Chapter 660： German and Austrian merger

Time spent 1937 in the Sino-Japanese war, and the biggest concern in this year was the Sino-Japanese war.

The same thing as in history is that the principal still decided to fight the Japanese in Shanghai. The difference is that the Songhu battle was not only fought for three months, but has not ended yet. At present, millions of China and Japan have gathered in the Soviet-Shanghai zone for fighting. The current casualties of the two sides are 350,000 and 60,000 respectively. ,

According to Lieutenant General Mordelk’s report, Nanjing currently plans to withdraw its troops in view of the huge casualties in the Soviet-Shanghai battle. In the Battle of Songhu, all the Rhodes Toolmasters participated in the battle, and it was their participation that prevented the Japanese army from making a breakthrough. However, the Rhodes Toolmasters have lost more than half of their casualties and have lost the ability to continue fighting.

And the Nanjing government saw that its most elite troops were no longer able to fight, so it made the decision to abandon Shanghai and other places. Fortunately, the ordnance purchased from Romania has already landed in Guangzhou. The Rhodes Armorer, who has supplemented his equipment, believes that he will have a better performance in the next battle.

When time entered 1938, a major event happened that caused everyone to look away from the gunpowder land of the Far East, and Germany announced its merger with Austria.

Since the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire (also known as the First German Empire), it has always been the dream of many Germans to build a unified country around the Germanic nation with German culture as the center.

It was this dream that made the second German Empire. But with the end of the First World War, the Second German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell, and the dream of establishing a large country centered on German culture seemed to have failed.

But at this time, Germany and Austria, both of which have the same culture, had some unified voices. Moreover, the momentum is getting bigger and bigger, and the strength of the German-Austrian merger has re-emerged, but the two countries have always maintained a marginal position.

However, Article 80 of the Treaty of Versailles, in order to punish the defeated country, clearly denied the possibility of the merger of Germany and Austria. Although it did not succeed immediately, the German-Austrian merger has since become an important issue in Austrian politics. The parliament was divided into two parties: some Social Democrats supported the merger, while the Christian Democrats, out of fear of German Protestantism, resisted the merger. .

In Germany, the German-Austrian merger is the only option for the Democratic Party. Hitler, who was born in Austria, bluntly stated in "My Struggle": "Germanic Austria must return to Germany, not for economic reasons. Even if this merger is economically unprofitable or even harmful, it is still necessary to insist on the merger. The same blood, the same empire."

In the 1930s, the Austrian Democrats became more and more powerful in parliamentary elections. In the face of repression by the authorities, they carried out several terrorist attacks and anti-repression campaigns across the country.

In 1934, with Hitler's approval, the Austrian Democrats assassinated the Prime Minister Talfis in an attempt to launch a coup. Although the ending ended in failure, it was a major earthquake for the Austrian political situation at the time. The merger and transformation of Germany and Austria has almost become an unstoppable trend.

The Austrian authorities have always adopted a cautious "semi-appeased" foreign policy towards Germany in an attempt to gain independence. However, Hitler continued to pressure the Austrian government to recognize the legal status of the Austrian Democrats and even let the Austrian Democrats participate in political affairs.

The reason for Hitler to do this, in addition to the urgent need to unite the Germans, is that he saw the weakness of Britain and France in the militarization of the Rhine, which made him even more urgent to merge Austria. Of course, the Oder Agreement signed in July 1936 was also an important step in Hitler's annexation of Austria.

The agreement stipulates that Germany recognizes Austria’s sovereignty. But in relation to Germany, the policy it forced the Austrian government to implement was based on the fact that Austria is a German state. Austria is actually subject to German foreign policy.

In January 1938, Austrian *** elements received instructions from Berlin about preparing for a rebellion. On February 4, Germany announced the reorganization of the central organs and the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. Hitler concentrated the powers of the head of state and supreme commander in his own hands. Germany began to implement a merger plan with Austria.

On February 7, Austria’s Prime Minister Schuschniger was invited to Hitler’s residence in Berchtesgaden. In order to intimidate the Austrian Chancellor, Keitel reported to the head of state that the Germans were preparing to invade Austria.

Hitler forced Schuschniger to sign an agreement, which actually stipulated: establishing German control of Austria’s foreign policy, legitimizing the activities of the Austrian National Socialists, and appointing a series of Austrian activists to key government positions. .

The key positions of the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Public Security were given to Hitler’s agent Seth Inquart. This actually means the abolition of Austria’s sovereign independence.

In the face of Hitler's pressure, the desperate Schuchnig announced on March 9 that a referendum on the future of Austria will be held three days later. This makes Germany's plan to invade Austria by peaceful means, and it is in danger of failure. Faced with such risks, Hitler demanded immediate implementation of the Otto plan-the invasion of Austria.

Before, Austria tried to obtain rescue from Britain and France but was flatly rejected. Faced with this situation, the Austrian government surrendered.

After Britain and France refused to accept Austria's request for help, the German army began to march all the way to Vienna. After the German occupation of Vienna, Hitler signed an order to declare Austria a province of Germany.

In fact, the German Wehrmacht crossed the German-Austrian border. Not only did it not receive any military resistance, but it also received cheers, cheers, gifts, flags and flowers from the residents. Therefore, this aggression is also known as the "War of Flowers". Austria was so easily brought into German control.

The proud Hitler declared in Vienna. "It is also the common feeling of all other Germans. No matter what happens, the unified German empire that we proclaim today will never be divided by anyone, and will never be in a state of division."

The annexation of Austria expanded the German territory by 17% and its population increased by 10%, making the German tank even stronger.

The merger of Germany and Austria has made the gunpowder in Europe more intense, and it has also made more people worry about the future of Europe.

However, in Romania, little attention has been paid to the merger of Germany and Austria. Because Edel is preparing for a major event, the impact of this event is not much worse than that of the German and Austrian merger.

That is the merger of Romania and Bulgaria. Edel intends to take this opportunity to merge the two kingdoms together. There is no better time than Europe’s eyes being held back by the German-Austrian merger.