Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss | |
---|---|
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry | |
In office 18 March 1931 – 25 June 1934 | |
Preceded by | Andreas Thaler |
Succeeded by | Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg |
Personal details | |
Born | Hietzinger Cemetery, Vienna, Austria | 4 October 1892
Political party | Fatherland Front (1933–1934) |
Other political affiliations | Christian Social Party (until 1933) |
Spouse | Alwine Glienke |
Children | Hannerl Eva Rudolf |
Parents |
|
Alma mater | University of Vienna |
Cabinet | Dollfuss I–II |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Austria-Hungary |
Branch/service | Austro-Hungarian Army |
Years of service | 1914–1918 |
Rank | Oberleutnant |
Unit | Kaiserschützen |
Battles/wars |
|
Awards | Military Merit Cross 3rd ClassMilitary Merit Medal (2 times)Medal for BraveryKarl Troop Cross (2 times)Wound Medal |
Engelbert Dollfuß (alternatively: Dolfuss, German:
Early life
Dollfuss was born to a poor, peasant family in the hamlet of Great Maierhof in the commune of St. Gotthard near Texingtal in Lower Austria. Young Dollfuss spent his childhood in his step-father's house in the nearby commune of Kirnberg,[1] where he also went to elementary school. The local parish priests helped to finance Dollfuss's education, as his parents were unable to do so by themselves alone.[2] He attended high school in Hollabrunn.[3] After graduating from high school, Dollfuss intended to become a priest, and thus he enrolled at the University of Vienna to study theology, but after a few months changed course and started studying law in 1912. As a student, he earned a livelihood giving lessons.[4] He became a member of the Students' Social Movement, a student organisation dedicated to social and charitable work among the workers.[5]
As
After the war, he was still a student and was employed by the Lower Austrian Peasants' Union, which helped him to secure his material existence, and it was here where Dollfuss gained his first political experience. There, he organised peasants to help them recover from the war, as well as shield them from the influences of Marxism. Being recognised for his abilities he showed at the Union, he was sent for further studies to Berlin. In Berlin, he began to garner dislike for some of his professors, as academia there was substantially influenced by liberalism and socialism. In his studies, he devoted himself to the Christian principles of economics. In Germany, he became a member of the Federation of German Peasants' Union and of the Preussenkasse – essentially, a central bank for member-cooperatives, where he gained practical experience. In Germany, he met his future wife Alwine Glienke, a descendant of a Pomeranian family. Dollfuss often met with Carl Sonnenschein, leader of social activities of students and the pioneer of the Catholic movement in Berlin.[9]
After returning to Vienna, he was a secretary of the Lower Austrian Peasants' Union. He devoted his efforts to consolidate that industry. Dollfuss was instrumental in the founding of the regional Chamber of Agriculture of Lower Austria, becoming its secretary and a director; the Federation of Agriculture and the Agricultural Labourers' Insurance Institute; in organising the new Agrarian policy of Lower Austria and in laying the foundations for the corporative organisation of agriculture. A few years later, he was representative of Austria at the International Agrarian Congress, where his proposals made him internationally known in that sphere. He was seen as an unofficial leader of the Austrian peasantry.[10]
On 1 October 1930 Dollfuss was appointed the president of the Federal Railways, the largest industrial corporation in Austria. There, Dollfuss came into contact with all branches of the industry.[10] In March 1931, he was appointed Federal Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.[11]
Chancellor of Austria
On 10 May 1932, Dollfuss, age 39 and with only one year's experience in the
Dollfuss's support in
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Chancellor of Austria 1932-1934
Government
Assassination |
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Dollfuss as dictator of Austria
Ascent to power
In March 1933, a constitutional impasse arose over irregularities in the voting procedure in the Austrian parliament. The
Dollfuss was concerned that with
Austrofascism
Dollfuss modelled
In September 1933 Dollfuss merged his Christian Social Party with elements of other nationalist and conservative groups, including the Heimwehr (which encompassed many workers who were unhappy with the radical leadership of the socialist party) to form the
Austrian Civil War
Part of a series on |
Conservatism in Austria |
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In its drive to eliminate the Social Democrats' Schutzbund, the Dollfuss government searched the homes and meeting places of its members for weapons. On 12 February 1934, the Austrian Civil War was sparked by the armed resistance of the Linz branch of the Social Democrats to the search of their party headquarters.[17] Word of the fighting in Linz spread quickly, and additional armed conflicts broke out, primarily in Austria's industrial regions and Vienna. The Schutzbund was greatly outnumbered by the police and army, which used artillery against the insurgents. In addition, the general strike which had been called to support the uprising failed to materialize.[18] The result was the collapse of the rebellion by 15 February, with the deaths of about 350 persons, roughly equally divided between civilians, insurgents, and government forces.[19] The Social Democrats were outlawed by the Federal government on 12 February 1934,[20][21] and their leaders were imprisoned or fled abroad.
