Totalitarian Tendencies: Austria's Complex History

Between 1934 and 1938, Austria was a one-party state led by the Fatherland Front, a conservative, nationalist, corporatist, and clerical fascist organisation. The country was governed by Engelbert Dollfuss and, following his assassination in 1934, Kurt Schuschnigg. This period, known as the Federal State of Austria, was authoritarian and totalitarian in nature, with the government controlling all aspects of human life, including the economy, education, the arts, the sciences, and the private lives of citizens.

The Federal State of Austria was short-lived, ending in March 1938 with the German annexation of the country.

The Austrian Civil War

The conflict was sparked by the government's attempts to enforce a ban on the Schutzbund (the Republican Protection League) at the Hotel Schiff in Linz, which was owned by the Social Democratic Party. On 12 February, at around 6 am, 20 police officers attempted to raid the hotel to search for weapons. Members of the Schutzbund responded by shooting at them. By noon, the Federal Army had stormed the hotel, and the skirmishes quickly spread to other industrial areas, including Steyr and Bruck an der Mur, and eventually to Vienna.

The Schutzbund was poorly equipped and manned, and stood no chance against the combined forces of the army, police, and the Heimwehr (a paramilitary formation of the Christian Social Party). The Austrian armed forces, which had remained comparatively independent, also entered the conflict on the side of the government. The government forces used artillery to shell the city council housing estates occupied by members of the Schutzbund.

The exact number of people killed in the conflict remains unknown, but the casualties were high. In Vienna alone, the Schutzbund lost around 1,000 members, while around 120 police officers were killed and 400 more injured. The overall death toll is estimated at 350, with some estimates placing the number as high as 2,000.

After the conflict, martial law was proclaimed, and nine leaders of the Schutzbund were executed, with approximately 10,000 people incarcerated. The Social Democratic Party and its affiliated trade unions were banned, and the democratic constitution was replaced by an Austrofascist constitution, with the Fatherland Front as the only legal party.

The Fatherland Front

The role of the Fatherland Front has been a contentious point in post-war Austrian historiography. While many historians consider it to be the exponent of an Austrian and Catholic-clerical variant of fascism (dubbed "Austrofascism") and make it responsible for the failure of liberal democracy in Austria, conservative authors stress its role in defending the country's independence and opposition to Nazism.

Engelbert Dollfuss

Dollfuss rose rapidly in Austrian politics, serving as president of the federal railways in 1930 and as minister of agriculture from 1931. In May 1932, he became chancellor, heading a conservative coalition led by the Christian Social Party. He was appointed chancellor by President Wilhelm Miklas, also a member of the Christian-Social Party, at a time of crisis for the conservative government. Dollfuss's support in Parliament was marginal; his coalition had only a one-vote majority.

Faced with a severe economic crisis caused by the Great Depression, Dollfuss decided against joining Germany in a customs union, a course advocated by many Austrians. Instead, he pursued an increasingly authoritarian regime, banning the Communist Party, the Social Democratic Republikanischer Schutzbund paramilitary organisation, and the Austrian branch of the Nazi Party. He established a one-party dictatorship under the banner of the Fatherland Front, modelled after fascism in Italy and based on conservative Roman Catholic and Italian Fascist principles.

In February 1934, paramilitary formations loyal to Dollfuss crushed Austria's Social Democrats in bloody encounters. With a new constitution in May 1934, his regime became completely dictatorial. However, in June, Germany incited the Austrian Nazis to civil war, and Dollfuss was assassinated by the Nazis in a raid on the chancellery.

Dollfuss's legacy is his effort to fashion Austrian public life around the social doctrine of the Church, as expressed in Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo Anno. He is also remembered as a representative of all that remains of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Anschluss

The Rise of Austrian Nazism

The Austrian Nazi Party was initially weak, divided, and ineffective in the late 1920s and early 1930s. However, by 1931, the bulk of Austrian Nazis recognised Hitler as their leader. The Austrian Nazi Party gained supporters in 1931-1932 as Hitler’s popularity in Germany increased, and this was even more noticeable across Austria after Hitler was appointed German chancellor in January 1933.

