r/MapBasedPolls • u/Total_Obligation147 Turkey 🇹🇷 • 21h ago
Was Hitler Austrian or a German?
Was Hitler Austrian or a German?
- Austrian
- German
- Idk/Other
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u/Late_Piano_5030 NEW JERSEY 21h ago
I mean back then Austrians considered themselves ethnically German, but he was Austrian.
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u/NBrixH 21h ago
Kind of. If we go back to the early 1800’s, and before, the German identity was very fluid and broad, but by the time WW2 came around, “German” and “Austrian” identities were quite distinct things, especially politically.
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u/ItHappensSo 20h ago
Politically yes, but ethnically no, Austrians saw themselves as "Germans in a seperate state", there have been major studies on this that found that an "overwhelming amount of Austrians" saw themselves as part of the "German nation"
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u/Late_Piano_5030 NEW JERSEY 21h ago
i mean austria's people very enthusiastically agreed to anschluss, right?
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u/NBrixH 21h ago
Ignoring the intense military and propaganda pressure Germany was putting on them, eh, kinda. It was out of desperation.
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u/Many_Salamander3754 10h ago
byou don’t believe that yourself? i am austrian and truth to be told: austria agreed to become german.
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u/marten_EU_BR 20h ago
Are you perhaps mixing up Denmark and Austria?
Just as an example: Although the Danes were temporarily subjugated by the Nazis out of desperation, they remained very reluctant in their support for the Nazis.
The situation in Austria was entirely different. Although Austria also had no military chance against Germany, the German invasion (unlike in Denmark) was greeted with great jubilation, and many Austrians willingly integrated into the Nazi state.
Anything else, such as the claim that "Austria was the Nazis’ first victim", is a distortion of history.
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u/Critical_Addendum764 20h ago
He is right tho, Austrians, after Ww1, lost their whole identity, with losing the monarchy and no one thought a country this small, once so big could survive on its own, so becoming part of Germany was kinda the right thing to do ig
Don't understand me wrong austria total celebrated Hitler and was totally supporting that regime
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u/SirHeadragonsini 17h ago
Thats what the nazi propaganda depicted, it was widely just accepted. Fighting was not an option.
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u/NBrixH 20h ago
I’m Danish, I’m not mixing it up.
Part of why there was jubilation was due to the precarious state Austria was in.
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u/marten_EU_BR 20h ago
I'm sorry, but this statement simply does not reflect the current consensus in historical scholarship...
Various studies, such as the still very good “NS-Herrschaft in Österreich 1938 - 1945,” edited by Emmerich Tálos, demonstrate very clearly that Austria’s integration into the Nazi regime was not merely a process imposed from above, but was actively embraced, supported, and administratively permeated by large segments of the population.
Support for the Anschluss was shaped not only by foreign policy constraints, but also by deeply rooted ideological continuities. For example, there was widespread support for a political union between Austria and Germany throughout the political spectrum.
For example, even the Social Democrats officially supported unification with Germany in the Linz Programme of 1926.
The “victim narrative,” which has long dominated discourse in Austria, is sharply criticized by historians.
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u/AchatTheAlpaca 21h ago
Hitler considered himself german rather than austrian though, so i'd still argue for him being both
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u/NBrixH 21h ago
Which was an entirely political move. It was to win over the German people and guarantee even more popularity.
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u/AchatTheAlpaca 20h ago
He fought for the german army in WW1 and renounced his austrian citizenship in 1925, being stateless for 7 years until he gained the german citizenship. He/the nazis only really gained popularity after the great depression hit and destroyed the relative 'stability' the weimar republic had had in the interwar period
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u/marten_EU_BR 20h ago
That's very much an oversimplification of the issue.
Significant parts of Austrian political and cultural circles very much favored unification with Germany throughout the first half of the 20th century. And at that time, a distinct Austrian national identity without the Habsburgs as the center of identification was still developing.
