Edit: 'Clean Austria Myth' - don't Reddit on a mobile phone, kids.
From 'Panzer Leader,' Heinz Guderian:
"I went with the main body of the 2nd Panzer Division, while the Leibstandarte 'Adolf-Hitler,' which had now joined us after its long drive from Berlin, brought up the rear. The flags and decorations on the tanks proved highly successful. The populace saw that we came as friends, and we were everywhere joyfully received. Our soldiers from the First World War had pinned their decorations to their chests and saluted us as we drove by. At every halt the tanks were decked with flowers and food was pressed on the soldiers. Their hands were shaken, they were kissed, and there were tears of joy. No untoward incident marred the occasion that had for so many years been longed for by both sides, the much postponed Anschluss. Children of one nation, split by unfortunate politics into two during so many decades, were now happily united at last."
Now I know that Guderian is hardly the most unbiased of sources, nor the most authoritative for discussing this particular question, but when I was reading this I found myself reminded of a memory from when I was looking around a Viennese Military Museum.
There, an English-speaking guide was giving a tour to schoolchildren and he said something along the following: "I want to make it absolutely clear: Austria was Hitler's first victim. That's a fact that was backed up by an American declaration after the war. Austria was the first nation Hitler forcibly annexed."
I remember fighting the urge to scoff and ask him exactly why the Austrians were so eager to fight for the Wehrmacht, why their own leader turned to Fascism and why it was his own countrymen who murdered him, threw open the gates and lauded the "invading army." Even the idea of Austria as a distinct political entity apart from the idea of Germany itself is a modern invention. The guy was spewing propaganda and it made me seeth.
Exactly how has this narrative been established in Austria? Is its creation attributable to Cold War politics? Has Austria properly addressed it's past vis-a-vis its enthusiasm for Nazism? Was Hitler a German and Mozart an Austrian?
Alternatively, is my assessment totally false? Was there significant resistance to Anschluss within Austria? Were there elements of the populace who were hostile to it? Was the idea of Austria as a nation something that transcended Hapsburg historical and political meddling?
ここには何もないようです