Austrian Requiem, 1947 r.

Austrian Requiem, 1947 r. - Kurt von Schuschnigg

As an Innsbruck lawyer of monarchist political sympathies attached to the Christian Social Party, he was elected to the federal Nationalrat (lower house of parliament) in 1927. Later, in the government of Dolffus(1932–34) he was first appointed minister of justice (1932), then minister of education (1933); and after Dollfuss’ assassination (1934), he was named federal chancellor. He eliminated the threats to his government posed by the Heimwher a national paramilitary defense force led by his vice chancellor, Ernst Rüdiger, Fürst von Starhemberg, whom he forced out of office in May 1936. After disbanding the Heimwehr in October, Schuschnigg became the leader of the Fatherland Front, a coalition of right-wing parties. He strengthened ties with the fascist Italian government and strongly propagated the idea of Austria as a second German state. However, Schuschnigg’s subsequent concession to Hitler on the status of Austrian Nazis, starting with the signing of an agreement in July 1936, represented the beginning of the end of Austrian independence.