863.00/1603
The Chargé in Austria (Wiley) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 30.]
Sir: Supplementing my despatch No. 161 of March 19, 1938,86 I have the honor to review certain of the events which culminated in the incorporation of Austria in the German Reich.
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There is, however, an element of tragedy in the fact that there was no period of transition. The prisons are filled with those who had no chance to flee.
From sources of information which I consider reliable I am informed that Seyss-Inquart himself was duped by the German tactics. He had no idea that the independence of Austria would be extinguished. He foresaw a National Socialist Austria with himself as Chancellor. This is confirmed by a foreign correspondent who had the opportunity of talking privately with Seyss-Inquart when he was en route to Linz on March 5. Seyss-Inquart told him categorically that the independence of Austria would be maintained.
Also Dr. Wilhelm Wolf, who succeeded Dr. Guido Schmidt as Minister for Foreign Affairs, entered office believing that he was to be a member of the cabinet of an independent state. The speech which he delivered whereby he turned over the Foreign Office to Herr Ribbentrop was put in his hands already drafted fifteen minutes before he was to speak. I am told it came as a considerable shock to him. My impression is that the German Government and National Socialist Party in Germany took over Austria by a series of surprise moves which the local National Socialist leaders were obliged to accept with the best grace they could. Rumors have it that disillusionment in Austrian Nazi circles has not been long in coming. The “plums” are going to the German Party comrades.
[Page 458]Despite the great reception which was given to Hitler when he came to Vienna, I have seen nothing to change my opinion that the National Socialist movement in Austria is definitely a minority movement. The crowds which welcomed Hitler were great in number. An important percentage, such as school children, government functionaries and clerks, veterans’ organizations, etc., were given orders to turn out. That part of the populace which showed great and spontaneous enthusiasm may be estimated as not representing more than a small fraction of the population. It may be recalled that when Napoleon entered Vienna there were those who threw roses in his path. The hundreds who visit the Legation each day bring in stories of grief and tragedy.
The Polish Minister, M. Gawronsky, who has always been pronouncedly Nazi in his sympathies and whose connections were almost entirely Nazi, states that if there were to be a really free election “today” for union with National Socialist Germany, not ten percent of the population would vote in favor. He foresees, though, that the plebiscite of April 10 will be conducted in such a way as to assure a gigantic victory for Hitler.
Many priests have been arrested. The Bishop of Graz has been two days in prison, and the Prince Bishop of Salzburg was placed under house arrest for three days. Cardinal Innitzer, at the instance of Seyss-Inquart, called in person upon Hitler in the Hotel Imperial and had a fifteen minute interview with him. Subsequently a statement appeared in the press on March 16 which stated that the Cardinal had expressed his joy to Hitler at the “reunion” of German Austria with the Reich and the will of the Austrian Catholics to work with all their strength at the German reconstruction. The Nuncio tells me in confidence that while Cardinal Innitzer did sign a statement, the text of the one which appeared was not that which he had approved. The Nuncio added that Cardinal Innitzer was a weak man. Monsignor Cicognani also remarked that he feared the situation had only one solution: war.
As present the greatest activity prevails in ferreting out Austrian official archives. When the Wilhelmstrasse learns the exact nature of the relations between Italy and Austria, the results may be illuminating and call for some private explaining.
Various estimates of arrests have reached me. Probably in Vienna many thousands have been detained. The S. S., the S. A. and the Gestapo are active day and night. Houses are being searched; money, private property, even the knives, forks and spoons are being confiscated in Jewish homes. The last day or so added attention is being paid to Legitimists. As I write this, the news reaches me that Prince Fürstenberg, an ex-Ambassador and a man of advanced years, has just been taken from his home. Princess Starhemberg, the mother [Page 459] of Prince Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, has also been detained, though subsequently released.
President Miklas allegedly has made his peace with the new regime. There will be a pension, a home, a car and even a sentinel.
First hand accounts of conditions in the prisons, congestion, treatment of prisoners, lack of sanitary facilities, etc., are most distressing.
The Chancellor is still under guard somewhere in the Belvedere. The night of the debacle, the Hungarian Chargé d’Affaires was asked by telephone if he would motor Dr. von Schuschnigg to Hungary. He agreed to do so, but the Chancellor never appeared. I am told on reliable authority that three different times since then arrangements have been made for him to leave the country, but that each time he refused to go. The obvious interpretation is that he has declined to sign certain statements which would substantiate the euphemistic German version of what took place. Rumor has it that he will not be tried for high treason but interned at Dachau.
There are rumors in the Diplomatic Corps of a monster “Moscow trial” at which ex-government officials will be tried. I doubt this seriously. There may, though, be some sort of an auto-da-fé in order to whitewash the Nazis of complicity in the murder of Dollfuss, to make Planetta a martyr instead of an assassin.
The “suicides” of Major Fey and Neustädter-Stürmer may indicate where the “guilt” will fall. In this connection it may be recalled that the role played by Major Fey and others has never been fully clarified. The arrest of Mr. Louis Rothschild87 and the attention which is being paid to the archives of the Credit-Anstalt, the Phoenix, etc., indicates that much financial dirty linen will be re-washed, probably very much in public, in an endeavor to establish moral justification for anti-Semitic measures.
Bürgermeister Schmitz, Director von Hornbostel of the Foreign Office and a long series of other high government officials are under arrest.
Dr. Guido Schmidt will apparently receive a post in Germany. Five minor officials of the Foreign Office will also be retained in public service.
There are varying estimates of the amount of the non-Aryan element of the population of Vienna. The orthodox Jews, baptized Jews, those partly Jewish and those married to Jews are believed to approximate about a third of the population of the city. The full force of the blow has come so suddenly and the measures which have been taken against them are so drastic that within a short time a condition of great distress may be expected, if it is not already here.
[Page 460]The most interesting aspect of the demise of Austria and the advance of Germany to the Brenner is the effect the new situation will have on the Rome–Berlin axis.
The axis has received a blow. However, the weakness of the Chamberlain–Halifax government and the cabinet crisis in France has apparently decided Mussolini to throw in his lot with Hitler. The axis instead of being weakened is probably fortified, with the center of gravity nearer Berlin. The question now arises: how far and in what direction will the Duce endeavor to follow the via imperials hand in hand with Germany?
Respectfully yours,