JULIUS DEUTSCH Dr. Deutsch, commander of the Austrian Schutz­ bund (republican guard), lost his left eye in the revolt herein described.

.... THE CIVIL WAR IN AUSTRIA

A First-Hanel Account from Eye-Witnesses anel Participants

By JULIUS DEUTSCH Commander, the Austrian Republican Guard

Translated by David P. Berenberg

The Socialist Party, National Headquarters Chicago, 1934 Copyright, 1934 by the Socialist Parry of the United States of America

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. ~:;)212

Julius Deutsch: "Der Buergerkrieg in Oesterreich," was first published in the German language as the eighth volume of the series, "Problems of Socialism." Copyright, 1934, by Druckund Verlag­ sanstalt "Graphia," G. m. b. H., Karls- bad, Czechoslovakia. TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE I. POLITICAL CURRENTS AND CROSS CURRENTS...... 9

II. THE RULERS ...... 11

III. THE MILITARY LINE-UP...... 14

IV. TENSE DAYS ...... 18

V. THE STORM BREAKS...... 22

VI. THE FIRST BATTLES: Margareten and Meidiing :...... 25

VII. FAVORITEN AND SIMMERING 28

VIII. OTTAKRING 31

IX. THE BATTLE AT THE KARL MARX HOF 33

X. FLORIDSDORF...... 39

XI. TREASON WITHIN THE SCHUTZBUND: Resistance Wanes .:. 47

XII. LOWER AUSTRIA REMAINS QUIET...... 50

XIII. THE FIGHTING IN UPPER AUSTRIA...... 52

XIV. THE FIGHTING IN STYRIA 58

XV. THE VENGEANCE OF THE VICTORS 64

XVI. COURT MARTIAL .67

XVII. FLIGHT ' 73

XVIII.. EPILOGUE 78 FOREWORD

As this translation of Julius Deutsch's stirring description of the civil war in Austria was in preparation, the news flashed across the sea that Engelbert Dollfuss, the red-handed murderer of February, was dead. He had been shot by the Nazis, who had after all attempted a "putsch." All his backing and filing, all his catering to Austrian chauvinism, to the Church, to the Austrian industrialists, to Mussolini, had been in vain. In vain, too, his determination to sacrifice the Socialist workers in his gamble for power. He who had lived by the sword, had died by the sword. The death of Dollfuss has not profited the Nazis. Their "putsch" proved abortive. The four thousand lives it wasted have brought nothing. Its secret sponsor, Hitler, stands convicted before the world as the criminal he is. He stands alone. F@r the moment no one dares, by showing him friendship, to assume even remote responsi­ bility for his deeds. In Austria Schuschnigg, Starhemberg and Fey are in power now, as they were before. Or rather, the sinister alliance of the black clericals, the junkers, the industrialists and Mussolini, which is back of them as it was back of Dollfuss, is in power. But Austria is on the brink of a volcano. Perhaps before these words are printed the picture will have changed, and the evil forces let loose in the world in 1914 will have claimed more victims. Austria is to-day the focus of world politics. Not since Sarajevo has there been so delicate a balance between the forces of war and peace. Italy, Germany, Jugoslavia fiover over Austria like vultures waiting for a man to die. They look suspiciously at each other, as ready to spring at each other as at prostrate Austria. In the background stand France and England, fearful of the issue if the smaller powers let greed lead them to war, doubtful of their ability to localize the war if war comes. Within Austria there is desolation. The February battles and the Nazi "putsch" have accounted for 10,000 lives-and the end is not yet. There may be other revo­ lutions and counter revolts. Economic life is at low ebb. Poverty and misery and fear are masters on the Danube. And there is little to hope for. The forces that produced this chaos are the same in Austria as the world over. It is nothing new that the "haves" should defend their property with bitter violence against the "have-nots." This struggle-the class-struggle-is not the work of one man or of groups of men. But it can be shaped by men. In Austria the struggle takes its present bloody form because one man who had power used it for self­ aggrandizement. What MussoHni had done, what Hitler succeeded in doing, that Dollfuss tried to do, and failed. History would smile at his failure if it could forget the 10,000 that are dead. There is only one force that can rescue Austria from disaster. The workers' move­ ment, seemingly crushed now and forced underground, will one day re-assert its power. Then Austria will once more be reckoned among the civilized nations.

