Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Anschluss & WWII
Austria's role in WWII is one of the most controversial aspects of its modern history.
Hitler was popular inside Austria, and Austria itself supplied a disproportionately large
number of officers for the SS and the German army. What Hitler and the Nazis couldn't
achieve through pressure, large numbers of Austrians themselves helped achieve through
their active and passive support for Nazism and Hitler's war.
The roots of Austria's Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP; Austrian People's Party) go back to 1887; a fore-
runner of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs (SPÖ; Social Democratic Party of Austria) was foun-
ded a year later.
Austro-Marxism & Austro-Fascism
The worldwide economic depression triggered by the crash of stock exchanges in 1929
further fuelled the flames of discontent and division. About 25% of the working popula-
tion was now unemployed. Austro-Marxism, which sought a third way between Russian
Leninism and the revisionism cropping up in some European social democratic move-
ments, enjoyed a strong following in the cities. Key figures behind it - today reading like a
who's who of street names in Vienna - were Karl Renner (1870-1950), Otto Bauer
(1881-1938), Friedrich Adler (1879-1960), Max Adler (1873-1937) and Rudolf Hilferd-
ing (1877-1941). In contrast to revolutionary Marxism, leaders were committed to 'win-
ning over minds, not smashing in heads' as Otto Bauer so aptly put it.
The first government of the Austrian Republic was a coalition of left- and right-wing
parties under Chancellor Karl Renner. A key figure of the right was Ignaz Seipl
(1876-1932), who was chancellor twice during the 1920s and saw his calling in opposing
the Marxists.
In 1930 right-wing conservatives forced through a constitutional change that gave more
power to the president and weakened parliament. In a radicalisation of politics, paramilit-
ary groups close to the right formally backed homegrown Austrian fascism, and when En-
gelbert Dollfuss (1892-1934) became chancellor in 1932, Austria moved a step closer to
becoming a fascist state.
During the chaos in a parliamentary session in 1933 following strikes by workers and a
harsh response by the government, Dollfuss declared his intention to rule without parlia-
ment. This marked the beginning of a period when socialists and social democrats were
