Republic of Austria Republik Österreich (German) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1919–1934 | |||||||||
| Anthem: Deutschösterreich, du herrliches Land "German-Austria, you wonderful country" (1920–1929) Sei gesegnet ohne Ende (English:"Be Blessed Without End") (1929–1934) | |||||||||
.svg) The First Austrian Republic in 1930 | |||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Vienna | ||||||||
| Common languages | German (Austrian German) | ||||||||
| Religion | Christianity (Catholic,Eastern Orthodox,Protestant),Judaism | ||||||||
| Demonym | Austrian | ||||||||
| Government | Federalparliamentary republic | ||||||||
| President | |||||||||
• 1919–1920 | Karl Seitz | ||||||||
• 1920–1928 | Michael Hainisch | ||||||||
• 1928–1934 | Wilhelm Miklas | ||||||||
| Chancellor | |||||||||
• 1919–1920 (first) | Karl Renner | ||||||||
• 1932–1934 (last) | Engelbert Dollfuss | ||||||||
| Legislature | Parliament | ||||||||
• Upper chamber | Federal Council | ||||||||
• Lower chamber | National Council | ||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar period | ||||||||
| 10 September 1919 | |||||||||
| 15 July 1927 | |||||||||
| 4–15 March 1933 | |||||||||
| 12–15 February 1934 | |||||||||
| 1 May 1934 | |||||||||
| Currency | Austrian krone (1919–1924) Austrian schilling (1924–1938) | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Austria | ||||||||
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TheFirst Austrian Republic (German:Erste Österreichische Republik), officially theRepublic of Austria, was created after the signing of theTreaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 10 September 1919—the settlement after the end ofWorld War I which ended theHabsburgrump state ofRepublic of German-Austria—and ended with the establishment of the authoritarianFederal State of Austria based upon a dictatorship ofEngelbert Dollfuss and theFatherland Front in 1934. TheRepublic's constitution was enacted on 1 October 1920 and amended on 7 December 1929. The republican period was increasingly marked by violent strife between those withleft-wing andright-wing views, leading to theJuly Revolt of 1927 and theAustrian Civil War of 1934.
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In September 1919, the rump state ofGerman-Austria—now effectively reduced to the Alpine and Danubian crownlands of the Austrian Empire—was given reduced borders by theTreaty of Saint Germain, which ceded German-populated regions inSudetenland toCzechoslovakia,German-populated South Tyrol to Italy and a portion of the Alpine provinces to theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca, or SHS, also known as Yugoslavia). Despite Austrian protests this treaty also forbadeAnschluss, or union of Austria withGermany, withoutLeague of Nations consent. The Allies were not willing to allow a defeated Germany to expand its borders by absorbing what remained of Austria. With this route closed, German-Austria changed its official name to theRepublic of Austria.
The new state managed to block two land claims by its neighbours. The first was the south-eastern part ofCarinthia, which was inhabited partly bySlovenians. It was prevented from being taken over by the new SHS state through aCarinthian plebiscite on October 10, 1920, in which the majority of the population chose to remain with Austria. The second denied land claim was Hungary's claim toBurgenland, which, under the name "Western Hungary", had been part of the Hungarian kingdom since 907.[1] It was inhabited mostly by a German-speaking population, but also had Croat- and Hungarian-speaking minorities. Through the Treaty of St. Germain it became part of the Austrian Republic in 1921. However, after aplebiscite which was disputed by Austria, the provincial capital city ofSopron (German Ödenburg) remained in Hungary.
The Treaty of Saint Germain angered the German population in Austria, who claimed that it violated theFourteen Points laid out by United States PresidentWoodrow Wilson during peace talks, specifically the right to "self-determination" of all nations. Many of them felt that with the loss of over 70% of theCisleithanian territory of the prewar empire, Austria was no longer economically and politically viable as a separate state without union with Germany. Austria now found itself a small, landlocked country of about 6.5 million people, with 4 million Austrian Germans excluded from the new state and instead being placed against theirdeclared will under Czechoslovak, Italian, and Yugoslav rule.Vienna, with its population of almost 2 million, was left as an imperial capital without an empire to feed it. Only 17.8 percent of Austria's land was arable; the vast majority of the arable land in the former Austrian half of the empire was now part of Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia.
The new constitution created a bicameral legislature with the upper house—theFederal Council—formed by representatives from federal states, and the lower house—theNational Council—to which deputies were elected in universal elections. The Federal President was elected for a four-year term in a full session of both houses, while the Chancellor was elected by the National Council. As no political party ever gained a parliamentary majority, Austria was governed by coalitions of the conservativeChristian Social Party and the right-wingGreater German People's Party orLandbund which were more conservative than the first government of Social DemocratKarl Renner of 1919–20, which had established a number of progressive socioeconomic and labour laws.
After 1920, Austria's government was dominated by the anti-Anschluss[2] Christian Social Party, which retained close ties with theRoman Catholic Church. The party's first ChancellorIgnaz Seipel came to power in May 1922 and attempted to forge a political alliance between wealthy industrialists and the Roman Catholic Church.
After thelegislative elections of October 17, 1920, the Social Democrats lost the parliamentary majority and remained in the opposition until 1934, when they were banned by Dollfuss. The Christian Socials won 85, Social Democrats 69, Greater Germany Party 20 and Peasants Union 8 seats.Michael Hainisch was elected Federal President. After theOctober 1923 elections Ignaz Seipel stayed in power, but resigned in November 1924 and was succeeded byRudolf Ramek.
