The Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior in the 20Th Century

.SIAK-Journal – Zeitschrift für Polizeiwissenschaft und polizeiliche Praxis

Muigg, Mario (2009): The Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior in the 20th century

SIAK-Journal − Zeitschrift für Polizeiwissenschaft und polizeiliche Praxis (3), 11-17.

doi: 10.7396/2009_3_B

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Muigg, Mario (2009). The Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior in the 20th century, SIAK- Journal − Zeitschrift für Polizeiwissenschaft und polizeiliche Praxis (3), 11-17, Online: http://dx.doi.org/10.7396/2009_3_B.

© Bundesministerium für Inneres – Sicherheitsakademie / Verlag NWV, 2009

Hinweis: Die gedruckte Ausgabe des Artikels ist in der Print-Version des SIAK-Journals im Verlag NWV (http://nwv.at) erschienen.

Online publiziert: 3/2013 3/2009 .SIAK-JOURNAL

The Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior in the 20th century

During the last century Austria was twice on the brink of becoming a failed state: after World War I and again after World War II. Both of these phases of despair and misery led to distinctive republican periods, namely, the First Austrian Republic of 1918–1934/38 and the Second Austrian Republic from MARIO MUIGG, 1945 until the present day. The first republican experiment ended in failure scientific employee at the Institute as a consequence of internal and external pressures. The second opportunity, for Science and Research in the provided by the victors of World War II, eventually led to an almost miracu­ Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior. lous recovery and a remarkable prosperity that was unforeseeable during those early years of almost total crisis. As conditions improved, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, Austrians developed a new identity as a small, neutral nation-state which enjoyed the advantage of being situated at the crossroads between East and West. Throughout the long twentieth century the Austrian people had to endure bitter regime changes, which were marked by caesuras like 1918, 1933/34, 1938, 1945 or 1955. All these transitions brought substantial institutional changes, most of them constitutionally grounded. This article analyses these institutional changes from the point of view of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior which plays a key role VOCABULARY regarding the field of security. Special attention will be given to the respec­ on the brink tive intelligence structures. This is not only because these represent an inter­ sehr nahe daran esting and under-researched area, but also because it serves as a revealing distinctive case of institutional change. This article will thus focus on the institutional charakteristisch, ausgeprägt changes brought about by the above-mentioned caesuras and the role elites to endure played in these transitions. Further on it will show that despite dramatic durchmachen, erdulden systemic changes in the 20th century, bureaucratic structures and their grounded respective elites were somewhat surprisingly marked more by continuity untermauert than discontinuity (Beer et al. 2009, 111). to delineate skizzieren, darstellen

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dearth Mangel PREFACE sing. Thus this analysis of the main organi- The history of the Austrian Federal Mini- zational and institutional changes from the stry of the Interior in the 20th century is Habsburgs to the present day makes no quite difficult to delineate. Given the ab- claim to completeness. sence of general accounts one has to per- The Ministry of the Interior was founded severe despite the dearth of information in 1848 to replace the “Austro-Bohemian regarding this important ministry. Detailed Court Chancellery” founded by Empress reports on administrative structures and Maria Theresia. From 1918 to 1920 it was alterations within the Ministry are mis- called the “State Office of the Interior”

