Fire in the Palace of Justice in Vienna

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The fire in the Vienna Palace of Justice in 1927 , also known as the July revolt in Vienna , began on July 15, 1927 as an expression of dissatisfaction with what was considered a scandalous verdict by a jury and ended with police shooting at the crowd demonstrating and attacking the building of justice. There were 84 fatalities among the protesters and five among the police; plus hundreds injured on both sides.

procedure

The Palace of Justice 1881

On the evening of July 14, 1927, news of the Schattendorf judgment spread . A jury had acquitted three members of the German-Austrian frontline fighters' association who had shot dead two people in Schattendorf , Burgenland , in a clash with social democrats, namely a 40-year-old Croatian laborer and a 6-year-old child.

The next day, the power to the Vienna trams was switched off by the management of the municipal electricity company, so that public transport in Vienna was paralysed. This was done to start a protest strike. The first marching column to reach the ring was that of the E-Werker, who tried in vain to storm the main university building. Gradually the ring filled up . Demonstrators attacked the police guard room on Lichtenfelsgasse near the town hall and devastated the editorial office of the “ Wiener Latest News ”, which had not reported on the verdict in the interests of the demonstrators.

When the crowd threw stones at the cordon of security forces in front of the Parliament building, mounted police pushed them into the park opposite the Palace of Justice. The square in front of the main entrance to the Palace of Justice was exposed. As a symbol of the judiciary, which was perceived as partisan, it soon became the focus of the advancing demonstrators' attention - although the Palace of Justice was primarily home to civil jurisdiction .

Some of the members of the social-democratic Schutzbund tried to moderate the crowd as stewards, while another part of the same organization sympathized with the crowd and took an active part in the riots. Around 12:00 p.m., protesters smashed the first windows on the ground floor and climbed into the building. There they began to destroy furniture and files. The former General and Social Democrat Theodor Körner , who later became Federal President and was close to the Schutzbund at the time, demanded that the guards at the Palace of Justice hand over their weapons (usually unpolished parade sabers), which the officers, who feared for their lives, refused. Körner brought the guards to safety by carrying them out on stretchers disguised as injured or by having them put on the windbreakers of the Schutzbund officers present so that they could escape unnoticed. An attempt by Körner to calm the crowd with a speech failed. Meanwhile, an unidentified intruder set fire to the building.

At 12:28 p.m. the first emergency call was received by Vienna’s professional fire brigade Am Hof. Demonstrators also moved furniture on the upper floors and set files on fire in numerous places. The fire brigade was repeatedly obstructed by the demonstrators. The hoses of the four surface hydrants and the twelve wall hydrants were repeatedly removed or cut through. Pumps and fire-fighting water reserves were set up at a slightly greater distance from the fire object, in order to be able to start extinguishing attempts immediately if there were any gaps in the demonstration. However, this was only possible to a somewhat greater extent from around 2 p.m. Nevertheless, the work was torpedoed in various ways. For example, hydrants in the area were opened so that the required hydrants ran out of water.

The fire spread to all floors. On the one hand, the enormous heat development prevented demonstrators from further actions, on the other hand, the source of the fire had grown to such an extent that even the fire brigade could only bring it under control with difficulty. According to estimates, around 5,000 to 10,000 m² of floor space was on fire by 6 p.m. Around this time, parts of the building's exterior also began to fall down, also hindering and endangering the fire-fighting crew. The fire reached its greatest extent around 9 p.m. At this time, the two upper floors and the roofs of the middle wing were on fire. There was a great danger from flying sparks, which, however, did not ignite. The fire was brought under control around 2 a.m. on July 16.

Role by Johann Schober

Singed files from the Palace of Justice of July 18, 1927 ( HGM )

Johann Schober , the former and later Federal Chancellor , was the chief of police in Vienna at the time. He asked the Mayor of Vienna, Karl Seitz , to deploy the army against the unrest, since the police were not equipped for such tasks. Seitz refused to be deployed, as did Army Minister Carl Vaugoin .

So, in the face of a frenzied crowd that stormed the courthouse and set it on fire, Schober called for rifles from army stocks and equipped the police with them. He announced that if the fire brigade, which had previously been denied access to the building and whose hoses had been cut, would be cleared by force of arms if the fire brigade was further obstructed. The Mayor of Vienna, Karl Seitz, tried just as unsuccessfully as Körner to persuade the crowd to withdraw.

