Leslie Massey
The 1930s in Austria were marked by economic stagnation, political dictatorship, and intense Nazi propaganda. The country was governed by coalitions of the conservative Christian Social Party and the right-wing Greater German People's Party. Many Austrians felt that their country was no longer economically or politically viable without union with Germany, and the Nazi regime's aggressive foreign policy and pursuit of territorial expansion eventually led to the annexation of Austria in 1938. This event, known as the Anschluss, resulted in public violence against the Jewish population and the emigration of many artists and intellectuals.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Profession | Police detective |
| Tools | Handcuffs, knuckleduster |
| Country | Austria |
| Time Period | 1930s |
| Political Context | Rise of Nazism, persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses |
| Family History | Grandfather/great-grandfather fled Austria due to persecution |
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What You'll Learn
The rise of Nazism and the Austrian Nazi Party
In the early 20th century, a pan-German movement known as Austrian Nazism or Austrian National Socialism emerged. This movement took shape in November 1903 with the establishment of the German Worker's Party (DAP) in Austria. The DAP changed its name to the Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei (DNSAP) in 1918.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Austrian Nazi Party was characterised by infighting and disorganisation. However, by 1931, the majority of Austrian Nazis recognised Adolf Hitler, an Austrian-born German citizen, as their leader. Hitler appointed a German Nazi, Theodor Habicht, to oversee Nazi activity in Austria and bring the Austrian party in line with its German counterpart.
The Austrian Nazi Party gained momentum in 1931-1932 as Hitler's popularity in Germany surged. Hitler's appointment as German chancellor in January 1933 further bolstered support for the Austrian Nazi Party. In June 1933, the Dollfuss regime banned the Austrian Nazi Party in response to a fatal Nazi bombing. Despite the ban, Austrian Nazis continued to operate clandestinely, and many fled to Germany, where they formed the paramilitary group known as the Austrian Legion.
On July 25, 1934, Austrian Nazis attempted a coup, assassinating Chancellor Dollfuss. In 1938, after the German annexation of Austria, the Austrian Nazi Party was revived and integrated into the German Nazi Party, leading to the Anschluss, or union, of Austria with Germany. This transformation occurred rapidly, and Austria ceased to exist as an independent country almost overnight. Austrian Nazis, along with their German counterparts, enforced Nazi policies, persecuted the Jewish population, and fought in World War II, participating in the mass murder of Europe's Jews.
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The Great Depression and its impact on the country
The Great Depression of the 1930s had a profound impact on Austria, with far-reaching consequences for the country's political and economic landscape. By 1933, Austrian unemployment had reached a peak, with between 24 and 26 percent of the labour force out of work. The country experienced a severe economic downturn, with a real GNP loss of 22.45%, the worst depression in Europe at the time.
The Christian Social Party, led by Chancellor Ignaz Seipel, a Catholic priest, dominated the federal government. Seipel believed in strong government and protecting Austria from Marxism. He forged an alliance between the Catholic Church and industrialists, encouraging cooperation with the Heimwehr, Austria's paramilitary units. However, the Social Democrats enjoyed popular support in Vienna, with their political party associated with organized labour. This conflict between rural and urban Austria marked the political landscape during the early 1930s.
In May 1932, Engelbert Dollfuss became Chancellor of Austria. In March 1933, he effectively abolished democracy and established an authoritarian Austro-fascist regime. Dollfuss united Austria with Mussolini's Italy to counter German influence and keep Hitler out of Austria. However, his limited economic interventions and pursuit of deflationary austerity had mixed results.
Dollfuss was assassinated in July 1934 and replaced by Kurt Schuschnigg, who continued as Chancellor until the Anschluss in March 1938. While the unemployment rate improved slightly under Schuschnigg's rule, it never dropped below 20% until after 1938. The Great Depression had a lasting impact on Austria, shaping the country's political and economic trajectory in the lead-up to World War II.
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The authoritarian regime of Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian statesman and politician, who served as chancellor of Austria from 1932 until his assassination in 1934. He established an authoritarian regime in Austria, based on conservative Roman Catholic and Italian fascist principles.
Dollfuss was born in 1892 in Texing, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He came from a humble farming background and was raised by his mother and stepfather. Despite his short stature, he volunteered for World War I and served for 37 months at the Italian Front, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant. After the war, Dollfuss became involved in agrarian politics, serving as secretary of the Lower Austrian Peasant Federation and director of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture. He was a member of the conservative and clerically oriented Christian Social Party, which drew its support from Austria's conservative peasantry.
In the 1930s, Dollfuss rose rapidly in Austrian politics, serving as president of the federal railways in 1930 and as minister of agriculture from 1931. He became chancellor in 1932, leading a conservative coalition government. Dollfuss's political philosophy was influenced by the Catholic Church's Rerum Novarum and Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, which envisioned a return to a corporate society.
