The Fatherland Front (, VF) was the
right-wing
Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
,
authoritarian,
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
,
corporatist,
fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
and
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
ruling political organisation of the
Federal State of Austria
The Federal State of Austria (; colloquially known as the "") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and politi ...
. It claimed to be a
nonpartisan movement, and aimed to unite all the people of Austria, overcoming political and social divisions.
Established on 20 May 1933 by
Christian Social Chancellor
Engelbert Dollfuss as the
only legally permitted party in the country, it was organised along the lines of
Italian Fascism, was fully aligned with the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, and did not advocate any
racial ideology, as
Italian Fascism later did. It advocated
Austrian nationalism and independence from
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
on the basis of protecting
Austria's Catholic religious identity from what they considered a
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
-dominated German state.
The Fatherland Front, which was strongly linked with Austria's Catholic clergy, absorbed Dollfuss's Christian Social Party, the agrarian ''
Landbund'' and the right-wing paramilitary ''
Heimwehren'', all of which were opposed to
Nazism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
,
Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
, ''
laissez-faire''
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
and
liberal democracy. It established an
authoritarian and
corporatist regime, the
Federal State of Austria
The Federal State of Austria (; colloquially known as the "") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and politi ...
, which is commonly known in German as the ''Ständestaat'' ("corporate state"). According to the Fatherland Front this form of government and society implemented the
social teaching of
Pope Pius XI's 1931 encyclical ''
Quadragesimo anno''.
The Front banned and persecuted all its political opponents, including
Communists,
Social Democrats—who fought against it in a brief
civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
in February 1934—as well as the
Austrian Nazis who wanted Austria to join
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Chancellor Dollfuss was assassinated by the Nazis in July 1934. He was succeeded as leader of the VF and Chancellor of Austria by
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an Austrian politician who was the Chancellor of Austria, Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert D ...
, who ruled until the invigorated Nazis forced him to resign on 11 March 1938. Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany the next day.
The Fatherland Front maintained a cultural and recreational organisation, called "New Life" ''(Neues Leben)'', similar to Germany's
Strength Through Joy. The "League of Jewish Front Soldiers" (), the largest of several Jewish defense paramilitaries active in Austria at the time, was incorporated into the Fatherland Front.
The role of the Fatherland Front has been a contentious point in post-war Austrian historiography. While many historians consider it to be the exponent of an Austrian and Catholic-clerical variant of fascism—dubbed "Austrofascism"—and make it responsible for the failure of liberal democracy in Austria, conservative authors stress its credits in defending the country's independence and opposition to Nazism.
Bases of support and opposition
While the Front's aim was to unite all Austrians, superseding all political parties, social and economic interest groups (including
trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
s), it only enjoyed the support of certain parts of the society. It was mainly backed by the Catholic church, the Austrian bureaucracy and military, most of the rural population—including both landowners and peasants
—(with its centre of gravity in western Austria),
some loyalists to the
Habsburg dynasty, and a significant part of the large Jewish community of Vienna. The VF was strongly linked with the Catholic student fraternities of the ''Cartell-Verband''—that maintained networks similar to
old boys in English-speaking countries—in which most VF leaders had been members.
Despite its self-identification as a unifying force, in reality the front was opposed by both the Austrian Nazis and the Social Democrats. Support for the latter, concentrated in Vienna and industrial towns, came from unionised workers and the party's paramilitary ''
Republikanischer Schutzbund'' ("Republican Protection League"), whose February 1934 uprising (or "Austrian Civil War") was crushed in a few days. The Austrian Nazis, by then dominating Austria's existing
pan-German nationalist movement, were supported by a part of the secular, urban middle and lower middle class, including civil servants and public sector workers, professionals, teachers and students. However they did not have a mass following as in Germany.
History
After
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and the dissolution of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
sealed by the 1919
Treaty of Saint-Germain, three political camps controlled the fate of the Austrian
First Republic: the
Social Democrats, the
Christian Social Party, and the
German nationalists, organised in the
Greater German People's Party and the ''
Landbund''. Since 1921 the Christian Social Party had formed
coalition government
A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...
s along with the German nationalists; Chancellor
Ignaz Seipel, a proponent of
Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching (CST) is an area of Catholic doctrine which is concerned with human dignity and the common good in society. It addresses oppression, the role of the state, subsidiarity, social organization, social justice, and w ...
, advocated the idea of a
"corporated" state surmounting the
parliamentary system
A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their Election, democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of t ...
, based on the encyclicals ''
Rerum novarum'' (1891) by
Pope Leo XIII and ''
Quadragesimo anno'' (1931) by
Pope Pius XI.
Creation
On 10 May 1932, the Christian Social politician Engelbert Dollfuss was designated
Chancellor of Austria
The chancellor of Austria, officially the federal chancellor of the Republic of Austria (), is the head of government of the Austria, Republic of Austria.