-DAVID P. BERENBERG.

7 L PoliticaJ Currents and Cross-Currents

The day on which Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, raised the question of the fate of Austria. The question whether the little Danubian Republic would follow in the footsteps of its big brother, or whether it would go its own way, had to be decided. Fascism or democracy-that was the question. Organized labor in Austria was in the front ranks of the fight for the democratic solution. In a bitter struggle that extended over more than a decade, the Social Democratic Party and the free trades unions had exerted all their powers to save democracy. Nothing is more ridiculous than the assertion that the Austrian Social Democrats were "Bolshevists" who aimed at a Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Only by twisting and distorting in the most brazen fashion the statements expressing adherence to democracy, con­ tained in the Linz Program (1926), could the reaction find the shadow of an excuse for this assertion. The fascist agitators wandered up hill and down dale, in their efforts to frighten peasants and bourgeoisie with the specter of an allegedly threat­ ening bolshevist revolution. When, then, a clash between demonstrating workers and the police, on July 15, 1927, in Vienna, caused the death of ninety people, this shocking accidental occurrence was misrepresented as a preconceived and planned attempt at insurrection. The incompetence and brutality of the Viennese police, who in their blind rage shot at defenseless people, was charged not to the police who did the shooting but to the workers who were shot. In spite of the fact that the government, after this fatal day, ever more clearly placed itself on the side of the fascists, the workers remained calm and restrained. In a bitter guerilla warfare they fought with democratic methods against the growing power of fascism. The Republican Schutzbund (League of Defense), the defensive organization of the proletariat, was in no way intended to be an offensive weapon against other classes. It was, and was meant to be, nothing but a means of defense for the working class. It was founded only to ward off the danger of fascism, and in the ten years of its effectiveness it stood the test of political responsibility, and proved its . reliability as a democratic force. Aside from the organized working class there were only a few resolute champions of democracy. Among the peasants, who for the most part were in the camp of the "Christian Socialists," several leaders, among them the agrarian chieftains Reither, Schlegel and Rehrl, were engaged in serving democracy. But their behavior at critical moments was always too feeble to carry any weight. The other peasant party in Austria, the Landbund 9 (Agrarian Federation) kept vacilating between democracy and the fascist ideology. The democrats among the peasants, Franz Winkler and the engi­ neer Schumy, were as little to be relied upon as were the very few repre­ sentatives of the petty bourgeois (Kollmann) and the proletarian secrions (Kunschak) within the Christian Social Party, who in their hearts favored democracy, but only rarely plucked up enough courage to take an open stand in its favor. The bourgeois classes of Austria and their political parties were com­ bined in the united front against Marxism. God knows what the low-browed respectables of small Alpine towns and market-places imagined Marxism to be. None of them had ever seen a single line of the writings of Karl Marx, but perhaps for that very reason they were anti-Marxists, body and soul. Consciousness of their own low level of civilization, and envy of the rising cultural level of the working class, fused in a synthesis of hate against which no appeal to reason could make headway. Under these circumstances it was not strange that the fascist ideology made rapid progress in these circles. For all that, the fascist organizations remained relatively weak. The Heimwehr (Home Defense Corps), the true agents of Austrian fascism, had never achieved any great significance numer­ ically, and in the first months of 1933, when Hitler rose to power in Germany, they showed definite signs of decline. What the Heimwehr lacked in organ­ ized strength was fully made good by the confusion that seized broad strata of the bourgeoisie, which, animated by a petty but venomous hatred for the workers, became overnight the prey of fascist word-weavings. Behind the Heimwehr stood the great landed proprietors, who even under the republic had remained an influential class, and the former officers of the Hapsburg armies. The Heimwehr also received money from the indus­ trialists. In foreign politics the Heimwehr was an adherent of Italy. Just as the Austrian National Socialists received their orders from Berlin, so the Heim­ wehr took its orders from Rome. These different attitudes in foreign affairs led to a conflict between the Heimwehr and the National Socialists, although both tendencies were in other matters united by a common fascist ideology. The two fascist groups of Austria served for cold cash as mercenaries of Berlin or Rome. \ Since Hitler could not reach an agreement with Mussolini over the fate of Austria, the two fascist groups had to wage war on one another. The one group fought for the so-called "independence" of Austria, the other for "Anschluss" (union) with Germany. But the Heimwehr as well as the National Socialists at the same time carried on a merciless war on the rights of the working class. They spoke of the downfall of democracy, and meant thereby the destruction of all the liberties and social achievements which the post-war years had given the working class.

