Dollfuss Assassination - Federal Chancellery
Behind the Baroque facade of Austria's Federal Chancellery, Nazi putschists in stolen uniforms gunned down Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss on 25 July 1934, then left the dying dictator to bleed out on a sofa while refusing him a doctor and a priest.
À propos de ce lieu
Ballhausplatz 2 is the address from which Austria is governed, a graceful Baroque palace completed in 1719 and once the office of Prince Metternich, host of the Congress of Vienna. On 25 July 1934 it became a crime scene. Shortly before one o'clock, 154 men of the Austrian SS Standarte 89, disguised in stolen army and police uniforms, drove through the gate and seized the building within minutes. The coup had been betrayed and most ministers had escaped, but Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, the diminutive dictator who had banned the Nazi party, was caught as he tried to reach a side exit. Otto Planetta shot him twice at point blank range in the Corner Salon. Laid on a sofa, paralyzed and bleeding, Dollfuss begged for a doctor and a priest; the putschists refused both, and at a quarter to four he was dead. The putsch collapsed by nightfall, thirteen of the plotters went to the gallows, and Hitler simply waited four more years to take Austria anyway. Today the sober facade gives nothing away, except perhaps the concrete X on the square, a memorial to the victims of Nazi military justice unveiled on the eightieth anniversary of the murder.
À retenir
- 154 SS putschists — Men of SS Standarte 89, disguised as soldiers and policemen, stormed the Federal Chancellery on 25 July 1934.
- 2 bullets — Otto Planetta shot Chancellor Dollfuss twice at point blank range; the putschists then denied the dying man both a doctor and a priest.
- 13 executions — Death sentences carried out after the failed coup; the assassin Otto Planetta was hanged just three hours after his verdict.
📍 Ballhausplatz 2, 1010, Wien