Nazis Will Respect Independent Austria, Hitler Tells Reich

Germany will not violate the independence of Austria, Chancellor Adolf Hitler declared today in an address opening the Reichstag and marking the first anniversary of his accession to power. In a speech lauding the Nazi party and its accomplishments during its year of power, the brownshirt leader asserted that the present strained relations between Germany and Austria were no fault of Germany’s.

“To the German government’s great regret”, he said before the Reichstag members and the foreign diplomatic corps assembled in the Kroll Opera House, “its relations with the present Austrian government are not satisfactory.

“The fault is not ours. The assertion that Germany plans to violate Austria is absurd and incapable of proof. But it is only natural that an idea which has deeply stirred and permeated the German nation would not halt at the frontier posts of a country which for centuries was an integral part of the German Empire. No revolutionary ideas were ever stopped at the frontiers, as the French revolution has shown.

“If the present Austrian government thinks it necessary to suppress this movement forcibly, it is its own affair, but it will have to bear the consequences”, he threatened.

He warned that Germany cannot tolerate “such humiliating treatment” as an unwelcome reception to its nationals. He triumphantly asserted that “all Germans- now traveling abroad, except emigrants, are National Socialists.”

Reviewing the accomplishments of the Nazi regime, Hitler listed the strengthening of religious institutions by “removing political organizations.”

His speech contained the customary attacks on the Versailles treaty, Communism and the German Republic, and asserted that the Nazis had saved Germany from collapse. It gave positive assurance that Hitler and his party would have nothing to do with a restoration of the monarchy.