ABSTRACT
The German government put great pressure on the Austrian Chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, to include some Austrian Nazis in his government. Adolf Hitler had certainly long desired Anschluss between Germany and Austria, but it seems likely that even he had not intended it to take place at that particular moment and in that particular way. One of the serious differences which had hitherto existed between Italy and Germany concerned the South Tyrol, an area including the town of Brenner, which is largely German-speaking. The South Tyrol had belonged to Austria before the First World War, but was granted to Italy under the peace treaties. The French cartoon, drawn towards the end of 1938, takes its title from the two-faced Roman god Janus, and comments on the two-faced attitude of Benito Mussolini. Towards Britain, who had concluded a treaty with Italy, he was all smiles: but towards France he was aggressively hostile.