10 II. The Rulers

In the spring of 1932 Dr. Engelbert Dollfuss, until then Minister of Agriculture, was appointed Chancellor by the president. Until that time Dollfuss had been occupied chiefly with agricultural problems and had not particularly distinguished himself as a politician. He was a new man in politics. Those who had dealings in those days with the dwarfish little man, who was hard of hearing and nervous, did not perceive in him any marked qualities of statesmanship. Dollfuss kept on reiterating his "sincere demo­ cratic convictions," but this circumstance did not prevent him from establish­ ing friendly relations immediately with the fascist Heimwehr, nor from offering that body several ministerial posts in the new government. With the help of eight Heimwehr delegates in the Parliament it became possible for him to achieve a majority of one or two votes. With this slender major­ ity, which was affected by every political ~urrent, he tried to govern.' Natur­ ally he soon met with difficulties. Instead of attributing the instability of his government to the meager majority from which it inevitably arose, Dollfuss placed all the blame on parliamentarism as an institution. Because he found no substantial majority in parliament, he attacked the parliament. Now it became evident that an uncontrollable, passionate ambition con­ sumed the. little man, an ambition beyond all bounds, an almost pathological will to power. With nervous, angry cries he interrupted speeches by the opposition in parliament in which he was attacked with unusual severity; votes which endangered his government he looked upon as personal insults. Soon it appeared that Dollfuss simply could not work with the Austrian Parliament, which until then had performed its duties without any particu­ lar difficulty, and which-it is essential to say-had done its work well, taking into consideration the tremendous economic difficulties it faced. One or the other had to give way, Dollfuss or the Parliament. The accident of a vote incorrectly taken in Parliament-in reality, how­ ever, the victory of fascism in Germany-came to the chancellor's rescue. On the day before Hitler's election in Germany all three presiding officers of the Austrian Parliament resigned because the parties could not reach an agreement over a ballot which a Social Democratic member had inadvert­ ently marked incorrectly. This single ballot would have decided an impor­ tant question. The government could easily have overcome the ensuing parliamentary crisis had it wished to do so. But Dollfuss did not wish it. He saw in the halting of the parliamentary machine the finger of God, which enabled him to deliver a mortal blow to the popular assembly which he hated in the depths of his soul. The government refused to allow the parliament to meet for the election of a new president. Even at that time, on March 15, 1933, when the delgates of the Social Democratic and of the Pan-German Parties, 11 in opposition to the will of the government, met in a rump session, a violent clash seemed inevitable. At the last moment the catastrophe was averted. Dollfuss now began to govern without Parliament. The constitution, to be sure, prescribed the co-operation of Parliament in the adoption of legis­ lation, but Dollfuss no longer gave a tinker's dam for the constitution. His violation of the constitution, his arbitrary acts of intervention in adminis­ rrative affairs and in the administration of justice are without number. The Supreme Court, like the Parliament, was dismissed. Austria ceased to be a constitutional state. Dollfuss proclaimed himself the "Leader" of the Austrian people. To be sure, he had only a minute fraction of the people behind him, and for that reason he advisedly refrained from calling an election, but he acted as if the people were really supporting him. When well-intentioned friends pointed out to the Chancellor the risks involved in his policies, they spoke to deaf ears. Dollfuss began to think himself the most important man of the century. In an infantile and. ridiculous manner he now appeared on public occasions as a military hero, on horseback, dressed in the uniform of the old Austrian army. In Vienna Dollfuss jokes began to make the rounds. 