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Wilhelm Miklas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President of Austria | |
| In office 10 December 1928 – 13 March 1938 | |
| Chancellor | Ignaz Seipel Ernst Streeruwitz Johann Schober Karl Vaugoin Otto Ender Karl Buresch Engelbert Dollfuß Kurt Schuschnigg Arthur Seyss-Inquart |
| Preceded by | Michael Hainisch |
| Succeeded by | Karl Renner (1945) |
| President of the National Council | |
| In office 20 November 1923 – 6 December 1928 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Weiskirchner |
| Succeeded by | Alfred Gürtler |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1872-10-15)15 October 1872 |
| Died | 20 March 1956(1956-03-20) (aged 83) Vienna, Austria |
| Political party | Fatherland Front (1934–1938) Christian Social Party (1907–1934) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 12 |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
Wilhelm Miklas (15 October 1872[1] – 20 March 1956) was an Austrian politician who served as thepresident of Austria from 1928 until theAnschluss toNazi Germany in 1938.
Born as the son of apost official inKrems, in theCisleithanian crown land ofLower Austria, Miklas graduated from high school atSeitenstetten and went on to study history and geography at theUniversity of Vienna. From 1905 to 1922, Miklas was headmaster of theFederal Secondary School inHorn, a small town in the Lower AustrianWaldviertel region.
In 1907, Miklas was elected to theImperial Council (Reichsrat) parliament as a member of theChristian Social Party. Re-elected in 1911, Miklas held a parliamentary seat in the provisional assembly ofGerman-Austria and in theConstitutional Assembly of theFirst Austrian Republic. A rare opponent ofGerman nationalism, he declared himself against a closer connection with theWeimar Republic and played a pivotal role in adopting the red-white-redAustrian flag.
In 1919, Miklas was appointed state secretary in the Austrian government of ChancellorKarl Renner. From 1923 to 1928, he was the speaker of theNational Council (Nationalrat).[2]
On 10 December 1928, the representatives of theFederal Assembly elected him president, which he served until the position ceased to exist ten years later.[3]
Miklas did not intervene, when on 4 March 1933 after a heated discussion in theNationalrat parliament over a strike offederal railways employees Speaker Karl Renner as well as his deputiesRudolf Ramek andSepp Straffner resigned their offices. The assembly was no longer capable for actions and decisions, which gave Miklas' party fellow ChancellorEngelbert Dollfuss the pretext to declare the parliament's"self-elimination". The government obstructed any resumption of the session by massive presence of police forces as well as of paramilitaryHeimwehr troops led byEmil Fey, aself-coup that enabled Dollfuss to rule by "emergency decrees" following theArticle 48 example set by German PresidentPaul von Hindenburg.
The president remained passive on 20 May, when the government established theFatherland Front as a prospective single-party, followed by the ban of theCommunist Party, the Austrian branch of theNazi Party and the Social DemocraticRepublikanischer Schutzbund paramilitary organisation. The prohibition of theArbeiter-Zeitung (Worker's Newspaper) and the measures against the Austrianlabour movement led to the outbreak of theAustrian Civil War on 12 February 1934. As a result, also theSocial Democratic Party was banned and Dollfuss' ideology finally realized with the implementation of theFederal State of Austria (Ständestaat). The authoritarian measures had no effect on the office of the President. In his private records, Miklas clearly condemned the violation of the constitution by Dollfuss and his successorKurt Schuschnigg, but he did not openly criticise the government's policies.
During theJuly Putsch of 1934, Nazi putschists tried to arrest the Federal President on his way toVelden inCarinthia and take him hostage. The Nazis chased President Miklas' vehicle for some time, but after the failure of the coup inVienna they were stopped and arrested by theAustrian police.
Miklas was highly unpopular among Austrian Nazis, as he refused to commute the death sentences imposed on assassins of Dollfuss after the failedJuly Putsch in 1934. In view of the rising pressure byNazi Germany, the federal state approached theKingdom of Italy underDuceBenito Mussolini and theKingdom of Hungary. In 1936, Miklas entertained RegentMiklós Horthy atWörthersee.
After Schuschnigg on 12 February 1938 had been summoned to theBerghof byAdolf Hitler to receive German demands, Miklas offered amnesty to the jailed Nazi members but initially refused to turn over the national police force to their leaderArthur Seyss-Inquart. However, when Hitler orderedWehrmacht operations along the border, the president was forced to give in and installed Seyss-Inquart as AustrianMinister of the Interior.
On 9 March 1938, Schuschnigg announced aplebiscite on Austrian independence to be held within four days. In turn, on 11 MarchHermann Göring demanded that Seyss-Inquart replace Schuschnigg as chancellor; otherwise, German forces would overrun Austria the following day. While a Nazi mob invaded the chancellery, Schuschnigg declared his resignation ("yielding to force"). Miklas again refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart but was not able to present a non-Nazi candidate. After Hitler received the confirmation from Mussolini that Italy would not interfere, he gave orders that German troops would invade at dawn the following day (Unternehmen Otto). Miklas capitulated at midnight, announcing that he had instated Seyss-Inquart as new chancellor. Seyss-Inquart hectically spoke on the phone with the Nazi authorities inBerlin, but it was too late. When German troops rolled over the border at dawn the next day, they met with no resistance by theAustrian Armed Forces and were largely greeted as heroes.
Miklas, for his initial refusal, ended up under house arrest but was protected from mistreatment by the futureWaffen-SS ColonelOtto Skorzeny during the days of theAnschluss. With the promulgation of a "law concerning the re-unification of Austria with theGerman Reich" by Seyss-Inquart on 13 March, the offices of both the Austrian chancellor and of the Austrian president were terminated. While Schuschnigg was imprisoned, Miklas abandoned the political sphere and retired, receiving his pension unmolested.
AfterWorld War II, Miklas refused to run again for presidency, in favour ofKarl Renner.
He died on 20 March 1956 inVienna.
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| Preceded by | State President of Austria 1928 – 1938 | Vacant Title next held by Karl Renner |
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