New constitution
Dollfuss staged a rump parliamentary session with just Fatherland Front members present in April 1934 to
Assassination
As a result of his consistent opposition to Nazi demands, Dollfuss was assassinated on 25 July 1934 by a group of Austrian Nazis, including Otto Planetta, Franz Holzweber, Ernst Feike, Franz Leeb, Josef Hackl, Ludwig Maitzen, Erich Wohlraab, and Paul Hudl, who entered the Chancellery building and shot him in an attempted coup d'état. During mass trials which took place after the coup, Hudl was sentenced to life in prison, while the others were sentenced to death for their involvement. Planetta and Holzweber were hanged on 31 July 1934, Feike was hanged on 7 August 1934, and Leeb, Hackl, Maitzen, and Wohlraab were hanged on 13 August 1934. Hudl was released under an amnesty in 1938.[24][25][26][27]
In his dying moments, Dollfuss asked for Viaticum, the Eucharist administered to a dying person, but his assassins refused to give it to him.[9] Mussolini had no hesitation in attributing the attack to the German dictator: the news reached him at Cesena, where he was examining the plans for a psychiatric hospital. Mussolini personally gave the announcement to Dollfuss's widow, who was a guest at his villa in Riccione with her children. He also put at the disposal of Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, who spent a holiday in Venice, a plane that allowed the prince to rush back to Vienna and to face the assailants with his militia, with the permission of President Wilhelm Miklas.[28]
Mussolini also mobilised a part of the Italian army on the Austrian border and threatened Hitler with war in the event of a German invasion of Austria to thwart the putsch. Then he announced to the world: "The independence of Austria, for which he has fallen, is a principle that has been defended and will be defended by Italy even more strenuously", and then replaced in the main square of Bolzano the statue[29] of Walther von der Vogelweide, a Germanic troubadour, with that of Drusus, a Roman general who conquered part of Germany. This was the greatest moment of friction between Italian Fascism and National Socialism and Mussolini himself came down several times to reaffirm the differences in the field.
The assassination of Dollfuss was accompanied by uprisings in many regions in Austria, resulting in further deaths. In
Out of a population of 6.5 million, approximately 500,000 Austrians were present at Dollfuss's burial in Vienna.[27] He is interred in the Hietzing cemetery in Vienna.[30] His wife, Alwine Dollfuss (who died in 1973) was later buried beside him. Two of his children, Rudolf and Eva, were in Italy as guests of Rachele Mussolini at the time of his death, an event which saw Mussolini himself shed tears over his slain ally.[12][31]
In literature
In Bertolt Brecht's 1941 play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Dollfuss is represented by the character "Dullfeet".[32]
Gordon Brook Shepard wrote a book in 1961 detailing Dolfuss and his rise to power.
Works
- Das Kammersystem in der Landwirtschaft Österreichs. Agrarverlag, Wien 1929.
- Mertha, Rudolf, Dollfuß, Engelbert: Die Sozialversicherung in der Landwirtschaft Österreichs nach dem Stande von Ende März 1929. Agrarverlag, Wien 1929.
