VIENNA, March 11. – Censorship has started
An order posted in the correspondents’ room in the Central Telegraph Office tonight said all telephone conversations from the room must be in German.
Correspondents for the International News Service, an American organization, were detained against their will, without charges, at the office.
VIENNA, Saturday, March 12. – Under threats of force from Berlin, Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg of Austria yielded last evening and resigned in dramatic circumstances. The Nazis, with Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Interior Minister in the Schuschnigg Cabinet, as Chancellor, are in power.
To an unprepared public listening over the radio to a typical program of pleasant Viennese melodies the voice of the an who may have been the last Chancellor of an independent Austria announced at 7:45 P. M. that, in his own words, he had “yielded only to force” to avoid bloodshed and that under the threat of a German invasion that was to start at the very moment he spoke, he had resigned his office.
Apart from the statement in a broadcast at 6 o’clock that “the Chancellor and Fatherland Front Leader, in consultation with President Miklas, has decided to postpone the plebiscite,” there was no warning for the public when the program was interrupted for the announcer to say, “An important declaration is just coming.” Then, without even mention of Dr. Schuschnigg’s name his voice was heard at the microphone.
When Dr. Schuschnigg had finished, thousands of Nazis began swarming into Vienna’s streets to take over control unopposed. An hour afterward Dr. Seyss-Inquart also addressed the nation over the radio, calling on every one to maintain order and declaring that there was no question of resistance if the German Army should march in.
Dr. Seyss-Inquart’s first official act as Chancellor appears to have been a message to Chancellor Hitler requesting the speedy dispatch of German troops to his srpport. The message read:
“Following the retirement of the Schuschnigg government, the Provisional Government of Austria regards the restoration and maintenance of law and order in Austria as its first duty.
“To this end it urgently requests the German Government to support it in this undertaking and assist it in the prevention of bloodshed. I therefore appeal to the German Government for the earliest possible dispatch of troops.”
Up to noon Dr. Schuschnigg had remained firm in the face of all threats. Then came the first ultimatum from Germany, conveyed by Dr. Edmund Glaise-Horstenau, Minister Without Portfolio in the Schuschnigg Cabinet, on his return from Berlin. Austria was to postpone the plebiscite or she would be invaded.
At 4 P. M. an airplane landed in Vienna. It brought Dr. Schuschnigg a final and, this time, an official ultimatum. The man who delivered it was believed to have been Josef Buerckl, Nazi leader in the Saar.
At first it was rumored that Field Marshal Hermann Goering and Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of the German Nazi party, had arrived with the ultimatum and were going to speak to the crowds in the Karlsplatz at 10 P. M., but this proved untrue. It was stated later, however, that Marshal Goering and Herr Hess would arrive today.
In any event, this ultimatum was quite different from that Dr. Glaise-Horstenau had delivered. It was an official statement from the German Government that unless Dr. Schuschnigg resigned by 7:30 P. M., 300,000 Germans would cross the frontier, headed by two motorized divisions.
Even so, up to the last moment Dr. Schuschnigg held out, pondering whether he should not at least offer formal resistance. The hesitation in Dr. Schuschnigg’s farewell speech when he said first that the Austrian troops had been ordered to offer “no serious resistance” and then changed it to “no resistance” indicates pretty clearly that up to the last he had intended that some formal resistance should be offered in order to bring home to Germany her full guilt.
But the Austrian Chancellor was unable to obtain assurances of support from any of the countries that have always professed sympathy for “gallant little Austria.” No one seemingly was prepared to back up fine words with brave deeds.
Immediately after Dr. Seyss-Inquart’s speech it became known that one of the second ultimatum’s conditions had informed Dr. Schuschnigg that whether he resigned or not the Austrian Legion would march in from Germany and assume part of the police duties.
At 1 o’clock this morning, while the Nazi celebration was still going full force, a Nazi speaker appeared on the great balcony of the historic Chancellery Building and announced to the 10,000 gathered below with their flags and torches that President Miklas had appointed a new Cabinet, as follows:
Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart – Chancellor and National Defense.
Dr. Edmund Glaise-Horstenau – Vice Chancellor.
Dr. Wilhelm Wolf – Foreign.
Franz Hueber – Justice.
Professor Oswald Menchin, former dean of Vienna University – Education.
Dr. Hugo Jury – Social Welfare.
Rudolf Neumayer – Finance.
Anton Reinthaler – Agriculture.
Dr. Hans Fischboeck – Commerce.
