Hitler and the Forgotten Nazis Read Free Page A

documents of the Nazi party, Berlin Document Center
    Politisches Archiv des Auswartiges Amt; Political Archives of the German Foreign Ministry, Bonn
    Parteikanzlei-korrespondenz; Nazi party correspondence in the
    Berlin Document Center
    Paris Storey Series (Nuremberg trial documents)
    reel number
    Reichsleitung; Imperial Directorship of the Nazi party, Munich Sturmabteilung; Storm Division or Storm Troopers of the NSDAP
    Der Hochverratsprozess gegen Dr. Guido Schmidt vor dem Wiener Volksgericht
    Sozialdemokratische Partei; Social Democratic party of Austria
     
    Sammlung Schumacher; Schumacher collection of Austrian Nazi correspondence in the Bundesarchiv of Koblenz, West Germany
    Schiitzstaffeln; elite guards of the NSDAP
    microfilm series number; National Archives, Captured German
    Documents
    Tagblatt Archive in the Arbeiterkammer, Vienna Der Tagblatt, Graz
    Untersuchungs- und Schlichtungsausschuss; Investigation and Conciliation Committee of the NSDAP Vaterlandische Front; Fatherland Front Volksstimme, Linz
    Wissenschaftliche Kommission des Theodor-Komer Stiftungsfonds und des Leopold-Kunschak-Preises zur Erforschung der osterreichischen Geschichte der Jahre 1927 bis 1938
    # document number
     

A NOTE ON FOREIGN TERMS  
    A study of Austrian National Socialism involves many German words for which no commonly accepted English equivalents exist. In such cases the original German form has been used in this book for both the singular and the plural. Except when being defined, singular terms are in Roman letters, e.g.: Gauleiter, Heimwehr, Landesleiter, and Parteigenosse. To distinguish plurals, italics are employed, e.g.: Gauleiter, Heimwehr en, Landesleiter, and Parteigenossen.

CHAPTER I CRIPPLED FROM BIRTH: THE FIRST AUSTRIAN REPUBLIC
    In the history of European fascism between the two world wars one fact stands out: nowhere did fascists enjoy the majority support of their countrymen before coming to power. Therefore, whatever success the fascists had cannot be understood apart from the weaknesses and divisions of their opponents and the internal problems of the states in which they arose. This fundamental truth is just as valid for the Nazis of Austria as it is for the German Nazis in the Weimar Republic and the Fascists of pre-1922 Italy.
    Nazism, and European fascism in general, did not arise in a vacuum. If the new Republic of Austria, which was founded in 1918, had had a long democratic tradition, a prosperous economy, and, perhaps above all, a citizenry with a burning desire for independence, the Nazis, or any other fascist group, would hardly have attracted more than a handful of supporters. But such conditions did not exist in Austria. Although having some democratic elements, the fallen Austrian Empire had been essentially authoritarian. Worse yet, the political parties of postwar Austria regarded each other as enemies rather than as fellow citizens having honest if differing viewpoints.
    The division of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy into a patchwork of Successor States also left the Austrian economy so shattered that it would not recover until after the Second World War. So, far from greeting their new state and constitution with joy and optimism, most Austrians were convinced that their country could survive economically and politically only if joined to its great German neighbor in a so-called Anschluss. It should surprise no one, therefore, that parties arose in Austria demanding the abolition of democracy and the independence of the state.
    *
    Austria at the Paris Peace Conference
    The German-speaking people of the Austrian Empire were undoubtedly the monarchy’s most loyal subjects. Only with considerable misgivings was a republic proclaimed by the German remnant of the Imperial Austrian Parliament on 12 November 1918. Although the new state bore a faint resemblance to the medieval crownlands that belonged to the Habsburgs before 1526, it was in reality a new and, to most of its citizens, an unwelcome