Austrian homeland service

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The Austrian Homeland Service was a propaganda institution in the run-up to the Fatherland Front (VF).

Emergence

After the dissolution of parliament on March 4, 1933, Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss , Kurt Schuschnigg and Richard Schmitz discussed the propaganda to be set up by the government. The founding of the Austrian Homeland Service was the result of a conference chaired by Dollfuss, in which the content and personal details of this propaganda were discussed. The conference also took Landbund -Vizekanzler Franz Winkler and the Home Guard -Minister Guido Jakoncig part.

From mid-March 1933 an office was available to the Heimatdienst, from where it worked in close cooperation with the Federal Chancellor and the Heimwehr (which at that time was the Austrian Heimatschutz ) as a propaganda point for the Dollfuss government . The editor-in-chief of the Wiener Zeitung , Pankraz Kruckenhauser, was appointed to manage it .

Act

The homeland service began, albeit initially only to a modest extent, to do organizational preparatory work for the establishment of the desired patriotic movement.

On April 29, 1933, the Heimatdienst published an accountability report in the Wiener Zeitung about the government without a parliament, in which the readers were called on to cooperate for the fatherland, “in the great patriotic, Austrian, national front.” That was not a concrete organization meant, rather it was an appeal to the Austrians to support the government's new course.

But the plan quickly matured to unite all those who professed freedom in Austria and who rejected both Austromarxism and National Socialism under the common roof of a collective movement. On May 21, the first call to join the Patriotic Front appeared. The registrations were to be sent to the home service office. There was a flood of enthusiastic letters and registrations. The Homeland Service produced registration forms and membership cards and commissioned the manufacture of badges for the Patriotic Front. The Heimatdienst also supported the following advertising events for VF.

The Heimatdienst organized the Vaterländische Wandzeitung , with which the population was to be informed about the current actions of the VF, and on June 9, 1933, the later regularly produced national newsreel Austria was shown for the first time in picture and sound . The first edition of the VF newsletter for Vienna appeared in August.

Kruckenhauser was also general secretary of the VF from May to August 1933. Since he showed a clear affinity for National Socialism, he was replaced as head of the homeland service on November 4, 1933 by Richard Steidle , who headed the homeland service as federal commissioner for propaganda . Kruckenhauser was director of the Austrian State Printing Office until the beginning of 1937 . On July 11, 1934, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Reichspost , Colonel a. D. Walter Adam took over the leadership as "Federal Commissioner for Homeland Service" , Steidle became Consul General in Trieste .

In a 1935 statement of accounts, Adam stated that the Home Service did not fully begin its work until September 1934. His work extended to "radio, film, personal influence of the Federal Commissioner, education from man to man and writing" . Since the "common man" had lost his contact in politics due to the elimination of the parliamentarians, the home service should take over this function. He therefore answered in-depth inquiries and suggestions, whereby the prevailing opinions among the population should be explored. Instructors were set up and trained for man-to-man enlightenment , and they were mainly deployed in areas that were particularly accessible to National Socialist propaganda. For the time being, Vienna was excluded from the propaganda; they wanted to gain ground in the federal states and gain experience there.

Adam also tried to cooperate with the ministries and demanded clear formulas for his propaganda unit from them. The General Directorate for Public Security informed the Federal Commissioner about the most important files.

In 1934 and 1935, the Heimatdienst published seven civic information sheets, eleven economic policy information sheets, 35 brochures, six pamphlets and several collections of newspaper articles that were considered politically noteworthy. During the hour of the Home Service, lectures were regularly given on the radio by its members and members of the government.

In 1936 the homeland service was merged with the federal press service and Adam became head of the federal press service.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Irmgard Bärnthaler: The Fatherland Front. History and organization. Europa Verlag, Vienna 1971, p. 12, 204.
  2. ↑ Austrian Homeland Service:  Austrians! Austrians! German national comrades !. In:  Wiener Zeitung , April 29, 1933, pp. 1–2 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz.
  3. ^ Into the patriotic front! In:  Wiener Zeitung , May 21, 1933, p. 3 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz.
  4. ↑ Robert Kriechbaumer (Ed.): Austria! and Front Heil! (= Robert Kriechbaumer, Hubert Weinberger, Franz Schausberger [Hrsg.]: Series of publications by the Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies of the Dr. Wilfried Haslauer Library . Volume 23 ). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2005, ISBN 978-3-205-77324-5 , pp. 107 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ↑ Robert Kriechbaumer : The great stories of politics. Political culture and parties in Austria from the turn of the century to 1945 (=  series of publications by the Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies of the Dr. Wilfried Haslauer Library, Salzburg . Volume 12 ). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-205-99400-0 , p. 611 .
  6. ↑ Irmgard Bärnthaler: The Fatherland Front. History and organization. Europa Verlag, Vienna 1971, p. 13.
  7. ^ Emmerich Tálos : The Austrofascist system of rule: Austria 1933–1938 (=  politics and contemporary history . Volume 8 ). 2nd Edition. LIT Verlag, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-50494-4 , p. 426 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).