Federal government Schober III

The federal government Schober III was on 26 September 1929 to 25 September 1930 for an Austrian government of the First Republic .

prehistory

In 1929, the Streeruwitz federal government pursued a policy of willingness to compromise with the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), which was rejected by the Heimwehr , which aimed to suppress Austromarxism . After a deadly street battle between the Heimwehr and the Republican Schutzbund on August 18, 1929 in Sankt Lorenzen , the Heimwehr demanded a constitutional reform and the coalition partner Landbund (LBd) also urged the government to start a work program for a constitutional reform. Since the other two coalition parties, the Greater German People's Party (GDVP) and the Christian Social Party (CSP), also wanted such a reform, Chancellor Ernst Streeruwitz declared that the government wanted to work out proposals for it quickly. With martial words, Heimwehr newspapers warned against a “watering down” of the new constitution and against a “compromise with the Austromarxists”. A Home Guard coup was feared and the executive was put on alert. News circulated abroad that the Heimwehr was about to take over power, which led to price losses on the stock exchanges and a devaluation of the shilling currency . Streeruwitz drew the conclusion that on September 25, 1929, the resignation of the entire government should be resolved. As the successor to the office of Federal Chancellor, he proposed the Vienna Police President Johann Schober .

On September 26, 1929 , Ignaz Seipel proposed to the main committee of the National Council to entrust Schober with the formation of a new federal government. The application was accepted and Schober declared that he would accept the entrustment. His proposals for filling the ministries were accepted. For the time being he took over the management of the finance and education ministries himself until the prospective people were reached. In the government there were now two representatives of the CSP and one each from the GDVP and LBd, the other offices were occupied by non-party personalities.

Members

Office	Official	Political party
Chancellor	Johann Schober	without party membership
Vice Chancellor	Carl Vaugoin	CSP
Federal Minister in the Federal Chancellery (for the technical management of internal affairs)	Vincent Schumy	LBd
Federal Minister of Justice	Franz Slama	GDVP
Federal Minister for Education entrusted the management of the Ministry of Education	Federal Chancellor Johann Schober (until October 16, 1929) Heinrich Srbik (from October 16, 1929)	without party membership without party membership
Federal Minister for Social Administration	Theodor Innitzer	without party membership
Federal Minister of Finance entrusted the management of the Ministry of Finance	Federal Chancellor Johann Schober (until October 16, 1929) Otto Juch (from October 16, 1929)	without party membership without party membership
Federal Minister for Agriculture and Forestry	Florian Födermayr	CSP
Federal Minister for Trade and Transport entrusted the Federal Minister for Trade and Transport with the temporary management of the Federal Ministry for Trade and Transport	Michael Hainisch (until June 17, 1930) Federal Chancellor Johann Schober (June 17–20, 1930) Friedrich Schuster (from June 20, 1930)	without party membership without party membership without party membership
Entrusted with the management of the Federal Ministry for the Army	Vice Chancellor Carl Vaugoin	CSP

Act

The constitutional reform was the main topic of the government declaration on September 27, 1929. But even before the government could submit a proposal for a new constitution to the National Council, the tense economic situation required its attention. At the beginning of October 1929 the Bodencreditanstalt was facing a collapse. In order to save this bank, which is important for the economy, the plan was developed that the Creditanstalt should take over the Bodencreditanstalt. Schober was able to achieve a merger of the institutes in negotiations with the President of Creditanstalt, Louis Rothschild . This success brought Schober additional reputation, also with the opposition and Heimwehr.

