History of Vienna - Annexation By German Third Reich and Second World War

Annexation By German Third Reich and Second World War

In March 1938 Nazi Germany occupied and annexed Austria in a process known as the Anschluss. Adolf Hitler was rapturously received in Vienna by large crowds of admirers and famously gave a speech at Heldenplatz in which he welcomed his homeland into the Reich. Hitler's anti-Jewish policies fell on fertile soil in Vienna, where latent anti-Semitism had increased during the early 20th century. Immediately after the Anschluss the Jews of Vienna were subject to violence from the State as well as from Antisemites acting out of their own sadism. During the Reichskristallnacht on November 9, 1938, the synagogues, the Jewish centres of not only religious, but also social life, were destroyed. In August, the KZ Oberlanzendorf Wien (Central Office for Jewish Emigration) was created. Its head was Adolf Eichmann. On the whole, and despite some instances of anti-Semitism, the city of Vienna was less supportive of the Nazi regime than was the rest of Austria. This however did not reach any extent of an organised resistance. Hitler himself hated Vienna and was determined to build up Linz, his childhood hometown, and relegate Vienna to backwater status.

In the course of the expansion of the city in 1938, 91 adjoining municipalities were incorporated into the city, from which the 22nd (Groß-Enzersdorf), the 23rd (Schwechat), the 24th (Mödling), the 25th (Liesing) and the 26th (Klosterneuburg) districts were created. With an area of 1,224 km², this made Vienna the city with the largest territory in the Third Reich.