Fatherland Front (Austria)
Fatherland Front Vaterländische Front | |
---|---|
Founded | 20 May 1933 |
Dissolved | 13 March 1938 |
Merger of | CS, Landbund, Heimwehr |
Youth wing | Österreichisches Jungvolk[2] |
Paramilitary wing | Assault Corps[3] |
Membership | 3,000,000 (1937 est.)[4] |
Ideology | Austrian nationalism[5] Corporatism[6][7] Authoritarian conservatism[8] Clerical fascism[9] National Catholicism[10] |
Political position | Right-wing[11] to far-right |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Colours | Red Green White |
Slogan | "Österreich, erwache!" (lit. 'Austria, awaken!')[12] |
Anthem | "Song of the Youth "[13] |
Party flag | |
The Fatherland Front (
The Fatherland Front, which was strongly linked with Austria's Catholic clergy, absorbed Dollfuss's Christian Social Party, the agrarian
The Fatherland Front maintained a cultural and recreational organisation, called "New Life" (Neues Leben), similar to Germany's Strength Through Joy.[19] The "League of Jewish Front Soldiers" (Bund Juedischer Frontsoldaten), the largest of several Jewish defense paramilitaries active in Austria at the time, was incorporated into the Fatherland Front.[20]
The role of the Fatherland Front has been a contentious point in post-War Austrian historiography. While many historians consider it to be the exponent of an Austrian and Catholic-clerical variant of fascism—dubbed "Austrofascism"—and make it responsible for the failure of liberal democracy in Austria, conservative authors stress its credits in defending the country's independence and opposition to Nazism.[21]
Bases of support and opposition
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Conservatism in Austria |
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While the Front's aim was to unite all Austrians, superseding all political parties, social and economic interest groups (including
Despite its self-identification as a unifying force, in reality the front was opposed by both the Austrian Nazis and the Social Democrats. Support for the latter, concentrated in Vienna and industrial towns, came from unionised workers and the party's paramilitary Republikanischer Schutzbund ("Republican Protection League"), whose February 1934 uprising (or "Austrian Civil War") was crushed in a few days. The Austrian Nazis, by then dominating Austria's existing pan-German nationalist movement, were supported by a part of the secular, urban middle and lower middle class, including civil servants and public sector workers, professionals, teachers and students. However they did not have a mass following as in Germany.[22][23][25][26]
History
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2012) |
After
Creation
On 10 May 1932, the Christian Social politician Engelbert Dollfuss was designated Chancellor of Austria by President Wilhelm Miklas. Dollfuss formed another right-wing government together with the Landbund and the Heimatblock, the political organisation of the paramilitary Heimwehr forces. He began to surpass the slim majority of his government in parliament ruling by emergency decrees, and on 15 March 1933 finally prevented the gathering of the National Council. Two months later the "Fatherland Front" was founded by Chancellor Dollfuss as a merger of his Christian Social Party, the Heimwehr forces and other right-wing groups, and was intended to collect all "loyal Austrians" under one banner.
On 30 May 1933, the government banned the Republikanischer Schutzbund, the paramilitary troops of the Social Democratic Party; the Communist Party and the Austrian Nazi Party were prohibited shortly afterwards. From 12 February 1934 onwards, the remaining Schutzbund forces revolted against their disbanding, sparking the Austrian Civil War against Heimwehr troops and the Austrian Armed Forces. After the suppression, the Social Democratic Party too was declared illegal and dissolved. Social Democratic officials like the Vienna mayor Karl Seitz were deposed and replaced by VF politicians.
Corporate state
On 1 May, a rump session of the Nationalrat recast the constitution into an authoritarian and corporatist document. The official name of the country was changed to the Federal State of Austria, with the VF as the only legally permitted political organisation. Thereafter, the organisation held a monopolistic position in Austrian politics with both civilian and military divisions. Dollfuss remained its undisputed leader until his assassination during the Nazi July Putsch on 25 July 1934. He was succeeded by Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, while his VF fellow Justice Minister Kurt Schuschnigg became chancellor.
