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Home , Austrian Empire

october 1936

German and Nazi

Joseph Redlich

Volume 15 • Number 1

The contents of Foreign Affairs are copyrighted.©1936 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this material is permitted only with the express written consent of Foreign Affairs. Visit www.foreignaffairs.com/permissions for more information. GERMAN AUSTRIA AND

By Joseph Redlich

EVERYBODY who knows the history of modern is well aware that for centuries the forces ' dynamic centering in the dominions have affected the and Hapsburg ? peace political progress of the whole continent. Curiously but unde ? state niably the little federal of Austria created by the Paris peace treaties continues, despite its political, economic and mili tary weakness, to occupy this pivotal position. a veto In 1919 the peacemakers laid down against the union of the German Reich with small but purely German Austria. This veto went of currents against the desire seemingly strong of popu lar opinion in both countries. Consequently, during the first decade after the World War the problem of the "" of the old "hereditary lands" with the German national preoccupied the cabinets both of the Great Powers and of new in a the Succession States. It became, fact, crucial problem in Central European . The transformation of Germany into the National Socialist "Third Empire" and Hitler's tre for the mendous propaganda outright annexation of Austria not changed the situation, but it did diminish the importance of the Austrian question in European politics. The successful defense of Austria against the attempts of Hit to ler's Austrian adherents get into power and effect annexation was a extent two men: to large the work of Chancellor Ignaz successor Seipel and Engelbert Dollfuss, his and faithful disciple. course Their clear vision and energy changed the of postwar Austrian and German history. And in the decisive hour a third man, the President of the Republic, Wilhelm Miklas, acted judiciously for the safeguarding of Austrian independence. The defense of that independence during the first years of the been the work of the two peace had cooperative great parties inherited from the old imperial Parliament, the Social Democratic no Party and the Christian Social (or Catholic) Party. There is as doubt that the political craft of Dr. Seipel the leader of the was Christian Social Party the chief factor in maintaining order and peace and in bringing about the financial regeneration of the was a was country. This latter very difficult task indeed. It highly

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to interesting watch this former professor of moral theology solv an ing the intricate social and economic problems of impoverished country. The League of Nations loan marked the success of his endeavors to the of Austria's forces promote recovery productive a on sound money basis. moment movement to From the the Nazi began grow in Ger meant many, Chancellor Seipel realized the danger it for Austria. came Yet in spite of his opposition, groups of Nazis together with remnants the of the German nationalist parties left from the era. scram Hapsburg These leftovers hoped that in the continual to ble for power which Austrian parliamentary life had degen erated they would be able, with the support of their Nazi friends, to outbid both the Marxists and the Catholics. The ceaseless of the two all fights big parties and of the smaller political groups the of during years i926-1931 produced parliamentary paralysis. a new Meanwhile feature which began to be visible in Austrian was a come: political life forecast of greater events to the forma in different tion the provinces of organized military bodies called "home defense or was corps," Heimwehr. It in this guise that the took idea of fascism hold in Austria. In 1931 the Styrian home a defense corps attempted march against to make their leader the master of all the country. This "putsch" the govern ment Yet the Heim wehr to easily stopped. continued strengthen its and became the position increasingly popular throughout country of to by virtue its strong appeal "provincial patriotism." The peasantry stood behind the Heimwehr like a wall, and so a did the landed aristocracy and great part of the lower middle classes in the towns. small Step by step the organization grew, former helped by army officers. Prince became its leader and sums of his own on spent large money equipping the arms soldiers with and other military necessities. Chancellor aided the movement both Seipel morally and materially. When the Social Democrats a organized special military body for the of the the Chancellor protection Republic, said ironically: "Cre a defense is a but the ating corps very good idea, radicals forget that the we, conservatives, understand these things better!" He foresaw a conflict between the Christian Socialists and the Marxists. In the meantime the continuous rise of Hitler's popularity and in power Germany stimulated the growth of the Nazi movement in Austria. The Nazi growing threat during the years 1930-1932 GERMAN AUSTRIA AND NAZI GERMANY 181

ministries met an astounding lenience from weak Austrian were and from the courts, particularly in the provinces. There the Austrian Gov many plots, both large and small, against were sent to ernment. Many agents from Germany help their across the Austrian party friends, smuggling explosive materials was Dr. border to destroy state railroads and bridges. It again a man lead Austria Seipel who felt that very strong should through on these critical times. He therefore insisted the appointment of Dr. Dollfuss as Chancellor. From that moment came a for ever since his great change, of entry into politics Dollfuss had been the vigorous embodiment the idea of Austrian independence. He proceeded to show that he a mind when in possessed far-seeing political many public speeches he that Austrian was based on repeated sovereign independence state was the old Germanic conception of the and therefore op to of German Nazi posed the totalitarian system Hitler. The leaders soon to that his and were a force began recognize courage sincerity to be reckoned with. They therefore concocted plots against his On a was carried out Viennese person. July 25,1934, "putsch" by a Nazis, mostly mutinous soldiers and policemen. Dollfuss fell victim of the traitors and died at his office in the Chancery. He was as a rightly lamented martyr who had sacrificed himself for the independence of his country. The assassination of Dollfuss stimulated in all classes the feel cause of must ing that the great Austrian independence be de at costs. was fended all This setback for Hitlerism followed by a new a the speedy appointment of ministry under young Tyro lese, Dr. Schuschnigg. 11

This short survey indicates that, quite apart from the personal merits of Chancellors Seipel and Dollfuss, deep historic forces were imbedded in the political character of the German Austrian peo were ple and that they working for the resurrection of full Aus trian independence. a The Austrian has strong feeling for the historic individuality a and political autonomy of his tribe. It is general characteristic of all the German tribes that from the moment of their entry a into history they possessed very outspoken tribal pride that to them preserve their specific differences in customs, {>romptedaw, language and ways of life. The curious fact is that the Teu l82 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

never tons lost this tendency in their later development and have always endeavored to maintain their tribal and local historic as As a groups separate entities. result, the is an not amalgamation of the vernacular idioms of the prominent national tribes. On the contrary, the written German Schrift arose sprache in the sixteenth century in the chancery of the was Elector of Saxony and adopted by the chanceries of the other a German governments. This is characteristic feature of the very manner slow and partly artificial in which the German feeling for national unity developed in spite of the strength of local and no tribal particularism. At present German speaks the Schrift sprache without immediately showing by his accent and expres as sion to which "tribe" he belongs. That is true of the Low as in the north of the Alpine Germans in Austria and Switzerland. The history of German political unification shows how slow was a the process of creating strong national feeling in German life. This is to a certain extent the consequence of the fact that as the old instituted by Charlemagne was not conceived as a centralized national state, but was the Roman west non Empire, which included in the east, south and manifold races as Teutonic and political units. The feudal system it de veloped among the Germans further strengthened the power of territorial particularism. Luther's Reformation created for the a first time the beginnings of strong German national feeling. as as Yet the resistance of the Hapsburg , well of a and of many clerical territorial magnates, produced permanent division of Germany into two halves, expressed by the difference in Christian faith. The Thirty Years' War and the continuance of an the "Empire" (Reich) as administrative and judicial system, a over forming kind of super-state all the German states, large and small, confirmed this religious division. In the eighteenth century, the successful attacks of Frederick the Great of against Maria Theresa, ruler of the Haps a a burg dominions, strengthened for time the idea of political union of all Germany. But it was who by his victories over both Prussia and Austria and by the abdication of Franz, the last of Germany, ultimately^ de a stroyed the old empire and thereby caused the rise of strong movement in favor of the union of all German states in a new national empire. GERMAN AUSTRIA AND NAZI GERMANY 183

The made France the first modern national set a state in Europe and thereby up nationalist ideal for all In European peoples. combination with the conception of liberal democracy this ideal made the nineteenth century the great period for rising and democracy (exemplified in the French revolutions of 1830 and 1848). This meant for the Ger mans and Italians that the endeavor to secure national unification to create a new coalesced with the endeavor system of political life. a The Austrian Empire, multi-national structure, was threatened was with disruption. Even after 1867, when dualism created in were a favor of the Magyars, the Germans still numerical minor in the of the that continued to be ad ity part empire directly ministered from Vienna. The question of both a in Germany and Austria unavoidably became decisive factor in the relations between the two governments. But Franz Josef's to fears that his empire might fall prey the Pangerman movement were quieted by the Austro-German Dual Alliance of 1879 and by Iron the Chancellor's repudiation of any kind of Pangermanism. nineteenth national During the century feeling throughout a certain to Europe showed tendency emotional exaggeration. was to utmost case That it carried the in the of modern Germany is illustrated by the fact that from the beginning it found expres in a curious sion very and reckless political philosophy which on rested the assumption that the Teutonic race towered above to all others in the world. This led the modern theory of the unique race superiority of the Nordic from which the Germans derived to to their special title European leadership. The first follow this was way of thinking J. G. Fichte, who laid down his ideas in to famous speeches addressed the German nation during its Fichte's almost struggle against Napoleon. megalomaniac phi remained a source for the education subse losophy permanent of so as was quent German generations. Yet long Bismarck in power not a this political philosophy did produce popular movement; it remained a kind of sectarianism for middle-class idealistic intellectuals. After their incomparable military success and the creation of the Reich in the German 1871, people made rapid progress in agriculture, trade and industry. Their technical and scientific ability, supported by increasing wealth, fostered the utilization of the nation's entire productive forces and made them the powerful nation in Europe. 184 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

