Hitler's journey through his home country Austria became a triumphal tour that reached its climax in Vienna on 15 March 1938, when around 200,000 cheering German Austrians gathered around the Heldenplatz (Square of Heroes) to hear Hitler say that "The oldest eastern province of the German people shall be, from this point on, the newest bastion of the German Reich"[40] followed by his "greatest accomplishment" (completing the annexing of Austria to form a Greater German Reich) by saying: "As leader and chancellor of the German nation and Reich I announce to German history now the entry of my homeland into the German Reich."[41][42] After the Anschluss, Hitler remarked as a personal note: "I, myself, as Führer and Chancellor, will be happy to walk on the soil of the country that is my home as a free German citizen."[43][44]