Engelbert Dollfuß

Engelbert Dollfuss
Dollfuss pictured in Kaiserschützen uniform, 1933.
10th Chancellor of Austria First Austrian Republic Federal State of Austria
In office 20 May 1932 – 25 July 1934
President	Wilhelm Miklas
Deputy	Franz Winkler Emil Fey Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg
Preceded by	Karl Buresch
Succeeded by	Kurt Schuschnigg
Foreign Minister of Austria
In office 20 May 1932 – 10 July 1934
Chancellor	himself
Preceded by	Karl Buresch
Succeeded by	Stephan Tauschitz
Federal leader of the Fatherland Front
In office 20 May 1933 – 25 July 1934
Deputy	Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg
Personal details
Born	October 4, 1892 Texingtal, Lower Austria, Austria, Austro-Hungary
Died	July 25, 1934 (aged 41) Vienna, Austria
Political party	Christian Social Party Fatherland Front
Spouse(s)	Alwine Dollfuß
Religion	Roman Catholic

Engelbert Dollfuss (German: Engelbert Dollfuß, IPA: [ˈɛŋəlbɛʁt ˈdɔlfuːs]; October 4, 1892 – July 25, 1934) was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government. In early 1933, he shut down parliament, banned the Austrian Nazi party and assumed dictatorial powers. Suppressing the Socialist movement in February 1934, he cemented the rule of “austrofascism” through the authoritarian First of May Constitution. Dollfuss was assassinated as part of a failed coup attempt by Nazi agents in 1934. His successor Kurt Schuschnigg maintained the regime until Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938.

He was born in Texing in Lower Austria to unmarried mother Josepha Dollfuss and her lover Joseph Weninger. The couple, of peasant origin, was unable to get married due to financial problems. A few months after her son’s birth, Josepha married landowner Leopold Schmutz in Kirnberg, who did not, however, adopt Engelbert as his own child. Dollfuss, who was raised as a devout Roman Catholic, received a scholarship for the minor seminary of the Archdiocese of Vienna in Hollabrunn in 1904. Having obtained his Matura degree in 1913, he first decided to continue his studies at the Vienna seminary but subsequently switched to study law at the University of Vienna.