This article is part of the series The Road to World War II .

Alarmed by recent activities of Austrian Nazis in early 1938, the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg¹, requested a meeting with Hitler.

Knowing he could score an easy diplomatic victory, Hitler coerced Schuschnigg to include Nazis into his cabinet and to align Austrian foreign policy closer to his own.

Feeling the rope tighten around Austria’s neck, Schuschnigg attempted to dislodge himself from Hitler and regain control. In a speech to the Bundestag he urged to put an end to the concessions “where we must call a halt and say: This far and no further”. Schuschnigg called for a plebiscite to vote on Austria’s autonomy.

In a well-coordinated move, Austrian Nazis seized state institutions in Vienna on March 11. Hitler acted swiftly and invaded Austria the next day.

Hitler’s motives

Hitler was Austrian by birth. His aim to incorporate Austria into the Third Reich he had set down as early as 1924 in “Mein Kampf”. Furthermore, German strength could be further increased and the Versailles Treaty likewise be revised, as the “Anschluss” with Austria of any kind was forbidden.

Why did the invasion succeed?

The major difference between 1938 and 1934 was that Mussolini did this time not intervene in Germany’s invasion. The turning of the tide came with the Rome-Berlin Axis after which Mussolini succumbed to Hitler’s influence.

Britain and France continued their policy of appeasement and were not prepared to go to war over Austria. Britain especially convinced itself that after all it contained German-speaking people and that they were entitled to self-determination.

Consequences

For Hitler, his successful invasion of Austrian without international objection

• further revised the Treaty of Versailles was further in Germany’s favour
• convinced Hitler that Britain and France would not stop him in his efforts

On an international level, Hitler had used force for the first time against an, independent, sovereign state, and was now in a position to threaten Czechoslovakia.

¹ He followed Dollfuss after his assasination