The Austrian town of Amstetten has revoked an honorary citizenship conferred in 1939 on Adolf Hitler. The citizenship was given to Hitler in 1939, after the Nazi leader visited the town in the wake of the Anschluss, the Austrian populace's willing incorporation of Austria into Nazi Germany.
The town council voted overwhelmingly to revoke Hitler's citizenship.
Two members of the council – associated with the right-wing Freedom Party – abstained from the vote, claiming that there was no need to revoke Hitler's citizenship, since the Nazi regime ended in 1945.
The question of revoking Hitler's citizenship was first raised by a member of the Green Party who sits on the council. The member said that historic research on the town had unveiled the story of Hitler's honorary citizenship, after his visit to the town.
A larger research project had discovered more examples of prominent Nazis who had been given such titles by other Austrian towns, the Green Party official said.
The post WWI 1919 peace treaty of St. Germain prohibited unification of Germany and Austria in any form in order to prevent the resurgence of a strong Germany. After Hitler's rise to power, however, the Nazis took over the idea. The Austrian government refused to cooperate, but the people wanted the union. The Nazis then forced Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg to agree to Hitler's demands for Anschluss. The Chancellor called for a referendum and in a Nazi planned coup d'etat, was forced to resign, so it never occurred. The Austrian president refused to name an Austrian Nazi, Seyss-Inquart, to replace him, and the German agent in Vienna telegraphed HItler to send German troops. Adolf Hitler occupied Austria on Mar. 11, 1938 without resistance, and, to popular approval, annexed it as the province of Ostmark. Austrian citizens filled the streets of their own accord to cheer the arrival of the goose-stepping Nazi Wehrmacht soldiers and cooperated fully in the anti-Jewish aftermath..