Hitler and the Forgotten Nazis: A History of Austrian National Socialism by Bruce F. Pauley

Author:Bruce F. Pauley [Pauley, Bruce F.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2017-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

The Reinthaller Action

The disunity and temporary impotence of Nazi radicals following the abortive Putsch did at least provide moderates an opportunity to take over the party’s leadership and to reach some kind of accommodation with the Austrian government. Such an agreement would mesh well with Hitler’s policy of “peaceful penetration” of Austria and in fact had the Führer’s blessing.43 The man who undertook this task was Anton Reinthaller.

Most Nazi moderates like Reinthaller had previously belonged either to the Greater German People’s party or to the Agricultural League until those two parties were absorbed by the Nazis after 1930. Born in 1895, Reinthaller had belonged to the Landbund until 1930, when he joined the NSDAP and became Gauleiter of Upper Austria. Habicht had made him the leader of the Agricultural Division of the Landesleitung in 1932; but differences with Habicht over the use of terror had led to Reinthaller’s dismissal in just a matter of months. Nevertheless, Rudolf Hess appointed Reinthaller Landesbauernfuhrer (State Peasant Leader) early in 1934, and the latter went on to establish an anti-Habicht-Proksch-Frauenfeld front within the party. After Habicht’s negotiations failed in the winter of 1933-34, Reinthaller tried his own hand at a separate settlement with the government. These talks were abruptly interrupted, however, by the July Putsch.44

With the backing of the Viennese lawyer Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Gauleiter Hubert Klausner of Carinthia, Hermann Neubacher, Walter Riehl, and other Nazi moderates, Reinthaller resumed negotiations with Schuschnigg after the revolt as part of a “National Action.” The chancellor, who was a regimental comrade of Reinthaller, welcomed the new discussions. He was eager to eliminate all ties between the Reich and the Austrian Nazi party. Schuschnigg was also anxious to broaden the very narrow base of his government. Papen was likewise delighted with these conversations, because they conformed nicely with his policy of internal pacification at a time when he was too distrusted by the Austrian government to carry out this maneuver himself.

An official in the German Legation in Vienna reported to Berlin in October 1934 that Reinthaller wanted to “regain [the Austrian Nazi party’s] legal status while at the same time severing its connextion with the Party organization in the Reich. A new organization [called the Nationalsozialer Volksbund Österreich was] envisaged which [would] be strong and independent while adopting the National Socialist Party’s programme as a basis. It [was] intended that all national circles, especially the former Pan-Germans [GVP] and the members of the Landbund, [should] range themselves around the present NSDAP Austria as the hard core of the movement.”45

In addition, Reinthaller wanted the government to cease arresting Nazis and reserve positions in the federal and local governments for Nazis who would then belong to a legal National Unity List. Minor participants in the July Putsch would have to be released from prison, and Nazi armed formations (the SA and the SS) would have to be coordinated with Germany’s. Finally, a plebiscite would be held to determine Austria’s future fate. In other words, he wanted everything Habicht had demanded nine months before, and more.

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