Shots, casualties and rating

Then the first shots were fired, first into the air, then into the crowd, which began to retreat towards the suburbs. According to police, the day ended with 89 dead protesters, four dead security guards and one dead detective . 120 police officers suffered serious injuries, 480 minor injuries, while 548 civilians were wounded. The completely poisoned political climate was, according to general opinion, a first step in the Austrian civil war in the mid-1930s.

commemoration

Memorial at the Central Cemetery

There is a memorial for the victims of July 15 and 16, 1927 at the Vienna Central Cemetery .

Heimito von Doderer processed the events of the July revolt in his novel The Demons .

Elias Canetti described the event in his autobiography The Torch in the Ear and processed it in his novel The Blinding . It also acted as the initial spark for his decades-long study of the phenomenon of " crowds and power ."

Galina Djuragin alias Alja Rachmanowa addressed the event in her documentary novel Milchfrau in Ottakring .

On the 80th anniversary of the events, a commemorative plaque with a text by Federal President Heinz Fischer was unveiled in the hall of the Palace of Justice on July 11, 2007:

“Two innocent people were killed in violent clashes between supporters of the Republican Protection League and the Front Fighters Association in the Burgenland town of Schattendorf on January 30, 1927. The perpetrators were acquitted. During a violent demonstration against this verdict, the Palace of Justice was set on fire. The police received orders to shoot and 89 people died. The events of that time, which finally culminated in the civil war of 1934, should serve as a reminder for all time.”

Museum reception

The Austrian Civil War is documented in detail in the Museum of Military History in Vienna (Room VII – "Republic and Dictatorship"), with the exhibits also including singed documents from the Palace of Justice dated July 15, 1927. Also on display are the uniforms of the Republican Protection League , the Home Guard and the Ostmark Storm Troops . As a special piece, Schattendorf's murder weapon, a hunting rifle adapted from an Austrian infantry weapon, is also on display.

literature

  • Norbert Leser , Paul Sailer-Wlasits : 1927 - When the Republic was on fire. From Schattendorf to Vienna. Vienna/Klosterneuburg 2002, ISBN 3-85167-128-7 .
  • Heinrich Drimmel : From overthrow to civil war. Amalthea, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-85002-206-4 .
  • Josef Hindels: July 15, 1927. 1977, OCLC 914676699 .
  • Sigrid Kiyem: The Vienna Palace of Justice fire on July 15, 1927. Representation in sources and media. diploma thesis . Federal Pedagogical Academy, Vienna 2001, ÖBV AC03291167 .
  • Karin Masek: Schattendorf and the fire in the palace of justice in 1927 as reflected in the Viennese daily press. thesis. University of Vienna 2004, ÖBV AC04023693 .
  • Gerald Stieg: Fruit of Fire. Canetti, Doderer, Kraus and the Fire in the Palace of Justice. Falter-Verlag, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-85463-100-6 .
  • The horror days of Vienna. History and description of the July revolt in Vienna in 1927. Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, Vienna 1927, ÖNB AC10299215 .
  • Gerhard Oberkofler: July 15, 1927 in Tyrol. Regional bureaucracy and labor movement. Europaverlag, Vienna 1982, ISBN 978-3-203-50817-7
  • Winfried R. Garscha, Finbarr McLoughlin ('Barry'): Vienna 1927 - warning sign for the republic. Dietz, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-320-00937-0 .
  • Thomas Köhler, Christian Mertens (ed.): Palace of Justice in flames. A burning bush - The work of Manès Sperber, Heimito von Doderer and Elias Canetti in view of July 15, 1927. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-57937-1 .
  • Contributions to the prehistory and history of the July revolt. Edited on the basis of official sources. Self-published by the Federal Commissariat for Homeland Service, Vienna 1934, DNB 572214820 .

See also

web links

itemizations

  1. ↑ Manfred Jautz: The history of the town hall fire station 1927-1997. published on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the MA 68 , pp. 9–11.
  2. ↑ Manfried Rauchensteiner , Manfred Litscher (ed.): The Military History Museum in Vienna. Graz/Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-222-12834-0 , p. 75 f.