Sound or not, Kennedy became ambassador in 1938, the year that Germany marched into Austria to create the Anschluss.
After the Russian Anschluss in Crimea last week, people around the world are asking themselves uneasily: How far will Moscow go?
The word "Anschluss" seems hardly to imply so complete a union as was afterwards aimed at by the German party in Vienna.
1924, from German Anschluß, "connection; addition; junction," literally "joining, union," from anschließen "to join, annex," from an "at, to, toward" + schließen "to shut, close, lock, bolt; contract" (a marriage); see slot (n.2). Specifically the proposal to unite Germany and Austria, accomplished in 1938.