Von der Demokratie zur Diktatur. Das Kriegswirtschaftliche Ermächtigungsgesetz in der Ersten Republik. Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte Österreichs|Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte Österreichs Band 2 / 2018|

In 1918, the ‘Kriegswirtschaftliche Ermächtigungsgesetz’ (Wartime Economy Enabling Act, or ‘KwEG’) was one of the Monarchy’s laws that remained in force in the new state of ‘Deutschösterreich’ (German Austria). To a certain extent, this meant that an “authoritarian Trojan Horse” had found its way into the Republic, one that would subsequently be called on not only for economic matters but also in other circumstances. Accordingly, from the outset there was criticism from the parliamentary opposition against the use of the ‘KwEG’. Following the government’s reactivation of the ‘KwEG’ in 1932 after a long pause, possibly to test the viability of an authoritarian politics that by-passed parliament, it would ultimately serve as the legal crutch for the establishment of the dictatorship after the suspension of parliament in March 1933