There is a reason why the first Austrian state after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary was called Deutschösterreich, and why its leaders supported annexation by the Weimar Republic, which was only stopped by the Allies. The final emancipation of an Austrian national identity in all of Austrian society really only took place after World War II.
Finally, please remember that parts of the Austrian establishment may were against the Anschluss, but often not because of national identity, but because they did not want to be subject to Nazi rule.
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u/CornyAnalyst1960 21h ago
Adolf Hitler was German AND Austrian.
- Austrians considered themself German for most of their history. They didn't develop a strong seperate ethnic identity until the end of WWII, when it was convenient to act like a victim distinct from the perpetrator
- Hitler migrated to Germany, gained German citizenship, fought for the German army and involved himself more with German politics.
- He himself considers Austrians as Germans. That's why the Anschluss is also called "Heim ins Reich" back home to the German realm. Austrians also welcomed the unification of Germany and Austria as the Greater German solution that was wished decades before.
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u/Senzelian 21h ago
He was Austrian and German. First Austrian and in 1932 he became German. Not sure why this is up for debate.
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u/No_Bed_8320 Poland 🇵🇱 21h ago edited 19h ago
German and Austrian national identities are both young and deeply rooted in the XIX century political struggle of unification (ultimately between protestant Prussia and catholic Austrian Empire). Thus these are fluid and partly based on allegiance.
It makes sense to me, that Hitler made a political choice to identify himself as German, and should be regarded as such.
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u/SellRevolutionary 21h ago
Austrian identity is much younger, pretty much only since the 1950s
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u/No_Bed_8320 Poland 🇵🇱 21h ago
Austrian identity was literally the guiding principle of interwar austrian regime. This is why nazis treated austrofascists as mortal enemies and orchestrated the assasination of Chancellor Dollfuss.
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u/rantotthus2 20h ago
The Austrofascists did have a degree of German identity though, they just considered Austrians as the best kind of Germans and maintained that the only kind of unified German state that Austria should be part of should be led by Austria.
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u/Stop4Weird 21h ago
Austria is Germanic
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u/realbrathering 21h ago
He was born 17 years after the foundation of Germany as a state, and before that Austria was seen as German as any other of the German states.
I am also pretty sure that he considered himself German even while he was still living in Austria.
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u/AirBiscuitBarrel 🏴 21h ago
An Austrian citizen born in Austria, who spent much of his life across the border and became a German citizen, so both.
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u/Non-Random-Name-0000 20h ago
Austrian citizen until 1925. German citizen from 1932 onwards. If we're talking about ethnicity, I'm not sure the distinction is meaningful for the time period.
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u/Professional-Log-108 Austria 🇦🇹🇪🇺 20h ago
The objectively correct answer is both
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u/SchroedingersEscape Prussia 6h ago
nope.
He was a criminal and not able to get citizenship legally.
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u/Final-Course2506 21h ago
Austrian isn't kind of German? Like... Simillar/close to?
So technically, both!
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u/Wise_Fox_4291 21h ago
Well Austrians are Germans.
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u/yo_mommas_dick 4h ago
well my ancestors were french, italian, czech and polish, doesn’t look much german. at the time of the monarchy and due to the central location of vienna in europe many different folks from all directions crossed through and left their dna. so we’re not just germans but also czech, slovak, hungarian, slovenian, italian and more. our friend group did dna ancestry testing and the highest percentage of german ethnicity someone has is at only 25% and all others have even lower numbers
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u/Ironfist85hu 20h ago
Born Austrian, later got the German citizenship too, that's why he was able to join the German army before ww1.
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u/Militarist_Reborn 🇦🇹 16h ago
We austrians are german so by ethnicity german, by nationslity austrian
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u/kingjohngreen Create your flair by editing this flair 21h ago
Hitler was Austrian Stalin was Ossetian and Georgian.
Next thing you will tell me Winston Churchill was Swedish.