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106-653: The M1912 was originally chambered for the 9mm Steyr round. The M1912 was developed as the Model 1911, a military pistol, but it was not accepted into service until 1914 as the M12. It was originally issued to the Austrian Landwehr while common army units were issued Roth–Steyr M1907 handguns and Rast & Gasser M1898 revolvers . Orders were also placed by Chile and Romania. During World War I, Austria-Hungary experienced shortages of handguns and production of

212-518: A Großdeutsche Lösung (greater Germany solution), whereby the German states would unite under the leadership of the Austrian House of Habsburg . This solution would have included all the German states (including the non-German regions of Austria), but Prussia would have had to accept a secondary role. This controversy, called dualism , dominated Prusso-Austrian diplomacy and the politics of

318-645: A " Greater Germany ") arose after the 1871 unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire . It gained support after the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell in 1918. The new Republic of German-Austria attempted to form a union with Germany, but the 1919 Treaty of Saint Germain and Treaty of Versailles forbade both the union and the continued use of

424-540: A "German state" that would always follow Germany's lead in foreign policy, and members of the "National Opposition" were allowed to enter the cabinet, in exchange for which the Austrian Nazis promised to cease their terrorist attacks against the government. This did not satisfy Hitler and the pro-German Austrian Nazis grew in strength. In September 1936, Hitler launched the Four Year Plan that called for

530-634: A German minority. The empire caused tensions between the various ethnic groups. Many Austrian pan-Germans showed loyalty to Bismarck and only to Germany, wore symbols that were temporarily banned in Austrian schools and advocated the dissolution of the empire to allow Austria to rejoin Germany, as it had been during the German Confederation of 1815–1866. Although many Austrians supported pan-Germanism, many others still showed allegiance to

636-458: A Greater Germany. Bismarck had not chosen to include Austria in his 1871 unification of Germany , and there was genuine support from Germans in both Austria and Germany for an Anschluss . Hitler's forces suppressed all opposition. Before the first German soldier crossed the border, Heinrich Himmler and a few Schutzstaffel (SS) officers landed in Vienna to arrest prominent representatives of

742-482: A batch of 50 prototypes was delivered for field trials and issued to Major Fuchs' battalion. These early models fed from the M.12's standard 8-round internal magazine and, against a firing rate of 800rpm, they could only fire a burst or two before depleting. The full production model extended the internal magazine to 16 rounds - an improvement, but still less than ideal. Topping off the magazine, either by feeding two 8- round clips or manually loading each cartridge by hand,

848-578: A car, crossed the border at his birthplace, Braunau am Inn , with a 4,000 man bodyguard. In the evening, he arrived at Linz and was given an enthusiastic welcome. 250,000 Austrians gathered in Linz to meet Adolf Hitler and support Anschluss . The enthusiasm displayed toward Hitler and the Germans surprised both Nazis and non-Nazis, as most people had believed that a majority of Austrians opposed Anschluss . Many Germans from both Austria and Germany welcomed

954-867: A client relationship with Berlin that began with the formation of the Berlin–Rome Axis in 1937. The Austrian Nazi Party failed to win any seats in the November 1930 general election , but its popularity grew in Austria after Hitler came to power in Germany. The idea of the country joining Germany also grew in popularity, thanks in part to a Nazi propaganda campaign which used slogans such as Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer ("One People, One Empire, One Leader") to try to convince Austrians to advocate for an Anschluss to

1060-614: A dramatic increase in military spending and to make Germany as autarkic as possible with the aim of having the Reich ready to fight a world war by 1940. The Four Year Plan required huge investments in the Reichswerke steel works, a programme for developing synthetic oil that soon went wildly over budget, and programmes for producing more chemicals and aluminium; the plan called for a policy of substituting imports and rationalizing industry to achieve its goals that failed completely. As

1166-525: A secret speech before a group of German industrialists, Göring stated that the only solution to the problems with meeting the steel production targets laid out by the Four Year Plan was to annex Austria, which Göring noted was rich in iron. Göring did not give a date for the Anschluss , but given that Four Year Plan's targets all had to be met by September 1940, and the current problems with meeting

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1272-489: A slim majority in the event of a plebiscite, and not the 75 per cent necessary, and that the number of Anschluss supporters in 1919 was not more than 50 per cent of the population. Even Otto Bauer, leader of the Social Democratic party had to admit that both the bourgeoisie and the peasantry wanted 'an independent Austria fully capable of a national life of its own'. More telling is Bauer's admission that, because of

1378-629: A split in the SPÖ . Austrian left circles vehemently opposed Anschluss, and Renner's declaration prompted many to defect to Revolutionary Socialists under Otto Bauer or the KPÖ . The relevance of Innitzer's endorsement is also disputed—he was reportedly "despised" by Austrian workers, and the Anschluss sparked Catholic protests in Austria under the slogan "Our Führer is Christ" (rather than Hitler). According to Hungarian historian Oszkár Jászi , writing in 1938,

