Voluntary Protection Corps

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The Voluntary Protection Corps was an armed formation created in Austria in mid-1933 to support the state executive (police, gendarmerie ) in their tasks.

history

The discussion on the establishment of so-called "voluntary assistance bodies" began in the Austrian Council of Ministers on March 3, 1933. The idea was to set up assistance associations for the armed forces and a voluntary protection corps for police and gendarmerie separately. Its members were to be recruited from the ranks of the "Schutzkorpsverbände", whereby the following were counted among the "Schutzkorpsverbände": the Austrian Homeland Security , the Ostmärkische Sturmscharen , the military trains of the Christian-German gymnastics club , the Freedom Association and the Burgenland state rifles . These associations can also register entire departments for the protection corps that they consider suitable for service in the voluntary protection corps. The purpose of the protection corps was to support the police or gendarmerie in cases in which the existing security forces are no longer sufficient.

In the ordinance on the "establishment of a voluntary protective corps" as a reserve for the state executive of 7 July 1933, it was stipulated that the federal government should request the federal minister for security and that the departments of the protective corps are subordinate to the security directors of the individual federal states, individual departments could also be assigned and subordinated to the local federal security agencies.

In September 1933, deployed protective corps departments were authorized to use weapons by an amendment to the law. Weapons will only be given out if they are actually deployed. In this case, payment was also planned: 2.00 Schilling daily allowance and 1.50 Schilling meal allowance.

It was mainly financial reasons that led to the creation of these assistants ; a regular increase in the armed forces, which would have been possible due to the Treaty of St. Germain to 30,000 soldiers, or the executive could not cope economically with the state. The Western powers France, Great Britain and Italy agreed to the formation of these auxiliary troops. The regulation for the establishment of the voluntary protection corps was initially limited to December 31, 1933, but was then extended until the end of 1934.

The protective corps reached its peak during the February fighting in 1934 with more than 42,000 men. On June 11, 1934, so-called local brigades were set up in the places where terrorist attacks had occurred . These had the task of monitoring objects that are important for the general public, such as railways, water pipes, gas and electrical lines, post and telegraph systems. Police officers were able to arrest people who were caught committing crimes and had to take them to the nearest gendarmerie station immediately. From the perspective of a simple Schutzkorpsmann this turned out to be much more pragmatic, as can be seen from the following description:

“I happened to read an advertisement in the 'Tagespost', which was looking for men for a kind of auxiliary police to guard bridges and other important objects. Because there were a lot of bomb attacks, mostly by the National Socialists, to put the country in increasing unrest. Any party politics at that time interested me little. I signed up and was accepted into the 'protective corps'. For a few weeks we received weapons training in the castle barracks in Linz, then we went to the south station hall, where about 100 men were housed. There the guards were assigned to the objects to be protected. We received 3 shillings a day without food. Half a beer cost 50 g, a roll 7-8, the cheapest flirting cigarette 1 and the 'Sport' 3 groschen. "

After the establishment of the Estates constitution on May 1, 1934 and the creation of the Fatherland Front , efforts were made to incorporate all armed forces in support of the armed forces and the executive, with the home guard leaders in particular gradually being disempowered. By ordinance in June 1935, military associations that had not been declared to be protective corps associations were dissolved. Within the Patriotic Front, a uniformed and military-style formation, the so-called Front Militia, was formed in May 1936 . If necessary, this should be mobilized to support the armed forces and the executive. Protection corps men could be accepted into the front militia of the Patriotic Front by voluntary reporting.

As a result of the German-Austrian Understanding Agreement of July 11, 1936, it was decided that members of the protection corps could no longer be used for tasks of the security authorities and were to be decommissioned by September 25, 1936. As a result of the "Federal Law on the Dissolution of Voluntary Armed Forces Associations", the remaining armed forces associations were also liquidated from October 15, 1936 and only the front militia could lead military associations. The unemployed, disarmed protection corps members should be given preference in public works or in state-owned companies and private companies with at least 20 employees also had to employ a certain number of former protection corps members.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Neck , Adam Wandruszka : Protocols of the Council of Ministers of the First Republic 1918–1938. Vol. 3. Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1983, p. 341.
  2. ^ A b c Emmerich Tálos : The Austrofascist system of rule: Austria 1933–1938 (=  politics and contemporary history . Volume 8 ). 2nd Edition. LIT Verlag, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-50494-4 , p. 224 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Ordinance of the Federal Government of July 7, 1933, regarding the establishment of a voluntary protective corps (Schutzkorpsverordnung) . In: BGBl . No. 292/1933 . Vienna July 12, 1933 ( online at ALEX ).
  4. ^ Rudolf Neck, Adam Wandruszka: Protocols of the Council of Ministers of the First Republic 1918–1938. Vol. 4. Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1983, p. 151.
  5. ^ Ludwig Reichhold: Battle for Austria. The Fatherland Front and its resistance to the Anschluss 1933–1938. Published by the DÖW. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1984, p. 115.
  6. ^ Ludwig Reichhold: Battle for Austria. The Fatherland Front and its resistance to the Anschluss 1933–1938. Published by the DÖW. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1984, p. 116 f.
  7. ^ Leopold Reisebauer, How I experienced the July coup in Kollerschlag in 1934. In Franz Saxinger (Ed.), Kollerschlag July 27, 1934. Documentation on the incursion of the “Austrian Legion” , p. 27. Rohrbach: ÖVP District Party Secretariat.
  8. ↑ Federal law on the amendment of the Protection Corps Ordinance (Protection Corps Act) . In: BGBl . No. 254/1935 . Vienna June 27, 1935 ( online at ALEX ).
  9. ^ Ordinance of the Federal Chancellor in agreement with the federal ministers involved, concerning the transfer of the members of the protective corps to the front militia and the applicability of the laws and ordinances issued for the protective corps to the front militia and the militia members . In: BGBl . No. 248/1936 . Vienna July 27, 1936 ( online at ALEX ).
  10. ^ Federal law on the dissolution of voluntary military associations . In: BGBl . No. 335/1936 . Vienna October 15, 1936 ( online at ALEX ).
  11. ↑ Federal law, concerning the amendment of the provisions on the preferential employment of unemployed, disarmed members of the voluntary protection corps and the military assistance corps in the factories . In: BGBl . No. 172/1936 . Vienna May 30, 1936 ( online at ALEX ).