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Merged into | Fatherland Front[1] |
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Formation | May 1920 |
Founder | Richard Steidle |
Dissolved | October 1936 |
Type | Paramilitary |
Origins | Aftermath of World War I |
Area served | First Austrian Republic |
Membership | ![]() |
Key people | Walter Pfrimer Waldemar Pabst |
Homeland Bloc Heimatblock | |
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Founded | May 1930 |
Dissolved | 27 September 1933 |
Ideology | Austrian nationalism Anti-communism Corporate statism[4][5] Program: Korneuburg Oath |
Political position | Right-wing to far-right |
National Council (1930) | 8 / 165 (5%) |
The Heimwehr (German: [ˈhaɪmˌveːɐ̯], lit. 'Home Guard') or Heimatschutz (German: [ˈhaɪmatˌʃʊts], lit. 'Homeland Protection')[6] was a nationalist, initially paramilitary group that operated in the First Austrian Republic from 1920 to 1936. It was similar in methods, organization, and ideology to the Freikorps in Germany. The Heimwehr was opposed to parliamentary democracy, socialism and Marxism and fought in various skirmishes against left-wing and foreign groups during the 1920s and 1930s. Some of its regional groups also opposed Nazism while others favored it. In spite of its anti-democratic stance, the Heimwehr developed a political wing called the Heimatblock ('Homeland Bloc') that was close to the conservative Christian Social Party and took part in both the cabinet of Chancellor Carl Vaugoin in 1930 and in Engelbert Dollfuss' right-wing government from 1932 to 1934. In 1936 the Heimwehr was absorbed into what was at the time the only legally permitted political party in Austria, the Fatherland Front, and then later into the Frontmiliz, an amalgamation of militia units that in 1937 became part of Austria's armed forces.
[...] fascist Italy [...] developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were Estado Novo in Portugal (1932-1968) and Brazil (1937-1945), the Austrian Standestaat (1933-1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe.