The "Nazi-Network" in Linz 1933 - 1938

Thomas Dostal

Underlying the title of this essay on the „Nazi network“ in Linz is the argument that Austrian National Socialism only survived the period of its official prohibition between 1933 and 1938 due to a complex collusion of traditional (German nationalist, greater German and national) forces and modern forms of organisation, propaganda and struggle by the NSDAP and its organisations (such as the SA, SS or HJ).

Thus National Socialism in Austria not only benefited from massive material and moral support from the Third Reich, but also from a weak and divided defensive front by the „Austro-Fascist“ government and its police and justice departments. Of course the Austrian national socialists were far too weak and quarrelsome to take control of the state on their own. This could only be achieved through intervention and occupation by the German Reich.

This chronological-empirical historical reconstruction attempts to show exactly how the interdependent forms of communication and interaction within this „Nazi network“ functioned, between the „moderate“ and „radical“, „evolutionary“ and „revolutionary“, „middle class“ and „proletarian“ factions, and also the communication with the various levels of the „fatherland's“ departments on a local level, in order to prepare the ground in Linz and finally to be able to establish National Socialism in power.