Recent from talks
Heimwehr
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Heimwehr
The Heimwehr (German: [ˈhaɪmˌveːɐ̯], lit. 'Home Guard') or Heimatschutz (German: [ˈhaɪmatˌʃʊts], lit. 'Homeland Protection') was a clerico-fascist, 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.
After the end of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, local residents' militias and self-defense associations formed mainly from demobilized soldiers sprang up across Austria. Their purpose initially was to protect the local population from dangers such as those posed by soldiers trying to make their way to their home countries who, driven by hunger and largely without leadership, sometimes looted and assaulted the population in the areas they passed through. Such local self-defense associations over time formed individual Heimwehr units.
Beginning in April 1919, the Vorarlberg provincial government approved and promoted active paramilitary people's militias to combat Austromarxism, either equipping the militia members with weapons or allowing them to use their own. They were led by the Christian Socialist provincial governor Otto Ender and financed primarily by local industry. In the summer of 1920 they had about 3,000 members, whereas the Austrian army in the province had only 800 soldiers under arms. The Vorarlberg Heimwehr subsequently emerged from the militia groups.
The first association of the Heimatwehr ('Homeland Guard'), as the Heimwehr was called in Tyrol, was founded on 12 May 1920 by Richard Steidle, a member of the Tyrolean parliament from the Christian Social Party who was the regional leader of the Heimatwehr in Tyrol until 1936. His deputies either supported or held parliamentary seats with the Greater German People's Party (Großdeutsche Volkspartei), an Austrian political party calling for unification with Germany. The group's statutes listed four program points:
Their program also emphasized the "exclusion of all party politics" and stated that as a private association, it was "not concerned with military matters". The Heimatwehr was thus not a party organization but an independent, politically right-wing paramilitary unit. It saw its political enemy in the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, or SDAP (the name that was used by the Social Democratic Party of Austria before 1945).
The Heimwehr was involved early on in border disputes with troops from the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. When it turned its opposition primarily against Austromarxism, from which it wished to protect the middle class, the Social Democrats in response formed the Republikanischer Schutzbund ('Republican Protection League') in 1923 as a defensive counterweight to the Heimwehr.
The Heimwehr registered significant gains after the SDAP published its militant Linz Program in November 1926. Because it used the language of Marxism and class conflict to provide the theoretical basis for political confrontation with the Christian Social Party and the Heimwehr, it caused many in the middle class, including some who were merely not socialist minded, to fear a domestic political turn toward a dictatorship of the proletariat.
On 30 January 1927 members of the SDAP who were holding a meeting at Schattendorf in Burgenland were fired on by a group from the right-wing Front Fighters Association of German Austria (Frontkämpfer), leaving two dead and five wounded. When the men who had been accused of the deaths were acquitted by a jury, protestors in what came to be known as the July Revolt of 1927 burned the Vienna Palace of Justice. More than 80 demonstrators died in the subsequent clashes with the police, leading the Social Democrats to speak of it as the "July Massacre" of workers. When they engaged in transportation strikes, the Heimwehr stepped in to break them, especially in areas outside Vienna.
Hub AI
Heimwehr AI simulator
(@Heimwehr_simulator)
Heimwehr
The Heimwehr (German: [ˈhaɪmˌveːɐ̯], lit. 'Home Guard') or Heimatschutz (German: [ˈhaɪmatˌʃʊts], lit. 'Homeland Protection') was a clerico-fascist, 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.
After the end of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, local residents' militias and self-defense associations formed mainly from demobilized soldiers sprang up across Austria. Their purpose initially was to protect the local population from dangers such as those posed by soldiers trying to make their way to their home countries who, driven by hunger and largely without leadership, sometimes looted and assaulted the population in the areas they passed through. Such local self-defense associations over time formed individual Heimwehr units.
Beginning in April 1919, the Vorarlberg provincial government approved and promoted active paramilitary people's militias to combat Austromarxism, either equipping the militia members with weapons or allowing them to use their own. They were led by the Christian Socialist provincial governor Otto Ender and financed primarily by local industry. In the summer of 1920 they had about 3,000 members, whereas the Austrian army in the province had only 800 soldiers under arms. The Vorarlberg Heimwehr subsequently emerged from the militia groups.
The first association of the Heimatwehr ('Homeland Guard'), as the Heimwehr was called in Tyrol, was founded on 12 May 1920 by Richard Steidle, a member of the Tyrolean parliament from the Christian Social Party who was the regional leader of the Heimatwehr in Tyrol until 1936. His deputies either supported or held parliamentary seats with the Greater German People's Party (Großdeutsche Volkspartei), an Austrian political party calling for unification with Germany. The group's statutes listed four program points:
Their program also emphasized the "exclusion of all party politics" and stated that as a private association, it was "not concerned with military matters". The Heimatwehr was thus not a party organization but an independent, politically right-wing paramilitary unit. It saw its political enemy in the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, or SDAP (the name that was used by the Social Democratic Party of Austria before 1945).
The Heimwehr was involved early on in border disputes with troops from the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. When it turned its opposition primarily against Austromarxism, from which it wished to protect the middle class, the Social Democrats in response formed the Republikanischer Schutzbund ('Republican Protection League') in 1923 as a defensive counterweight to the Heimwehr.
The Heimwehr registered significant gains after the SDAP published its militant Linz Program in November 1926. Because it used the language of Marxism and class conflict to provide the theoretical basis for political confrontation with the Christian Social Party and the Heimwehr, it caused many in the middle class, including some who were merely not socialist minded, to fear a domestic political turn toward a dictatorship of the proletariat.
On 30 January 1927 members of the SDAP who were holding a meeting at Schattendorf in Burgenland were fired on by a group from the right-wing Front Fighters Association of German Austria (Frontkämpfer), leaving two dead and five wounded. When the men who had been accused of the deaths were acquitted by a jury, protestors in what came to be known as the July Revolt of 1927 burned the Vienna Palace of Justice. More than 80 demonstrators died in the subsequent clashes with the police, leading the Social Democrats to speak of it as the "July Massacre" of workers. When they engaged in transportation strikes, the Heimwehr stepped in to break them, especially in areas outside Vienna.