Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte Österreichs 2 / 2012, pp. 336-364, 2012/12/20
After the coup d’état on March 4th, 1933, the Austrian government not only banned the Communist Party, the socialdemocratic paramilitary organization (‘Republikanischer Schutzbund’), the Nazi Party and in 1934 also the SocialDemocratic Party itself, but also persecuted their supporters by various measures. Particularly after the uprisingof the Social Democrats (‘Schutzbundaufstand’) in February 1934 and the ‘Naziputsch’ in July 1934 innumerablepolitical opponents were sent to jail or an internment camp (‘Anhaltelager’). Individual pardoning of the imprisonedand interned opponents soon started in reaction to diplomatic pressure on the Austrian government, whichthus also targeted at international pacification. The article deals with the ‘amnesties’ from December 1934 to April1938, which have been rather neglected by historical research so far.