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Austrofascism

Austrofascism was the state ideology of the Federal State of Austria from 1934 to 1938 as the political ideology of the ruling Fatherland Front. The ideology was a form of fascism that had uniquely Austrian characteristics such as Catholicism, corporatism, and Austrian nationalism, and it opposed Nazism's German nationalism, as Austrofascists sought to prevent Austria from losing its Catholic identity at the hands of both communists and a Protestant-dominated Germany. Austrofascism also had minimal anti-Semitism, and many Jews supported the Austrofascist regime after it put down a Nazi coup in 1934. The regime accepted Jewish refugees and patronized Jewish artists at the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera, but it was responsible for purging many Jews from public offices after accusing them of being social democrats or communists. Under Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg, the Fatherland Front suppressed all political opposition, banning the Social Democratic Party of Austria, the Communist Party of Austria, and the Austrian Nazi Party, and Austrofascism attempted to brand itself as a catch-all political ideology that was united behind Austrian nationalism. In 1938, the Austrian Nazis launched a coup against Schuschnigg that brought about the Anschluss union with Nazi Germany, and Austrofascism was outlawed after the Nazi seizure of power as many homes were forced to fly Nazi flags and as many people embraced a "shared culture" with the Germans.

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