!!!Erste Republik
First Republic: The history of the First Republic started on November
12, 1918, the day the Republic "Deutschoesterreich" was
proclaimed by the Provisional National Assembly, which was formed by
all German speaking members of the Reichsrat (elected in 1911) on
October 21, 1918. On October 31, H. Lammasch, the last Austrian
Prime Minister, handed over the administration of the state to the
State Council, which comprised the 3 presidents and 20 members (from
all political parties) of the Provisional National Assembly. On
November 11, 1918 Emperor Karl waived his right to exercise
political authority. The Social Democrat, K. Renner as the State
Chancellor formed a concentration government including all political
parties.
\\
The Constituent National Assembly elected on February 16, 1919
passed the first parliamentary federal constitution, which came into
force on October 1, 1920. Red, white and red, formerly the
colours of the House of Babenberg, now became the national colours (
Coat of Arms).
\\
In 1919 the Paris peace commission forbade the union of the new
republic with the German Reich ( Anschluss). On March 24, 1919
the former Emperor Karl and his family had to leave Austria, since he
refused to formally renounce his right to the throne. On April 3, 1919
the National Assembly passed a law by which the members of the House
of Habsburg-Lorraine ( Habsburg Law) were expelled and their
possessions in Austria expropriated and by which titles of nobility
were also abolished.
\\
On September 10, 1919 the National Assembly had to accept the
provisions of the peace treaty of Saint-Germain, which was signed by
State Chancellor Renner on October 25, 1919. This treaty imposed
all the war debts of the old Empire on the new republic. Furthermore,
Austria was to stop calling itself "Deutschoesterreich"
(German-Austria) and Burgenland was ceded to Austria; in southern
Carinthia a plebiscite was held in 1920 and the vote was in favour of
Austria ( Carinthian Resistance Movement, Carinthian Plebiscite),
while South Tyrol, with 230,000 Austrian inhabitants, had to be ceded
to Italy without plebiscite. Austria retained approximately 12 %
of the lands of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. The young state
was faced with enormous economic problems. In addition to the problems
caused by the conditions of the immediate post-war period, such as
hunger, coal shortage, inflation and unemployment, domestic affairs
were fraught with tension between the political parties: on June
10, 1920 the Christian Socialist Party terminated the coalition
with the Social Democrats, which had existed since October 1918. On
October 22, 1922 the Social Democrats left the government and went
into opposition; they remained in opposition until 1934, when their
party was dissolved.
\\
On December 16, 1920 Austria was admitted to the League of
Nations. On October 4, 1922 Federal Chancellor I. Seipel secured
a 20-year League of Nations Loan amounting 650 million Austrian
gold crowns, while Austria was placed under international financial
supervision (lifted in 1926). In 1924 the new currency, the Austrian
Schilling, was introduced, which ushered in a period of gradual
economic recovery.
\\
The first large hydro-electric power plants (Partenen in Vorarlberg,
Partenstein in Upper Austria, Teigitsch power plants in Styria) were
constructed, some routes of the federal railways were electrified, the
road network was extended and renovated (Gaisberg road 1929, the
Grossglockner-Hochalpenstrasse and Wiener Hoehenstrasse 1935,
Packstrasse 1936), publicly financed dwellings were built in Vienna,
the process of industrialisation was promoted, the production of
agricultural goods increased considerably (by 1937 agriculture already
met 81 % of the food demand and was increasingly mechanised).
Tourism gained great importance as a source of foreign exchange. In
1921 the Vienna Fairs were founded. The export of finished goods
(wood, wood products, iron, steel, paper, textiles, dairy products)
boosted the foreign trade balance. In 1925 the budget had a financial
surplus of ATS 76.5 million, and in 1927 the currency was covered
at a rate of 70 % by the gold reserves and exchange holdings.
\\
However, the Austrian economy was still faced with heavy burdens;
since the necessary capital could not be raised at home, it had to be
obtained abroad and Austria thus exposed itself to political
influences from abroad. 100,000 of the approximately 250,000 civil
servants had to be dismissed or retired prematurely. In 1919 the
railways had lost approximately 75 % of their network, what was
left were mainly the expensive mountain routes; huge sums of foreign
currency had to be spent for the purchase of mineral coal.
