Anschluß

Literally "annexation", by convention,the 'Anschluss was the March 1938 Nazi takeover of Austria by measures short of full-scale war. Austria, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, was always a goal of Nazi Pan-German nationalism The process accelerated with the Austro-German Agreement of July 1936, with a secret annex that gave additional power to the Austrian Nazis. They steadily increased subversion and terrorism throughout 1937, and Austrian police captured documents indicating they planned to stage a revolt in the spring of 1938, which could provide a pretext for German intervention.

Former German Chancellor Fritz von Papen had been a special representative to Austrian Chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg. Von Papen revealed that one of the captured documents had called for his own killing by German agents, again as a pretext for intervention. Ironically, von Papen had escaped death in the Night of the Long Knives purge in 1934. Hans Lammers informed him, on 4 February, that he was fired, along with Constantin von Neurath and others. Von Papen began keeping hidden copies of his correspondence with Hitler.