ABSTRACT
Few figures in the history of the Austrian First Republic were so controversial, both during their lifetimes and after, as Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. The curiously favorable light in which Dollfuss was viewed by Social Democrats before 1933 deserves closer examination. The actions Dollfuss later took as an official of the Lower Austrian chamber of agriculture were clearly directed at creating a powerful institutional expression of the peasant estate. Dollfuss's world view was not only influenced by Spann and the Catholic reformist tradition. Dollfuss's endeavor to expand the network of cooperatives had as its goal the increased economic independence of Lower Austrian peasants. Dollfuss became minister of agriculture on 18 March 1931, after a controversial six-month stint as president of the Austrian railway system. Dollfuss argued that the small size of the carcasses pointed to a potential danger to public health. Dollfuss's Milk Equalization Fund Bill unleashed a storm of controversy.