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and between 1919 and 1923 it was merged republic, even though the imperial admini­ with the Ministry of Education as the stration continued to exist. In the transi­ “State Office and Federal Ministry of the tion period to democracy it was of utmost Interior and of Education”; and it was inte­ importance that decision makers in the grated into the Federal Chancellery from Interior Ministry and the police force 1923 to 1938. In 1945, following Austria’s accepted the new order without hesitation. liberation from National Socialism, it Indeed, even after the abolition of the became the “Federal Ministry of the Inte­ Monarchy and the installation of the rior”. The “Bundesministerium für Inne­ Republic there was a marked continuity of res” (Federal Ministry of the Interior) is personnel in the ranks of the bureaucracy located in the former Palace Modena in and police (Hanisch 1994, 267 f). How­ Vienna’s First District.1 ever, ministries and central offices based Quelle: BM.I in Vienna had overseen the entire terri­ tory of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. After the demise of the Dual Monarchy the state administration had to be adapted to the new, more straitened circumstances (Jerabek/Enderle-Burcel, 2 f). The years 1918 to 1920 were marked by grand coalitions between the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Social Party. Among the Ministers of the Interior in the immediate post-war cabinets were, for example, the lawyer and member of the far-right student league “Olympia”, Heinrich Mataja, and the Social Democrat Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior (Palace Modena, Vienna) figure-head and first Chancellor of the VOCABULARY Republic, Karl Renner. The collapse of the MONARCHY AND FIRST REPUBLIC grand coalition in 1920 led to a severe echelons Ränge The higher echelon of the Ministry of the polarization between these two parties. Interior during the last decades of the Even on the level of the elites a noticeable to wield ausüben monarchy was educated at the “Theresia­ estrangement took place, which constitu­ num”, an elite school in Vienna. Almost ted a growing threat to the young Austrian demise Abgabe der Macht 70 percent of the graduates of this school democracy. Conservative and nationalist took up employment in the civil service. coalitions governed Austria for the most straitened beschränkt They acted like members of a secret part from 1920 to 1933. The Ministry of society, supporting and protecting each the Interior, which was integrated into the figure-head Galionsfigur, other in order to serve the Emperor and Federal Chancellery from 1923 onwards, Repräsentationsfigur climb the career ladder (Hanisch 1994, was administered several times by Aus­

estrangement 221–225). They wielded a great deal of trian chancellors such as the former Vien­ Entfremdung influence and became even more powerful nese chief of police, Johannes Schober, during World War I, when the bureaucracy the prelate and theologian, Ignaz Seipel, intervened in the economic system to an and the highly-decorated military officer unprecedented extent. and industrialist, Ernst Streeruwitz. After the collapse of the Habsburg Mon­ In 1933, after the so-called “self-elimi­ archy in November 1918 Austria became a nation of Parliament”, chancellor Engel­

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bert Dollfuß transformed Austria into an and in order to defend and protect Aus­ authoritarian state. Based on one ruling tria’s independence Schuschnigg was for­ party, the “Vaterländische Front” (Father­ ced to conclude an agreement with Hitler land Front), Dollfuß established the in February 1938 which – among other Austrian “Ständestaat” (Corporative State) things – let members of the National So­ as a kind of one-party dictatorship. Other cialist German Workers’ Party participate parties and movements like the Social in the Austrian government. Arthur Seyss- Democrats, Communists or National Inquart, a prominent pro-Nazi lawyer, was Socialists had been dissolved and banned. appointed Minister of the Interior and later In February 1934 the differences bet­ on, after the resignation of Kurt Schusch­ ween the Social Democrats and their para­ nigg on the eve of the German invasion in military organisation “Republikanischer Austria, he became Chancellor for a short Schutzbund” (prohibited in 1933) on one time. The new positions of power permit­ side and Christian-Socialists and their ted the National Socialists to immediately paramilitary force Heimwehr on the other seize key positions in the bureaucracy, the (in other words the government), escala­ economy, the police and the armed forces. ted. The armed conflict – the so-called “February Uprising” or “Austrian Civil The First Austrian Republic War” – between the “Republikanischer (1918–1938) had in total 27 Schutzbund” and the military might of governments and a large num­ VOCABULARY “Heimwehr”, police and regular army for­ ber of different ministers. might ces ended with a defeat of the Social Macht Democrats and several hundred victims on Nevertheless we notice a continuity in officialdom both sides. Especially Emil Fey, leader of administration which was a result of a Bürokratie, Beamtentum the paramilitary force “Heimwehr”, and continuity in high-bureaucracy: “ministers Minister of the Interior between 1934 and go – civil servants, officials, officers 1935, played a key role in the violent sup­ stay”. Neither at the beginning of the repu­ pression of the uprising. blican era nor during the 1930s a debate After the assassination of Chancellor on basic principles of officialdom took Dollfuss in July 1934 by Austrian Nazis place in Austria. Only in March 1938, which was accompanied by failed Nazi when German troops entered Austria, this uprisings in other parts of Austria, Kurt continuity came to an end. Austria did not Schuschnigg became his successor. In exist any more and in a first round of 1935/36 Schuschnigg acted for several arrests, the Nazis eliminated almost the days as Minister of the Interior as well. In whole ruling class of the Austrian Corpo­ the period of the Corporative State (1934– rate State (Jerabek/Enderle-Burcel, 7; 13). 1938) the Austrian umbrella organization of Catholic male student fraternities NAZI PERIOD (Österreichischer Cartellverband [ÖCV]) Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938 provided political leadership and played led to the substitution of Austria’s former an important role in the political system as elites at virtually all levels. Nazi operatives a whole. The participation of ÖCV mem­ replaced Interior Ministry civil servants, bers in boards, committees and panels was especially senior officials or chief officers enormously high (Neuhäuser 2004, 66 f). (Schmid 1997, 15). However, and perhaps In the second half of the 1930s Austria surprisingly, Austrian Nazis did not auto­ faced an increasing German Nazi pressure matically benefit from the regime change.

