The Austrian civil war of 1934

February 12 is the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the conflict that has gone down into history as the Austrian civil war.

It was during the time of dictatorship of Engelberg Dollfuss, which he established in March, 1933. Dollfuss was a devout Catholic conservative from the Christian Social Party (CSP), the forerunner of today's People's Party, the present-day Christian Democratic Party. He became Chancellor in 1932 and the following year set up the dictatorship, which he conceived as an authoritarian state known as a Standestaat, or corporate state, modeled on Mussolini's Fascist dictatorship in Italy.

Engelbert Dollfuss (1892-1934)

The Social Democratic Party (SDAP) had been the chief party advocating parliamentary democracy in Austria. They were not at all supportive of the dictatorship, because it was clearly aimed at them. In September of 1933, he declared in a public speech in Vienna, "Die Zeit marxitischer materialistischer Volksverführung ist gewesen! Die Zeit der Parteienherrschaft ist vorbei! Wir lehnen Gleichmacherei and Terror ab, wir wollen den sozialen, christlichen, deutschen Staat Österreich auf ständischer Grundlage, unter starker, authoritärer Führung!" [The time of Marxist materialistic seduction of the people is done! The time of party rule is past! We reject leveling and terrorism, we want the social, Christian, German state of Austria on a corporatist basis under strong, authoritarian leadership!"] (Quoted by Brigitte Hamann in Österreich. Ein historisches Portrait, 2009)

During the 1920s, as in Germany, there were political militias formed, the Catholic Heimwehr on the far right and the Schutzbund for the SDAP. The Library of Congress' 1994 Austria: A Country Study described the civil war incident:

Seeking a firmer political footing than that offered by Italy and the coercive power of the police, military, and Heimwehr, Dollfuss formed the Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front) in May 1933. The front was intended to displace the existing political parties and rally broad public support for Dollfuss's vision of a specifically Austrian nationalism closely tied to the country's Catholic identity. Dollfuss rejected union with Germany, preferring instead to see Austria resume its historical role as the Central European bulwark of Christian German culture against Nazism and communism. In September 1933, Dollfuss announced plans to organize Austria constitutionally as a Catholic, German, corporatist state. [As quoted above]

The opportunity to put the corporatist constitution in place came after a failed socialist uprising in February 1934 triggered by a police search for Schutzbund weapons in Linz. An unsuccessful general strike followed, along with artillery attacks by the army on a Vienna housing project. Within four days, the socialist rebellion was crushed. Both the SDAP and its affiliated trade unions were banned, and key leaders were arrested or fled the country. Dollfuss's constitution was promulgated in May 1934, and the Fatherland Front became the only legal political organization. Austrian society, however, remained divided into three camps: the nationalist bloc that was associated with the Heimwehr and the bloc represented by the CSP struggled for control of the Fatherland Front; the socialist bloc fell back on passive resistance; and the nationalist bloc dominated by the Nazis boldly conspired against the state with support from Germany.

Current Austrian President Heinz Fischer posted a statement on his website commemorating Stellungnahme des Bundespräsidenten zum 80. Jahrestag der Tragödie vom 12. Februar 1934 11.02.2014:

Was allerdings auch aus der großen zeitlichen Distanz von 80 Jahren als schwere und unübersehbare Schuld bezeichnet werden muss, ist die Tatsache, dass der damalige Bundeskanzler Dollfuß und die von ihm geführte Regierung nicht nur im Jahre 1933 in verfassungswidriger Weise den Nationalrat und den Verfassungsgerichtshof eliminiert haben, sondern auch in den Tagen des Bürgerkrieges vom Februar 1934 mit Kanonen auf Wohnhäuser schießen und mit Hilfe des Standrechtes politische Gegner hinrichten ließen.

Zu den Folgen dieses auf die Schaffung eines Einparteienstaates zielenden Vorgehens zählte die Tatsache, dass die Chance Österreichs, sich gegenüber dem Druck des nationalsozialistischen Deutschland zu behaupten, nicht vergrößert, sondern vielmehr reduziert und geschwächt wurde.

Dollfuß selbst ist bekanntlich im Zuge eines Putschversuches der Nationalsozialisten wenige Monate nach dem Februar 1934 den Kugeln eines Mörders zum Opfer gefallen.

Vor diesem historischen Hintergrund muss es umso positiver beurteilt werden, dass ein gemeinsames Gedenken an die Irrungen, Verfehlungen und politischen Sünden der Ersten Republik möglich ist, dem der Gedanke der Versöhnung zugrunde liegt.

[In any case, what even from the great temporal distance of 80 years must be described as serious and unmistakable guilt, is the reality that the then Federal Chancellor Dollfuss and the government led by him not only eliminated the Nationalrat {Parliament} and the Constitutional Court in a manner that violated the Constitution, but also in the days of the civil war of February 1934 fired on public housing with cannons and with help of martial law executed political enemies.

Among the results of the actions aimed at the creation of a one-party state is the fact that Austria's chance to defend itself against the pressure from National Socialist Germany was not increased but much rather reduced and weakened.

As it well know, Dollfuss himself fell victim to the bullets of a murderer in the course of a coup attempt by the National Socialists a few months after February 1934.

With this historical background, it must be all the more positively valued that a common reflection on the errors, failures and political sins of the First Republic is possible, which is based on the thought of reconciliation.]

Even though the direct participants and contemporaries are largely gone, there is a lasting sense of bitterness over the civil war still lingering. Brigitte Hamann describes the conclusion of the serious of clashes:

Der Bürgerkrieg dauerte vier Tage und forderte mehr als tausend Tote - die Regierung gab offiziell nur 314 an.

Als der Aufstand zusammenbrach, waren noch Tausende Linke in Haft. Justizminister Kurt von Schuschnigg weigerte sich, Gnadengesuche an den Bundespräsidenten zu richten - im Gegenteil: er ließ zur Abschreckung neun Sozialisten standrechtlich erschienen, was ihm, ebenso wie Dollfuß, den Namen „Arbeitermörder“ einbrachte. Nicht weniger als 16 000 Österreicher wurden in dieser Zeit aus politischen
Gründen inhaftiert.

[The civil war last four days and produced more than a thousand dead - the government admitted to only 314.

When the uprising collapsed, there were thousands of leftists in jail. Justice Minister Kurt von Schuschnigg declined to forward requests for clemency on to the Federal Chancellor {Dolfuss} - on the contrary: as a terror measure he had nine Socialists shot under martial law, which brought him as well as Dollfuss names as "killer of workers." Not less than 16,000 Austrians were imprisoned at this time on political grounds.]

After Dollfuss' murder, Schuschnigg became dictator and in 1938 surrendered Austria to Hitler without a fight.

Tags: austrian civil war, dollfuss, österreichischer bürgerkrieg, schuschnigg