Goering (24 page)

We have seen that the principal part so far played by Goering in the
Anschluss
had been the preparation of Mussolini to receive just such a letter in this form from Hitler, in which he all but pleaded with the Duce to recognize the desperate position he was in, with Austria (as he asserted) conspiring with the Czechs to restore the Hapsburgs and with Schuschnigg breaking his promises that he would stop the cruel oppression of the Austrian Nazis. He gave Mussolini the most solemn assurances that he regarded the Brenner as the ultimate boundary between Germany and Italy. Meanwhile, German Army formations were moving toward the Austro-Bavarian frontier, and Goering's bombers were flying in to line the airfields.

Seyss-Inquart had now replaced Papen as the seemingly respectable instrument of Hitler's will in Austria. He was a young lawyer, a Catholic and a churchgoer, and Schuschnigg still felt he might negotiate with him. There was always hope when dealing with a Christian and a gentleman, who would know how to compromise and make special agreements. Without instructions from Hitler, Seyss-Inquart even agreed to the plebiscite.

It was at dawn on March 11 that Schuschnigg was wakened with the news that German forces were massing along the Bavarian frontier, which had been sealed. Soon after six the Chancellor was kneeling at Mass in St. Stephen's Cathedral; he then went straight to his office. It was not until ten o'clock that Seyss-Inquart and Glaise-Horstenau, another Nazi minister in Schuschnigg's Cabinet, who had just brought Hitler's instructions by air from Berlin, told him bluntly from Hitler that the plebiscite must be called off. After consulting President Wilhelm Miklas, Schuschnigg finally agreed to this early in the afternoon.

It was at this point that Goering took control of the negotiations, working entirely by telephone from Berlin. By his own order a transcription was kept of twenty-seven separate interchanges between his office and Vienna during the afternoon and evening of March 11. By the time Goering and his agents had finished, Austria belonged to Germany.
²

These abrupt, excited and confused conversations, in which Goering imposed his will at long distance on the men who were struggling to carry out his orders and bury the obstinate corpse of an independent Austria, are deeply characteristic of him. He leaped from one point of instruction to another as it occurred to him, which resulted in a muddled and disorderly expression of what he wanted them to do. There was no self-discipline, no compunction in him, only a highly charged, temperamental thrust. It was the final travesty of legal form when force is beating at the door.

Hitler through Goering demanded the resignation of Schuschnigg as Chancellor, the appointment of Seyss-Inquart in his place by President Miklas and the immediate formation of a National Socialist Cabinet. Wilhelm Keppler arrived from Berlin in the afternoon to replace Papen, bringing with him the wording for a telegram which Hitler instructed Seyss-Inquart to send back to Berlin as soon as he was legally the Chancellor. The telegram requested the help of German forces to put down disorders in Austria. Keppler, Seyss-Inquart and Glaise-Horstenau formed a cabal in the Austrian Chancellery while Schuschnigg stood helplessly by. It was President Miklas himself who proved the final obstacle while Goering roared at now one person, now another, in the German embassy, getting confused and contradictory information from anxious but ill-informed officials.

At 5 P.M.:

DOMBROWSKI [
at the German embassy
] : Seyss-Inquart has talked to the Austrian Chancellor until two-thirty, but he is not in a position to dissolve the Cabinet by five-thirty because it is technically impossible.

GOERING: By seven-thirty the Cabinet must be formed and several measures must have been taken . . . I want to know what is going on. Did he tell you he is now the Chancellor?

DOMBROWSKI: Yes.

GOERING: As just transmitted to you?

DOMBROWSKI: Yes.

GOERING: Good, go on. What time can he form the Cabinet?

DOMBROWSKI: Possibly by nine-eighteen.

GOERING: The Cabinet must be formed by seven-thirty.

DOMBROWSKI: By seven-thirty.

GOERING: For that purpose Keppler is about to arrive . . . The demand to legalize the party must also be made.

DOMBROWSKI: All right.

GOERING: All right, with all its formations, S.A., S.S. . . . The Cabinet must be entirely National Socialist.

DOMBROWSKI: Good, that also has been settled, by seven-thirty that must be—

GOERING [
interrupting
] : That must be reported by seven-thirty, and Keppler will bring you several names to be incorporated . . . The party has definitely been legalized?

DOMBROWSKI: But that is—it isn't even necessary to discuss that.

GOERING: With all of its organizations?

DOMBROWSKI: With all of its organizations within the country.

GOERING: In uniform?

DOMBROWSKI: In uniform.

GOERING: Good . . . Be careful, the daily press must leave immediately, and our people.

DOMBROWSKI: Well, as to the man whom you mentioned with regard to the Security Department—

GOERING: Kaltenbrunner. Yes, he is to get the Security Department, and then, mark this, immediately the press representatives . . . (overtalking, with Dombrowski saying “Yes” several times).

At 5:20 P.M.:

GOERING [
to Franz Ullrich Hueber, his brother-in-law
]: Look, Franz, you take over the Ministry of Justice, and, corresponding to the wish of the Führer, you also take over for the time being the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Later on someone else will replace you in this . . . The Cabinet has to be formed by seven-thirty, otherwise it's all for nothing; otherwise, things will take their own course, and very different decisions will be made . . . And then another important factor which I forgot to mention before: The Reds, who were given arms yesterday, have to be disarmed in the quickest way, and just as well in a ruthless manner; that is rather a matter of course.

At 5:26 P.M.:

SEYSS-INQUART: The Federal President has accepted the resignation [of Schuschnigg], but his point of view is that no one but the Chancellor is to be blamed for Berchtesgaden and its consequences, and therefore he'd like to entrust a man like Ender with the chancellorship.

