Miklas, Wilhelm

(1872–1956)

   A secondary school teacher and educational administrator, Miklas was a member of the Christian Social Party. His legislative career spanned the Habsburg Empire, where he sat in the Austrian imperial assembly from 1907 to 1918 and in the national assembly of the First Republic until 1928. He was president of the latter body from 1923 to 1928. He also acted as the deputy secretary for religious affairs from 1919 to 1920.

   In December 1928, Miklas was elected president of the First Austrian Republic and served in that office until the Anschluss with Germany in March 1938. It was in this office that he achieved a certain amount of notoriety. In 1933, the Austrian parliament dissolved itself through a series of procedural mishaps. Miklas could have called new elections to reconstitute the body but did not, preferring to have Austria governed under an enabling law established to meet emergency situations in wartime.

   In March 1938, with Nazi invasion of Austria imminent, Hermann Göring asked for the resignation of Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg, to be replaced by the Austrian Nazi leader Arthur Seyss-Inquart (1892–1946). Miklas refused to comply. Nor would he sign the measure recognizing the Anschluss, preferring to resign.

   See also Government.