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Emil Fey | |
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| Vice-Chancellor of Austria | |
| In office 21 September 1933 – 1 May 1934 | |
| Chancellor | Engelbert Dollfuß |
| Preceded by | Franz Winkler |
| Succeeded by | Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg |
| Minister of the Interior | |
| In office 30 July 1934 – 29 October 1935 | |
| Chancellor | Kurt Schuschnigg |
| Preceded by | Robert Kerber |
| Succeeded by | Eduard Baar-Baarenfels |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1886-03-23)23 March 1886 Vienna,Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 16 March 1938(1938-03-16) (aged 51) Vienna,Nazi Germany |
| Political party | Heimatblock Christian Social Party Fatherland's Front |
| Profession | Military |
Emil Fey (23 March 1886 – 16 March 1938) was an officer in theAustro-Hungarian Army, leader of the right-wing paramilitaryHeimwehr forces and politician of theFirst Austrian Republic. He served asVice-Chancellor of Austria (German:Vizekanzler) from 1933 to 1934, leading the country into the period ofAustrofascism under ChancellorEngelbert Dollfuß. Fey played a vital role in the violent suppression of theRepublikanischer Schutzbund (Republican Protection League) and, during the 1934Austrian Civil War, of theSocial Democratic Workers' Party .
A career officer since 1908, Fey in the rank of amajor fought with theCommon Army inWorld War I and was awarded theMilitary Order of Maria Theresa in 1916. After the war, he joined theCarinthian paramilitary Heimwehr forces against theYugoslavian troops. In 1927 he founded a local Heimwehr branch in Vienna and became a member of the conservativeChristian Social Party. As his political career proceeded, he increasingly rivalled with Heimwehr leaderErnst Rüdiger Starhemberg; both commanders backed the rise of Chancellor Dollfuß and his successorKurt Schuschnigg, only to be largely disempowered after the implementation of the authoritarianFederal State of Austria (Ständestaat).
On 17 October 1932 Fey joined Dollfuß'cabinet in the rank of astate secretary concerned withpublic security. He immediately had all conventions of the Social Democrats, theCommunists and theAustrian Nazis banned. After the chancellor had suspended the sessions of theNational Council, Fey on 15 March 1933 concentrated Heimwehr forces to occupy theAustrian Parliament Building, however, any operation was aborted by the Vienna police. During a parade in May 1933, Major Fey reportedly "knocked three Nazis unconscious with his own ochsenknüttel" (square-edged bludgeon) and promoted Austrian nationalism.[1]
Chancellor Dollfuß made him his deputy on 21 September 1933. Fey continued the search for weapons belonging to theRepublikanischer Schutzbund, which had been banned in March 1933.[2] The resistance of theSchutzbund to a government search for weapons at the headquarters of itsLinz branch on 12 February 1934 sparked the Austrian Civil War.[3] Dollfuß mistrusted Fey's capabilities and on 1 May he lost his office of vice-chancellor to his bitter rival Starhemberg. During theJuly Putsch and Dollfuß' assassination he stayed in the background, later accusations of collaboration with the Nazis have never been conclusively established. He once again joined the Schuschnigg cabinet as Minister for Interior until his final disempowerment in 1935, shunt off to theDonaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft.
Upon theAnschluss annexation of Austria byNazi Germany, Fey was interrogated byGestapo agents on 15 March 1938. Harassed, he returned home, summoned his 46-year-old wife Malvine and his son Herbert, and wrote an appeal for help to the former Vice-ChancellorEdmund Glaise-Horstenau. Without awaiting the answer, he shot his family and himself in the early morning of the following day.
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