Faced with a severe economic crisis caused by the Great Depression, Dollfuss rejected calls to join a customs union with Germany, instead accepting a loan from the League of Nations and drifting towards an increasingly authoritarian regime. He attacked the Austrian parliament, abolished political parties, and formed a corporate state based on his Vaterländische Front ("Fatherland Front"). In 1934, he staged a rump parliamentary session to approve a new constitution, sweeping away the last remnants of democracy and establishing the Federal State of Austria. The new constitution gave the Catholic Church influence over marriage law and school administration.
Dollfuss's regime was dictatorial and authoritarian, modelled on Italian fascism and Catholic corporatist ideals. He banned the Communist Party and the Austrian branch of the National Socialist Party, and fought his domestic political opponents, including Social Democrats, along fascist-authoritarian lines. He sought to prevent Austria's incorporation into Nazi Germany and allied himself with Benito Mussolini's Italy, which guaranteed Austrian independence. However, his opposition to the Nazis led to his assassination by a group of Austrian Nazis in 1934.
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The persecution of Jews and the establishment of concentration camps
The persecution of Jews in Austria began long before the 1930s, with the Jewish community's political status rising and falling over the centuries. However, the 1930s marked a significant period of persecution, as the country experienced a prolonged period of economic stagnation, political dictatorship, and intense Nazi propaganda.
On March 12, 1938, German troops entered Austria and received the enthusiastic support of most of the population. The annexation of Austria to Germany was proclaimed the following day, on March 13, 1938, with Austrian support for the union manipulated to indicate about 99% approval in a plebiscite. The Nazis quickly extended anti-Jewish legislation to Austria, and the persecution of Jews intensified.
The Mauthausen concentration camp, established in the summer of 1938, became the main Nazi camp in Austria. It was designated a category III camp, indicating a special penal camp with a harsh regime. Inmates were subjected to forced labour, carrying heavy stone blocks up 186 steps from the camp quarry, known as the "Stairway of Death." The camp was liberated by American forces in 1945.
In addition to Mauthausen, Jews were also sent to other concentration camps, such as Dachau and Buchenwald, following the Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") pogroms in November 1938. During this time, most synagogues in Vienna were destroyed, and Jewish businesses were vandalized and ransacked. The German incorporation of Austria and Kristallnacht triggered a significant increase in Jewish emigration, with 117,000 Jews leaving the country between 1938 and 1940.
By December 1939, the Jewish population in Austria had decreased from 192,000 in 1938 to 57,000, primarily due to emigration. During World War II, German policy shifted from expropriation and emigration to one of forced deportation. Thousands of Jews were deported from Austria to occupied Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, with systematic mass deportations from Vienna beginning in October 1941.
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The Austrian resistance and collaboration with the Nazis
The Austrian resistance movement was launched in response to the rise of fascism across Europe and, more specifically, to the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, known as the Anschluss. An estimated 100,000 people participated in this resistance, with thousands subsequently imprisoned or executed for their anti-Nazi activities. The main symbol of the Austrian resistance was O5, with the "O" indicating the first letter of the abbreviation of Österreich (OE), and the "5" representing the fifth letter of the German alphabet (E).
The resistance activities included issuing counter-Nazi political leaflets, collecting donations for families of those arrested, and providing the Allies with information. Military resistance was limited to occasional sabotage of key civil and military installations, with most resisting by avoiding postings to the active war fronts. Most armed resistance was undertaken in Carinthia by Carinthian Slovenes, who formed a nucleus of the resistance after facing targeted deportations and forced Germanisation by the Nazi regime in 1942.
In addition to armed resistance, many individuals provided support to Jewish families during the Holocaust. These efforts included hiding individuals, managing or exchanging their property to generate funds, and aiding their escape from Nazi persecution. These actions carried immense personal risk, as assisting Jews was punishable by imprisonment or death in Nazi concentration camps.
The Austrian resistance was hampered by political antagonism that had weakened the First Republic of Austria between the two World Wars. This divide blocked cooperation between Austrian émigrés and the various resistance groups that had formed inside the country. Despite these challenges, the resistance movement played a crucial role in opposing Nazi occupation and seeking freedom for Austria.
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Frequently asked questions
The 1930s in Austria were marked by economic stagnation, political dictatorship, and intense Nazi propaganda. In 1934, the First Austrian Republic ended and an authoritarian Federal State of Austria was established based on a dictatorship led by Engelbert Dollfuss and the Fatherland Front. In 1938, German troops entered Austria and the country was annexed and incorporated into Germany.
Austria was governed by coalitions of the conservative Christian Social Party and the right-wing Greater German People's Party. The Social Democrats were the largest single party in the 1930 General Election, but the Austrian National Socialists (linked to Hitler's NSDAP) received only 3.6% of the votes and failed to enter Parliament.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Austrian Nazi Party was weak, divided, and ineffective. However, by the mid-1930s, the Nazis had gained more support, and in 1938, German troops received the enthusiastic support of most of the Austrian population when they entered the country.
In 1938, Austria had a Jewish population of about 192,000, representing almost 4% of the total population. However, due to emigration, this number decreased to 57,000 by December 1939. Many Austrian Jews were forced into exile or deported, and their property was confiscated.
