Heimwehr

Heimwehr

The Heimwehr ( _de. Home Guard) or sometimes Heimatschutz ( _de. Home Defense) [cite book
last = Jelavich
first = Barbara
coauthors =
title = Modern Austria : Empire & Republic 1815-1986
publisher = Cambridge University Press
date = 1989
pages = pp. 182
month = December
isbn = 0 521 31625 1
] were a Nationalist, initially paramilitary group operating within Austria during the 1920s and 1930s; they were similar in methods, organisation, and ideology to Germany's Freikorps.

Origins and reorganization

Formed mainly from demobilised soldiers after World War I, the Heimwehr were initially formed as loosely organized militias to defend the borders of Austria. As with Germany's Freikorps, there was no formal national leadership or political program at the beginning, but rather local groupings which responded actively to whatever they considered to be ideologically unpalatable. In Carinthia, for example, they formed to protect their region from Slovene and Yugoslav troops [cite book
last = Brook-Shepherd
first = Gordon
coauthors =
title = The Austrians : a thousand-year odyssey
publisher = HarperCollins
date = 1996
pages = pp. 235
month = December
isbn = 0 00 638255 X
] . Ignaz Seipel, Christian Social Austrian Chancellor at the time, reorganized the Heimwehr as an "answer to the Socialist Schutzbund" [cite book
last = Brook-Shepherd
first = Gordon
coauthors =
title = The Austrians : a thousand-year odyssey
publisher = HarperCollins
date = 1996
pages = pp. 261
month = December
isbn = 0 00 638255 X
] in an attempt to curb socialist power. The increasing politicalization of militias led to the Heimwehr involvement in the massacre of July 15, 1927.

1930's

The Heimwehr continued to lack any real national coherence up to 1930, when Heimwehr leaders committed themselves to the Korneuburg Oath, which established an arguably Fascist party platform based on Austrian Nationalism (as distinct from the pan-German nationalism of the Nazis), a rejection of Parliamentary Democracy and Marxism, in favour of a dictatorship, and a rejection of class struggle ("see" Austrofascism) [cite book
last = Brook-Shepherd
first = Gordon
coauthors =
title = The Austrians : a thousand-year odyssey
publisher = HarperCollins
date = 1996
pages = pp. 265
month = December
isbn = 0 00 638255 X
] .

When Walter Pfrimer, regional head in Styria attempted a coup in 1931, he received no support from other Heimwehr leaders. After this, many Heimwehr groupings, including the Styrian section, increasingly defected to the NazisFact|date=December 2007.

Decline

After Engelbert Dollfuss created the Fatherland Front in 1934, he gained control over and incorporated the Heimwehr into other right-wing militaries with the help of Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg. Politically, the Heimwehr suffered a decline in support and significance due to the Pan-German, nationalist allure of the Nazis and Italy's gradual reorientation of its foreign policy towards Germany. As a result of these factors, Dollfuss' successor, Kurt Schuschnigg, absorbed the remaining Heimwehr elements into the Fatherland Front in 1936, and it officially ceased to exist as a political grouping. Ernst Starhemberg was left out of the new governmental order in an attempt to end rivalries between private armiescite web|url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,756104-1,00.html|title= Mother's Helper|accessdate=December 11th |accessyear=2007 |author= |date=15th |year=1936 |month=May |publisher=Time Magazine ] .

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • HEIMWEHR — (Ger. home defense ), a paramilitary organization, closely connected with the christian Social Party in Austria. Founded in 1919 on a stridently anti Marxist platform, its energies were directed mainly against its social democratic counterpart,… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Heimwehr — Richard Steidle, líder del Heimwehr en los años 1930. Heimwehr (en idioma alemán, Guardia de la Patria) o Heimatschutz (Defensa de la Patria) fue un grupo paramilitar nacionalista que operó en Austria entre 1920 y 1930. Sus métodos, ideología y… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Heimwehr — Der Bundesführer der österreichischen Heimwehr bis September 1930: Bundesrat Richard Steidle (mitte) mit dem Bundessturmführer (Baron von) Pranckh (rechts) und Landesführerstellvertreter (Baron) Bachofen Echt (links); 1930 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Heimwehr — ▪ Austrian organization       (German: Home Defense Force), any of the local organizations formed in various parts of Austria to expel invading Yugoslavs or preserve order immediately after World War I. Composed of conservative minded country… …   Universalium

  • Heimwehr —    The term is a collective applied to the voluntary self defense organizations that sprang up throughout the Austrian provinces immediately after World War I. At first they were connected with no specific political party, nor, with the exception …   Historical dictionary of Austria

  • Heimwehr (Estland) — Heimwehr Kaitseliit Wappen der Kaitseliit Aufstellung 17. Februar 1990 Land …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Heimwehr — Heim|wehr 〈f. 20; unz.; in Österr. 1919 1936〉 freiwilliger Selbstschutzverband * * * Heim|wehr, die: aus den Grenz u. Nationalitätskämpfen entstandener militärähnlicher Selbstschutzverband des österreichischen Bauern u. Bürgertums (1918 36) …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Heimwehr — …   Useful english dictionary

  • Estnische Heimwehr — Heimwehr Kaitseliit Wappen der Kaitseliit Aufstellung 17. Februar 1990 Land …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • SS-Heimwehr Danzig — Flagge der SS Heimwehr Danzig Die SS Heimwehr „Danzig“ oder auch Heimwehr Danzig wurde offiziell am 20. Juni 1939 aufgestellt, als der Danziger Senat unter Albert Forster beschloss, eine eigene schlagkräftige Streitmacht aufzustellen. In dieser… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”