Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
Anschluss

Anschluss

1938.]] The Anschluss (German: connection, or political union), also known as the Anschluss Österreichs, was the 1938 inclusion of Austria into "Greater Germany" by the Nazi regime. The events of March 12, 1938, were the first major steps in Adolf Hitler's long-desired expansion of Germany. The Anschluss followed the return to Germany of the Saar region, which had been under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. It was followed by the inclusion of the Sudetenland later in 1938, the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, and the invasion of Poland. The Anschluss was preceded by a period of growing political pressure on Austria, exerted by Germany, demanding recognition of the outlawed Austrian National-Socialist party and later, their share of Government. In 1938 Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg, in a last bid to retain Austrian independence, announced a referendum to determine independence or union with Germany. Germany then pressured Schuschnigg into handing over power to the Nazi party. This well-planned internal overthrow by the Austrian Nazi Party of Austria's state institutions in Vienna on March 11 meant that when Wehrmacht troops entered into Austria to enforce the Anschluss, no fighting ever took place. The international response to the Anschluss was mild: The World War I Allies only lodged diplomatic protests, and no concrete action was taken to reverse the Anschluss, even though the allies were, on paper, committed to upholding the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which specifically prohibited the union of Austria and Germany. Austria ceased to exist as an independent nation until a preliminary Austrian government was finally reinstated on April 27, 1945, and was legally recognized by the Allies in the following months.

Situation before the Anschluss

Allies] :Main articles: German Empire and Austrofascism The idea of grouping all German people into one state had been the subject of inconclusive debate since the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Prior to 1866, it was generally thought that the unification of the German peoples could only succeed under Austrian leadership, but the loss of the Austro-Prussian War by Austria allowed Otto von Bismarck to establish the Prussian-dominated German Empire in 1871 without the German-speaking parts of Austria-Hungary. When the latter broke up in 1918, many German-speaking Austrians hoped to join with Germany in the realignment of Europe, but the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 1919 explicitly vetoed the inclusion of Austria within a German state, because France and Britain feared the power of a larger Germany. In the early 1930s, popular support for union with Germany remained overwhelming, and the Austrian government looked to a possible customs union with Germany in 1931. However Hitler and the Nazi's rise to power in Germany left the Austrian government with little enthusiasm for such formal ties. Hitler, born in Austria, had promoted an "all-German Reich" from the early beginnings of his leadership in the NSDAP and had publicly stated as early as 1924 in Mein Kampf that he would attempt a union, by force if necessary. Austria shared the economic turbulence of post-1929 Europe with a high unemployment rate and unstable commerce and industry. Similar to its northern and southern neighbours these uncertain conditions made the young democracy very vulnerable. The First Republic, dominated from the late 1920s by the Catholic nationalist Christian Social Party (CS), gradually disintegrated from 1933 (dissolution of parliament and ban of the Austrian National Socialists) to 1934 (Austrian Civil War in February and ban of all remaining parties except the CS) and evolved into a pseudo-fascist, corporatist model of one-party government which combined the CS and the paramilitary Heimwehr with absolute state domination of labour relations and no freedom of the press (see Austrofascism and Patriotic Front). Power was centralized in the office of the Chancellor who was empowered to rule by decree. The predominance of the Christian Social Party (whose economic policies were based on the papal encyclical Rerum novarum) was an Austrian phenomenon in that Austria's national identity had strong Catholic elements which were incorporated into the movement by way of clerical authoritarian tendencies which are certainly not to be found in Nazism. Both Engelbert Dollfuss and his successor Kurt Schuschnigg turned to Austria's other fascist neighbour, Italy, for inspiration and support. Indeed, the statist corporatism often referred to as Austrofascism bore more resemblance to Italian Fascism than German National Socialism. Benito Mussolini was able to support the independent aspirations of the Austrian dictatorship until his need for German support in Ethiopia forced him into a client relationship with Berlin that began with the 1937 Berlin-Rome Axis. When Chancellor Dollfuss was assassinated by the illegal Austrian Nazi party on 25 July 1934 in a failed coup, the second civil war within only one year followed, lasting until August 1934. After the failed Nazi coup, many leading Austrian Nazis fled to Germany and continued to coordinate their steps from there while the remaining Austrian Nazis started to make use of terrorist attacks against the Austrian governmental institutions (causing a death toll of more than 800 between 1934 and 1938). Dollfuss' successor Schuschnigg, who followed the political course of Dollfuss, took drastic actions against the Nazis, for instance the rounding up of Nazis (but also Social Democrats) in internment camps.

The Anschluss of 1938

Hitler's first moves

internment camps In early 1938 Hitler had consolidated his power in Germany and was ready to reach out to fulfil his long-planned expansion. After a lengthy period of pressure by Germany, Hitler met Schuschnigg on 12 February 1938 in Berchtesgaden (Bavaria) and instructed him to lift the ban of the Austrian Nazi party, reinstate full party freedoms, release all imprisoned members of the Nazi party and let them participate in the government. Otherwise he would take military action. Schuschnigg complied with Hitler's demands and appointed Arthur Seyss-Inquart, a Nazi lawyer, as Interior Minister and another Nazi, Edmund Glaise-Horstenau, as Minister without Portfolio. Even before the February meeting, Schuschnigg was under considerable pressure from Germany. This may be seen in the demand to remove the chief of staff of the Austrian Army Alfred Jansa from his office in January 1938. Jansa and his staff had developed a scenario for Austria's defence against a German attack, a situation Hitler wanted to avoid at all costs. Schuschnigg subsequently complied with the demand. During the following weeks Schuschnigg realized that his newly appointed ministers were gradually working on taking over his authority. Schuschnigg tried to gather support throughout Austria and inflame patriotism among the people. For the first time since 12 February 1934 (the time of the Austrian civil war), socialists and communists could legally appear in public again. The communists announced their unconditional support for the Austrian government, understandable in light of Nazi pressure on Austria. The socialists demanded further concessions from Schuschnigg before they were willing to side with him.

