762.63/117
The Ambassador in Germany ( Dodd ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 12.]
Sir: With reference to despatch No. 164 of September 22, 1933,20 I have the honor to report that the recent reorganization of the Austrian Cabinet was viewed in Germany as strengthening Chancellor Dollfuss’ position, though it was alleged by the German press that his ascendency would prove to be only temporary—a “strange interlude”, as the Voelkischer Beobachter put it—and that the Nazis, after a period of trial and tribulation, would finally gain the upper hand. Incidentally, the influence of Habsburg legitimists was seen to have been strengthened.
This changed attitude was reflected in a radio broadcast by the “Nazi State Inspector for Austria”, Habicht, on September 24, in which this indefatigable aspirant to Austrian leadership opined that the new situation in Austria opened up new possibilities of development in various directions. When Hitler had come into power in Germany on January 30, Habicht asserted, the Austrian Nazis had also made great gains, and Dollfuss had been ready to arrive at an understanding with them but had been thwarted in this intention by Ministers Fey and Vaugoin—who had now been relegated to positions of lesser influence at a time when the Austrian Government was, according to the speaker, brought to realize that its policy of force against the Nazis had failed.
Habicht, who, it will be recalled, recently assumed a very uncompromising attitude towards Dollfuss (see despatch No. 141 of September 13, 1933), concluded by stating that in a conversation held just before the conflict between the Nazis and the Austrian Government reached an acute pitch, he had remarked to the Austrian Chancellor: “You, Mr. Chancellor, have two possibilities of going down into the history of Austria and of the German people—either as the Chancellor who helped a new period into existence and thus achieved eternal merit in respect to the future of the German nation, or as the General [Page 447] Schleicher of Austria who believed he could stop an idea with bayonets, and thus came grievously to fall. You have your choice.” Habicht now added that this still held good.
Respectfully yours,
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