a lot of those who came out to gawp were mere Adabeis, but that does not account for all of them by any means. Certainly appearances supported Göring’s view that ‘apart from the Jews in Vienna and part of the black ravens, the Catholics, there is nobody against us’.145

  One black raven, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer, paid Hitler his respects at the Imperial Hotel on the 15th.xx He had been meditating a fitting reaction to Anschluss. The Sudetenländer Innitzer had been a minister in the clerical government of Ignaz Seipel and was seen as one of the pillars of the Corporate State. When local Nazis demanded a gesture, the Cardinal ordered the bells rung in Vienna’s churches. He prudently expressed his ‘delight at the old dream of German unity’, and sent a telegram to Hitler on the road to that effect. He was walking on eggs, however. On 12 March the Primas Germaniae, Cardinal Sigismond Waitz, Archbishop of Salzburg, had been placed under house arrest, and the Prince Bishop of Graz and Sekau, Ferdinand Pawlikowski, was taken to prison by a jeering crowd. Elsewhere the Abbot Ambros Minarz of Altenburg Abbey refused to fly a swastika flag, causing the SA to occupy the abbey on the 17th.146 The Bishop of Linz, Johannes Maria Gföllner, had famously said it was impossible to be a National Socialist and a Catholic. He took no notice of Hitler’s presence.147

  The Church was second only to the Jews in unpopularity and the mood was explosive. Innitzer must have felt a need to prevent it blowing up in his face. Everyone in the Church feared a new Kulturkampf. xxi On 13 March he had offered prayers of thanks for the bloodless transformation.148 Such behaviour appeared to mar a good record. As rector of the university he had been sympathetic to poor Jewish students, when many of his fellow bishops had been openly antisemitic. Innitzer had taken advice from the Catholic former German Chancellor, Papen, who was anxious that the relationship between Hitler and the Cardinal should start on the correct footing. Papen and Seyss convinced Hitler to see Innitzer. The Church had been hand-in-glove with the Corporate State, and the Nazis wanted to see its influence curtailed. Papen believed that Austria would soon become ungovernable if the Church were not treated properly.149 Innitzer would later regret it when he realized that the Catholics had been duped.

  Innitzer made his way to the Imperial at 9.15 a.m., accompanied by two clerics, his secretary Joseph Weinbauer and Johann Jauner-Schrofenegg. There was an ugly crowd of Austrian Nazis outside, whistling and shouting ‘Pfui’ and ‘In den Kanal mit dem Kardinal’ (‘Throw the Cardinal in the canal’). They were received first by Papen, then ushered in to see Hitler at 10 a.m. Spitzy wrongly maintains that Innitzer performed the ‘German salute’;150 rather, Hitler made to kiss the Cardinal’s ring, but Innitzer raised the chain on his chest and made the sign of the cross. Hitler reassured Innitzer that provided the Church remained loyal there would be no trouble.151 Innitzer suggested that loyalty was conditional on the maintenance of the Concordat guaranteeing the position of the Church. Hitler was impressed by the behaviour of the Austrian prelates, whom he compared favourably to the Germans. The SS scattered the hostile crowd as Innitzer left.152

  The Vatican was outraged by Innitzer’s fifteen-minute audience. The Pope condemned the Cardinal for ‘breach of loyalty and treason’ although this was later rescinded.153 Austria’s small Evangelical Church had declared the Anschluss ‘blessed’ the day before the Catholics. Certain Evangelicals had been hoping that the Nazis would launch a new Reformation and free Austria from the power of the Catholic Church.154 The Cardinal was not the only person to see a rosy future in the Greater German Reich: there were also the usual sycophants, and a number of ‘Aryan’ poets who put their joy into verse. One of these was Josef Weinheber, a member of the Party since 1931. He committed suicide when Germany lost the war.

  After the Cardinal left, the devoted Ribbentrop was finally given leave to join his master for his moment of glory in Vienna. At around noon on the 15th, Hitler addressed an audience of some 250,000 people on the Heldenplatz. Goebbels thought it ‘a popular uprising in the truest sense of the words’,155 but to some extent he had connived at it by making it a public holiday.156 Hitler returned to the Heldenplatz after lunch to lay a wreath at the Burgtor. This was the moment when Austria’s army and police were paraded before him to swear their new allegiance. On returning to the airport at Aspern, Ribbentrop got lost and ended up in a farmyard.157 Hitler flew to Munich. As the aircraft passed over the Austrian Alps, he turned to Keitel and said, ‘Now that is all German again.’ After a quick snack with Keitel at the airport, he repaired to his own flat. The next day, he returned to Berlin, where he was met by Göring, proudly waving his baton. Goebbels had ordered that the factories and places of business be closed at 1 p.m. so that the people could be on the streets to welcome the conquering hero. It was to be a reception ‘such as the capital has never seen’.158

  The Austrian ‘revolution’ had gone too far, even for the Nazis. On 17 March Heydrich threatened Commissar Bürckel with disciplinary action. He would send a Gestapo unit to deal with Par
ty members who had allowed others to act in a ‘completely undisciplined manner’.159 At the time of the plebiscite in April there was a half-hearted attempt to blame the communists, who had been dressing up in Nazi uniforms and robbing people.160 The next day Berlin reaffirmed its authority in Austria with a second regulation: power was in the hands of the Reichsführer SS.161 Bürckel took the hint and threatened to expel the plunderers from the Party. On 29 April he thundered in the Austrian edition of the Nazi Völkische Beobachter, ‘Germany is governed by the rule of law. That means that nothing happens that has no foundation in law . . . There will be no organized pogroms,xxii not even by Frau Hintenhuberxxiii against Sara Kohn in the third courtyard, one floor up next to the taps.’162 Himmler too vented his fury on any Reichs German SS-men found working for their own personal profit. They were to be arrested and ejected from the SS.163 Once again the Nazis were conscious of foreign opinion and the fragility of German exports.164

  On the 18th Hitler addressed the Reichstag to report on the union with Austria. He promptly dissolved the assembly before fresh elections on 10 April. This time the poll was to give total power to the Führer: ‘then we’ll throw away the last democratic-parliamentary eggshells’.165 A rumpus between the Poles and the Lithuanians was closely studied in Berlin. Lithuania backed down on the 19th, but Hitler now saw the time was ripe to wrest Memel from the small Baltic state which enjoyed good relations with Moscow. The territory had been awarded to Lithuania at Versailles, although it had been a German port before then. The Polish Foreign Minister Beck’s policy was dictated by the German–Polish rapprochement of 1934.166 The Poles coveted Memel too, and Lithuania was barring their access to the port, but Beck wanted to hold both Germany and Russia at arm’s length and maintain Danzig despite the signs that Halifax had informed Hitler that Britain was indifferent to its fate. Hitler therefore needed to make concessions. The Teschen pocket in Sudetenland, with its largely Polish population, was a gobbet to dangle in front of the Poles to gain their support for the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.167 In the meantime any German claims to the Corridor were played down: the price of cooperation from Warsaw.168