Schuschnigg announces a referendum

socialists 1938.]] On 9 March, as a last resort to preserve Austria's independence, Schuschnigg scheduled a plebiscite on the independence of Austria for 13 March. To secure a large majority in the referendum, Schuschnigg set the minimum voting age at 24 in order to exclude younger voters who largely sympathized with Nazi ideology. Holding a referendum was a highly risky gamble for Schuschnigg, and on the next day it became apparent that Hitler would not simply stand by while Austria declared its independence by public vote. Hitler declared that the plebiscite would be subject to major fraud and that Germany would not accept it. In addition the German Ministry of Propaganda issued press reports that riots had broken out in Austria and that large parts of the Austrian population were calling for German troops to restore order. Schuschnigg immediately publicly replied that the reports of riots were nothing but lies—as they actually were. Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg on 11 March, demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian National Socialists or face an invasion. The ultimatum was set to expire at noon, but was extended by two hours. However, without waiting for an answer, Hitler had already signed the order to send troops into Austria at one o'clock, issuing it to Hermann Göring only hours later. Schuschnigg desperately sought support for Austrian independence in the hours following the ultimatum, but, realizing that neither France nor the United Kingdom were willing to take steps, he resigned as Chancellor that evening. In the radio broadcast in which he announced his resignation, he argued that he accepted the changes and allowed the Nazis to take over the government in order to avoid bloodshed. Meanwhile, Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart Chancellor and asked other Austrian politicians such as Michael Skubl and Sigismund Schilhawsky to assume the office. However, the Nazis were well organised. Within hours they managed to take control of many parts of Vienna, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs (controlling the Police). As Miklas continued to refuse to appoint a Nazi government and Seyss-Inquart still could not send a telegram in the name of the Austrian government demanding German troops to restore order, Hitler became furious. At about 10 pm, well after Hitler had signed and issued the order for the invasion, Göring and Hitler gave up on waiting and published a forged telegram containing a request by the Austrian Government for German troops to enter Austria. Around midnight, after nearly all critical offices and buildings had fallen into Nazi hands in Vienna and the main political party members of the old government had been arrested, Miklas finally conceded to appoint Seyss-Inquart Chancellor.

German troops march into Austria

Seyss-Inquart. The ballot text reads "Do you agree with the reunification of Austria with the German Empire that was enacted on 13 March 1938, and do you vote for the party of our leader Adolf Hitler?," the large circle is labelled "Yes," the smaller "No."]] 1938, with a poster instructing voters how to vote "Yes".]] On the morning of 12 March the 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht crossed the German-Austrian border. They did not face resistance by the Austrian Army — on the contrary, the German troops were greeted by cheering Austrians. Although the invading forces were badly organized and coordination between the units was poor, it mattered little because no fighting took place. It did, however, serve as a warning for commanders in future German military operations such as that against Czechoslovakia. Curiously, the invasion claimed its first fatality within only a few hours: the Nazi Heinrich Kurz von Goldstein died of a heart attack during the celebrations in Salzburg. Hitler's car crossed the border in the afternoon at Braunau, his birthplace. In the evening, he arrived at Linz and was given an enthusiastic welcome in the city hall. The atmosphere was so intense that Göring in a telephone call that evening stated: "There is unbelievable jubilation in Austria. We ourselves did not think that sympathies would be so intense." Hitler's further travel through Austria changed into a triumphal tour that climaxed in Vienna, when around 200,000 Austrians gathered on the Heldenplatz (Square of Heroes) to hear Hitler proclaim the Austrian Anschluss ([http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.film.data.film/f107a.mpg Video: Hitler proclaims Austria's inclusion in the Reich (2MB)]). Hitler later commented: "Certain foreign newspapers have said that we fell on Austria with brutal methods. I can only say: even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier (into Austria) there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators." The Anschluss was given immediate effect by legislative act on 13 March, subject to ratification by a plebiscite. Austria became the province of Ostmark, and Seyss-Inquart was appointed Governor. The plebiscite was held on 10 April and officially recorded a support of 99.73 % of the voters. While historians concur that the result itself was not manipulated, the voting process was not free or secret. Officials were present directly beside the voting booths and received the voting ballot by hand (in contrast to a secret vote where the voting ballot is inserted into a closed box). In addition, Hitler's brutal methods to emasculate any opposition had been immediately implemented in the weeks preceding the referendum. Even before the first German soldier crossed the border, Heinrich Himmler and a few SS officers landed in Vienna to arrest prominent representatives of the First Republic such as Richard Schmitz, Leopold Figl, Friedrich Hillegeist and Franz Olah. During the weeks following the Anschluss (and before the plebiscite), Social Democrats, Communists, and other potential political dissenters, as well as Jews, were rounded up and either imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. Within only a few days of 12 March, 70,000 people had been arrested. The referendum itself was subject to large-scale propaganda and to the abrogation of the voting rights of around 400,000 people (nearly 10 % of the eligible voting population), mainly former members of left-wing parties and Jews. Interestingly, in some remote areas of Austria the referendum on the independence of Austria on 13 March was held despite the Wehrmacht's presence in Austria (it took up to 3 days to occupy every part of Austria). For instance, in the village of Innervillgraten a majority of 95 % voted for Austria's independence. Austria remained part of the Third Reich until the end of World War II when a preliminary Austrian Government declared the Anschluss void and null on April 27 1945. After the war then allied occupied Austria was recognized and treated as a separate country, but was not restored to sovereignty until the Austrian State Treaty and Austrian Declaration of Neutrality, both of 1955, largely due to the rapid development of the Cold War and disputes between the Soviet Union and its former allies over its foreign policy.

