Quote Originally Posted by The Wizard
Actually, Germany was part of Austria until the King of Prussia proclaimed himself Emperor of Germany in 1871.

You see, the Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary etc etc was also Holy Roman Emperor, for whatever the title was worth.

Not that Germany was really an incorporated part of the Austrian Empire, but technically it was. Still, the Holy Roman Emperor did not have any real authority over the many princes of Germany, and had not had any since the Thirty Years' War.

The Anschluss happened because the representation of the Austrian people, its fascist government, agreed to it. ~Wiz
Sorry, but I think you are wrong. In Middle Age the German had a Kaiser that was elected by the noble men. He was called Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of German NationThe Kaiser was a noble man too. So he had his own counties. Every noble man tried to increase his posessions and his power. As the Kaiser usually wanted his son to be elected he gave the noblemen more rights in return. In the end he had no rights as Emperor, but he was still a mighty nobleman. The last Kaiser gave up because some German nobles allied with Napoleon. After that there was no more German Kaiser. The one that retreated was still leader of his counties in Austria, Hungaria, Czech, Yugo... : He called himself Kaiser of Austria and King of Hungary. So Germany was never a part of Austria.
The representatives of Austria agreed because they had to. Hitler put too much pressure on them. In fact the old government was arrested and killed (at least I guess so)!