March 23, 1936
Nuremberg, Germany
“It’s a great honor to meet the Führer of Germany.”
“Oh, you flatter me.”
SS guards in black uniforms stood in ranks to either side while Hakenkreuz banners and Austrian flags whipped in the wind.
Dollfuss was really short. He was barely 150 cm, so standing next to SS men over 180 made him look like a kid beside an adult.
To shake his hand I practically had to bow.
“Your soldiers’ discipline is excellent. As expected, the Führer’s Guard is different.”
“Haha, you flatter me. Please, let’s go inside.”
The summit with Dollfuss ran in a warm, cordial mood.
For the Austrian delegation, I’d ordered more Austrian flags than Hakenkreuz banners hung around Nuremberg, and the delegation seemed reassured seeing their colors flying all over the city.
“Germany wants a relationship with your country that’s deeper and friendlier than before.”
I deliberately picked only what Dollfuss would want to hear.
Praise for his record as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, criticism of the Austrian communist organizations he’d crushed lately, and a list of ways Germany and Austria could cooperate.
The smile never left Dollfuss’s face. Hooked perfectly.
“We in Austria also want to continue our friendly ties with Germany. After all, our two nations are brothers.”
“Exactly. I may be Germany’s Führer now, but how could I forget Austria, my birthplace?”
After two hours of talks, Dollfuss agreed that Germany and Austria should conclude a military alliance.
As the meeting was winding down, he lobbed a sudden question at me.
“Führer, forgive me, but may I ask one thing?”
“Go ahead.”
“What are your long-term intentions for Austria? It’s awkward to bring up, but there are rumors in some corners of Austria that Germany plans to annex us as just another province.
Of course it’s only rumor, but the anxiety it causes is not negligible. I would like to hear the Führer’s own view on this, while we have the chance.”
He wasn’t saying it outright, but it was basically, “Are you planning to eat Austria later or not?”
Dollfuss himself was the guy who insisted Austria must persist as a state separate from Germany, so you could say he was asking his own question.
“You worry too much. Whoever’s spreading that rumor, I’m the Führer of Germany. Austrian affairs belong to the Austrian government, not the German one.
However close two countries are, each has its own government. My sole, ultimate aim is simply that Austria and Germany be allied and maintain an eternal friendship.”
Only then did Dollfuss seem fully at ease.
“I see. Thank you, Führer, for answering such a rude question so sincerely.”
“That much is only natural. It’s not just any country—we’re talking about where I was born.”
After the meeting we held a banquet. When it ended, we had a “weapons expo.”
Dollfuss and the Austrian delegation showed intense interest in German-made new weapons. From the newest machine gun, the MG 34, and the latest submachine guns, the MP 35 and EMP 35, to the Panzer I and Panzer II.
“Oh, so this is that new German tank.”
Austria didn’t have any tanks at all, so they kept exclaiming as they circled the I and II.
They weren’t worth gawking at that hard.
The aircraft were great eye candy too.
The Ar 65 biplane, currently Germany’s main fighter; the still-in-development Bf 109; the in-service He 50, He 51, and Hs 123 bombers.
Dollfuss’s eyes sparkled as he examined the aircraft. Like a kid seeing a brand-new toy on a store shelf.
I didn’t miss the opening.
“What do you think, Chancellor? Germany’s pride and joy.”
“Astonishing. We don’t have any of these in Austria, which makes me want them even more.”
That wasn’t just polite lip service. His face said everything.
Imagine you’ve been driving M48 Pattons and flying F-4 Phantoms, then suddenly you see an M1 Abrams and an F-35 Lightning. Of course your eyes pop.
“Now that Germany and Austria are allies, the Austrian Army will soon have these as well.”
“Truly?”
Dollfuss brightened and asked. I nodded as if it were obvious.
“We’re allies now. Why would I lie? Austria’s security is Germany’s security, and Germany’s security is Austria’s.”
On the spot I promised to gift Austria one Panzer I and one Panzer II. The Austrian delegation was stunned.
The Panzer II, sure, but even the Panzer I had been in mass production for less than two years—both were still new.
