INNSBRUCK, Austria, Nov. 18 (Reuters) —Dr. Kurt Schuschnigg, the Austrian Chancellor who tried unsuccessfully to stop Hitler's annexation of his country almost 40 years ago, died near here today.

Dr. Schuschnigg's family said he had been ill for several weeks and was bedridden. He passed away in rented rooms in a village house in Mutters, near Innsbruck, in the Austrian Tyrol. The cause of death was not disclosed.

The scholarly, 79‐year‐old Dr. Schuschnigg remained a controversial figure to the end, with historians divided over his role in the years leading up to the war. Though he was an opponent of Hitler, some say his authoritarian policies at home In the four years he spent as Austrian Chancellor created the conditions for a successful “Anschluss,” or union, of Austria with Germany.

• Dr. Schuschnigg roused violent political passions during his term in office. He was under relentless pressure from the ‘German dictator, assailed at home by socialists for steadily yielding to Nazi de• ‘rnands and abandoned by former allies. The annexation of Austria by Germany, the first of Hitler's territorial conquests, came in March 1938, and was a major step in the events that led to the start of World War II the next year.