1484-417: A stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators." Hitler said as a personal note to the Anschluss : "I, myself, as Führer and Chancellor, will be happy to walk on the soil of the country that is my home as a free German citizen." Hitler's popularity reached an unprecedented peak after he fulfilled the Anschluss because he had completed the long-awaited idea of

1590-626: A triumphal tour that climaxed in Vienna on 15 March 1938, when around 200,000 cheering German Austrians gathered around the Heldenplatz (Square of Heroes) to hear Hitler say that "The oldest eastern province of the German people shall be, from this point on, the newest bastion of the German Reich" followed by his "greatest accomplishment" (completing the annexing of Austria to form a Greater German Reich) by saying "As leader and chancellor of

1696-482: A unification with the Weimar Republic . Further plebiscites were then forbidden. However, Erich Bielka notes that the plebiscites were marred by electoral fraud and voter manipulation, and therefore do not reflect what the general Austrian opinion was at that time: In addition to the massive propaganda campaign and not insignificant Reich German influence, 'Ja' ballot papers were pre-printed and provided at

1802-422: A union, Schuschnigg met Hitler at Berchtesgaden on 12 February 1938, in an attempt to avoid the takeover of Austria. Hitler presented Schuschnigg with a set of demands including appointing Nazi sympathizers to positions of power in the government. The key appointment was that of Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Minister of Public Security, with full, unlimited control of the police. In return Hitler would publicly reaffirm

1908-480: A young age. Whilst infiltrating the German Workers' Party (DAP), Hitler became involved in a heated political argument with a visitor, a Professor Baumann, who proposed that Bavaria should break away from Prussia and found a new South German nation with Austria. In vehemently attacking the man's arguments he made an impression on the other party members with his oratorical skills and, according to Hitler,

2014-464: Is no longer willing to tolerate the suppression of ten million Germans across its borders." On 3 March 1938, Austrian Socialists offered to back Schuschnigg's government in exchange for political concessions, such as legalising socialist press, returning confiscated funds and "the lifting of the ban on the wearing of Social Democrat badges, show Social Democrat flags and standards and singing Social Democrat songs." Schuschnigg agreed to these demands and

2120-414: Is operated by a system of short recoil , the barrel unlocking from the slide by rotation. As the pistol is being fired and the recoil of the pistol is in motion, a lug and groove system around the barrel rotate the barrel 20° until a lug hits a stop wedge and holds the barrel while the slide is free to continue its rearward travel, the extractor claw withdrawing the spent casing against the breech face of

2226-669: The 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht crossed the border into Austria. The troops were greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers. For the Wehrmacht , the invasion was the first big test of its machinery. Although the invading forces were badly organized and coordination among the units was poor, it mattered little because the Austrian government had ordered the Austrian Bundesheer not to resist. That afternoon, Hitler, riding in

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2332-418: The Anschluss as they saw it as completing the complex and long overdue unification of all Germans into one state. Hitler had originally intended to leave Austria as a satellite state with Seyss-Inquart as head of a pro-Nazi government. However, the overwhelming reception caused him to change course and absorb Austria directly into the Reich. On 13 March Seyss-Inquart announced the abrogation of Article 88 of

2438-805: The Anschluss was ambivalent; but, since the Social Democratic Party of Austria leader Karl Renner and the highest representative of the Roman Catholic church in Austria Cardinal Theodor Innitzer both endorsed the Anschluss , approximately two-thirds of Austrians could be counted on to vote for it. What the result of the plebiscite meant for the Austrians will always be a matter of speculation. Nevertheless, historians generally agree that it cannot be explained exclusively by simply either opportunism or

2544-630: The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 the new tripartite army was brought into being. It existed until the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire following World War I in 1918. The Hungarian Landwehr should not be confused with its successor, the Royal Hungarian Army , which went by the same Hungarian name, but existed from 1922 to 1945. A royal edict of 17 March 1813 first established

2650-729: The Cisleithanian parts of the empire. Intended as a national defence force alongside the Royal Hungarian Landwehr (or Honvéd ), the Landwehr was officially established by order of Emperor Franz Joseph I on 5 December 1868. Yet while the Hungarian force was generously supported early on by the parliament in Budapest, legislators in Vienna generally failed to advance the cause of the Landwehr , leaving it by

2756-691: The Doppelpistole M1912 . A wooden carrying case, similar to that issued with the Villar Perosa, was also made for the Doppelpistole, the idea seems to have been experimental and never came into wide issue. After Germany annexed Austria in 1938 , the German Police ordered 60,000 M1912 pistols rechambered in 9 mm Parabellum which remained in service until the end of World War II. In German service, its official designation

