German nationalism in Austria
National liberal and pan-Germanist parties have been termed the "Third Camp" (German: Drittes Lager) of Austrian politics, as they have traditionally been ranked behind mainstream Catholic conservatives and socialists.
[3] After the Second World War, both pan-Germanism and the idea of political union with Germany became unpopular due to their association with Nazism, and by the rising tide of a civic Austrian national identity.
[5] Starting with the revolutions of 1848, many ethnic groups under imperial rule, including the Serbs, Czechs, Italians, Croats, Slovenes, and Poles, amongst others, demanded political, economic, and cultural equality.
Traditionally, the German-speaking population of the Empire enjoyed societal privileges dating back to the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, and that of her son, Joseph II.
This manifesto was signed by the radical German nationalist Georg von Schönerer, Vienna's populist, pro-Catholic, and royalist mayor Karl Lueger, and the Jewish social democrat Victor Adler.
He demanded the annexation of all German-speaking territories of Austria-Hungary to the Prussian-led German Empire and rejected any form of Austrian pan-ethnic identity.
His radical racist German nationalism was especially popular amongst the well-educated intelligentsia: professors, grammar school teachers, and students.
School administrations tried to counteract these sentiments by encouraging civic pride, along with a "cult of personality" around the Emperor, but these efforts were largely unsuccessful.
[22] Despite this victory, the German National Association was always a very loose coalition with little unity amongst its ranks, and collapsed in 1917 at the height of First World War.
[20] This disintegration, combined with dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, led to the total fragmentation of pan-Germanist movement.
However, Erich Bielka notes that the plebiscites were marred by electoral fraud and voter manipulation:[25][26] In addition to the massive propaganda campaign and not insignificant Reich German influence, ‘Ja’ ballot papers were pre-printed and provided at the polling stations and ballots were to be handed to an election official, undermining voter confidentiality.
The Tyrolean elites vehemently reasserted their cultural autonomy from Austria, and the policy of the Tiroler Volkspartei, the dominant party in the province following the 1919 elections, was independent Tyrol and not unification with Germany.
[26] Tyrolean politicians unequivocally rejected the Anschluss policy of the central government, contemplating every conceivable alternative, including the possibility of an independent Tyrol linked in a loose union with Switzerland or Italy, or of a fusion of the ‘western provinces’.
Again, the majority of the ruling elite supported Anschluss, but the circumstances surrounding the ballot make it an unreliable indicator of public sentiment, let alone pan-German attitudes.
[25]The victors of the First World War who drafted the Treaty of Versailles and the Saint-Germain-en-Laye strictly forbade any attempt by German Austria to unify with Germany.
Renner himself was a proponent of the idea of "Greater Germany", and penned the unofficial anthem Deutschösterreich, du herrliches Land ("German Austria, you wonderful country").
Despite his background, however, he signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain on 10 September 1919, which established the Allied-drawn borders of the new Austrian republic, and formally forbid any attempt to unify the German-speaking lands of the former Austria-Hungary with Germany.
[33] Those who supported an Austrian national identity, an Austria without the word "German" attached, were conservative and largely undemocratic in persuasion: former Imperial bureaucrats, army officers, priests, aristocrats, and affiliated with the Christian Social Party.
Ultimately, the Austrian nationalist faction would overthrow the democratic republic in 1934 and establish a regime rooted in "Austrofascism" under the protection of Fascist Italy.
[38]While most of right-wing Heimwehren paramilitary groups active during the First Republic were rooted in Austrian nationalism, and either affiliated with the conservative Christian Socials, or inspired by Italian Fascism, there was also a German nationalist faction.
The putsch was directly modelled on the Benito Mussolini's March on Rome, but failed almost instantly due to lack of support from other Heimwehr groups.
Mussolini's support for an independent Austria can be seen in a discussion he had with Prince Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, an important Austrian nationalist and Heimwehr leader.
"[45] In February 1934, the government's search for weapons belonging to the Republican Protection League, the banned paramilitary arm of the Social Democrats, led to the outbreak of the brief Austrian Civil War.
Whilst they managed to assassinate chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, the putsch was quickly crushed by the police, army, and Heimwehren.
This, in tandem with a continued a campaign of violence and propaganda by the Nazis, destabilised the Austrofascist regime, and rallied many to support the idea of Anschluss.
"[49][50] After the Anschluss, Hitler remarked as a personal note: "I, myself, as Führer and Chancellor, will be happy to walk on the soil of the country that is my home as a free German citizen.
[57] Defunct After the end of the Second World War, when Austria was re-established as an independent state, the German nationalist movement was discredited because of its links to the former Nazi regime.
[58] The pan-Germanist and liberal "Third Camp" was later revived in the form of the Federation of Independents (German: Verband der Unabhängigen, VdU), which fought de-Nazification laws imposed by the Allies, and represented the interests of former Nazis, Wehrmacht, and SS soldiers.
In 2008, fewer than seventeen per cent of the Freedom Party's voters questioned the existence of a unique Austrian national identity.