\\
Achievements in the field of social legislation were remarkable,
making Austria a pioneer among the countries of Europe in terms of
social achievements, which included the introduction of: the
eight-hour day, the works council, unemployment insurance and old-age
pension schemes; at the same time, legal protection of tenants was
maintained. The Social Democrat F. Hanusch and the Christian
Socialist J. Resch were successful in introducing progressive
legislation on holidays for white-collar and blue-collar workers, the
employment of servants and disabled persons and collective bargaining.
Social welfare and health care were re-organised, dental care centres
for school children, mother and child health clinics and social
welfare centres were established, new sports facilities, baths and
modern kindergartens were opened.
\\
In the field of art and academic activities the young republic
maintained its prominent position with its old metropolis Vienna. The
Vienna Burgtheater, opera, operetta and the Salzburg Festival, founded
by M. Reinhardt, H. von Hofmannsthal and R. Strauss, made
Austria popular all over the world, literary works by such Austrian
writers as A. Wildgans, H. von Hofmannsthal, F. Werfel, S.
Zweig, R. Musil, F. Kafka, H. Broch and J. Roth have become part
of world literature. Some of the most important scientists from
Austria were the Nobel prize winners K. Landsteiner, E. Schroedinger
and J. Wagner-Jauregg. O. Gloeckel and his pioneering school reforms
in Vienna followed modern re-organisation of the educational system;
the introduction of adult evening schools and public libraries served
large groups of the population, and vocational schools of agriculture
gained considerable importance.
\\
While the First Republic achieved stability in the fields of economic
affairs and culture, political hostility between the conservative and
socialist elements increased. The two major political parties formed
armed paramilitary forces, veterans´ organisations emerged from
1920, the Heimwehr groups (defence forces) 1921-1923, the Republican
Schutzbund (defence league) in 1923. The Linz Programme, the
development of Austro-Marxism, the strengthening of the Heimwehr
(para-military force) and Austro-Faschism characterised the
situation. The acquittal of the defendants in Schattendorf Trial in
1927 led to the Vienna July Revolt, in the course of which the
Ministry of Justice building was set on fire.
\\
These events weakened the Social Democrats and strengthened the
Heimwehr, so that their anti-parliamentarian demands were realised in
1929 in the form of a series of constitutional amendments which gave
increased powers to the federal president at the expense of the
Nationalrat. The president was to be elected by direct popular vote,
his functions were no longer merely representative in nature and he
was given the power to appoint the members of the federal government,
to dissolve parliament and to order new elections.
\\
The world economic crisis of 1929 brought about new economic problems
for Austria. Factories had to shut down, the number of unemployed
receiving benefits increased from 264,148 in February 1929 to 401,321
in February 1933, there were approximately another 100,000 unemployed
persons without claim to (insurance) benefits. In 1931, the bankruptcy
of the Creditanstalt, then the most influential banking house in
Austria, brought Austria close to economic disaster.
\\
The only relief that Austria was granted was the decision of the
conference of The Hague in 1930 to release Austria from the obligation
to make reparation payments, from the claims of the successor states
to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the lien on earnings from customs
and tobacco monopoly ("Generalpfandrecht"). In 1932 Austria had to
take another loan from the League of Nations, amounting ATS
300 million (Treaty of Lausanne). The attempt by J. Schober to
launch a project for a customs union with Germany (1931) failed
because of the opposition of France, Italy and Czechoslovakia.
\\
On March 4, 1933 the president of the Nationalrat resigned and
the two vice presidents followed his example, the reason being an
argument over alleged irregularities in the voting procedure, and on
March 7 Dollfuss declared that parliament had proved unworkable. This
was the end of parliamentary democracy during the First Republic; E.
Dollfuss prevented the Nationalrat from meeting again and introduced
authoritarian rule by emergency decrees, invoking the War-time
Enabling Act of 1917. In the same year the Republican Schutzbund
(defence league), the communist party and the National Socialist party
(both of which never had any parliamentary seats during the First
Republic) as well as the Styrian Heimatschutz (local defence force)
were declared illegal. In May 1933 the Fatherland Front was founded.
Following the armed resistance of the Schutzbund in Linz against
police and the Heimwehr, who were searching for weapons, on February
12, 1934 the Republican Schutzbund rose in arms and outright
civil war followed ( Uprising, February).