2862-622: The Entente with justification for demanding territorial compensations". During the Paris Peace Conference the French sought to forbid a union between Austria and Germany, with French Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephen Pichon stating that they "must see that Germany is not given an opportunity to rebuild her strength by utilizing the Austrian populations which remain outside of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Jugoslavia". A compromise

2968-734: The Estonian War of Independence in 1919. Anschluss The Anschluss ( German: [ˈʔanʃlʊs] , or Anschluß , lit.   ' joining ' or ' connection ' ), also known as the Anschluß Österreichs ( pronunciation , English: Annexation of Austria ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an Anschluss (a united Austria and Germany that would form

3074-540: The Habsburg monarchy and wished for Austria to remain an independent country. Erich Ludendorff wrote to the Federal Foreign Office on 14 October 1918 about the possibility of conducting an Anschluss with the German areas of Austria-Hungary as its dissolution removed the problem of the country's numerous ethnic groups. Secretary Wilhelm Solf opposed the proposal, stating that it "would provide

3180-824: The Kingdom of Hungary , established as one of four armed forces ( Bewaffnete Macht or Wehrmacht ) of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. The others were its counterpart the Austrian Landwehr , the Common Army, and the Imperial and Royal Navy . In the wake of fighting between the Austrian Empire and Hungarian rebels during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 , and the two decades of uneasy co-existence following, Hungarian soldiers served either in mixed units or were stationed away from Hungarian areas. With

3286-622: The Kriegsmarine commander Admiral Erich Raeder and the Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum . At the conference, Hitler stated that economic problems were causing Germany to fall behind in the arms race with Britain and France, and that the only solution was to launch in the near-future a series of wars to seize Austria and Czechoslovakia , whose economies would be plundered to give Germany

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3392-526: The Landwehr were specially trained and equipped for mountain warfare . The Austrian Landwehr and other components of the Austro-Hungarian Army were all full-time standing armies. The Royal Hungarian Landwehr ( German : königlich ungarische Landwehr , Hungarian : Magyar Királyi Honvédség , colloquially called the Honvéd ) or Royal Hungarian Honvéd , was the standing army of

3498-648: The Landwehr . Additionally, Austrian fears of the development of the Honvéd caused the Austrian Reichsrat to vote to increase the Landwehr's strength to 135,000. These nationalist interests led to a gradual strengthening and improvement of the force, so that by the start of the First World War , Landwehr units were considered equal to the units of the joint army in readiness and equipment. Additionally, in Tyrol and Carinthia , three units of

3604-462: The Nuremberg Laws in 1935. The plan went awry when it became apparent that Hitler would not stand by while Austria declared its independence by public vote. Hitler declared that the referendum would be subject to major fraud and that Germany would never accept it. In addition, the German ministry of propaganda issued press reports that riots had broken out in Austria and that large parts of

3710-582: The Prussian Landwehr , which called up all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five capable of bearing arms and not serving in the regular army , for the defense of the kingdom. After the peace of 1815 this force became an integral part of the Prussian Army, each brigade being composed of one line and one Landwehr regiment. This, however, slowed the mobilisation of brigades, as Landwehr regiments had to be called up, diminishing

3816-595: The Reich or living outside it in order to create an "all-German Reich ". Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf (1925) that he would create a union between his birth country Austria and Germany by any means possible. The First Austrian Republic was dominated from the late 1920s by the Christian Social Party (CS), whose economic policies were based on the papal encyclical Rerum novarum . The First Republic gradually disintegrated in 1933, when parliament

3922-554: The Social Democrats and their trade unions in return for their support in the referendum. He also set the minimum voting age at 24 to exclude younger voters because the Nazi movement was most popular among the young. In contrast, Hitler had lowered the voting age for German elections held under Nazi rule, largely to compensate for the removal of Jews and other ethnic minorities from the German electorate following enactment of

4028-428: The magazine is situated in the grip, it is integral with the weapon and is loaded from above using eight-round stripper clips . To load, the slide is pulled back to expose the action, the clip is inserted along the guides and the rounds pushed into the magazine. The metal strip is then discarded. As with the majority of pistols with integral magazines, a lever can be used to disengage the magazine catch in order to eject

4134-590: The "professor" left the hall acknowledging unequivocal defeat. Impressed with Hitler, Anton Drexler invited him to join the DAP. Hitler accepted on 12 September 1919, becoming the party's 55th member. After becoming leader of the DAP, Hitler addressed a crowd on 24 February 1920, and in an effort to appeal to wider parts of the German population, the DAP was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). As its first point,

4240-420: The 1870s as a skeletal force with only the appearance of parity. In 1887, Archduke Albert wrote that Landwehr units were not ready, in terms of training or discipline, for use in the first two weeks of a war. Yet the 1880s saw an expansion in the force's numbers, as the high command was unable to obtain increases in manpower for the joint Imperial and Royal Army and sought to increase overall numbers through

