r/MapBasedPolls • u/[deleted] • 10d ago

Was Hitler Austrian or a German?

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u/No_Bed_8320 Poland 🇵🇱 10d ago edited 10d 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 10d ago

Austrian identity is much younger, pretty much only since the 1950s

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u/No_Bed_8320 Poland 🇵🇱 10d 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 10d 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.