Bauernwehr (organization)

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The Bauernwehr was a military association founded by the Landbund für Österreich , a farmers' party of the Austrian First Republic . The Styrian Peasant Army was founded on December 14, 1929, and on January 17, 1930 in Vienna a Reich Association for all of Austria. "Reichskommandant" was initially Franz Bachinger , later Franz Maier . The peasant army was intended as a special "civil defense" to represent the interests of the anti-clerical peasantry. As such, she turned against the claims to power of the Home Guard and those circles within the Christian Social Party that supported the policy of the Home Guard. One point of criticism of the Heimwehr that was repeatedly raised by the representatives of the Bauernwehr concerned the great role played by members of the “old feudal rule” (former officers and aristocrats), but also dignitaries and lawyers who were close to or belonged to the Greater German People's Party within the leadership of the Home Guard played.

The Bauernwehr, which changed its name to the Green Front in 1932 , grew only slowly and was mostly restricted to Carinthia , southern Styria and parts of Upper Austria . Above all, this organization lacked a tight and uniform management and financial means for equipping and arming the members, who were mainly recruited from the peasant population. Nevertheless, on September 17, 1933, the Green Front in Graz gave a strong political sign of life. On that day , around 12,000 men took part in the march of the so-called National Works Front , a founding of the Landbund, with which its party base was to be expanded by including two other interest groups. Since the Landbund did not succeed in gaining greater influence in the emerging authoritarian political system in Austria, the Green Front quickly weakened again in the period that followed. In December 1933 the Ministry of Defense estimated its membership at only 3,000 men.

On May 12, 1934, the former peasant army was renamed again and gave itself the name Green Wehr . Less than a week later, the now politically completely disempowered Landbund, which had already lost all government functions in September 1933, officially dissolved. At the same time, however, an “apolitical liquidation committee” resumed party activities under a different name. In the course of his political disempowerment, however, the Landbund was split into a wing that advocated the preservation of parliamentary democracy and one that supported the Austrian NSDAP . A majority of the members of the Green Wehr also joined the latter.

In 1934, departments of the Green Wehr finally took part in Carinthia (here the local groups of the Green Wehr were even subordinate to the SA storms) and in southern Styria on the side of the National Socialists in the July coup . After this attempted “seizure of power” by the Austrian NSDAP was suppressed, the Green Wehr was officially dissolved at the end of July 1934; the dissolution of the former Landbund followed in August of the same year.

literature

  • Earl C. Edmondson: Home Guard and Other Military Associations. In: Herbert Dachs , Ernst Hanisch , Anton Staudinger and Emmerich Tálos (eds.): Handbook of the political system of Austria. First Republic 1918–1933 , Manz Verlag, Vienna 1995, pp. 261–276, ISBN 3-214-05963-7 .
  • Alexander Haas: The Styrian Land Association. Its predecessor organizations and its influence on Styrian and Austrian politics. Phil. Diss., Graz 1999.
  • Walter Wiltschegg: The Home Guard. An irresistible popular movement? (= Studies and Sources on Austrian Contemporary History, Vol. 7), Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7028-0221-5 .