Of course they’d bug out when I said I’d give away something that valuable.
“What’s so surprising? This is the level of token I can offer as a symbol of friendship.”
“Thank you so much, Führer! We knew you were no ordinary man, but we didn’t expect you to be this generous!”
The Austrians went home grinning ear to ear.
I do plan to swallow Austria someday, but not yet.
In the last loop it wasn’t until 1940 that I slow-cooked Austria until they begged to be annexed, so there’s no reason to rush.
But the world never runs on schedule.
***
April 1, 1936
Road between Leoben and Kapfenberg, Austria
“You seem in good spirits lately.”
Kurt Schuschnigg, the Education Minister and Dollfuss’s closest confidant, asked. Dollfuss nodded.
“How could I not be?”
The talks with Germany had gone well. He’d gotten a direct answer from the Führer that there was no interest in annexing Austria, and on top of that, two precious new tanks as gifts.
He didn’t announce the nitty-gritty—the Führer’s answer or other sensitive bits—to the public, but he trumpeted that he’d wrung many presents out of Germany.
Aren’t the two tanks the Führer gifted proof enough?
The public cheered the government’s achievement, and Dollfuss’s approval naturally rose.
Right now the only group in Austria that doesn’t support Dollfuss is the Communists.
“I hear yesterday in the capital the Reds were caught handing out leaflets denouncing me. Persistent bastards.”
Dollfuss grumbled. Since becoming Chancellor, his biggest passion project was smashing the Communists and socialist outfits parasitizing Austria.
Driven underground by his repression, the Communists were still secretly active across the country.
“Don’t worry. The Heimwehr is working hard. In three or four years, the Reds will vanish from this country.”
The Heimwehr was a fascist-leaning paramilitary Dollfuss created, serving as the bodyguard force for him and his Fatherland Front.
In the Austrian Civil War two years earlier, the Heimwehr had been instrumental in crushing the Austrian Popular Front.
“As they should. The Reds, a cancer on society, must all be—”
At that moment, the explosion hit.
Dollfuss didn’t know what was happening to him. When he felt his body lift, the overpressure shredded him.
What had been Dollfuss split into hundreds, thousands of chunks of meat, big and small, smeared across the equally mangled interior of his official car.
***
“Say that again.”
—Yes, my Führer. News just in. Chancellor Dollfuss has been killed in a terror attack. We’ve triple-checked it. It’s confirmed.
“Huh…”
What the hell.
Dollfuss, dead? How long has it been since we talked?
The sudden news of his assassination shocked Austria, and me too.
I ordered checks to see if the Austrian Nazi Party had gone rogue, but the answer that came back was they had no idea either.
Right—those guys obey me blindly; they wouldn’t freelance an operation like that.
Some hotheads might have done it and are stonewalling, but even Heydrich said that was unlikely, so I’ll trust that.
So who the hell killed Dollfuss?
***
It didn’t take long to identify the assassin.
The perpetrators of Dollfuss’s assassination turned out to be the Austrian Communist Party.
To be precise, a resistance group operating under Communist orders—they were the ones who actually carried out the hit.
History had him die at the hands of the far right; this time it was the Communists.
Talk about shitty luck. In the last loop, how did he die? Right—heart attack. Schuschnigg died earlier than Dollfuss in a car crash.
Dollfuss died on the spot, but Schuschnigg survived to become the next Chancellor. Not that he was in great shape.
The bomb took off his left leg, and he hit his head; they say he can’t talk for more than ten minutes. He won’t last long either.
“My Führer, perhaps Heaven has handed us a chance.”
Göring said it. Even Goebbels, who doesn’t get along with Göring, chimed in.
“He’s right, my Führer. If we handle this well, it can break our way.”
“I think so too.”
As they said, this might be bad for Dollfuss and his family, but not for Germany. Quite the opposite.
Dollfuss was a fascist, yes, but he was also the fiercest Austrian nationalist opposing union with Germany.
Now that he’s gone, the work ahead just got a lot easier.
Lately, things keep falling into place.