The
Heimwehr (,
Home Guard) or sometimes
Heimatschutz (,
Homeland Protection) were a
nationalist, initially
paramilitary group operating within
Austria during the 1920s and 1930s; they were similar in methods, organisation, and ideology to Germany's
Freikorps. Although opposed to parliamentary democracy, the Heimwehr maintained a political wing known as the
Heimatblock, which cooperated with
Engelbert Dollfuss' conservative government. In 1936, the Heimwehr was absorbed into the
Fatherland Front by decree of Chancellor
Kurt von Schuschnigg and replaced by a militia supposedly less inclined towards uproar against the regime, the
Frontmiliz.