After the collapse of the Monarchy, local armed defence corps, called 'Heimwehr' were formed to protect homes and farms from roving bands of demobilised soldiers, hungry refugees and common criminals. By the mid 1920s these were grouped into provincial associations led by right-wing politicians, and frequently influenced and funded by Fascists in Germany, Italy and Hungary. And by the 1930s some had formed close links with the Nazis.
Meanwhile, the Social Democrats had created a centrally-controlled opposing force, also with access to arms, based on the factory protection guards and called the Republikänischer Schutzbund. In JuIy 1927, a workers demonstration in Vienna developed into a riot, leaving 89 dead. Terrified, large numbers of the bourgeoisie joined the Heimwehr. Intrigues continued, both domestic and foreign, until Dr. Dollfuss became Chancellor in May 1932. He abolished one democratic institution after another, including the Republikänischer Schutzbund on 30th May, until on 11th February 1934 a Heimwehr leader - who was also the Austrian Vice-Chancellor! - announced that on the next day the buildings of the Social Democrats would be searched.
The Social Democrats in Linz determined to resist this by force. A general strike was called, and civil war broke out in several centres [notably the Karl Marx Hof at Heiligenstadt, Vienna] but was suppressed by the Heimwehr, the police and the army. The official death toll was 314. Thousands were arrested, and the Social Democratic Party, which represented 42% of the electorate and was the strongest party in Parliament, was outlawed until the Anschluss.
The Allied occupying forces were worried that the Communist party might do well in the first post-war parliamentary election held on 25 November 1945; the Russians were perhaps less worried about extreme right-wing parties, as known ex-Nazis were banned from voting. The result surprised them both - the ÖVP (Österreichische Volkspartie = Austrian People's Party, on the rightish wing) won 85 seats and the SPÖ (Sozialistische Partei Österreichs = Austrian Socialist Party, left wing) won 76; Communists 4 and Democrats none. An ÖVP-SPÖ coalition was formed.
A relaxation by the occupying forces allowed the VDU to be created in 1949; it claimed to represent the former Nazis. In the October 1949 election it won 16 seats, the ÖVP 77, the SPÖ 67, and the Communists 5. By 1953, the VDU had become the WDU and the Communists the VO; the results were WDU 14, ÖVP 74, SPÖ 73 and VO 4; and following much spluttering an ÖVP-SPÖ coalition was again formed. [Note that the parliamentary seats do not necessarily reflect the popular vote, as the urban and rural constituencies were of different sizes.] By 1956 the WDU had become the Freedom Party, the VO the Communists again, and the result was FP 6, ÖVP 82, SPÖ 74 and Communist 3 - so again the two main parties formed a coalition. Indeed this ÖVP-SPÖ consensus remained until the late 1990s.
So, the Austrians had realised that a co-operative consensus between the two major parties (which between them consistently obtained around 90% of the votes) was best for them, or perhaps least worst. Thus it was normal for any institution, including the Austrian Airways, to have at many levels staff nominated by the two parties in roughly equal numbers.
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©Andy Taylor. Last updated 17 Jan 2017