4346-622: The 1920 National Socialist Program stated, "We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the people's right to self-determination." Hitler argued in a 1921 essay that the German Reich had a single task of, "incorporating the ten million German-Austrians in the Empire and dethroning the Habsburgs, the most miserable dynasty ever ruling." The Nazis aimed to re-unite all Germans who were either born in

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4452-508: The 1920s it was a target for German investment capital. By 1937, rapid German rearmament increased Berlin's interest in annexing Austria, rich in raw materials and labour. It supplied Germany with magnesium and the products of the iron, textile and machine industries. It had gold and foreign currency reserves, many unemployed skilled workers, hundreds of idle factories, and large potential hydroelectric resources. Hitler, an Austrian German by birth, picked up his German nationalist ideas at

4558-608: The Alps. It is not known whether they were fielded as trench-clearing weapons; Austria in 1916 was fighting a mostly defensive war against the Italians, and there is no indication that the weapon was commissioned for use by shock troops, although it is possible that they were issued to some Sturmbataillons in 1917. The M.12/P16 remained in service throughout the war, and was apparently produced in large numbers. An inventory taken in Tyrol at

4664-550: The Anschluss. While the population's true opinions are unknown, it has been estimated that about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve Austrian independence. The idea of grouping all Germans into one nation-state had been the subject of debate in the 19th century from the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 until the break-up of the German Confederation in 1866. Austria had wanted

4770-583: The Austrian Nazis, cooperated with Catholic groups, and wanted to preserve a measure of Austrian identity within Nazi Germany. On 20 February, Hitler made a speech before the Reichstag which was broadcast live and which for the first time was relayed also by the Austrian radio network . A key phrase in the speech which was aimed at the Germans living in Austria and Czechoslovakia was: "The German Reich

4876-547: The Austrian government looked to a possible customs union with the German Republic in 1931. However, ultimately regional patriotism was stronger than pan-German sentiment. In the Austrian Empire, each Kronland had its own functional government and enjoyed a fair amount of autonomy from Vienna , with "each looking to their own capital" instead. According to Jody Manning, the idea of unification with Germany

4982-406: The Austrian population were calling for German troops to restore order. Schuschnigg immediately responded that reports of riots were false. Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg on 11 March, demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian Nazis or face an invasion. The ultimatum was set to expire at noon, but was extended by two hours. Without waiting for an answer, Hitler had already signed

5088-631: The Austro-Hungarian Empire and offered to form a customs union with Austria. However, Austrian Chancellor Ignaz Seipel , an Anschluss opponent, rejected the offer. Seipel was replaced in 1929 by Johannes Schober , who pursued a pro-Germany policy and attempted to form a customs union. However, a political crisis led to Schober losing power and Seipel returning to the government as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Negotiations were restarted after Otto Ender became chancellor and were finalized with German Foreign Affairs Minister Julius Curtius on 5 March 1931, before being approved by Germany on 18 March. France opposed

5194-763: The Catholic elements of Austria's national identity and staunchly opposed union with Nazi Germany . Engelbert Dollfuss and his successor, Kurt Schuschnigg , turned to Benito Mussolini 's Fascist Italy for inspiration and support. Mussolini supported the independence of Austria, largely due to his concern that Hitler would eventually press for the return of Italian territories which had once been ruled by Austria. However, Mussolini needed German support in Ethiopia ( see Second Italo-Abyssinian War ). After receiving Hitler's personal assurance that Germany would not seek territorial concessions from Italy, Mussolini entered into

5300-452: The First Republic, such as Richard Schmitz , Leopold Figl , Friedrich Hillegeist , and Franz Olah . During the few weeks between the Anschluss and the plebiscite, authorities rounded up Social Democrats, Communists, other potential political dissenters, and Austrian Jews , and imprisoned them or sent them to concentration camps . Within a few days of 12 March, 70,000 people had been arrested. The disused northwest railway station in Vienna

5406-453: The Four Year Plan fell further and further behind its targets, Hermann Göring , the chief of the Four Year Plan office, began to press for an Anschluss as a way of securing Austria's iron and other raw materials as a solution to the problems with the Four Year Plan. The British historian Sir Ian Kershaw wrote: ...above all, it was Hermann Göring, at this time close to the pinnacle of his power, who far more than Hitler, throughout 1937 made

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5512-413: The German Reich. Hugo Preuss , the drafter of the German Weimar Constitution , criticized efforts to prevent an Anschluss; he saw the prohibition as a contradiction of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination of peoples. The constitutions of the Weimar Republic and the First Austrian Republic both included the political goal of unification, which parties widely supported. In the early 1930s,

5618-433: The German Reich. Anschluss might have occurred by democratic process had Austrian Nazis not begun a terrorism campaign. According to John Gunther in 1936, "In 1932 Austria was probably eighty percent pro- Anschluss ". When Germany permitted residents of Austria to vote on 5 March 1933, three special trains, boats and trucks brought such masses to Passau that the SS staged a ceremonial welcome. Gunther wrote that by

