This professional experience was the foundation on which he could build up in the inter-wars period, his successful political career.

In November 1918, he founded an independent self-management of Tyrol Vorarlberg, together with Jodok Fink and Franz Loser.

In the four state elections of the First Republic (1919, 1923, 1928 and 1932) he won for his Christian Social Party with 53–63% of the vote.

[2] After the 1930 legislative election, Ender became Chancellor of Austria on 4 December, however, his cabinet was brought down soon after upon the collapse of the Creditanstalt bank in May 1931.

In March 1938, his political career ended with the Anschluss annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.

Otto Ender died on 25 June 1960 and was buried in the municipal cemetery in Bregenz.

To this day, the State of Vorarlberg awards scholarships to the students through the Dr. Otto Ender Foundation.