Hitler's Defeat in Austria 1933-1934 Europe's First Containment of Nazi Expansionism
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GOTTFRIED-KARL KINDERMANN Hitler's Defeat in Austria 1933-1934 Europe's First Containment of Nazi Expansionism TRANSLATED BY SONIA BROUGH AND DAVID TAYLOR WESTVIEW PRESS Boulder, Colorado CONTENTS Acknowledgements page v Preface I by Dr Alois Mock vii Preface II by Governor Siegfried Ludwig ix Glossary xiv Introduction xv Maps xxvi—xxvii Chapters 1. The St Germain Treaty: An Austrian Tragedy 1 The rise and fall of a multinational empire 1 Republican Austria — remnant of a truncated empire 3 2. Austria: First Target of the Third Reich 10 Hitler's geostrategic objectives 10 Tactics of an expansionist cold war 12 3. Self-Defence and the New Austrian Identity 19 The roots of Austria's reorientation 19 Central concepts of the new 'Austria ideology' 21 The magic of Austria's past 22 Austria as a German-European synthesis 23 Austrian self-assertion and the search for peace and union in Europe 24 The critique of National Socialism 26 The corporate state as a basis of 'legitimacy' 30 4. Foreign Policy in Austria's Defensive Strategy 33 From the Lausanne Protocol to the onset of Nazi terrorism 33 The role of Italy and the Western Powers 35 The ineffectual three-power protest in Berlin 38 Dollfuss and the Great Powers, summer 1933 to spring 1934 39 The tripartite Rome Protocols 42 The Austro-German conflict as seen from Prague and Belgrade 44 XI xii Contents 5. Democracy in Crisis — Confrontation on Two Fronts 48 Government perceptions of Austro-Marxism 48 — Impressions and realities 48 — Two armed parties in conflict 49 — Rejection of traditionalism and Austrian statehood and the attractions of Anschluss 52 — The spectre of Bolshevism 54 The widening crisis of democracy 60 Visions on a 'march between two precipices' 63 The Home Defence League (Heimwehr) — an ambivalent ally 69 The limits of Italian intervention 73 The failure of 'black-red' coalition attempts 76 Were there alternative solutions? 83 The Socialist Defence League's dual revolt 86 6. The Armed Nazi Uprising in Vienna and the Provinces 91 The 'Lightning Coup' and the Chancellor's assassination 91 — The stiffening of Austria's resistance to Hitler 91 — Italy and France support Dollfuss 95 — Starhemberg's anti-Hitler rally in Braunau 96 — Armed revolt as the only option 97 — Hitler's role in planning the revolt 99 — The 'lightning coup' betrayed 100 — Fey's fatal plan 101 — The assassination of Dollfuss 102 — The revolt in Vienna fails 103 The suppression of the revolt in the provinces 105 7. Austria Staves off Hitler's Assault 111 First Nazi reactions 111 Hitler's retreat: a posthumous victory for Dollfuss 112 European reactions: Rome, Paris and London 116 8. Europe's First Active Resistance to the Third Reich: Between Analysis and Partisan Disavowal 120 Implications of the 1933-4 Resistance for Austria and Europe 120 How Austria's achievement was played down in a later era for political reasons 125 Contents and Illustrations xiii Notes 132 Appendix: Documents (including full contents list) 145 Select Bibliography 225 Index 231 ILLUSTRATIONS Death mask of Engelbert Dollfuss frontispiece Between pages 92 and 93 Parading units of the Socialist Defence League Hitler reviewing SA units on the German-Austrian border Goering speaking in Vienna, October 1932 Goebbels in Vienna, 1932 The Crusader cross, symbol of the Dollfuss era Group picture of Schuschnigg, Starhemberg and others Dollfuss speaking at a patriotic rally Dollfuss with Fulvio Suvich Dollfuss with Anton Rintelen Dollfuss meeting wartime comrades Portrait of Dollfuss Dollfuss with his children Cardinal Innitzer visits Dollfuss, wounded in murder attempt Mussolini in 1934 Prince Starhemberg Major Emil Fey Heimwehr unit fighting in Carinthia, July 1934 Heimwehr machine-gun unit Nazi rebels in Carinthia (St Andre) Nazi rebel machine-gun unit, Wolfsberg, July 1934 Armoured police-car in action against Nazi rebels, Vienna Arrest of SS rebels, Vienna, July 1934 Defeated Nazi rebels escape to Yugoslavia The body of Dollfuss, as found in his office Dollfuss' coffin borne out of the Ballhausplatz Crowd in the Heldenplatz, paying last respects to Dollfuss Nazis destroying a monument to Dollfuss, 1938.