Kurt Schuschnigg, successor to the assassinated Engelbert Dollfuss, was given a thankless job in trying to maintain Austrian independence, and he ultimately failed. Could it have been avoided? And just how fascist was Austrofascism really? We'll explore these issues in this episode.
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Episode 24: The July Putsch
We saw in the last episode how Engelbert Dollfuss began the transformation of Austria into an authoritarian dictatorship. In this episode, we'll learn about the heavy price he paid for doing so. Austria's Nazis will attempt a coup and fail, but Dollfuss will die as a consequence.
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Episode 23: Pulling the Plug
If the last episode saw Austrian democracy, then this episode has Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss pulling the plug. However, threats persist, particularly from history's most famous German. Thanks to the Presidencies of the United States podcast for the recent plug; here's one in return: https://www.presidenciespodcast.com/
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Episode 22: Austrian Democracy on Life Support
In the late '20s and early '30s, democracy in the Austrian First Republic was increasingly anemic and the politics increasingly extreme. In this episode, we'll try to understand why democracy had such a rough go of it during this period, leading to the emergence of a figure many believed would save the country, if not its democracy. No, not that guy.
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Episode 21: Die Wilden Zwanziger
Our title for this episode is German for "the roaring twenties," which is what we call the decade following the Great War in the United States. We call it that because of all the partying and wealth that proliferated in that decade for Americans. For Austrians, however, things were slightly different.
Österreich