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Membership in the party was not an auto­ tant role in 1950 in aborting a prolonged matic guarantee of employment under period of communist-led strikes, was quite Nazi rule (Jerabek/Enderle-Burcel, 22). a controversial minister from 1963 to Control of the Austrian police passed 1964, and was even expelled from the immediately to the German Reich and Socialist Party in 1964. Nazi leaders established a new structure From 1966 to 1970 the conservatives for the police and security forces based were the sole party in power and two upon the German model (Hagspiel 1995, ÖVP-Ministers administered the Federal 134–137; Kadanik 1994, 150–156). Step Ministry of the Interior. In the so-called by step, the entire Austrian administrative “Kreisky Era” (1970–1983) and the follo­ structure was integrated into the German wing period of socialist-dominated coali­ Reich, which eliminated any trace of the tion governments (until 2000) the Ministry former independent Austrian Republic. of the Interior had six Social Democratic Until the end of the war, all former Ministers. These included the former Austrian administrative institutions, espe­ NSDAP-member Otto Rösch and the cially those concerning internal security, influential socialist politician Karl Blecha, were tightly under the control of Berlin. who was forced to resign in 1989 after his alleged involvement in illegal arms SECOND AUSTRIAN REPUBLIC dealing and insurance fraud. With the restoration of the democratic Quelle: BM.I institutions of the First Republic the old REPUBLIK ÖSTERREICH elites returned quite quickly after the end BM.I BUNDESMINISTERIUM FÜR INNERES of World War II (Hanisch 1994, 395–398). In practice this meant that a small staff of Official logo of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior officials, who had been dismissed in 1938, returned to their former ministries, depart­ ments, offices and administrative centres. Since 2000 the conservatives have been Due to the process of de-nazification no administering the Federal Ministry of the former members of the NSDAP remained Interior. Following Ernst Strasser, who in high-ranking positions in the Ministry was responsible for a large police reform of the Interior (Jerabek/Enderle-Burcel, package and a reorganisation of depart­ 26), which was administered by the com­ ments and agencies, the first woman, munist Franz Honner from April until the Liese Prokop, headed the Ministry from end of 1945. 2004 to 2006. Since July 2008, Maria From 1945 to 1966 grand coalitions bet­ Fekter has been in charge of internal affairs. ween the Christian Social Party and the Social Democratic Party ruled Austria, INTELLIGENCE POLICY WITHIN during which time the Federal Ministry THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIO of the Interior was in the hands of the Given the increase in the intelligence acti­ Social Democrats. Among the four Mini­ vities of foreign powers in Austria after the sters were Oskar Helmer and Franz Olah. turn of the 19th century, contacts between Helmer, a leading socialist and Interior the intelligence services of the Ministry of Minister from 1945 to 1959, had fought War and the Austrian State Police increa­ against communist penetration of the Aus­ sed. Close cooperation between Colonel trian police force during the occupation Max Ronge, the last director of the “Evi­ period. Franz Olah, who played an impor­ denzbureau”, and the young State Police

