Though my research primarily concerns the Islamic State, Iraq and Syria, I also have various other interests pertaining to my academic studies in 'extremist' discourse and historical narratives therein. One of those interests is the conflict between 'Austrofascism' and National Socialism in Austria in the 1930s.
For context, Austrofascism refers to the period when Austria came under the domination of the Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front), a process that began in 1933 and was consolidated in 1934. The period of Austrofascism came to an end in 1938 following the Anschluss, in which Nazi Germany annexed Austria.
The Fatherland Front, which came to lead Austria under a single party system, was strongly opposed not only to Marxism but also National Socialism, issuing multiple publications against National Socialism in Austria. One of these publications was called 'The Second Danger', which I feature in the original text with my translation as part of this post.
The publication does not bear a precise date of publication but based on its contents it likely dates from mid to late 1933. As the title suggests, the publication warns against National Socialism as the 'second danger' facing Austria. The fundamental objection to National Socialism in Austria is its advocacy of the Anschluss and opposition to Austria's continued existence as an independent nation. In contrast, the Fatherland Front insisted on maintaining Austria's identity as an independent nation, while not denying that Austria constituted a German nation.
The publication compares National Socialism in Austria with National Socialism in Germany, arguing that the phenomenon is two-faced in nature. Whereas National Socialism in Germany professes patriotism, suppresses press freedom and has imposed dictatorial governance, National Socialism in Austria professes hatred of Austrian identity, portrays itself as an advocate for freedom of the press and fiercely attacks the perceived authoritarian measures of the Fatherland Front, which the publication portrays as orderly, non-coerced acts of necessity. Despite purporting to be an anti-Marxist force, National Socialism effectively functions as an ally of Marxism against Austria's patriotic government.
Of particular interest to me are the historical narratives the publication invokes in its arguments against National Socialism:
. Triumph through adversity: although Austria's power and size have been much reduced because of the World War (World War I), these circumstances should not be reason to give up on independent Austria. History shows that nation faced worse situations in the past, such as when the Ottomans attacked Vienna in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the Swedes made incursions during the 30 Years War. Despite these misfortunes, Austria always emerged as strong and free as ever before. Austria has always had its defenders against adversaries from the Mongols to Napoleon.
. Same enemies, new faces and guises. Austria has previously had to contend with anti-Austrian agitation from within its borders. Also, what the National Socialists embody is not a project incorporate Austria into a genuine German Reich ('German Empire') but rather swallowing up Austria into a Greater Prussia, which is what the 'Third Reich' in Germany actually is. This is the same Prussia that cast out Austria from the German Reich in 1866 and swallowed the Reich bit-by-bit.
In effect, the Anschluss would only mean subjugation under a Berlin-led government and the erasure of the identity of Austria and its federal regions.
In retrospect, some of the arguments and statements turned out to be wrong. The Anschluss happened, for one thing, and while at the time of publication there may not have been so much agitation from Hitler for the annexation of Austria or the National Socialists for the annexation of Czechoslovakia and its German-speaking regions, it was simply a matter of agitating when the right circumstances allowed.
Below is the publication with translation. Any parenthetical insertions in square brackets are my own.I have also included endnotes for context on certain points. Any suggestions for amendments welcome.
The Second Danger: A Warning To All Austrians
The Old Enemy and the New Danger
Austria is just now freeing itself with huge effort from the terrible clasp of Marxism. Already we feel, how the muscle-energy of the enemy is diminishing and the fetters are loosening. Already as freer men we breathe a sigh of relief and swing the arm back for one last huge exertion of strength, which will free us forever from the strangler of our homeland.
But there still lies the secular adversary of the occidental culture, the sworn enemy of the societal order and true freedom, there still lies the double-headed dragon not done into the ground; it still spits from a wide-open throat poison and venom, it still threateningly raises the paws for a treacherous blow- and already we are threatened from behind by a new danger.
