On 12 March 1938, German troops crossed into Austria at 2.30 a.m. in Braunau, the city of Adolf Hitler’s birth, located along the southern border of the German Empire. Around midday, Goebbels read out a proclamation from Hitler on the radio. Before leaving Berlin, Hitler appointed Hermann Göring as his deputy in the event of his absence. The Führer flew to Munich in order to cross the border into Austria with a motorcade later that afternoon. First he visited his hometown of Braunau, where he was greeted by a very large and enthusiastic crowd, before making a two-day journey on towards Vienna.

Later that evening he arrived in Linz to great cheers to deliver a speech to 80,000 listeners that had gathered in the town square. In an emotional speech from the balcony of the Linz city hall, Hitler declared Germany and Austria (Ostmark) united as one entity, the beginning of the Großdeutsches Reich (Greater German Empire). The crowd chanted “One People, One Empire, One Leader.” Witnesses report seeing tears in Hitler’s eyes. Divine providence had called him from this very city to unite and lead the empire.

The following morning, Adolf Hitler departed Linz for a car trip to Leonding, his boyhood hometown. At noon a reception was held by the new mayor Sepp Miesenberger in Hitler’s parents’ original house. Afterwards he walked over to the cemetery to visit his parents’ graves. He was greeted there by his former guardian Josef Mayrhofer with his five daughters, his schoolmate Wilhelm Hagmüller, and his former history teacher at the Hube secondary school. At his parents’ grave, a child read a special poem and presented flowers to the Führer. Hitler placed them at the gravesite and remained alone there for several minutes before departing the place extremely touched.

Afterwards he returned back to Linz, where the law on the annexation of Austria to the German Reich was signed at the Hotel Weinzinger. Germany will grow by 6.7 million inhabitants and 83,870 square kilometers. At dinner with the mayor in the hotel, Hitler takes over the sponsorship of Linz and promises the construction of a new Danube bridge. The mayor of Leonding also informs Hitler that the town square will be renamed Adolf-Hitler-Platz.

The following day, under the ringing of bells, Adolf Hitler triumphantly entered Vienna on the evening of 14 August 1938 following his Anschluss, the German annexation of Austria. First departing Linz by car he headed to Melk, for a reception by the German-Austrian army on the main square and subsequent drive through the abbey on Wiener Straße. Entering Vienna, Hitler passed by the Schönbrunn Palace and Mariahilfer Strasse before his arrival at the Hotel Imperial on Kärntner Ring.

On the morning of 15 March 1938, Hitler visibly had tears in his eyes as he traversed through the Heldenplatz in Vienna. His cavalcade progressed along the boulevard, passing the dissolved parliament and the town hall before stopping at the Hofburg Palace where the emperor once lived. From the terrace of the Neue Berg wing, he welcomed to the Reich the 200,000 jubilant Viennese gathered before him in the Heldenplatz from the balcony of the Hofburg.

Following the acceptance of a grand parade of German and Austrian soldiers on the Ringstrasse, a reception was held with the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer, in the Hotel Imperial. Afterwards Hitler had a reunion with his sister Paula Hitler and visited the grave of his beloved niece Geli Raubal in the central cemetery. Hitler spent just 24 hours in Vienna before returning back to Berlin. Vienna became the provincial capital.