Engelbert Dollfuss

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Engelbert Dollfuß (October 4, 1892 – July 25, 1934) was an Austrian Christian Social statesman, who served as chancellor from 1932 and was dictator of Austria from March 1933 until his assassination by Nazi agents in 1934.

1 Early life
2 Chancellor of Austria
3 Dictator of Austria
4 Austrofascism
5 Austrian civil war and new constitution
- 5.1 Assassination
6 Trivia
7 External links
8 Primary and secondary literature

[edit] Early life

Born in Texing in Lower Austria the illegitimate child of Josepha Dollfuss by an unknown father and deeply religious, Dollfuß was educated at a Roman Catholic seminary before deciding to study Law at the University of Vienna and then Economics at the University of Berlin.

Dollfuß had difficulty gaining admission into the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I due to his short stature - he stood at 150 cm (4'11")^{[citation needed]}, but was eventually accepted and sent to the Alpine Front. He was a highly decorated soldier and was briefly taken prisoner by the Italians as a POW in 1918^{[citation needed]}. After the war he worked for the Agriculture ministry as secretary of the Peasants' Association and became director of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture in 1927, and in 1930 as a member of the conservative Christian Social Party was appointed president of the Federal Railway System. (One of the founders of the CS was a hero of Dollfuß's, Karl Freiherr von Vogelsang.) The following year he was named minister of agriculture and forests.

[edit] Chancellor of Austria

Dollfuss became Chancellor on May 20, 1932 as head of a coalition government, with the pressing goal of tackling the problems of the Great Depression, in a state (post-Versailles Austria) that was economically disadvantaged by the loss of a large part of its manufacturing industry. Much of Austria-Hungary's industry had been situated in the areas that were separated into Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia with the Treaty of Versailles, and thus this manufacturing power was lost to Austria after World War I. Dollfuss's support in Parliament was almost non-existent (he only had a one-vote majority)^{[citation needed]}; deflationary policies implemented by his chief economic advisor, Ludwig von Mises, would prove unpopular in and outside of Parliament, especially among the (deeply hostile to Dollfuss) Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAPÖ).

[edit] Dictator of Austria

In March 1933, an argument arose over irregularities in the voting procedure. The president of the National Council (the lower house) resigned, and the two vice presidents resigned as well. Dollfuß declared that Parliament was unworkable, and advised President Wilhelm Miklas to issue a decree adjourning it indefinitely. Thereafter, he governed as a dictator without parliament by emergency decree.

Beside the political power he gained through overthrowing parliament and ending democracy in Austria, Dollfuss also had another reason for the seizure of power in Austria: the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and Austria. With Adolf Hitler becoming German Chancellor in 1933, it looked increasingly likely that the Austrian National Socialists (DNSAP) would gain a majority or a significant minority in future elections, which could threaten Austria's existence as a completely independent country. Dollfuss banned the DNSAP in June 1933 as well as other Austrian parties such as the communists. Some historians like Walterskirchen have argued, however, that the Nazis coming to power in Germany merely gave Dollfuß an excuse to further his 'Austrian Idea' in order to simply support his untenable position.

[edit] Austrofascism

Dollfuß was drawn to Italian fascism and leveraged support from fascist Italy against Nazi Germany, gaining a guarantee for Austria's independence from Italy in August 1933 in exchange for radical political reforms along fascist lines. He also exchanged 'Secret Letters' with Mussolini about ways to guarantee Austrian independence.

In September 1933 Dollfuß merged his Christian Social Party, the Nationalist paramilitary Heimwehr (Home Guard) and other conservative groups to form the Vaterländische Front, an umbrella grouping to support his government.

[edit] Austrian civil war and new constitution

In February 1934, arrests of social democrats and searches for weapons of the social democract's already outlawed "Republikanischer Schutzbund", social democracts called for nationwide resistance against the dictatorship of Dollfuß The civil war lasted from February 12 until February 15, with partly fierce fighting in the East of Austria, especially in the streets of some outer Vienna districts, where large municipal workers' buildings were situated, and in the northern, industrial areas of the province of Styria. As a consequence of the resistance, that was put out by police and military power, the social democrats were outlawed, its leaders where imprisoned or hanged or fled abroad^{[citation needed]}.

