World History

212.

The Attack on the Ravag Broadcasting Station

³⁴

The object of the attack by the rebels on the Broadcasting House of the Austrian Radio Company was to obtain control of the wireless news service and thereby mislead both the authorities and the public by spreading false reports on the resignation of the Dollfuss Cabinet and the success of the revolt. In some parts of Austria the wireless report was the signal for insurrection.

The energetic and rapid action of the Federal Police, however, was responsible for the failure of this part of the rising, so that the Nazis were unable to influence the public by means of the wireless as had been their intention.

The attack on the Ravag building in Johannes Street was made by the S. S. Standarte No. 89, according to plans that had been prepared.

One group of terrorists assembled near the Café Kolowrat in the "Ring," and approached the building by way of Seilerstaette. Another section arrived from the Kaerntner Street. Each man was armed with a Steyr revolver, and 100 rounds.

As, some days previously, an attempt had been made by Nazis, secreted in one of the broadcasting rooms, to blow up a studio, certain precautionary measures had been taken. The entrance was guarded by a policeman and a member of the Schutzcorps, and every visitor was obliged to prove his identity.

Shortly after 12:30 p.m. two policemen arrived and informed the Police Inspector on duty, named Fluch, that they had been detailed to stand by at the Ravag. Fluch told them that they were merely to assist the member of the Schutzcorps who was on duty.

At about 1 p.m. several separate groups of young men in plain clothes approached the building. One of them managed to obtain entry by saying that he had an appointment with the Manager, Dr. Nuechtern. The very next moment the men who had been approaching from the "Ring" rushed the entrance, overpowered the Schutzcorps guard and threatened the two above-mentioned police, who at once surrendered their arms without resistance. The Inspector of Police Fluch, who had been standing on the other side of the street, rushed to the door, but collapsed, fatally wounded. The door was at once closed and barricaded.

During the short space of time in which these events took place, the second group, which had approached the Broadcasting Station from Kaerntner Street, rushed through the entrance of the adjacent elementary school, and thence to the gymnasium in the courtyard, where workmen were doing some redecorating. The Nazis forced their way past the men by threatening them with their revolvers, crossed the courtyard and broke into the Ravag building through the windows on the ground floor.

Inside the building they proceeded according to programme. The doors were barricaded and guarded; one group broke into the broadcasting rooms, drove the employees and artists into one corner and forced the engineer, Dr. Lothaller, to connect up the building with the Bisamberg transmitter. The announcer, Herr Ehrenberg, was then forced to give out the following statement: "The Dollfuss Government has resigned. Dr. Rintelen has taken over control of the Government." Another group occupied the telephone exchange of the building and forced the girl on duty to cut off all communications.

The officials of the Ravag on the upper floors had taken refuge in various rooms and barricaded themselves against intruders.

The existence of a second switchboard and a separate broadcasting station in Schelling Street was apparently not known to the insurgents, and the managers, imprisoned in the building, were able to maintain communcation with the outside world, and to order the immediate disconnection of the Bisamberg transmitter from the Broadcasting Station, Johannes Street.

Within a few minutes the Ravag building was surrounded by Federal police. It proved impossible to force the main entrance. The police then attempted to enter the rooms of the Ravag through the windows of the housekeeper’s flat. To do this, however, they found they had to cross a small backyard which was under the fire of the terrorists. A detachment of police then managed to get through the nearby building at No. 4 Johannes Street into the Gymnastic Hall, where they came under heavy fire, and Superintendent Kaufmann was fatally shot. At this point Superintendent Ferdinand Schweiger gave orders to barricade the doors of the houses in Anna Street, and thence forced his way into the courtyard of the Ravag building, only narrowly escaping the fire of the rebels from the broadcasting room. He then called out the Flying Squad of the Federal Police. In the meantime police who approached over the roofs of the neighbouring buildings were fired at by the Nazis.

Finally it was found necessary to employ hand-grenades. After the explosion of the first, the police stormed the first courtyard but were driven back by fire from the broadcasting room, and were again obliged to use bombs. After the third explosion fire broke out in the broadcasting room, necessitating the intervention of the fire brigade. A number of the rebels fled in the meantime to the top floors, but at last surrendered to the police.

The Nazis displayed an intimate knowledge of all the strategical positions of defence in the building, and took full advantage of them. This may explain how fifteen men were able to hold the building through an hour and three-quarters of continuous fighting.

The ringleader of the Nazis was killed. On the side of the police the two superintendents, already mentioned, Fluch and Kaufmann, were killed, Schutzcorpsman Kauf was wounded in the thigh. The chauffeur of the Ravag was seriously wounded when the rebels entered the building, and died before the end of the fight. An actor, Herr Ferstl, completely lost his head, and, in a fit of madness, jumped into the worst of the firing and was instantly killed by a bullet.

Thirteen of the fifteen insurgents, all of whom belonged to the S. S. Standarte No. 89, were arrested. One Nazi was able to make his escape during the confusion owing to the difficulty of distinguishing between the rebels and radio employees or visitors to the building. The two policemen who had played an ambiguous part in the first assault on the building surrendered after the hand-grenade attack.

The subsequent investigations and the trial before the military court in Vienna on August 14th and 18th proved beyond doubt the connection between the attack on the Ravag Broadcasting Station and the other revolutionary events of the day.

³⁴ Austria, Bundeskommissariat für Heimatdienst, The Death of Dollfuss. An Official History of the Revolt of July, 1934, in Austria, transl, by Johann Messinger, Denis Archer, London, 1935, pp. 151–154. Reprinted by permission of the publishers.