Franz Rauscher, born in Vienna, Austria, (30 July 1900 – 11 March 1988) was an Austrian Social Democrat politician.
[4] In the late 1920s he was among the co-organizers, in Lower Austria, of the Republikanischer Schutzbund,[3] an SDAPÖ paramilitary movement set up to counter the growth in political extremism that was spilling onto the streets.
[5] The Self-elimination of the Austrian Parliament took place on 4 March 1933 and was interpreted by Chancellor Dollfuss as an unexpected but not unwelcome invitation to suspend parliamentary democracy.
[6] Trades unions were also banned: Franz Rauscher remained politically engaged and went "underground" (which involved living without being registered at the city hall).
[8] In March 1938 German troops entered Austria, which was followed by rapid integration, giving rise to a "Greater Germany" that incorporated the two hitherto separate states.
[3] At some stage during the Second World War, which in this part of Europe lasted from 1939 till 1945, he was transferred to the Majdanek concentration camp in occupied Poland.
Shortly before the war ended he was either liberated by the Red army or else managed to escape from the concentration camp as the state infrastructure of Nazi Germany collapsed.
[3] The Soviet and western governments had already declared the 1938 combining of Germany with Austria null and void, and within two weeks of Rauscher's arrival at the border by Salzburg a hastily assembled Austrian provisional government in Vienna, under Chancellor Renner, had anticipated the requirements of the country's new masters with a Declaration of Austrian Independence signed by the leaders of the three main political parties (which included the Social Democrats) on 27 April 1945.