Austrian Homeland Security
The Austrian Home Guard ( Heimwehr ) were paramilitary formations in Austria in the interwar period . The homeland security stood in contrast to the social democratic protection association and mainly operated the abolition of democracy and republic, which occurred in 1934 with the establishment of the corporate state .
prehistory
After the end of the First World War with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and the associated dissolution of the Joint Army , the respective soldiers tried to get from the front lines to their respective homeland. These former soldiers, hungry and frustrated and largely without coercion or leadership, began looting and assaulting the population. In return, local vigilante groups were formed against the soldiers passing through. Soon the formations organized themselves politically to form the right Heimwehr and the left Schutzbund.
history
In October 1927, the home guard associations in Austria merged to form the Federation of Austrian Self-Protection Associations and elected the Tyrolean Richard Steidle as federal leader and the Styrian Walter Pfrimer as his deputy. The events of the Vienna Palace of Justice fire on July 15, 1927 brought together the anti-democratic, bourgeois and reactionary forces and brought about a union on the Austrian level. In July 1927 Walter Pfrimer announced a march on Vienna with the March on Rome (1922) in a speech based on Benito Mussolini . But since the incumbent Chancellor Ignaz Seipel turned to foreign fascist governments and organizations for financial support for the Heimwehr in 1920, this would have been an affront to the more than well-meaning Chancellor. So the leadership of the Heimwehr chose the red Wiener Neustadt in the industrial quarter, a stronghold of the social democracy caused by the settlement of factories . The majority of the Social Democrats wanted to oppose this attack, which led to the deployment of the Home Guard and the Schutzbund in Wiener Neustadt on October 7, 1928, which Ignaz Seipel kept apart from strong gendarmerie and federal armies and proceeded without acts of violence.
On September 2, 1930, Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg was elected as the new federal leader. As a result, there were more and more disagreements about questions of ideology and political strategy, while Starhemberg advocated a separate Heimwehr list in the National Council election in 1930 , the Styrian Homeland Security refused. Pfrimer was fundamentally against running for the election, while his chief of staff Rauter pursued the idea of an electoral alliance with the National Socialists. At the beginning of October 1930, Rauter met Gregor Strasser , head of the organization of the NSDAP, to discuss such a collaboration . Finally, the home block list appeared separately from Christian Socialists and National Socialists. In the election, the list only achieved 6.25 percent of the vote, but in parts of Styria significantly more: In the constituency of Upper Styria, they achieved 16.9 percent and were the second strongest in the political districts of Bruck an der Mur , Mürzzuschlag , Leoben and Judenburg . In this constituency, the home block also won its only basic mandate in Austria . Two out of eight mandates from the home bloc went to Styrian representatives, but overall the results for the alleged popular movement were disappointing. In the state parliament elections in Styria, which took place at the same time, the home bloc was much more successful and achieved 12.5 percent (6 seats). August Meyszner was elected regional councilor.
The German national orientation of homeland security and the opposition to the party system as a whole separated the organization more and more from the federal association, which in terms of content leaned more towards the Christian socials. The internal cohesion of the movement grew weaker and weaker, finally Starhemberg resigned from his office and on May 2, 1931, left Walter Pfrimer in charge of the Austrian Home Guard. On September 12, 1931, Pfrimer tried to seize power with the Styrian Homeland Security ( Pfrimer Putsch ), but failed.
There was also the Freedom League , linked to the Christian trade unions, which was primarily directed against social democracy, but at the same time advocated the preservation of democracy and the republic. The advocacy of democracy and the republic put a strain on the relationship with Heimatschutz, which is why the Freedom Association only formally joined the Heimatschutz at the end of 1928. There were sharp conflicts with the Styrian direction of homeland security, which is why the Wiener Freiheitsbund withdrew from homeland security. Josef Dengler from the Lower Austrian Freedom League took part in the Heimwehr rally on May 18, 1930 in Korneuburg, but refused to take the Korneuburg oath .
Federal states
- Burgenland
- On January 30, 1927, there was a confrontation between the Front Fighter Association of German-Austria and the Schutzbund in Schattendorf , where two uninvolved people were killed. As a result, there was a court ( Schattendorfer judgment ) acquittal of the perpetrators and, as a result, the Vienna Palace of Justice fire on July 15, 1927.
- Lower Austria
- Julius Raab became national leader of the Heimwehr on September 15, 1928 and on October 3, 1928 was involved in establishing a dividing line for the deployment of the Heimwehr and the Schutzbund in Wiener Neustadt . Later, Lower Austria moved with Julius Raab and Leopold Figl, mainly to the Ostmärkische Sturmscharen (1930-1936) led by Kurt Schuschnigg . On May 18, 1930 there was a meeting in Korneuburg , where there was a dispute over the direction and the Korneuburg oath was taken.
- Styria
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Betz: to: Walter Pfrimer 1931
- ↑ Pauley (1972), pp. 82f.
- ↑ Karner (2000), p. 594 and 599.
- ^ Anton Pelinka : Stand or Class? The Christian labor movement of Austria 1933 to 1938. Europa Verlag , Vienna 1972, ISBN 3-203-50400-6 .