ABSTRACT
The separation of the Sudeten lands from Austria made matters even worse after 1918, for the loss of however slight a working-class element isolated the Austrian NSDAP farther from the common people. In Austria this meant opposition to the parliamentary democracy which was established in 1918 on the ruins of the Habsburg monarchy and which had made possible the rise of the labour movement to a position of strength in the state. Since the Austrian Nazi Party in the early 1920s had become a branch of the German party, its anti-democratic ideology needs no further examination. But the situation changed with the growth of national socialism in Austria and the obvious appeal of its anti-Jewish propaganda: and rather than oppose it, the conservatives preferred to cash in on this sentiment. Points for a political platform at a May Day rally included ‘rapprochement with the Reich’ and an ‘understanding with the Austrian national socialists on the basis of Austrian independence’.
