"Austrofascism" (German:Austrofaschismus) is a term used by left-wing historians[1] to refer to theauthoritarian system installed inAustria with theMay Constitution of 1934, which ceased withthe annexation of the newly foundedFederal State of Austria intoNazi Germany in 1938. It was based on a ruling party, theFatherland Front (Vaterländische Front) and theHeimwehr (Home Guard) paramilitary militia. Leaders wereEngelbert Dollfuss and, after Dollfuss's assassination,Kurt Schuschnigg, who were previously politicians of theChristian Social Party, which was quickly integrated into the new movement.
The term "Austrofascism" is nowadays disputed among historians and therefore avoided.[2] In contemporary Austria instead of "Austrofascism" the alternative term and self-appellation "Ständestaat" is used twice as common.[3] "Austrofascism", which wasCatholic andcorporatist and espousedAustrian nationalism, must also be contrasted withAustrian National Socialism, which waspan-German andanti-semitic in outlook.
The "Austrofascist" movement's origin lies in theKorneuburg Oath, a declaration released by the Christian Social paramilitary organizationHeimwehr on 18 May 1930. The declaration condemned both the "Marxist class struggle" and the economic structures of "liberal-capitalism". Furthermore, it explicitly rejected "the Western democraticparliamentary system and[multi]-party state".
The declaration was directed mainly at the Social Democratic opposition, largely in response to theLinz Program of 1926, and was not only taken by the Heimwehr but also by many Christian Social politicians, setting Austria on a course to anauthoritarian system.
Ideologically, "Austrofascism" was rooted in Austria'spolitical Catholicism. It also somewhat resembledItalian fascism as expounded byGiovanni Gentile.
The election in Vienna in 1932 made it likely that the coalition of Christian Social Party, theLandbund, and the Heimwehr would lose their majority in thenational parliament, depriving the Austrian government of its parliamentary basis. To ensure proper and efficient governance over citizens, the government sought to replace Austrian democracy with an authoritarian system based in Austrian Catholic principles. These efforts were supported from abroad byBenito Mussolini. TheStändestaat concept, derived from the notion ofStände ("estates" or "corporations"), and constituted the form favoured form by Dollfuss and later byKurt Schuschnigg.
The opportunity for such a transition arrived on 4 March 1933 when the national parliament wasparalysed by procedural disputes. Dollfuss held a one-vote majority in parliament. During a dispute over a voting recount, the speaker and vice-speakers of parliament resigned in order to be able to cast their votes, and in the absence of the three speakers, there existed no procedural means to reconvene Parliament. Dollfuss branded this as the"self-elimination of the Parliament" and proceeded to rule on the basis of theWartime Economy Authorization Act. This law had been passed in 1917 duringWorld War I to enable the government to issue decrees ensuring the supply of necessities. The law had never been explicitly revoked and was now used by the Austrian government to inaugurate an authoritarian state.
On 7 March 1933, the Council of Ministers issued a ban on assembly and protests. Press regulations were also levied by the Wartime Economy Authority Law and touted as economic safeguards. The law allowed for the government to require approval of a newspaper which had already been printed up to two hours before its distribution under certain circumstances, for instance if "through damage to patriotic, religious or moral sensibility, a danger to public peace, order and security" would arise. This allowed forcensorship of the press, but the government was eager to avoid the appearance of open censorship, which was forbidden by the constitution. The opposition made a final attempt to reverse the changes in parliament, which was met by police power on 15 March 1933. AsGroßdeutsche, who advocated a merger with Germany, and Social Democrats arrived at the Parliament building, the government sent 200 detectives to Parliament to prevent the representatives from taking their places in the assembly hall.
On 31 March, the government dissolved theRepublikanischer Schutzbund. On 10 April 1933, thedecree by former Social Democratic Education MinisterOtto Glöckel, which had made Catholic religious lessons in schools non-mandatory, was abolished. On 10 May, all federal, state and local elections were cancelled. TheCommunist Party of Austria was dissolved on 26 May, theNational Socialist Workers' Party (NSDAP) on 19 June, and theFree Thinkers Guild on 20 June.
The Hotel Schiff, an asylum of the Social Democrats in Linz, was raided by the police in February 1934. The Social Democrats resisted, leading to theAustrian Civil War, which was quelled with military and paramilitary force. Afterward, the Social Democratic Party was banned in Austria.
On 30 April 1934, the national parliament, in its last session, passed a law that enabled the government to assume all the powers previously held by parliament.
