Prelude To Infamy: The Story Of Chancellor Dollfuss Of Austria

The Chancellor Who Said No

Engelbert Dollfuss was the Chancellor of Austria from 1932 until his assassination by Austrian Nazis in July 1934. He was four feet eleven inches tall, deeply Catholic, and determined to keep Austria independent from Hitler's Germany at a time when nearly every political force in the country was pulling toward annexation. Gordon Brook-Shepherd's Prelude to Infamy tells his story with the access and detail of a journalist who knew the world Dollfuss inhabited.

The Political Situation

Dollfuss governed Austria during its most precarious years. The Social Democrats wanted revolution. The Austrian Nazis wanted Anschluss. Dollfuss responded by establishing an authoritarian Catholic corporatist state, banning both the Nazi and Communist parties, and aligning with Mussolini's Italy as a counterweight to Hitler. He crushed the Social Democratic uprising of February 1934 with military force. Four months later, a group of Austrian SS men stormed the Chancellery and shot him. He bled to death on a couch, denied a priest. The Anschluss he had fought to prevent came four years later.

Why This Book Matters

Brook-Shepherd's account is one of the few full-length English-language biographies of Dollfuss. It covers a period of European history that most Anglophone readers know poorly: the struggle for Austrian independence between the wars, the nature of Austrofascism, and the internal politics of the Catholic authoritarian right. Essential reading for anyone studying interwar Europe.

About This Edition

Author: Gordon Brook-Shepherd
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: The Rite Books