Central Europe Germany Italy Spain (Spanish Civil War) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma China Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States The Republikanischer Schutzbund (German: [ʁepubliˈkaːnɪʃɐ ˈʃʊtsˌbʊnt] ⓘ, "Republican Protection League") was an Austrian paramilitary organisation established in 1923 by the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria to defend the Austrian Republic[3] in the face of rising political radicalisation after World War I.

In the July Revolt of 1927 it worked with government authorities to try to prevent the spread of violence, but it largely sat out the Pfrimer Putsch in September 1931 because it had failed so quickly.

Under the Austrofascist government of Engelbert Dollfuss, the Schutzbund was banned on 31 March 1933,[4] and the Austrian police began arresting its members and searching for weapons.

When they attempted to enter the Social Democrat's headquarters in Linz on 12 February 1934 to look for arms, local Schutzbund members opened fire and sparked the Austrian Civil War.

In order to defend armament and other large factories against potential marauders and also to protect the general population, improvised civil police forces were formed throughout Austria.

Julius Deutsch likewise favoured consistent armament, although he attempted to delay it in 1923 due to potential complications with the Entente powers over re-armament questions.

[8] Despite confiscations of weaponry by the Entente and some arms sales for funds, the consolidated workers’ militia in 1921 possessed roughly 26,000 rifles, 225 machine guns, 2.5 million rounds of ammunition and several artillery pieces.

The small town of Schattendorf in the recently annexed, previously Hungarian state of Burgenland had been the site of several violent clashes between socialists and conservatives.

Particularly after 1926, Hungarian irredentists and land-owning farmers, representing a significant share of local conservatives, clashed on a regular basis with the majority of the population sympathising with the socialists, who were mostly factory workers and peasants.

[12][13] The socialists had originally introduced and popularised the concept of jury trials as part of their political programme and considered it propagandistically unwise to organise a formal protest against the verdict.

[14] The Schutzbund, together with Vienna's mayor Karl Seitz and Theodor Körner, chair of the Federal Council, attempted to pacify the masses in order to prevent further violence.

After the Palace of Justice was set ablaze, Schutzbund members successfully opened a corridor among the protesters to make way for firefighters and saved a few dozen guards from the flames.

[16] Immediately following the July Revolt and further militarisation of right-wing militias, SDAPÖ leadership recognised the need for Schutzbund reforms in order to guarantee its military capabilities.

Likewise, the mild response by Federal Army and police forces had shown a clear lack of willingness from the conservative Austrian government to oppose such actions decisively.

Emil Fey, the radical Viennese Heimwehr leader, stated in an interview in February 1932 that a new coup was in the works, this time originating from Vienna, which would force the current government either to accept their conditions for political change or to resign.

[20] The change in the political situation resulted in the need for a fundamental strategic reorientation in the Schutzbund, which until then had aimed in general to aid the Austrian police and army in case of a coup.

[21] Starting in 1932, the government intensified its searches for weapons at known socialist sites, and the success of the operation greatly reduced the weaponry available to the Schutzbund.

Parts of the Schutzbund, particularly the Upper Austrian division led by Richard Bernaschek headquartered in Linz, were pressing to finally decide on the use violence and warned of mutinies.

Decrees to disband specific units were issued, some of which were met with little resistance or surprise, particularly in Tyrol, Carinthia and Burgenland, and some with immediate protests, particularly in Vienna and Lower Austria.

[27] Following intra-party discussions on strategy, an action committee in Vienna consisting of party leadership and others, among them Alexander Eifler, decided to reintroduce military organisation to the Schutzbund.

Since Bernaschek had declared many times that he had had enough and that the next provocation by government forces would mean defensive action by his troops, the weapons search triggered the Schutzbund in the Hotel Schiff to fight back.

A coded telegram to Bernaschek from the SDAPÖ's leaders that warned him urgently against any action and instructed him to await the decision of party leadership had been intercepted by the authorities and never reached him.

Once Schutzbund formations in the other Austrian states heard that Bernaschek and his men were fighting back, many voluntarily decided to do the same and tried to take over police stations in their respective areas.

According to a comprehensive 2018 study by historian Kurt Bauer, between 350 and 370 people lost their lives in the fighting – about 130 of them uninvolved civilians and 110 each among the government forces and members of the Schutzbund.

[36] The Schutzbund was formed at the behest of the SDAPÖ's large left-wing faction, represented by members including Otto Bauer, Julius Deutsch and Max Adler.

Its ultimate aim remained the defence of parliamentary democracy and the Austrian Republic against fascism, rather than the violent introduction of socialist policies or a dictatorship of the proletariat modelled after Soviet Russia.

Factions within the Schutzbund and its leadership were, however, open to the possibility of utilising violence to overcome a fascist coup not only while it was in progress but also after it had happened, ultimately aiming either to safeguard or restore parliamentary democracy.

Alexander Eifler, as the Schutzbund's chief of staff, favoured a streamlined, classic military organisation with a rigid rank structure and strict discipline.

The Technical Committee was dominated by Alexander Eifler and Theodor Körner, both former Imperial Austrian Army officers, with diametrically opposed views on strategy.

Der Republikanische Schutzbund und gewalttätige politische Auseinandersetzungen in Österreich 1923–1934 (PDF) ([The Republican Protection League and Violent Political Conflicts in Austria 1923–1934] PhD thesis).