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The Austrian Civil War (), also known as the February Uprising (), was a series of skirmishes between the right-wing government and socialist forces between 12 and 16 February 1934 in the First Austrian Republic. The clashes started in Linz and primarily took place in Vienna, Graz, Bruck an der Mur, Judenburg, Wiener Neustadt, and Steyr, as well as in other industrial cities of eastern and central Austria.
Background
After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in October 1918, the Republic of Austria formed as a parliamentary democracy. Two major factions dominated politics in the new country: socialists (politically represented by the Social Democratic Workers' Party) and conservatives (politically represented by the Christian Social Party). The socialists found their strongholds in the working-class districts of the cities, while the conservatives built on support from the rural population and most of the upper class. The conservatives also maintained a close alliance with the Catholic Church.
As in most other newly formed European democracies of the time, politics in Austria took on a highly-ideological flavor. Both the socialist and the conservative camps consisted of political parties as well as associated paramilitary forces. The conservatives began organising the Home Guard () in 1920. In response, the Social Democrats organised paramilitaries called the Republican Protection Association () in 1923. Altercations and clashes between those forces (such as at political rallies) occurred frequently.
The July Revolt
A major incident known as the July Revolt ensued early in 1927, after members of Hermann Hiltl's Frontkämpfervereinigung ("Front Fighters Union", a paramilitary association affiliated with the conservative camp) shot and killed an eight-year-old boy and a war veteran marching with the Schutzbund in a counter-demonstration in Schattendorf (Burgenland). In July, three defendants in the case were acquitted, which led to outrage among the left. On 15 July 1927, a general strike occurred, and demonstrations took place in Vienna. After a police station was stormed, security forces fired upon demonstrators. An angry group of people then set fire to the Palace of Justice (Justizpalast), which was seen as a symbol of a flawed and partial judicial system. Altogether, 89 people (85 of them demonstrators) lost their lives and many hundreds suffered injury. However, the violence soon died down, and the factions took their battle from the streets back into the political institutions.
However, the struggles of the First Republic only worsened in the following years. The Great Depression resulted in high unemployment and massive inflation. Additionally, after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Nazi sympathisers, who wanted unification of Austria with Germany, threatened the Austrian state from within.
Civil war
On 4 March 1933, Christian Social Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss suspended the Austrian Parliament. In a close vote (on railway workers' wages) in the National Council, each of the three presidents of parliament resigned from their positions to cast a ballot, which left nobody to preside over the meeting. Even though the bylaws could have resolved this situation, Dollfuss used that opportunity to declare that Parliament had ceased to function, before blocking all attempts to reconvene it. He also threatened to use military force against the parliamentarians if they tried to reconvene. The Social Democratic Party thus lost its primary platform for political action. The Christian Socialists, facing pressure and violence not only from the left but also from Nazis infiltrating from Germany, could now rule by decree on the basis of a 1917 emergency law, without checks on their power. They began to suspend civil liberties and imprisoning many members of the Social Democratic Party.
On 12 February 1934, a force, led by Heimwehr commander Emil Fey in Vienna, searched Hotel Schiff in Linz, a property belonging to the Social Democratic Party. Linz' Schutzbund Commander Richard Bernaschek actively resisted the search, which sparked armed conflict between a conglomeration of the Heimwehr, the police, the gendarmerie, and the regular Federal Army against the Schutzbund, which had been banned several years earlier.