The movement's flag. Despite its officiality, the green chevron was often omitted
The Vaterländische Front (VF, English: Fatherland's Front also translated as Patriotic Front ) was a right-wing, austrofascistAustrian political party. It was founded in 1933 by Engelbert Dollfuss to collect all "loyal Austrians" under one banner. After the prohibition of all other political parties, the VF held a monopolistic position in Austrian politics. It had both a civilian and military divisions.
In spite of the efforts of Dollfuss, the VF never became a mass movement. By the end of 1937 it had 3 million members (with 6.5 million inhabitants of Austria), but only a few party loyalists held genuine allegiance; it could not win the support of its political opponents (from the circles of the Social Democratic Party of Austria and the Nazi Party). The party was banned by the Nazi Party after the German annexation or "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938 before WWII.
The symbol of the VF was the crutch cross (Kruckenkreuz), and its official greeting was Front heil!.
