Ostmark

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Ostmark is a modern German translation of the term Ostarrîchi, a 10th-century Germanic vernacular for marchia Orientalis ("eastern march") that appears in a single contemporary document. There were in fact two marches called marchia Orientalis: the Saxon Ostmark and the Bavarian Ostmark.

The term "Ostmark" itself, a concise but a historical 19th-century translation of marchia orientalis, was revived by the Nazis after the 1938 annexation of Austria into Greater Germany (Anschluss), as they wanted to purge any Austrian identity separate from the Altreich. In 1942, the term was officially replaced by "Alpen-Donau-Reichsgaue" or "Donau- und Alpenreichsgaue" (Alpine and Danubian Territories) in order to avoid any connotation of Austrian particularity and specific relationship among the territories making up Austria.

[edit] See also

• German Eastern Marches Society
• Army Group Ostmark