Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-jswmv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T14:44:47.471Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Austrian Presidency, 1918–19581

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Eric C. Kollman
Affiliation:
Cornell College

Extract

The student of twentieth century European history who looks for a good example of the contrast and interplay of continuity and change will hardly find a better case than the story of the First and Second Austrian Republics. In the First Republic the various political camps operated in a potential and actual civil war atmosphere; in the Second Republic there has been genuine cooperation between the two major political parties. In the First Republic economic difficulties were so staggering that they proved insurmountable; the Second Republic has had remarkable economic stability and prosperity. The First Republic was to a considerable degree “ein Staat wider Willen”—a country whose sovereignty and independence were largely imposed upon the populace from the outside. Since they felt that their country could not stand on its own feet, the Austrians looked for salvation, first, in union with Germany or a Danubian federation and then in some kind of political combination with Italy and Hungary.

Information

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1965

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable