The history of the Salzburg Festival in the First Republic of Austria is by no means a linear success story, but rather marked by crises that threatened the existence of the Salzburg Festival, which in 1924 even led to the complete cancellation of the Festival. The first construction of a festival hall also triggered a scandal due to the massive cost overruns, which again called the festival into question. Only the intervention of Dr. Franz Rehrl saved the festival, and the Salzburg governor remained its spiritus rector behind and sometimes in front of the scenes until 1938. In the history of Austria no politician has exerted such a dominant influence on one of its most important cultural institutions as Franz Rehrl on the Salzburg Festival in the interwar period. Dr. Franz Rehrl is rightly considered to be the most important cultural and political personality of the state of Salzburg in the interwar period, whose work left not only deep regional but above all national political traces that continue to have an impact today. He was not only the savior of the Salzburg Festival in a life-threatening situation, but also its energetic and imaginative sponsor until 1938.