This second great danger to our Austrian homeland is:
National Socialism!
In its homeland, in the German Reich, National Socialism has unquestionably fulfilled a historical mission. Of course, with means and method, which are absolutely uncongenial to us Austrians, as they are recall far too closely the means and method of the company of Lenin, Stalin and the like.
In the German Reich, National Socialism under the leadership of Adolf Hitler has smashed the huge power of Marxism. It prepared and organized the 'national uprising' against the red International in a more than ten-year tireless campaign. One day it brought the accumulated detonator for the explosion.
This is the 'National Revolution' in the German Reich.
It was a huge volcanic eruption. Because of the fervent lava-flow of the reawakened national feeling, the vermin of the red Internationalism crept away scared into its hiding places and holes. Perhaps though, to wait for a different weather and then panting revenge to break out into a general attack.
For the time being though there is obviously in the German Reich the triumph of National Socialism over Bolshevism and Marxism, the resounding success undoubtedly. Of course, the success of an elementary event, which not only liberates, but also spills over.
How much precious property of the nation, how much hopefully sprouting life has become also destroyed and buried as the storm surge of the national uprising roaring over Germany's hallways has tossed and turned, levelling and 'standardizing'[i] everything! Not to recall also the terrible echo, which has awoken the unpleasant by-product of this 'German revolution' in the whole world. The streets of the large international cities echo from indignation that is certainly often only crafted and frequently sanctimonious: a boycott of German goods has taken hold over the whole world-market, the German Reich is again 'encircled' by a world opinion, more spiteful and complete than before the outbreak of the world war.
The victory over Marxism- as pleasant as it is in itself- has been bought at a terribly expensive cost on account of the methods that have been applied by National Socialism. With feeling of dread the victors look- and especially the liberated German people look- to the future.
The Austrian Offshoot of National Socialism
Fundamentally different from the role of National Socialism in the German Reich is that of the National Socialists in Austria.
Although National Socialism snuck here also as an ostensible fellow campaigner against Marxism in the land, in this way it succeeded to set itself, it suddenly turned out to be something wholly different.
National Socialism operates in the German Reich as fighting for people and homeland, for the freedom and independence of the German Reich, of the sovereignty of the Reich Germans, whereas National Socialism in Austria does the exact opposite!
Here it appears on the scene not as the advocate and champion of the Austrian idea, nor as a weapon of the Austrian sovereign state, but rather hating it and fighting against it.
The freedom and independence of the Austrian are not its goal, but rather the definitive downfall of this freedom, the final disappearance of Austria's independence!
On Austrian soil National Socialism is not a protector of the homeland, but rather an acrimonious opponent, underminer, shredder and destroyer of protection of the homeland.
Instead of fighting against Marxism we see with National Socialism in Austria hateful struggle against all those, who stand in the Fatherland Front against Marxism.
In the Federal Council and the Landtags[ii] we see downright a common effort of the National Socialists and the Marxists at work. Both Marx-Socialists and Hitler-Socialists vie here in hunting and scolding, in joke and knack against the patriots.
In Austria, National Socialism swarms with the Social Democrats on the bet for Parliamentarianism and Partyism and re-election, while famously National Socialism in the German Reich has hardly left a trace over of a proper Parliament, has partly destroyed and partly gagged the parties, except for its own, and has only authorized re-election in so far as it has been inevitable for the acquisition of a numerical majority for National Socialism; to the other parties any possibility of an election agitation has simply been prevented by force.
But in Austria the National Socialists swarm for re-election, by which they hope they can unfold an unrestrained agitation.
In the German Reich National Socialism immediately after the 'election' blackmailed the Reichstag under threats for an enabling for four years, in order to be able to switch, rule and govern at will without Parliament.
In Austria there is no more persistent derider of the orderly Enabling Act[iii] that has come into being without pressure and coercion, and there is no more persistent derider of the Parliamentary governments than the straight-talking National Socialists!
