Background
Kurt von Schuschnigg was born on December 14, 1897, at Riva on Lake Garda (now a part of Italy). He was the son of an Austrian army officer.
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("parts of these writings were submitted, chapter by chapt...)
"parts of these writings were submitted, chapter by chapter, to the censorship of the Gestapo"
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(International Law An Introduction to the Law of Peace)
International Law An Introduction to the Law of Peace
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1258768798/?tag=2022091-20
(On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria as ...)
On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria as Adolf Hitler prepared to annex the country. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, who had opposed the Nazi take-over of his homeland, was placed under house arrest and subsequently sent with his wife to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This is the gripping story of von Schuschnigg and his family as told by his son, who came of age during these dramatic events. His memoir is a tribute to the faith, hope and perseverance of his family and the many people who took great risks in order to help them survive Nazi rule and the Second World War. The story begins with the junior von Schuschnigg's boyhood and his father's efforts to maintain Austrian independence during the rise of Nazism in Germany, Fascism in Italy, and political unrest in Austria. After the Anschluss, von Schuschnigg's son was allowed to finish his education in Germany, where in order to avoid being drafted into the German army, he went to the naval academy. He ended up on a warship of the Third Reich, serving the regime that held his family captive. Von Schuschnigg recounts his many harrowing escapes, first as a young naval officer and later as a deserter on the run. At every turn, he is helped not only by his own wits but also by the mysterious working of Providence, which sometimes manifests itself in surprising acts of goodness by others. Includes 24 photos
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Kurt von Schuschnigg was born on December 14, 1897, at Riva on Lake Garda (now a part of Italy). He was the son of an Austrian army officer.
He was educated in a Jesuit gymnasium at Feldkirch. In 1922 he received a doctorate in law from the University of Innsbruck.
Schuschnigg served in the Austro-Hungarian army on the Italian front in World War I. He was decorated for bravery and was a prisoner of war during 1918-1919.
After practicing law in Innsbruck, Schuschnigg became a candidate of the Christian Socialist party for Parliament and, through the backing of the influential Christian Socialist leader Ignaz Seipel, was elected to Parliament in 1927. In 1932 Schuschnigg was named Austrian minister of justice, and in 1933 he assumed the portfolio of the Ministry of Education in addition to his earlier post. After the assassination of the Christian Socialist chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss during the abortive Nazi putsch of July 25, 1934, Schuschnigg became Austrian chancellor, pledged to defend Austria's independence from Nazi Germany.
On February 12, 1938, Adolf Hitler summoned Schuschnigg to Berchtesgaden, where he demanded that Schuschnigg order the amnesty of jailed Austrian Nazis and that he include Nazis in his Cabinet, particularly Artur Seyss-Inquart. Schuschnigg agreed to Hitler's demands, but on his return to Vienna he restated his vow to preserve Austria's independence. Hitler then ordered the Austrian Nazis to foment disorder throughout the country. When Schuschnigg ordered a plebiscite to ascertain the country's opinion of his determination to maintain Austria's independence, Hitler demanded the plebiscite's delay and he ordered troops to Austria's border on Schuschnigg's refusal. Schuschnigg then resigned, and he was succeeded by Seyss-Inquart, who called German troops into the country in March 1938.
After the German Anschluss, Schuschnigg was imprisoned by the Germans until 1945, when he was liberated by American troops. He then emigrated to the United States and became professor of political science at St. Louis University, Missouri, until 1967 when he returned to Austria and retired. He died in 1977.
Although Schuschnigg accepted that Austria was a "German state" and that Austrians were Germans, he was strongly opposed to Hitler's ambitions to absorb Austria into the Third Reich and wished for it to remain independent.
(On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria as ...)
("parts of these writings were submitted, chapter by chapt...)
(International Law An Introduction to the Law of Peace)
(Hard to find book)
Schuschnigg's political views were characteristic of Austrian clerical conservatism. He was a zealous Catholic, staunch antileftist, vehement anti-Nazi, and fervent legitimist. He would have preferred to solve Austria's political problems through the restoration of the Hapsburg dynasty. Schuschnigg had no recourse but to follow Dollfuss's reliance on Italian premier Benito Mussolini's protection against Nazi Germany's desire for Anschluss. The imposition by the League of Nations of sanctions against Italy for its aggression against Ethiopia in 1935 drove Italy into the arms of Germany and rendered Mussolini unable further to defend Austrian independence from German encroachment.
Quotations: "There is no question of ever accepting Nazi representatives in the Austrian cabinet. An absolute abyss separates Austria from Nazism. We do not like arbitrary power, we want law to rule our freedom. We reject uniformity and centralization. . . . Christendom is anchored in our very soil, and we know but one God: and that is not the State, or the Nation, or that elusive thing, Race. Our children are God’s children, not to be abused by the State. We abhor terror; Austria has always been a humanitarian state. As a people, we are tolerant by predisposition. Any change now, in our "status quo", could only be for the worse. "
In 1959 he lost his second wife, Vera Fugger von Babenhausen née Countess Czernin, whom he married by proxy in Vienna on 1 June 1938. His first wife had perished in a car accident on 13 June 1935.