5724-411: The German boycott was too great. That summer Schuschnigg told Mussolini that his country had to come to an agreement with Germany. On 11 July 1936 he signed an agreement with German ambassador Franz von Papen , in which Schuschnigg agreed to the release of Nazis imprisoned in Austria and Germany promised to respect Austrian sovereignty. Under the terms of the Austro-German treaty, Austria declared itself

5830-415: The German economic sphere of influence was sufficient. In this context, having Austria annexed to Germany was the key towards bringing Eastern Europe into Göring's desired Grossraumwirtschaft ("greater economic space"). Faced with problems in the Four Year Plan, Göring had become the loudest voice in Germany, calling for an Anschluss , even at the risk of losing an alliance with Italy. In April 1937, in

5936-420: The German nation and Reich I announce to German history now the entry of my homeland into the German Reich." 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

6042-404: The German states in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1866 the feud finally came to an end during the Austro-Prussian War in which the Prussians defeated the Austrians and thereby excluded the Austrian Empire and German Austrians from Germany. The Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck formed the North German Confederation , which included most of the remaining German states, aside from a few in

6148-411: The M.12 pistols has been manufactured also in the 1930's for the Austrian army, but these deliveries had to be kept secret due to Austria being still bound by the provisions of the Treaty of St. Germain . After Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the German Police ordered 60,000 M1912 pistols rechambered to 9mm Parabellum which remained in service until the end of World War II. The Steyr M1912 handgun

6254-451: The M1912 was increased. Germany also placed an order for 10,000 Model 12s. It was also available commercially as the Steyr M1911 , which was quite popular with army officers. After the World War I, the production continued until 1920 for the purpose of re-equipping of first the Austrian Volkswehr and later the regular Austrian army (Bundesheer) , and also for reparation deliveries to the newly independent Czechoslovakia . A small batch of

6360-430: The Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart as his replacement. Hitler's plan was for Seyss-Inquart to call immediately for German troops to rush to Austria's aid, restoring order and giving the invasion an air of legitimacy. In the face of this threat, Schuschnigg informed Seyss-Inquart that the plebiscite would be cancelled. To secure a large majority in the referendum, Schuschnigg dismantled the one-party state. He agreed to legalize

6466-534: The Nazis, for whom it was an integral part of the Nazi " Heim ins Reich " ("back home to the realm") concept, which sought to incorporate as many Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans outside Germany) as possible into a " Greater Germany ". Nazi Germany's agents cultivated pro-unification tendencies in Austria, and sought to undermine the Austrian government, which was controlled by the Austrofascist Fatherland Front , which opposed unification. During an attempted coup in 1934 , Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss

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6572-479: The Treaty of Saint-Germain , which prohibited the unification of Austria and Germany, and approved the replacement of the Austrian states with Reichsgaue . The seizure of Austria demonstrated once again Hitler's aggressive territorial ambitions, and, once again, the failure of the British and the French to take action against him for violating the Versailles Treaty. Their lack of will emboldened him toward further aggression. Hitler's journey through Austria became

6678-417: The changes and allowed the Nazis to take over the government 'to avoid the shedding of fraternal blood [ Bruderblut ]'. Seyss-Inquart was appointed chancellor after midnight on 12 March. It is said that after listening to Bruckner's Seventh Symphony , Hitler cried: "How can anyone say that Austria is not German! Is there anything more German than our old pure Austrianness?" On the morning of 12 March 1938,

6784-420: The customs union, stating that it was in violation of Article 88 of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye . When the Nazis , led by Adolf Hitler , rose to power in the Weimar Republic, the Austrian government withdrew from economic ties. Like Germany, Austria experienced the economic turbulence which was a result of the Great Depression , with a high unemployment rate, and unstable commerce and industry. During

6890-445: The desire of socioeconomics and represented the genuine German nationalist feeling in Austria during the interwar period. Also, the general anti-Semitic consensus in Austria meant that a substantial amount of Austrians were more than ready to "fulfill their duty" in the "Greater German Reich". However, British historian Donny Gluckstein notes that Austrian socialists reacted with "disgust" to Renner's endorsement of Anschluss, provoking

6996-472: The end of 1933 Austrian public opinion about German annexation was at least 60% against. On 25 July 1934, chancellor Dollfuss was assassinated by Austrian Nazis in a failed coup. Afterwards, leading Austrian Nazis fled to Germany but they continued to push for unification from there. The remaining Austrian Nazis continued terrorist attacks against Austrian governmental institutions, causing a death toll of more than 800 between 1934 and 1938. Dollfuss's successor