'No Austrian poli­ tician has been so much mocked and lamp90ned as the little dictator. But Dollfuss took himself terribly seriously. His ego 'grew, in so far as this was still possible, when he met with a favorable reception in foreign countries because of his struggle against German National Socialism. He counted the demonstrations of the world against Hitler as applause meant for him. At bottom Dollfuss was an insincere and unreliable person. He lied to all, friend and foe alike. He did not shrink from publicity combating the National Socialists, while at the same time he bargained in secret with them over the terms of an alliance. Intimate friendship bound him to the Heim­ wehr ministers, but this did not prevent him from making treaties with their enemies behind their backs. Nor is it necessary to speak of the lies with which he took in his own party associates. And yet this most cunning of all political rogues, this master of filthy intrigue was in important matters as small as his dwarfish figure. He suc­ cumbed to the determined self-assertion of his colleague in office, the Major of the Reserves, Emil Fey. This man has no signal intellectual gifts, he can boast of almost no education. He has barely been able to acquire the super­ ficial polish of a military cadet. Yet in his association with Dollfuss Fey has proved himself the stronger. Fey has little or no grasp of things intel­ lectual; he understands only the trival, the obvious. His corporal's mind lacks all grace and power. But his will is logical and'energetic. As a mem­ ber of the officer caste he hates the Social Democracy as a "subversive party." He has no inkling of the great cultural values which it has created, and he attacks it precisely for that reason with the unconcern ofan ignoramus. 12 In the course of the last year Dollfuss several times grew timid. Then Fey took a hand. Fey destroyed all possibility ofa peaceful solution of the crisis; whenever a ray of hope for an understanding flamed up anywhere, he quenched it again by a brutal provocation of the workers. It is asserted that he was influenced in this by very strong personal motives. Up to the time of his entrance into the government he was a poor pensioner, heavily in debt. Now he occupies a large and luxuriously furnished home, main­ tains a retinue of servants, goes riding daily on the boulevards-in short, he plays the·nobleman. He should like, if possible to become even more "noble," perhaps even a count or a prince by the grace of the Hapsburgs. In sketching the character of this man we must remember that he is a bred­ in-the-bone·monarchist. In this connection he differs to a certain extent from the leader of the Heimwehr, Prince Ernest Rudiger von Starhemberg. This man has little use for the Hapsburgs because he considers his family not inferior to theirs, and because he would have no objection to establishing a new dynasty in Austria in place of the Hapsburgs-the dynasty of the Starhembergs. The young prince is an impulsive, emotional man who, whenever he opens his mouth-and that is of daily occurrence-talks the baldest nonsense. He is the enfant terrible of the reaction. The great influence of the two Heimwehr leaders on the history of Austria is in striking contrast with their significance, which is slight, and with the strength of the movement they represent. Fey and Starhemberg have grown strong because their associates were weak. That is particularly true in the case of the man at the head of the state, the federal President Wilhelm Miklas. He is a sanctimonious person, who constantly mouths the name of God, but who does not shrink from aiding and abetting the base violations of the constitution of the Dollfuss government. Had Miklas been a man of integrity, had he been loyal to the constitution, the dictatorship of Dollfuss would have been impossible. The federal President, who under the law appoints the members of the government, can not evade responsi­ bility for it by fine sounding phrases. The fact that Miklas on every occa­ sion piously makes unctuous speeches, makes the unchristian acts committed during his term of office all the more outrageous and disgraceful.

