Rise to Power: 1918 - 1931
With the dissolution of the Austria-Hungarian Empire in 1918 the new Republic struggled to find unity as the Left and Right struggled for dominance. The new Chancellor Karl Renner a Social Democrat was loathed by the Conservative Christian Party, the tension came to a head in July 1919 when a group of Unionist Workers marched into central Vienna to show their discontent with Government Policy. Adolf Hitler who served in the Austrian Army on the Eastern Front had returned to serve as a quasi spy on Communist's and Left-Wing agitators. He would latter settle down in Wien as an artist until 1924. Then Hitler joined the then small Nationalist Party of Austria in 1925 and thereafter quickly made his way through the ranks of the Party backbench, later in the 1927 Elections the Nationalists managed to win five seats in Parliament. Joseph Müller the Party chief was deposed by the Revolutionary Elements in the Party, in June 1928 in the insuring chaos Hitler named himself leader and would later win two successive Leadership ballots. But throughout the late 1920's with the Economy stabilized and with Unemployment extremely low (around 3.6%) support for both extremes for the Left and the Right gradually declined. In 1929 Adolf Hitler created the Austrian Nationalist Socialist Party - 'NASP' a splinter group of the already disintegrating Nationalist Party. With unexpected success he managed to garner 22% of the electorate and was offered the Ministry of Finance, he refused the appointment and preferred to delegate himself to the development of his own Electorate of Linz.
Member of Parliament: 1929 - 1932
With the beginning of the Great Depression in early 1932 Adolf Hitler became highly successful by creating Employment schemes to reduce the systemic rise in Unemployment from the low of 3.6% in 1926 to over 16% in the early months of 1932. In January 1932 to solidify Parliament's mandate the Austrian President called a snap-election to be held within the month. Adolf Hitler with his superb campaigning skills managed to come first in a series of polls, and eventually won by a electoral landslide. On January 30, 1932 he was sworn in as the Chancellor of Austria.
First term: 1932 - 1937
On the fourth of March he presented his first budget to the Parliament, which included the increase of top marginal Tax rates from 22% hiked to a high of 54% massive increases in Infrastructure investment. Along with this the 'Emergency Act' allowed the Chancellor to operate as the sole head of State eliminating the Presidencies role to oversee the powers of the Executive power of the Chancellor. In essence he named himself dictator of Austria, he welcomed the introduction of Labour law reforms, only to abolish the Unions two weeks later, In July he Nationalized the Banking Sector followed by Agricultural subsidies along with Railways (renamed Austria Rail). However being an avid Anti-Semitic discrimination laws were introduced in February 1933 with mobs of NASI Party members systematically began defacing private Jewish property and assaulting defenseless Jews on the streets. As the violence rapidly increased the Nationalist Government offered no comment to American and British Newspapers, with the attacks becoming more and more widespread Hitler eventually intervened presenting himself on National radio "Excessive use of violence including those against Jews and other Minorities will not under any circumstances be tolerated nor condoned". Fellow ministers then suggested a Marshall Law though the other Political Parties agreed the Nationalists boycotted Parliament jeering at the opposition "Jewish parasites", "Zionist thugs".