In 1936, Schuschnigg also took over the leadership of the VF. The Front was declared a corporation under public law and the only legal political organisation in Austria. Its symbol was the
Anschluss
Schuschnigg acknowledged that Austrians were Germans and that Austria was a "German state" but he strongly opposed an Anschluss and passionately wished for Austria to remain independent from Germany.[30]
Schuschnigg's government had to face the increasing pressure by its powerful neighbour Nazi Germany under Austrian-born Adolf Hitler. The state's fate was sealed when the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini made rapprochement towards the German Nazis. To ease tensions, Schuschnigg on 11 July 1936 concluded an agreement, whereafter several conspirators of the 1934 July Putsch were released from prison. Nazi confidants like Edmund Glaise-Horstenau and Guido Schmidt joined Schuschnigg's cabinet, while Arthur Seyss-Inquart attained the office of a State Councillor, though the Austrian Nazi Party remained illegal.
On 12 February 1938 Hitler summoned Schuschnigg to his Berghof residence, constraining the readmission of the Nazi Party and the replacement of the Austrian chief of staff Alfred Jansa by Franz Böhme to pave the way for a Wehrmacht invasion. Schuschnigg had to appoint Seyss-Inquart Minister of the Interior, encouraging the political activation of the Austrian Nazis.
Realizing that he was in a bind, Schuschnigg announced a referendum on Austrian independence. In hopes of increasing the likelihood of a "Yes" vote, he agreed to lift the ban on the Social Democrats and their affiliated trade unions in return for their support of the referendum, dismantling the one-party state. This move came too late. Schuschnigg was finally forced to resign under German pressure on 11 March and was succeeded by Seyss-Inquart. The Fatherland Front was immediately banned after the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria to Germany, two days later.
After the
See also
- Austria in the time of National Socialism
References
- ^ Der Vizekanzler – Führer der Vaterländischen Front. In Neue Freie Presse, 31 July 1934 (german).
- ISBN 3-85452-253-3, pp. 401–420 (dissertation Uni Wien 1993, under the title: National Socialist Youth Organizations in Austria, 479 pages).
- ^
- Robert Kriechbaumer (2002), Ein vaterländisches Bilderbuch: Propaganda, Selbstinszenierung und Ästhetik der Vaterländischen Front 1933–1938, Schriftenreihe des Forschungsinstitutes für politisch-historische Studien der Dr.-Wilfried-Haslauer-Bibliothek 17 Robert Kriechbaumer, Hubert Weinberger, ISBN 978-3-205-77011-4
- Emmerich Tálos (2013), Das austrofaschistische Herrschaftssystem: Österreich 1933–1938, Politik und Zeitgeschichte 8 (in German) (2 ed.), Münster: LIT Verlag, p. 226, ISBN 978-3-643-50494-4
- Arnd Bauerkämper, Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe, ed. (2017), Fascism without Borders: Transnational Connections and Cooperation between Movements and Regimes in Europe from 1918 to 1945 (in German), New York: Berghahn Books, p. 174, JSTOR j.ctvw04hnr
- Robert Kriechbaumer (2002), Ein vaterländisches Bilderbuch: Propaganda, Selbstinszenierung und Ästhetik der Vaterländischen Front 1933–1938, Schriftenreihe des Forschungsinstitutes für politisch-historische Studien der Dr.-Wilfried-Haslauer-Bibliothek 17 Robert Kriechbaumer, Hubert Weinberger,
- ISBN 9780299148706.
- ^ Spohn, Willfried (2005), "Austria: From Habsburg Empire to a Small Nation in Europe", Entangled identities: nations and Europe, Ashgate, p. 61.
- ^
ISBN 9781483305394. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
[...] fascist Italy [...] developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were Estado Novo in Portugal (1932–1968) and Brazil (1937–1945), the Austrian Standestaat (1933–1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe.
