Ständestaat

Corporate State (also: corporative state, corporation state), period in the First Republic from May 1, 1934 until March 13, 1938, during which the Constitution of 1920/29 was replaced by the Maiverfassung (May Constitution). In the one-party system of the Fatherland Front the parties were to be replaced by specific professional or trade groups ("corporations"). Founded by E. Dollfuß and last represented by K. Schuschnigg the corporate state largely consisted of members of the Christian Social Party; the political ideas underlying the concept of the corporate state had only partly been realised by 1938. Ideological concepts of the corporate state, which had already been represented in the Christian Social Doctrine developed by K. von Vogelsang, F. M. Schindler and Alfred von Liechtenstein, were taken up again by younger Christian Socialist politicians and representatives of the Heimwehr around 1930. Their theoretical basis was the encyclical "Quadragesimo anno" (1931) by Pope Pius XI, in which he called on all Catholics to end the conflict between the classes and seek harmonious co-operation among the corporations. One of the leading theorists in Austria was O. Spann.

Literature: G. Jagschitz, Der österreichische Ständestaat 1934-1938, in: E. Weinzierl and K. Skalnik (eds.), Österreich 1918-38, vol. 1, 1983; U. Kluge, Der österreichische Ständestaat, Entstehung und Scheitern, 1984.