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In the end Schuschnigg's "goodby" meant that he resigned as Chancellor. Just before midnight the Austrian Federal Radio capitulated by broadcasting the German Nazi Horst Wessel song. Horst Wessel, author of the song, was a Nazi who, before his death (in a 1930 brawl with Communists), incontestably earned his living soliciting customers for Berlin strumpets. The degradation of the Austria of Mozart, of Schubert and of Schuschnigg was thus total. Nazi Storm Troops shortly took Schuschnigg to an Austrian home where he was held in "protective custody."
Snip, Snip. The terrible crises which have been frequent in the lesser European countries since the War have bred statesmen with tough nerves. On the day Austria was being invaded, out to an orchard went Austrian Nazi Minister of Interior Dr. Seyss-Inquart, incipient Chancellor.
Snip, snip, he pruned away at fruit trees for something like an hour and a half, then returned to Vienna refreshed about the time Chamberlain and Ribbentrop were "joining the ladies" in London. The German blood of this Nazi is a good deal colder than the blood of Hitler. In stolid fashion he waited around. After Schuschnigg's broadcast "good-by," Seyss-Inquart kept going on the air by electrical transcription every half-hour or so, asking Austrians not to resist the invading German Army, saying the troops of the Führer would bring "happiness." All he had to do was avoid assassination by anti-Nazis before the arrival of the German Army and Adolf Hitler.
Behind patrols of tanks, armored cars and motorcycles mounting machine guns and antitank guns, 40,000 German soldiers riding in trucks, clinking their metal and squeaking in their leather, had been sweeping over the border since dawn. At Salzburg, Innsbruck, Kufstein, the German commanders rolled in, sent their staff officers to summon the Austrian commanders to the Rathaus, where the Austrians with unanimous cheerfulness accepted the decree that they were now part of the German Army.
A thousand German troops piled out of a fleet of bombers which had just roared into Vienna's Aspern airport, the vanguard of motorized forces which did not arrive until later that morning. These troops were the escort of Nazi Police Chief Heinrich Himmler, who had arrived to take charge of the capital's constabulary. Herr Himmler found the regular Viennese police, already wearing swastika brassards, augmented by roving bands of Hitler Youth and Storm Troops. A great roundup and lockup of Socialists, Communists, labor unionists and Fatherland Fronters. the only legal party under Chancellor Schuschnigg, was instantly begun, and Seyss-Inquart sped to Linz to greet his master, Hitler. Ultimatum-bringer Josef Bürckel stayed in Vienna to reorganize the Austrian Nazi Party and prepare a plebiscite for April 10 (see p. 18).
When Germany's 98th Alpine Infantry reached Brenner Pass (Italian frontier), its officers exchanged friendly and formal greetings with the Italian command on the other side of the line.