The way in which National Socialism came to power and consolidated its regime in the city where Hitler spent his "apprenticeship" was long considered a taboo in Austrian history. This standard work illuminates the annexation, expansion of rule, and radicalization. The terror of the SS and the influence of the Reich Germans encountered not only the eager cooperation of local National Socialists in the Austrian capital but also a rebellious petty-bourgeois movement that indulged in enthusiasm, expropriation of Jews, and pogroms. The radicalization that began in Vienna also had repercussions for the entire National Socialist Reich. Using Vienna in the years 1938 and 1939 as an example, Gerhard Botz demonstrates the functioning of the National Socialist takeover and consolidation of power through the everyday mechanisms of control, reward, and practice.