History of Austria wanting to annex the country to the German Third Reich, resulting in the assassination of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. While the coup failed, Adolf Hitler succeeded in annexing Austria on 12 March 1938 as "Ostmark", until 1945. Austria was partitioned after the Second World War and then in 1955 became the independent sovereign state (Second Republic) that has existed to the present day. In 1995, Austria joined the European Union. The modern state of Austria is considered to have three geographic zones. The biggest third consists of the Alps, which covers 62.8% of the country's landmass. In the north, across the
Christian Social Party (Austria) chancellorship by the Nazi politician Arthur Seyss-Inquart and the succeeding "Anschluss" of Austria to Nazi Germany in March 1938, the Patriotic Front was banned and ceased to exist. After World War II, the party was not refounded. Most of the surviving CS supporters and politicians thought the name had become closely associated with Austrofascism; they founded the centre-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), which can be regarded as the linear successor of the CS. Prominent members of the CS included: Christian Social Party (Austria) The Christian Social Party (, CS) was a major conservative political party in the Cisleithanian crown lands