In the 1930s, Austrian politics was marked by an experiment in socialism, an attempt by the left wing to institute a socialist utopia in the country as an example to the world. The working class set out to create a distinct working-class culture and a socialist politics at the municipal level in Vienna and other cities. The left-wing politics of Vienna set the tone for much of the 1920s, leading to its own destruction by the growing power of the right wing once Austria was targeted by the Nazis in the 1930s. The socialist experiment in Vienna would attempt to bring massive political and social change to the city, instituting far-reaching programs for the benefit of the poor and working class.
Austrian politics proper began with the creation of the First republic in 1919. The political structures of that time would continue into the early 1930s in Austria and in Vienna. The Austrian Socialist Party, or the SDAP, was then the smallest of the three parliamentary blocs, but it received a preeminent role in the postwar provisional government because it was considered to be able to maintain public order in the face of the revolutionary situation created by economic collapse and military defeat in World War I. The SDAP was at the time able to outmaneuver the Communist Party for control and direction of the workers' and soldiers' councils that were created in imitation of the revolutionary government in Russia. The SDAP suppressed the old imperial army and founded a new military force, the Volkswehr (People's Defense), under SDAP control, intended to contain revolutionary agitation and guard against bourgeois counterrevolution. The SDAP won 40.8 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections of February 1919, compared with 35.9 percent for the CSP and 20.8 percent for the Nationals. The Nationals then withdrew from the coalition and left behind a SDAP CSP government to negotiate a settlement to the war and write a constitution....