Reactions and consequences of the Anschluss

Soviet Union The picture of Austria in the first days of its existence in the Third Reich is one of contradictions: At one and the same time, Hitler's terror regime began to tighten its grip in every area of society, beginning with mass arrests and thousands of Austrians attempting to flee in every direction; yet Austrians could be seen cheering and welcoming German troops entering Austrian territory. Many Austrian political figures did not hesitate to announce their support of the Anschluss and their relief that it happened without violence. Cardinal Theodor Innitzer (a political figure of the CS) declared as early as 12 March: "The Viennese Catholics should thank the Lord for the bloodless way this great political change has occurred, and they should pray for a great future for Austria. Needless to say, everyone should obey the orders of the new institutions. The other Austrian bishops followed suit some days later. Vatican Radio, however, immediately broadcast a vehement denunciation of the German action, and Cardinal Pacelli ordered Innitzer to report to Rome. Before meeting with the pope, Innitzer met with Pacelli, who had been outraged by Innitzer's statement. He made it clear that Innitzer needed to retract; he was made to sign a new statement, issued on behalf of all the Austrian bishops, which provided: “The solemn declaration of the Austrian bishops ... was clearly not intended to be an approval of something that was not and is not compatible with God's law”. The Vatican newspaper also reported that the bishops' earlier statement had been issued without the approval from Rome. Robert Kauer, President of the Protestants in Austria, greeted Hitler on 13 March as saviour of the 350,000 German Protestants in Austria and liberator from a five-year hardship." Even Karl Renner, the most famous Social Democrat of the First Republic announced his support for the Anschluss and appealed to all Austrians to vote in favour of it on 10 April. The international response to the expansion of Germany may be described as moderate. The Times in London commented by pointing to the fact that 200 years ago Scotland had joined England as well and that this event would not really differ much. On 14 March the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain noted in the House of Commons: House of Commons, the next major step for Hitler to create an all-German Reich]]
His Majesty's Government have throughout been in the closest touch with the situation. The Foreign Secretary saw the German Foreign Minister on the 10th of March and addressed to him a grave warning on the Austrian situation and upon what appeared to be the policy of the German Government in regard to it. . . . Late on the 11th of March our Ambassador in Berlin registered a protest in strong terms with the German Government against such use of coercion, backed by force, against an independent State in order to create a situation incompatible with its national independence.
However the speech concluded:
I imagine that according to the temperament of the individual the events which are in our minds to-day will be the cause of regret, of sorrow, perhaps of indignation. They cannot be regarded by His Majesty's Government with indifference or equanimity. They are bound to have effects which cannot yet be measured. The immediate result must be to intensify the sense of uncertainty and insecurity in Europe. Unfortunately, while the policy of appeasement would lead to a relaxation of the economic pressure under which many countries are suffering to-day, what has just occurred must inevitably retard economic recovery and, indeed, increased care will be required to ensure that marked deterioration does not set in. This is not a moment for hasty decisions or for careless words. We must consider the new situation quickly, but with cool judgement... As regards our defence programmes, we have always made it clear that they were flexible and that they would have to be reviewed from time to time in the light of any development in the international situation. It would be idle to pretend that recent events do not constitute a change of the kind that we had in mind. Accordingly we have decided to make a fresh review, and in due course we shall announce what further steps we may think it necessary to take.
The lenient reaction to the Anschluss was the first major consequence of the strictly followed appeasement British foreign policy strategy. The international reaction on the events of March 12th 1938 led Hitler to conclude that he could use even more aggressive tactics in his roadmap to expand the Third Reich, as he would later in annexing the Sudetenland. The relatively bloodless Anschluss helped pave the way for the Treaty of Munich in September 1938 and the annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, because it reinforced appeasement as the right way for Britain to deal with Hitler's Germany.

Legacy of the 1938 Anschluss

The Anschluss: annexation or union?

Some historical sources, for instance Encyclopedia Britannica and the Encarta Encyclopedia describe the Anschluss as an "annexation" . Outside this context "Anschluss" is properly translated as "join", "connection", "unification" or "political union". The German word "Annektierung" would mean military annexation unambiguously. However, the word commonly used in German for the process of spring 1938 is Anschluss. The precise character of the Anschluss remains a difficulty essential to Austria's understanding of its history and the obligations it entails.

The appeal of Nazism to Austrians

The Anschluss can be misunderstood as simply a military annexation of an unwilling Austria, but this lends itself to confusion with other German military occupations of European countries. It also tends to conceal the culpability of many Austrians in Nazi crimes, most of all the Holocaust, by perpetuating the myth of Austria as the first victim of Hitler's expansionism. Despite the subversion of Austrian political process by Hitler's sympathisers and associates in Austria, Austrian acceptance of direct government by Hitler's Berlin is a very different phenomenon from the administration of other collaborationist countries. With the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918, the small Republic of Austria was seen by many of its citizens as economically unviable, a feeling that was exacerbated by the Depression of the 1930s. In contrast the Nazi dictatorship appeared to have found a solution to the economic crisis of the 1930s. Furthermore, the break-up had thrown Austria into a crisis of identity, and many Austrians, of both the left and the right, felt that Austria should be part of a larger German nation. Politically, Austria had not had the time to develop a strongly democratic society to resist the onslaught of totalitarianism. The final version of the First Republic's constitution had only lasted from 1929 to 1933. The First Republic was ridden by violent strife between the different political camps; the Christian Social Party were complicit in the murder of large numbers of adherents of the decidedly left-wing Social Democratic Party by the police during the July Revolt of 1927. In fact, with the end of democracy in 1933 and the establishment of Austrofascism, Austria had already purged its democratic institutions and instituted a dictatorship long before the Anschluss. There is thus little to distinguish radically the institutions of at least the post-1934 Austrian government before or after 12 March 1938. The members of the leading Christian Social Party were fervent Catholics, but not particularly anti-semitic. For instance Jews were not prohibited from exercising any profession, in sharp contrast to the Third Reich. Many prominent Austrian scientists, professors, and lawyers at the time were Jewish; in fact Vienna, with its Jewish population of about 200,000, was considered a safe haven from 1933 to 1938 by many Jews who fled Nazi Germany. However, the Nazis' anti-Semitism found fertile soil in Austria. Anti-Semitic elements had emerged as a force in Austrian politics in the late nineteenth century, with the rise in prominence of figures such as Georg Ritter von Schönerer and Karl Lueger (who had influenced the young Hitler), and in the 1930s anti-Semitism was rampant, as Jews were a convenient scapegoat for economic problems. In addition to the economic appeal of the Anschluss, the popular underpinning of Nazi politics as a total art form (the refinement of film propaganda exemplified by Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will and mythological aestheticism of a broadly conceived national destiny of the German people within a "Thousand-Year Reich") gave the Nazis a massive advantage in advancing their claims to power. Moreover Austrofascism was less grand in its appeal than the choice between Stalin and Hitler to which many European intellectuals of the time believed themselves reduced by the end of the decade. Austria had effectively no alternative view of its historical mission when the choice was upon it. In spite of Dollfuss' and Schuschnigg's hostility to Nazi political ambitions, the Nazis succeeded in convincing many Austrians to accept what they viewed as the historical destiny of the German people rather than continue as part of a distinct sovereign nation.

The Second Republic

The Moscow Declaration

Hitler mugshot for the Nuremberg Trials.]] The Moscow Declaration of 1943, signed by the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the United Kingdom included a "Declaration on Austria," which stated the following:

The governments of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States of America are agreed that Austria, the first free country to fall a victim to Hitlerite aggression, shall be liberated from German domination.