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officer Johannes Schober (later police At first the ZESt continued the principal chief of Vienna, Interior and Foreign Mi­ activities of the State Police, including the nister, Chancellor and one of the political domestic surveillance of monarchist, com­ key figures of the First Republic) became munist and national socialist organizati­ very important (Beer 2007, 60). ons. But later, as it gained more and more A series of espionage cases were unco­ influence from special regulations and vered by the “Spionage-Evidenzstelle” permits, it initiated intelligence activities (Espionage Evidence Entity), among them abroad. Nevertheless, Schober’s plan to the famous case of Colonel Alfred Redl. establish the ZESt as the only central intel­ The State Police reported on foreigners ligence service and a hub of the Austrian and nationalist movements, public opi­ secret service system failed. It ran into too nion, and political tendencies in the armed much resistance, money was scarce, and forces. It also tried to counter enemy pro­ the reorganization of the military intelli­ paganda. After the assassination of Prime gence service in 1924 brought a noticeable Minister Karl Graf Stürgkh by a socialist restriction of the activities of the ZESt politician in 1916, and the Russian October (Jagschitz 1979, 69). Revolution of 1917, surveillance of Social The reorganization and rearmament of Democratic leaders and Bolshevik agita­ the Austrian military and intelligence ser­ tion increased visibly while the network of vices in 1933 was accompanied by a reor­ informers expanded (Beer 2007, 61). ganization of the respective civilian ser­ vices. The authoritarian government of VOCABULARY After the monarchy fell, the Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß to counter young Republic of Austria was expanded State Police activities as a entgegenwirken not willing to face domestic means of repressing political opponents. A imbued and foreign threats without its “Staatspolizeiliches Büro” (State Police durchdrungen own intelligence organization. Bureau) was instituted in the Federal hub Chancellery, which was soon transformed Angelpunkt Surveillance within Austria became the into the “Staatspolizeiliches Evidenz­ principal duty of the Austrian State Police, büro”, (StE or State Police Evidence which had managed the transition from Bureau) of the General Directorate for monarchy to republic quite well (Muigg Public Security. In 1934 Major-General 2007, 66). The man of the hour was Maximilian Ronge became its head. Follo­ Johannes Schober, police chief of Vienna, wing this centralization of State Police who created a central intelligence bureau activities under the Federal Chancellery, it in order to observe all political groups and was prohibited to report any State Police developments which might threaten the matters to other authorities. This espe­ Republic. He managed this despite strong cially affected the ZESt, which became reservations in the provinces against the less and less significant. In 1935 the StE plan, which was imbued with Viennese was reorganized as the “Zentralevidenz­ centralism. He founded in 1920 the stelle” (Central Evidence Bureau), which “Politische Zentralevidenzstelle bei der was in charge of the whole country. In Bundespolizeidirektion Wien” (Political addition to the main tasks of political Central Intelligence Filing and Clearing intelligence and counterespionage, this Office of the Vienna Federal Police Head­ authority coordinated all military and civi­ quarters), abbreviated as ZESt (Jagschitz lian intelligence services in Austria (Jag­ 1979, 58–87). schitz 1979, 85).

