Hitler in Vienna, March 1938: The Anschluss Sites Then and Now
On 15 March 1938, about 250,000 people filled the Heldenplatz in Vienna to hear Adolf Hitler announce that his homeland had ceased to exist as a country. It is the single most reproduced image of the Anschluss, and almost everything written about it gets one detail wrong: he was not standing on a balcony. The Hofburg has no balcony facing the Heldenplatz. He stood on the Altan — the terrace of the Neue Burg wing, above the central entrance, part of the palace’s original nineteenth-century design.
That is worth being precise about, because there were five balconies in five days, and people constantly confuse them. The Federal Chancellery on Ballhausplatz, where the first swastika went up on 11 March. The town hall in Linz, where Hitler spoke on the evening of 12 March. The Hotel Imperial on the Kärntner Ring, where he appeared to the crowd on 14 March. The Neue Burg terrace on 15 March. And the Vienna city hall on 9 April, at the end of the plebiscite campaign.
This article follows all of them in order, together with the parades on the Ringstrasse, the wreath at the Äußeres Burgtor, the banner on the Looshaus at Michaelerplatz 3, and the bridge in Linz that was the only part of Hitler’s planned Führerstadt ever completed. Every location is shown as it was in 1938 and as I photographed it in 2017 and 2021. The second visit and the plebiscite of 10 April are covered in a separate article.
11–14 MARCH 1938: HOW AUSTRIA WAS ANNEXED IN FOUR DAYS
On March 11, 1938, after the Government of Austria had to accept the German ultimatum and resigned under constant international and military pressure, Kurt Schuschnigg, Bundeskanzler performed a radio speech to the nation. He declared the resignation of the Austrian Government and the devolution of authority to Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the pro-Nazi candidate. Schuschnigg also appealed to the army not to resist the German army crossing the border. On the same day, the president had also been pressured to accept the resignation of the government and agreed to a new chancellor. The newly created puppet government of Austria made an official appeal to Germany and asked military forces to enter the state to maintain order and peace. Even Seyss-Inquart was not aware of this document until the next day.
In the early hours of March 12, 1938, the German Wehrmacht crossed the international border with Austria according to a military plan, aimed at performing annexation regardless of the inner processes in Austria or any permission. The Austrian army did not resist the invasion. Heinrich Himmler was the first highly ranked German official who came to Vienna with his SS entourage in the early hours of March 12. Adolf Hitler arrived in Vienna on the evening of March 14, 1938, and the day after he was received with open arms by crowds of people. Within the next few days, the Nazis organized several events, including public appearances of Hitler, who announced Austria to be a part of the Third Reich. Hitler’s own account of this week — the improvisation, the decision taken almost on the road — is treated sceptically in Ian Kershaw’s two-volume biography, which reads March 1938 as the moment the regime discovered that improvisation worked.
The annexation went through partly because Rome had stopped objecting. Two months later Hitler travelled to Italy to acknowledge it in person: the state visit to Rome in May 1938 was, among other things, a thank-you for Mussolini’s silence in March.
BALLHAUSPLATZ, 11 MARCH: THE FIRST SWASTIKA ON AN AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT BUILDING
On March 11, 1938, Austrian Nazis had finally taken action in public just after the resignation of the government and the Chancellor’s statement on the radio. They put a swastika on the balcony of the Austrian Chancellery building, located at Ballhausplatz. The Nazi flag was planted over the main entrance and had become the first Nazi symbol put on an office building in Austria. The front part of the building, with a former chancellor (Schuschnigg), was also decorated with a banner: DURCH KAMPF ZUM SIEG (”Through Struggle to Victory”).
The building on Ballhausplatz was a residence of the puppet government, with Seyss-Inquart as the on-paper Chancellor, until it was dissolved on April 30, 1939. Then the Nazi administration took control of the building and maintained it until the end of the war. The construction was seriously damaged as a result of aircraft bombing in the spring of 1945 and was rebuilt in 1950. We now see poor differences when comparing photos that were taken in 1938 and the modern view.
THE LOOSHAUS ON MICHAELERPLATZ 3: THE BANNER AND THE BANK
After the Anschluss of Austria, several buildings in Vienna were decorated with Nazi symbols and banners with slogans. Looshaus on Michaelerplatz 3, named after its creator, was among the first ones to demonstrate the new order. A piece of cloth stated: GLEICHES BLUT GEHÖRT IN EIN GEMEINSAMES REICH – ”Same blood in combined Reich’‘. It meant the significance of the reunion between the German Reich and Austria as the historical nation of Aryan blood.
Loos House suffered bombing in 1944 and was restored after the war. At one point, it included a furniture store, and in 1987 Raiffeisenbank bought the famous construction and the bank is still here. The front side of the building with columns varied only slightly from 1938.
