Relations with Austria

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Austria, relations with. At the end of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian empire, which had fought alongside Germany, was dismembered by the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Austria was reduced to a state of just over six millions, one-third of whom lived in Vienna—‘a pathetic relic’ in Harold Nicolson's words. Many Austrians concluded that only union with Germany—Anschluss—could make a viable state, but this was specifically forbidden by the treaty of Versailles. The new state suffered severe economic and financial difficulties. A plan in 1931 for a customs union with Germany was vetoed by France and the subsequent collapse of the Creditanstalt bank helped to precipitate the world economic crisis. In 1934 the Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss, who had suppressed the Social Democrat opposition and taken emergency powers, was murdered by Austrian Nazis. Austria was briefly protected by Mussolini's Italy, but Mussolini's stock fell after the inglorious invasion of Abyssinia and he was obliged to come to terms with Hitler, who had made the Anschluss his top priority. In March 1938 when Dollfuss's successor, Schuschnigg, announced a plebiscite on union with Germany, Hitler sent in troops. Anthony Eden, British foreign secretary, resigned over Chamberlain's insistence on trying to conciliate Mussolini and the British ambassador in Berlin, Sir Neville Henderson, could scarcely be persuaded to make even a token protest: ‘I was always convinced that Austria was bound to become part of Germany in some form sooner or later. Austria is now eliminated and without bloodshed,’ he wrote. A plebiscite, conducted under Hitler's auspices, produced a 99 per cent vote for union.

During the Second World War the British government considered the possibility of Austria as part of a post-war confederation to remedy its economic isolation but was frustrated by the Soviet Union. After the war, Austria was reconstituted with its 1937 boundaries and occupied by the four allies for ten years. A peace treaty was postponed until 1955, when Austria was declared a neutral power and joined the United Nations. Its political stability, in contrast to the pre-war position, was remarkable, but the search for economic breadth continued. In 1959 it joined EFTA which, as an economic bloc, did not infringe Austrian neutrality, and in 1973, when Britain joined the EEC, Austria negotiated associated status. In 1995 Austria joined the EEC.

J. A. Cannon