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FOUR MONTHS AFTER Hitler took power, on the morning of Saturday, May 13, Hans Frank flew in a tri-motored German government plane to the Aspern Airfield to the east of Vienna, not far from Leon’s liquor store in Leopoldstadt. A newspaper described the opening of the plane’s door and the descent onto Austrian soil of seven German ministers, led by a beaming Frank, the first visit by representatives of the new Nazi government of Germany. The Reichstag had recently been destroyed by fire, federal elections held (at which the Nazis won the largest share of the vote), and new legislation adopted, allowing Hitler’s new government to pass laws that deviated from the constitution. These measures were viewed with anxiety by many in Austria, including its diminutive chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss.
Frank was known to have a close relationship with the führer, for service as his lawyer. Hitler’s numerous court appearances before 1933 were widely reported, and at least one media photograph showed Hitler on the steps of the courthouse, with Frank at his side in black legal robes.
Such images helped Frank. Years of loyal service to the National Socialists made him a familiar—and feared—figure. Within weeks of being appointed minister of justice, he signed a raft of measures to clean up Bavaria’s legal system. These specifically targeted Jews, forbidding them to enter courts of law and removing all Jewish judges and state’s attorneys from office. Frank’s direct involvement in such measures, coupled with his connection to Hitler, made the visit to Austria unwelcome, opposed by Chancellor Dolfuss as an unfriendly act. Frank didn’t help with a speech given shortly before the visit, threatening violent intervention if Austria didn’t align itself with Germany’s new direction.
Hitler with Hans Frank, outside a German court, 1928
Two thousand sympathizers greeted Frank at the Vienna airfield, singing “Deutschland über Alles” and the “Horst Wessel Song,” the Nazi anthem. Frank’s entourage was driven to the Vienna Brown House, the streets lined with citizens who cheered or whistled, depending on political affiliation. Many of Frank’s supporters wore white socks, the symbol of support for the Nazi cause. In the evening, Frank addressed a large crowd of supporters to mark the 250th anniversary of Vienna’s liberation from the Turks (a victory delivered by Jan Sobieski III, king of Poland, celebrated with the construction of the castle in Żółkiew, on a wall of which I had found the photographs placed there by a courageous Ukrainian curator). Frank delivered a personal greeting from Hitler. The führer would soon be with them “to visit the grave of his parents.”
Later, Frank met privately with journalists. The New York Times correspondent noted the Bavarian minister’s style, treating the group of twenty “as if it had been 20,000.” He continually raised his voice, screaming out objections to any negative views expressed toward him or Hitler. “It is only a question of what measures shall be taken,” he threatened, if Austria didn’t come into line with Germany.
From Vienna, Frank traveled to Graz, where he told a large crowd that an insult to him was an insult to Hitler, and then on to Salzburg. The visit caused a commotion in Austria, the Dollfuss government declaring him to be unwelcome. The visit was widely reported around the world, most likely picked up by Lauterpacht in London and Lemkin in Warsaw. Word would also have spread to the well-informed citizens of Lwów and Zhovkva (Żółkiew), many of whom followed developments in Austria.
A week after Frank’s departure, Chancellor Dollfuss delivered an address to reassure his citizens, words transmitted in translation to the United States. Austria would not emulate the German government by taking measures against Jews; it was a country inspired by modern conceptions in which “all citizens have equal rights.” He was referring to the Austrian Constitution crafted by Lauterpacht’s teacher Hans Kelsen, one that offered individual rights for all.
Frank’s visit left a mark, offering encouragement to many in Austria who were inclined to the Nazi approach. A year later, Dollfuss was dead, assassinated by a group of Nazi sympathizers, led by thirty-three-year-old Otto von Wächter, Lauterpacht’s classmate at the University of Vienna, who fled to Germany.