1.
President of Austria
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The President of Austria is the federal head of state of Austria. The President of Austria is directly elected by adult suffrage once in every six years. The Presidents offices are located in the Leopoldine Wing of the Hofburg Imperial Palace, many presidents have gained tremendous popularity while in office, and no incumbent has ever lost a bid for re-election, although Kurt Waldheim did not run for a second term in office. Five presidents have died in office, from 2004 to 2016, the office was occupied by social democrat Heinz Fischer. The empire noticeably began to fracture in late 1917 and manifestly disintegrated into a number of independent nation states over the course of the following year, as chairman, he also became a member of the Austrian State Council. On 12 November 1918, the State Council collectively assumed the functions of head of state according to a resolution of the National Assembly, on 11 November, Emperor Karl I announced I relinquish every participation in the administration of the State. Likewise I have released the members of the Austrian Government from their offices, the next day, parliament proclaimed the Republic of German Austria. The assembly presidents continued to serve as acting heads of state until 4 March 1919, anton David and Seitz were the presidents of the National Constituent Assembly. Austrias first Bundespräsident proper thus was Michael Hainisch, Karl Seitz immediate successor, in a related note, many popular sources quote some more or less random date between October 1918 and March 1919 as the beginning of Seitz tenure. The constitution originally defined Austria to be a parliamentary republic, originally, the constitution was radically parliamentarian in character. The bicameral parliament, called the Federal Assembly, not only possessed legislative power, the cabinet was appointed by the National Council rather than the president, who in turn was elected by the both houses of the Federal Assembly rather than the people. The presidents term of office was four rather than six years, the president was answerable to the Federal Assembly and, in particular, had no authority to dissolve the National Council. Not even having much influence on the appointment of Constitutional Court justices. The role and nature of the President was the result of a compromise reached during the drafting of the constitution and it was under this constitutional framework that Michael Hainisch and Wilhelm Miklas assumed office on 9 December 1920 and 10 December 1928, respectively. The parliamentary system prescribed by the constitution was highly unpopular, however, the Heimwehr was in favor of a system granting more powers to the president. On 7 December 1929, under growing pressure from the Heimwehr and it also called for the office to be filled by popular vote for a term of six years. The first election was scheduled for 1934, however, owing to the growing worldwide financial crisis, all parties agreed to suspend the election in favour of having Miklas reelected by parliament. Though Austria now was a dictatorship in all but name, power was concentrated in the hands of the Chancellor, Wilhelm Miklas was stripped of the powers hed gained in 1929, but agreed to act as a figurehead of institutional continuity anyway
2.
Chancellor of Austria
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The Federal Chancellor is the head of government of Austria. In his capacity as chairman of the Austrian Federal Government, the chancellor represents the federal authority of the executive branch. Though formally a member of the cabinet, the Chancellor is considered to be the most powerful position in Austrian politics. His official seat is in the Federal Chancellery, the current Chancellor is Christian Kern of the Social Democratic Party, who was sworn into office on 17 May 2016. The task was fulfilled by the Prince-Archbishops of Mainz as Archchancellors of the German lands. These were also the times when attempts were made to balance Imperial absolutism by the creation of Imperial Governments, ultimately a failure. Beside a Bohemian and Hungarian chancellery, he created the office of an Austrian chancellor in Vienna, responsible for the Archduchy of Austria proper with the Inner Austrian territories, under Emperor Leopold I the term again became Hofkanzler with Johann Paul Freiherr von Hocher, and Theodor von Strattman. He was succeeded by Johann Philipp von Cobenzl, who was dismissed by Emperor Francis II over the Partition of Poland and was succeeded by Johann Amadeus Francis de Paula. With the consequent dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and founding of the Austrian Empire, Francis II abdicated the former Imperial Throne, Prince Klemens von Metternich was appointed by Francis I to the positions of Hofkanzler and Staatskanzler. However, there is some opinion that the Chancellor title was not used between Prince Kaunitz-Rietbergs resignation in 1792 and 1821, as the Metternich system had become a synonym for his reactionary politics, the title of a State Chancellor was abolished upon the 1848 revolutions. With the enactment of the Constitution of Austria on 10 November 1920, the Chancellor is appointed and sworn in by the President. In theory, the President can appoint anyone eligible to be elected to the National Council, in practice, a Chancellor is unable to govern unless he or she commands the confidence of the National Council. For this reason, the Chancellor is usually the leader of the largest party in the National Council, a notable exception to this occurred after the 1999 election. The Freedom Party won the most seats and went into coalition with the Peoples Party, while this would have normally made Freedom Party leader Jorg Haider Chancellor, he was deemed too controversial to be a member of the Cabinet, let alone Chancellor. He thus stepped aside in favour of Peoples Party leader Wolfgang Schüssel, the Chancellor has no term limits. As a matter of convention, the Chancellor usually offers his or her resignation to the President upon dissolution of the National Council. The President usually declines and directs the Chancellor and his or her cabinet to operate as a government until a new National Council is in session. In fact, the constitution expressly encourages the President to use a Chancellor as his or her own interim successor, a Chancellor is typically appointed or dismissed together with his or her ministers
3.