This development deeply affected the German . They war became very proud of the achievements of their brothers in fare, in politics, and in business. Nobody admired Prussianized Germany more than the average German Austrian. True, he very often did not like that German brother as an individual, nor his was manners; and when he in Germany he did not always feel at or on home, except in Bavaria the Rhine. Though he felt proud to a more be German by race, he loved his Alpine homeland than eastern con the large plains of northern and Germany. But his stant to obligation wage political warfare against the Slavs, Ital races to was ians and other protect what he felt his birthright a not a gradually transformed him into nationalist, though rabid one. The Viennese continued to himself as a citizen of the ? regard real imperial city the Kaiserstadt. From 1875 to the end of the century the Austrian Germans to more more had fight and fiercely with the other nationalities in the Hapsburg Empire. In this period, too, Pangermanism and a union with the German Empire became for the first time von political issue in Austria. Georg Schoenerer, who had early a to become member of parliament, did much make it the gospel of the German Austrian youth, particularly in the universities, was as a where he regarded the herald of great national future. was Yet from the very beginning Pangermanism flatly rejected on by the ordinary Austrian when he voted candidates for the or for the central Parliament. And from the time that Schoenerer combined his with a crude agitation campaign against? Catholicism, calling it the "away from Rome movement" "los von Rom" in Austria was doomed to ?Pangermanism fail, except in a few districts of near the German frontier. m This examination of the bald facts of the relations of the Aus us trian Republic and the Nazi Reich has led straight to the de was cisive point. German nationalism first developed in the old as a Austrian Empire doctrine of Pangermanism. This doctrine was as a to created political weapon destroy the Hapsburg Em out were pire, of the wreck of which the German hereditary lands to be salvaged and united with the Prussianized German Empire. When this scheme had failed, nothing hindered the young Aus trian Adolf Hitler from adopting the doctrine of Schoenerer, whose weekly review he had avidly read and whose speeches he GERMAN AUSTRIA AND NAZI GERMANY 185 to was as a had listened fervently while he living youth in Vienna. Indeed, in his famous autobiography Hitler recites how in his an teens he had been ardent disciple and follower of Schoenerer. When, following the defeat of 1918, German nationalism began to a manifest its revival in diffuse but copious literature addressed to as a youth, he dedicated his immense force public speaker and to indefatigable propagandist teaching Schoenerer's doctrine of to masses Pangermanism the in Germany, making it the program of the National Socialist Party he had founded in Munich. now In Austria this doctrine, re-imported from Germany, had no success. was on to popular It the whole indigestible the Austrian stomach. The great parliamentary parties of the not a veto Austrian Republic had put up strong fight against the of the victorious Allies against Austrian union with Germany. not now to They could be expected work for the Pangermanism no of Schoenerer, which had made headway among the Austrian masses as a in the old days. Hitler revived Pangermanism weapon in his fight against the democratic German Republic. He had high were hopes of easily winning Austria, where all social classes struggling against the terrible misery of the postwar years. But he soon saw nor his hopes frustrated; neither the Alpine farmer the nor city tradesman the workman believed in his messages and his sua. promises. Nemo propheta in patria Only among the half intel lectuals and the lower middle class, particularly the lower ranks was to a of the public officials, there be found certain admiration for Hitler's force and courage. masses were The mind and soul of the German largely domi nated bitter resentment the victorious nations. Their by against and were hurt. To see recover pride self-respect deeply Germany era her old glory of the imperial became their great aim. Hitler by new his vision and immense activity gave them hope. But the nor German Austrian could neither join in these hopes in these hatreds. He knew that his and its as a result country people were, the no of war, among the weakest in Europe, that they had pos of at all sibility recovering without the good will and help of all the to other nations. He desired nothing but preserve the inde own pendence of his beloved home by maintaining its good tradi tions, in peace with all other nations and undisturbed by any of the new to doctrines that promised everything everybody. Above he a to all, feared huge centralized power that might seek impose i86 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

upon all the German tribes a uniform rule of life and a doctrine equalizing them in all things human and divine. was one It the profound and healthy conservatism of this, of the oldest branches of the German race, which rejected Hitler's as an Pangermanism just earlier generation had rejected Schoen own erer's Pangermanism. The Austrians knew that their ideas about the federative character of their state coincided with the old German conception of the national political order, and they to continued believe that nothing should be substituted for that old wisdom. Moreover, Hitler's outspoken anti-Christian attitude, and particularly the open enmity of the Nazis for the , not provoked the deepest indignation in Austria, only in the rural masses but also in the middle and upper classes of the urban population. Also, in spite of the fact that the German Austrian's to the of the Slavs and Italians opposition political aspirations in the old had made him a staunch nationalist in Franz empire ne never Josef's time, had accepted the radical theory of the race core superiority of that forms the of Pangerman and Nazi was a ideology. This curious by-product of Protestant Germany, one as is illustrated by the fact that Paul Lagarde, of the great a scholars of Protestant theology and leading German nationalist writer in the seventies of the last century was, as it were, the teacher of von Schoenerer. Georg we must never a On the other hand, forget that moderate Ger man one national feeling has been of the fundamental elements in the whole social, political and cultural life of German Austrians ever since 1848. German Austrian men and women of all classes have recognized that the reunion of their country with the Ger man nation forms the great future aim of Austrian policy. They simply do not believe that Hitler's "totalitarian" state can be as regarded the realization of the national ideal cherished during at least four generations. They feel instinctively that incorpora state tion in that would entail suffering for hundreds of thou mean a sur sands of good Austrians. They know that it would render of the old Austro-German culture and political spirit.