13 III. The Military Line-Up

According to the Treaty of St. Germain the Austrian army may consist of 30,OQO professional soldiers. In reality this number was enlisted only during the first years of the republic. Later the state was content with 22,000 men; in 1933 the number was increased to about 25,000. The army is not equipped for modern warfare, because the treaty of peace imposes certain limitations on Austria. For the purposes of civil war the arms at the disposal of the govern­ ment are more than adequate, as was sufficiently demonstrated by the course of the February battles. The federal police consists of about 8,000 men, and the Viennese police, responsible only to the federal government, of 4,000. The state therefore has at its disposal more than 43,000 armed men. To these were added in the February days the volunteer forces of the reaction -the Heimwehr, the Storm troops of the eastern counties, the so-called Freiheitsbund (Federation of Liberty) and the German Christian Gymnasts' League. The size of these forces is not easily to be determined, because each group likes to exaggerate the number of its members. At a reasonable (;stimate the total number of combatants furnished by the reactionary soci­ eties did not exceed from 15,000 to 17,000 on any of the days of battle. The state forces and the volunteers of the reactionary military organiza­ tions included therefore from 58,000 to 60,000 men under arms in the whole republic. To be sure, the military value of the several groups varied widely. Between the picked and well armed troops of the national army and the police, down to the often quite inferior volunteers there were many gradations. The Heimwehr in particular, which for a number of years has carried on a loud and boastful campaign of advertising, is not to be valued very highly as a military force. The Heimwehr units were formed immediately after the revolution of 1919. At that time it caused a stir in Tyrol, and also in Styria and in Carinthia. It plundered great national arsenals. Everybody knew the culprits. They were reported by name to the courts, but in spite of that none of the gU? thieves has ever been punished by more than a day in jail. On the other hand, every worker who was found in possession of a ./ weapon went to jail for a term of months. It is not strange that, in view of this method of handling the question of arms, the defensive corps of the working class had a hard time of it, and could acquire arms only at tremen­ dous risks and sacrifices. The defensive organizations of the workers, the Republican Schutzbund, was not founded until 1923; the weapons at its disposal date from the war and the early post-war years. Austria at that time had to defend itself 14 against an invasion of Horthy's bands into Burgenland, and had to resist an attack of the Jugoslavs on Carinthia. The government put arms at the disposal of all who wanted to take part in the defense of the country, in­ cluding the workers; these arms were not included in the official inventories of the army arsenals. In this way a considerable quantity of arms came into the hands of the workers, who later entrusted them to the Republican Schutzbund. The membership of the Republican Schutzbund was not stable in the course of the years. It never exceeded 80,000; often, on the contrary, it fell far below this peak. Nor can it be definitely determined in how many provinces the Schutzbund members participated in the February fighting. Since in many provinces the Schutzbund did not engage in any action, it is certain that the number of those who fought on the side of the Schutzbund was considerably smaller than the number of their opponents. There is no doubt that in Vienna those who fought on the side of the state greatly ex­ ceeded in numbers the Schutzbund. This survey of the relative strength of the contending forces leads to the conclusion that the Schutzbund could be no instrument for a military offensive against the state power. It had the numbers, but in equipment and in training it was too weak. The leaders of the Schutzbund recognized the fact, and conducted themselves accordingly. They never saw in the Schutzbund anything other than a part of the proletarian front; an impor­ tant fraction, to be sure, but nevertheless only a fraction. If success was to be achieved, the whole working class, with all its economic and political strength, would have to stand with the Schutzbund. Nothing would be more dangerous than an action on the part of the Schutzbund, divorced from the rest of the prQletariat. That would be not revolution, but a "putsch."* Only the most stupid opponents of the Schutzbund dare assert that a "putsch" was included in the intentions of its leaders. As we saw it, action on the part of the Schutzbund could have a chance of success only if it were borne along by the all-embracing tide of a general uprising. The preceding disintegration and decay of the state apparatus, which has always accompanied a revolutionary situation, seemed to us the prerequisite of any military offensive. When great and overwhelming masses are in motion, when the streets echo with their tread, when the general strike is in effect, then a military offensive presents itself as an inevitable imperative. On the other hand, a troop with no connection with the masses, no matter how closely related to them it may be in spirit, always runs the risk of being forced on the defensive by the state power. In other words, who shall take the offensive in a civil war is largely determined by the general situation, which creates the underlying mood and spirit of the contestants. This of course, does not exclude recourse, in the progress of every military campaign, to both de-

