Journal Article

Anschluss: The Chamberlain Government and the First Test of Appeasement, February-March 1938

McKercher, B. J. C.

2017

Overview

The union of Austria and Germany in March 1938 - the Anschluss - forced by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany with the acquiescence of Italy was the first test of the appeasement strategy of the Neville Chamberlain government. Austro-German Anschluss did not occur unexpectedly: after Habsburg collapse in 1918, it had been desired by pan-Germans in Austria and Germany but denied by the Paris Peace Settlement; its possibility arose a couple of times in the early 1930s; and by 1937, the majority of Austrians seemed willing to unite with their Nazi neighbour. Even before Chamberlain became Premier in May 1937 and changed the strategic basis of British foreign policy, the Foreign Office and other ministries wrestled over whether to thwart Anschluss and, until 1937, worked to keep the two German-speaking Powers apart. After Chamberlain took power, the willingness to oppose abated as Hitler's pan-German solution spoke to both national self-determination and Austrian ambivalence about independence. Chamberlain's government submitted expecting that they might use the absorption of Austria as a means to divide Nazi Germany from Fascist Italy. 'Good relations' with the dictators existed as a cardinal element of Chamberlain's brand of appeasement.

• Publisher: Routledge,Routledge Taylor & Francis Group,Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subject: Absorption / Alliances / Ambivalence / Anschluss / Appeasement / Chamberlain / Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940) / Dictators / Fascism / Foreign Office / Foreign policy / Government / Nazi era / Nazism / Peace / Power / Self determination