Event

Anschluss with Austria

Germany annexed Austria in a major step of Nazi territorial expansion, demonstrating again that the European order could be revised without effective resistance.

Status: draft
Event Kind: annexation
Date Precision: day
Date Display: 12 Mar 1938
Start Date: 12 Mar 1938
End Date: 12 Mar 1938

What happened

German forces entered Austria and the Nazi regime absorbed the Austrian state into the German Reich in a move celebrated by supporters and accepted abroad with little direct resistance.

Why it matters

Anschluss marked another major success for German revisionism and further undermined the credibility of the international order that had emerged after World War I.

Notes

This is the clearest 1938 expansion step before the Sudeten and Polish crises.