German nationalism in Austria Austria falls and is swallowed up by Germany will mark the beginning of European chaos." The Austrofascist party, Fatherland Front, would echo the sentiments of Mussolini, and continue to struggle for an independent Austria. Nazis in both Germany and Austria intended that the German Reich would quickly annex Austria, the homeland of its leader, Adolf Hitler. They attempted to bribe many low-ranking Heimwehr leaders, and also attempted to bring Starhemberg into their fold, in effect merging the Heimwehr with the Nazi Freikorps. Gregor Strasser, an early, prominent Nazi figure, was charged with this effort. When Starhemberg, a fervent believer in
Austria under National Socialism previous two days in his birthtown of Braunau am Inn, made a triumphal entry into Vienna and gave a speech on Heldenplatz in front of tens of thousands of cheering people, in which he boasted of his "greatest accomplishment": ""As leader and chancellor of the German nation and Reich I announce to German history now the entry of my homeland into the German Reich."" Ernst Kaltenbrunner from Upper Austria, sentenced to death in 1946 at the Nuremberg trials, was promoted SS-Brigadeführer and the leader of the SS-upper section Austria. Beginning on March 12 and during the subsequent weeks 72,000 people