!!!Februarkämpfe 1934

Uprising, February 1934: The differences between the Social Democrats 
and the Republican organisation, the  Republikanischer Schutzbund 
(prohibited in 1933) on one side and Christian-Socialists, the  
Heimwehr para-military force, in other words the government, on the 
other ( First Republic) escalated between February 12 and 15, 1934 to 
a civil war when Social Democratic members of the Schutzbund, under R. 
 Bernaschek, resisted a weapons raid with armed force conducted by the 
Heimwehr (acting as law-enforcement agents) in the party headquarters 
of the Social Democrats in Linz ("Hotel Schiff"). Preceding the raid, 
B. Mussolini had repeatedly called on the Austrian Chancellor E.  
Dollfuss to take action against Marxists, the heads of the Chamber of 
Labour had been dismissed and several noteworthy members of the 
Schutzbund (for instance, Major A.  Eifler and Captain R. Loew) 
arrested.

\\
The conflict in Linz was followed by uprisings in Vienna and other 
industrialised areas (Steyr, St. Poelten, Weiz, Eggenberg near Graz, 
Kapfenberg, Bruck an der Mur, Woergl etc.). Uprisings in factory 
workers´ barracks and council houses (Karl-Marx-Hof, Goethehof, 
Sandleitenhof, Reumannhof, etc.), especially in Floridsdorf (i.e. 
Schlingerhof) were crushed by military force. The unorganised protest 
movement failed mainly because the general strike called by the Social 
Democrats went unheeded. The uprisings cost the Schutzbund almost 200 
deaths and more than 300 wounded, the police suffered 128 deaths and 
409 wounded. Several leaders of the protest movement were executed (G. 
Weissel, K. K.  Wallisch, K.  Muenichreiter, etc.), others were 
able to flee the country (J.  Deutsch, O.  Bauer, R. Bernaschek). As a 
result of the uprisings, the Social Democratic Party, trade unions and 
all representative bodies led by the Social Democrats on the municipal 
and provincial level were banned, and the  Maiverfassung of 1934 was 
declared, establishing a  corporate state.

!Literature
J. Deutsch, Der Buergerkrieg in Oesterreich, 1934; E. 
Froeschl and H. Zoitl (eds.), Das Jahr 1934: 12. Februar, 1975; 
Februar 1934, 1984; H. Weninger, Die Freiheit, die WIR meinen, 1994; 
E. Weinzierl, Der Februar 1934 und die Folgen fuer Oesterreich, 1995.


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