The 18 months between September 1931 and February 1933, which are documented by various kinds of records from the Austrian State Archives and the Austrian Parliamentary Archives in volume eight of the publication series "Foreign Office Documents of the Republic of Austria 1918-1938", were ones of great distress for the Austrian Republic, and many more such were to come.
The book deals with the reaction of Austrian foreign policy to the vast ongoing economic crisis in Central Europe. Core issues of the documents published in this book are the Austrian Federal Chancellery´s attitude towards the Tardieu-Plan, the discussion about the loans from Lausanne and the diplomatic events surrounding the Hirtenberg weapons deal.
The irreconcilable relationship between the Social Democratic opposition and the ruling Christian Socialist party, which strictly opposed the "Anschluss" to the German Reich with its slogan "Wake up, Austria!", the radicalization of the German nationalist camp and its closeness to the German National Socialist Workers Party and the general mistrust of all parties toward Parliament were clear signs of the future.
The book concludes with a fundamental document illuminating Austria´s attitude to Europe´s political setting after the seizure of power in Germany by the National Socialists. [The open access PDF is available via the link below in the media library.]