Austria

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AustriaHaving entered World War I as the HabsburgImperial and Royal Monarchy—the Austro-HungarianEmpire—the nation emerged from defeat inthat conflict as a much diminished and dismemberedRepublic of Austria, 32,400 square miles inextent, with a population of 6.7 million. The Treatyof Versailles expressly barred Austria from unionwith Germany. However, by virtue of theAnschluss of March 1938, the nation was incorporatedinto Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. When ithappened, many Austrians warmly greetedAnschluss. In the course of World War II, however,as Germany and the rest of the Axis sufferedincreasing reverses, most Austrians began to feelthat they were unwilling participants in a hopelessstruggle.Austria's federal chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg,was, at Hitler's behest, dismissed shortlyafter the Anschluss and replaced by a Nazi, ArthurSeyss-Inquart, a puppet of the Third Reich. Austriawas occupied by some 100,000 German troops,the Schutzstaffel (SS) acted brutally to suppressall protest and opposition, and the Reich took stepsto ensure that the region's rich natural resources,including iron ore, magnesite, and wood, would bewholly available to serve its needs. Also now availableto the Reich was the Austrian military. On theeve of Anschluss, mobilization and conscriptiondoubled that force from 60,000 to 120,000. Thearmy included a motorized division, which hadnothing but obsolete tanks. The Austrian air forcehad 90 obsolescent aircraft. Immediately after theAnschluss, the armed forces were required to takethe same oath of personal loyalty to Hitler requiredof German military personnel. All but 125 men didso. The Federal Army of Austria was then whollyintegrated into the Wehrmacht—with the provisothat in no unit were Austrian troops to makeup more than 25 percent of the force. Wartimeconscription throughout Austria would greatlyincrease the number of Austrian men who servedin the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. Austrian officerswere given ample opportunity to rise withinthe German military, some 220 individuals attaininggeneral officer rank before the end of the war.Despite the apparently overwhelming scopeand thoroughness of Anschluss, resistance groupsformed throughout Austria from March 1938. TheAustrian resistance maintained close links with theresistance within Germany itself. The resistancemovement also established contacts with the Allies,and resistance members carried out acts of espionageand sabotage. It was the resistance thatsmoothed the way for the relatively easy separationfrom Germany and reestablishment of sovereigntythat occurred after the German surrender.