The Landbund ("Rural Federation") was an Austrian political party during the period of the First Republic (1918-1934).

History

The Landbund was founded in 1919 as Deutsche Bauernpartei ("Party of German Farmers") and represented liberal and protestant farmers in Styria, Carinthia and Upper Austria. It endorsed Austria's Anschluss to Germany and opposed Marxism, Austrofascism and the Heimwehr. 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 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.

Leading Proponents

• Karl Hartleb (Vice Chancellor 1927-1930)
• Vincenz Schumy (Governor of Carinthia 1923-1927)
• Franz Winkler (Vice Chancellor 1932/33)

Legacy

After World War II, when a provisonal 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 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 poltiical 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.