Liberty League

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The Freedom League was a defense association of the Christian trade union wing in Austria founded in 1927 and was intended to protect the Christian workers from possible attacks by the Social Democrats . Since most of its members came from the Christian trade union environment , it represented a fairly closed formation in social and ideological terms, but in the early years only had a little more than 2000 members. Only after the February fights and the July coup (1934) did the Freedom Association see a rapid increase in membership, but this was mainly due to the fact that large numbers of supporters of the banned Social Democratic Workers' Party and the NSDAP, which had been banned since 1933, joined it.

Although the Freedom League was part of the political right, it came into conflict with the Heimwehr from the start . In this context, the foundation of the so-called independent trade union by the Styrian Homeland Security and its violent attacks on the Christian trade unions caused conflict. In addition, Leopold Kunschak and Johann Staud , the most important political exponents of the Freedom League, felt committed to democratic "rules of the game" and always advocated the preservation of parliamentary democracy in Austria.

The programmatic goal of the Freiheitsbund was u. a. aimed at the preservation and promotion of a strong state authority , at the protection of the freedom of all workers in the state, but especially the liberation of the worker from all terror and the advocacy for the goals and for the program of the Christian popular movement with special consideration of the Christian labor movement . The programmatic goal of the Freedom League was primarily one directed against social democracy. The Freedom League saw itself as an instrument of the fight against the left . In contrast to the Heimwehr, it also saw itself as an instrument for the fight for democracy. The right of Christian workers to help shape the social, economic and political life of our homeland was propagated .

Officially, the Freedom League existed until the dissolution of all military associations of the First Republic in April 1936, but unofficially until the "Anschluss" in 1938.

literature

  • Walter Wiltschegg: The Home Guard. An irresistible popular movement? (= Studies and Sources on Austrian Contemporary History, Volume 7), Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7028-0221-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Statutes of the Freedom League. In: Franz-Heinz Hye , Josefine Justic: Innsbruck in the field of tension in politics 1918-1938. Reports - pictures - documents. Publications of the Innsbruck City Archives, New Series, Volume 16/17, Innsbruck 1991, p. 568.
  2. ↑ Cristl Kluwick-Muckenhuber: Johann Staud. A life for the workforce . Herold publishing house. Vienna / Munich 1969. p. 29.
  3. ↑ Tiroler Anzeiger from January 30, 1930. In: Franz-Heinz Hye, Josefine Justic: Innsbruck in the field of tension of politics 1918-1938. Reports - pictures - documents. Publications of the Innsbruck City Archives, New Series, Volume 16/17, Innsbruck 1991, p. 572.

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