Foreign office of the Austrian Social Democrats

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The Foreign Office of the Austrian Social Democrats ( ALÖS ) was founded in 1934 by the top functionaries of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of German Austria (SDAPDÖ), Otto Bauer and Julius Deutsch , who fled to Czechoslovakia after the February fighting .

Since Bauer and Deutsch had declared, after internal criticism of the party leadership and the February fights, that they would not assume any leadership functions in the movement in the future, the ALÖS did not act as an organ of the party leadership. They saw themselves as a "supportive element" for an illegal social democratic movement that was newly and independently formed in the country. After the Revolutionary Socialists (RS) had established themselves underground, they were continuously supported by the ALÖS with help with coordination, funds and the weekly production of the workers' newspaper , which is illegal in Austria . However, under increasing pressure from Czech fascists and nationalists, the place of publication of the AZ had to be given as “Paris” from March 31, 1937.

After Hitler came to power in Austria, the top functionaries of the Revolutionary Socialists fled abroad; At a meeting of Otto Bauer, Friedrich Adler and Joseph Buttinger , the chairman of the RS, in Brussels at the end of March 1938, the RS and ALÖS were merged to form the Austrian Socialists' Representation Abroad (AVOES). This was first in Brussels, then in Paris, briefly in the south of France, most recently in New York, where it was dissolved by Friedrich Adler at the end of 1941. The London Bureau, founded and run by Oscar Pollak and Karl Czernetz in April 1941, was a subsidiary .

literature

  • Helene Maimann : Politics in the waiting room. Austrian policy in exile in Great Britain 1938–1945. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Graz 1975, ISBN 3-205-08566-3 (also dissertation at the University of Vienna 1975).
  • Dora Müller: Brno hub. German and Austrian emigrants 1933–1939 / Přestupní stanice Brno. German Cultural Association, Brno Region, Brno 1997.
  • Hans Christian Egger: The politics of the foreign organizations of the Austrian social democracy in the years 1938 to 1946. Thought structures, strategies, effects. Dissertation, University of Vienna 2004.

Web links

  • ALÖS. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)