Alwine Dollfuss

Alwine Dollfuss (Alternatively Dollfuß; née Glienke; 12 February 1897 – 25 February 1973) was the wife of former Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. At the time of his murder, she was in Italy with Benito Mussolini, who allowed her the use of his private plane to hurry back to Austria. She is buried in Hietzinger Cemetery next to her husband, and two of her children; Hannerl and Eva. She was also satirized in Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in 1941 as the character 'Betty Dullfeet'.

From 1946 to 1957, Dollfuß lived in Truro, Nova Scotia in Canada together with her two children.

Biography

From farmers' daughter to Chancellor's wife Alwine Glienke was born in 1897 in the former Prussian Province of Pomerania (now the Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland), into modest circumstances as one of fourteen children. At the age of 15, she left her parental home and took up employment as a cashier in Danzig (present-day Gdańsk). Dissatisfied with this position, she soon moved to Berlin, where she first worked for an older sister, and later secured employment at the Preußische Zentralgenossenschaftskasse, a precursor to today’s DZ Bank. It was there, in 1921, that she met Engelbert Dollfuss.

Dollfuss, who had served as Secretary of the Austrian Farmers' League (Österreichischer Bauernbund) since 1919, had been sent to Berlin by the League to complete the studies he had been forced to interrupt due to the First World War. In March 1921, he began working at the Zentralgenossenschaftskasse. During the summer of that same year, the couple became engaged and moved to Austria. Their wedding took place on 31 December 1921 in Dollfuss’s hometown of Kirnberg an der Mank, after which the couple relocated to Vienna.

Alwine, who came from a Protestant family, converted to her husband’s Roman Catholic faith prior to their marriage. Engelbert Dollfuss ascended steadily in his career, becoming Director of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture by 1927, while also becoming increasingly involved in political affairs. In 1930, he was appointed President of the Austrian Federal Railways (Bundesbahnen Österreich). Alwine Dollfuss accompanied her husband to political events, but did not yet assume a public role herself. Between 1927 and 1930, the couple had three children.

In March 1931, Engelbert Dollfuss was appointed to the Ender federal government as a political outsider, as he had never held a seat in the National Council, where he took office as Minister of Agriculture. He would go on to serve in the two short-lived cabinets under Chancellor Karl Buresch. Following their collapse, President Wilhelm Miklas entrusted Dollfuss with the formation of a new government in May 1932.

Given the volatile political situation, Alwine Dollfuss reacted without enthusiasm to her husband’s sudden rise to the Chancellorship. Moreover, she was now expected to contribute to the Chancellor’s public image. She did so primarily through charitable activities. Working alongside Hildegard Burjan and through Burjan’s charitable organization Soziale Hilfe ("Social Aid"), she was involved in organizing the Elisabethtisch, a charitable initiative aimed at assisting the struggling middle class during the winter months.

After Burjan’s death in July 1933, Alwine Dollfuss assumed many of her responsibilities within Soziale Hilfe, including chairing the construction committee for the Seipel-Dollfuß Memorial Church. She also lent her honorary patronage to campaigns such as Take Starving Children to Lunch and Christmas for the Homeland, both of which aimed to provide aid to impoverished children.

Following Engelbert Dollfuss’ establishment of the Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front) as a monopolistic political organization, Alwine became involved in its women’s movement, as did other wives of political figures. In contemporary media, by that time subject to censorship since March 1933 Alwine Dollfuss was portrayed as a woman characterized by simplicity, frugality, and strong ties to the traditional values of the homeland. From then on, the government under the new Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg began to promote a veritable cult surrounding Engelbert Dollfuss, who was described with attributes such as "immortalized", the "martyr chancellor", the "hero chancellor", or similar designations. Engelbert Dollfuss was to serve as a unifying figure for the fragile state, even beyond his death. Beginning in 1936, every event organized by the Fatherland Front concluded with the singing of the Dollfußlied, following the national anthem. The song began with the verses, “Ihr Jungen, schließt die Reihen gut / ein Toter führt uns an!” (“Young men, close your ranks well / a dead man leads us on!”). Even at Engelbert Dollfusss funeral, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer invoked the deceased with the words, “O, be our intercessor at God’s throne”, and within Catholic circles, a call was circulated: “Dollfuss is among the saints to whom we may pray!” In view of this glorification of her late husband, Alwine Dollfuss had to remain a prominent public figure. She was the guest of honor at cornerstone-laying ceremonies and unveilings of monuments dedicated to the deceased, at commemorative events marking the anniversary of his death—which was observed as a “day of national mourning” Dollfuss remained active in the women’s division of the Fatherland Front, served as honorary president of the Soziale Hilfe (Social Aid Association), and organized the Elisabethtisch, most recently in the winter of 1937/38 as a “luncheon for impoverished intellectuals”. The financial security of the Dollfuss family was ensured: in August 1934, the government enacted a special law granting Alwine, instead of a standard widow’s pension, the full salary of her late husband for life. In 1936, “friends and admirers of the chancellor” acquired a country estate in the municipality of Stössing for the family. Immediately prior to the Anschluss, the government dispatched Alwine Dollfuss to Benito Mussolini in a final, unsuccessful attempt to secure his support for Austrian independence. It was received without critical reflection and without awareness of its propagandistic origin long after 1945 and even into the 21st century. where they spent the following years.

The Dollfuss family's stay in Canada became known in Austria only after the end of the war. In 1950, Alwine paid a private visit to the country, and beginning in 1951, according to other sources in 1955 or 1957, she once again took up permanent residence in Austria. There, she received her pension retroactively dating back to 1945, still in accordance with the generous special provision established in 1934. It was not until 1961 that the corresponding law was repealed, and her pension adjusted to the standard level. Following the return of her daughter Eva, she lived a reclusive life with her in Vienna, where Alwine Dollfuss died in 1973. Rudolf (2 December 1930). He remained in Canada after completing his studies, where he pursued a medical career under the name Rudy Dollfuss. Most recently, he served as a pulmonologist at the Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver. Upon the hospital's abrupt closure in 1994, he entered retirement.