The Great Disturbance: Part 2
Despite talks between Germany and Austria regarding the embassy situation, which was rather cleared up quickly by Federal Chancellor Dollfuss deporting the Third Reich’s embassy staff back to Germany (much to the embassy staff's objections), protests broke out across Berlin when the Austrian strongman visited the German capital on September 1st – calling him such things as “Nazi” and “Little Hitler”.
Anti-fascist protesters gather at the Brandenburg Gates to protest Dollfuss’ arrival in Berlin (top). Engelbert Dollfuss waves to the people of Berlin in September 2018 (bottom).
Furthermore, despite the Catholic emphasis that Dollfuss had created with the Federal State of Austria, he plainly stated that he was opposed to forcing Catholicism on religious minorities, and that he let Jews escaping Nazi Germany take refuge in Austria. When German far rightists (mainly neofascists and neo-Nazis) showed up in support of Dollfuss (they hadn’t heard about Austrofascism being not anti-semitic), the Austrian strongman railed against them (much to the German far right’s surprise and that of the protesters) calling them “sad and pathetic” and denounced them saying “it is an affront to my eyes to see these Jew hating degenerate thugs and troublemakers appearing before me.”
Members of Austrian National Socialists’ paramilitary & their supporters watch Jews forced to scrub a sidewalk before they (the Nazis) are rounded up by Austrian soldiers and police, the Jews no longer having to scrub (top). The exterior of a synagogue in Vienna, vandalised and destroyed by the Austrian Nazis (bottom).
But matters were worse at home, the outlawed Austrian Nazi Party tried to stage a coup against Dollfuss’ government while he was away in Berlin and started to attack/mistreat/humiliate Jews in the Austrian capital of Vienna. Fortunately though, the Austrian Federal Army garrison for the capital put a stop to them with help from the police and Austrofascist Heimwehr paramilitary and, in brief firefights, killed many of them and rounded up the rest (including the Austrian nazis’ leader, Alfred Proksch).
Austrian troops prepare to enter a hostel where armed Nazis are held up in (top). Heimwehr troopers marching in Vienna after helping suppress the nazi coup attempt (centre). Austrian soldiers with a Skoda PA-II Zelva “Turtle” armoured car during the failed nazi coup attempt of 2018 (bottom).
Alfred Proksch, leader of the Austrian Nazi Party – born 1891 died 1934/born 1975 died 2018, age 43, cause of death: bullet to the head (top). Jews in the Leopoldstadt section of Vienna, Federal State of Austria, 2019 (bottom).
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