[NB: cartoon above features face on the left saying 'Gagging of the Press' while the face on the right says 'Freedom of the Press', intending to illustrate the two-faced nature of National Socialism in Germany and Austria].
And thus it is, although it is notorious and although they know perfectly well, that the Austrian federal government is forced to rule on the basis of the Enabling Act, because the National Council has eliminated itself and has made itself incapable of meeting.[iv]
In the German Reich National Socialism tolerates no other public thought except its own, ruthlessly gags the opposing press, forbids their publication or simply appropriates for itself opposing press companies, when they do not allow themselves to 'fall into line', that is, when they refuse to submit unconditionally.
In Austria the National Socialists portray themselves as opponents of press censorship, here they agitate for 'freedom of the press' and demand that they should be allowed to make the freest and most ruthless application of it.
Here on Austrian soil, National Socialism presumably fights the Marxists sometimes in pub brawls and fights on the streets, but in reality they are regarded by it as welcome helpers in fighting against the patriotic government. The Social Democrats can hardly resist the National Socialist pandering and encouragement to take radical action. In Austria the National Socialists are the demagogues and rabble-rousers of Marxism.
National Socialism in the German Reich mourns, wails and whines, when a foreign political action fails, when the foreign money people remain indifferent towards the needs of the German economy, when the world capital denies itself to the German desires.
National Socialism in Austria constantly becomes brightly delighted, when Austria is maltreated by a foreign country, when Austria suffers a misfortune, when it is owed the promised loans or when the negotiations constantly come across new difficulties or the payment constantly becomes protracted.
Any difficulty, which comes over Austria, is seized upon by the party press of the Austrian National Socialists with delightful hurrah.
Open Treason Against the Country
So far does Austrian National Socialism go in its hatred towards the Austrian homeland, that through its spokesmen in the Landtags of Vienna and Lower Austria it has warned foreign countries against granting loans to Austria.
The same treasonous call was directed by it to foreign countries in the German Reich party-press, as in the National Socialist main organ ('The People's Observer' from 3 May 1933).
Only mind-boggling hatred can rage in such a manner against Austria, against the living interests of the Austrian people.
This is thus
The Huge Difference
Between the German Reich National Socialism and the National Socialism in Austria:
The former- one can otherwise think about it and its actions as always- loves its country, loves the Reich of Germany over all. The latter hates the homeland, and hates Austria above all!
It may also be the case that Austria does not like German Reich National Socialism- there are signs of that- as it [Austria] is not its homeland, is not its country. It [German Reich National Socialism] fulfils its duties, when it loves its own German Reich homeland. The hatred of Austrian National Socialism towards Austria is a monstrosity.
They 'Reject' Austria!
A Document of the Treason Against the Homeland.
On 16 November 1932, so one day after the feast of the holy Margrave Leopold, the national patron for Austria, at whose tomb in Klosterneuberg some days previously- namely on the state freedom day- the archbishop of Vienna had directed a patriotic speech to thousands of Viennese pilgrims, the main paper of Austrian National Socialism- the 'German-Austrian Order of the Day'- published a party programmatic declaration, in which it says:
'We National Socialists reject the concept of an Austrian idea, of an Austrian mission. That was once real...
Today there is no Austrian idea, but rather there is only one Austrian mission: the resolution of this dictate state with the German Reich, so that we Ostmark[v] Germans may not only have a homeland, but also a fatherland. One fatherland, which for us the current forced state is not and never will be.
We National Socialists reject also the concept of the Austrian man...We Austrians are not even a German tribe...As Bavarians or as Alemannics we are branches of these German tribes.
For us National Socialists the independent state, which accordingly calls itself Austria, is a straitjacket, which we- the sooner, the better- wish to strip off and will strip off.'
This is the open
Declaration of War by the National Socialists against Austria!
They 'reject' Austria, the Austrian idea, the Austrian man.
They reject Austria as fatherland.
