ABSTRACT
More than 1.3 million "Austrians" were drafted, between 1938 and 1945, into the Wehrmacht. The Second World War is without a doubt a foundational event in modern Austrian history. After the Anschluss of Austria by the Third Reich, the Austrian Army was integrated into the Wehrmacht. Austrian soldiers were treated, on the whole, as equals within the hierarchical structure. The integration of the "Austrians" in the Wehrmacht ran—despite a few hiccups—according to plan. The first Blitzkriegs of 1939/40 showed that the ostma rkische soldiers did not fit the prejudiced picture of "Kamerad Schnurschuh" many Germans had of them. When the war with the Soviet Union began in 1941, the majority of ostma rkische divisions were scattered in the area of Heeresgruppe Sud. Once integrated within the Wehrmacht, the ostma rkische soldiers participated in the annexation of the Sudetenland and the occupation of Czechoslovakia.