On 1 May, Dollfuss' government proclaimedthe May Constitution (Maiverfassung), which diminished the termRepublic and instead used as the official name of the state "Federal State of Austria" (Bundesstaat Österreich), though the constitution actually reduced theindividual states' autonomy. TheFederal Council was retained, though only as a significantly limited check on the Federal government. Rather than establishing the composition of a fifty-nine memberNational Council through direct suffrage, this was accomplished by four "Councils" representing the professionals from Austrian Culture, State affairs, theStates of Austria (Länder) and Economic affairs (the latter elected by sevencorporations supposedly representing workers and employers). The National Council lost its power to initiate legislation but was still expected to approve decrees from the government. All essential power lay with the Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler), who appointed his government single-handedly, and the Federal President (Bundespräsident), who named the Chancellor.
As withAntonio de Salazar's1933 constitution (and theEstado Novo regime in whole), theMaiverfassung promoted a Catholiccorporatism which bore a strong resemblance to the principles outlined inQuadragesimo anno, rejectingcapitalism andsocialism.
Chancellor Dollfuss was killed in July 1934, during an attempt byAustria's National Socialist Party to topple the regime and proclaim aNazi government under Ambassador to RomeAnton Rintelen. The assassination of Dollfuss was accompanied by Nazi uprisings in many regions in Austria, resulting in further deaths. InCarinthia, a large contingent of northern German Nazis tried to grab power but were subdued by the loyalist Heimwehr units. The Nazi assassins holding the Federal ChancelleryVienna surrendered after threats todynamite the building and were executed before the end of July. While Heimwehr leaderStarhemberg briefly assumed power as Vice Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg was appointed Dollfuss' successor by President Miklas on 29 July, ousting Starhemberg from the government completely in 1936, before surrendering to Nazi pressure in March 1938.[4][5]
One of the reasons for the failure of the putsch was Italian intervention: Mussolini assembled an army corps of four divisions on the Austrian border and threatened Hitler with a war with Italy in the event of a German invasion of Austria as originally planned, should the coup have been more successful. Support for the Nazi movement in Austria was surpassed only by that in Germany, allegedly amounting to 75% in some areas.[6]
TheFatherland Front (German:Vaterländische Front,VF) was the ruling political organisation of "Austrofascism". It claimed to be anonpartisan movement, and aimed to unite all the people of Austria, overcoming political and social divisions. Established on 20 May 1933 byChristian Social ChancellorEngelbert Dollfuss as asingle party along the lines ofItalian Fascism, it advocatedAustrian nationalism and independence fromNazi Germany on the basis of protecting Austria's Catholic religious identity from what they considered a Protestant-dominated German state.
"Austrofascism"'s ideology of the "community of the people" (Volksgemeinschaft) was different from that of theherrenvolk & lebensraum. They were similar in that both served to attack the idea of aclass struggle by accusing leftism of destroying individuality, and thus help usher in a totalitarian state.[citation needed] Dollfuss'corporatist propositions were focused on the benefit of all members of the working class, from farmhands to fashion designers.
"Austrofascism" focused on thehistory of Austria. The Catholic Church played a large role in the "Austrofascist" definition of Austrian history and identity, which served to alienate German culture. According to this ideology, Austrians were "betterGermans"[7] (at this time, the majority of the German population was stillProtestant) and Austria was a second but "better German state" which ought to remain independent from Germany. The monarchy was elevated to the ideal of a powerful and far-reaching state, a status which Austria lost after theTreaty of Saint-Germain.
Despite the Catholic emphasis that Dollfuss had created with theFederal State of Austria, he was opposed to forcing Catholicism on to religious minorities, and also let Jews escapingNazi Germany take refuge in Austria.[citation needed]
After the parliament was dissolved, the government also dissolved theConstitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof). The four Christian Social members of the Constitutional Court had resigned, and the government banned the nomination of new judges, effectively closing the court.
In September 1933, the government established internment camps for political opposition members.Social Democrats,Socialists,Communists, andAnarchists were all considered dissidents condemned to internment. After theJuly Putsch of 1934,National Socialists were also regularly interned. On 11 November 1933, the government reinstated thedeath penalty for the crimes of murder, arson, and "public violence through malicious damage to others' property". In February 1934, rioting (Aufruhr) was added to the list of capital offenses.
John Gunther wrote in 1940 that the state "assaulted the rights of citizens in a fantastic manner", noting that in 1934 the police raided 106,000 homes in Vienna and made 38,141 arrests of Nazis, social democrats, and communists. He added, however:[8]
But—and it was an important "but"—the terror never reached anything like the repressive force of the Nazi terror. Most of those arrested promptly got out of jail again. Even at its most extreme phase, it was difficult to take the Schuschnigg dictatorship completely seriously, although Schutzbunders tried in 1935 got mercilessly severe sentences. This was because of Austrian gentleness, Austrian genius for compromise, Austrian love for cloudy legal abstractions, and AustrianSchlamperei.
By 1933, a series of laws had already been passed to bring the educational system in Austria into line with "Austrofascism". The Catholic Church was, under the new government, able to exert significant influence on educational policy, which had previously been secularised. In order to pass theMatura (the test required for graduation), a student had to have taken religious education classes. Educational opportunities for women were significantly limited under the new regime.