7102-430: The end of the war reported some 9,873 units in issue. The physical evidence for such a large number having been produced is scant. Only a handful of examples exist today, most of which are low serial numbers, leading some experts to estimate that less than a thousand were made (Thomas Nelson claimed around 900). It is possible that most were destroyed by the Inter-Allied Commission after World War I. The associated patent for

7208-445: The entire world just how little hold National Socialism really had on that tiny country." Schuschnigg desperately sought support for Austrian independence in the hours following the ultimatum. Realizing that neither France nor Britain was willing to offer assistance, Schuschnigg resigned on the evening of 11 March, but President Wilhelm Miklas refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. At 8:45 pm, Hitler, tired of waiting, ordered

7314-416: The fire-selector was finally approved in December 1919, having been applied for three years earlier, although there is nothing to suggest that the weapon was ever produced gain. The weapons saw limit use post war with use by Austrian SS troops during the Second World War. A dual pistol mount and stock was also developed that converted two M1912/P16s into a (double pistol) submachine gun such weapon known as

7420-416: The idea of Anschluss was opposed amongst most political circles in Austria. Jászi noted that "the annihilation of the German labor movement showed to Austrian socialism what it could expect from an Anschluss under Nazi rule", while "Austrian Catholicism realized what its fate would be under a system which crushed the great Catholic Party of Germany, the Centrum ". It was also opposed by other groups, such as

7526-429: The invasion to commence at dawn on 12 March regardless. Around 10 pm, a forged telegram was sent in Seyss-Inquart's name asking for German troops, since he was not yet Chancellor and was unable to do so himself. Seyss-Inquart was not installed as Chancellor until after midnight, when Miklas resigned himself to the inevitable. In the radio broadcast in which Schuschnigg announced his resignation, he argued that he accepted

7632-714: The lead in the arms race. In early 1938, Hitler was seriously considering replacing Papen as ambassador to Austria with either Colonel Hermann Kriebel , the German consul in Shanghai , or Albert Forster , the Gauleiter of Danzig. Significantly, neither Kriebel nor Forster was a professional diplomat, with Kriebel being one of the leaders of the 1923 Munich Beerhall putsch who had been appointed consul in Shanghai to facilitate his work as an arms dealer in China, while Forster

7738-683: The leadership of Bismarck and Prussia formed—this excluded Austria. Besides ensuring Prussian domination of a united Germany , the exclusion of Austria also ensured that Germany would have a substantial Protestant majority. The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , the Ausgleich , provided for a dual sovereignty, the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary , under Franz Joseph I . This diverse empire included various different ethnic groups including Hungarians, Slavic ethnic groups such as Croats, Czechs, Poles, Rusyns, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, and Ukrainians, as well as Italians and Romanians ruled by

7844-556: The magazine load. A machine pistol version of the Steyr M1912, designated as the Repetierpistole, was commissioned at the end of 1915 and developed at the Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft under Major Franz Xaver Fuchs, commander of Standschützen -Bataillon Innsbruck II. Another Standschützen officer - one Herr Hellriegel - also developed a submachine gun that was tested in Tyrol in late 1915, implying that there

7950-538: The name "German-Austria" ( Deutschösterreich ); they also stripped Austria of some of its territories, such as the Sudetenland . This left Austria without most of the territories it had ruled for centuries and amid economic crisis. By the 1920s, the Anschluss proposal had strong support in both Austria and Germany, particularly to many Austrian citizens of the political left and center. One vehement supporter

8056-437: The new law older than 35 years of age and younger than 45 years. In effect only one Landwehr division (the 14th Landwehr Division ) was called up, the remainder of the Landwehr was used either to fill out the 3rd wave infantry divisions or formed Landesschützen battalions used for guard and occupation duty. In Switzerland , the Landwehr used to be a second line force, in which all citizens served for twelve years. It

8162-478: The order to send troops into Austria at one o'clock. Nevertheless, the German Führer underestimated his opposition. As Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edgar Ansel Mowrer , reporting from Paris for CBS News , observed: "There is no one in all France who does not believe that Hitler invaded Austria not to hold a genuine plebiscite, but to prevent the plebiscite planned by Schuschnigg from demonstrating to

8268-479: The philosophy Austrians were "superior Germans"). Schuschnigg called Austria the "better German state" but struggled to keep Austria independent. In an attempt to put Schuschnigg's mind at rest, Hitler delivered a speech at the Reichstag and said, "Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria or to conclude an Anschluss." By 1936, the damage to Austria from

8374-485: The polling stations and ballots were to be handed to an election official, undermining voter confidentiality. In addition, voter eligibility rules were liberally conceived and, therefore, open to abuse. Not only were those registered for the Nationalrat elections of October 1920 permitted to vote, but also those who registered themselves as living in Tyrol before April 1921, that is, less than a fortnight before going to

