Page 513 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

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nuclear warfare in Europe, the situation seemed even more difficult. But the real problem
was not the insufficient willingness of leading politicians. It was not the poor equipment
of the Austrian Armed Forces, not having for example an updated air-defense or tank-
defense. The main problem was the lacking sympathy of the armed forces in the society:
Not everyone believed in the success or even use of defense forces because of the experi-
th
ence of two lost world wars. A brief look at Austrian history during the first half of the 20
century displays, those sustainable losses played a bigger role in the collective memory
than spectacular short-term victories. The following four events affected the Austrian de-
fense policy nearly until the millennium. Politicians, journalists and even officers referred
to those key events while explaining the malfunctioning defense mechanism.
1) The peace treaty of St. Germain marked the formal end of the First World War in Aus-
tria. It stated in 1919 that the former Austro-Hungarian Empire started the First World
War, which it finally lost. In 1918 several countries declared their independence from
Austria, that turned out to be “the remaining rest”. The losses during the four years
of war were great and affected the whole population. Soldiers and officers risked and
lost their lives on the battlefields in Europe, the civilian population had to replace the
drafted men in industry and agriculture. Austria lost its empire and society and politi-
cians doubted that such a little nation was able to survive. Several years after 1919 the
First World War was regarded as an example for the defeat of a strong army.
2) The Austrian defense forces were involved in the civil war in 1934. In this time the
Austrian Conservative Party and the Socialist Party had their own paramilitary forces
to protect their party against the other one. The forces were called “Heimwehr (Con-
servative Party)” and “Republikanischer Schutzbund (Socialist Party)”. The main
mission of the two forces was quite similar: Each force should protect the party and
the republic from a communist or conservative coup. Both political formations used
demonstrations during important national or religious holidays to show their strength
and readiness. These impressive displays showed all spectators, that the political ar-
mies were ready for combat. The conservative government headed by Chancellor
Engelbert Dollfuß tried to arrest most of the left-wing leaders and even forbid all
“Schutzbund”-activities in 1933. A routine house searching in a hotel in February
1934 marked the beginning of hostilities between the citizens. The conservative gov-
ernment ordered the regular armed forces to assist the police and “Heimwehr”-forma-
tions to fight against the defending “Schutzbund”. The regular formations attacked so-
cialist pockets of resistance using artillery and that way destroyed houses of workers,
which were used as improvised strongholds. These pictures were quickly integrated
in the collective memory. Especially social-democrats pointed out, even decades later,
that the Austrian Armed forces were once used to shoot against Austrian citizens.
3) Four years after the civil war German troops occupied Austria. The political proceed-
ings of the so called “Anschluß” started in 1936 and two years later, when German
troops violated the Austrian border, national-socialists were already ministers in the
Austrian government. However, German troops entered Austrian territory in attack
formation and were ready for combat. Surprisingly Austrian troops, some in anticipa-
tion for defensive actions, were not allowed to stand up against the German troops.