Kurt Schuschnigg
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Kurt Alois Josef Johann Schuschnigg was Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert Dollfuss until the 1938 Anschluss with Nazi Germany. He was opposed to Hitlers ambitions to absorb Austria into the Third Reich, after Schuschniggs efforts to keep Austria independent had failed, he resigned his office. After the invasion by Nazi Germany he was arrested, kept in solitary confinement and he was liberated in 1945 by the advancing United States Army and spent most of the rest of his life in academia in the United States. The Slovene spelling of the name is Šušnik. The young Schuschnigg received his education at the Stella Matutina Jesuit College in Feldkirch, during World War I he was taken prisoner at the Italian Front and held captive until September 1919. Subsequently, he studied law at the universities of Freiburg and Innsbruck, after graduating in 1922, he practiced as a lawyer in Innsbruck. Schuschnigg joined the right-wing Christian Social Party and in 1927 was elected to the Nationalrat, suspicious of the paramilitary Heimwehr organisation, he established the Catholic Ostmärkische Sturmscharen forces in 1930. As justice minister, he discussed the abolition of the parliamentary system. In March 1933 he and Chancellor Dollfuss took the occasion to dissolve the National Council parliament. After the socialist February Uprising of 1934, he pressed for the execution of several insurgents and he would later call his orders a faux pas. On 1 May 1934 Dollfuss had erected the authoritarian Federal State of Austria, after he was assassinated by the Nazi Otto Planetta during the July Putsch, Schuschnigg on 29 July was appointed Austrian chancellor. Like Dollfuss, Schuschnigg ruled mostly by decree, although his rule was slightly milder than that of Dollfuss, his Austrofascist policies were not much different from the policies of his predecessor. He also had to be mindful of the strength of the Austrian Nazis. His overriding political concern was to preserve Austria’s independence within the borders imposed on it by the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which ultimately failed. John Gunther wrote in 1936 of Schuschnigg, It would not be too much to say that he is as much a prisoner of the Italians now —if the Germans dont get him next week. Schuschnigg adopted a policy of appeasement towards Hitler and called Austria the better German state, the Nazi Party remained banned, however, the Austrian Nazis gained ground and relations between the two countries deteriorated further. An absolute abyss separates Austria from Nazism. Christendom is anchored in our very soil, and we know but one God, and that is not the State, or the Nation, or that elusive thing, Race. ”On 12 February 1938, Schuschnigg met Hitler in his Berghof residence in an attempt to smooth the worsening relations between their two countries
4.
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
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During World War II, he served the Third Reich in the General Government of Poland and as Reichskommissar in the Netherlands. At the Nuremberg trials, he was guilty of crimes against humanity, was sentenced to death. Seyss-Inquart was born in 1892 in Stonařov, at that time Stannern, iglau was an important town in Moravia, one of the Czech provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in which an increasing competition between Germans and Czechs was going on. His parents were the school principal Emíl Seyss-Inquart and Augusta Hirenbach, the family moved to Vienna in 1907. Seyss-Inquart later went to law at the University of Vienna. He was decorated for bravery on a number of occasions and while recovering from wounds in 1917 he completed his examinations for his degree. Seyss-Inquart had five siblings, Hedwig, Richard, Irene, Henriette. In 1911, Seyss-Inquart met Gertrud Maschka, the couple married in December 1916 and had three children, Ingeborg Carolina Augusta Seyss-Inquart, Richard Seyss-Inquart and Dorothea Seyss-Inquart. He went into law after the war and in 1921 set up his own practice, during the early years of the Austrian First Republic, he was close to the Fatherland Front. A successful lawyer, he was invited to join the cabinet of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in 1933, following Dollfuss murder in 1934, he became a State Councillor from 1937 under Kurt Schuschnigg. A keen mountaineer, Seyss-Inquart became the head of the German-Austrian Alpine Club and he later became a devotee of Heinrich Himmlers concepts of racial purity and sponsored various expeditions to Tibet and other parts of Asia in hopes of proving Aryan racial concepts and theories. He was not initially a member of the Austrian National Socialist party, though he was sympathetic to many of their views, by 1938, however, Seyss-Inquart knew which way the political wind was blowing and became a respectable frontman for the Austrian National Socialists. On 11 March 1938, faced with a German invasion aimed at preventing a plebiscite of independence, under growing pressure from Berlin, President Wilhelm Miklas reluctantly appointed Seyss-Inquart his successor. On the next day German troops crossed the border of Austria at the invitation of Seyss-Inquart. This telegram had actually been drafted beforehand and was released after the troops had begun to march, before his triumphant entry into Vienna, Hitler had planned to leave Austria as a puppet state, with an independent but pro-Nazi government headed by Seyss-Inquart. Only then, on 13 March 1938, did Seyss-Inquart join the Nazi Party, Seyss-Inquart drafted the legislative act reducing Austria to a province of Germany and signed it into law on 13 March. With Hitlers approval he became Governor of the newly named Ostmark, with Ernst Kaltenbrunner his chief minister, Seyss-Inquart also received an honorary SS rank of Gruppenführer and in May 1939 he was made a Minister without portfolio in Hitlers cabinet. Almost as soon as he took office, he ordered the confiscation of Jewish property, late in his regime, he collaborated in the deportation of Jews from Austria
5.
Interwar period
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There were numerous new nations in Eastern Europe, most of them small in size. The United States gained dominance in world finance, by the middle of the decade, prosperity was widespread, with the second half of the decade known, especially in Germany, as the Golden Twenties. The Roaring Twenties highlighted novel and highly social and cultural trends. These trends, made possible by sustained economic prosperity, were most visible in major cities like New York, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, the Jazz Age began and Art Deco peaked. For women, knee-length skirts and dresses became socially acceptable, as did bobbed hair with a marcel wave, the women who pioneered these trends were frequently referred to as flappers. Not all was new, “normalcy” returned to politics in the wake of hyper-emotional wartime passions in the United States, France, and Germany. The leftist revolutions in Finland, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Spain were defeated by conservatives, but succeeded in Russia, in Italy the fascists came to power under Mussolini after threatening a march on Rome. Most independent countries enacted womens suffrage in the era, including Canada in 1917, Britain in 1918. There were a few countries that held out until after the Second World War. If women could work in factories, it seemed both ungrateful and illogical to deny them a place in the polling booth. But the vote was more than simply a reward for war work. The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Greece did especially well, in advanced economies the prosperity reached middle class households and many in the working class. With radio, automobiles, telephones, and electric lighting and appliances, there was unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle and culture. The media began to focus on celebrities, especially sports heroes, major cities built large sports stadiums for the fans, in addition to palatial cinemas. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. The depression originated in the United States, after a decline in lofty stock prices. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession
6.
First Austrian Republic
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The Republics constitution was enacted in October 1,1920 and amended on December 7,1929. The republican period was marked by violent strife between those with left-wing and right-wing views, leading to the July Revolt of 1927 and the Austrian Civil War of 1934. Despite Austrian protests this treaty also forbade Anschluss, or union of Austria with Germany, the new Republic was created by the will of Allies who did not want the defeated Germany to expand its borders. The new state managed to prevent two land claims from being taken by their neighbours, the first was the south-eastern part of Carinthia, which was inhabited partly by Slovenians. It was prevented from being taken over by the new SHS-state through a Carinthian plebiscite on October 10,1920, the second prevented land-claim was Hungarys claim to Burgenland, which, under the name Western Hungary, had been part of the Hungarian kingdom since 1647. It was inhabited mostly by a German-speaking population, but had also Croat-, through the Treaty of St. Germain it became part of the Austrian Republic in 1921. However, after a plebiscite which was disputed by Austria, the capital city of Sopron remained in Hungary. Many of them felt that with the loss of 60% of the territory of the prewar empire, Austria was no longer economically and politically viable as a separate state without union with Germany. In the country of 6.5 million, Vienna, with its population of almost 2 million, was left as a capital without an empire to feed it. For much of the early 1920s, Austrias survival was very much in doubt and this was partly because Austria had never been a German/Austrian nation state in the true sense of the term. The Federal President was elected for a four year tearm in a session of both houses, while Chancellor was elected by the Nationalrat. After 1920, Austrias government was dominated by the anti-Anschluss Christian Social Party which retained close ties to the Roman Catholic Church, the partys first Chancellor Ignaz Seipel came to power in May 1922 and attempted to forge a political alliance between wealthy industrialists and the Roman Catholic Church. After the legislative elections of October 17,1920 Social Democrats lost parliamentary majority and remained in the opposition until 1934, Christian Socials won 85, Social Democrats 69, Greater Germany Party 20 and Peasants Union 8 seats. Michael Hainisch was elected Federal President, after October 1923 elections Ignaz Seipel stayed in power and resigned in November 1924 when he was succeeded by Rudolf Ramek. After the 1930 legislative elections Social Democrats emerged as the largest party with 72 seats, country was dividen between conservative population of country side and Social Democrat controlled Red Vienna. In 1927, during a clash in Schattendorf, an old man. On July 14,1927 the shooters were acquitted and left-wing supporters began a massive protest during which the Ministry of Justice building was burned, to restore order police and army shot and killed 89 people and injured 600. The huge protest is known as the July Revolt of 1927, Social Democrats called for a general strike which lasted four days
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