They openly declare themselves against our Austria's remaining as an independent state and preserving its independence.
For them Austria is only a 'dictate state', only a 'forced state', and only a 'straitjacket', which they wish to 'strip off'.
So traitoriously, so hatefully does National Socialism speak towards our splendid Austria, for whose freedom and independence streams of blood have flowed, towards our Austria, for which innumerable sons of the land have sacrificed their lives!
What insult of the memory of our fallen! What dishonourable defilement of our homeland defenders!
Now it is time for us Austrians, now it is duty for all, who still have sense of honour in the body and still have love of the homeland at heart, to cast off National Socialism from Austria as one party.
Against Mongols and Turks, against French and Swedes, against Hussites[vi] and Russians, against Piemontese[vii] and Prussians, against death and devil have our ancestors defended this splendid land, on all the battlefields of Europe have Austria's glorious flags fluttered. As others crawled away before the crescent moon, as others slid to the knees before Napoleon, Austria held out bravely, and the Austrians never stopped fighting for their freedom and independence.
And now the National Socialists come along and revile this Austria, whose only remaining task is supposedly to give itself up.
The stomach turns itself in the face of such disgrace.
No, what we wish to 'cast off' is not Austria, and what we 'reject' is not the Austrian idea and the Austrian independence, but what we cast off and reject is the
Anti-Austrian National Socialism!
Out with this disgrace from our beloved land!
Before the World War[viii] and After.
It is also pure hypocrisy, when the National Socialist declaration says of the Austrian idea and Austrian mission: that 'once was'.
One therefore wants to tell us that with the World War and the collapse everything has supposedly changed and everything that came before has completely come to an end.
One therefore wants to make us believe that previously the Austrian idea and the Austrian mission were supposedly recognized also by the like-minded friends of the Swastika folks.
This is not true!
Already years before the World War the Austrian patriots had to fend off precisely the same agitation against their fatherland.
The political predecessors of the National Socialists, the pan-German followers of Schönerer[ix] and German radicals of K.H. Wolf,[x] were filled with precisely the same hatred against Austria.
The great Austrian Karl Lueger[xi] had to lead precisely the same struggle against the open treason against the homeland, against the pan-German irredentism and the 'Prussian pretenders', as we do today. Nothing has changed here at all.
Only names and colours have the Austria-haters changed since then. What once called itself 'pan-German' today calls itself 'National Socialist' and what was previously black-red-gold and cornflower blue, has now left behind these colours to the Marxists and their blue-shirts, in order to decorate itself with the Prussian black, white and red and to don the brown-shirts.
Certainly Austria nowadays is no more the great, beautiful, prospering empire, which it was before the World War. We know this perfectly well and always bear it in mind.
But the fact that this splendid Austria collapsed due to its Nibelung-loyalty[xii] and that what remained for us is a pitiful mini-state that has been horrendously mutilated and disfigured by the victors, cannot and will not cause us to commit betrayal against it.
It is precisely in misfortune that our loyalty must prove itself.
It is
Despicable and Honourless
to abandon the friend and comrade in misfortune.
It is pitiful, when children repudiate and kick out of the flat their mother, when she has fallen into distress and has become helpless or because she has lost her previous beauty and her hair has turned gray through grief and sorrow.
But in exactly the same way do the National Socialists act with our Austrian fatherland, when they declare that they wish to know nothing more of it because it has been beaten to the cripple by the victors.
We Austrians decidedly reject such cowardice and loss of character, so we will not act accordingly.
Woe by the way to the German Reich, when this trend proliferates when, the more it falls into misfortune, the more promptly it will be abandoned by its residents!
No, dear National Socialists, let it be said to you:
We Austrians will not have for such disgracefulness, for a betrayal of trust to our homeland. We will stick to our homeland, we will persevere with it, we will stand by it. Just like our mother, she is dearer to us than ever in her misfortune. More than ever we love her, now and evermore!
