On February 12, 1934, shootings occur in Linz between the Republican Protection League and the police. The clashes quickly spread to Vienna and other regions of Austria. Around 360 people die in the fighting. However, just a few days later, the uprising collapses, the Social Democracy is banned, and Austria ultimately descends into dictatorship. Without ideological blinders, the author elucidates the historical facts: How did the uprising come about? How did the fighting unfold? Who were the victims? Did the Dollfuss regime provoke the uprising? Can we truly speak of a heroic struggle of the workers for democracy? Or was the February uprising rather a bloody disaster into which the Social Democratic leadership stumbled with their eyes wide open?.