Anschluss before Hitler

This chapter examines the politics of the most prominent Anschluss organization of the era, the Österreichisch-Deutscher Volksbund (Austro-German People's League). Marketing itself as a “nonpartisan” association, the Volksbund included the supporters and opponents of democracy, Jews and anti-Semites, Catholics and Protestants, blue-collar workers and the middle classes. Focusing on the association's activities, this chapter investigates how these disparate groups could collaborate even as they were riven by political battles that emerged both within and about the association. It also explores the radical changes that affected the association after the 1933 Nazi seizure of power, thereby highlighting the fact that there was no straight line between 1918 and 1938.