Ostmärkische Sturmscharen
Ostmärkische Sturmscharen (OSS) was the name of a “ Catholic cultural and political renewal and protection movement ” or a paramilitary defense formation founded in Austria in 1930 with the leading participation of the Christian Social Member of the National Council, Kurt Schuschnigg .
history
On October 14, 1930, the founding assembly of this association took place in Innsbruck in the “Austriahaus” as part of a “young voters' meeting of the young Catholic people”. The Innsbruck teacher and councilor Hans Bator acted as chairman of the association . The patriotic and cultural training of young Catholic men in Austria was declared as the purpose of the association . In June 1933 the headquarters of the association was moved from Innsbruck to Vienna. With the associated change in the statutes, the training of male youth in military sports was added as a supplement . The Ostmärkische Sturmscharen advocated a Catholic social order and recruited its members mainly from Catholic youth, journeymen and teacher organizations. From the beginning, subsidiary organizations for women and girls were also set up.
Although they were originally founded as a purely cultural organization, the Ostmärkische Sturmscharen began to set up their own defense formations as part of their Austria-wide development from 1932. According to their own statements, they comprised 15,000 men in 1933. In the suppression of the so-called February revolt of the Republican Protection Association in 1934, the storm troops took part with a contingent of 4,900 men.
Politically, the Ostmärkische Sturmscharen, whose “Reichsführer” Kurt Schuschnigg soon acted as their “Reichsführer” , belonged to the right-wing spectrum, representing a committed Christian-social Austrian patriotism . However , they were fundamentally opposed to the radicalism of the Heimwehr and did not allow themselves to be captured by them. That also made them interesting for Christian social politicians like Engelbert Dollfuss , for whom the "Ostmärkische Sturmscharen" represented a welcome counterweight to the "Heimwehr" which exerted strong pressure on his government.
From 1932 the storm troops wore gray uniform shirts, black ties and gray caps with the Pax sign . Because of their proximity to clerical fascism , their opponents also referred to them as " Mount of Olives Hussars " or " SA of the corporate state ". The storm troops were anti - Semitic , Jews were not accepted. Racial anti-Semitism was represented, conversions to the Catholic faith should not lead to equality: Only people from the "down-to-earth population" are capable of leadership. Even anti-Slav positions were represented.
The "Ostmärkische Sturmscharen" held a special position in Lower Austria, where they even integrated the "Niederösterreichische Heimwehr" and officially called themselves the "Niederösterreichische Sturmscharen". They were massively promoted in this state by the farmers' union. Your local leader there was the director of the Reichsbauernbundes Leopold Figl . Another prominent functionary of the "Ostmärkische Sturmscharen" was the later resistance fighter against National Socialism Jacob Kastelic . In 1933 and 1934 he held the post of Vienna Regional Leader, and until 1938 Kastelic was head of the organization's social and economic association.
The dissolution of all military associations of the First Republic in October 1936 no longer affected the "Ostmärkische Sturmscharen", because on April 11th of this year they had converted into a pure "cultural organization" and laid down their arms.
Museum reception
The Army History Museum in Vienna houses the uniforms of the Ostmärkische Sturmscharen and the Heimwehr .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Edmondson, Earl C .: Home Guard and Other Defense Associations. In: Dachs Herbert, Hanisch Ernst, Staudinger Anton and Tálos Emmerich (eds.): Handbook of the political system of Austria. First Republic 1918-1933 , Manz Verlag, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-214-05963-7 , pp. 261–276, here: p. 272.
- ↑ The Burschenvereinsmusik, directed by Rupert Mayr, was then referred to as the OSS music band at the inauguration ceremony of the Dollfuß band in Fuschl am See on Whit Monday, June 10, 1935 . In: Aus dem Lande , digitized .
- ↑ On the day of the Reichsbundjugend , July 9, 1933. The keynote speaker afterwards in the Gasthof Grill was the Faistenau cooperator (1932-1934) Karl Holböck, a brother of the clergymen Josef and Ferdinand Holböck . In: Aus dem Lande , digitized .
- ^ Franz-Heinz Hye , Josefine Justic: Innsbruck in the Tension Field of Politics 1918–1938. Reports - pictures - documents. Publications of the Innsbruck City Archives, New Series, Volume 16/17, Innsbruck 1991, p. XXIV.
- ^ 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 , p. 327.
- ^ Walter Goldinger , Dieter A. Binder : History of the Republic of Austria. 1918-1938. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-7028-0315-7 , p. 252.
- ^ A b Daniela Ellmauer, Michael John, Regina Thumser (eds.): "Aryanizations", confiscated assets, provisions and compensation in Upper Austria. (= Publications of the Austrian Historical Commission Volume 17) Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-48656-779-9 , p. 64.
- ↑ Erwin Tramer: The Republican Protection Association. Its importance in the political development of the First Austrian Republic. Dissertation University Erlangen-Nuremberg 1969, p. 270.
- ↑ Entry on Ostmärkische Sturmscharen in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
- ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner , Manfred Litscher (Ed.): The Army History Museum in Vienna. Graz, Vienna 2000 p. 75 f.