Initially associated with the right wing Christian Social Party, he became involved in the July Putsch, a Nazi coup d'état plot, in 1934.

[3] Rintelen was also the founder and President of Steirer Bank although the scandal that followed the collapse of this initiative in 1926 was enough to see him lose his role as Landeshauptmann for a period.

[1] Rintelen hoped to use the Heimwehr and related groups as a personal army to launch his own version of the March on Rome and indeed he even tried unsuccessfully to enlist the aid of Benito Mussolini in this venture.

He planned a coup d'état under the direction of Theodor Habicht, Rudolf Weydenhammer [de], and Fridolin Glass.

[7]"The Vienna papers carrying the story commented drily that 'if Dr. Rintelen had become Chancellor he would also have taken Jewish blood, but in a totally different fashion.

However, Justice Minister Egon Berger-Waldenegg [de], the state leader of the Styrian Home Guard, instructed the public prosecutor to conduct the trial in such a way that he would be spared execution.