\\
On May 1, 1934 Dollfuss proclaimed the "Christian-German Federal
State of Austria on a Corporate Basis", removed the term Republic from
the official name of the state, and gave it a new constitution (
Maiverfassung); he made the Fatherland Front the "exclusive
policy-making organ"; legislation was placed in the hands of the State
Council, the Federal Council for Culture, the Federal Economic Council
and the Provincial Council (Staatsrat, Bundeskulturrat,
Bundeswirtschaftsrat, Laenderrat) ( Corporate State).
\\
By this time the danger of National Socialism had become more and
more imminent. On May 27, 1933 the government of the National
Socialist German Reich passed the law of the "1,000-Mark-Ban", under
which every German citizen who intended to travel to Austria had to
deposit a forfeit of 1,000 Marks (in 1932, 40 % of foreign
tourists in Austria were Germans). Within Austria, the NSDAP
terrorised the state with acts of sabotage. On July 25, 1934 an
attempted putsch by the National Socialists failed, but Federal
Chancellor Dollfuss, whom they had taken prisoner, was murdered ( July
Putsch). In 1934 Austria, Italy and Hungary signed the Protocols of
Rome, which aimed at safeguarding Austria´s sovereignty. The
protocol was preceded by an accord between Great Britain, Italy and
France which guaranteed Austria´s independence. However, on July
11, 1936 a compromise with Germany was signed ( Juliabkommen) under
whose provisions Austria committed itself to pursue its foreign policy
as "the second German state".
\\
On October 10, 1936 K. Schuschnigg, who had became chancellor on
the death of Dollfuss in 1934, dissolved all defence forces after
having passed a law on the introduction of universal compulsory
military service on April 1, 1936. The policies of Hitler and
fascist Italy under B. Mussolini ("Berlin- Rome Axis") made the
Protocols of Rome ineffective. In a meeting between Hitler and
Schuschnigg at Berchtesgaden on February 12, 1938, Hitler
threatened to have German troops invade Austria immediately if Austria
did not comply with his demands (e.g. general amnesty for the
imprisoned National Socialists, inclusion of Nazi ministers in the
Austrian government).
\\
When Schuschnigg called a referendum to decide on Austria´s
independence, Hitler reacted with a series of ultimatums to which
Schuschnigg was forced to give way on the evening of March 11, 1938:
He renounced resistance "to avoid bloodshed", resigned and handed over
government business to the Austrian National Socialist A.
Seyss-Inquart, who was named by the Germans. In the night of March 11
German troops entered Austria. On March 13, 1938 Hitler
proclaimed the "re-union of Austria and the German Reich" ( Anschluss)
in Linz. Austrian Federal President W. Miklas was forced to resign on
March 13, 1938. Great Britain, France and Italy, which was on
friendly terms with the corporate state, failed to live up to any of
their guarantees and accepted this act of violence as a fait accompli.
The League of Nations did not interfere, either. The only state that
entered a formal protest was Mexico.
!Literature
F. Tremel, Die Erste Republik, %%sup 3/%1948; C.
Gulick, Oesterreich von Habsburg zu Hitler, 1948; K. Renner,
Oesterreich von der Ersten zur Zweiten Republik, 1953; H. Benedikt,
Geschichte der Republik Oesterreich, 1954; L. Jedlicka, Ein Heer im
Schatten der Parteien, 1955; H. L. Mikoletzky, Oesterreichische
Zeitgeschichte, %%sup 3/%1957; F. Funder, Als Oesterreich den Sturm
bestand, 1962; O. Leichter, Glanz und Ende der Ersten Republik,
1965; Vom Justizpalast zum Heldenplatz, 1975; E. Weinzierl and K.
Skalnik, Oesterreich 1918-1938, 1983; F. L. Carsten, Die
Erste Oesterreichische Republik, 1988; W. Goldinger and
D. A. Binder, Geschichte der Republik Oesterreich 1918-1938,
1992; R. Neck (ed.), Protokolle des Ministerrates der
Ersten Republik 1918-38, 1993; A. Suppan (ed.), Aussenpolitische
Dokumente der Republik Oesterreich 1918-38, 1994
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