Engelbert Dollfuss

Engelbert Dollfuss (German: Dollfuß) (October 4, 1892 - July 25, 1934) was an Austrian politician and dictator.

Born in Texing , Austria, Dollfuss was a religious youth who was educated at a seminary before deciding to study Law at the University of Vienna and then Economics at the University of Berlin. During World War I he had difficulty being drafted due to his short stature but he was eventually accepted and sent to the Alpine front, briefly becoming a POW in 1918. After the war, he worked for the Agriculture ministry as secretary of the Peasants' Association. He became director of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture in 1927 and in 1930 as a member of the conservative Christian Social Party he was appointed president of the Federal Railway System. The following year he was named minister of agriculture and forests.

He became Chancellor on May 20, 1932 as head of a right-wing coalition government, designed to tackle the problems caused by the Depression. However, Dollfuss' majority in Parliament was almost non-existent; deflationary policies were unpopular and created deep hostility from the Austrian SDAPÖ, within Parliament and without. Consequently, Dollfuss suspended Parliament indefinitely in March 1933, and governed by decree. Dollfuss arguably also had another reason for the suspension of Democracy in Austria - The Nazis. With Hitler now German Chancellor, it looked increasingly likely that in future elections, the Austrian Nazis would gain a majority, and Austria would cease to exist as a state. Accordingly, Dollfuss banned the NSDAP in June, and The SDAPÖ (now SPÖ) was banned in February 1934.

In September 1933 he formed an umbrella grouping to support the regime, the Vaterländische Front (Fatherland Front) and merged the Christian Social Party with the para-military Heimwehr (Home Guard), a Nationalist paramilitary group. The regime which was installed by him and remained in power until 1938 is often called Austrofascism. The form of state he employed was called the Ständestaat .

On July 25, 1934 eight Austrian Nazis entered the Chancellery building and shot and killed Dollfuss in an attempted coup, as a prelude to Anschluss. The Nazis surrendered, were executed, and Kurt Schuschnigg became the new dictator of Austria.