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Kurt Schuschnigg

Chancellor of Austria (1897-1977)

AI overview

Kurt Schuschnigg was an Austrian political leader who served as Chancellor of Austria during the 1930s, a critical period when Nazi Germany was expanding its power in Europe. He is historically significant because his government's decisions during this era, including Austria's eventual union with Nazi Germany in 1938, shaped Austria's role in World War II and its subsequent political development.

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Key facts

President: Wilhelm Miklas
Vice chancellor: Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg , Eduard Baar-Baarenfels , Ludwig Hülgerth , Edmund Glaise-Horstenau
Preceded by: Engelbert Dollfuss
Succeeded by: Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Born: Kurt Alois Josef Johann Edler von Schuschnigg , ( 1897-12-14 ) 14 December 1897, Reiff am Gartsee , County of Tyrol
Died: 18 November 1977 (1977-11-18) (aged 79), Mutters , Tyrol , Austria
Party: Fatherland Front (1933–1938)

Article

Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg ( German: [ˈkʊʁt ˈʃʊʃnɪk]; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an Austrian politician who was the Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert Dollfuss until the 1938 Anschluss with Nazi Germany. Although Schuschnigg considered Austria a "German state" and Austrians to be Germans, he was strongly opposed to Adolf Hitler's goal to absorb Austria into the Third Reich and wished for it to remain independent.

When Schuschnigg's efforts to keep Austria independent had failed, he resigned his office. After the Anschluss he was arrested, kept in solitary confinement, and eventually interned in various concentration camps. He was liberated in 1945 by the advancing United States Army and spent most of the rest of his life in academia in the United States. Schuschnigg gained American citizenship in 1956.