In spite of its anti-democratic stance, the Heimwehr developed a political wing called the Heimatblock ('Homeland Bloc') that was close to the conservative Christian Social Party and took part in both the cabinet of Chancellor Carl Vaugoin in 1930 and in Engelbert Dollfuss' right-wing government from 1932 to 1934.

After the end of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, local residents' militias and self-defense associations formed mainly from demobilized soldiers sprang up across Austria.

[10] On 30 January 1927 members of the SDAP who were holding a meeting at Schattendorf in Burgenland were fired on by a group from the right-wing Front Fighters Association of German Austria (Frontkämpfer), leaving two dead and five wounded.

In the years from 1927 to 1930, the Heimwehr movement experienced a period of rapid growth and became a significant part in the increasingly radicalized domestic political situation.

Many Heimwehr leaders began to develop a more political profile and demanded a fundamental change in Austria's political system that would move it towards authoritarianism and corporatism – that is, a society similar to the type favoured by Italian fascism that was organized around corporate groups such as agriculture, manual labour, the military, business, trade and the like.

A large march on 7 October 1928 in Wiener Neustadt, an industrial area of Vienna that was a stronghold of the SDAP, was a self-confident demonstration of strength.

The Heimwehr was supported financially, logistically, and with arms by industry and large landowners, especially from Styria, as well as by Italian fascists, the Hungarian regime of Miklós Horthy and groups on the Bavarian right (e.g. the Organization Chancellor).

Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, who became the Heimwehr's national leader in 1930, approached right-wing circles in Great Britain, including the fascist politician Oswald Mosley, from whom he was able to receive no financial support.

[15] Schober, who had been Vienna's police chief during the 1927 July Revolt and had approved firing on the demonstrators, was seen by the Heimwehr as strong and a beacon of hope.

In the dispute over the 1929 amendment to the Austrian constitution that strengthened the position of the federal president, he worked out a compromise with the Social Democrats that was completely unacceptable to the Heimwehr, and in addition he was unwilling to give in to their other demands.

Its national leader Richard Steidle hoped to overcome the problems in May 1930 with the so-called Korneuburg Oath, which he read out at a general assembly of the Lower Austrian Heimatschutz.

It included statements that pointed in the direction of Austrofascism such as "We want to seize power … and bring a new order to the state and the economy" and "We reject Western democratic parliamentarianism and the party-state!".

After Schober's resignation on 25 September 1930, the new Christian Socialist Chancellor Carl Vaugoin offered the Heimwehr a share in his minority cabinet.

Walter Pfrimer, leader of the Heimwehr in Styria, was fundamentally opposed to participating in the election, while his chief of staff, Rauter, pursued the idea of an electoral alliance with the National Socialists.

Rauter met with the German Nazi Party's organizational leader, Gregor Strasser, to discuss cooperation in early October 1930.

Pfrimer saw that all previous attempts to bring about the desired change in the political system had failed, that the Heimwehr was continuing to break apart and that it was coming under increasing pressure from the growing strength of the Austrian National Socialists.

As a result, he decided to risk everything in a coup d'état which was to finally implement the Heimwehr's demands and thus solve all the group's problems with one blow.

Since the Nazi Party had already made large gains in the regional elections earlier in the year, the Christian Socialists tried to avoid holding one.

In the coalition negotiations, the Heimatblock had demanded that Anton Rintelen, the Christian Social governor of Styria and an outspoken friend of the Heimwehr, become chancellor but in the end had to be satisfied with him becoming Minister of Education.

A deputy who was out sick, or the voting behaviour of individual Heimatblock members that deviated from the party line, could determine success or defeat in the National Council.

Before the parliamentary summer recess on 19 August 1932, the Social Democratic Arbeiter-Zeitung (Workers' Newspaper) wrote: "But in October when Parliament reconvenes, either it will have to be dissolved or another government formed.

"[23] On 16 October, during a march by National Socialists in Vienna, gunfire broke out between members of the SDAP's Republican Protection League, Communists, Nazis and the police.

In response, the government the next day created the new position of State Secretary for Security and filled it with the leader of the Vienna Heimatschutz, Emil Fey.

[24][25] Dollfuss' authoritarian course pleased the Heimwehr, and on 5 November 1932 the Österreichische Heimatschutzzeitung (Austrian Heimatschutz Newspaper) ran the headline: "Commitment to fascism!"

On 30 January 1934 they staged large-scale armed marches in numerous towns in Tyrol and made demands for the establishment of an authoritarian provincial committee with the participation of Heimwehr members.

During the February uprising and the failed National Socialist July Putsch, they not only took on reconnaissance, guard and security tasks but also independently carried out smaller combat missions, thus relieving other groups such as the gendarmerie and the federal army that were fighting on the government side.

Only the mobile Heimwehr formations known as Jägerbataillone, which were intended to function as a kind of rapid reaction force, were completely and relatively similarly dressed, something that was made possible primarily by the fact that Starhemberg paid for their equipment with his own funds.