Engelbert Dollfuss ( in German: Engelbert Dollfuß ; October 4, 1892 – July 25, 1934 ) was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman.

Dollfuss was assassinated as part of a failed coup attempt by Nazi agents in 1934.

He was born in Texing in Lower Austria to unmarried mother Josepha Dollfuss and her lover Joseph Weninger.

Dollfuss, who was raised as a devout Roman Catholic, was shortly in seminary before deciding to study law at the University of Vienna and then economics at the University of Berlin.

Dollfuss had difficulty gaining admission into the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I because he was only 153 cm tall.

( One of the founders of the CS was a hero of Dollfuss ', Karl Freiherr von Vogelsang.

In late May 1932, with the resignation of Karl Buresch's Christian-Social government, Dollfuss, age 39 and with only one year's experience in the Federal government, was offered the office of Chancellor by President Wilhelm Miklas, also a member of the Christian-Social Party.

Dollfuss ' majority in Parliament was marginal ; his government had only a one-vote majority.

Dollfuss was concerned that with German National Socialist leader Adolf Hitler becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Austrian National Socialists ( DNSAP ) could gain a significant minority in future elections ( according to fascism scholar Stanley G. Payne, should elections have been held in 1933, the DNSAP could have mustered about 25 % of the votes-contemporary TIME analysts suggests a higher support of 50 %, with a 75 % approval rate in the Tyrol region bordering Nazi Germany ).

Dollfuss always stressed the similarity of the regimes of Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, and was convinced that Austrofascism and Italian fascism could counter totalitarian national socialism and communism in Europe.

Dollfuss was assassinated on July 25, 1934, by ten Austrian Nazis ( Paul Hudl, Franz Holzweber, Otto Planetta and others ) of Regiment 89 who entered the Chancellery building and shot him in an attempted coup d ' état, the July Putsch.

The assassination of Dollfuss was accompanied by uprisings in many regions in Austria, resulting in further deaths.

Kurt Schuschnigg, previously Minister of Education was appointed new chancellor of Austria after a few days, assuming the office from Dollfuss ' deputy Starhemberg.

Dollfuss was a very short man and his diminutive stature ( 155 cm = 5 ' 2 " or 150 cm = 4 ' 11 " according to the New York Times ) was the object of satire ; among his nicknames were ' Millimetternich ' ( making a portmanteau out of millimeter and Metternich ), and the " Jockey ".

With threats of an armed uprising against the Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss ( he was assassinated by Nazis the following year ) and the killing of over 1, 000 civilians by troops, Philby's British passport became still more valuable.

The city was a stage to the Austrian Civil War of 1934, when Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing occupied by the socialist militia.

However it gradually degenerated into a fascist dictatorship between 1933-1934 under Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, who was assassinated by Nazis in 1934.

Most of the members of the Austrian People's party during its founding belonged to the former Fatherland Front, which was led by chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, also a member of the Christian Social Party before the Anschluss.

There was even a possibility of a Habsburg restoration under the Austrian Chancellors Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg, with Crown Prince Otto visiting Austria numerous times.

The assassinated chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was commemorated in both 1934 and 1936.

A successful lawyer, he was invited to join the cabinet of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in 1933.

In 1934, when the Socialist Party was banned by the Dollfuss dictatorship, he became active in underground political work.

Dollfuss banned the DNSAP in June 1933 and the communists later on.

While Heimwehr leader Starhemberg briefly assumed power as Vice Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg was appointed Dollfuss ' successor by President Miklas on 29 July, ousting Starhemberg from the government completely in 1936, before surrendering to Nazi pressure in March 1938.

The Nazis responded by assassinating Engelbert Dollfuss on July 25, 1934 ( see Maiverfassung 1934 ).

Fascist Italy had good relations with Austria under Dollfuss and Mussolini suspected German involvement and promised the Austrofascist regime military support if Germany were to invade, as the Nazis had claims on Italian-administered Tyrol.

The successor to Dollfuss, Kurt Schuschnigg, maintained the ban on Nazi activities, but also banned Austria's national paramilitary force, the Heimwehr in 1936.

On 1 May, Dollfuss ' government proclaimed the May Constitution ( Maiverfassung ), which diminished the term Republic and instead used as the official name of the state " Federal State of Austria " ( Bundesstaat Österreich ), though the constitution actually reduced the individual states ' autonomy.

* Austria: Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss ( March 1933-1 May 1934 )

On May 1, 1934, Dollfuss created a one-party state, to be led by the Fatherland Front (), with the proclamation of the authoritarian " May Constitution ".

In rural Austria the Catholic Christian Social Party collaborated with the Heimwehr militia and helped bring Dollfuss to power in 1932.

President Miklas ( right ) and Chancellor Dollfuss ( centre ), 1932

Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss of the Christian Social Party took power in Austria in 1932, and moved the party and Austria towards dictatorship, centralization and fascism.

In 1933 he joined the Fatherland Front, a right-wing coalition led by Engelbert Dollfuss.

Social Democrats however continued to exist as an independent organization, including its paramilitary Republikaner Schutzbund, which could muster tens of thousands against Dollfuss ' government.

After the Dollfuss dictatorship took steps against known Social Democrats, the Social Democrats called for nationwide resistance against the government.

The Nazi assassins in Vienna, after declaring the formation of a new government under Austrian Nazi Anton Rintelen, previously exiled by Dollfuss as Austrian Ambassador to Rome, surrendered after threats from Austrian military of blowing up the Chancellery using dynamite, and were subsequently tried and executed through hanging.

The authoritarian Catholic, anti-Nazi Vaterländische Front government of autonomous Austria had been in alliance with Mussolini, and in 1934 the assassination of Austria's authoritarian president Engelbert Dollfuss had already successfully invoked Italian military assistance in case of a German invasion.

This conversion was evident in his political books ( such as Wege Nach Rom ) and his thinking, and led to his participation in the right-wing government of Engelbert Dollfuss.

Although opposed to parliamentary democracy, the Heimwehr maintained a political wing known as the Heimatblock, which cooperated with Engelbert Dollfuss ' conservative government.

His second novel, The Professor, published around the time of the Nazi Anschluss, is the story of a liberal academic whose compromises with a repressive government lead eventually to his arrest, imprisonment and execution " while attempting to escape "; contemporary reviewers saw parallels with the Austrian leaders Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg.

The law had never been explicitly revoked and was now used by the Dollfuss government to inaugurate an authoritarian state.