Julius Deutsch (February 2, 1884, Lackenbach, Austria-Hungary – January 17, 1968, Vienna, Austria) was a politician of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, member of Parliament between 1920 and 1933, and co-founder and leader of the Social Democrat militia Republikanischer Schutzbund ("Republican Defense Association").
Leader of the Schutzbund Julius Deutsch founded the Schutzbund in 1923 as an answer to the paramilitary organization Heimwehr ("Home Guard"), which was ideologically related to the Christian Social Party. He remained its leader until its destruction in 1934.
Schutzbund members were primarily recruited out of the Deutschösterreichische Volkswehr ("German-Austrian People's Guard").Yidishe Bilder no. 13 (1937), cited in the Ghetto Fighters' House archives It had been organized by Deutsch himself as Under Secretary of State in the Department of Armed Forces (November 1918 until March 1919) and as Secretary of State in the Department of Armed Forces (March 1919 until October 1920).
After the defeat of the Republican Guard during the Austrian Civil War of 1934 and the following ban on the Social Democrats, he fled to the city of Brno in Czechoslovakia.
Emigration From 1936 until 1939, Deutsch fought as a general of the Republican troops in the Spanish Civil War.
1939 he moved to Paris and worked for the foreign representation of the Austrian Socialists (AVOES). After the occupation of France by National Socialist Germany, Deutsch, who was of Jewish descent, had to emigrate again, this time to the United States of America. He returned to Austria in 1946. Deutsch was also the President of the Socialist Workers' Sport International.Wheeler, Robert F. Organized Sport and Organized Labour: The Workers' Sports Movement, in Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 13, No. 2, Special Issue: Workers' Culture (Apr., 1978), pp. 191-210
Deutsch was married three times: to Josefine Schall, the mother of Grethe/Gretl Deutsch, to Maria Herzmansky, mother of Hedwig (Hexi) Kramer, and to the novelist Adrienne Thomas.
After his death, a Vienna apartment complex Julius-Deutsch-Hof was named in his honor.
Julius Deutsch was also an uncle of Karl Wolfgang Deutsch, a renowned German-American social and political scientist; the grandfather of Canadian economist Gerald Karl Helleiner;Pratt, Cranford; Culpeper, Roy (2016). "Gerald K. Helleiner: a global citizen" in Global Development Fifty Years after Bretton Woods: Essays in Honour of Gerald K. Helleiner, ed. Albert Berry, Roy Culpeper, and Frances Stewart. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 9. . and great-grandfather of Canadian political scientist Eric Helleiner.
Works
Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety: Forging a Militant Working-Class Culture. Selected Writings. Edited and translated by Gabriel Kuhn. Oakland: PM Press, 2017. Antifascism. Proletarian ability to put up a fight in the battle against Fascism. Vienna, 1926. In (Reconstruction), New York City: New World Club: " ("Protest Against the 'National Austrian Committee), 3 April 1942, p. 5. "" ("The New Austria"), 5 November 1943, p. 1. "" ("The New Government in Austria"), 4 May 1945, p. 3. In (Forwards): "" ("Travelling Impressions in America"), 20 January 1935, supplement, p. 1. In (Parisian Daily News): "" ("From Defense to Offense"), 24 July 1937, p. 1. "" ("Spain's Battle for Freedom: the Honor of Democracy"), 2 January 1938, p. 2. In (Socialist Observatory): "" ("A Clear Answer"), 18 August 1939, p. 793.
References
External links
Julius Deutsch at the Third Workers' Olympiad, Antwerp, 1937 (photo) Recordings with Julius Deutsch in the Online Archive of the Österreichische Mediathek (in German). Retrieved 25 March 2026