The Lessons of History
Are we able then to look into the future?
Do we know what providence has in store for us?
Has Austria not already experienced incomparably grimmer times than those since the World War?
Twice huge armies of the Turks besieged and assailed the walls of Vienna,[xiii] after they had laid waste to all the land around and turned it into a desert.
Tumults and revolution pressed all the way into the innermost chambers of the castle under Ferdinand II.[xiv]
The Swedish bands broke all the way into the forests around Vienna in the 30 Years War, singeing and burning.
All of Austria was overwhelmed by the armies of the 'unconquerable' Napoleon, who himself had his residence in the imperial castle of Schönbrunn.[xv]
And yet, the day nevertheless always came, in which Austria was free again and stood as mighty and great as ever before.
And the sole reason for this is that the population persevered in misfortune, did not lose confidence and belief and never thought in their dreams of lending an ear to betrayal.
We do not know how the future will stand for us, but the one thing we know is: that we have to remain loyal to the homeland, and that we must not betray our fathers. The rest lies in God's hand.
Home in the Reich!
In order to win over the Austrians to the surrender of their statehood and for the- as they call it- 'Anschluss' with the German Reich, the National Socialists play with preference as their strongest trump card, using the slogan 'Home in the Reich!'
Why 'home'?
Are then we Austrians not at home in Austria?
Must we seek for ourselves at the very end a home somewhere across the border?
And why 'Reich'?
But when the National Socialists wish to say with their 'Home in the Reich': 'Back into the Reich', why do they speak about the 'Anschluss' instead of the 'Wiederzusammenschluss' of that which has been together through more than 1000 years?
Why the dishonorable impertinence of 'Anschluss' for every Austrian?
The false word exposes them as manipulators.
Not as recruiters for the 'Reich,' to which Austria belonged for up to a half-century, do the National Socialists come to us, otherwise they would willingly give the honour to the historical circumstance and speak about 'Wiederzusammenschluss'.
They come to us as agents of Greater Prussia!
Only Greater Prussia can demand an 'Anschluss' of Austria; a 'Wiederzusammenschluss' would contradict the traditional Prussian politics, because the work of these politics is such that what was once united to the Reich would be torn apart.
'Wiederzusammenschluss' would signify: recreation of the Reich.
But 'Anschluss' signifies nothing other than: annexation by Greater Prussia.
Whoso says 'Anschluss' does not mean the 'Reich' but Prussia.
1866 was when the 'Reich'- for which the Austrians even at that time, as in the previous centuries, had brought huge sacrifices of blood- was torn in two by Prussia with the help of allied Italy, as Prussia came into position, in order to incorporate the body of the Reich into itself bit by bit.[xvi]
Now, as this process has been accomplished and the transformation of the Bismarckian[xvii] federal state into a Greater Prussian state disguised as 'Third Reich' has been implemented, Austria- brutally cast out of the Reich 67 years ago- should be able to bear the costs of a further Prussian enlargement.
So in all keys the 'Anschluss' and 'Home in the Reich' are recommended for us, even as we were cast out dishonourably in 1866.
But the fact is that 'Anschluss' and 'Reich' are mutually exclusive and an irreconcilable contradiction.
'Home in the Reich' through Anschluss is a crude deception, because through 'Anschluss' there does not arise again the Reich, which Prussia does not want and does not allow at any cost.
Through 'Anschluss' arises only an enlarged Prussia.
Burned children avoid the fire.
Once it was possible to cast us out of the Reich.
Once and never again!
Historical facts are irreversible.
Still a Catchphrase
Instead of 'Home in the Reich', one is occasionally still lured with the heavily worn phrase: 'For Belief, One People, One Reich!'
How dare anyone say this to us Austrians!
As if we Austrians were those people who at that time had caused the division of belief, this root cause of the division of people and Reich!
We in Austria even today maintain on the whole the unity of belief, we have even today one belief, which our German people received through its entry into the Christian cultural world.