*A "putsch" is an attempt to seize the government power; a "coup d'etat." 15 fensive and offensive actions. This was the case in the "February battles" in Austria. The events of February have justified these reflections. The defeat came, and was bound to come, when the economic weapons of the workers were exhausted. Here and there the military measures of the Schutzbund have been criticized, and the opinion has been expressed that the defeat could have been averted if the Schutzbund, which accomplished great things on the defensive, had taken the offensive. I should like to emphasize the dif­ ference between war and civil war: In war the leader knows with what forces he can reckon; in a civil war this is not the case. Up to the decisive moment one cannot know who will heed the call. There is no way of pre­ venting desertion under fire. In war the authority of the commanding officer is clearly established; in a civil war this authority is not half so strong. In war it is possible to act according to preconceived plans; in civil war every plan is subject to a thousand modifications because the leaders must depend on a volunteer following. Finally, in a civil war the spirit and the morale of the forces, the psychological factor, is far more important than in a war. And morale, in turn, depends on the political and economic situation. In so far as we are in a position to follow the discussion conducted in the other countries, we frequently note a lack of knowledge of the facts. This is not surprising when we consider that it is very hard, even now, to get reliable material on the course of the struggle in Austria. For this very reason, one must be on guard against too hasty conclusions. It is not true that the Schutzbund tried no offensive moves at all. As I shall show in my story, the offensive was taken repeatedly, in a number of places. It failed, however, because of the numerical superiority and the better arms of our opponents. The retreat into the tenements was indicated then for psychological as well as for military reasons. It was no different in any other revolution. Consider, for example, the battles of the Paris Commune in 1871. Here, too, after relatively weak offensive movements and after the retreat from the walls of the city, the rebels offered that heroic resistance to the pursuing government troops which arouses our admiration, only then when the enemy tried to force his way into the workers' quarters. Instead of conducting beer-room military discussions over what more might have been done in the February battles, it is more to the point to undertake a serious examination of the conditions under which a civil war must of necessity be fought.

