u/NegevNomad

I came across the following claim in a German-language wikipedia page on Austrian dictator Engelbert Dollfuss and his reception, and I’m trying to understand the historical accuracy behind it.

Namely this excerpt:

“Im November 2014 erklärte der frühere ÖVP-Nationalratspräsident Andreas Khol, es gebe heute im bürgerlichen Lager keinen „Dollfuß-Mythos“, und kritisierte vor allem die diesbezüglichen Thesen der Historikerin Lucile Dreidemy: „Die heutige ÖVP sieht Dollfuß als autoritären Regierungsdiktator wie auch den Ständestaat kritisch. Sein Kampf gegen den Nationalsozialismus aber wird positiv gewürdigt. Während führende Sozialisten wie Karl Renner öffentlich für den Anschluss warben und dann den Krieg bequem mit staatlicher Pension überlebten, mussten Christlichsoziale im Konzentrationslager für ihren Kampf gegen Hitler leiden.”

Translated

(“In November 2014, the former ÖVP National Council President Andreas Khol declared that there was no "Dollfuss myth" in the bourgeois camp today, and criticized above all the theses of historian Lucile Dreidemy in this regard: "Today's ÖVP sees Dollfuß as an authoritarian government dictator as well as the state of estates critically. His fight against National Socialism, however, is positively appreciated. While leading socialists like Karl Renner publicly promoted the annex and then survived the war comfortably with a state pension, Christian socials in the concentration camp had to suffer for their fight against Hitler.”)

This raises a few questions for me:

Why did Karl Renner support the Anschluss in 1938?

Was this consistent with his earlier political views, and how was it justified at the time?

To what extent did Austrian Social Democrats more broadly support Anschluss?

Was there a significant ideological or popular base for this within the party?

Or were most Social Democrats opposed to Nazi Germany by that point?

How accurate is the claim that Social Democrats “lived comfortably” under Nazi rule, while Christian Social conservatives disproportionately suffered persecution?

Were Social Democrats less targeted by the Nazi regime than other groups?

How did repression actually affect different political camps in Austria after 1938?

How do historians today evaluate statements like this?

Is this seen as a fair characterization, or more as a politically motivated interpretation in modern Austrian debates about Dollfuss and the interwar period?

I’d really appreciate any context or clarification, especially regarding how historians interpret Renner’s stance and the broader behavior of Austrian political groups during the Anschluss period.

Israeli here, asking the international crowd if anyone else has done this.

I’ve more or less stopped following the news obsessively, and honestly I feel better for it.

Living here, conflict and security are not abstract topics you just argue about online. It touches daily life in ways people outside sometimes don’t fully get. People you know are in the army or miluim (reserve duty). People know others affected by attacks or displacement. You grow up knowing what to do when sirens go off, where the shelter is, how quickly you need to move.

And with the current war and regional tensions, the news is just an endless stream of security talk, retired generals debating escalation, “what happens if Iran does this,” “what happens if Hezbollah does that,” breaking alerts, speculation, panic, repeat.

At some point I realized I was absorbing far more fear than information.

And weirdly, when I step away from the news, life often looks much more normal than the headlines suggest. People still go to work. Cafés are open. Kids go to school. People argue about politics, complain about rent, meet friends, go to the beach, have Shabbat dinner with family.

Reality is still complicated, but it feels livable.

I’m not ignoring what’s happening. I still care deeply. I want peace in this region more than endless war. But I’ve found that being plugged into constant negativity was hurting my mental health, while stepping back has made me calmer and more present.

Outside the news cycle, life often resembles normalcy much more than doom.

Anyone else in other countries, especially in places dealing with instability or just nonstop negative media, do the same? Stop watching because it was just too much?