Engelbert Dollfuss
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Image:Dollfuß radio.jpg Engelbert Dollfuss (German: Dollfuß) (October 4 1892, Texing—July 25 1934, Vienna) was an Austrian statesman, serving as chancellor for two years from 1932 until his assassination in 1934.
Born in Texing, Austria, Dollfuss was a religious youth who was educated at a seminary before deciding to study Law at the University of Vienna and then Economics at the University of Berlin. During World War I he had difficulty being drafted due to his short stature but he was eventually accepted and sent to the Alpine front, briefly becoming a POW in 1918. After the war, he worked for the Agriculture ministry as secretary of the Peasants' Association. He became director of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture in 1927 and in 1930 as a member of the conservative Christian Social Party he was appointed president of the Federal Railway System. The following year he was named minister of agriculture and forests.
He became Chancellor on May 20 1932, as head of a coalition government, designed to tackle the problems caused by the Great Depression. However, Dollfuss' majority in Parliament was almost non-existent; deflationary policies were unpopular and created deep hostility from the Austrian Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAPÖ), within Parliament and without. Consequently, Dollfuss suspended Parliament indefinitely in March 1933, and governed by decree. Dollfuss arguably also had another reason for the suspension of democracy in Austria - the Nazis. With Adolf Hitler now German Chancellor, it looked increasingly likely that in future elections, the Austrian National Socialists (DNSAP) would gain a majority, and Austria would cease to exist as a state. Accordingly, Dollfuss banned the DNSAP in June, and the SDAPÖ in February 1934. Some historians argue the Nazis coming to power in 1933 in Germany spurred Dollfuss taking an authoritarian line, whilst others argue that this was already underway in 1932.
Dollfuss was drawn to Italian fascism and levered support from fascist Italy against Nazi Germany, gaining a guarantee for Austria's independence from Italy in August 1933 in exchange for radical political reforms along Fascist lines. He also exhanged 'Secret Letters' with Mussolini about ways to guarantee Austrian independence.
In September 1933 he formed an umbrella grouping to support the regime, the Vaterländische Front and merged the Christian Social Party with the paramilitary Heimwehr (Home Guard), a Nationalist group. The regime which was installed by him and remained in power until 1938 is often called Austrofascism, while the regime designated itself Ständestaat. Dollfuss has been satirized by Jura Soyfer.
Dollfuss was a very short man, and his 'diminutive stature' was made fun of. He was known as 'Milimetternich', and the 'Jockey'. The New York Times also reported a series of jokes, including how in the coffee houses of Vienna, one could order a 'Dollfuss' cup of coffee instead of a 'Short Black' cup of coffee (black being the colour of the clericals).
He was assassinated by eight Austrian Nazis, who entered the Chancellery building and shot Dollfuss in an attempted coup d'état, as a prelude to Anschluss. The Nazis surrendered, were executed, and Kurt Schuschnigg became the new dictator of Austria. Dollfuss is buried in the Hietzing cemetary, Vienna along side his wife Alvine. It is rumoured that his portrait still hangs in the ÖVP headquarters.
External links
Further Secondary Reading
Bußhoff, Heinrich, Das Dollfuß Regime in Österreich (Berlin: Duncker & Humbolt, 1968)
Carsten, F. L., The first Austrian Republic 1918-1938 (Cambridge U.P., 1986)
Sugar, Peter (ed.) Native Fascism in the Successor States (Seattle 1971)
Tálos, Emmerich & Neugebauer, Wolfgang, Austrofascismus (Vienna: Lit. Verlag, 2005)
Walterskirchen, Gudula Engelbert Dollfuss, Arbeitermörder oder Heldenkanzler (Vienna: Molden Verlag, 2004)
Primary Reading
Dollfuß, Engelbert, Dollfuß Schafft Arbeit [Pamphlet] (Heimatdienst, 1933)
Ender, D, Die neue Österreichische Verfassung mit dem Text des Konkordates (Wien/Leipzig: Österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1935)
Gregory, J. D., Dollfuss and his Times (Tiptree: Hutchinson & Co. Anchor, 1935)
Maleta, Alfred, Der Sozialist im Dollfuß-Österreich (Linz: Preßverein Linz, 1936)
Messner, Johannes, Dollfuß (Tyrolia, 1935) (Watch Bias!)
Moth, G., Neu Österreich und seine Baumeister (Wien: Steyrermühl-Verlag, 1935)
Österreichischer Bundespressedienst, Der Führer Bundeskanzler Dr. Dollfuß zum Feste des Wiederaufbaues 1. Mai 1934 (Österreichischer Bundespressedienst, 1934)
Weber, Hofrat Edmund, Dollfuß an Oesterreich, Eines Mannes Wort und Ziel (Wien: Reinhold Verlag, 1935)
Winkler, Franz, Die Diktatur in Oesterreich (Zürich/Leipzig, Orell Füssli Verlag, 1935)
Zweig, Stefan, Die Welt von Gestern, eines Dichters von Morgen (Frankfurt am Main/Bonn: Athenäum, 1965)
| Preceded by: Karl Buresch | Chancellor of Austria | Succeeded by: Kurt Schuschnigg |
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