Tavs plan

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The Tavs Plan was an uncovered plan by the illegal NSDAP to take power in Austria .

The head of the Austrian NSDAP, Josef Leopold , learned in November 1937 from the German Reich Minister of War Werner von Blomberg about Hitler's plans to “join” Austria. As a result, Leopold developed plans for a National Socialist takeover in Austria under his leadership. The aim was the legalization of the NSDAP in Austria, the admission of National Socialists into the Austrian government and a referendum on the annexation of Austria to the German Reich. To this end, the pressure on Kurt Schuschnigg was to be increased by moving German troops to the border . At the same time, the Austrian SA was to be mobilized in order to enable the possible establishment of a National Socialist counter-government under Leopold in Linz . Leopold assumed that he would be supported by parts of the federal army and the executive, especially in the western federal states .

The Austrian government was informed of these plans by a report from the Austrian consul in Munich Ludwig Jordan on January 21, 1938. Jordan had received the information from the British Consul General Clair Gainer , who in turn had been informed in a conversation with the secretary of the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley that Leopold was planning an armed action in the spring with support from Germany.

A few days later, the Reichspost published excerpts from an interview published on January 22, 1938 in a Prague daily newspaper by Leopold Tavs , the Viennese Gauleiter of the illegal NSDAP and Leopold's deputy, which, in contrast to a declaration made by the Committee of Seven in February 1937, struck the independence of Austria and to respect the May constitution . Schuschnigg took this interview as an opportunity to instruct the police to search the seat of the Committee of Seven in Vienna's Teinfaltstrasse, and thus the illegal national leadership of the NSDAP, for evidence of subversive activities on the night of January 25th to 26th, 1938 . Treacherous documents were discovered in Leopold Tavs' desk, among other things, which is why the plan was named after him, although it was largely based on Leopold's considerations.

It was intended to ignite internal unrest and false flag attacks against German diplomats . The plan was for Franz von Papen to be murdered by National Socialists in uniforms of the Patriotic Front , in order to provide Hitler with an excuse to invade Austria.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The Committee of Seven was a body approved in 1937 through which members of the (banned) NSDAP could enter into dialogue with representatives of the Austrofascist government. It was approved in order to pacify the German national population. Tavs was a representative of the radical line within the Austrian National Socialists and a member of the Committee of Seven.

supporting documents

  1. ^ A b c Robert Kriechbaumer : The great stories of politics: political culture and parties in Austria from the turn of the century to 1945 . Ed .: Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies Dr.-Wilfried-Haslauer-Bibliothek (=  publication series of the Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies of the Dr.-Wilfried-Haslauer-Bibliothek, Salzburg . Volume 12 ). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2001, ISBN 978-3-205-99400-8 , pp. 718–720 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ Hugo Portisch : Austria I: The underestimated republic . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1989, ISBN 978-3-218-00485-5 , p. 520, 523 ff .
  3. ↑ January 1938: Austria is trapped. In: The press . February 1, 2008, archived from the original on August 12, 2018 .;