MIKLAS, WILHELM

born Oct. 15, 1872, Krems, Austria died March 20, 1956, Vienna statesman who served as president of the first Austrian republic (192838). A member of the Christian Social Party, Miklas sat in the Reichsrat (parliament) during the late years of empire (190714), and, after 1919, in the Nationalrat (lower house) of the new Austrian republic. He was president of the Nationalrat when he was elected to the federal presidency. Despite the increased powers granted the president by the constitutional revision of 1929, he remained little more than a figurehead, drifting unprotestingly with the rightward, anti-constitutional current of Austrian politics after 1930. When Austria was united with Nazi Germany, in 1938, he was forced to resign from office, and thereafter he retired from public life.