On March 13, 1938, Austrians were preparing to vote on whether Austria should be annexed by Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, they did not get to exercise their fundamental right due to the fact that Adolf Hitler's storm troopers had entered and occupied an independent, sovereign Austria the day before the vote.
Sixty-six years later in Taiwan, there is a national "defensive" referendum scheduled simultaneously with a direct presidential election on Saturday. The referendum issue has, however, become the most debated issue in the nation. Opposing the referendum, the pan-blue alliance of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party(PFP) has essentially called for a boycott. Their rationale is that there is no need for a defensive referendum at a time when China's military threat is not imminent.
When will it be the right time for a "defensive" referendum? When Beijing is ready to invade or has already started the military attack as the pan-blue camp has suggested? Will that be way too late? Maybe we can come up with some sort of an answer by reviewing Germany's Anschluss, or annexation, of Austria before World War II.
When Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, Austria had been a republic for only 18 years. Like today's Taiwan, where there are people who support unification with or annexation by the People's Republic of China, there were Austrians who were working for Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria. In 1935, an Austrian pro-Nazi gang murdered then-Austrian chancellor Englebert Dollfuss. In spite of the murder, the German-inspired coup attempt failed. At the time Italy was Austria's protector and Dollfuss, who had vowed to keep Austria independent of Germany, was pro-fascist and friendly with Benito Mussolini. When Dollfuss was killed, Italy sent troops to the border as a warning to Hitler to stay out of Austria. The Italian move effectively helped to kill the coup.
Kurt von Schuschnigg became Dollfuss' successor as Austria's chancellor. In February 1938, Hitler was ready to move against Austria. He presented von Schuschnigg with a list of demands, including that Austrian Nazis be left unrestricted and that top Austrian Nazis be included in Austria's government.
Germany would invade Austria if von Schuschnigg failed to act immediately.
Abandoned by Italy, which had became Germany's ally in 1937, and without hope of support from England or France, von Schuschnigg decided to give in to Hitler's demands. But he was still determined to keep Austria separate from Hitler's Germany.
On March 7, he contacted Mussolini, seeking opinion on a plebiscite. Mussolini warned that it would be a mistake to do so.
But von Schuschnigg ignored the warning and on March 9 called a national vote for March 13 to resolve the question of Anschluss once and for all.
On March 12, German troops, accompanied by Hitler himself, entered Austria, which quickly became and remained a German federal state until its liberation by the Allied Forces in 1945.
Hitler naturally would not allow Austrians to decide if they wanted Austria to be part of the Third Reich. It is also understandable that, being Hitler's ally after 1937, Mussolini discouraged Schuschnigg from holding a plebiscite. As for the rest of the major powers, the US had opted for diplomatic isolation after World War I, and Britain had chosen to appease Hitler while France was incapable of unilateral military action. Nazi Germany consequently had its way in the annexation of Austria.
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