Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau
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Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau was an Austrian National Socialist who played a significant part in the Anschluss of Austria in 1938.
He was the number-two man in the hierarchy of the Austrian Nazi party in the middle and late 1930's behind the Austrian Nazi leader Dr Arthur Seyss-Inquart. At the meeting at Berchtesgaden on February 12, 1938 between Hitler and the Austrian Chancellor, Dr Kurt Schuschnigg, among other things Germany demanded that Glaise-Horstenau be made Minister of war in a new, pro-Nazi government, and that he would thereafter establish close operational relations between the German and Austrian Armies, leading ultimately to the assimilation of the Austrian into the German system. [1]
After a month of diplomatic manoevering, as a last chance move Schuschnigg decided to hold a plebiscite within his country, asking if the Austrian people wanted union with Germany or whether they did not. This plebiscite, to be held on March 13, 1938 was announced on March 9, 1938. This caused a furious reaction in Berlin, and Glaise-Horstenau, among others was called to a discussion with Hitler. [2] On March 11, 1938 he appeared at Vienna airport, being met by Seyss-Inquart, with instructions from Hitler to halt the plebiscite. This demand was presented to Schuschnigg, who reluctantly agreed on being informed that the police forces, which were heavily infected with Nazism, could not be counted on.
The anschluss ultimately proceeded on schedule, and Glaise-Horstenau receded into the background after Austria became incorporated fully into the Third Reich, losing its national identity totally and becoming only a province of Germany known as the Osterreich.
