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Hitler crosses the border into Austria in March 1938. Hitler announces the Anschluss on the Heldenplatz, Vienna, 15 March 1938. On the morning of 12 March 1938, the 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht crossed the border into Austria. The troops were greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers.
Hitler was at first torn between going ahead with the invasion, or pulling off the border. Hitler realized that the German Army was not prepared to take on both the Austrians and the Italian Army. Hitler ordered the force to be pulled off the Austrian border. The German government stated that it had nothing to do with the revolt.
Italy was of crucial strategic importance in controlling Germany. Its geographic location made it well suited for a defence of Austria, which Italy had in fact done in the July Putsch of 1934, by sending four divisions to Austria to prevent the Nazis from taking power. Further, with Italy against Germany, the Germans would be required to split ...
The Four-Year Plan that Hitler had launched in September 1936 to have the German economy ready for a "total war" by 1940 had seriously strained the German economy by 1937 as German government was forced to use up its foreign exchange reserves both to feed its own people and to import various raw materials to achieve the ambitious armament goals ...
Austria's military significance had been largely devalued by the end of the Soviet-Yugoslav conflict and the upcoming signing of the Warsaw Pact. [104] These fears did not materialize, and Raab's visit to Moscow (12–15 April) was a breakthrough. Moscow agreed that Austria would be free no later than 31 December.
French and Italian military staff discussed possible military cooperation involving a war with Germany should Hitler dare to attack Austria. Relations between Germany and Italy recovered due to Hitler's support of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, while other countries condemned the invasion and advocated sanctions against Italy.
Although considered a great power, the Italian industrial sector was relatively weak compared to other European major powers. Italian industry did not equal more than 15% of that of France or of Britain in militarily critical areas such as automobile production: the number of automobiles in Italy before the war was around 374,000, in comparison ...
His successor Kurt Schuschnigg maintained the ban on Nazi activities in Austria, but was forced to resign on March 11, 1938, following a demand by Hitler for power-sharing with pro-German circles. On March 12, German troops entered Austria, who met celebrating crowds, in order to install Nazi puppet Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. With a ...