sentences:  Schuschnigg acknowledged that Austrians were Germans and that Austria was a "German state" but he strongly opposed an "Anschluss" and passionately wished for Austria to remain independent from Germany.Schuschnigg's government had to face the increasing pressure by its powerful neighbour Nazi Germany under Austrian-born Adolf Hitler.The state's fate was sealed, when the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini made rapprochement towards the German Nazis.