- Der Führer Bundeskanzler Dr. Dollfuß zum Feste des Wiederaufbaues. 3 Reden. 1. Mai 1934. Österr. Bundespressedienst, Wien 1934.
- Tautscher, Anton (Hrsg.): So sprach der Kanzler. Dollfuss' Vermächtnis. Aus seinen Reden. Baumgartner, Wien 1935.
- Weber, Edmund (Hrsg.): Dollfuß an Oesterreich. Eines Mannes Wort und Ziel. Reinhold, Wien 1935.
- Maderthaner, Wolfgang (Hrsg.): „Der Führer bin ich selbst." Engelbert Dollfuß – ISBN 3-85409-393-4.
Footnotes
- ^ Messner 2004, p. 25.
- ^ Messner 2004, p. 26.
- ^ Messner 2004, p. 27.
- ^ Messner 2004, p. 28.
- ^ a b c Messner 2004, p. 29.
- ^ Gregory, John Duncan (1935). Dollfuss and His Times. Hutchinson. p. 57. Archived from the original on 2024-03-05. Retrieved 2021-05-10.
- ISBN 978-0313323621. Archivedfrom the original on 2024-03-05. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ Messner 2004, p. 30.
- ^ a b Messner 2004, p. 33.
- ^ a b Messner 2004, p. 34.
- ^ Messner 2004, p. 35.
- ^ a b c "Austria : Eve of Renewal". Time. September 25, 1933. Archived from the original on July 2, 2011.
- ISBN 3-218-00485-3.
- ^ Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism 1914–1945
- ^ "DöW – Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance". braintrust.at. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
- ^ "J L Moser – Former Pupils Honor2". New Castle News. 1933-11-11. p. 2. Archived from the original on 2023-11-15. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
- ^ Konrad, Helmut (12 March 2018). "Die tiefen Wunden des Bürgerkriegs" [The Deep Wounds of the Civil War]. Die kleine Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
- ^ "Die Februarkämpfe 1934 und wie es zu ihnen kam (4)" [The February Battles and how they came about (4)]. Erster Wiener Protestwanderweg (in German). Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
- ^ "Februarkämpfe 1934" [February Battles 1934]. Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (in German). Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
- ISBN 9782877756099. Archivedfrom the original on 5 March 2024. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
Verordnung der Bundesregierung vom 12. Februar 1934, womit der Sozialdemokratischen Arbeiterpartei Österreichs jede Betätigung in Österreich verboten wird.
- ISBN 3-7046-0004-0. Archivedfrom the original on 2024-03-05. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
[...] uber die weitere Entwicklung der Gemeinde Wien wurde die Sozialdemokratische Partei am 12. Februar 1934 verboten.
- ^ Stanley G. Payne, Civil War in Europe, 1905–1949, 2011, p. 108.
- ISBN 9783631581117. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2024-02-29 – via Google Books.
- ^ [1] [dead link]
- ^ "Pics of Planetta and Holzweber (1934 coup)". Axis History Forum. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
- ^ "14 Aug 1934, p. 6 –The Gazette and Daily at Newspapers.com". Archived from the original on 2021-08-22.
- ^ a b c "Austria: Death for Freedom". Time. August 6, 1934. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ Richard Lamb, Mussolini and the British, 1997, p. 149
- ^ de:Walther-Denkmal (Bozen)
- ^ "Vienna Tourist Guide: Dollfuss Hietzinger Friedhof". Hedwig Abraham. Archived from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2010. (includes photographs)
- ^ "Rudolf Dollfuß – Traueranzeige und Parte † 05.11.2011 – ASPETOS". Archived from the original on 2012-04-28. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
- ^ Mel Gussow (May 9, 1991). "Review/Theater; Brecht's Cauliflower King In Another Resistible Rise". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
References
Books
- Messner, Johannes (2004). Dollfuss: An Austrian Patriot. Norfolk, VA: Gates of Vienna Books. ISBN 9781932528367.