They regard the annexation imposed on Austria by Germany on 15 March 1938, as null and void. They consider themselves as in no way bound by any charges affected in Austria since that date. They declare that they wish to see re-established a free and independent Austria and thereby to open the way for the Austrian people themselves, as well as those neighbouring States which will be face with similar problems, to find that political and economic security which is the only basis for lasting peace.

Austria is reminded, however that she has a responsibility, which she cannot evade, for participation in the war at the side of Hitlerite Germany, and that in the final settlement account will inevitably be taken of her own contribution to her liberation.

To judge from the last paragraph and subsequent determinations at the Nuremberg Trial, the Declaration was intended to serve as propaganda aimed at stirring Austrian resistance (although there are Austrians counted as Righteous Among the Nations, there never was an effective Austrian armed resistance of the sort found in other countries under German occupation) more than anything else, although the exact text of the declaration is said to have a somewhat complex drafting history. At Nuremberg Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Franz von Papen , in particular, were both indicted under count one (conspiracy to commit crimes against peace) specifically for their activities in support of the Austrian Nazi Party and the Anschluss, but neither was convicted of this count. In acquitting von Papen, the court noted that his actions were in its view political immoralities but not crimes under its charter. Seyss-Inquart was convicted of other serious war crimes, most of which took place in Poland and the Netherlands, and was sentenced to death.

Austrian identity and the "victim theory"

Netherlands.]] After World War II, many Austrians sought comfort in the myth of Austria as the Nazis' first victim. Although the Nazi party was promptly banned, Austria did not have the same thorough process of de-Nazification at the top of government which was imposed on Germany for a time. Lacking outside pressure for political reform, factions of Austrian society tried for a long time to advance the view that the Anschluss was only an annexation at bayonet point. This view of the events of 1938 has deep roots in the ten years of Allied occupation and the struggle to regain Austrian sovereignty: The victim theory played an essential role in the negotiations on the Austrian State Treaty with the Soviets, and by pointing to the Moscow Declaration Austrian politicians heavily relied on it to achieve a solution for Austria different from the division into East and West in Germany. The State Treaty, alongside with the subsequent Austrian declaration of permanent neutrality marked important milestones for the solidification of Austria's independent national identity during the following decades. As Austrian politicians of the left and right attempted to reconcile their differences in order to avoid the violent conflict that had dominated the first republic, discussions of both Austrofascism and Austria's role in Nazism were largely avoided. Still, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) has advanced and still sometimes advances the argument that the establishment of the Dollfuss dictatorship was necessary in order to maintain Austrian independence, while the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) argues that the dictatorship stripped the country of the democratic resources necessary to repel Hitler.

Political events

For decades, the victim theory established in the Austrian mind remained largely undisputed. The Austrian public was only rarely forced to confront the legacy of the Third Reich (most notably during the events of 1965 concerning Taras Borodajkewycz, a professor of economic history notorious for anti-Semitic remarks, when Ernst Kirchweger, a concentration camp survivor, was killed by a right-wing protester during riots). It was not until the 1980s that Austrians were finally massively confronted with their past. The main catalyst for the start of a Vergangenheitsbewältigung was the so-called Waldheim affair. The Austrian reply to allegations during the 1986 Presidential election campaign that successful candidate and former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim had been a member of the Nazi party and of the infamous SA (he was later absolved of direct involvement in war crimes) was that scrutiny was an unwelcome intervention in the country's internal affairs. Despite the politicians' reactions to international criticism of Waldheim, the Waldheim affair started the first serious major discussion on Austria's past and the Anschluss. Another main factor for Austria and its coming to terms with the past emerged in the 1980s: Jörg Haider and the rise of the FPÖ. The party had combined elements of the pan-German right with free-market liberalism since its foundation in 1955, but after Haider had ascended to the party chairmanship in 1986, the liberal elements became increasingly marginalized while Haider began to openly use nationalist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. He was often criticised for tactics such as the völkisch (ethnic) definition of national interest ("Austria for Austrians") and his apologism for Austria's past, notably calling members of the Waffen-SS "men of honour". Following an enormous electoral rise in the 1990s peaking in the 1999 elections, the FPÖ, now purged of its liberal elements, entered a coalition with the ÖVP led by Wolfgang Schüssel that met international condemnation in 2000. This coalition triggered the regular Donnerstagsdemonstrationen (Thursday demonstrations) in protest against the government, which took place on the Heldenplatz, where Hitler had greeted the masses during the Anschluss. Haider's tactics and rhetoric, which were often criticised as sympathetic to Nazism, again forced Austrians to reconsider their relationship to the past. But it is not Jörg Haider alone who has made questionable remarks on Austria's past: Jörg Haider's coalition partner the current Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel in an interview with the Jerusalem Post as late as 2000 stated that Austria was the first victim of Hitler-Germany.

Literature

Tearing into the simplism of the victim theory and the time of the Austrofascism, Thomas Bernhard's last play, Heldenplatz, was highly controversial even before it appeared on stage in 1988, fifty years after Hitler's visit. Bernhard's achievement was to make the elimination of references to Hitler's reception in Vienna emblematic of Austrian attempts to claim their history and culture under questionable criteria. Many politicians from all political factions called Bernhard a Nestbeschmutzer (so. damaging the reputation of his country) and openly demanded that the play should not be staged in Vienna's Burgtheater. Kurt Waldheim, who was at that time still Austrian president called the play a crude insult to the Austrian people.

