Editing Engelbert Dollfuss (section)

== Dollfuss as dictator of Austria ==

[[File:DollfussEnGinebra1933.jpeg|thumb|Chancellor Dollfuss in [[Geneva]], 1933]]
=== Ascent to power ===
{{main|Self-elimination of the Austrian Parliament}}
In March 1933, a constitutional impasse arose over irregularities in the voting procedure in the Austrian parliament. The  [[Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria|Social Democratic]] president of the  [[National Council of Austria|National Council]] (the lower house of parliament), [[Karl Renner]], resigned to be able to cast a vote as a parliament member. As a consequence, the two vice presidents, belonging to other parties, resigned as well in order to be able to vote. Without a president, the parliament could not conclude the session. Dollfuss took the three resignations as a pretext to declare that the National Council had become unworkable and advised  [[President of Austria|President]] [[Wilhelm Miklas]] to issue a decree adjourning it indefinitely. 

On March 7, Dolfuss announced his government had assumed emergency powers based on the "Wartime Economy Authority Law," which had been passed in 1917.<ref name="Stadt Wien">{{cite web|last1=Bauer-Manhart|first1=Ingeborg|title=4 March 1933 – The beginning of the end of parliamentarian democracy in Austria|url=https://www.wien.gv.at/english/history/commemoration/end-democracy.html|publisher=Stadt Wien|access-date=May 9, 2017}}</ref> From that point onwards, he governed by emergency decree, effectively seizing dictatorial powers. When the National Council wanted to reconvene on 15 March, days after the resignation of the three presidents, Dollfuss had the police bar entrance to the chamber, effectively eliminating democracy in Austria.

Dollfuss was concerned that with  [[NSDAP|German National Socialist]] leader [[Adolf Hitler]] as [[Chancellor of Germany]] from January 1933, the [[Austrian National Socialism|Austrian National Socialists]] (DNSAP) could gain a significant minority in future elections (according to fascism scholar [[Stanley G. Payne]], should elections have been held in 1933, the DNSAP could have mustered about 25% of the votes – contemporary [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] analysts suggest higher support of 50%, with a 75% approval rate in the [[Tyrol (state)|Tyrol]] region bordering [[Nazi Germany]]).<ref>Stanley G. Payne, ''A History of Fascism 1914–1945''</ref><ref name="Eve"/> In addition, the [[Soviet Union]]'s influence in Europe had increased throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. Dollfuss banned the [[Communist Party of Austria]] on 26 May 1933 and the DNSAP on 19 June 1933. Under the banner of the  [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Fatherland Front]], he later established a [[European interwar dictatorships|one-party dictatorship]] rule largely modelled after fascism in Italy, banning all other Austrian parties – including the  [[Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria|Social Democratic Labour Party]] (SDAPÖ). Social Democrats however continued to exist as an independent organization, nevertheless, though without its paramilitary ''[[Republikanischer Schutzbund]]'', which until banned on 31 March 1933<ref>{{cite web|url= http://en.doew.braintrust.at/m9sm101.html|title= DöW – Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance|work= braintrust.at|access-date= 5 July 2015|archive-date= 5 March 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160305114433/http://en.doew.braintrust.at/m9sm101.html|url-status= dead}}</ref> could have mustered tens of thousands against Dollfuss's government.

=== The Fatherland Front ===
[[File:Engelbert Dollfuss.png|thumb|Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß wearing the ''[[Heimwehr]]'' uniform (1933)]]
Dollfuss modelled the [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Fatherland Front]] according to [[Catholic]] [[corporatist]] ideals with  [[clericalism|anti-secularist]] tones and in a similar way to Italian [[fascism]], dropping Austrian pretenses of unification with Germany as long as the Nazi Party remained in power there. In August 1933, [[Benito Mussolini]]'s regime issued a guarantee of Austrian independence. Dollfuss also exchanged "Secret Letters" with Mussolini about ways to guarantee Austrian independence. Mussolini had an interest in Austria forming a buffer zone against Nazi Germany. Dollfuss always stressed the similarity of the régimes of Hitler in Germany and [[Joseph Stalin]] in the Soviet Union and was convinced that Austria and Italy could counter [[totalitarian]] national-socialism and communism in Europe.

