Austria under National Socialism 400,000 Jews – Simple way out; vote National Socialist". The Christian Social Party had ruled from 1932 and Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß had led them from 1932. The Social Democrats were no longer their only threat. The previous chancellor and priest Ignaz Seipel had worked towards an authoritarian state. Seipel based this on the Papal Encyclicals, Rerum novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo anno (1931). Abolition of the parliamentary system was necessary for this. A crisis in the Austrian parliament on the May 4, 1933 gave Dollfuß the opportunity he wanted. Later in May 1933 the Christian Social Union was converted to the
History of Austria Austrian Hitler was vastly striving to annex Austria during the late 1930s, which was fiercely resisted by the Austrian Schuschnigg dictatorship. When the conflict was escalating in early 1938, Chancellor Schuschnigg announced a plebiscite on the issue on 9 March, which was to take place on 13 March. On 12 March, "German troops entered Austria", who met celebrating crowds, in order to install Nazi puppet Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. With a Nazi administration already in place the country was now integrated into the Third Reich and renamed as "Ostmark" until 1942, when it was renamed again as "Alpen-und Donau-Reichsgaue" ("Alpine