The Historical Commission and outstanding legal issues

In the context of the postwar Federal Republic of Germany, one encounters a Vergangenheitsbewältigung ("struggle to come to terms with the past") that has been partially institutionalised, variably in literary, cultural, political, and educational contexts (its development and difficulties have not been trivial; see, for example, the Historikerstreit). Austria formed a Historikerkommission ("Historian's Commission" or "Historical Commission") in 1998 with a mandate to review Austria's role in the Nazi expropriation of Jewish property from a scholarly rather than legal perspective, partly in response to continuing criticism of its handling of property claims. Its membership was based on recommendations from various quarters, including Simon Wiesenthal and Yad Vashem. The Commission delivered its report in 2003. Noted Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg refused to participate in the Commission and in an interview stated his strenuous objections in terms both personal and in reference to larger questions about Austrian culpability and liability, comparing what he to be relative inattention to the settlement governing the Swiss bank holdings of those who died or were displaced by the Holocaust:
I personally would like to know why the WJC [World Jewish Congress] has hardly put any pressure on Austria, even as leading Nazis and SS leaders were Austrians, Hitler included... Immediately after the war, the US wanted to make the Russians withdraw from Austria, and the Russians wanted to keep Austria neutral, therefore there was a common interest to grant Austria victim status. And later Austria could cry poor - though its per capita income is as high as Germany's. And, most importantly, the Austrian PR machinery works better. Austria has the opera ball, the imperial castle, Mozartkugeln [a chocolate]. Americans like that. And Austrians invest and export relatively little to the US, therefore they are less vulnerable to blackmail. In the meantime, they set up a commission in Austria to clarify what happened to Jewish property. Victor Klima, the former chancellor, has asked me to join. My father fought for Austria in the First World War and in 1939 he was kicked out of Austria. After the war they offered him ten dollars per month as compensation. For this reason I told Klima, no thank you, this makes me sick.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center continues to criticise Austria (as recently as June 2005) for its alleged historical and ongoing unwillingness aggressively to pursue investigations and trials against Nazis for war crimes and crimes against humanity from the seventies onwards. Its 2001 report offered the following characterization:
Given the extensive participation of numerous Austrians, including at the highest levels, in the implementation of the Final Solution and other Nazi crimes, Austria should have been a leader in the prosecution of Holocaust perpetrators over the course of the past four decades, as has been the case in Germany. Unfortunately relatively little has been achieved by the Austrian authorities in this regard and in fact, with the exception of the case of Dr. Heinrich Gross which was suspended this year under highly suspicious circumstances (he claimed to be medically unfit, but outside the court proved to be healthy) not a single Nazi war crimes prosecution has been conducted in Austria since the mid-seventies.
In 2003 the Center launched a worldwide effort named "Operation: Last Chance" in order to collect further information about those Nazis still alive that are potentially subject to prosecution. Although reports issued shortly thereafter credited Austria for initiating large-scale investigations, there has been one case where criticism of Austrian authorities arose recently: The Center has put 92-year old Croatian Milivoj Asner on its 2005 top ten list. Asner fled to Austria in 2004 after Croatia announced it would start investigations in the case of war crimes he may have been involved in. In response to objections about Asner's continued freedom, Austria's federal government has deferred to either extradition requests from Croatia or prosecutorial actions from Klagenfurt, neither of which appears forthcoming (as of June 2005). Extradition is not an option since Asner also holds Austrian citizenship, having lived in the country from 1946 to 1991.

Austrian political and military leaders in Nazi Germany


- Arthur Seyss-Inquart
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner
- Odilo Globocnik
- Amon Goeth
- Lothar Rendulic
- Alfred Ritter von Hubicki
- Alexander Löhr
- Franz Böhme

See also


- The Sound of Music (an account of the Anschluss, dramatized but based on actual events)
- The Great Dictator (a fictitious account of the invasion of "Osterlich" by "Tomania", modeled on the Anschluss)
- Third Reich
- Kurt Schuschnigg
- History of Austria

Notes

# Until the German spelling reform of 1996, Anschluss was written Anschluß in German. (See also the article on ß.) In English-language typography and style conventions, "ß" was often transliterated as '"ss," making the spelling currently accepted in German a valid, if not predominant, option before 1996. # [http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_761593988/The_Anschluss.html The Anschluss], MSN Encarta. (accessed 8 July 2005),[http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article?tocId=9355453&query=plebiscite&ct= Anschluss], Britannica, (accessed 8 July 2005), some historical sources refer to the Anschluss as an annexation. # [http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461500064/1938_Austria.html 1938: Austria], MSN Encarta. (accessed 10 June 2005). # "[http://www.wienerzeitung.at/linkmap/personen/miklaspopup.htm Österreichs Weg zum Anschluss im März 1938]," Wiener Zeitung, 25 May 1998 (detailed article the on the events of the Anschluss, in German). # Ibid. # [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWanschluss.htm Anschluss], Spartacus Schoolnet (reactions on the Anschluss). # "[http://www.doew.at/thema/thema_alt/wuv/maerz38_2/propaganda.html Die propagandistische Vorbereitung der Volksabstimmung]," Austrian Resistance Archive, Vienna, 1988 (accessed 10 June 2005). # Ibid. # See note 2 above. # See note 2 above. # Neville Chamberlain, "[http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob92.html Statement of the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, 14 March 1938]." # [http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1943/431000a.html Moscow Conference: Joint Four-Nation Declaration], October 1943 (full text of the Moscow Memorandum). # Gerald Stourzh, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/4859 Waldheim's Austria]," The New York Review of Books 34, no. 3 (February 1987). # "[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/judgment/j-defendants-seyss-inquart.html Judgment, The Defendants: Seyss-Inquart]," The Nizkor Project. # "[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/judgment/j-defendants-von-papen.html The Defendants: Von Papen]," The Nizkor Project. # [http://www.salzburg.com/cgi-bin/sn/printArticle.pl?xm=165129 Short note on Schüssel's interview in the Jerusalem Post (in German)], Salzburger Nachrichten, 11 November 2000. # [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bernhard.htm Thomas Bernhard], Books and Writers (article on Bernhard with a short section on Heldenplatz). # [http://www.historikerkommission.gv.at/ Austrian Historical Commission]. # [http://www.austria.org/press/318.html Press statement on the report of the Austrian Historical Commission] Austrian Press and Information Service, 28 February 2003 # [http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=5 Hilberg interview with the Berliner Zeitung,] as quoted by Norman Finkelstein's web site. # Efraim Zuroff, "[http://www.dickinson.edu/magazine/fall02/wiesenthal.html Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, 2001–2002]," Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem (April 2002). # "[http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/nfo/article.cfm?id=2283 Take action against Nazi war criminal Milivoj Asner]," World Jewish Congress, 19 November 2004. # [http://derstandard.at/?id=2183360 Mutmaßlicher Kriegsverbrecher Asner wird nicht an Zagreb ausgeliefert], Der Standard, September 23, 2005

References

Books


- Bukey, Evan Burr (1986). Hitler's Hometown: Linz, Austria, 1908-1945. Indiana University Press ISBN 0-253-32833-0.
- Parkinson, F. (ed.) (1989). Conquering the Past: Austrian Nazism Yesterday and Today. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814320546.
- Pauley, Bruce F. (1981). Hitler and the Forgotten Nazis: A History of Austrian National Socialism University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807814563 .
- Scheuch, Manfred (2005). Der Weg zum Heldenplatz: eine Geschichte der österreichischen Diktatur. 1933-1938. ISBN 3825877124.
- Schuschnigg, Kurt (1971). The brutal takeover: The Austrian ex-Chancellor's account of the Anschluss of Austria by Hitler. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0297003216.
- Stuckel, Eva-Maria (2001). Österreich, Monarchie, Operette, und Anschluss: Antisemtismus, Faschismus, und Nationalsozialismus im Fadenkreuz von Ingeborg Bachman und Elias Canetti.