8480-466: The polls, as were all those Tyroleans who lived outside of the state; a train was even chartered from Bavaria to mitigate the financial burden of travelling 'home'. In the aftermath of a prohibition of an Anschluss, Germans in both Austria and Germany pointed to a contradiction in the national self-determination principle because the treaties failed to grant self-determination to the ethnic Germans (such as German Austrians and Sudeten Germans ) outside of

8586-479: The popular will in Austria and Germany, Hitler threatened an invasion and secretly pressured Schuschnigg to resign. A day before the planned referendum, the German Army crossed the border into Austria on 12 March, unopposed by the Austrian military. A plebiscite was held on 10 April, in which the ballot was not secret, and threats and coercion were employed to manipulate the vote, resulting in 99.7% approval for

8692-580: The racial dogmatism central to Hitler's ideology. Göring was far more interested in the return of the former German colonies in Africa than Hitler was, believed up to 1939 in the possibility of an Anglo-German alliance (an idea that Hitler had abandoned by late 1937), and wanted all Eastern Europe in the German economic sphere of influence . Göring did not share Hitler's interest in Lebensraum ("living space") as for him, merely having Eastern Europe in

8798-401: The referendum. On 9 March 1938, in the face of rioting by the small, but virulent, Austrian Nazi Party and ever-expanding German demands on Austria, Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg called a referendum (plebiscite) on the issue, to be held on 13 March. Infuriated, on 11 March, Adolf Hitler threatened invasion of Austria, and demanded Chancellor von Schuschnigg's resignation and the appointment of

8904-441: The rump Republic of German-Austria after 1918 largely favored some sort of union with Germany. An Austrian provisional national assembly drafted a provisional constitution that stated that "German Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German Austria is a component of the German Republic" (Article 2). Later plebiscites in the Austrian border provinces of Tyrol and Salzburg yielded majorities of 98% and 99% in favor of

9010-538: The running and pushed the hardest for an early and radical solution to the 'Austrian Question'. Göring was not simply operating as Hitler's agent in matters relating to the 'Austrian Question'. His approach differed in emphasis in significant respects...But Göring's broad notions of foreign policy, which he pushed to a great extent on his own initiative in the mid-1930s drew more on traditional pan-German concepts of nationalist power-politics to attain hegemony in Europe than on

9116-418: The slide forward, the breech face strips a round from the magazine into the chamber and the locking system engages the barrel and locks it with the slide in the battery position. A safety lever on the left side of the frame can be engaged by turning it into a notch on the slide to immobilize the slide. A disconnector system will also prevent the weapon from firing until the whole action is fully closed. Although

9222-416: The slide until the casing strikes the ejector and departs the weapon via the ejection and loading port. Shortly after ejection the slide's rearward travel is arrested by the compressed recoil spring and the abutment of mated surfaces of the slide and frame. The recoil spring is now free to return its stored energy to the cycle of the weapon by beginning to return the slide forward. As the return spring returns

9328-623: The southwestern region of the German-inhabited lands, and further expanded the power of the Kingdom of Prussia . Bismarck used the Franco-Prussian war (1870–1871) as a way to convince southwestern German states, including the Kingdom of Bavaria , to side with Prussia against the Second French Empire . Due to Prussia's quick victory, the debate was settled and in 1871 the " Kleindeutsch " German Empire based on

9434-625: The steel production targets, suggested that he wanted an Anschluss in the very near-future. Hitler told Goebbels in the late summer of 1937 that eventually Austria would have to be taken "by force". On 5 November 1937, Hitler called a meeting with the Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath , the War Minister Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg , the Army commander General Werner von Fritsch ,

9540-473: The strength of the conservative opposition to Anschluss and the real possibility that the majority would have voted against the Anschluss, the Socialists did not dare to hold a referendum in 1919. The French attempted to prevent an Anschluss by incorporating Austria into a Danubian Confederation in 1927. German Minister of Foreign Affairs Gustav Stresemann opposed it, as he saw it as an attempt to re-form

9646-459: The treaty of 11 July 1936 and reaffirm his support for Austria's national sovereignty. Browbeaten and threatened by Hitler, Schuschnigg agreed to these demands and put them into effect. Seyss-Inquart was a long-time supporter of the Nazis who sought the union of all Germans in one state. Leopold argues he was a moderate who favoured an evolutionary approach to union. He opposed the violent tactics of

9752-405: The value of the first line. By the re-organisation of 1859, the Landwehr troops were relegated to the second line. During the Weimar Republic , Germany was not allowed a standing army of more than 100,000 men. Thus conscription had been abolished. In the course of the rearmament of Germany , the Landwehr was reestablished on 21 May 1935 comprising all Germans liable for military service under

9858-546: The word means "defence of the country"; but the term as applied to an insurrectional militia is very ancient, and lantveri are mentioned in Baluzii Capitularia , as quoted in Henry Hallam 's Middle Ages , i. 262, 10th edition. The Austrian Landwehr was one of three components that made up the ground forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1868 and 1918, and it was composed of recruits from

