Austria Germany WW2 1945 Nazi's Anschluss End stamp MNH A-15

Description: Good genuine stamp. The Anschluss (spelled Anschluß at the time of the event, and until the German orthography reform of 1996) , also known as the Anschluss Österreichs, was the 1938 de facto annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime. Austria was annexed to the German Third Reich on 12 March 1938. There had been several years of pressure from Germany and there were many supporters within Austria for the "Heim ins Reich"-movement, both Nazis and non-Nazis.[3] Earlier, Nazi Germany had provided support for the Austrian National Socialist Party (Austrian Nazi Party) in its bid to seize power from Austria's Austrofascist leadership. Fully devoted to remaining independent but under considerable pressure from both German and Austrian Nazis, Austria's Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg tried to hold a referendum to ask the Austrian people whether they wished to remain independent or merge into Germany. Although Schuschnigg expected Austria to vote in favour of maintaining autonomy, a well-planned coup d'état by the Austrian Nazi Party of Austria's state institutions in Vienna took place on 11 March, prior to the referendum which was cancelled. With power quickly transferred over to Germany, Wehrmacht troops entered Austria to enforce the Anschluss. The Nazis held a plebiscite–asking the people to ratify what had already been done–within the following month, where they claim to have received 99.73 percent of the vote. Although the Allies were committed to upholding the terms of the treaties of Versailles and St. Germain, which specifically prohibited the union of Austria and Germany, their reaction was only verbal and moderate. No fighting ever took place and even the strongest voices against the annexation, particularly Fascist Italy, France and the United Kingdom (the "Stresa Front") remained at peace. The Anschluss was among the first major steps in Adolf Hitler's long-desired creation of an empire including German-speaking lands and territories Germany had lost after World War I, although Austria had never been a part of the (in 20th-century terms) German state. Already prior to the 1938 annexation, the Rhineland was remilitarized and the Saar region was returned to Germany after 15 years of occupation through a plebiscite. After the Anschluss, the predominantly German Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia was taken, with the rest of the country becoming a protectorate of Germany in 1939. That same year, Memelland was returned from Lithuania, the final peaceful territorial aggrandizement before the start of World War II. Austria ceased to exist as a fully-independent nation until late 1945. A Provisional Austrian Government was set up on 27 April 1945, and was legally recognized by the Allies in the following months, but it was not until 1955 that Austria regained full sovereignty.

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End Time: 2024-08-30T14:47:18.000Z

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