Austrofascism
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Austrofascism is a term which is frequently used to describe the authoritarian rule installed in Austria between 1934 and 1938. It was based on a ruling party, the Patriotic Front (Vaterländische Front) and the Heimwehr (Homeguard) paramilitary units. Leaders were Engelbert Dollfuß and, after Dollfuß's assassination, Kurt Schuschnigg, who originally were politicians of the Christian Social Party, which was quickly integrated into the new movement.
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[edit] Origins and Ideology
The system of Austrofascism was partly based on Mussolini's Italian fascism and conservative Political Catholicism (Clerical Fascism). Its basis was laid in the Korneuburg Program of the Christian Social Party on May 18, 1930. Effectively, it meant that the democratic constitution and parliamentarism were replaced by an authoritarian system, the so-called Ständestaat (State of Estates).
Notably, in the Ständestaat constitution, Austria was not a republic, but its official name was Bundesstaat Österreich (Federation of Austria), which belies the fact that the country's constituent parts, the States of Austria, effectively had fewer powers than under the 1920 constitution.
[edit] History
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In May 1930 the Christian social paramilitary organization Heimwehr released a political declaration condemning both “Marxist class struggle” and “liberal-capitalistic economical structures” and calling for an authoritarian state. These political views were also shared by young Christian social militants like the future chancellor of the Second Austrian Republic Leopold Figl .
On 4th March 1933 a parliamentary blockage due to internal procedure issues offered chancellor Dollfuß a reason for the elimination of the parliament from the political life. Thus, three days later he enacted an assembly ban and restored censorship. As the opposition attempted to resume the parliament’s activity on 15th March 1933, the MPs were impeded to enter the Parliament Hall.
Thereafter the Dollfuß government established an authoritarian regime ruling with special enacting laws for wartime economy which dated from 1917. The new authoritarian regime took a set of actions aiming at consolidating power, disbanding the paramilitary organization of the social democrat party (Republican Protection League) (31st March 1933), suspending parliamentary and local elections (10th May 1933) and proclaiming the Patriotic Front (20th May, 1933). Political parties not affiliated to the Patriotic Front have been proscribed: the Communist Party of Austria (26th May, 1933) and the NSDAP (19th June, 1933).
After the February Uprising of 1934 opposing social democrats and conservatives, the Social Democratic Party of Austria was banned as well. Dollfuß completed his work with the constitution of May 1, 1934. Austrofascism then remained in place until the Anschluss to Germany in 1938.
[edit] Criticism of the Term
Although the term "Austrofascism" was used by the proponents of the regime itself, it is still disputed today. On a political level, criticism sometimes comes from representatives of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP; the post-WW2 successors of the Christian Social Party), some of whom do not distance themselves from the authoritarian Austrian regime of the Patriotic Front. They usually stress the Austro-fascists' merits in fighting for Austria's independence and against Nazism. Other parties often critizise the ÖVP for keeping a picture of Dollfuß — the man who abolished parlamentarism — on one of the walls of its offices in the Austrian parliament.
While it is undisputed that the regime was an authoritarian dictatorship in character (it locked away members of the opposition, mostly nazis, communists and social-democrats, in concentration camps called Anhaltelager or imprisonment centers), some historians argue that it lacked certain characteristics of true fascism. Although the Patriotic Front used fascist symbols (such as the Kruckenkreuz) and was meant to be a party of the masses, it lacked a solid basis in the population, especially among labourers who tended to support the Communists or the Nazis. The Austrian government also did not target minorities or engage in any sort of expansionism.
According to some historians, Austrofascism was a contrived and desperate attempt to "out-Hitler" ("überhitlern") the Nazis, a term used by Dollfuß himself. They argue that Dollfuß was interested in a renaissance of Catholicism rather than in a totalitarian state, meaning that he wanted to return to the time before the ideas of the French Revolution of 1789 took hold. Ernst Hanisch, for example, speaks of semi-fascism. Some parallels to Spain under Francisco Franco cannot be overlooked however. Austrofascism is sometimes also called imitation fascism.