GOERING: Yes—now, look here. This will change the whole situation. The Federal President or someone else has got to be informed this is entirely different from what we were told. Dombrowski said at your request that you had been given the chancellorship . . . that the party had been restored, the S.A. and S.S. had already taken over police duties, and so on.

SEYSS-INQUART: No, that is not so. I suggested to the Federal President that he entrust the chancellorship to me; it takes usually three to four hours . . .

GOERING: Well, that won't do! Under no circumstances! The matter is in progress now; therefore, please, the Federal President must be informed immediately that he has to turn the powers of the Federal Chancellor over to you and to accept the Cabinet as it was arranged.

The conversation was then interrupted by the arrival of a fresh message that the Federal President would respond only to diplomatic action from the Reich and had refused to see the three National Socialists charged with pressing acceptance of Goering's requirements on him.

GOERING: Give me Seyss. [To
Seyss-Inquart
] Now, remember the following. You go immediately together with General Muff and tell the Federal President that if the conditions which are known to you are not accepted immediately, the troops that are already stationed at or advancing to the frontier will march in tonight along the whole line, and Austria will cease to exist . . . Please inform us immediately about Miklas' position. Tell him there is no time now for any joke; just that, as a result of the false report we received before, action was delayed, but now the situation is that tonight the invasion will begin from all the corners of Austria. The invasion will be stopped and the troops will be held at the border only if we are informed by seven-thirty that Miklas has entrusted you with the Federal chancellorship . . . Then call out all the National Socialists all over the country. They should now be in the streets. So remember, a report must be given by seven-thirty. . . . If Miklas could not understand it in four hours, we shall make him understand it now in four minutes.

SEYSS-INQUART: All right.

At 6:34 P.M.:

GOERING: What does he have to say?

KEPPLER: Well, he would not agree to it.

GOERING: Well, then, Seyss-Inquart has to dismiss him. Just go upstairs again and tell him plainly that Seyss will call on the National Socialist guards, and in five minutes the troops will march in by my order.

The telephone connection broke down; during the interval Keppler went to see the President again. When the line was restored, Seyss-Inquart spoke to Goering to report on the position.

GOERING: Well, how do we stand?

SEYSS-INQUART: Please, Field Marshal, yes.

GOERING: Well, what is going on?

SEYSS-INQUART: Yes, ah, the Federal President won't budge from his original position . . .

GOERING: But do you think it possible that we shall come to a decision in the next few minutes?

SEYSS-INQUART: Well, the conversation can't take longer than five to ten minutes. I reckon it can't take longer.

GOERING: Listen. So I shall wait a few more minutes . . . Then you inform me by priority call in the Reich Chancellery, as usual. But it's got to be done fast . . . If it can't be done, then you will have to take over the power all right.

SEYSS-INQUART: But if he threatens?

GOERING: Yes.

SEYSS-INQUART: Well, I see, then we shall be ready.

GOERING: Call me on priority.

At 8:03 P.M.:

SEYSS-INQUART: Dr. Schuschnigg will give the news over the radio that the Reich government has presented an ultimatum.

GOERING: I heard about it.

SEYSS-INQUART: And the government itself has abdicated . . . They are waiting for the troops to march in.

GOERING: Well, they were appointed by you?

SEYSS-INQUART: No.

GOERING: Did you dismiss them from their office?

SEYSS-INQUART: No. No one was dismissed from his office, but the government has itself pulled out and let matters take their course.

GOERING: And you were not commissioned? It was refused? SEYSS-INQUART: It was refused now, as before. They are taking a chance with the invasion and expect that, if it actually takes place, executive power will be transferred to other people.

GOERING: Right. I shall give the order to march in, and then you make sure that you get the power. Notify the leading people . . . that everyone who offers resistance or organizes resistance will immediately be subject to our court-martial, the court-martial of our invading troops. Is that clear?

SEYSS-INQUART: Yes.

GOERING: Including leading personalities. It doesn't make any difference.

SEYSS-INQUART: Yes, they have given the order not to offer any resistance.

GOERING: Yes, that doesn't matter. The Federal President did not authorize you, and that also can be considered as resistance.

SEYSS-INQUART: Yes.

GOERING: Well, now you are officially authorized.

SEYSS-INQUART: Yes.

GOERING: Well, good luck. Heil Hitler.

The obstinate courage of President Miklas, who resolutely refused to yield to any outside pressure concerning whom he should appoint as Chancellor, spoiled the legal game that Goering was trying to play. The streets were filled with Nazi demonstrators yelling for the blood of Schuschnigg, who, realizing that there was nothing more that he could do, broadcast a brief farewell to the Austrian people. “We have yielded to force,” he said, “since we are not prepared even in this terrible hour to shed blood. . . . God protect Austria!” Deserted now by everyone, President Miklas continued his stubborn resistance in the face of Seyss-Inquart's direct challenge to his authority. He did not finally give in until midnight; then and then only did he yield to the appointment of Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor.

After Schuschnigg's broadcast Goering returned to the telephone.

GOERING [
to General Muff, military attaché at the embassy
] : Tell Seyss-Inquart the following. As we understand it, the government has abdicated, but he himself remains, so he should continue to stay in office and carry out necessary measures in the name of the government. The invasion is going to happen now, and we shall state that everyone who puts up any resistance will have to face the consequences . . . I should try to avoid chaos.

MUFF: Seyss will do so. He is already making a speech.

GOERING: . . . Best if Miklas resigns.

MUFF: Yes, but he won't. It was very dramatic. I spoke to him almost fifteen minutes. He declared that he will in no circumstances yield to force.

GOERING: So. He will not give in to force. . . . What does this mean? He just wants to be kicked out?

MUFF: Yes. He doesn't want to move.