When did Austria become a republic?
First Austrian Republic
Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss of the Christian Social Party took power in Austria on 20 May 1932, and moved the party and Austria towards dictatorship, centralisation and fascism, in part because the fascist Italy was its strongest international ally against Germany. In March 1933, Dollfuss took advantage of an error in a bill in parliament, and his cabinet voted to dissolve the National Council and declared that parliament has ceased to function. In May 1933 he created the Fatherland Front. While outwardly fascist, it was mostly Catholic and influenced by the papal encyclical Quadragesimo anno of 1931 which refuted liberalism and socialism in favour of corporatism.