Many paramilitary forces had been formed in Austria during the early 1920s such as the nationalist Frontkämpfervereinigung Deutsch-Österreichs under Colonel Hermann Hiltl and the Social Democratic Republikanischer Schutzbund.

After the demonstration had ended, the Frontkämpfervereinigung Deutsch-Österreichs attacked the Schutzbund members heading back to the train station and injured several and killed Matthias Csmarits, a World War I veteran, and Josef Grössing, an eight-year-old boy.

[4] This "Schattendorf Verdict" led to a general strike, which had the aim of bringing down the government headed by Christian Social Party Chancellor Ignaz Seipel.

Finally, Schober supplied the police troops with army rifles and publicly announced that the premises would be cleared by force if the fire brigades could not work unhindered after Seitz and Schutzbund councillor Theodor Körner had attempted to persuade the crowd to surrender.

In his 1976 autobiography, he recalled the event as foreshadowing extremism: “I began to expect the worst: that the democratic bastions of Central Europe would fall, and that a totalitarian Germany would start another war”.