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Vienna is probably not over 20% Nazi, but in the rural provinces Austrian Nazis run up to as high as 80%. In Graz, the chief city of Lower Austria, adjoining Hungary, the Nazi flag was hoisted above the town hall last week while Schuschnigg was speaking in Vienna. Next day the locally popular Mayor claimed he had resigned before a telegram from the Chancellor demanded he take "a vacation." Graz looked like one big Nazi meeting, with Hitler's picture in every shop whose owner did not want his window smashed, with peddlers selling Nazi lapel buttons, with crowds singing the Nazi Horst Wessel song. To cow Graz, Dr. Schuschnigg promptly sent 16 tanks, army troops, 20 army bombers.
German newspapers gave less than usual encouragement last week to Austrian Nazis, but many Austrians feared this as an ominous lull before a bloody storm. Men pointed out that Berlin was one of the last great German cities to go Nazi, that Austrian Nazis might conquer Austria from Graz, as Hitler conquered Germany from Munich. If the French would fight a German invasion of Austria, it is by no means certain they would invade Austria to suppress an uprising by Austrian Nazis. General Franco has not had to fight the French Army, and it is unlikely that Hitler would give Austrian Nazis less aid than he gave Franco. In such a situation it seemed eminently possible that Austrian Nazis might deliberately foment civil war.
Besides sending troops to suppress Nazi agitation in Graz and Linz, there were rumors in Vienna that Chancellor Schuschnigg had hidden troops in all parts of the capital to prepare for an uprising. Meantime he was reported to have ordered Nazi Seyss-Inquart to go to Graz and quiet the Nazis or be dismissed for inefficiency as Minister of Interior.