Electronic articles and journals


- [http://www.wienerzeitung.at/linkmap/personen/miklaspopup.htm Österreichs Weg zum Anschluss im März 1938]," Wiener Zeitung, 25 May 1998 (detailed article the on the events of the Anschluss, in German).
- [http://www.doew.at/thema/thema_alt/wuv/maerz38_2/propaganda.html Die propagandistische Vorbereitung der Volksabstimmung]," Austrian Resistance Archive, Vienna, 1988 (accessed 10 June 2005).
- [http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461500064/1938_Austria.html 1938: Austria], MSN Encarta. (accessed 10 June 2005).
- [http://www.uwm.edu/People/abuchner/crisisyear.htm The Crisis Year of 1934] Buchner, A. From the Destruction of the Socialist Lager to National Socialist Coup Attempt (accessed 10 June 2005).

External links


- [http://www.historikerkommission.gv.at/ Austrian Historical Commission]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/genocide/austria_nazism_01.shtml BBC article by Robert Knight, who served on the Historikercommission]
- [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/4859 exchange in the New York Review of Books between Gerald Stourzh and Gordon Craig over the latter's review, "Waldheim's Austria"]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1943/431000a.html full text of the Moscow Declaration]
- [http://www.wiesenthal.com/ Simon Wiesenthal Center]
- [http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.film.data.film/f107a.mpg Mpg-video Declaration by Adolf Hitler on the Heldeplatz 2.0MB]
- [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/mot/html/austria.htm Time magazine coverage of the events of the Anschluss] Category:German loanwords Category:History of Austria Category:History of Germany Category:Nazi Germany Category:Vergangenheitsbewältigung ja:アンシュルス

1938

1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-March

common year starting on Saturday
- January 5 - H.R.H. Prince Juan Carlos of Spain is born.
- January 3 - The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
- January 11 - Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a US national bank.
- January 20 - Wedding of King Farouk I of Egypt and Queen Farida Zulficar in Cairo
- January 28 - The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
- January 31 - Crown princess Beatrix is born in Netherlands
- February 4 - Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens (New York City).
- February 10 - Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers
- February 12 - World War II: German troops enter Austria
- February 24 - A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.
- March 3 - Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
- March 12 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
- March 15 - Soviet Union announces officially that Nikholai Bukharin has been executed
- March 18 - Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.

April-June


- April 12 - Edouard Daladier becomes president of France
- April 25 - U.S. Supreme Court delivers opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
- April 28 - The towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott in Massachusetts are disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.
- May 5 - Vatican recognizes Franco's government in Spain
- May 25 - Bombing of Alicante, Spain, in the Spanish Civil War, with 313 deads. Spanish Civil War
- June 1 - Action Comics issues the first Superman comic.
- June 11 - Fire destroys 212 buildings in Ludes, Latvia
- June 12-18 - Roma and Sinti in Germany and Austria are rounded up, beaten up and jailed
- June 19 - Italy beat Hungary 4-2 to win the 1938 World Cup
- June 23 - The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
- June 23 - Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.
- June 25 - Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.
- June 28 - A 450 metric ton meteorite struck the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania

July-September


- July 3 - Steam locomotive "Mallard" sets the world speed record for steam by reaching 126 mph.
- July 3 - The last reunion of the Blue and Gray commemerates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
- July 10 - Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.
- July - Building of the concentration camp Mauthausen
- August 18 - The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting the United States with Canada, is dedicated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- September - European crisis over German demand for annexation of Sudeten borderland of Czechoslovakia.
- September 21 - A large hurricane (the New England Hurricane of 1938) strikes Long Island, killing 600 people.
- September 29 - Munich agreement of German, Italian, British and French leaders agrees to German demands regarding annexation of Sudetenland.
- September 29 - Republic of Hatay declared in Syria

October-December

Syria returns to the UK waving the Munich Agreement.]]
- October 1 - German troops march into Sudetenland
- October 5 - Edvard Beneš, president of Czechoslovakia, resigns
- October 10 - The Blue Water Bridge opens, connecting Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
- October 17 - Jan Syrovy's government begins in Czechoslovakia
- October 27 - Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon".
- October 30 - Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing mass panic in the eastern United States.
- October 31 - Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.
- November 9 - Holocaust: Kristallnacht begins - In Germany, the "night of broken glass" begins as Nazi troops and sympathizers loot and burn Jewish businesses (the all night affair saw 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned, 91 Jews killed, and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested).
- November 10 - On the eve of Armistice Day, Kate Smith sings Irving Berlin's God Bless America for the first time on her weekly radio show.
- November 18 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
- November 30 - Czech parliament elects Emil Hácha as the new president of Czechoslovakia.
- December 23 - Coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct, caught off the coast of South Africa near Chalumna River

Unknown dates


- Italian mathematician Ettore Majorano disappears
- In Québec, the St. Jean Baptiste Society raises a petition of 128,000 names, demanding restrictions on Jews living in Quebec. Abbe Groulx denounces Jews as a race that refuses to be assimilated.
- In West Java, Daeng Soetigna tuned traditional angklung to play also diatonic scale.
- The Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.
- Adolf Hitler is Time magazine's "Man of the Year" (as most influential during the course of the year, not as 'best' man of the year)
- Enoch A. Holtwick began long political career.

