Edmund Glaise-Horstenau

Edmund Glaise-Horstenau (also known as Edmund Glaise von Horstenau; February 27 1882, Braunau am Inn, Austria – July 20 1946, Nuremberg, Germany) was an Austrian officer in the Bundesheer and general in the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War.

Life and military career

He served in World War I as an officer on the General Staff and eventually headed the press department of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, and then the Austrian War Archives (as director from 1925 to 1938).

He was the number-two man in the hierarchy of the Austrian Nazi party in the middle and late 1930s behind the Austrian Nazi leader Dr Arthur Seyss-Inquart. He became a member of the State Council in 1934 as a Minister Without Portfolio, and from 1936 to 1938 he served as Minister of Interior in the cabinet of Kurt Schuschnigg after being appointed under pressure from Adolf Hitler. At the meeting at Berchtesgaden on February 12 1938 between Hitler and the Austrian Chancellor, Dr Kurt Schuschnigg, among other things Germany demanded that Glaise-Horstenau be made Minister of war in a new, pro-Nazi government, and that he would thereafter establish close operational relations between the German and Austrian Armies, leading ultimately to the assimilation of the Austrian into the German system. [Documents on German Foreign Policy, I, pp513-515]

After a month of diplomatic manoeuvering, as a last chance move Schuschnigg decided to hold a plebiscite within his country, asking if the Austrian people wanted union with Germany or whether they did not. This plebiscite, to be held on March 13 1938 was announced on March 9 1938. This caused a furious reaction in Berlin, and Glaise-Horstenau, among others was called to a discussion with Hitler. ["Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression" (Nuremberg documents) IV p 362] On March 11 1938 he appeared at Vienna airport, being met by Seyss-Inquart, with instructions from Hitler to halt the plebiscite. This demand was presented to Schuschnigg, who reluctantly agreed on being informed that the police forces, which were heavily infected with Nazism, could not be counted on.

The anschluss ultimately proceeded on schedule, and Glaise-Horstenau receded into the background after Austria became incorporated fully into the Third Reich, losing its national identity totally and becoming only a province of Germany known as the Ostmark.

From March 11 to 13 1938 he was Vice-Chancellor of Austria under Arthur Seyß-Inquart. After the anschluss he entered the Wehrmacht and served in Croatia, where he expressed opposition to the atrocities of the Ustaše (Croatian Fascist Para-militaries).Fact|date=February 2008

Death

Glaise-Horstenau committed suicide at Langwasser military camp near Nuremberg, Germany, on July 20 1946.

Footnotes

References

Broucek, Peter: Ein General im Zwielicht. Die Erinnerungen Edmund Glaises von Horstenau, Böhlau Wien
* Bd. 1: K.u.K. Generalstabsoffizier und Historiker, 1980.
* Bd. 2: Minister im Ständestaat und General im OKW, 1983.
* Bd. 3: Deutscher Bevollmächtigter General in Kroatien und Zeuge des Untergangs des "Tausendjährigen Reiches" 2005.