Portal:Germany/Selected article/2007/January

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The Anschluss, also known as the Anschluss Österreichs (literally meaning connection, or political union) was the 1938 incorporation of Austria in "Greater Germany" under the Nazi Regime.

The events of March 12, 1938 were the first major step in Hitler's long-desired expansion of the Third Reich, preceding the inclusion of the Sudentenland later in 1938 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, and finally leading to the Second World War with Nazi Germany's assault on Poland.

Although the Wehrmacht entered into Austria to enforce the Anschluss, no fighting took place, in part because of prior political pressure exerted by Germany, but primarily because of the well-planned internal overthrow by the Austrian Nazi Party of Austria's state institutions in Vienna on March 11, the day before German troops marched across the border. More...