After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire following World War I, only a few Muslims remained in the border of the new First Austrian Republic. A private association called the Islamischer Kulturbund was set up by Baron Omar Rolf von Ehrenfels to organize remaining Muslims in the country. However, the organization was promptly dissolved following the Anschluss.[1] Ehrenfels, being a critic of the Nazi Party, fled Austria.[9]