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As noted above, all Austrian intelligence also established. In addition to inquiries units ceased to exist after the “Anschluss” about war criminals, the “Staatspolizei” (political union of Austria with Germany, (State Police) increasingly engaged in the achieved through annexation) to Nazi Ger­ observation of suspicious associations and many in 1938, and the „Geheime Staats­ groups, in preventive surveillance and polizei“ (Gestapo [Secret State Police]) became the Nazi regime’s instrument for Quelle: BM.I fighting its opponents and executing its racial policy. The Gestapo was a “state within a state” and fully devoted to Nazi ideology while the SD was an espionage and counterespionage service which com­ piled reports on the political situation and popular opinion in the greater Reich. The division of responsibilities between Gestapo and „Sicherheitsdienst“ (SD [Se­ curity Service]) was not always clearly defined (Mindler 2007, 86–89). Although the Allied powers did not allow – after World War II – the formation Official logo of the Austrian Federal Agency for State of an Austrian army during the occupation Protection and Counter Terrorism period (1945–1955), they agreed to the reestablishment of the Austrian State control of state enemies, and in the fight Police. In the Ministry of the Interior, against foreign espionage activities. Maximilian Pammer was appointed as The Austrian State Police has achieved head of the “Staatspolizeiliches Büro” noticeable success over the last decades, (State Police Bureau), which was a part of but a number of scandals have brought it the General Directorate for Public Secu­ into the headlines (Gémes 2007, 98 f). rity. However, the communist State Secre­ Since 1993, a parliamentary commission VOCABULARY tary for the Ministry of the Interior ap­ has controlled the State Police, which was pointed his fellow party member, Heinrich reorganized in 2002 as the “Bundesamt für outlook hier: Einstellung Dürmayer, to be in charge of the strategi­ Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbe­ cally important Viennese State Police De­ kämpfung” (BVT, Federal Agency for partment. Dürmayer immediately replaced State Protection and Counter Terrorism). former Nazi, Gestapo or SS members with The BVT also maintains regional authori­ communists. In 1947, the Social Demo­ ties in the provinces (the so-called LVTs) cratic, and strictly anti-communist, Mini­ and has been headed since 2008 by Peter ster of the Interior, Oskar Helmer, repla­ Gridling. ced Dürmayer with Oswald Peterlunger. In the following, the political outlook of administrative elites in the “Staatspolizei­ licher Dienst” (State Police Service) was changed by appointing, installing or pro­ moting Peterlunger’s anti-communist cro­ nies. An intensive exchange of informa­ tion with the western Allied powers was

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1 http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou. Hagspiel, H. (1995). Die Ostmark. Öster­ Mindler, U. (2007). Nationalsozialisti­ encyclop.i/i483870.htm;internal&actio= reich im Großdeutschen Reich 1938 bis scher Sicherheitsdienst und Gestapo, _setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en 1945, Wien. .SIAK-Journal (4), 86–93. (22.04.2009). Hanisch, E. (1994). Der lange Schatten Muigg, M. (2007). Geheim- und Nach­ des Staates. Österreichische Gesell­ richtendienste in und aus Österreich. Sources of information schaftsgeschichte im 20. Jahrhundert, 1918–1938, .SIAK-Journal (3), 64–72. Beer, S./Gémes, A./Göderle, W./Muigg, M. Wien. Neuhäuser, S. (2004). „Wer, wenn nicht (2009). Institutional Change in Austrian Jagschitz, G. (1979). Die Politische Zen­ wir?“. 1934 begann der Aufstieg des CV, Foreign Policy and Security Structures in tralevidenzstelle der Bundespolizeidirek­ in: Neuhäuser, S. (ed.) „Wir werden the 20th century, in: Gémes, A./Peyrou, tion Wien. Ein Beitrag zur Rolle der poli­ ganze Arbeit leisten …“. Der Austrofa­ F./Xydopoulos, I. (eds.) Institutional tischen Polizei in der Ersten Republik, in: schistische Staatsstreich 1934, Norder­ Change and Stability: Conflicts, Transi­ Österreichische Gesellschaft für Zeitge­ stedt, 65–140. tions and Social Values, Pisa, 109–136. schichte (1978). Jahrbuch für Zeitge­ Schmid, H. E. (1997). Verwaltungsreform Beer, S. (2007). Die Nachrichtendienste schichte 1978, Wien, 49–95. in Österreich am Beispiel der Ministerial­ in der Habsburgermonarchie, .SIAK- Jerabek, R./Enderle-Burcel, G. (still bürokratie. Status quo, Reformansätze Journal (3), 53–63. unpublished manuscript). Verwaltungseli­ und Entwicklungsperspektiven, Dipl., Wien. Gémes, A. (2007). Spionagezentrum ten in Umbruchzeiten. Spitzenbeamte des Österreich? Nachrichtendienste in Öster­ Bundes 1918/1933/1938/1945. reich während des Kalten Krieges, .SIAK- Kadanik, H. (1994). NS-Verwaltung in Journal (4), 94–101. Österreich 1938–1945, Diss., Graz.

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