We have faithfully preserved the unity.
The loss is 'out there', one of belief, as one of nation and Reich.
'One People, One Reich'
So it is said, in order to cause us Austrians to abandon our sovereignty and independence.
But do the National Socialists not know that Austria is a German state, and not one iota less German than the Third Reich, than this Greater State of Prussia?
And do they not know that 3.5 million Germans live a few express train stations away from Berlin and the geographic centre of the Third Reich as 'Czechoslovakians' under national foreign domination?[xviii]
Why do the dear National Socialists, when they are already such swarmers for 'One People, One Reich', have nothing against the independence of Czechoslovakia together with the German language-speaking areas tied to it?
Why there do they let a solemn rejection be raised against any thought of Anschluss through their leader Abg. Krebs in the Prague parliament?
Why does just our German state of Austria form the stone of the impetus for the National Socialist Patent-Germans?
Why are the 3.5 million Sudeten Germans- who until 1866, just like us Austrians, belonged to the German Reich and so to speak lie tangibly near the borders of the Reich of Germany- calmly left without the slightest contradiction to national foreign domination, whereas the Germans of Austria, who are not in any way threatened as a nation or capable of being harassed, will be freed from their independence and sovereignty through the 'Anschluss'?
Does 'One People, One Reich' only apply for us Austrians, who are secure in a purely German state, but not for the Sudeten Germans of Czechoslovakia who lie so near to Berlin?
And does this does not apply for the 2.25 million Germans in Switzerland, which is also not as pure a German state as our Austria?
And does this not apply for the many Germans of the neighbouring states of the Third Reich?
So why is it just the pure German state of Austria that cannot be allowed to maintain its independence and sovereignty?
So Why Only?
Yes, why, as the slogan 'One People, One Reich' is an identical fraud and deception to the slogan 'Home in the Reich'.
The reason is that there is no intention to conduct national politics as is the pretence, but rather to continue the Königgrätz[xix] politics.
No, dear National Socialists! We Austrians will not allow ourselves to be swindled out of our freedom, sovereignty and independence through lying slogans,
For we are no lesser Germans than the Germans of the 'Third Reich'.
Our state is just as German, our politics and our science, our literature, our art and our music are in no way inferior, our contributions to German-ness- those of the present as well as the incomparable ones of the past- stand up as no inferior to those of the German Reich.
German- So What is Then Even German About National Socialism?
It has its racial theory from the:
Frenchman
Gobineau.
It got its worldview and its cultural-political program from the work 'The foundations of the 20th century' of the Teutonized
Fully-Blooded Briton
Houston Stewart Chamberlain, to whom Adolf Hitler as well as the former Wilhelm II[xx] made a pilgrimage.
The National Socialists got their greeting from the
Italian
Fascism, which for its part purports to have taken it over from the ancient Romans.
Their methods of fighting, about which one has heard such terrible things before, during and after the German Revolution (as the seizure of power of the Hitler party is called): the mass arrests, the shootings of prisoners on the run, the concentration camps, the appropriations and seizures of property, the ruthless terror. They seem to be the damned
Russian
Soviet-Russian methods.
And their truly Old-Testament-like hatred against political opponents, from where could it stem?
The first National Socialism, which we became acquainted with in Austria, was Czech. The first National Socialists, who basked in Austrian publicity, were the
Ultra-Czechs
Klofac, Choch and Fresl.[xxi]
With their 'German-ness' the National Socialists will therefore not be able to impress us Austrians.
Deceptive Promises
Occasionally, when the National Socialist spokesmen recognize that they have asked too much out of the self-esteem of the Austrian, they resort to all kinds of words of appeasement.
The Austrians- they say- will play a big role in the Third Reich, their individuality and their rights and customs will in no way be annulled and more such platitudes along those lines.
But as they speak thus to the listeners by mouth, they have already made all preparations, in order if necessary to 'standardize' Austria precisely as they have 'standardized' all those who were nonetheless given assurances: Bavaria and the other south and middle-German federal states.
Precisely as these previous states are still allowed to have a Reich-governor- i.e. an executor of the will of the Berlin government- a state government appointed by him and a sham Landtag, which has nothing to discuss or better yet more to discuss:
In the same way Austria, in the scenario of the Anschluss and the seizure of power through National Socialism, would become degraded to a mere bailiwick of Berlin, with one skilled 'country inspector' from the outside as Reichskommissar or Reich governor at the top, together with 'regional inspectors' for the federal states and with Austrian country and regional leaders as Austrian appendages.
In the near future there would then be no Lower or Upper Austria, no Steiermark or Salzburg, no Tyrol or Vorarlberg, no Kärnten or Burgenland.[xxii] Erased and forgotten!
We Austrians are from the National Socialist viewpoint 'not even a tribe' but merely 'branches' of German tribes.
Soon enough ways and means would then be found, in order to annex Austria and its 'regions'- in which the federal states would already be degraded by the National Socialists- bit-by-bit into this and that province of the 'Third Reich' and to make them thus disappear forever.
The National Socialist party-organization is already now entirely built up according to this scheme and for these purposes, in order to be ready for the aftermath of the seizure of power.
Already the first demand of the National Socialists following their appearance in the Lower Austrian Landtag was the one for the abolition of the state governments and Landtags, as well as the autonomy of the federal regions.
Austrians and people of Steiermark, people of Salzburg and people of Kärnten, people of Tyrol, Vorarlberg and people of Burgenland, is thus the outlook that National Socialism offers you appealing to you?
Austria Again Only 'Ostmark'?
Instead of independence, which Austria would lose in an Anschluss, we are promised the role of a new 'Ostmark' of the 'Third Reich'.
That is: we Austrians will be obliged through our entire historical development, through our contributions and achievements during 1000 years to draw a thick line and sink back again to the level 1000 years ago, when Ostmark was founded.
All that which lies in between, will for us have no more value, and will be for us lost, forgotten and erased.
The negro has done his duty, the negro can go.
We give thanks for this friendly impertinence!
Why Not Prussia?
But, if there is to be regression, why, so we ask, does Prussia not go ahead for us with good example?
Why does Prussia not revert itself to its level- not 1000 years ago, which had its difficulties with the relatively-young history of Prussia- for instance from 1525[xxiii] or from 1700[xxiv] or from 1800 or at least from 1850?
Answer, dear National Socialists, speak up, you Anschluss supporters, if you care about the interests of German-ness and Germany, and not merely the enlargement of Prussia through Austria!
Just answer that!
Or will you be owing the answer or will you know no other thereupon than that of the Prussian author Wilhelm Stapel:[xxv] 'Prussia must be!'
Fine, no objection, if one leaves our Austria out of this!
But with the same determination and rock solid conviction and with matchlessly more valid lines of evidence we also declare:
Austria Must Also Be!
Austria must be, because it must!
Because it cannot be otherwise.
Because it thus maintains its own and also the interest of the entire German-ness!
Because, if we acted otherwise, the neighbouring states would attack us.
Because Austria would devolve into the theatre of war with all the terrible consequences.
And because then also the last remaining part of Austria for us would be dismembered, torn to pieces and divided up for the neighbouring states.
Because limitless misery would break in upon our people who in any case have been seriously enough afflicted.
No, we do not wish for any such misfortune!
We intend to avoid any such catastrophe and resist it with the power of desperation.
Only mortal enemies or political fools can expect our Austrian people to fall into the abyss.
So convinced is Adolf Hitler himself- the Führer of the National Socialists- of the physical impossibility of that which our Austrian National Socialists believe they can bring about through agitator chatter, that in his program speech as Reich Chancellor he had not one sentence, not one word, not one syllable pronounced on the Anschluss!