15 MARCH 1938: HITLER’S SPEECH FROM THE NEUE BURG TERRACE ON HELDENPLATZ
On March 15, 1938, two days after the Anschluss of Austria, the Nazis organized several celebrations within the streets of Vienna. Surely the most important and famous was a speech by Adolf Hitler, delivered from the balcony of HOFBURG, a former Habsburg palace. Crowds of people filled the nearby Heldenplatz (Square of Heroes). A few hundred thousand Austrians filled the square, and some of them even climbed two famous monuments – Prinz Eugen and Archduke Karl. Hitler delivered a pompous speech on the future of the German Reich and Austria – his motherland.
MILITARY PARADES ON THE RINGSTRASSE, 15–16 MARCH 1938
On March 15-16, 1938, German troops and the SS formations participated in several military parades within the streets of Vienna. In particular, along the Ringstrasse, the heart of the capital, which was a place of passionate interest for a young Adolf Hitler in 1906-1913.
Hitler and his military reviewed the troops along the Ringstrasse city ring. They took their place within the Maria-Theresien-Platz, between two museums: ‘’Natural History Museum’’ (Naturhistorisches Museum) and “The Museum of Art History” (Kunsthistorisches Museum). Hitler reviewed the troops with 105-mm guns.
Military units of the Austrian army, which had given their loyalty oath after the Anschluss of Austria, paraded in front of the Parliament of Austria, a place where young Adolf Hitler had received his early understanding of democracy and its “weakness”.
On March 16, 1938, units of the newly formed Austrian SS paraded the Heldenplatz, near the Hofburg Palace, a day after a historic speech given by Adolf Hitler.
THE ÄUSSERES BURGTOR: HITLER LAYS FLOWERS AT THE AUSTRIAN WAR MEMORIAL
On the same day, March 15, 1938, Adolf Hitler took part in another important ceremonial event, just next to the Heldenplatz and Hofburg Palace. Hitler laid flowers at the Austrian War Monument, devoted to the First World War (Great War at that time), and some of the thousands of monuments of this kind throughout Europe.
9 APRIL 1938: THE SECOND VISIT AND THE RATHAUS BALCONY
A month after the Anschluss of Austria (Annexation of Austria in March 1938), Adolf Hitler returned to Vienna to congratulate the voting of the Austrian people for the Anschluss. On April 9, a day before 99.73% of electors had voted for the joining of Germany, Adolf Hitler took part in a massive, pompous military parade – his motorcade moved along the streets of Vienna. The most triumphant part of the ceremony was a motorcade from the Burgtheater to the City Hall (Apr. 200 meters). Hitler was ceremonially welcomed by the Austrian nationalists, and he gave a burning speech inside the City Hall, devoted to past and expected events.
HOTEL IMPERIAL, KÄRNTNER RING 16: WHERE HITLER STAYED ON BOTH VISITS
During his visit to Vienna in March 1938, Adolf Hitler was a resident of the Hotel Imperial, located in the heart of the city on Kärntner Ring 16. Hitler and his attendants were accommodated in a small apartment on the first floor, but the famous photoshoots we know describe the Führer on the balcony on the second floor on March 14 and 20. One appearance shows Joseph Goebbels, and another one presents Heinrich Himmler just next to the German chancellor. Hitler also took an apartment in the Imperial Hotel during his second official visit in April (devoted to the plebiscite). After the war, the Hotel Imperial was taken over and occupied by the Soviet occupation troops. It is still a gorgeous and prestigious place to stay in Vienna. For decades, it welcomed several VIP guests: John Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, Richard Nixon, Queen Elizabeth II, and others.
BELVEDERE PALACE, 1940–1941: HUNGARY AND BULGARIA JOIN THE AXIS
On March 1, 1941, Adolf Hitler was present at the signing ceremony between Bulgaria and the Axis powers, which officially agreed to join the Tripartite Pact. Representatives of Japan and Italy were also present and gave their signatures, as opposed to Hitler being just the highest guest and observer. This ceremony took place in a gorgeous Belvedere palace that has changed slightly since 1941. It was not the first event of such a kind in Belvedere: on November 20, 1940, Hungary joined the Tripartite Pact also in the presence of Hitler.
Vienna in March 1938 was the first of these arrivals and the only one that was greeted. Eighteen months later Hitler entered a conquered capital rather than an annexed one, and the route he took through Warsaw in October 1939 looked nothing like this.
LINZ, 12 MARCH 1938: THE TOWN HALL BALCONY AND ADOLF-HITLER-PLATZ
Adolf Hitler performed his pompous entry into Austria on March 12, 1938, to journey across the country and visit places of his childhood and youth. His motorcade moved from the West to the East and visited several cities before reaching Vienna on March 13. After visiting Braunau am Inn – the city where he was born, Adolf Hitler moved to Linz. German Chancellor spent his childhood from 1899 until 1907 in Linz, and his parents were buried in a cemetery in Leonding (a suburb of Linz). After Leonding, Hitler entered Linz and was welcomed by the crowds of people, who supported the Anschluss of Austria.
