Anschluss refers to the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The word's German spelling, until the German orthography reform of 1996, was Anschluß and it was known as the Anschluss Österreichs. Prior to the Anschluss, there had been strong support from people of all backgrounds – not just Nazis – in both Austria and Germany for a union of the two countries; the desire for a union formed an integral part of the Nazi "Heim ins Reich" movement to bring ethnic Germans outside Nazi Germany into Greater Germany. Earlier, Nazi Germany had provided support for the Austrian National Socialist Party in its bid to seize power from Austria's Fatherland Front government; the idea of an Anschluss began after the unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire in 1871. Following the end of World War I with the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1918, the newly formed Republic of German-Austria attempted to form a union with Germany, but the Treaty of Saint Germain and the Treaty of Versailles forbade both the union and the continued use of the name "German-Austria".

The idea of grouping all Germans into one nation-state had been the subject of debate in the 19th century from the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 until the break-up of the German Confederation in 1866. Austria had wanted a Großdeutsche Lösung, whereby the German states would unite under the leadership of the German Austrians; this solution would have included all the German states, but Prussia would have had to take second place. This controversy, called dualism, dominated Prusso-Austrian diplomacy and the politics of the German states in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1866 the feud came to an end during the German war in which the Prussians defeated the Austrians and thereby excluded Austria and the German Austrians from Germany; the Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck formed the North German Confederation, which included the remaining German states and further expanded the power of Prussia. Bismarck used the Franco-Prussian war as a way to convince other German states, including the Kingdom of Bavaria, to side with Prussia against the Second French Empire.

Due to Prussia's quick victory, the debate was settled and in 1871 the "Kleindeutsch" German Empire based on the leadership of Bismarck and the Kingdom of Prussia formed – this excluded Austria. Besides ensuring Prussian domination of a united Germany, the exclusion of Austria ensured that Germany would have a substantial Protestant majority; the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Ausgleich, provided for a dual sovereignty, the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, under Franz Joseph I. The Austrian-Hungarian rule of this diverse empire included various different ethnic groups including Hungarians, Slavic ethnic groups such as Croats, Poles, Serbs, Slovaks and Ukrainians, as well as Italians and Romanians ruled by a German minority; the empire caused tensions between the various ethnic groups. Many Austrian pan-Germans showed loyalty to Bismarck and only to Germany, wore symbols that were temporarily banned in Austrian schools and advocated the dissolution of the empire to allow an annexation of Austria to Germany.

Although many Austrians agreed with pan-Germanism ideas, a lot of them still showed allegiance to the Habsburg Monarchy and wished for Austria to remain an independent country. After the Nazis gained power in Germany in 1933, they used propaganda to try to coerce Austrians into advocating for an Anschluss to the German Reich by using slogans such as Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer. By the end of World War I in 1918, Austria had not participated in internal German affairs for more than fifty years - since the Peace of Prague that concluded the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Elite and popular opinion in rump Austria after 1918 favored some sort of union with Germany, but the 1919 peace treaties explicitly forbade this; the Austro-Hungarian Empire had collapsed in 1918, on 12 November that year German Austria was declared a republic. An Austrian provisional national assembly drafted a provisional constitution that stated that "German Austria is a democratic republic" and "German Austria is a component of the German Republic".

Plebiscites in the German border provinces of Tyrol and Salzburg yielded majorities of 98% and 99% in favor of a unification with the German Republic. In the aftermath of a prohibition of an Anschluss, the Germans in both Austria and Germany pointed to a contradiction in the national self-determination principle because the treaties failed to grant self-determination to the ethnic Germans outside of the German Reich; the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain explicitly prohibited the political inclusion of Austria in the German state. Hugo Preuss, the drafter of the German Weimar Constitution, criticized this measure. Following the destruction of World War I, however and Britain feared the power of a larger Germany and had begun to disempower the current one. Austrian particularism among the nobility played a role in the decisions.

George Henry Boehler was a 6 ft 2 in American baseball player. Born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in 1892, he played professional baseball as a right-handed pitcher for 20 years from 1911 to 1930, including nine years in Major League Baseball with the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, Pittsburgh Pirates, Brooklyn Robins, he appeared in 61 major league games and compiled a 6–12 win–loss record with 18 saves and a 4.71 earned run average. Boehler played for many years in the minor leagues, including seven season in which he won 20 or more games, his best season was 1922 when he compiled a 38–13 record in 62 games for the Tulsa Oilers in the Western League. He twice won 27 games—for the Newark Skeeters in 1912 and the St. Joseph Drummers in 1913, he won 88 games for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League between 1924 and 1927. Boehler died in 1958 at age 66 in Indiana, he was buried at Greendale Cemetery in Greendale, Indiana