Ongoing events


- Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Births

January-February


- January 2 - Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian author
- January 2 - Ian Brady, British serial killer
- January 5 - King Juan Carlos I of Spain
- January 8 - Bob Eubanks, American game show host
- January 10 - Donald Knuth, American mathematician and computer scientist
- January 10 - Willie McCovey, baseball player
- January 14 - Jack Jones, American singer and actor
- January 18 - Curt Flood, baseball player (d. 1997)
- January 23 - Georg Baselitz, German painter and sculptor
- January 25 - Etta James, American singer
- January 31 - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
- February 1 - Sherman Hemsley, American comedian and actor
- February 8 - Prentice Gautt, American football player
- February 11 - Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer
- February 11 - Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and dictator
- February 12 - Judy Blume, American author
- February 13 - Oliver Reed, English actor (d. 1999)
- February 18 - Istvan Szabo, Hungarian director
- February 24 - Phil Knight, American sportswear entrepreneur
- February 25 - Herb Elliott, Australian runner

March-April


- March 4 - Don Perkins, American football player
- March 7 - David Baltimore, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- March 7 - Janet Guthrie, American race car driver
- March 13 - Erma Franklin, American singer (d. 2002)
- March 17 - Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-born dancer and choreographer (d. 1993)
- March 18 - Charley Pride, American baseball player and musician
- March 23 - Maynard Jackson, mayor of Atlanta, Georgia (d. 2003)
- March 25 - Hoyt Axton, American musician and actor (d. 1999)
- March 26 - Anthony James Leggett, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 1 - John Quade, American actor
- April 4 - A. Bartlett Giamatti, American president of Yale University and baseball commissioner (d. 1989)
- April 8 - Kofi Annan, Ghanaian Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- April 10 - Don Meredith, American football player and broadcaster
- April 11 - Kurt Moll, German bass
- April 12 - Roger Caron, Canadian author
- April 26 - Duane Eddy, American musician
- April 29 - Larry Niven, American author

May-July


- May 17 - Jason Bernard, American actor (d. 1996)
- May 22 - Richard Benjamin, American actor
- May 26 - William Bolcom, American composer
- May 26 - Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano
- May 31 - Johnny PayCheck, American singer (d. 2003)
- May 31 - Peter Yarrow, American singer
- June 5 - Karin Balzer, German athlete
- June 7 - Goose Gonsoulin, American football player
- June 15 - Billy Williams, baseball player
- June 19 - Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and professional wrestler (d. 2002)
- June 28 - Moy Yat, Chinese martial artist
- July 4 - Bill Withers, American singer and songwriter
- July 6 - Tony Lewis, English cricketer
- July 12 - Wieger Mensonides, Dutch swimmer
- July 19 - Jayant Narlikar, Indian Astrophysicist
- July 20 - Natalie Wood, American actress (d. 1981)
- July 23 - Juliet Anderson, American actress
- July 23 - Bert Newton, Australian actor and televison show host
- July 27 - Gary Gygax, American author
- July 28 - Alberto Fujimori, Peruvian president
- July 29 - Peter Jennings, Canadian-born television news reporter (d. 2005)

August-October


- August 9 - Ezola Broussard Foster, Vice President of the United States
- August 9 - Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
- August 15 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer
- August 19 - Diana Muldaur, American actress
- August 22 - Paul Maguire, American football player
- August 24 - Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician
- August 24 - David Freiberg, American musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)
- August 28 - Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television news reporter
- August 28 - Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada
- August 31 - Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
- September 2 - Clarence Felder, American actor
- September 3 - Ryoji Noyori, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 10 - Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer and photographer
- September 13 - John Smith, Scottish politician (d. 1994)
- September 22 - Gene Mingo, American football player
- September 25 - Jonathan Motzfeldt, Prime Minister of Greenland
- September 29 - Wim Kok, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- October 3 - Eddie Cochran, American singer (d. 1960)
- October 4 - Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 9 - Heinz Fischer, Austrian politician
- October 14 - Farah Diba, Empress of Iran
- October 15 - Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and activist (d. 1997)
- October 23 - H. John Heinz III, U.S. Senator (d. 1991)
- October 29 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberian president-elect

November-December


- November 2 - Patrick Joseph Buchanan, American journalist and Presidential candidate
- November 6 - Mack Jones, baseball player (d. 2004)
- November 13 - Jean Seberg, American actress
- November 16 - Robert Nozick, American philosopher (d. 2002)
- November 26 - Porter J. Goss, American politician and Central Intelligence Agency director
- December 4 - Andre V. Marrou, U.S. Presidential candidate
- December 4 - Yvonne Minton, Australian soprano
- December 15 - Billy Shaw, American football player
- December 16 - Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress
- December 17 - Peter Snell, New Zealand athlete

Fictional


- September - Freddy Krueger, child murderer (A Nightmare on Elm Street)

Deaths


- January 20 - Émile Cohl, French caricaturist and animator (b. 1857)
- January 21 - Georges Méliès, French film director (b. 1861)
- January 28 - Bernd Rosemeyer, German racing driver (b. 1909)
- February 2 - Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (b. 1856)
- February 7 - Harvey Firestone, American manufacturer (b. 1868)
- February 18 - David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)
- February 19 - Edmund Landau, German mathematician (b. 1877)
- March 1 - Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian writer, war hero, and politician (b. 1863)
- March 2 - Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (b. 1871)
- March 13 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician (b. 1888)
- March 13 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. 1857)
- April 8 - Joe "King" Oliver, American musician (b. 1885)
- April 12 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
- April 16 - Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)
- April 21 - Allama Iqbal, Indian philosopher and poet (b. 1877)
- April 26 - Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (b. 1859)
- May 4 - Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)
- May 13 - Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
- May 26 - John Jacob Abel, American pharmacologist (b. 1857)
- August 1 - Edmund Charles Tarbell, American artist (b. 1862)
- August 7 - Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian actor (b. 1863)
- August 16 - Robert Johnson, American musician (b. 1911)
- September 17 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
- October 22 - May Irwin, Canadian actress and singer (b. 1862)
- October 24 - Ernst Barlach, German sculptor and poet (b. 1870)
- October 27 - Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (b. 1881)
- November 10 - Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey (b. 1881)
- December 11 - Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1869)
- December 25 - Karel Čapek, Czech author (b. 1890)
- December 28 - Florence Lawrence, Canadian actress (b. 1886)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Enrico Fermi
- Chemistry - Richard Kuhn
- Medicine - Corneille Jean François Heymans
- Literature - Pearl S. Buck
- Peace - Nansen International Office For Refugees, Geneva. Category:1938 ko:1938년 ms:1938 ja:1938年 simple:1938 th:พ.ศ. 2481

German language

German (German: ), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the world's major languages. It is the language with the most native speakers in the European Union. Spoken by more than 130 million people in 38 countries of the world, German is—like English—a pluricentric language with three main centers of usage: Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Geographic distribution

German is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, in two-thirds of Switzerland, in two-thirds of the South Tyrol province of Italy (in German, Südtirol), in the small East Cantons of Belgium, and in some border villages of the South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, Sønderjylland) of Denmark. In Luxembourg (in German, Luxemburg), as well as in the French régions of Alsace (in German, Elsass) and parts of Lorraine (in German, Lothringen), the native populations speak several German dialects, and some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in Alsace and Lorraine French has for the most part replaced the local German dialects in the last 40 years. Some German speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and above all Russia, Kazakhstan and Poland, although massive relocations to Germany in the late 1940s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German speaking communities are to be found in the USA and in Brazil where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the great majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German speaking communities are to be found in the former German colony of Namibia, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where Alemán Coloneiro developed), Thailand, and Australia. See also Plautdietsch. In the USA, the largest concentration of German speakers are in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites and some Mennonites speak Pennsylvania German and Hutterite German), Texas (Texas German), North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin and Indiana also speak dialects of German. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul, where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch was developed, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Espírito Santo). Generally, German immigrant communities in the USA have lost their mother tongue more quickly than those who moved to South America, possibly due to the fact that for Germans English is easier to learn than Portuguese or Spanish. German is the main language of about 100 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the most spoken language in Europe excluding Russia, above French (66.5 million speakers in Europe in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in Europe in 2004). German is the third most taught foreign language worldwide, also in the USA (after Spanish and French); it is the second most known foreign language in the EU (after English; see [http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_237.en.pdf]) It is one of the official languages of the European Union.

History

As a consequence of the colonisation patterns the Völkerwanderung, the routes for trade and communication (chiefly the rivers), and of physical isolation (high mountains and deep forests) very different regional dialects developed. These dialects, sometimes mutually unintelligible, were used across the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardisation of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1521 and the Old Testament in 1534) he based his translation mainly on this already developed language, which was the most widely understood language at this time. This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterit tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (Gemeines Deutsch) — which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava (German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, Standard German was almost only a written language. In this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learnt it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider that northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German), which is understood in all areas of German languages (except by pre-school children in areas which speak only dialect, for example Switzerland — but in this age of TV, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age). The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1960, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spelling co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the heated public debate concerning the reform. During the 1870s, the German language successfully replaced Latin as the dominant language in all major European and North American universities, thanks to the prominence of German universities at the time. Most important research in the sciences for some decades afterward was published in German, and new universities preferred German instead of Greek or Latin mottoes (for example, Stanford University).

Classification and related languages

Stanford University is divided into Upper German (blue) and Central German (green), and the Dutch/Plattdüütsch (yellow). The main isoglosses, the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked in red.]] German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family.

Neighboring languages

German forms together with Dutch, its closest relative, a coherent and well-defined language area that is separated from its neighbors by language borders. These neighbors are: in the north Frisian and Danish; in the east Polish, Sorbian, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian; in the south Slovenian, Italian, Friulian, Ladin, and Romansh; in the west French. Except for Frisian, none of these languages are West Germanic, and so they are clearly distinct from German and Dutch. While Frisian is closely related to German and Dutch, it is generally considered not to be mutually intelligible with them. The situation is more complex with respect to the distinction between German and Dutch. Until recently, there has been a dialect continuum throughout the whole German-Dutch language area, with no language borders. In such a dialect continuum, dialects are always mutually intelligible with their neighbors, but dialects that are further apart from each other are often not. The German-Dutch continuum lent itself to a classification of dialects into Low German and High German based on their participation in the High German consonant shift; Dutch is part of the Low German group. However, because of the political separation between Germany and the Netherlands, Low German dialects in the Netherlands and Low German dialects in Germany have started to diverge during the 20th century. Additionally, both in northern Germany and in the Netherlands, many dialects are close to extinction and are being replaced by the German and Dutch standard languages. In this way, a language border between Dutch and German is currently forming. While German is grammatically similar in many ways to Dutch, it is very different in speech. A speaker of one may require some practice to effectively understand a speaker of the other. Compare, for example: :De kleinste kameleon is volwassen 2 cm groot, de grootste kan wel 80 cm worden. (Dutch) :Das kleinste Chamäleon ist ausgewachsen 2 cm groß, das größte kann gut 80 cm werden. (Standard German) : (English: "The smallest chameleon is fully grown 2 cm long, the longest can easily attain 80 cm.") Dutch speakers are generally able to read German, and German speakers who can speak Low German or English are generally able to read Dutch, but have problems understanding the spoken language, although Germans who speak High German, or, even better, Low German, can cope with Dutch much better than people from Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria who have grown up with the Alemannic or Bavarian dialects.

Official status

Standard German is the only official language in Germany, Liechtenstein, and Austria; it shares official status in Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in German-speaking regions of Belgium, Italy, Denmark, and Poland. It is one of the 20 official languages of the European Union. It is also a minority language in Canada, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Poland, Romania, Togo, Cameroon, the USA, Namibia, Brazil, Paraguay, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Ukraine, Croatia, Moldavia, Australia, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. German was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern Europe. Increasing influence from the English language has affected German recently. However, German remains one of the most popular foreign languages taught world-wide, and is more popular than French as a foreign language in Europe. 8% of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German, in addition to the 24% who speak German as a mother tongue.[http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html] This is assisted by the availability of German TV by cable or satellite, where series like Star Trek are shown dubbed into German. German is also the second language of the Internet, more than 8% of the websites are in German (English 50%, French 6%, Japanese 5%, Spanish 3% and Portuguese 2%).

Dialects

The term "German" is used for the dialects of Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland (that is, outside the French-, Italian-, and Romansch-speaking areas) and some areas in the surrounding countries, as well as for several colonies and other ethnic concentrations founded by German-speaking people (for example German in the United States). The variation among the German dialects is considerable. Only the neighbouring dialects are mutually understandable. Most dialects are not understandable for someone who knows standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of the continental West Germanic languages because any pair of neighbouring dialects is perfectly mutually intelligible. The dialect continuum of the continental West Germanic languages is typically divided into Low Germanic languages and High Germanic languages. Low Germanic is defined as the varieties that were not affected by the High German consonant shift. They consist of two subgroups, Low Franconian and <