Chancellor of Austria Assasinated

German Street
Engelbert Dollfus

On July 25, 1934, the Nazis tried to take over Austria by killing Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfus. They succeeded in assassinating him. However, Austrian forces regained control of the government building, and the coup failed.


In 1934 Chancller of Austria Engelbert Dollfus decided to crush his prime opposition the socialists. He thus sent the army with artillery and tanks to attack the significant socialist neighborhoods, the large residential apartment blocks that were called Karl Max Hof and Geoth Hof were overrun by the army. When some of the socialist resisted they were arrested, and 12 of them were hung for opposing the government. Dollfus thus destroyed his socialist opposition, but his real enemy was, in fact, the Nazis who were trying to bring about a union with Germany.
On June 25th the Austrian Nazis began a series of acts to sow terror in Austria. Dolfuss announced a series of steps to crack down on the Nazis violence, but it was too little too late. On July 25th 154 German-trained Austrian Nazis broke into the Chancellery and shot Dolfuss in the throat. The Nazis did not allow Dollfuss to get medical attention, so he slowly bled out and died. The Nazis were not successful as the Minister of Justice Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg led a counter-attack and regained control of the Chancellery. All the attackers were either killed in the counter-assault or later executed.