Do then the Austrian National Socialists thus wish to cause our good people, our poor homeland to
Fall into misfortune?
They will run into a bronze wall.
We will defend ourselves, we will know how to defend our homeland, our existence, our families, our future.
Every man and every woman in the Fatherland Front to Austria's rescue!
Austria must be.
Austria wishes to be.
Austria forever!
Join the Fatherland Front!
'Austria above all, if it only wills!'
Prince Eugen,[xxvi] the noble knight, whose great feat for Austria we commemorate in this year, minted these true words. Federal Chancellor Dr. Dollfuss[xxvii] has adopted them as a call to the field for the Fatherland Front.
Austrian men! Austrian women! All of you, who stand behind the Federal Chancellor Dr. Dollfuss, all of you, who wish to fight with him the struggle for Austria, join the Fatherland Front, on top of which he stands!
Austrian men! Austrian women! It is the duty of every upright Austrian, to enlist for the Fatherland Front. All, whether now united in societies, associations or parties or if individuals, whether man or women, whether old or young person, all, who love Austria, should enlist for the Fatherland Front.
Hail Austria!
Applications are to be directed to the office of the Austrian Homeland Service
Vienna, 1. Bez., Bäckerstrasse 13.
[i] Verb form 'gleichschaltend'. The noun term 'Gleichshaltung' is used to refer to the formation and consolidation of totalitarian government in the Third Reich, eliminating concepts such as the sovereignty of the German federal states.
[ii] Lower federal state assembly.
[iii] The more familiar Enabling Act from Germany was passed in March 1933, but there was also effective 'rule by decree' in Austria based on a 1917 emergency law.
[iv] The 'self-elimination of Parliament' in March 1933. For more on this, see here.
[v] The term National Socialists used to refer to Austria. The term literally means 'East Mark' and was linked to Latin marcha orientalis, an entity that was created in the late tenth century and became the first concept of an Austrian entity.
[vi] Referring to the followers of the Christian reformer Jan Hus.
[vii] Referring to the Piedmont region in northwest Italy.
[viii] World War I.
[ix] Georg Ritter von Schönerer, a pan-German nationalist from Austria who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
[x] Karl Hermann Wolf.
[xi] Founder of the Christian Social Party, which subsequently merged into the formation of the Fatherland Front in May 1933.
[xii] A German term for unquestioning loyalty.
[xiii] In 1529 and 1683.
[xiv] Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor.
[xv] When he occupied Vienna (1805-1809).
[xvi] Referring to the 1866 war between the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and Prussia, its German allies and Italy on the other. The latter side won, paving the way for the formation of a new Prussian-led 'North German Federation' and then the German Empire in 1871, both of which were dominated by Prussia and excluded Austria.
[xvii] Referring to Otto von Bismarck, who was the first chancellor of the German Empire.
[xviii] Referring to the Germans of the Sudetenland, who were in fact incorporated into the Third Reich in 1938 following the Munich Agreement.
[xix] Referring to the battle of Königgrätz in 1866, which was a decisive Prussian victory over the Austrians.
[xx] Wilhelm II, the last Kaiser of the German Empire.
[xxi] Czech nationalist politicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries associated with the National Social Party. Its ideology however had nothing to do with National Socialism. The pamphlet merely plays on the apparent similarity in names.
[xxii] All of these (along with Vienna) are the constituent federal states of Austria.
[xxiii] When Prussia was first established as a political entity (the Duchy of Prussia).
[xxiv] In 1700 a treaty was signed between Frederick I (duke of Prussia) and Leopold I (Holy Roman Emperor) that promised the recognition of a kingdom of Prussia.
[xxv] German nationalist author. His work 'Prussia must be' was published in 1932.
[xxvi] Prince Eugene of Savoy-Carignano.
[xxvii] Engelbert Dollfuss, chancellor of Austria and head of the Fatherland Front. He was assassinated in July 1934 by Austrian National Socialists.