Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0025/00256.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 15KB | 251 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00256}
$Pretitle{376}
$Title{Austria
Resistance and persecution in Austria 1938-1945}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Federal Press Service}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Austria, Washington DC}
$Subject{austria
german
national
march
socialists
austrian
hitler
plebiscite
social
government}
$Date{1988}
$Log{}
Country:     Austria
Book:        Resistance and persecution in Austria 1938-1945
Author:      Federal Press Service
Affiliation: Embassy of Austria, Washington DC
Date:        1988

Resistance and persecution in Austria 1938-1945

Introduction

     In order to understand the attitude of the Austrian people towards the
National Socialist regime between 1938 and 1945 it is necessary to appreciate
the decisive role played by the economic and political conditions which
pertained in Austria in the years leading up to the country's annexation by
nazi Germany in March 1938. Furthermore, the prevailing conditions in Austria
must be seen in the overall context of European political developments: the
emergence of anti-democratic, anti-parliamentary tendencies in the twenties,
which were subsequently compounded by the economic depression of the thirties.

     If Austria's resistance to Hitler is to be seen in its true perspective,
it must be noted that the interest taken by the western democracies in
Austria's continued existence as a sovereign state declined as Germany and
Austria moved ever further away from democratic forms of political life in the
years after 1933. It was indicative of the western world's resignation that
the foreign embassies and diplomatic missions in Vienna were promptly reduced
to consular status after March 13, 1938 and that only one official
protest-that of Mexico-was lodged at the League of Nations against the
annexation of Austria.

The Corporative State

     In Austria itself the Christian Social Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss,
under strong foreign political pressure from the Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini and confronted with severe domestic political difficulties resulting
from his precarious majority in parliament, took a procedural crisis in the
Lower Chamber on March 4, 1933 as a pretext for by-passing parliament
altogether. Citing this procedural technicality he made the Lower Chamber
redundant and invoked a "Wartime Economy Powers Act" dating from 1917 to
institute an authoritarian regime. It was Dollfuss' goal to create a "social,
Christian, German state of Austria on a corporative basis under a strong
authoritarian leadership". Known subsequently as the "Corporative State", it
betrayed pronounced fascist features such as the establishment of a unitarian
party. This latter step involved the elimination of the existing political
parties. The first to be banned were the small Communist Party of Austria
(KPO) and the National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSDAP). During the
four-day civil war of February 1934 the Social Democratic Worker's Party was
forcibly suppressed (at the last parliamentary election in 1930 the Social
Democrats had gained no fewer than 41 per cent of the total vote). In the wake
of the civil war the Social Democratic worker's organisations-including the
Free Trade Unions-were dissolved, and the leading officials of these bodies
were arrested. A revival of their activities was prohibited under threat of
prosecution. The Revolutionary Socialists or RS (who replaced the banned
Social Democrats), the Communists and the Free Trade Unions went underground
and regrouped. A constant succession of illegal publications, protests and
strikes proved that the large majority of the working class was opposed to the
Corporative State.

     The conflict was exacerbated by an economic crisis which for several
years had made approximately ten per cent of Austria's workforce unemployed.
This crisis and the NSDAP's rise to power in Germany were grist to the mill of
the National Socialists in Austria.

     Encouraged by Hitler's assumption of power in Germany in early 1933,
Austria's National Socialists launched a campaign of terrorist activities
which reached such dimensions in mid-1933 that Chancellor Dollfuss issued a
ban on the party. A few weeks previously Hitler's Germany had introduced what
was known as the "Thousand Mark Limit", a mandatory fee to be paid by German
citizens prior to travelling to Austria. This constituted a form of economic
pressure on the Austrian government. Even after the ban on the NSDAP it proved
impossible to prevent the continuation of the nazi terrorist campaign. On July
25, 1934 National Socialists attempted to seize power by staging a coup
d'etat. It resulted in the assassination of Dollfuss in the Federal
Chancellery building, but ultimately it failed. The coup cost more than 250
police and insurgents their lives and left hundreds injured. Although the
German 'Reich' government had backed the uprising, it disclaimed
responsibility for the outcome and thus for the Austrian National Socialists,
partly in order not to damage its prestige internationally but principally
because of the stance adopted by Mussolini, who was resolved to intervene
militarily on Austria's behalf.

     The rapprochement between Hitler and Mussolini during the latter's
foolhardy Abyssinian campaign meant that Austria was drawn increasingly away
from the Italian and into the German sphere of influence. Under the pressure
exerted by Hitler's Germany and German industrial interests Dollfuss'
successor in the Chancellery, Kurt Schuschnigg, made far-reaching concessions
to Hitler in the "July Accord" of 1936. From now on Austria's foreign policy
proceeded from the premise of a "second German state". By signing this
agreement, Schuschnigg deprived himself of the means by which to contain the
internal threat posed by the National Socialists.

     At the Berchtesgaden meeting between Schuschnigg and Hitler on February
12, 1938 the Austrian Chancellor was induced by a process of intimidation and
coercion to consent to the terms of an accord which in practice put Austria at
the mercy of the National Socialists. The provisions of this agreement
stipulated that Austrian policy-making should be co-ordinated with German
interests, and that National Socialists should be included in the government.

     The accord signed in Berchtesgaden unleashed tumultuous domestic
political developments in Austria. On the one hand the banned National
Socialists saw their position greatly strengthened, while the government was
no longer in a position to contain their activities; and on the other hand an
anti-nazi, patriotic movement emerged to counter the National Socialists. Both
the "grass-roots" supporters of the Corporative State and the working class
showed increasing determination to make a stand against the National
Socialists. The government began negotiations with the banned left-wing
parties and the Free Trade Unions whose representatives were able to show
themselves in public for the first time in four years of illegality. They made
their support for the government conditional upon the fulfillment of certain
demands. Although the plebiscite which Schuschnigg unexpectedly scheduled for
March 13, 1938 was formulated in equivocal terms-its purpose was to quantify
allegiance to "a free and German, independent and social, Christian and united
Austria"-the workers were not deterred from declaring their intention to back
it. The Socialists justified their support with the argument: "March 13 is not
the day for settling accounts with the Austro-fascists; March 13 is for the
Socialists a day on which they will proclaim their fanatical hostility towards
Hitler fascism."

     The plebiscite was Schuschnigg's way of trying to seize the initiative.
Even confidential National Socialist estimates suggested that the majority
would have voted in favour of Austria. Taken unawares by Schuschnigg's move,
Hitler and above all Hermann Goring, later to be 'Reichsmarschall', brought
enormous pressure to bear on the Chancellor, threatening him with the invasion
of Austria if he did not withdraw his