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The Republikanischer Schutzbund ( [ʁepubliˈkaːnɪʃɐ ˈʃʊtsˌbʊnt], Republican Protection League) was an Austrian paramilitary organization established in 1923 by the Social Democratic Party (SDAPÖ) to secure power in the face of rising political radicalization after World War I.
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It had a Czech section associated with the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers Party in the Republic of Austria.
Origins & Development
The Republikanischer Schutzbund was one of many paramilitary forces to organize after the fall of the Habsburg Empire. This one in particular was a branch of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAPÖ). Its purpose was to defend the party and to maintain the balance of power amidst increasing radicalization of politics in Austria. This includes a good amount of saber rattling between the Schutzbund and the conservative Heimwehr, as encouraged by the SDAPÖ newspaper, the Arbeiter Zeitung.
July Revolt of 1927
On January 30 of 1927, a veterans' group clashed with the Schutzbund, leaving one veteran and one child killed by the right-wing Heimwehr. The results of the trial led to the July Revolt of 1927.
Austrian Civil War
By June 1933, Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß banned the Schutzbund, forcing it underground. On February 11, 1934, the Heimwehr commander in Vienna Emil Fey called for the disarmament of the Schutzbund. Upon raiding Hotel Schiff in Linz, the Linz Schutzbund commander Richard Bernaschek actively resisted, resulting in armed conflict known as the Austrian Civil War.