Notable events of 2009 in comics. See List of years in comics. January 1: The direct-to-DVD movie Hulk Vs was released. January 6: The third and final volume of Hollow Fields has been released; the Ultimate Marvel titles Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four are both cancelled at milestones: Ultimate X-Men's series finale ends issue #100, while Ultimate Fantastic Four's ends at issue #60. To celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama, Amazing Spider-Man #583 presented an all-new story teaming up President Obama and Spider-Man in "Spidey Meets the President!" The title featured. In honor of Wolverine's 35th anniversary, Marvel Comics announced that numerous Marvel titles would feature Wolverine Art Appreciation Variant covers in April 2009. Styles will be reminiscent of Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol; the first issues to feature a Wolverine Art Appreciation variant cover were Captain Britain and MI13 #12, Amazing Spider-man #590, Hulk #11, Uncanny X-Men #508, Secret Warriors #3. "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" was a 2009 story featuring the DC Comics character of Batman.

The story was published in two parts, in the "final" issues of the series Batman and Detective Comics, released February and April respectively. Written by Neil Gaiman, pencilled by Andy Kubert, inked by Scott Williams, the story was purported to be the "last" Batman story in the wake of severe psychological trauma that Batman endures within the Batman R. I. P. Story, his ultimate fate in Final Crisis. May 1: X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released in theaters. May 19: The final issue of the relaunched version of the German comics magazine Fix und Foxi is published. June 2: In Louvain-la-Neuve, the Hergé Museum opens its doors. June 19: In the Zandstraat/Rue de Sable in Brussels, the Marc Sleen Museum opens its doors, the first museum dedicated to a Belgian comics artist while the artist in question, Marc Sleen, is still alive. King Albert II of Belgium opens the building. August 31: The Walt Disney Company buys Marvel Comics. Textbook publisher Flat World Knowledge publishes a business-themed graphic novel, Atlas Black: Managing to Succeed.

September 9: It was announced that Paul Levitz would step down as President and Publisher of DC Comics to serve as the Contributing Editor and Overall Consultant for the newly formed DC Entertainment and Diane Nelson would serve as President of the new division. September 26-27: During the Stripdagen Barbara Stok is the first female comics artist to win the Stripschapprijs. Hanco Kolk, Jean-Marc van Tol and Dutch Minister of Education Ronald Plasterk win the P. Hans Frankfurtherprijs. Ed van Schuijlenburg wins the Bulletje en Boonestaakschaal. October 7: Haunt, an ongoing series created by Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman, was launched by Image Comics; the book is written by Kirkman with layouts done by Greg Capullo, pencils by Ryan Ottley, inks by McFarlane. Iván and Andrés Ramírez Ortiz establish the alternative Costa Rican comics magazine Revista Fotocopia, which will run under the name Ultracomics from August 2010 on and bring out its final issue in 2014. January 12: Susanne Wenger, Austrian illustrator and comics artist, dies at age 93.

January 21: Claude Moliterni, French comics writer and historian and co-founder of the Angoulême International Comics Festival, dies at the age of 76. February 13: Corky Trinidad, Filipino-American comics artist, dies from pancreatic cancer at age 69. March 31: Juan Bernet Toledano, Spanish comics artist dies at age 84. May 1: Ric Estrada, Cuban-American comics artist, passes away at age 81 from prostate cancer. April 2: Frank Springer, American comic artist, dies at age 79 from prostate cancer. April 4: Fritzi Harmsen van Beek, Dutch comics artist, dies at age 81. April 24: José Miguel Heredia, Argentine comics artist, dies at age 75. June 9: Dave Simons, American comics artist and animator, dies at age 54. June 19: Piet Tibos, Belgian comics artist and cartoonist, dies at age 78. July 3: Martin Vaughn-James, British painter and comics artist, dies at age 65. July 6: Alfons Figueras, Spanish animator and comics artist, dies at age 86. July 21: Heinz Edelmann, German graphic designer, animator and comics artist, dies from heart disease at age 75.

July 22: John Ryan, British comics artist and animator, dies at age 88. August 9: Frank Borth, American comics artist and writer dies at age 91. August 13: Josette Baujot, Belgian comics artist and colorist and wife of Jo-El Azara, dies at age 88. September 25: Jean Vermeire, aka Jiv, Belgian comics artist and illustrator, passes away at age 88. September 29: Rusty Haller, American comics artist, dies at age 55. October 4: Ricardo Garijo, Argentinian comics artist and publisher dies at age 55. October 12: Joe Rosen, American comics letterer, dies at age 88. October 15: George Tuska, American comics artist (worked on Scorchy Smith, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Captain Marvel and Iron Man. Created The World's Greatest Superhe