Liberalism in Austria - History Until 1945

History Until 1945

In the Austrian Empire a national liberal current evolved in the 19th century. Liberalism in Austria reached its peak at the time of the 1848 revolution, when civil liberty and a written constitution for the Austrian Empire were key demands of the revolutionary movement. For some times after, Liberals gained some influence on the policy of the government; for example, Anton von Schmerling became Minister for Justice. The panic of 1873 and the Long Depression lead to heavily anti-capitalist and anti-liberal sentiments and the liberal movement in Austria began to decline, with pan-German ideas and parties gaining strength at the same time. Later attempts to reorganize liberalism were unsuccessful, with its remnants mostly joining forces with pan-German nationalists. This traditional association with Pan-Germanism was inherited from Austria-Hungary into the Austrian Republic; the Greater German People's Party and the Landbund represented liberal, anti-clerical and pan-German voters. Both parties lost ground with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s and were later dissolved by the regime of Engelbert Dollfuss.