Michael Skubl, president of the Vienna police, remains Secretary of State for Security. Two Nazis are appointed Under Secretaries of State – Ernst Kaltenbrunner for Security, and Major Clausner, present leader of the Austrian Nazis, for Propaganda.
The Cabinet consists mostly of former Pan-Germans and pronounced Nationalists – who certainly may be called Nazis now – together with some Nazis of the new generation. It is regarded merely as a transition Cabinet. Its program was to have been given by Dr. Seyss-Inquart in a broadcast last night, but there have been no signs of it.
Mayor Richard Schmitz of Vienna, a strong Catholic, has been replaced by Vice Mayor Fritz Lahr, a former Heimwehr man. It is rumored, but not yet confirmed , that Herr Schmitz has bee arrested by the Nazis because he allegedly furnished arms to labor unions.
Several leading politicians, such as Guido Zernatto, secretary general of the Fatherland Front, and former Minister of Commerce Fritz Stockinger, are reported to have fled to Czechoslovakia.
The prelude to the last act of the Austrian tragedy was full of tense moments. At 10 o’clock yesterday morning for the first time and thereafter at half-hour intervals throughout the morning, it was broadcast that the unmarried men of the 1915 class of recruits, who had already served ten months, were to report immediately for duty.
The fact that this mobilization of reservists was declared to be intended to maintain order for Sunday’s plebiscite concealed form nobody that little Austria was making her last preparation to face a Nazi Putsch or a German invasion - or both.
All the gates of the Hofburg were closed and strongly guarded. Truckloads of troops with rifles and steel helmets crossed Vienna in all directions. The militia was called out and was soon seen filling sleeping bags with straw in the courtyard of the City Hall.
In motor trucks steel-helmeted troops with rifles and machine guns were rushed to the various Ministries.
Alarming reports came in from the provinces. In Innsbruck at noon Nazis in full Storm Troop uniforms, accompanied by thousands of supporters, broke through the police cordon, but were held up outside the City Hall by barbed-wire entanglements and machine guns. Steel-helmeted police with fixed bayonets drove the Nazis into the side streets.
In Graz troops put up barbed wire and brought out machine guns. They cornered a violent Nazi demonstration in one of the principal squares and covered the demonstrators with rifles. The demonstrators refused to disperse, however, before the Graz Nazi leader, Professor Armin Dardieu, had spoken to them, admonishing them to go quietly.
There were reports, impossible to confirm, that Nazi Storm Troopers had occupied the hills close to Graz, armed with machine guns.
In Salzburg Thursday night Nazis attacked non-Nazi crowds cheering for Dr. Schuschnigg. Many persons were injured and taken to hospitals, but there were no dead.
On the news that Germany had moved two motorized divisions to the frontier, the Austrians closed it Thursday night. An invasion was already expected, but at 7 o’clock yesterday morning the frontier was reopened. Then, however, came the news that the Germans had closed their side of the frontier, which made matters look extremely serious.
Dr. Schuschnigg still remained firm after the first ultimatum from Germany at noon and discussed calling out all the reserves to meet what he was convinced was a German bluff to prevent him from holding the Plebiscite, which was expected to expose the Nazis’ real numerical weakness.
Then came satisfactory news from the workers. The mobilization order had caused every one to realize the danger. Dropping their quarrel about trade union posts, the workers met in the factories at the lunch hour and decided to support Dr. Schuschnigg without reserve.
Patriotic resolutions poured in from every quarter – Catholics, monarchists, Socialists and even Communists declared their determination to stand for Austria’s independence at the plebiscite.
At midday a deputation of Socialist trade union leaders appeared before Hofrat Weiser, head of the anti-Red secret police, who had examined many of them in the past as prisoners. They told him that, in the face of the Nazi peril and the apparent impossibility of the police’s getting Dr. Seyss-Inquart’s permission to keep order in Vienna, the workers were prepared themselves to go out last night and clear the Nazi demonstrators from the streets.
The police official thanked them, but of course refused. But he promised them that from 9 P. M. he would guarantee that there would be no Nazi demonstrations in Vienna’s streets. In point of fact, at 9 P. M. there were no police on the streets, only Nazi demonstrators and Storm Troops.
At 4 P. M. came the second German ultimatum and Dr. Schuschnigg’s hesitation, until he was unable to obtain the support of other powers.
At midday the wrier had ascertained that the Czechoslovak view was that everything depended on Italy. Czechoslovakia could not come to the rescue of Austria single-handed. In France there was no government and in London no support.
If Italy had moved and the Austrians had put up a show of resistance Czechoslovakia herself would have marched, but the hours slipped by toward the expiration of the ultimatum and Dr. Schuschnigg was left alone to decide the terrible question whether the threat was a German bluff and defend his country’s independence or take it seriously and resign in order to avoid bloodshed. He chose the second alternative.
