NAZIS KILL AUSTRIA’S DICTATOR
Austria had a fascist leader in 1934. But he wasn’t a Nazi like Adolf Hitler, he was more in line with Italy ’s fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. So the Nazis assassinated him. “Dollfuss Slain in Nazi Uprising in Vienna,” blared the banner headline of The Vancouver Sun on July 25, 1934. “Dramatic Coup by Disguised Nazis. Seize Building Wearing Uniforms of Dollfuss’ Home Guard.”
Engelbert Dollfuss was a conservative politician who had become the head of a coalition government in May 1932. He dissolved Austria’s parliament a year later and became a dictator. His official title was chancellor.
“A foe of both Germanic national socialism and its antithesis, Marxian socialism, he preached a species of Christian nationalism, guiding himself by the precepts of the Roman Catholic Church,” said a Sun story.
“But Austria, divided into two camps with the socialists dominant in Vienna and the fascists in the country at large, seethed and boiled.”
Dollfuss outlawed the Nazi party in Austria in June 1933, then in February 1934 his government prevailed in a brief civil war with Austrian socialists.
But Austrian Nazis apparently thought the public would support them if they staged a coup.
So on July 25, they struck. “A band of 300 Nazi conspirators, wearing the uniforms of the historic Deutschmeister Regiment, raided the Federal Chancellery, killed Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss and held two other cabinet members imprisoned more than six hours,” wrote Associated Press reporter Wade Werner. “They finally surrendered under a government pledge to grant them safe conduct with a military escort to the German border.”
Another Nazi group seized the Austrian national radio station after a half-hour battle, and had the broadcasters “at the point of pistols announce that Dollfuss had resigned and Anton Rintelin (minister to Rome and pro-Nazi) was appointed chancellor.”
But the anticipated public support didn’t happen. The Nazis at the chancellery surrendered after a standoff with the police, army and the Austro-fascist paramilitary force the Heimwehr. The promise of safe passage for the Nazis was cancelled when it was discovered that Dollfuss had been killed during the siege.
Another anti-Nazi Austrian fascist, Prince Ernst von Starhemberg, succeeded Dollfuss as chancellor.
Italy had been the premier backer of Dollfuss — Mussolini was leery at the prospect of a united Germany and Austria. So Mussolini dispatched troops to the Austrian border, ready to fight for Austria’s independence.
“An (Italian) government spokesman tonight said Italy would intervene in Austria if the internal situation there justifies the step,” The Sun reported July 27. “The spokesman said if action is required in Austria, Italy will not feel it necessary to delay for any diplomatic steps such as another diplomatic protest, a final ultimatum to Berlin as a warning to Austrian Nazis.”
Hitler decided to stay out of the morass and the Austrian government survived. Perhaps he noted that hundreds of thousands of Austrians turned out to watch Dollfuss’s funeral procession in Vienna.
In the service, von Starhemberg said, “I am not saying farewell to you, beloved leader, comrade and friend. For as a Catholic, I know that only that which is mortal of you will perish. Already, you have entered the proud history of our fatherland.”
Many stories made reference of Dollfuss’s height — he was only 4-foot-11.
“Oh the poor little Dollfuss! And he was so cute, too!” said a bizarre Sun story on July 26. “Vancouver women today mourned for the diminutive heroic chancellor of Austria, shot to death by Nazis in the government building. Pictures and stories of the little dictator have familiarized people of Vancouver with him.”
Dollfuss was only 41 when he was killed. The Austrian fascists he led would retain power until March 12, 1938, when Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss.