"Ständestaat" (State of Estates) (1934 - 1938)

In February 1934, after the conclusion of the civil war which had begun in Linz, the Dollfuß government also abolished local democracy.

The Linz city council was dissolved on the 12th February 1934 and Josef Gruber, the democratically elected mayor, deposed. The government commissioner Dr. Franz Nusko took over as authoritarian leader of the council. Dr. Wilhelm Bock was made mayor on the 7th November 1934.

A new city law was introduced in 1935 which corresponded to the new existing authoritarian government: the representative assembly, now known as the Gemeindetag, was no longer democratically elected, but chosen from the professional estates or Stände (hence Ständestaat). The Gemeindetag elected the mayor, a nomination that had to be confirmed by the head of the provincial government.