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Germans! Men and Women!
Within a few short days,
a radical change has taken place in the German Volksgemeinschaft
whose dimensions we might see today,
yet whose significance can only be fully appreciated by coming generations.
In the past few years, the rulers of the regime which has now
been banished often spoke of the special "mission" which,
in their eyes, this country was destined to fulfill.
A leader of the legitimists outlined it quite accurately in a memorandum.
Accordingly, the so-called sel-sufficiency of this Land of Austria,
founded in the peace treaties and contingent upon the mercy of foreign countries,
was to perform the function of preventing the formation of a
great German Reich and hence block the path of the German Volk to the future.
I hereby declare for this Land its new mission!
It corresponds to the precept which once summoned
German settlers of the Altreich to come here.
The oldest Ostmark of the German Volk shall from now on
constitute the youngest bulwark of the German nation and hence of the German Reich.
For centuries,
the storms of the East broke on the borders of the
Old Mark in the turbulent times of the past.
For centuries into the future,
it shall now become an iron guarantor of
the security and freedom of the German Reich,
and hence a safeguard
and hence a safeguard for the peace of our great Volk.
I know the old Ostmark of the German Reich will do justice
to its new task just as it once performed and mastered the old.
Hence in this hour,
I can report to the German Volk that the greatest orders of my life have been carried out.
As the Führer
As the Führer and Chancellor of the German nation and the Reich,
I now report to history that my homeland has joined the German Reich.