The Austrian statesman Kurt von Schuschnigg (1897-1977) served as chancellor of Austria from 1934 to 1938. He succeeded in preventing German absorption of Austria until he lost the support of Mussolini in 1937.

Kurt von Schuschnigg was born on December 14, 1897, at Riva on Lake Garda (now a part of Italy). He was the son of an Austrian army officer. Educated in a Jesuit gymnasium at Feldkirch, Schuschnigg served in the Austro-Hungarian army on the Italian front in World War I. He was decorated for bravery and was a prisoner of war during 1918-1919. In 1922 he received a doctorate in law from the University of Innsbruck.

After practicing law in Innsbruck, Schuschnigg became a candidate of the Christian Socialist party for Parliament and, through the backing of the influential Christian Socialist leader Ignaz Seipel, was elected to Parliament in 1927. In 1932 Schuschnigg was named Austrian minister of justice, and in 1933 he assumed the...