Heimwehr

Heimwehr
Merged intoFatherland Front[1]
FormationMay 1920; 104 years ago (May 1920)
FounderRichard Steidle
DissolvedOctober 1936; 88 years ago (October 1936)
TypeParamilitary
OriginsAftermath of World War I
Area served
First Austrian Republic
Membership
Steady 400,000 (1929 est.)[3]
Key people
Walter Pfrimer
Waldemar Pabst
Homeland Bloc
Heimatblock
FoundedMay 1930; 94 years ago (May 1930)
Dissolved27 September 1933; 91 years ago (27 September 1933)
IdeologyAustrian nationalism
Anti-communism
Corporate statism[4][5]
Program: Korneuburg Oath [de]
Political positionRight-wing to far-right
National Council (1930)
8 / 165 (5%)

The Heimwehr (German: [ˈhaɪmˌveːɐ̯], lit.'Home Guard') or Heimatschutz (German: [ˈhaɪmatˌʃʊts], lit.'Homeland Protection')[6] was a nationalist, initially paramilitary group that operated in the First Austrian Republic from 1920 to 1936. It was similar in methods, organization, and ideology to the Freikorps in Germany. The Heimwehr was opposed to parliamentary democracy, socialism and Marxism and fought in various skirmishes against left-wing and foreign groups during the 1920s and 1930s. Some of its regional groups also opposed Nazism while others favored it. In spite of its anti-democratic stance, the Heimwehr developed a political wing called the Heimatblock ('Homeland Bloc') that was close to the conservative Christian Social Party and took part in both the cabinet of Chancellor Carl Vaugoin in 1930 and in Engelbert Dollfuss' right-wing government from 1932 to 1934. In 1936 the Heimwehr was absorbed into what was at the time the only legally permitted political party in Austria, the Fatherland Front, and then later into the Frontmiliz, an amalgamation of militia units that in 1937 became part of Austria's armed forces.

  1. ^ Bundesgesetz über die „Vaterländische Front". In: BGBl 1936/160. Wien 20. Mai 1936 (Online auf ALEX).
  2. ^ "Kako se je Rudolf Maister boril za severno mejo". Prvi interaktivni multimedijski portal, MMC RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  3. ^ Edmondson, C. Earl (1978). The Heimwehr and Austrian Politics, 1918-1936. University of Georgia Press. p. 70.
  4. ^ Badie, Bertrand; Berg-Schlosser, Dirk; Morlino, Leonardo, eds. (7 September 2011). International Encyclopedia of Political Science. SAGE Publications (published 2011). ISBN 9781483305394. Retrieved 9 September 2020. [...] fascist Italy [...] developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were Estado Novo in Portugal (1932-1968) and Brazil (1937-1945), the Austrian Standestaat (1933-1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe.
  5. ^ R.J.B. Bosworth, The Oxford Handbook of Fascism, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 439
  6. ^ Jelavich, Barbara (1987). Modern Austria : Empire & Republic 1815-1986. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 182. ISBN 0-521-31625-1.