[Turning to the defendant.] Now Austria has been incorporated, it is a part of the Greater German Reich, with Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. Did you remain Federal Chancellor or did you receive another state function after the seizure of power?
SEYSS-INQUART: On the 13th during the night, I reported on the Anschluss Law to the Führer; and I took the opportunity of discussing three questions with him immediately. That was, however, not at all easy, for the Führer was deeply moved and wept.
First, I asked that the Austrian Party might retain relative independence and be headed by an Austrian as the provincial leader; second, that Austria as a state might also enjoy a certain degree of independence. To the first request the Führer said, “Possibly”; to the second he said, “Yes”; Austria would receive her own governor, a Reichsstatthalter. I then rose and asked the Führer that I be allowed to return to my private practice as a lawyer. As a third request, I asked that the unjust exchange rate of 2 schillings to 1 mark be altered to 1.50. The Führer agreed to that also.
On 15 March, on the occasion of the celebration which has already been mentioned here, the Führer told the radio announcer, “Announce that Reichsstatthalter Seyss-Inquart will now speak.” That to me was actually the first news of my appointment as Reichsstatthalter. I held that post until the end of April 1939.
DR. STEINBAUER: Who really directed policy in Austria after the Anschluss?
SEYSS-INQUART: Bürckel was sent to Austria immediately with the task of reorganizing the Party and preparing the plebiscite. The interference of Bürckel and his collaborators, and various plans somewhat strange and adverse to Austrian conceptions, caused me, on 8 April, in Bürckel’s presence, to call the Führer’s attention to this sort of co-ordination and in my hearing the Führer said to Bürckel: “Bürckel, you must not do that, otherwise the enthusiasm of the Austrians for the Anschluss will change to dissatisfaction with the Reich.”
Nevertheless, a few weeks later he made Bürckel Reich Commissioner for the Reunion. He controlled the Party and politics and propaganda, including church policy, and he had the right to give me instructions in state matters.
DR. STEINBAUER: You know that the Prosecution make charges against you in connection with the policy in Austria shortly after the Anschluss. The first charge is with regard to the Jewish question, namely, that you participated in this grievous treatment of the Jewish population, or that you were responsible for it.
What can you say to that?
SEYSS-INQUART: I cannot at all deny it; for certainly, as chief of the civil administration, I issued orders along that line in my field of authority, though Bürckel claimed that the Jewish question, as such was part of his field; and in a document which has been submitted here, he called the Jewish question a matter arising as a consequence of the Anschluss.