9964-555: Was 9mm P12 (ö) (ö for Österreichisch , "Austrian"). Pistols in police service were distinguished by the eagle emblem above the trigger and most noticeably a "08" stamp on the left side of the slide, to show that they chambered German 1908-type ammunition." Landwehr Landwehr , or Landeswehr , is a German language term used in referring to certain national armies , or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large-scale, low-strength fortifications. In German,

10070-426: Was Kurt Schuschnigg , who followed a political course similar to his predecessor. In 1935 Schuschnigg used the police to suppress Nazi supporters. Police actions under Schuschnigg included gathering Nazis (and Social Democrats) and holding them in internment camps . The Austrofascism of Austria between 1934 and 1938 focused on the history of Austria and opposed the absorption of Austria into Nazi Germany (according to

10176-496: Was Otto Bauer , the prominent Social Democrat leader who served as Austria's Foreign Minister after the war. Support for unification with Germany came mainly from the belief that Austria, stripped of its imperial land, was not viable economically. Popular support for the unification faded with time, although it remained as a concept in the contemporary Austrian political discourse. After 1933, when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, desire for unification could be identified with

10282-717: Was a Gauleiter who had proven he could get along with the Poles in his position in the Free City of Danzig ; both men were Nazis who had shown some diplomatic skill. On 25 January 1938, the Austrian police raided the Vienna headquarters of the Austrian Nazi Party, arresting Gauleiter Leopold Tavs, the deputy to Captain Josef Leopold , discovered a cache of arms and plans for a putsch . Following increasing violence and demands from Hitler that Austria agree to

10388-547: Was abolished after the army reform in 1965. As a reference to this past, a number of Swiss wind bands bear the name " Landwehr " in their titles. The Baltic Landeswehr was the name of the armed forces of the puppet government of Latvia established by the Baltic nobility . The Baltic state was designed to be established from territories that were ceded by Imperial Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, but collapsed in

10494-498: Was also slow and cumbersome.. It is because of this extended magazine that the weapon earned its "P16" suffix, standing for Patrone 16 ("16 cartridges") - contrary to some reports, "P16" is not a reference to the year 1916. After successful trials, the M.12/P16 was accepted into service, reportedly with an order of 5,000 units being placed. They were issued exclusively on the Italian Front, to Tyrolean regiments fighting in

10600-469: Was assassinated by Austrian Nazis. The defeat of the coup prompted many leading Austrian Nazis to go into exile in Germany, where they continued their efforts to unify the two countries. In early 1938, under increasing pressure from pro-unification activists, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced that there would be a referendum on a possible union with Germany versus maintaining Austria's sovereignty to be held on 13 March. Portraying this as defying

10706-479: Was converted into a makeshift concentration camp. American historian Evan Burr Bukey warned that the plebiscite result needs to be taken with "great caution". The plebiscite was subject to large-scale Nazi propaganda and to the abrogation of the voting rights of around 360,000 people (8% of the eligible voting population), mainly political enemies such as former members of left-wing parties and Austrian citizens of Jewish or Romani origin. The Austrians' support for

10812-557: Was dissolved and power was centralized in the office of the chancellor , who was empowered to rule by decree . Rival parties, including the Austrian National Socialists, were banned, and government evolved into a corporatist , one-party government that combined the CS and the paramilitary Heimwehr . It controlled labor relations and the press. ( See Austrofascism and Patriotic Front ). The new regime emphasized

10918-507: Was not overwhelmingly popular among the Austrian population in 1919, which is one of the reasons why no nationwide referendum was held, even before it was forbidden by the Entente: Despite the initially compelling statistics, overall, it appears doubtful that a qualified majority of Austrians would have supported Anschluss with Germany. From the sparse evidence available, it appears that the pro-Anschluss movement could only hope for

11024-594: Was reached and Article 80 of the Treaty of Versailles stated that "Germany acknowledges and will respect strictly the independence of Austria, within the frontiers which may be fixed in a Treaty between that State and the Principal Allied and Associated Powers; she agrees that this independence shall be inalienable, except with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations ." Elite and popular opinion in

11130-501: Was some interest in machine-pistols and SMGs within Tyrolean Standschützen regiments. The M.12/P16 machine-pistol was an automatic conversion of the standard M.12 service pistol. The only technical difference between the standard M.12 and the M.12/P16 was the addition of a fire selector , situated on the right side of the trigger group. This gave an automatic fire rate of about 800 rounds per minute. By February 1916,

11236-536: Was supported by the united front of socialists and communists, as well as the Heimwehr, monarchist groups and the majority of the Austrian police. The Social Democrats also declared their readiness to support Schuschnigg in the event of a plebiscite under the conditions that immediately after such a plebiscite a definite negotiation be begun to include them in the Government. This support led Schuschnigg to announce

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