Authors

Marie-Josée Lavallée¹;  ¹ Université de Montréal , Canada

Discussion

Shortly after Hitler became chancellor in Germany, its Austrian neighbour also embarked on the road to fascism, although Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss resisted Nazism. As is well-known, the German Left was weakened by infighting between the Communists and the Social Democrats since the 1920s. Therefore, at the crucial hour, they were divided and could not unite forces against Nazism. The Communists were emprisoned, tortured, and killed by the Nazis early on, with many of those who escaped this fate fleeing to Moscow.
The Austrian Left offered a similar picture. Relations between the Communists and the Social Democrats were never easy since the foundation of the Austrian Communist Party in November 1918. Nonetheless, primary sources testify that the Communist Party, which was declared illegal in 1933, and the Austrian Social Democratic Party, which was banned after the so-called Austrian Civil War, were eager to set their theoretical and tactical differences aside to resist Austrofascism. This project was far from being unique by this time, with united fronts against the fascist threat seeing the daylight elsewhere in Europe. However, the Austrian situation was different, because the Left had to fight an existing fascist regime. Most Social Democrats and Communists fled their country and conducted their activity abroad. Those who stayed were acting underground and exposed to the harshest repression. Due to censorship, they published newspapers in countries where they found refuge, trying to produce them as regularly as possible. They also printed and distributed illegal leaflets. In a context of severe censorship, producing and spreading reliable information was a crucial step to build resistance.
Relying on these primary sources and recent scholarship on Austrofascism, this paper will retell the process of creating a united front in Austria, and analyze its aims, the impediments with which it was confronted and its outcome.