Dr. Engelbert Dollfuss, tiny Austrian Chancellor slain by Nazis yesterday, had on several previous occasions escaped death at the hands of assassins by the narrowest of margins.
The would-be iron man, who tried to make up in importance what he lacked in physical stature, was born in 1892 and studied at Berlin and Vienna Universities.
He served as an officer in the Austrian army during the World War and afterwards became active in politics, joining and assuming a position of prominence in the Christian Social Party.
His first important post was that of secretary of the Lower Austrian Agricultural Chamber, which he held for a short time until 1927, when he became director of the Chamber for three years. From 1930 until 1931 he was president of Railways. In the latter year he was named minister for Agriculture and Forestry in the Buresch cabinet.
His importance—and his troubles—really began in May of 1932, however, when he took over the chancellorship of Austria after President Miklas had spent two weeks searching for someone who was willing to take the position.
Austria at that time was in a state of political confusion. Vienna, in which approximately one-third of the country’s total population resides, was under Socialist control. The remainder of Austria had been dominated by conservative forces prior to Dollfuss’ assumption of the chancellorship.
A year after it took over control of the government the Dollfuss regime became a dictatorship. This was a signal for alarm on the part of the Socialist forces, who scented armed warfare in the centralization of power—a warfare which finally came, with spectacular bloodshed, in February, 1934, when the cooperative Socialist apartment houses in Vienna were raked by the fire of Dollfuss guns and many were killed.
Suppression of the Socialists was an obvious attempt on the part of the little Chancellor to shy away from the real menace which threatened his regime—the growing Nazi strength, which was looming increasingly important in its opposition to Christian Social control.
TRIED TO AVOID BIAS
Dollfuss made half-hearted efforts to avoid the stigma of anti-Semitism, but pressure from within was too strong for the little man and many edicts, proclamations and semi-official declarations directed against the Jews were allowed to take root.
The Dollfuss dictatorship was legalized last spring when a rump Parliament met, voted itself out of existence, eradicated the old Austrian constitution, and replaced it with a new one which did away with all semblances of democracy. Socialists had been barred from this session.
Dollfuss was never able to capture the imagination of his people, a large portion of whom refused to take him seriously in his attempts to establish himself as a person of Mussolini’s or even of Hitler’s stature.
HAD RUTHLESS WILL
Mild-mannered and soft-spoken through his life, Dollfuss by his quiet demeanor belied a strong sense of conviction and ruthless determination which motivated his actions.
Born in the tiny village of Texing on October 4, 1892, Dollfuss spent an early life akin to that of an ordinary peasant’s child. His mother and step-father still live in the modest cottage near the Danube where he spent his boyhood.
After completing his early education, he attended the University of Vienna, where he developed an obsession for national economics. Through his university career, his friends knew him as a conscientious, reticent student imbued with moral purposiveness. He finished his education at the University of Berlin.
Dollfuss plunged into the war an unknown soldier. With a grim recklessness that drew for him praise and decorations he fought in his Tyrolean Alpinist regiment so heroically that he was promoted to lieutenant, an honor rarely bestowed upon a peasant in the aristocratic army of Emperor Franz Joseph.
He successfully defended a little valley in the Dolomites against an overpowering Italian invasion. To this day the valley is known as Dollfussthal.
TOOK UP PEACE WORK
With the dynamic energy that made inactivity impossible for him, Dollfuss turned from the maelstrom of war to peacetime organization of farm co-operatives in lower Austria. He soon won a position on the State Railway Board, and a year later became president of the Federal Railways.
In May, 1932, he formed a cabinet under President Miklas. The twenty-four hours after being called to office he spent in prayer. Throughout his rule, he acted according to the dictates of his conscience.
Only fifty-nine inches in height, Dollfuss received such bantering sobriquets as “Millimetternich” and “Vest-pocket Chancellor” from friends and enemies alike. Despite an edict against them, anecdotes concerning his size were popular in the cafes of Vienna.
The story was circulated that during the war on the Socialists, Dollfuss was so worried that he paced the floor all night—under his bed. It was also said that he had his Heimwehr men walk on their knees so that he could fight shoulder to shoulder with them. “One-Dollfuss” it became the custom to say when ordering a demitasse of coffee.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