Post-secondary education was also targeted by the new regime. The number of professors and assistants fell as the government produced legal grounds for deposing those who were critical of the new regime. Disciplinary actions, previously the responsibility of individual universities, were relegated to the government. Only members of the Fatherland Front were allowed to become university officials.
By 1930, foreign trade to and from Austria moved away from a free market system and became an extension of the autocratic government.[clarification needed] Chief among the changes was the closing of the Austrian market to foreign trade in response to theNew York stock exchange crisis in 1929.
Unemployment grew drastically, between 1932 and 1933 by over 25 percent. In response, the government created the so-called "Cooperations" of workers and enterprises.
The official cultural policy of the "Austrofascist" government was the affirmation of theBaroque and other "pre-revolutionary" styles. The government encouraged a cultural mindset reminiscent of the times before theFrench Revolution. This recalled images of the "Threat from the East" – the invasion of Europe by theOttoman Turks – which were then projected onto theSoviet Union. In this way, the government warned its people against what it called "cultural Bolshevism", a force which it claimed posed a great threat to Austria.
There was no official policy ofantisemitism between 1933 and 1938. Including during the February 1934Austrian Civil War, that pitted left leaning socialists against the authoritarian single-party state. Public violence against Jews was rare. The "Austrofascist" state saw itself under the growing pressure by Nazi Germany which penalized its citizens who travelled to Austria with a 1000 Mark fee, and even more so after the failed Nazi coup against the Austrian government in the July Putsch of 1934, many right leaning Jews supported the regime.
The origins of the "austrofascist" movement was rooted partially in one of its predecessor parties, theChristian Social Party. One of the more notorious of that party's founders,Karl Lueger was a noted anti-Semite who is often considered to have had a formative influence onAdolf Hitler during his time in Vienna.
Still, "austrofascist" officials supported theSalzburg Festival which employed famous Jewish artists likeHerbert Graf,Alexander Moissi,Max Reinhardt,Richard Tauber,Margarete Wallmann, andBruno Walter. Walter was also a leading conductor for theVienna State Opera until 1938 and conducted several concerts given by theVienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Therefore, the festival was harshly criticised by German officials and boycotted by German artists likeRichard Strauss,Wilhelm Furtwängler, andClemens Krauss. The Festival also came under attack by Austrian antisemites and supporters of right-wing parties.
Many Jews fled Germany and found a temporary refuge in Austria. Artists like filmmakerHenry Koster and producerJoe Pasternak could not work in Germany any longer and continued to produce films in Austria. Vienna'sTheater in der Josefstadt provided many Jewish actors, playwrights, and directors with the opportunity to continue their work, among them Reinhardt,Albert Bassermann,Egon Friedell,Hans Jaray,Otto Preminger (the theater's managing director until 1935),Ernst Lothar (managing director until 1938), andFranz Werfel. Jewish athletes made theSC Hakoah Wien one of the most successful athletic clubs in Austria before 1938. Its athletes excelled on many occasions throughout Europe.
Yet there was a purge of public offices, and many Jews were fired from their posts on the accusations that they were Communist or Social-Democratic sympathisers. There were occasional outbursts of antisemitism in right-wing newspapers. However, Jews continued to be an integral part of Austrian society until March 1938. But some of them lost their hopes for a fruitful future and left Austria before 1938, especially following theJuliabkommen 1936 between Austria and Germany which provided an amnesty for illegal Nazis. Among the most prominent Jews who left Austria before 1938 wereStefan Zweig andOtto Preminger.
The regime lasted as long as the favour of Fascist Italy under Mussolini protected it against the expansionist aims ofNazi Germany. However, when Mussolini sought to end Italy's own increasing international isolation by formingan alliance with Hitler in 1938, Austria was left alone to face increasing German pressure.
To protect Austria's independence, Schuschnigg reached an agreement with Hitler under which 17,000 Austrian Nazis received amnesty and were integrated into the fold of the Fatherland Front.Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the leader of the Austrian Nazis, was appointed Minister of the Interior and Security. As Nazi pressure continued, now supported from within the government, Schuschnigg tried to rally popular support for Austria's independence by a referendum. Hitler reacted by alleging an attempt at a fraudulent vote and demanded that Schuschnigg should hand over the government to the Austrian Nazis or face invasion. Schuschnigg, unable to find support in France or the United Kingdom, resigned to avoid bloodshed. After an interlude, in which Nazis had gained control of Vienna, President Miklas, who had at first refused, appointed Seyss-Inquart Chancellor, who then requested military occupation by the German army. The next day, Hitler entered Austria and declared it a part of the German Reich, which was subsequently formalized on March 15.
Notes
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