Austrian commemorative 2 shilling coin for Chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss

In 1931, Engelbert Dollfuss (1892-1934) became Minister of Agriculture in the conservative government of Otto Ender. His effectiveness in that position led, on 20 May 1932, to him becoming Chancellor at the head of a new conservative coalition of his Christian Social party, the Agrarians, and the Heimwehr, the political wing of the extreme right paramilitary militias that were engaged in ongoing street fighting with the paramilitaries affiliated with the Social Democratic party, the Republikanischer Schutzbund.

With only a narrow majority in parliament, the Dollfuss government was being fought by both the Social Democrats and the supporters of annexating Austria to Germany. In March 1933, Dollfus dissolved parliament and established  a dictatorship. The following month, he founded the Patriotic Front, an   authoritarian and Catholic organization inspired by Mussolini’s Fascist Party, and declared all other parties illegal. In May 1934, he imposed an authoritarian constitution base on Catholic, corporativist principles.

The Dollfuss government persecuted worker organizations, and on 16 February these rose up in arms in an episode known as the Austrian Civil War. The conflict lasted four days and ended in brutal repression. Dollfuss was also a firm defender of Austrian sovereignty and he fought the national-socialist far right that advocated union with Germany. They assassinated him on 25 July during a failed coup attempt that had the support of the Third Reich.

The evolution of Austria in those years shows that the agitated political life of the Second Republic was not exceptional in interwar Europe. The brutalization of political language, the presence of paramilitary groups connected to political parties and Street fights between them; the fascistization of some conservative groups and drift into authoritarianism or attempted insurrections occurred frequently across the continent.

The shadow of Dollfuss hung over the Second Republic. His opposition to the Social Democrats as well as his defence of Catholic corporativism or his authoritarian tendencies made the Austrian leader a point of reference for José María Gil Robles and the CEDA. On the other side, Spain’s Socialists justified their insurrection in October 1934 claiming that Gil Robles, who they called the “Spanish Dollfuss” would emulate the Austrian chancellor by installing a despotic government and repressing workers’ parties and unions.

MML