Editing Engelbert Dollfuss (section)

=== 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>