- ^ Pelinka, Anton (2017). The Dollfuss/Schuschnigg Era in Austria: A Reassessment. Routledge. p. 249.
- ^ Günter J. Bischof, Anton Pelinka, Alexander Lassner. The Dollfuss/Schuschnigg Era in Austria: A Reassessment. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2001. p. 26.
- ^ H.R. Trevor-Roper, "The Phenomenon of Fascism", in S. Woolf (ed.), Fascism in Europe (London: Methuen, 1981), especially p. 26. Cited in Roger Eatwell, "Reflections on Fascism and Religion" Archived 2007-05-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ^
- Binder, Dieter A. (2009). The Christian Corporatist State: Austria from 1934 to 1938. Austria in the Twentieth Century. Transaction Publishers. p. 75.
- Pyrah (2008). Enacting Encyclicals? Cultural Politics and 'Clerical Fascism' in Austria. p. 162.
- Stanley G. Payne (1984). Spanish Catholicism: An Historical Overview. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. xiii. ISBN 978-0-299-09804-9.
- ^ "1934 to 1938: Ständestaat in the Name of 'God, the Almighty'". City of Vienna. Retrieved November 3, 2019.
His politics were supported by the Fatherland Front, a reservoir for nationalist, Christian and generally right-wing conservative forces.
- ^ a b Jelavich, Barbara (1987). Modern Austria: Empire and Republic, 1815–1986. Cambridge University Press. p. 200.
- ^ Erlebte Geschichte (Autobiografie, geschrieben 2000), Seite 173 (online).
- ^ Thuswaldner, Gregor (2006). "Dollfuss, Engelbert (1892–1934)". In Domenico, Roy Palmer; Hanley, Mark Y. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Politics. Greenwood Press. p. 174.
- ^ Atsuko Ichijō, Willfried Spohn. Entangled identities: nations and Europe. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2005, p. 61.
- ^ a b Pyrah (2008). Enacting Encyclicals? Cultural Politics and 'Clerical Fascism' in Austria. p. 162.
- ^ Binder, Dieter A. (2009). The Christian Corporatist State: Austria from 1934 to 1938. Austria in the Twentieth Century. Transaction Publishers. p. 75.
- ^ Binder (2009). The Christian Corporatist State. p. 73.
- ^ Pyrah (2008). Enacting Encyclicals? Cultural Politics and 'Clerical Fascism' in Austria. p. 160.
- ^ Unknown, Unknown. "Modern Era >> Anti-Semitism". Jewish Communities of Austria. National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
- ^ Tálos, Emmerich; Neugebauer, Wolfgang (2014). "Vorwort". Austrofaschismus: Politik, Ökonomie, Kultur, 1933–1938 (7th ed.). Lit Verlag. pp. 1–2.
- ^ a b Kirk, Tim (2003). Fascism and Austrofascism. The Dollfuss/Schuschnigg Era in Austria. p. 15.
- ^ a b Kitschelt, Herbert (1997). The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis. Michigan University Press. p. 165.
- ISBN 9780807825167.
- ISBN 9781857285956.
- ^ Morgan, Philip (2003). Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945. Routledge. p. 72.
- ^ Kriechbaumer, Robert, ed. (2005). Österreich! und Front Heil!: aus den Akten des Generalsekretariats der Vaterländischen Front; Innenansichten eines Regimes. Böhlau Verlag. p. 142.
- ^ Schreiber, Horst (2008). Nationalsozialismus und Faschismus in Tirol und Südtirol: Opfer, Täter, Gegner. StudienVerlag. p. 42.
- ISBN 9780299148706.
- ISBN 9783631581117– via Google Books.
- ^ Fichtner, Paula Sutter (2009). Political Parties. Historical Dictionary of Austria (2nd ed.). Scarecrow Press. p. 233.
External links
- Media related to Fatherland Front (Austria) at Wikimedia Commons