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  [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|''Vaterländische Front'']], though the Heimwehr continued to exist as an independent organization until 1936, when Dollfuss's successor [[Kurt von Schuschnigg]] forcibly merged it into the Front, instead creating the unabidingly loyal ''Frontmiliz'' as a paramilitary task-force. Dollfuss was shot and wounded in an assassination attempt in October 1933 by [[Rudolf Dertill]], a 22-year-old who had been ejected from the military for his pro-Nazi views and had joined the [[Nazi Party]] in 1932. Dertill was sentenced to five years in prison for attempted murder. In the aftermath of the attempted assassination, Dollfuss declared [[martial law]], which allowed for the resumption of [[capital punishment in Austria]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1933-11-11 |title=J L Moser – Former Pupils Honor2 |page=2 |work=New Castle News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/new-castle-news-j-l-moser-former-pupil/101598552/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |archive-date=2023-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231115183005/https://www.newspapers.com/article/new-castle-news-j-l-moser-former-pupil/101598552/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Austrian Civil War ===
{{Conservatism in Austria|Politicians}}
{{main | Austrian Civil War}}
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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Konrad |first=Helmut |date=12 March 2018 |title=Die tiefen Wunden des Bürgerkriegs |trans-title=The Deep Wounds of the Civil War |url=https://www.kleinezeitung.at/oesterreich/5386421/Februar-und-Juli-1934_Die-tiefen-Wunden-des-Buergerkriegs |access-date=6 December 2023 |website=Die kleine Zeitung |language=de |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207181729/https://www.kleinezeitung.at/oesterreich/5386421/Februar-und-Juli-1934_Die-tiefen-Wunden-des-Buergerkriegs |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Die Februarkämpfe 1934 und wie es zu ihnen kam (4) |trans-title=The February Battles and how they came about (4) |url=https://www.protestwanderweg.at/feb34/feb34_06.php |access-date=6 December 2023 |website=Erster Wiener Protestwanderweg |language=de |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316083601/https://www.protestwanderweg.at/feb34/feb34_06.php |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Februarkämpfe 1934 |trans-title=February Battles 1934 |url=https://www.doew.at/neues/februarkaempfe-1934 |access-date=6 December 2023 |website=Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes |language=de |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207031916/https://www.doew.at/neues/februarkaempfe-1934 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Social Democrats were outlawed by the Federal government on 12 February 1934,<ref>{{cite book
 |editor-last1     = Benay
 |editor-first1    = Jeanne
 |title            = L'Autriche 1918–1938 : recueil de textes civilisationnels
 |url              = https://books.google.com/books?id=2NprTORPqLkC
 |series           = Etudes autrichiennes n°6
 |date             = January 1998
 |publisher        = Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre
 |publication-date = 1998
 |page             = 263
 |isbn             = 9782877756099
 |access-date      = 29 September 2022
 |quote            = Verordnung der Bundesregierung vom 12. Februar 1934, womit der Sozialdemokratischen Arbeiterpartei Österreichs jede Betätigung in Österreich verboten wird.
 |archive-date     = 5 March 2024
 |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20240305015143/https://books.google.com/books?id=2NprTORPqLkC
 |url-status       = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IaaJAAAAMAAJ&q=Sozialdemokratische+Partei+verboten+1934 |title= Protokolle des Ministerrates der Ersten Republik, Volume 8, Part 6 |isbn= 3-7046-0004-0 |page= xvii |year= 1985 |language= de |access-date= 2018-03-04 |last1= Ministerrat |first1= Austria |last2= Neck |first2= Rudolf |last3= Wandruszka |first3= Adam |last4= Ackerl |first4= Isabella |publisher= Verlag der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei |quote= [...] uber die weitere Entwicklung der Gemeinde Wien wurde die Sozialdemokratische Partei am 12. Februar 1934 verboten. |archive-date= 2024-03-05 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240305015935/https://books.google.com/books?id=IaaJAAAAMAAJ&q=Sozialdemokratische+Partei+verboten+1934 |url-status= live }}</ref> and their leaders were imprisoned or fled abroad.

=== New constitution ===
{{Main|Federal State of Austria}}
Dollfuss staged a rump parliamentary session with just Fatherland Front members present in April 1934 to  [[May Constitution of 1934|have a new constitution approved]], effectively the second constitution in the world espousing [[corporatist]] ideas (after that of the Portuguese ''[[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]]'').<ref>Stanley G. Payne, ''Civil War in Europe, 1905–1949'', 2011, p. 108.</ref> The session retrospectively made all the decrees already passed since March 1933 legal. The new constitution became effective on 1 May 1934 and swept away the last remnants of democracy and the system of the [[First Austrian Republic]], establishing the [[Federal State of Austria]]. Based on [[Italian Fascism]], Austria officially became a one-party authoritarian state. Opposing the Anschluss, Dollfuss and the Fatherland Front made heavy use of the Austrians' Catholic religion in an attempt to cultivate a sense of nationalism and prevent it from being absorbed by Nazi Germany.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vsl6mwMXl4YC&pg=PA37|title=Constructing and Deconstructing National Identity: Dramatic Discourse in Tom Murphy's The Patriot Game and Felix Mitterer's In Der Löwengrube|first=Birgit|last=Ryschka|date=2008|publisher=Peter Lang|via=[[Google Books]]|isbn=9783631581117|access-date=2024-02-29|archive-date=2020-10-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001134755/https://books.google.com/books?id=Vsl6mwMXl4YC&pg=PA37%2F|url-status=live}}</ref>