Immediately after he had broadcast, President Miklas summoned a Council of State. As far as can be ascertained Dr. Miklas insisted that Dr. Schuschnigg withdraw his resignation in view of the news that had come of the joint demarche in Berlin by Great Britain, France and Italy.
Up to 11:30 P. M. Dr. Schuschnigg was apparently still nominally Chancellor. Then came another sudden change and it was announced over the radio that “Federal Chancellor Seyss-Inquart will shortly broadcast a statement.”
There was yet a half hour’s delay. Then, instead of Dr. Seyss-Inquart, his deputy in the Fatherland Front, Dr. Hugo Jury, came to the microphone.
It was immediately apparent that Dr. Seyss-Inquart after all was not yet Chancellor, for Dr. Jury said:
“The Federal Minister entrusted with the business of the Federal Chancellery, Dr. Seyss-Inquart, is with the Federal President discussing with him details of the department. After the end of the conversation the Federal Minister” – Dr. Jury carefully avoided the designation of Chancellor – “will broadcast statements as to the results of the conference.
“The whole population is obeying the demand to maintain public order in all circumstances. National Socialists, continue to maintain your exemplary discipline in this historic hour.”
Then, for the first time, the Austrian radio broadcast Germany’s second national anthem, the Horst Wessel song.
MUNICH, Germany, Saturday, March 12. – With a dramatic suddenness that stunned the world the German Army embarked yesterday on its first campaign beyond the Reich’s borders and without firing a shot achieved a victory that laid Austria prostrate at its feet, transformed the European equilibrium and set the borders fixed by the peace treaties into motion for a readjustment, of which the end is not yet in sight.
All day yesterday German forces, some 50,000 strong, made up of infantry, cavalry, artillery, motorized divisions, air force units and engineers with bridge building materials were moving to the Austrian frontier. Their mission was to avenge what is termed in Germany “the betrayal of Berchtesgaden” – Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg’s recent proclamation of a plebiscite on Austrian independence.
Last night, following Dr. Schuschnigg’s overthrow and a telegram from the new Chancellor, Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, to Chancellor Hitler requesting German military aid in preventing bloodshed, German troops were reported to have marched into Austria in close formation at three points – Salzburg, Kufstein and Mittenwalde.
[According to an Associated Press dispatch from Vienna, German troops crossed also at Passau, on the way to Linz, Austria, and a contingent of Reich troops, numbering about 1,000 men in trucks, was expected to reach Vienna at 6 A. M., New York time.]
Information given out at the Munich army headquarters said the troops had begun to cross the border shortly after 10 o’clock, although their coming had been heralded by Dr. Seyss-Inquart in semi-hourly broadcasts beginning soon after 7 o’clock. The broadcasts included instructions to the Austrian military and civil authorities and the population not to resist the troops.
Whether the statements of the Munich army headquarters are correct or whether insistent denials in Berlin of a German march into Austria are the real truth does not much matter, for, even if the troops did halt at the border without crossing it, theirs is still the victory. It was their march that turned the tide in Austria and, after a bloodless Sadowa, enabled the Austrian.
[The story here moves from page 1 to page 3. I seem to have missed the next section because there is an apparent disconnect here. Or perhaps the Times made a mistake. They threw these stories together pretty fast to get same-day reporting and some parts don’t make much sense. I am surprised by the number of regular typos I have corrected over the last few weeks. I pick back up in mid-sentence on pg.3. - Homer]
Mittenwalde in particular is the starting point toward Scharnitz and the Fern-Alpine passes leading to Innsbruck and beyond that city to the Brenner Pass, where, in 1934, Premier Mussolini lined up his Nazis to proclaim a pan-German Reich.
All the points where the troops were said to have crossed are on the southern border of Bavaria; troops to prevent the entry of German forces into Austria. [Huh? – Homer]
The troops involved are in the main the Seventh Army Corps stationed at Munich under the command of General Ritter von Schobert. But it also was noted that General Walter von Reichenau, known as the army’s most National Socialist general, who had been Munich commander until the Feb. 4 shift, broke off his trip to the meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Cairo, Egypt, and stopped at Munich.
Mobilization of the Seventh Army Corps apparently took place during Thursday night together with mobilization of Elite Guard divisions, Storm Troops and the National Socialist Motor Corps. When Munich awoke in the morning it saw troops and Nazi auxiliary formations on the march. And soon all the new motor roads leading to the Austrian frontier were blocked with the units, while the roar of planes overhead became incessant.