Austrian Nazis waged a propaganda and terror campaign beginning in May 1933. They staged disruptive protests, brawled with political opponents and the police, and set off explosives and tear gas bombs in public places and Jewish-owned businesses. The German government announced an economic sanction against Austria, crippling its tourism industry. In June 1933, the Dollfuss regime banned the Austrian Nazi Party and its affiliates, but the Austrian Nazis continued to operate illegally within the country.

The Failed Coup

On July 25, 1934, Austrian Nazis attempted to overthrow the Austrian government. Members of the Vienna SS took control of the Austrian chancellery, where the cabinet had been meeting, and shot and killed Chancellor Dollfuss. Other plotters seized control of the state radio station in Vienna and prematurely announced the coup. However, the majority of Austrians remained loyal to the government, and the coup attempt failed.

The Rise of Schuschnigg

After Dollfuss's death, Kurt von Schuschnigg took over as Austrian chancellor and dictator. He continued many of his predecessor's authoritarian policies. The Austrian government arrested thousands of Austrian Nazis, including a number of the conspirators.

The Berchtesgaden Agreement

On February 12, 1938, Schuschnigg travelled to meet with Hitler and expected to discuss the tensions between Austria and Germany. However, Hitler was ready to take full control of Austria and made a series of demands, including that Austrian foreign and military policies were to be coordinated with Germany's, that Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart was to be placed in charge of policing and security matters, and that Austrian Nazis who had been imprisoned by the Austrian government were to be amnestied. Schuschnigg gave in and signed the agreement, which undermined Austrian sovereignty and independence.

The Plebiscite

On March 9, Schuschnigg attempted to assert Austrian independence by calling a plebiscite (referendum) to be held on March 13. The referendum asked voters to support or reject a call for Austrian independence. However, on March 11, Hitler gave the Austrian government a series of ultimatums: Schuschnigg must call off the plebiscite, Schuschnigg must resign as chancellor, and Austrian president Wilhelm Miklas must appoint Seyss-Inquart as the new Austrian chancellor. If these demands were not met, the German military would invade Austria.

The Annexation

Schuschnigg gave in and that evening, Austrian radio announced the cancellation of the plebiscite. Shortly thereafter, Schuschnigg announced his resignation and instructed Austrians and the Austrian military not to resist German troops if they invaded. Within minutes of Schuschnigg’s resignation, swastika armbands and flags appeared on the streets, and Austrian Nazis attacked their political opponents and Jews.

On March 12, German troops crossed the Austrian border and were greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers. The "invasion" without shots fired was dubbed the Blumenkrieg ("Flower War"). Hitler, riding in a car, crossed the border at his birthplace, Braunau am Inn, with a 4,000-man bodyguard.

On March 13, Seyss-Inquart signed the law called the “Reunification of Austria with Germany” (“Wiedervereinigung Österreichs mit dem Deutschen Reich”), formally incorporating Austria into Nazi Germany. Austria was now a province of Nazi Germany, initially referred to as the Ostmark.

The Aftermath

The Nazis celebrated the Anschluss as the fulfillment of the German people’s destiny. On March 15, Hitler spoke to a huge crowd in Vienna’s Heldenplatz, a large square in the center of the city. Film footage and photographs of the crowds appeared in German newsreels and newspapers to demonstrate Austrian enthusiasm for the Anschluss and justify the illegal takeover of another country.

A plebiscite was held on April 10 to ratify the fait accompli, and 99.7% of the votes cast in Austria were in favor. However, the plebiscite was subject to large-scale Nazi propaganda, and the voting rights of around 360,000 people (8% of the eligible voting population) were abrogated.

The International Response

The Austrian State Treaty

Austria had been annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, and after World War II, the Allies jointly occupied the country, dividing it and its capital, Vienna, into four zones. In 1943, the Allies agreed in the Moscow Declaration that Austria would be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression and treated as a liberated and independent country after the war. However, the Austrian occupation lasted far longer than anticipated due to the breakdown of the wartime "Grand Alliance" and the emergence of the Cold War.

Negotiations over Austria's final status began in 1947 but were stalled by disputes over German assets and the issue of Austrian neutrality. The death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 and the "peace offensive" launched by his successors in the Soviet Union helped improve the climate for negotiations. Finally, on 15 May 1955, the Austrian State Treaty was signed in Vienna, ending seventeen years of occupation by foreign troops. The treaty came into force on 27 July 1955, and Austria declared and maintained its neutrality for the remainder of the Cold War.

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