Annexation of Austria
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Anschluss: annexation or union?
The word "Anschluss" outside the context of March 1938 is properly translated as "joinder", "connection", "unification" or "political union". In contrast the German word "Annektierung" that would mean military annexation unambiguously was and is not commonly used in this context. The usage of the term "Anschluss" has been widespread before and in 1938 describing an incorporation of Austria into Germany. Calling the incorporation of Austria into Nazi Germany an "Anschluss", that is a unification or joinder, was however also part of the propaganda used in 1938 by Hitler and the Nazis to create the impression the events of March 1938 were not backed and enforced by military pressure. Hitler himself stressed the meaning of the events numerous times following the "Anschluss" and described the incorporation of Austria as the return of it to its original home (Heimkehr). The word Anschluss endured the years of the Second World War and the years thereafter, letting the term, despite its non-correlating to the actual events and propaganda usage in 1938 stand for the events that took place.
Some historical sources, for instance, Encyclopædia Britannica, describe the Anschluss as an "annexation" rather than a union. From a factual view of the events that were mainly driven by the German military power and political pressure within Austria and from the outside the term annexation is the closer description than the term "Anschluss". It however omits to present the differences between the "Anschluss" and other annexations of Nazi Germany backed by force, i.e. large parts of the Austrian population either supported or were indifferent to the incorporation of Austria into the Third Reich.