The Austrian Resistance to the Nazi rule that started with the Anschluss in 1938 had a prehistory of socialist and communist activism against the era of Austrofascism from 1934. These activists, limited primarily to adherents of the political left, operated in isolation from the Austrian mainstream during the war years. One prominent activist was Josef Plieseis. Other strands of Austrian resistance included Catholics and monarchists.[citation needed] However, it is notable that several Austrian nationalists, some of them even with fascist sympathies, also resisted, opposed to the destruction of the Austrian state.