Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression The fact of the reorganization of the Nazi party in Austria
is corroborated by a report of one of the Austrian Nazis,
Rainer 812-PS). (812-PS contains three parts. First there is
a letter dated 22 August 1939 from Rainer, then Gauleiter at
Salzburg, to Seyss-Inquart, then Reich Minister. That letter
encloses a letter dated 6 July 1939, written by Rainer to
Reich Commissioner and Gauleiter Josef Buerckel. In that
letter, in turn, Rainer inclosed a report on the events in
the NSDAP of Austria from 1933 to 11 March 1938, the day before
the invasion of Austria.)
The letter from Rainer to Buerckel indicates that he was
asked
[Page 461]
to prepare a short history of the role of the party. He
states that after the Anschluss Hitler and the general
public gave Seyss-Inquart alone credit for effecting the
Anschluss. It is Rainer's belief in that credit belongs to
the entire Party, the leaders of which had to remain
underground. And so Rainer writes his report to show that
the Party as a whole is entitled to "the glory which was
excessively ascribed to one person, Dr. Seyss-Inquart".
Apparently Seyss-Inquart heard from Buerckel what Rainer
said, and wrote to Rainer asking for an explanation. To
avoid misunderstanding, Rainer prepared for Seyss-Inquart a
copy of his letter to Buerckel and his report.
The Rainer report tells of the disorganization of the Nazi
party in Austria and of its reconstitution. The second and
third paragraphs of the report state:
"Thus the first stage of battle commenced which ended
with the July rising of 1934. The decision for the July
rising was right, the execution of it was faulty. The
result was a complete destruction of the organization;
the loss of entire groups of fighters through
imprisonment or flight into the 'Alt-Reich'; and with
regard to tie political relationship of Germany to
Austria, a formal acknowledgment of the existence of
the Austrian State by the German Government. With the
telegram to PAPEN, instructing him to reinstitute
normal relationships between the two states, the
Fuehrer had liquidated the first stage of the battle;
and a new method of political penetration was to begin.
By order of the Fuehrer the landesleitung Munich was
dissolved, and the party in Austria was left to its own
resources.
"There was no acknowledged leader for the entire party
in Austria. New leaderships were forming in the nine
Gaus. The process was again and again interrupted by
the interference of the police; there was no liaison
between the formations, and frequently there were two,
three or more rival leaderships. The first evident,
acknowledged speaker of almost all the Gaus in Autumn
1934 was engineer REINTHALLER (already appointed
Landesbauernfeuhrer (leader of the country's farmers)
by Hess). He endeavored to bring about a political
appeasement by negotiations with the government, with
the purpose of giving the NSDAP legal status again,
thus permitting its political activities.
Simultaneously Reinthaller started the reconstruction
of the illegal political organization, at the head of
which he had placed engineer NEUBACHER." (812-PS)
(c) Secret Contacts Between German Officials, Including
[Page 462]
Papen, and the Austrian Nazis: the Use by the Austrian Nazis
of "Front" Personalities. Two cardinal factors about the
Nazi organization in Austria should be borne in mind. First,
although the Fuehrer had on the surface cast the Austrian
Nazis adrift, in fact German officials, including Papen,
maintained secret contact with the Austrian Nazis, in line
with Hitler's desires. German officials consulted and gave
advice and support to the organization of the Austrian
Nazis. In the second place, the Austrian Nazis remained an
illegal organization, organizing for the eventual use of
force in an "emergency." But in the meanwhile they deemed it
expedient to act behind "front" personalities, such as Seyss-
Inquart, who had no apparent taint of illegality.
Mr. Messersmith relates in his affidavit that he obtained a
copy of a document outlining this Nazi program.
"For two years following the failure of the July 25
Putsch, the Nazis remained relatively quiet in Austria.
Very few terroristic acts occurred during the remainder
of 1934 and as I recall in 1935 and most of 1936; this
inactivity was in accordance with directives from
Berlin as direct evidence to that effect, which came to
my knowledge at that time, proved. Early in January,
the Austrian Foreign Minister, Berger-Waldenegg,
furnished me a document which I considered accurate in
all respects and which stated:
'The German Minister here, von Papen, on the
occasion of his last visit to Berlin, was received
three times by Chancellor Hitler for fairly long
conversations, and he also took this opportunity
to call on Schacht and von Neurath. In these
conversations the following instructions were
given to him:
'During the next two years nothing can be
undertaken which will give Germany external
political difficulties. On this ground, everything
must be avoided which could awaken the appearance
of Germany interfering in the internal affairs of
Austria. Chancellor Hitler will, therefore, also
for this reason not endeavor to intervene in the
present prevailing difficult crisis in the
National Socialist Party in Austria, although he
is convinced that order could be brought into the
Party at once through a word from him. This word,
however, he will, for foreign political reasons,
give all the less, as he is convinced that the,
for him, desirable ends may be reached also in
another way. Naturally, Chancellor Hitler declared
to the German Minister here, this does not
indicate any disinterestedness in the idea of
Austria's independence. Also, before every-
[Page 463]
thing, Germany cannot for the present withdraw
Party members in Austria, and must, therefore, in
spite of the very real exchange difficulties, make
every effort to bring help to the persecuted
National Socialist sufferers in Austria. As a
result, Minister of Commerce Schacht finally gave
the authorization that from then on 200,000 marks
a month were to be set aside for this end (support
of National Socialists in Austria). The control
and the supervision of this monthly sum was to be
entrusted to Engineer Reinthaller, who, through
the fact that he alone had control over the money,
would have a definite influence on the Party
followers. In this way it would be possible to end
most quickly and most easily the prevailing
difficulties and division in the Austrian National
Socialist Party.
'The hope was also expressed to Herr von Papen
that the recently authorized foundation of German
"Ortsgruppen" of the National Socialist Party in
Austria (made up of German citizens in Austria)
would be so arranged as not to give the appearance
that Germany is planning to interfere in Austrian
internal affairs." (1760-PS)
The report of Gauleiter Rainer to Reichskommissar Buerckel
in July 1939, outlines the further history of the party and
the leadership squabbles following the retirement of
Reinthaller. In referring to the situation in 1935, he
mentions some of the contacts with the Reich Government in
the following terms:
"In August some further arrests took place, the victims
of which were, apart from the Gauleaders, also
Globocnik and Rainer. SCHATTENFROH then claimed,
because of an instruction received from the imprisoned
LEOPOLD, to have been made deputy country leader. A
group led by engineer RAFFELSPERGER had at this time
also established connections with departments of the
Alt-Reich (Ministry of Propaganda, German Racial
Agency, etc.) and made an attempt to formulate a
political motto in the form of a program for the
fighting movement of Austria." (812-PS)
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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Volume
I Chapter IX
Aggression Against Austria
(Part 4 of 19)
(Part 4 of 19)