Walter Pfrimer (22 December 1881 – 31 May 1968) was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n politician and leader of the
Heimwehr
The Heimwehr (, ) or Heimatschutz (, ) was a nationalist, initially paramilitary group operating in Austria during the 1920s and 1930s that was similar in methods, organization, and ideology to the Freikorps in Germany. It was opposed to parliam ...
in
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
. He was the leader of a failed
putsch in 1931.
Early years
The son of a wine merchant, Pfrimer studied law at the
University of Graz
The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria.
History
The unive ...
, gaining his doctorate in 1906.
Philip Rees
Philip Rees (born 1941) is a British writer and librarian formerly in charge of acquisitions at the J. B. Morrell Library, University of York. He has written books on fascism and the extreme right.
Works
*'' Fascism in Britain'' (Harvester Pr ...
, ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890
The ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890'' is a reference book by Philip Rees, on leading people in the various far right movements since 1890.
It contains entries for what the author regards as "the 500 major figures on the ...
'', Simon & Schuster, 1990 p. 294 As a student he had been a member of the ''
Burschenschaft
A Burschenschaft (; sometimes abbreviated in the German ''Burschenschaft'' jargon; plural: ) is one of the traditional (student associations) of Germany, Austria, and Chile (the latter due to German cultural influence).
Burschenschaften were fo ...
'' and an ardent follower of the
German nationalist
German nationalism () is an ideological notion that promotes the unity of Germans and German-speakers into one unified nation state. German nationalism also emphasizes and takes pride in the patriotism and national identity of Germans as one nat ...
and
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
hard-liner
Georg Ritter von Schönerer
Georg Ritter von Schönerer (17 July 1842 – 14 August 1921) was an Austrian landowner and politician of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A major exponent of pan-Germanism and German nationalism in ...
before settling into a position as a lawyer in Judenburg.
[F. L. Carsten, ''The Rise of Fascism'', 1982, p. 223]
He became a Heimwehr leader early in the movement's life and initially won the financial backing of the ''Alpine Montangesellschaft'', the largest
heavy industry
Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...
concern in Austria. His Heimwehr unit was amongst the best armed, having received weapons from both
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
n
Georg Escherich rightist paramilitary leader and the local ''
Landeshauptmann
Landeshauptmann (if male) or Landeshauptfrau (if female) (, "state captain", plural ''Landeshauptleute'') is the chairman of a state government and the supreme official of an Austrian state and the Italian autonomous provinces of South Tyrol an ...
''
Anton Rintelen
Anton Rintelen (15 November 1876 in Graz, Austria – 28 January 1946) was an Austrian academic, jurist and politician. Initially associated with the right wing Christian Social Party, he later became involved in a Nazi coup d'état plot.
Early ...
.
Political views
Pfrimer advocated
Pan-Germanist and ''
Völkische
The German noun ''Volk'' () translates to people,
both uncountable in the sense of ''people'' as in a crowd, and countable (plural ''Völker'') in the sense of '' a people'' as in an ethnic group or nation (compare the English term ''folk'' ...
'' ideals and used the
swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
for his Heimwehr units.
Like his sometime ally
Richard Steidle
Richard Steidle (20 September 1881 in Merano, South Tyrol – 30 August 1940 in Buchenwald concentration camp) was an Austrian lawyer and the leader of the paramilitary Heimwehr in Tyrol. He was a leading representative of the pro-independence ...
in
Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
he unashamedly endorsed
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
for the Heimwehr, unlike other units that were close to the more ideologically pragmatic
Christian Social Party, and in 1930 publicly advocated the overthrow of the government and the establishment of a fascist regime in Austria. The two fell out however after Pfrimer, who argued that
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
must be treated as a foreign race, suggested that Steidle was too weak on the issue. Pfrimer took up with
Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg
Prince Ernst Rüdiger Camillo von Starhemberg, often known simply as Prince Starhemberg, (Eferding, 10 May 1899 – Schruns, 15 March 1956) was an Austrian nationalist and politician who helped introduce austrofascism and install a clerical fas ...
and helped to ensure that the nobleman replaced Steidle as Heimwehr leader in 1930. He was also a staunch opponent of
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
, often leading his men in violent attacks on the
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...
, whilst rejecting parliamentary democracy as un-German.
Putsch
As head of the Heimwehr in Styria he attempted a putsch in 1931, initially in his own region. After rising up in Styria his units launched a ''marcia su Wien'' in a direct copy of
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
's
March on Rome
The March on Rome ( it, Marcia su Roma) was an organized mass demonstration and a coup d'état in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fa ...
but it proved to be a disaster and Pfrimer became mockingly known as the "half-day dictator" in reference to how long it took to put his attempted rebellion down.
[Iván T. Berend, ''Decades of Crisis: Central and Eastern Europe before World War II'', 2001, p. 302] He failed to gain support from the other regional leaders and indeed the coup was so poorly organised that it was easily put down by the otherwise weak government of
Karl Buresch.
Aftermath
Pfrimer was damaged irreparably by the fiasco of putsch.
The failure also represented a further blow to the credibility of the Heimwehr, which lost more members to the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
as a consequence. He fled to
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
before returning to face a treason trial but in a surprise move he was acquitted of all charges.
Finally in 1933 Pfrimer allied himself and his units to the Nazis and before long his group had been absorbed entirely and he became a strong advocate of
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
.
[Pauley, ''From Prejudice to Persecution'', p. 179] His membership of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
was made official on 24 February 1933.
When the Anschluss for which he had longed was completed in 1938 he returned to some prominence and sat as a member of the
Reichstag.
After the Allies liberated Austria Pfrimer was taken prisoner by the British forces and held in internment for a year.
[Rees, ''Biographical Dictionary'', p. 295] Following his release he returned to his legal practice in Judenburg and lived out his days as a private citizen.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pfrimer, Walter
1881 births
1968 deaths
Politicians from Maribor
Austrian politicians
Austrian Nazi lawyers
Attempted coups d'état
Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany
German nationalism in Austria
German nationalists
Military personnel from Maribor