List of chancellors of Austria, Twenty-nine people have served as chancellor. The curre ...
by President
Wilhelm Miklas. Dollfuss formed another right-wing government together with the ''Landbund'' and the ''Heimatblock'', the political organisation of the paramilitary
Heimwehr forces. He began to surpass the slim majority of his government in parliament ruling by emergency decrees, and on 15 March 1933 finally prevented the gathering of the
National Council. Two months later the "Fatherland Front" was founded by Chancellor Dollfuss as a merger of his Christian Social Party, the Heimwehr forces and other right-wing groups, and was intended to collect all "loyal Austrians" under one banner.
On 30 May 1933, the government banned the ''
Republikanischer Schutzbund'', the paramilitary troops of the Social Democratic Party; the
Communist Party and the
Austrian Nazi Party were prohibited shortly afterwards. From 12 February 1934 onwards, the remaining ''Schutzbund'' forces revolted against their disbanding, sparking the
Austrian Civil War against Heimwehr troops and the
Austrian Armed Forces. After the suppression, the Social Democratic Party too was declared illegal and dissolved. Social Democratic officials like the
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
mayor
Karl Seitz were deposed and replaced by VF politicians.
Corporate state
On 1 May, a rump session of the Nationalrat recast the constitution into an
authoritarian and
corporatist document. The official name of the country was changed to the
Federal State of Austria
The Federal State of Austria (; colloquially known as the "") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and politi ...
, with the VF as the only legally permitted political organisation. Thereafter, the organisation held a monopolistic position in Austrian politics with both civilian and military divisions. Dollfuss remained its undisputed leader until his assassination during the Nazi
July Putsch on 25 July 1934. He was succeeded by
Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, while his VF fellow Justice Minister
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an Austrian politician who was the Chancellor of Austria, Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert D ...
became chancellor.
In 1936, Schuschnigg also took over the leadership of the VF. The Front was declared a corporation under public law and the only legal political organisation in Austria. Its symbol was the
crutch cross (''
Kruckenkreuz''),
and its official greeting was ''Österreich!'' ("Austria!") or ''Front heil!''. The party flag was adopted as the second state
flag of Austria. Though membership was obligatory for officials, the VF never became a mass movement. By the end of 1937 it had 3 million members
(with 6.5 million inhabitants of Austria); it could however never win the support of its political opponents, neither from the circles of the Social Democrats nor from the Austrian Nazis.
''Anschluss''
Schuschnigg acknowledged that Austrians were Germans and that Austria was a "German state" but he strongly opposed an ''
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
'' and passionately wished for Austria to remain independent from Germany.
Schuschnigg's government had to face the increasing pressure by its powerful neighbour Nazi Germany under Austrian-born Adolf Hitler. The state's fate was sealed when the
Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
approached the German Nazis. To ease tensions, Schuschnigg on 11 July 1936 concluded an agreement, whereafter several conspirators of the 1934 July Putsch were released from prison. Nazi confidants like
Edmund Glaise-Horstenau and
Guido Schmidt joined Schuschnigg's cabinet, while
Arthur Seyss-Inquart attained the office of a State Councillor, though the Austrian Nazi Party remained illegal.
On 12 February 1938 Hitler summoned Schuschnigg to his
Berghof residence, constraining the readmission of the Nazi Party and the replacement of the Austrian chief of staff
Alfred Jansa by
Franz Böhme to pave the way for a
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
invasion. Schuschnigg had to appoint Seyss-Inquart Minister of the Interior, encouraging the political activation of the Austrian Nazis.
Realizing that he was in a bind, Schuschnigg announced a
referendum
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
on Austrian independence. In hopes of increasing the likelihood of a "Yes" vote, he agreed to lift the ban on the Social Democrats and their affiliated trade unions in return for their support of the referendum, dismantling the one-party state. This move came too late. Schuschnigg was finally forced to resign under German pressure on 11 March and was succeeded by Seyss-Inquart. The Fatherland Front was immediately banned after the ''
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
'', the annexation of Austria to Germany, two days later.
After the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, in 1945, former members of the Fatherland Front like
Julius Raab and
Leopold Figl founded the conservative and Christian democratic
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) that became one of the two major parties of the
Second Austrian republic. Unlike the Fatherland Front, the ÖVP was fully committed to democracy and put less emphasis on religion.
See also
*
Austria within Nazi Germany
Notes
References
*
External links
*
{{Authority control
Catholic political parties
Conservative parties in Austria
Nationalist parties in Austria
Defunct political parties in Austria
Parties of one-party systems
Austrofascism
Christian fascism
Political parties established in 1933
1933 establishments in Austria
Political parties disestablished in 1938
1938 disestablishments in Austria
Fascist parties
Fascism in Austria
Anti-communist parties
Anti-Masonry
Right-wing parties in Europe