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32-463: 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 , Marxism , laissez-faire capitalism and liberal democracy . It established an authoritarian and corporatist regime, the Federal State of Austria , which

64-613: 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. After World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary sealed by the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain , three political camps controlled the fate of the Austrian First Republic : the Social Democrats ,

96-727: A party-member, was considered to be close to the German nationalists. With the rise in support for the Austrian Nazi Party in the early 1930s, the Greater German People's Party lost numerous members to the Nazis and the paramilitary Heimwehr forces. On 15 May 1933, the party's radicalised remnants formed an action group ( "Kampfgemeinschaft" ) with the National Socialists and eventually merged with

128-465: A strong organisation but instead was supported by people who were nationalistic but not generally involved or interested in politics. The party received strong support from students, teachers and bureaucrats. The party supported the creation of a Volksgemeinschaft or people's community. They called for the unification of Austria with Germany and free trade . During the First Republic

160-721: A union of Austria with Germany and opposed Marxism , Austrofascism and the Heimwehr . In the 1920 parliamentary elections it was part of a German National coalition alongside the Greater German People's Party , and won seven seats. It took part in coalition governments between 1927 and 1933 when the Vice Chancellor and the Minister of the Interior came from its ranks. From 1930 onwards, it allied with

192-529: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Greater German People%27s Party Wöginger • Rendi-Wagner • Kickl • Maurer • Meinl-Reisinger • [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Greater German People's Party ( German Großdeutsche Volkspartei , abbreviated GDVP)

224-589: 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 in February 1934—but also

256-780: The Austrian Nazis who wanted Austria to join Germany . 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 , 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" ( Bund Juedischer Frontsoldaten ),

288-659: 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 governments along with the German nationalists; Chancellor Ignaz Seipel , a proponent of Catholic social teaching , advocated the idea of a "corporated" state surmounting the parliamentary system , based on

320-592: The Greater German People's Party ( Großdeutsche Volkspartei ) to create a common list for elections under the name Nationaler Wirtschaftsblock (National Economic Block), which was dissolved in 1934. After World War II , when a provisional Austrian government was created in 1945, the Landbund was originally supposed to nominate a member. However, the group was not recreated in the Second Republic. Most former Landbund supporters, who opposed Socialism and also

352-723: 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

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384-805: The Catholic Christian Socials . In 1919, the 17 different groupings and clubs formed a federation, the Greater German Association ( Großdeutsche Vereinigung ), led by the former Linz mayor Franz Dinghofer. As delegate of the Provisional Assembly, Dinghofer was elected one of its three presidents on 21 October 1918, together with the Socialist Karl Seitz and the Christian Social politician Jodok Fink . Under his presidency,

416-643: The Catholicism of both the Christian Social Party during the First Republic and the Austrian People's Party during the Second Republic, found a new political home in the Verband der Unabhängigen and later in the Freedom Party of Austria , which is most strongly rooted in the same areas where the Landbund had been an important political force. This article about an Austrian political party

448-769: The Nazi party during 1933–34. With the implementation of the Austrofascist dictatorship of the Federal State of Austria in 1934, all parties were banned. Upon the 1938 Anschluss to Nazi Germany , many former members joined the German Nazi Party . The Greater German People's Party represented the Austrian "Third Camp" ( Drittes Lager ) which traditionally has embraced pan-German nationalists and national liberals (in Austria "German-Liberals"). The Third Camp

480-526: 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

512-522: 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 became chancellor. In 1936, Schuschnigg also took over

544-589: The assembly voted for the accession to the German Reich and declared German Austria a republic. On a 1920 convention in Salzburg , the Greater German Association was transformed into a single party, the German nationalist and antisemitic Greater German People's Party. The only nationalist parties which did not join were the German Workers' Party and the rural Landbund . The party did not have

576-547: The country's independence and opposition to Nazism. Defunct While the Front's aim was to unite all Austrians, superseding all political parties, social and economic interest groups (including trade unions ), 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

608-548: The encyclicals Rerum novarum (1891) by Pope Leo XIII and Quadragesimo anno (1931) by Pope Pius XI . On 10 May 1932, the Christian Social politician Engelbert Dollfuss was designated Chancellor of Austria 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

640-473: 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. Schuschnigg acknowledged that Austrians were Germans and that Austria was a "German state" but he strongly opposed an Anschluss and passionately wished for Austria to remain independent from Germany. Schuschnigg's government had to face

672-758: 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

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704-619: 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 made rapprochement towards 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

736-488: 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

768-416: 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

800-543: 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 invasion. Schuschnigg had to appoint Seyss-Inquart Minister of the Interior, encouraging

832-678: The party never won more than 17% in elections. However, from 1921 to 1932, it was the junior partner of the Austrian Federal Government , in a coalition with the Christian Social Party, providing the Vice-Chancellors in the cabinets of Johann Schober , Ignaz Seipel and Rudolf Ramek . From 1927, the similar oriented Landbund took the Greater Germans' position as coalition partner. Chancellor Johann Schober (in office 1921–22, 1930–31), although not

864-401: The political activation of the Austrian Nazis. Realizing that he was in a bind, Schuschnigg announced a referendum 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

896-533: 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,

928-513: The suppression, the Social Democratic Party too was declared illegal and dissolved. Social Democratic officials like the Vienna mayor Karl Seitz were deposed and replaced by VF politicians. 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 , with

960-652: 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. Landbund The Landbund (English: Rural Federation ) was an Austrian political party during the period of the First Republic (1918–1934). The Landbund was founded in 1919 as Deutschösterreichische Bauernpartei ("Party of German-Austrian Farmers") and represented liberal and Protestant farmers in Styria , Carinthia and Upper Austria . It endorsed

992-624: Was a German nationalist political party during the First Republic of Austria , established in 1920. After World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary , the German nationalist and "German-Liberal" camp, which was fragmented into many splinter parties and factions, formed the largest group in the Provisional National Assembly of German Austria with 102 representatives, ahead of the Socialists and

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1024-561: 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 annexation of Austria to Germany, two days later. After the Second World War , 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

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