In December 1928 the Christian SocialWilhelm Miklas was elected to the post of Federal President, and on 7 December 1929 the Constitution was amended, reducing the rights of the Parliament, making the Federal President electable by a popular vote and giving him the right to appoint the federal government and to issue emergency laws.
After the1930 legislative elections the Social Democrats emerged as the largest party with 72 seats, but Christian Social ChancellorOtto Ender created a coalition government without them.
Despite the nation having a steady[clarification needed] political party in power, the politics of the nation were fractious and violent, with both Social Democrat (Republikanischer Schutzbund) and right-wing (Heimwehr) politicalparamilitary forces clashing with each other. The country was divided between the conservative countryside population andRed Vienna controlled by the Social Democrats.
In 1927, during a political clash inSchattendorf, an old man and a child were shot and killed by the Heimwehr. On 14 July 1927 the shooters were acquitted, and left-wing supporters began a massive protest, during which the Ministry of Justice building was burned. To restore order, the police and army shot and killed 89 people and injured 600. This huge protest is known as theJuly Revolt of 1927. Social Democrats called for a general strike, which lasted four days.
After the 1927 events, the conservative elements became stronger and the violence in Austria continued to escalate until the early 1930s, whenEngelbert Dollfuss became Chancellor.
The new state was difficult to control, as much of the former empire's important economic regions had been taken away with the foundation of new nation-states. The matter was further complicated because a number of these new nation-states were still dependent on Vienna's banks, but business was hampered by the newly erected borders and tariffs.
The landlocked Austria was barely able to support itself with food, and lacked a developed industrial basis. In addition, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Italy had imposed a trade blockade and refused to sell food and coal to Austria, which eventually was saved by aid and support from the Western Allies. By 1922 one US dollar was worth 19,000 Kronen and half the population was unemployed.[3]
In December 1921 theTreaty of Lana between Austria and Czechoslovakia was signed, in which Austria recognized the new state borders and relinquished claims to represent ethnic Germans living on the territory of the newly created Czechoslovakia. In return Czechoslovakia provided a loan of 500 million Kronen to Austria.[4]
In 1922, in an effort to deal with post-war inflation, ChancellorIgnaz Seipel asked for foreign loans and introduced austerity policies. In October 1922 Britain, France, Italy and Czechoslovakia provided a loan of 650 million gold Kronen after Seipel promised not to attempt Anschluss with Germany for the next 20 years and allowed the League of Nations to control Austria's economy. During the next two years the state budget was stabilized and international supervision of finances ended in March 1926. In 1923, Austria's central bankOesterreichische Nationalbank was re-established and a sales tax was introduced, and in December 1924 theAustrian Schilling replaced the Krone.
TheGreat Depression hit Austria hard, and in May 1931 the largest bank in Austria,Creditanstalt Bank, collapsed.[5] To improve its economy, Austria wanted to conclude acustoms union with Germany, but in 1931 this was denied by France and the countries of theLittle Entente.
Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss of the Christian Social Party took power in Austria on 20 May 1932, and moved the party and Austria towards dictatorship, and centralisation, in part because fascist Italy was its strongest international ally against Germany. In March 1933, Dollfusssuspended the parliament, which gave him the opportunity to establish an authoritarian government without a parliament. In May 1933 he created theFatherland Front (German:Vaterländische Front). While appearing fascist to some, it was mostly Catholic and influenced by the papal encyclicalQuadragesimo anno of 1931 which refuted liberalism and socialism in favour ofcorporatism.
The government was in competition with the growingAustrian Nazi party, which wanted Austria to join Germany. Dollfuss'sregime tied Austrian identity to theCatholic Church as an argument against a union of Austria with predominantlyProtestant Germany.
Political violence escalated into theAustrian Civil War of February 1934, between Social Democrats and government forces. On 1 May 1934, Dollfuss created aone-party state, to be led by the Fatherland Front, with the proclamation of the authoritarian "May Constitution". The name of the country was changed from the "Republic of Austria" to the "Federal State of Austria". The flag, coat of arms and anthem were also changed.
Federalism and the controlling powers of theFederal Council were curtailed, while elections for theNational Council were abolished, its members nominated by four non-elective,corporatist-styled councils—the State Council (Staatsrat), Federal Culture Council (Bundeskulturrat), Federal Economic Council (Bundeswirtschaftsrat) and the States' Council (Länderrat), supposedly providing their best opinions on respective areas. In practice all legislation and appointments were exercised from above by the Federal Chancellor's and President's decree.
The state took complete control of employer-employee relations, known as Ständestaat, and began to crack down on pro-Nazi and pro–German-unification sympathizers. The Nazis responded by assassinating Engelbert Dollfuss in theJuly Putsch of 25 July 1934[6] (seeMaiverfassung 1934).
This assassination by the Austrian Nazis infuriated Austria's neighbourFascist Italy under dictatorBenito Mussolini. Fascist Italy had had good relations with Austria under Dollfuss, and Mussolini suspected German involvement and promised Austria military support if Germany were to invade, as the Nazis had claims on Italian-administered Tyrol. Italy's support helped save Austria from potential annexation in 1934.
The successor to Dollfuss,Kurt Schuschnigg, maintained the ban on Nazi activities, but also banned Austria's national paramilitary force, theHeimwehr, in 1936.
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