Wilhelm Miklas
Wilhelm Miklas (* October 15, 1872 in Krems (Lower Austria ), † March 20 1956 in Vienna ) was an Austrian politician ( CS) and President.
Life
Wilhelm Miklas, son of a postman, studied in Vienna, history and geography. He was a member of the K.O.St.V. Franconia Vienna, then in the CV, now in the ACA. From 1905 to 1922 he was director at the high school horn.
1907 began his political career as a Member of the Christian Social Party in the Imperial Parliament. Re-elected in 1911, he worked as a deputy from October 1918 Member of the Provisional National Assembly for German Austria and was elected in February 1919 in the Constituent National Assembly for German Austria. Parliament elected him in his Steering Committee, the State Council. 1919 Miklas was Under Secretary of State for Culture in the Cabinet of Chancellor Karl Renner.
On 12 November 1918, the Parliament approved the Republic and the connection to the German Reich and the way Miklas spoke out against this connection.
1923-1928 Miklas was president of the National Council. He was elected on 10 December 1928 the Federal President of Austria by the Federal Assembly.
During the crisis, the so-called " self- dissolution of parliament " in March 1933, he left it to demand from the federal government the necessary proposal to dissolve the National Assembly and new elections and in this respect idle government to be replaced by a constitutionalist, giving him at any time after the Constitution would have been possible. Likewise, he failed to ask the government the necessary proposals for filling vacant judge positions in the Constitutional Court and was mainly responsible for the crippling of this supreme court.
Through its passivity - he had given him all of the constitutional rights to ensure a constitutionalist government, unused - made it Miklas Engelbert Dollfuss to build the Austro-fascist corporate state. In posthumously discovered private notes to Miklas expressed criticism of the policy of Dollfuss and his successor, Kurt Schuschnigg. In particular, he criticized there, the reintroduction of the death penalty. While public criticism of government policy forthcoming, Miklas wrote in his private diary:
" Is this still the rule of law? After the destruction of Parliament now even the destruction of the Constitutional Court. This should withstand a Catholic conscience! "
1934 failed assassination of Austrian National Socialists Miklas.
In his second term, he appointed after the resignation of Schuschnigg on the evening of March 11, 1938, during the German invasion ( see connection ) began, under pressure from the Nazi regime Arthur Seyss- Inquart as Chancellor. From Miklas interviewed Christian Social had refused to accept the office. The Federal Chancellery on the Ballhausplatz in which also served the President, was surrounded "to protect Miklas " by SS troops. As Seyss-Inquart presented the connecting Act for signature, Miklas escaped the signing of the fact that he laid down his office on March 13, 1938. Its functions as head of state went with it to the Federal Chancellor, who signed the entering into force on the same day the law.
The question of why Miklas, who recognized the constitutional violation clearly has done nothing against Dollfuss, Schuschnigg and Seyss- Inquart, was discussed in the contemporary historical literature. The justification provided is Miklas had feared for his large family and their maintenance and therefore not dared to endanger his person and function. It is noteworthy that the later criticism of the Social Democrats largely focused on the acting politicians of the Austro-fascism and the crucial omissions Miklas ' almost aussparte.
The time of the Second World War, spent in his Miklas - which still exists - House in the Hainburgerstraße in Vienna Erdberg. He drew his pension and was President of the National Socialist regime - not tracked - in contrast to other prominent exponent of the corporate state.
After 1945 Miklas exercised no political functions anymore, although he had been temporarily again as president in conversation, while he himself, however, was reluctant. In January 1948 Miklas was for the Wilhelmstrasse trial of Ernst von Weizsäcker et al. ( Case 11) heard. The Tribunal went to a special trip to Vienna. After his death he was buried in the cemetery Döblinger.