For a last time Dollfuß staged a parliamental session with just his party members present, who in April 1934 voted to approve a new constitution and approve the decrees already passed since March 1933. The new constitution become effect on May 1, 1934 and washed away the last remains of the democracy of the first Austrian Republic.

[edit] Assassination

Dollfuß was assassinated in July 25, 1934 by eight Austrian Nazis who entered the Chancellery building and shot him in an attempted coup d'état, the July Putsch, as a prelude to the Anschluss^{[citation needed]}. The Vienna murder was accompanied by Nazi upheavals in the Salzkammergut and southern Styria regions, resulting in further dozens of dead. Immediately after the assassination Italian armed forces mobilized at the Austrian-Italian border to deter any German invasion of Austrian territory. However, the Nazi assassins in Vienna surrendered and were executed. Kurt Schuschnigg became the new chancellor and dictator of Austria. A year earlier, in October 1933, Dollfuß already escaped an assassination attempt by Rudolf Dertill, a 22-year old who was ejected from the military for his national-socialist views.

Dollfuß is buried in the Hietzing cemetery in Vienna^{[citation needed]}, alongside his wife Alwine Dollfuß and two of his children; Hannerl and Eva.

[edit] Trivia

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Dollfuß was a very short man and his diminutive stature (155 cm = 5' 2")^{[citation needed]} was the object of satire, among his nicknames were 'Millimetternich' (referring to the autocratic imperial chancellor of Austria from 1815 - 1848, Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich) and the 'Jockey'. The New York Times also reported a series of jokes, including how in the coffee houses of Vienna, one could order a 'Dollfuß' cup of coffee instead of a 'Short Black' cup of coffee (black being the colour of the clerical political faction); a particularly surreal story had it that he was caught skating on the frozen urine in the night pot by his wife in a very cold winter. He has also been satirized by Jura Soyfer^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] External links

Video: Dollfuß gives a speech in Burgenland 1933 (mpeg, 6,1 kb)

[edit] Primary and secondary literature

Bußhoff, Heinrich, Das Dollfuß-Regime in Österreich (Berlin: Duncker & Humbolt, 1968)
Carsten, F. L., The first Austrian Republic 1918-1938 (Cambridge U.P., 1986)
Dollfuß, Engelbert, Dollfuß schafft Arbeit [Pamphlet] (Heimatdienst, 1933)
Ender, D, Die neue österreichische Verfassung mit dem Text des Konkordates (Wien/Leipzig: Österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1935)
Gregory, J. D., Dollfuss and his Times (Tiptree: Hutchinson & Co. Anchor, 1935)
Maleta, Alfred, Der Sozialist im Dollfuß-Österreich (Linz: Preßverein Linz, 1936)
Messner, Johannes, Dollfuß (Tyrolia, 1935)
Messner, Johannes, Dollfuss: An Austrian Patriot (Norfolk, Virginia: IHS Press, 2003)
Moth, G., Neu Österreich und seine Baumeister (Wien: Steyrermühl-Verlag, 1935)
Österreichischer Bundespressedienst, Der Führer Bundeskanzler Dr. Dollfuß zum Feste des Wiederaufbaues 1. Mai 1934 (Österreichischer Bundespressedienst, 1934)
Sugar, Peter (ed.) Native Fascism in the Successor States (Seattle 1971)
Tálos, Emmerich & Neugebauer, Wolfgang, Austrofaschismus (Vienna: Lit. Verlag, 2005)
Walterskirchen, Gudula Engelbert Dollfuß, Arbeitermörder oder Heldenkanzler (Vienna: Molden Verlag, 2004)
Weber, Hofrat Edmund, Dollfuß an Oesterreich, Eines Mannes Wort und Ziel (Wien: Reinhold Verlag, 1935)
Winkler, Franz, Die Diktatur in Oesterreich (Zürich/Leipzig, Orell Füssli Verlag, 1935)
Zweig, Stefan, Die Welt von Gestern, eines Dichters von Morgen (Frankfurt am Main/Bonn: Athenäum, 1965)