„Die Zilli schießt!“

Abstract

After the Austrian Civil War of February 1934, historical accounts produced by the victors and the defeated agreed relatively quickly at least on one point: that the ghting had been a purely male a air, with women either absent altogether from the con ict or reduced to the role of passive victims. is assumption has been also widely shared by academics. Against this background, the article aims to reconstruct the „female“ February 1934. It explores a broad variety of actions undertaken by women including lo­ gistics, communication, reconnaissance and even military combat. Additionally, it highlights how women were of tremendous importance psycholo­ gically. e obvious relevance of women in any military confrontation with state forces poses the question why most of the activities of women during the February ghting were spontaneous and unplanned. Here, the article ar­ gues that military strategists’ decision not to incorporate women into milita­ ry planning was the result not only of patriarchical preconceptions but also of a strategic judgement. A er the clashes of July 1927, the leaders of the So­ cial Democratic Schutzbund forces realigned the organization towards ex­ panding the number of its followers and providing a sphere of activity for radical elements: its potential role as an actual militia, meanwhile, was quiet­ly discounted.

Keywords

• Austria
• interwar period
• civil war
• February 1934
• military history
• gender history