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
Chancellor of Austria Archchancellor ("Erzkanzler"), later Imperial Chancellor ("Reichserzkanzler"), was created as a high office on the service of the Holy Roman Emperor. The task was usually fulfilled by the Prince-Archbishops of Mainz as Archchancellors of the German lands. In the course of the Imperial reform, the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I in 1498 attempted to counter the spiritual power of the "Reichserzkanzler" with a more secular position of an Imperial Court Chancellor ("Hofkanzler"), but the two became merged. These were also the times when attempts were made to balance Imperial absolutism by the creation of Imperial Governments ("Reichsregiment"), ultimately a failure. Nevertheless, when