The Austrian Civil War, also known as the February Uprising, is a term sometimes used for a few days of skirmishes between socialist and conservative forces between 12 February and 16 February 1934 in Austria. The clashes were mostly restricted to the cities of Vienna and Linz.
Origins of the conflict
After the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (following World War I), the state of Austria - comprised, by and large, of the German-speaking parts of the former empire - was constituted as a parliamentary democracy. The two major political factions at that time were socialists (represented politically by the Social Democratic Party of Austria) and conservatives (politically represented by the Christian Social Party (Austria)). The strongholds of the socialists were the working-class districts of the cities, while the conservatives could build on the support of the rural population and most of the upper classes. The conservatives were also closely allied with the Roman Catholic Church, and could count among their ranks some leadings clerics. As in most of the nascent European democracies of the time, politics in Austria, too, was od a highly ideological nature. Both the socialist and the conservative camp were not mere political parties, but possessed far-ranging power structures, including their own paramilitary forces. The paramilitaries of the Social Democrats were called the Schutzbund ('protection league'), the ones of the conservatives Heimwehr ('home guard'). Minor altercations and clashes between these forces (at political rallies, etc.) were not uncommon. A first major incident ensued early in 1927, when members of the Frontkämpfervereinigung (a paramilitary association likewise affiliated with the conservative camp) shot and killed an eight-year-old boy and a war veteran who were marching with the Schutzbund in a counter-demonstration. In July, three defendants in the case were acquitted by a jury, which lead to outrage in the leftist camp and the so-called July Revolt of 1927. On 15 July 1927 a general strike was called, and demonstrations took place in the capital. After the storming of a police station, security forces started shooting at demonstrators. An angry mob then laid fire to the Palace of Justice (Justizpalast), which was seen as a symbol of a flawed and partial judicial system. Altogether, 89 people (85 of them demonstrators) lost their lives in the conflict and many hundreds were injured. Surprisingly, the violence soon died down and the factions took their battle from the streets back into the political institutions. However, the travails of the First Republic only got worse in the following years. The Great Depression also showed its effects in Austria, resulting in high unemployment and massive inflation. In addition, from 1933 - the time of Hitler's rise to power in Germany - National Socialist sympathizers (who wanted a unification of Austria with Hitler-Germany) threatened the Austria Republic from within.
The conflict
On March 4, 1933, Parliament was suspended. In a close vote (on railway workers' wages) in the National Council, each of the three presidents of parliament resigned their position in order to cast a ballot, with noone left to preside over the meeting. Even though it would have been possible to resolve this situation under the bylaws, Christian Social Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss used this opportunity to declare that a parliament had ceased to function and blocked all attempts to reconvene. The Social Democratic Party had thus lost its major platform for political action. The conservatives, who had lost some local elections recently and feared that they soon would lose power on the national level, were now able to rule by decree on the basis of a 1917 emergency law, without checks on their power, and began to suspend civil liberties. The Schutzbund, the socialist paramilitary organization, was prohibited and many of its members imprisoned. On 12 February 1934, a forced search in the city of Linz of premises belonging to the Social Democratic Party sparked off armed conflict between government forces (police and paramilitaries) and the outlawed, but still existent, socialist paramilitaries. Skirmishes between the two camps spread to other cities and towns in Austria, with the heat of the action occurring in Vienna. There, members of the Schutzbund barricaded themselves in city council housing estates (Gemeindebauten), which were a symbol and stronghold for the socialist movement in Austria. Police and paramilitaries took up positions outside these complexes and opened fire. There was also fighting in industrial towns such as Steyr, Sankt Pölten, Weiz, Eggenberg bei Graz, Kapfenberg, Bruck an der Mur and Wörgl.
A decisive moment in the events might have been the entrance of the Austrian military into the conflict. Though the army was still a comparatively independent institution, the military leadership decided to follow the government’s calls to assisst the police in its actions against the socialist paramilitaries. Under fire now by the army's light artillery, the socialist fighters soon surrendered. By 16 February 1934 the Austrian Civil War was over.
The fallout
Several hundred people (including paramilitaries, members of the security forces and civilians) were killed in the armed conflict, more than a thousand wounded. Several ringleaders were tried under the provisions of martial law and executed. Leading socialist politicians managed to escape the country. The incidents of February 1934 were taken as a pretext by the government to prohibit the Social Democratic Party and its affiliated trade unions altogether. In May, the conservatives broke with any pretence of still working inside of the constitutional framework. They declared the democratic constitution invalid and put in its place a corporatist constitution modeled along the lines of Mussolini's fascist Italy. The authoritarian regime in place was called Austrofascism or Ständestaat. The Patriotic Front (Vaterländische Front), into which the Heimwehr and the Christian Socialist Party were merged, became the only legal political party.
Long-term effects
Though small in scale in an international comparison (and small in scale indeed in the light of the horrible events of World War II which soon followed), the Austrian Civil War was nevertheless a decisive moment in the history of the Republic. After World War II, when Austria re-emerged on the political landscape as a sovereign nation, politics was again to be dominated by the Social Democrats and the conservatives, who now formed a party called the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). However, so as to avoid a repeat of the bitter divisions of the First Republic, the leaders of the Second Republic were determined to put the idea of broad consensus at the heart of the new political system. The concept of the 'Grand Coalition' was introduced, in which the two major parties (Social Democrats and People's Party) shared in the government and avoided open confrontation. This system brought with it stability and continuity, but ultimately lead to other political repercussions (also see Proporz). But the events of the Austrian Civil War had persuaded many in the political establishment (and, indeed, the population at large) that a slow pace of political reform was a small price to pay for social calm.
However, it is often criticized that Austrian political parties have done little to come to terms with the past. In particular, representatives of the Austrian People's Party sometimes argue that the abolition of democracy was necessary to fight Nazism, and ironically, the party's parliamentary faction still has a picture of Dollfuss, the chancellor who suspended parliament, in its office rooms.
Also see
References
- Strohal, Eberhard (1988). Die Erste Republik (series title: kurz & bündig). Vienna: hpt-Verlag.