Engelbert Dollfuss

In March 1933, Dollfuss used a parliamentary procedural crisis to suspend the National Council and rule by emergency decree. He banned the Communist Party, the Nazi Party, and eventually the Social Democratic Party, establishing a one-party authoritarian state known as the Austrofascist regime.

In February 1934, Dollfuss ordered the military and police to attack Social Democratic Party strongholds in Vienna and other cities. The conflict lasted several days, resulting in hundreds of deaths and the outlawing of the Social Democratic Party and its paramilitary organization, the Republikanischer Schutzbund.

On July 25, 1934, Austrian Nazis, with support from Germany, stormed the Federal Chancellery in Vienna. Dollfuss was shot and died from his wounds. The coup attempt failed to seize power, but Dollfuss's death marked a major escalation in Nazi pressure on Austria.