Hitler’s motorcade moved through the Hauptplatz, the main square, which was renamed Adolf-Hitler-Platz (Square of Adolf Hitler) on the same evening. Thousands of citizens came to greet the German chancellor. A month later, on April 20, 1938, the city administration organized a pompous celebration of the 49th birthday of Adolf Hitler, which mainly took place within the main square.
In the late hours of the same March 12, 1938, Hitler gave his passionate speech from the tiny balcony of the Linz City Hall. He proclaimed the reunion of Austria and Germany to form an empire for centuries. The main square was crowded with thousands of people who wanted to see Hitler, and some of them even climbed the local statue, created in 1723, to have a better perspective of the event and the main guest.
THE NIBELUNGENBRÜCKE: THE ONLY PIECE OF FÜHRERSTADT LINZ THAT WAS BUILT
After the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938, Hitler’s motorcade entered Linz and moved to the Hauptplatz using a bridge, which did not satisfy Hitler. German leader had grandiose plans for Linz – he even planned to spend his last years here after all his victories and accomplishing his historical mission. The old bridge was demolished, and the Nazis built a new one, called Nibelungenbrücke.
The Nibelungenbrücke bridge remained almost unchanged as a reminder of the Nazi past after the Anschluss. After the war, a new administration demolished two statues of Siegfried and Kriemhild.
FIVE BALCONIES IN FIVE DAYS: WHICH ONE IS WHICH
Photographs of Hitler on a balcony in March and April 1938 are among the most reproduced of the period, and they are routinely mislabelled. Five different structures in two cities are involved, and only one of them is the famous one.
— 11 March, Ballhausplatz 2, Vienna. The balcony of the Federal Chancellery. Hitler was not there; Austrian Nazis hung the first swastika over the main entrance hours after Schuschnigg’s resignation broadcast. This is the balcony from which Austrian chancellors had addressed the country, and the building where Dollfuss had been murdered in 1934.
— 12 March, Hauptplatz, Linz. The narrow balcony of the town hall, on the evening of the day the Wehrmacht crossed the border. The square was renamed Adolf-Hitler-Platz the same evening.
— 14 March, Kärntner Ring 16, Vienna. The second-floor balcony of the Hotel Imperial, on the evening of his arrival in the city. He appeared here again on 20 March. Goebbels is beside him in one photograph, Himmler in another.
— 15 March, Neue Burg, Heldenplatz. Not a balcony but the terrace of the Neue Burg wing, facing the square. This is where the Anschluss was proclaimed to a crowd of roughly a quarter of a million.
— 9 April, Rathausplatz, Vienna. The city hall balcony, at the close of the plebiscite campaign — and unlike the others, this one was built for the occasion. Details are in my separate article on the April 1938 plebiscite.
If a photograph is captioned «Hitler on the balcony in Vienna» without a date, checking the background is the quickest way to tell: the Neue Burg terrace has the Heldenplatz and two equestrian monuments below it, the Imperial has the Ringstrasse, and the Rathaus has the Burgtheater opposite.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Where exactly did Hitler give his speech in Vienna? From the terrace of the Neue Burg wing of the Hofburg, above the central entrance, facing the Heldenplatz — on 15 March 1938. It is almost always described as a balcony, but the Hofburg has no balcony on that side: the structure is an Altan, a terrace that was part of the building’s original design. The Neue Burg today houses the Weltmuseum and part of the Austrian National Library.
Can you go up on the balcony? [Проверьте нынешний статус и доступ и ответьте прямо — это самый частый практический вопрос по объекту.]
How many people were on the Heldenplatz? The usual figure is around 250,000. Vienna’s schools were closed for the day, supporters were brought in from across the country, and a large part of the crowd came to see rather than to cheer — a distinction the propaganda photographs were designed to erase.
When did Hitler arrive in Vienna? On the afternoon of 14 March 1938, two days after the Wehrmacht crossed the border. He had driven from Braunau am Inn through Linz, spending the night of 12 March there, and spoke from the Hotel Imperial balcony on the evening of his arrival. The Heldenplatz speech was the following day.
Which balcony is which? Five are involved: Ballhausplatz on 11 March, Linz town hall on 12 March, the Hotel Imperial on 14 and 20 March, the Neue Burg on 15 March, and Vienna city hall on 9 April. The section above explains how to tell them apart from the background.
Did Hitler have an Austrian accent? He kept the Austrian pronunciation of his childhood in Upper Austria all his life, and it is clearly audible in the recordings — but he spoke a deliberately formal German rather than dialect, and the accent is closer to Bavarian than to Viennese. He had left Austria in 1913 and did not return until this week.
What is on the Heldenplatz today? [Один абзац: что там сейчас, как площадь используется, есть ли какое-либо обозначение события. Это ваш формат «тогда и сейчас», и к главной локации статьи он не применён.]
Where was the plebiscite held and what was the result? On 10 April 1938, across Germany and annexed Austria. The official Austrian result was 99.73 per cent in favour. My separate article covers the campaign, the ballot and Hitler’s second visit to Vienna.