To move the troops swiftly most public and private conveyances in Munich were commandeered – automobiles and trucks of members of the National Socialist Motor Corps, municipal buses, brewery trucks and the special auto-train “Deutschland,” comprising a fleet of hundreds of trucks and including wireless, canteen and hospital trucks. Even taxicabs apparently were pressed into service, for only a a few of them remain in the streets.
This correspondent motored all day along border highways amid many difficulties and frequent submissions to questioning and search. On the road to Salzburg he overtook within one hour no fewer than 230 military conveyances. The road on which usually only one or two cars are visible at a time was one long trail of armored cars, motorized artillery, supply wagons, canteens and trucks full of infantry, together with steel-helmeted soldiers riding motorcycles with rifles slung across their shoulders.
Approximately 130 trucks and armored cars and more than 100 motorcycles took an hour to pass.
Some trucks, including those commandeered from Munich breweries, were loaded with bridge-building materials, pontoons and motor boats, indicating they were moving toward the Inn and Salzach Rivers, over which leads the path to Upper Austria and, of course, Vienna.
Both lanes of the double-track Reich motor road were often completely blocked by moving troops. And this column was merely a fraction of the host that had been traveling this road since before dawn.
One column turned off at the Reich motor road exit leading to Rosenheim and there took a country road to Kiefersfelden, right on the Austrian border one and one-half miles from Kufstein. A large number of other columns before and after continued along the motor road through to the border near Salzburg.
As one proceeded along this picturesque countryside between tall, snow-capped mountains flanking the River Inn near the border, signs of excitement, spreading like wildfire over the whole district, became evident. Chattering groups of villagers stood before inns watching the long trail of armored cars and men moving past.
Kiefersfelden is a small village from which only a few minutes’ walk brings a traveler into Austrian territory either by the broad white high road or by ferry over the Inn or again by a little longer woodland trail leading up a steep hill, the summit of which separates the two States.
The oldest Kiefersfelden inhabitant had never seen this village look anything like it did yesterday. Troops moved in by road from early morning. Shortly after noon a freight train steamed into the Kiefersfelden station containing some 2,000 infantrymen and cavalrymen. Toward sunset 2,000 or 3,000 more men with armored cars and artillery arrived there by road - some from Munich, some from Rosenheim, which must have brought the total number of troops in Kiefersfelden to some 6,000 or 7,000.
Soldiers were everywhere. Here a group of cavalry stood holding horses, armed sentries were posted at farmhouse gates. Machine guns and anti-tank guns stood on the high road. Officers dashed to and fro in automobiles and dispatch riders tore along the road. Kiefersfelden looked like a village occupied by a hostile army.
Clear against the blue sky old Kufstein castle stood out on the hill about which the Austrian frontier of Kufstein clusters. The quaint medieval fortress that once defied attack by armed forces was today a pathetic reminder of the progress of modern warfare.
Kufstein villagers had no doubt of what this mighty demonstration of forces at Austria’s very gateway signified.
“Austria is finished,” was commonly heard.
It was said the troops would remain there until Monday in the expectation that before then the Austrian plebiscite would be called off. They did not have to wait that long.
At Freilassing opposite Salzburg, at Mittenwalde and at Fuessen similar or greater forces were concentrated and by sunset the whole Salzkammergut and Tyrol frontier was ranged by an estimated 50,000 trained soldiers with all equipment.
Despite the fact that everybody near the border was aware of what was afoot, officials all day made every effort to conceal the real situation. It was described by one of them as large-scale manoeuvres. Travelers were held up and searchingly questioned by the police and frontier officials and sometimes temporarily detained. Bodies of newly called up recruits from neighboring villages marched along the highroads last evening toward the border.
As a result of these developments Munich was in an uproar all day. Although the press kept completely silent on all Austrian developments, especially on the mobilization, the news spread quickly and people gathered in the streets to discuss the situation. Women anxiously compared notes, attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of their men folk called suddenly for field duty. Rumors flew thick and fast. Later in the day all newspapers suspended publication because of the general economic paralysis caused by the shortage of men.
At midday children both in Munich and in the countryside were told that schools would be closed until further notice because they had been requisitioned for reservists. Some reservists had orders to report Saturday or Sunday.
A pathetic attempt at Austrian resistance became known here during the day. At Scharnitz Pass, where an electric railway crosses the frontier, Austrians affixed a wire to the overhead power conductor, then spanned it across the road on which it could be dropped by the turn of a lever, barring the road with a current of 2,000 volts. But it did not save Austria.