In September 1933 Dollfuss merged his Christian Social Party with elements of other nationalist and conservative groups, including the Heimwehr, which encompassed many workers who were unhappy with the radical leadership of the socialist party, to form the Vaterländische Front, though the Heimwehr continued to exist as an independent organization until 1936, when Dollfuss ' successor Kurt von Schuschnigg forcibly merged it into the Front, instead creating the unabidingly loyal Frontmiliz as paramilitary task force.

Dollfuss escaped an assassination attempt in October 1933 by Rudolf Dertill, a 22-year old who had been ejected from the military for his national socialist views.

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.

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

On 14 November Dorothy Thompson, who in 1934 had become the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, made an impassioned broadcast to an estimated 5 million listeners in defence of Grynszpan, pointing out that the Nazis themselves had made heroes of the assassins of Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss and German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau.

His general style of politics later inspired some of the right-wing leaders of the First Austrian Republic in 1918-1933, such as Ignaz Seipel, Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg, who led the Austrian society towards Austrofascism.

After the authoritarian revolution of Engelbert Dollfuss, who had served as his mentor within the Farmer's League, Figl became member of the federal council of economic policy and became leader of the paramilitary organisation of Ostmärkische Sturmscharen for the state of Lower Austria.

Leaders were Engelbert Dollfuss and, after Dollfuss ' assassination, Kurt Schuschnigg, who originally were politicians of the Christian Social Party, which was quickly integrated into the new movement.

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 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 was sworn in on May 20, 1932, as head of a coalition government between the Christian-Social Party, the Landbund — a right-wing agrarian party — and Heimatblock, the parliamentary wing of the Heimwehr, a paramilitary ultra-nationalist group.

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.

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.

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.

* In Austria, Engelbert Dollfuss turned a Roman Catholic political party into the single party of a one-party state.

Dollfuss modeled Austrofascism after Italian fascism juxtaposed to Catholic corporatism and anti-secularism, dropping Austrian pretences of reunification with Germany as long as the Nazi Party remained in power.

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

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.

Accordingly, Dollfuss refused to reply, instead spending the night in his favorite church praying, returning in the morning for a bath and a spartan meal before replying to the President he would accept the offer.

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.

They argue that Dollfuss was interested in a renaissance of Catholicism rather than in a totalitarian state, meaning that he wanted to return to the time before the ideas of the French Revolution of 1789 took hold.

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

Out of a population of 6. 5 million, approximately 500, 000 Austrians were present at Dollfuss ' burial in Vienna.

He is interred in the Hietzing cemetery in Vienna beside his wife Alwine Dollfuss ( d. 1973 ) and two of his children, Hannerl and Eva, all of whom were in Italy as guests of Rachele Mussolini at the time of his death, an event which saw Mussolini himself shed some tears over his slain ally.

* Dollfuss: An Austrian Patriot by Father Johannes Messner at Angelus Press

He also met at length with the Czech leader, Benes, the Austrian leaders Dollfuss and Schuschnigg and Benito Mussolini of Italy.

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 New York Times also reported a series of jokes, including how in the coffee houses of Vienna, one could order a " Dollfuss " cup of coffee instead of a " Short Black " cup of coffee ( black being the color of the Christian Democratic political faction ).