Chapter three: Storm over the Danube
While those events took place in Austria, Germany was allowed to expand the size of the army to 2 million men, to build heavy guns and tanks and to have an Air Force (
Reichsluftwaffe or
Luftwaffe for short) again by the Bern Disarmament Conference. After this, Germany immediately began building new airbases. During the 20s and 30s, pilots have been trained in secret for use in any future wars. They had to train in light aircraft, so that the government was able to claim they would only fly planes for the Lufthansa, a major German airline. Now, Britain was to help them in the training of the new pilots. Grudingly, even the French hope that by slowly re-arming Germany it can serve as a strong state with a strong army bordering the hostile and dangerous Communist block.
German troops parading through the streets of a German city.
Hardly this measure had began to be implemented, Austria became the new source of attention. One of the problems that the new Austrian Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg, had to deal with was the economy of a near-bankrupt state, to maintain law and order with a very reduced army (by the terms of the 1919 Peace Agreement) and to preserve Austria’s independence from the Communist. He attempted to increase its friendship with Germany but Berlin made painfully clear that there was nothing to talk about while Austria was under a Fascist dictatorship. Threatened from the outside by two different kinds of rivals, Italy and Hungary, and from within by the inner turmoil that the murder of Dollfuss had caused, Schuschnigg could do nothing but to call for democratic elections in March 1936, which resulted in the victory of the SDAPÖ (
Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs / Social Democratic Party of Austria), Karl Renner became the new president of Austria and Richard Schmitz, whom is also the mayor of Vienna, its chancellor. Renner had headed the first government in republican Austria in 1918 and now came to rescue the Republic.
Then chaos ensued. One of the first measures of Schmitz was to dissolve all the paramilitary groups operating within Austria. The first to oblige were the members of the Republikanischer Schutzbund, the paramilitary organization established in 1923 by the SDAPÖ. However, while most of the remaining groups grudingly accepted this order, the Heimwehr did not. Led by Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, the Heimwehr refused to surrender his weapons. Starhemberg, Dollfuss's former Vice Chancellor, gathered in Vienna's Ballhouse and claimed that Austria was on the verge to fall into the hands of a Communist coup d'etat. Schmitz reacted by surrounding with troops the house. Inevitably, someone opened fire against the army forces and the fighitng ensued. In a matter of hours violence spread through Austria. The right-wing
Frontkämpfervereinigung and the left-wing
Republikanischer Schutzbund, which had not surrendered their weapons yet, clashed in Schattendorf, Burgenland and thus sparked the brief but bloody Austrian Civil War (
Österreichischer Bürgerkrieg, February 7-11, 1936 -1-).
One of the Austrian paramilitary groups parading during the days that preceded to the February Crisis.
Chancellor Stressemann proposed to send an international force made up by Britain, France, Italy and Germany to Austria, to stop the fighitng, but before this could be even discussed by the League of Nations, the war ended. By then several hundred people (including paramilitaries, members of the security forces and civilians) died in the armed conflict. Austria was broken, and Stressemann seized the moment to say that
" [...] find' ich das dies kleines Volk Österreich mit unser abgeschwächte aber bedeutsame Reich zu hereinigen, unschuldig und nützend für alle ist." ("[...] I think that uniting this helpless little state of Austria with our weakened but important nation, will be completely innocent and benefiting for all of us.")
The Quay d'Orsay was quick to point out that Austria and Germany were barred by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye to be united without approval from the League of Nations council. The obvious answer that came from Berlin was that it was time, then for the council to discuss the issue.
Then changes in Paris affected in an unexpected way the Austrian affaire.
(1) As they did have small civil war in 1934, why not using it?
@Mr. Santiago: Not so stupid. And no Wallis, but Furness instead.
@hoi2geek: As I explained in the last chapter of the Great War AAR, Ireland became a Dominion of the Empire in a quite calm way. No Anglo-Irish War, then.
@Red Cesar: I'll try something else, but that option doesn't work.
@Timmie0307: Comrade Tojo and Comrade Hirto Hito do agree with you.
@H.Appleby: Oh dear.
@SovietAmerika: I wonder: between a dog and Hoover... who would the US citizens choose.
@Red Cesar -2-: South America looks nice this time of the year, or so I've been told. ;
@El Pip: Yes, but something was adrift in that alternative Japan. Dollfuss was in the wrong place with the wrong hat, you know...
@Nathan Madien: I'll keep them way from Aphrodite. Let's hope that the Kennedy's doom goesn't fire this time elsewhere. But Joe jr doesn't have the same charm for me.
@talt: Good news: civil war incoming. Bad news: wrong country.
Japan is going to f**** in their usual and charming way, banzai style. A pity that the Japanese bushido doesn't like too much das Kapital.
I'm surprised: Somebody asking me NOT to kill Monty!!!! Good old Bernard must be amused by this. Thanks, I'll do exactly that. BTW I can't kill the whole Bush familiy. I only left a single Bush alive. Its complete extermination would look slightly sadistic, methinks. I have plans for Ronnie, though.
@trekaddict: Chewbacca is going to be sad because of you.
@Milites: I needed a killer and you know my old sense of humor. .
@H.Appleby -2-: I plan to have Stalin alive for some good reasons: you can't throw a dead body to the Tower and have fun this way. Well, you can, but that's another kind of fun.
@SovietAmerika: Whoever but not that pathetic nazi worm, Kuhn. The charming hability of the USers to have laughable people fooling around in their history is amazing. That guy makes Ross Perott look like some worthy voting.
@Red Cesar: The Bussines Plot. And there was a HOI1 AAR based on that attempt:
Here you have it
@Nathan Madien: Remember Kitchener? :laugh: