Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an
Austrian politician who was the
Chancellor of the
Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor
Engelbert Dollfuss until the 1938 ''
Anschluss'' with
Nazi Germany. Although Schuschnigg considered Austria a "German state" and Austrians to be Germans, he was strongly opposed to
Adolf Hitler's goal to absorb Austria into the
Third Reich and wished for it to remain independent.
When Schuschnigg's efforts to keep Austria independent had failed, he resigned his office. After the Anschluss he was arrested, kept in solitary confinement, and eventually interned in various concentration camps. He was liberated in 1945 by the advancing
United States Army and spent most of the rest of his life in
academia in the
United States. Schuschnigg gained American citizenship in 1956.
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