Austrian Civil War The Austrian Civil War ( ) , also known as the February Uprising ( ) , is a term sometimes used for a few days of skirmishes between socialist and conservative - fascist forces between 12 February and 16 February 1934 , in Austria . The clashes started in Linz and took place principally in the cities of Vienna , Graz , Bruck an der Mur , Judenburg , Wiener Neustadt and Steyr , but also in some other industrial cities of eastern and central Austria . Origins of the conflict . After the disintegration of the Austro - Hungarian Empire ( following World War I ) , the state of Austria — largely comprising the German - speaking parts of the former empire — became constituted as a parliamentary democracy . Two major factions dominated politics in the new nation : socialists ( represented politically by the Social Democratic Workers ' Party ) and conservatives ( politically represented by the Christian Social Party ) . The socialists found their strongholds in the working - class districts of the cities , while the conservatives could build on the support of the rural population and of most of the upper classes . The conservatives also maintained close alliances with the Roman Catholic Church , and could count among their ranks some leading clerics . As in most of the nascent European democracies of the time , politics in Austria took on a highly ideological flavour . Both the socialist and the conservative camp did not merely consist of political parties , but possessed far - ranging power structures , including their own paramilitary forces . The conservatives began organizing the " Heimwehr " ( ) in 1921 – 23 ; the Social Democrats organized paramilitaries called the " Republikanischer Schutzbund " ( ) after 1923 . Altercations and clashes between these forces ( at political rallies , etc . ) occurred frequently . A first major incident ensued early in 1927 , when members of Hermann Hiltl ' s " Frontkämpfervereinigung " ( " Front Fighters Union " — a paramilitary association likewise affiliated with the conservative camp ) shot and killed an eight - year - old boy and a war - veteran marching with the Schutzbund in a counter - demonstration in Schattendorf ( Burgenland ) . In July , three defendants in the case were acquitted , which led to outrage in the leftist camp although the acquittal had been issued by one of the first Austrian courts to operate under an independent jury system , the introduction of which had been a long - standing socialist demand . On 15 July 1927 , a general strike occurred , and demonstrations took place in the capital . After the storming of a police station , security forces started shooting at demonstrators . An angry group of people then set fire to the Palace of Justice ( " Justizpalast " ) , seen as a symbol of a flawed and partial judicial system . Altogether , 89 people ( 85 of them demonstrators ) lost their lives in this July Revolt of 1927 , and many hundreds suffered injury . Surprisingly , the violence soon died down and the factions took their battle from the streets back into the political institutions . However , the travails of the First Republic only got worse in the following years . The Great Depression also showed its effects in Austria , resulting in high unemployment and massive inflation . In addition , from 1933 — the year Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany — National Socialist sympathizers ( who wanted a unification of Austria with Hitler ' s Germany ) threatened the Austrian state from within . The conflict . On March 4 , 1933 , Christian Social Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss suspended the Austrian Parliament . In a close vote ( on railway workers ' wages ) in the National Council , each of the three presidents of parliament resigned their position in order to cast a ballot , leaving nobody to preside over the meeting . Even though the bylaws could have resolved this situation , Dollfuß used this opportunity to declare that parliament had ceased to function , and blocked all attempts to reconvene it . The Social Democratic Party had thus lost its major platform for political action . The conservatives , facing pressure and violence not only from the left but also from Nazis infiltrating from Germany , could now rule by decree on the basis of a 1917 emergency law , without checks on their power , and began to suspend civil liberties . They banned the Schutzbund and imprisoned many of its members . On 12 February 1934 , a force , led by Heimwehr commander in Vienna Emil Fey , searched Hotel Schiff in Linz , a property belonging to the Social Democratic Party . Linz Schutzbund commander Richard Bernaschek was the first to actively resist , sparking off armed conflict between a conglomeration of the Heimwehr , the police , the gendarmerie , and the regular Federal Army against the outlawed , but still existent , socialist Schutzbund . Skirmishes between the two camps spread to other cities and towns in Austria , with the heat of the action occurring in Vienna . There , members of the Schutzbund barricaded themselves in city council housing estates ( Gemeindebauten ) , the symbols and strongholds for the socialist movement in Austria , such as Karl - Marx - Hof . Police and paramilitaries took up positions outside these fortified complexes and the parties exchanged fire , initially only with small arms . Fighting also occurred in industrial towns such as Steyr , Sankt Pölten , Weiz , Eggenberg , Kapfenberg , Bruck an der Mur , Graz , Ebensee and Wörgl . An apparently decisive moment in the events came with the entry of the Austrian military into the conflict . Though the army remained still a comparatively independent institution , chancellor Dollfuß ordered Karl - Marx - Hof shelled with light artillery , endangering the lives of thousands of civilians and destroying many apartments before forcing the socialist fighters to surrender . Viennese and Upper Austria n fighting ended by February 13 , but continued heavily in Styrian cities , especially in Bruck an der Mur and Judenburg , until February 14 or 15 . After that , there were only small groups of socialists fighting against the military , or fleeing from it . By 16 February 1934 , the Austrian Civil War had ended . The fallout . Several hundred people ( including paramilitaries , members of the security forces and civilians ) died in the armed conflict ; more than a thousand suffered wounds . The authorities tried and executed nine Schutzbund leaders under the provisions of martial law . In addition , over 1 , 500 arrests were made . Leading socialist politicians , such as Otto Bauer , were forced into exile . The incidents of February 1934 were taken as a pretext by the government to prohibit the Social Democratic Party and its affiliated trade unions altogether . In May , the conservatives replaced the democratic constitution by a corporatist constitution modeled along the lines of Benito Mussolini ' s fascist Italy ; therefore the socialists coined the term Austrofascism although the underlying ideology was essentially that of the most conservative elements in the Austrian Catholic clergy , a feature inconsistent with both Italian Fascism and Nazism . The Patriotic Front ( " Vaterländische Front " ) , into which the Heimwehr and the Christian Social Party were merged , became the only legal political party in the resulting authoritarian regime , the " Ständestaat " . Long - term effects . Though small in scale in an international comparison ( and small in scale indeed in the light of the events of World War II which soon followed ) , the Austrian Civil War nevertheless proved a decisive moment in the history of the Republic . After World War II , when Austria re - emerged on the political landscape as a sovereign nation , politics again fell under the domination of the Social Democrats and the conservatives , who now formed a party called the Austrian People ' s Party ( ÖVP ) . However , so as to avoid a repeat of the bitter divisions of the First Republic , the leaders of the Second Republic were determined to put the idea of broad consensus at the heart of the new political system . The concept of the ' Grand Coalition ' was introduced , in which the two major parties ( Social Democrats and People ' s Party ) shared in the government and avoided open confrontation . This system brought with it stability and continuity , but ultimately led to other political repercussions ( also see " Proporz " ) . But the events of the Austrian Civil War had persuaded many in the political establishment ( and , indeed , the population at large ) that a slow pace of political reform was a small price to pay for social calm . However , Austrian political parties often stand accused of having done little to come to terms with the past . Even at the beginning of the 21st century , Austria ' s society bears the clear marks of division into the " red " ( socialist ) and " black " ( conservative ) areas of influence that trace back to the time of the First Republic and its civil war . This continues to cause extensive parallelization even where ideology rarely plays a role , such as in first aid services , automotive organizations , and science .