On October 18, 1929, a constitutional reform bill was introduced in the National Council that met the ideas of the Heimwehr. It was vigorously rejected by the Social Democrats. Since Schober needed a two-thirds majority for a constitutional amendment , and thus the approval of at least part of the SDAP, he sat down with the Social Democratic MP Robert Danneberg to work out a compromise variant. Regardless of further parades and threatening gestures by the Heimwehr, the constitutional reform drawn up by Danneberg and Schober was passed in the National Council on December 7, 1929, and the Second Federal Constitutional Amendment came into force on December 11, 1929 . Apart from strengthening the position of the Federal President, the demands of the Home Guard were hardly taken into account. She felt betrayed by Schober. Disappointed that her demands were not met through parliamentary channels, she swore the Korneuburg Oath in May 1930 to take an Austro-fascist course and rejected “parliamentarism and the party state”.

In the meantime, Schober achieved in the Hague Agreement in January that the reparations obligation imposed on Austria after the First World War was lifted. During visits abroad, Schober was able to increase his international reputation, and a friendship treaty was signed with former war opponent Italy . Domestically, an old demand of the CSP and the Heimwehr was met by passing the "anti-terror law". It should prevent social democratic unions from being able to exert pressure on workers from other political directions to join their union (so-called "industrial terror").

Schober also wanted to disarm the political armed forces , thereby fulfilling a demand made by the League of Nations in 1928, which saw paramilitary organizations circumventing the provisions of the State Treaty of St. Germain , which limited the number of the Austrian armed forces . The disarmament law passed in June remained ineffective, however.

The government finally broke up in the Strafella affair , which involved filling top positions in the federal railways . The social-democratic Arbeiter-Zeitung drove a sharp campaign against the successor proposed by the CSP as General Director of the Federal Railways, Franz Strafella . He sued the newspaper for libel and Schober wanted to make a possible appointment of Strafella as general director dependent on the outcome of the process. On September 19, 1930, the newspaper was convicted on several points, but the court found the allegations of "incorrectness" and "uncleanliness" against Strafella to be proven and found the newspaper to be right on this point. Therefore, Schober refused to appoint Strafella, despite a renewed request from Vice Chancellor Vaugoin. Vaugoin therefore resigned from his office on September 24, 1930, as did his party colleague Agriculture Minister Födermayr. With the resignation of all members of the government of the largest coalition party, Schober saw the basis of the government lost, and on September 25 it was decided to resign the entire government. On the same day, Federal President Wilhelm Miklas relieved the government of its office and charged it with the continuation of business until the new government took office on September 30, 1930.

A deeper reason for the crisis was that the Christian Socials increasingly saw competition in their coalition partners who could hope for a large part of the votes of the liberal bourgeoisie in the National Council elections scheduled for spring 1931. This party-political front around Schober threatened to push back Christian social influence. Thus, the government crisis was also designed to cushion this shift in the balance of power.

The coalition partners GDVP and LBd saw the end of the government as an event deliberately brought about for party political reasons and angrily declared the coalition pact to be over. In the absence of a coalition partner, the CSP formed the Vaugoin minority government together with the Heimwehr . This asked Federal President Miklas to dissolve the National Council and set an early National Council election for November 9, 1930 , to which the GDVP and LBd ran together as the National Economic Bloc and Landbund .

literature

• Klaus Berchtold : Constitutional history of the Republic of Austria . tape 1: 1918-1933 . Springer, Vienna / New York 1998, ISBN 3-211-83188-6 , pp. 523-595 .
• Hugo Portisch : Austria I: The underestimated republic . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1989, ISBN 978-3-218-00485-5 , p. 364-380 .

supporting documents

1. ^ Klaus Berchtold: Constitutional history of the Republic of Austria . tape 1: 1918-1933 . Springer, Vienna / New York 1998, ISBN 3-211-83188-6 , pp. 510 f .
2. ^ Klaus Berchtold: Constitutional history of the Republic of Austria . tape 1: 1918-1933 . Springer, Vienna / New York 1998, ISBN 3-211-83188-6 , pp. 513-522 .
3. ^ Federal Ministry Schober. In:  Wiener Zeitung , September 27, 1929, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
4. ↑ Official part. In:  Wiener Zeitung , September 27, 1930, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
5. ↑ Official part. In:  Wiener Zeitung , October 1, 1930, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).