Quote:
Originally Posted by Mynydd
And like [the raise of the NSDAP] in Germany, you have to consider [the acceptance of the Anschluss] in Austria to the chaotic, socially unstable "Wirtschaftskrise".
It reminds me of those political articles with titles like "It's the Economy, stupid!"
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The regime of the "Ständestaat" (also called by some "Austro-Fascism") was against to popular movements in Austria of that time: Against Ns. and against Social Democracy. In the "Anhaltelager" (like concentration camps in a neutral meaning of the word) Ns. and Social Democrats came together, which was one of the reasons the Socialists and Ns. had less of a problem in Austria probably.
There was a small civil war against Social Democrats (1934) and of course the assassination of Dollfuss by the, at that time illegal in Austria, Ns.
But again, the only reason why Austria didnt became part of Germany, was the Versailler and St. Germain treaties which prohibited it, nothing else. Originally Austria was called "Deutsch-Oesterreich" ("German Austria") after WWI to make clear that this is now the German part of the former Habsburgian empire.
The Ns., I might add, made after the "Anschluss" mistakes too, this had again, zero to do with racial standards and the like, but it was a partly somewhat arrogant behaviour on the one side and the problem of negating an "Austrian existence" as such. F.e. the federal states became "Gaue":
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...x-NaziGaue.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...s/b/be/GDR.png
This was normal and not the problem, but partly they made an end to historically grown structures (like Eastern Tyrol and Vorarlberg), which made sense from an administrative point of view, and partly banned the names of Austria as such, calling Niederoesterreich und Oberoesterreich now Niederdonau and Oberdonau, the whole Austrian part of Ostmark.
Austrians wanted to be part of Germany and felt as Germans, but they wanted to be treated like equals and their identity with respect. This was mostly the case, but not always and you can bet on which examples were exaggerated after the war for "patriotic Austrians" to make clear how bad the situation was.
And of course, it was partly "a Prussian takeover" in the administration and partly way of thinking, which wasnt welcomed by all, especially Catholic-Conservative, people neither.
This were minor issues in comparison to what I have said above, since the main reason was definitely the war and what happened afterwards, but still.
But to come back to the antagonism of Christian-Socials/Conservatives and Social Democrats which led even to a small civil war, those two movements decided after the war to make a peaceful cooperation and state now, this was the real birth of Austria after the 2nd WW. The Austrian state as a form of peaceful cooperation and social partners, chamber of labour and Austrian chamber of commerce etc., so parts of the Catholic/Fascist social organisation were implemented to prevent real class struggles, strikes and violence.
Simple put, the "Austrian deal" was to shut up, not talking about what was before and about "being German", nor too much about class struggle and the like, and making always peaceful compromises, trying to partition the whole state and all powers between the major players, the OEVP and SPOE. This is not the same as corruption, its a deal about "who gets his people in" - many Austrians had a certain time to be member of one of the two parties and participating for having better chances for a certain position or social climbing etc.
The whole situation, as well as the integration of Ns., many in the Social Democratic party actually, can only be properly understood if looking at the pre-war history and the situation during the war.
The way how the "independent and non-German identity of Austrians" was enforced and emphasized after WW2 was partly even ridiculous with people having to participate in certain ceremonies if they wanted or not and a sort of exaggerated patriotism at times.
But to compare the situation with Spain, just imagine Spain would have participated in a war, would have lost and occupied by foreign forces and there was a propaganda against Spaniard Fascists being very cruel and inhuman people which made horrible crimes. Nobody knows what will happen, if the occupying forces will ever leave and what they will do with the people, probably punishing them, disfranchise them or whatever and the situation is just horrible, destruction, no food, many males P.O.W. and mentally broken etc.
Now there was a part of the country about which one could say they were "forced being part of Spain", since even though the majority was happily part of the nation, a minor part wasnt and there were legal disputes also. But before the lost war, they wouldnt ever have thought about being "non-Spanish", but now, after the lost war and in the current situation, "being Spanish" was like a swear word and a big disadvantage in the face of the foreign occupation. So this small part of the country began to emphasize, already when the first foreign soldiers came after the long bloody war and full destruction, that they "are no Spanish but X" and they became a better treatment because of that, since they were, "somehow" part of "the victims" rather than the "Fascist perpetrators". So after beginning that way after the war, there was no way back but rather a situation in which this "independence and non-Spanish character" of this small part had to be further exaggerated to legitimate the own behaviour and situation.
That I took Spain as an example is not just because of your identity Mynydd, but also because Spain might have been very lucky that something like that DIDN'T HAPPEN but COULD HAVE HAPPENED. Just think about the situation in the civil war, regional differences and the possibility of a defeated Fascist regime being soon demonised, with all those which became "innocently part of the regime" or even "resisted to the regime" were not part of the "guilty mafia" but victims...
The whole "own guilt" debate reached Austria later and not that intensive as the FRG by the way, for obvious reasons. The bad side of this medal was, that in Austria German nationalism was largely equated with Ns. by the propaganda, which made a German identity even less possible, especially if thinking about the re-education and legal situation in the country, as well as the public opinion. That way a German identity was suppressed and demonised by being equated with the post war propaganda image of Ns. in Austria to a large degree on the one hand, and again, yes it was also an economic issue, by the "better life" people had in the new Austrian state - of which people became proud because of its neutral status, stability, prosperity and peace. They didnt wanted to become part of the NATO and they didnt wanted social conflicts, both guaranteed by the Proporz-Regime of OEVP and SPOE, which was partly really an achievement I'd say, though one has to consider many factors for its relative success.