16 After the howitzers fired on the Socialist and trade union headquarters. IV. Tense Days

From the beginning of the dictatorial regime to the end of 1933 more than 300 emergency orders had appeared. The government used the so­ called "war time economic emergency law" which gave it power to count~r­ act the economic damage sustained in the war by means of provisional emergency measures, in order now-fifteen years after the war-to destroy the whole structure of Austrian law. It governed by means of "emergency measures" instead of by law. No domain of the industrial, political and civil life was immune against the unconstitutional encroachments of the government. By an increasingly more ridiculous invocation of a power which was purely a war-time emer­ gency meashre, the social laws affecting workers were worsened, the dole was decreased, the protection of tenants was withdrawn, while at the same time the peasants were given material aid in the form of tax remissions, bounties and money gifts, at the expense of the consumers. The "war-time emergency law," however, had to serve not only the class interest of the owners on the economic field, but was also perverted to bring about the destruction of law and of the popular political liberties. Under cover of the "war-time emergency law" trial by jury was. largely abolished, freedom of the press was abrogated, freedom of assemblage was destroyed, privacy of personal mail was no longer respected-in a word, all the democratic rights and privileges that had existed in Austria for half a century were wiped out. Under pressure from the Heimwehr, which demanded more and more insistently the dissolution of the Social Democratic Party and of the free unions, as well as the occupation of the City Hall of Vienna, Dollfuss pro­ ceeded against the labor organizations. A great many cultural and athletic clubs were dissolved by the authorities. The Republican Schutzbund was also disbanded. The blow to the defensive organization of the proletariat aroused great indignation, especially since it was accompanied by a provoca­ tive increase in the strength of the fascist Heimwehr. The authorities had rendered many services to the. Heimwehr, but now they were officially rec­ ognized as "auxiliary police," and their members were armed and paid by the state. It was a strange police-body that was so created. It has been proved by official documents that a large part of the new auxiliary police were common criminals. In many places the number of auxiliary policemen who had formerly been punished for theft, sexual offenses and similar crimes, amounted to 50 per cent, and in one case to 60 per cent of the whole. These people had been criminals not only in the days before they became part of the police forces, they continued in their old ways. Auxiliary police­ men of this type were caught, in uniform, in the act of house-breaking, and 18 -however much the authorities would have preferred to ignore the matter­ finally had to be surrendered to the courts. In the first weeks of 1934 the government stationed large detachments of the Heimwehr auxiliary police in all industrial centers. It compelled the communities, which were in almost every case governed by Social Demo­ crats, to pay the cost of maintaining them. This compulsory quartering was, however, not merely a financial punishment. The Heimwehr conducted itself in an unusually provocative manner toward the working class population. If· a worker grew tired of the continual pin-pricks and oppressions, and if he permitted himself to utter even one word against the Heimwehr police force he was at once arrested and sentenced to a heavy prison term. The Heimwehr raged like foreign conquerors in occupied territory. The Heimwehr made its preparations for a final struggle. Proof of the fact that their attack was planned in advance is to be found in a mobiliza­ tion order of the Viennese Heimwehr, issued as early as January 27, more than two weeks before the clash. It reads as follows: Viennese Home Defense Jagerbattalion, III Company, Dear Comrade ------It is now the intention of the government to bring about a decision in any case. .In the next few days it will call all members of the defensive formations affiliated with the Heimwehr to active service. Our national commander, Major of the Reserves Emil Fey, as chief of the defen­ sive organizations, therefore calls on all defenders of their country to put aside, if possible, all private business matters in this critical hour and to put themselves at the disposal of the state by joining the voluntary defense corps. It is the simple duty of the home defense men of Margareten to obey this call and the commands of our leader, and to keep their vows as voluntary fighters for home and people, for a free, Christian, German Austria. You are therefore called upon to be, without fail, at Station 4, No. 2 Hauslab Street, on Monday, Jan. 29, at 7: 30 sharp, for the organization of the projected new formations of the defense corps. Absence without excuse will be looked upon as resignation from the corps, with­ out regard for the duration of previous membership. In this decisive hour all time fighters for our idea belong at the front. Heil Starhemberg! Heil Austria! Karl Biedermann, Vienna, January 27, 1934. Battalion Commander. This order was followed by the appearance of the Heimwehr in Vienna as well as in several other provinces, on January 28. On January 30 Austria was surprised by a new move of the Heimwehr. On that day a mobilization order was issued to the leaders of the Tirolese section of the Heimwehr. The pretext was the alleged plan for a "putsch" on the part of the National Socialists. When, however, the Heimwehr sections entered the Tirolese capital Innsbruck, nothing further was said of the National Socialist 19 "putsch." On the other hand the Heimwehr made some emphatic demands, which they backed up with armed marches and occupation of government buildings. They demanded the resignation of the provincial government elected by the Landtag, and the establishment of an "authoritarian" govern­ ment in which the Heimwehr was to have from two to five members. Further they demanded that a "Commission of Public Safety" appointed by the Heimwehr be attached to each local government. Finally they wished the immediate suppression of the Social Democratic Party. The attack of the Tirolese Heimwehr was not an isolated incident. The Heimwehr of other provinces followed suit. The same demands were raised everywhere. The Chancellor invited the provincial governors to a conference in Vienna, in which a position was to be taken with reference to the demands of the Heimwehr. Several of the governors were by no means pleased with the action of the Heimwehr. They felt that its totalitarian aims would not stop short of the destruction even of the bourgeois parties, and to save themselves they offered a bitter, though not a very determined, resistance. Vice-Chancellor Fey feared that the conference of the Chancellor and the provincial governors might bring about a compromise. But the Heim­ wehr wanted no compromise; it wanted everything. Therefore the Vice­ Chancellor sought with all his might to confront the Chancellor with a fait accompli. In this he succeeded. A search for arms in Schwechat, an industrial suburb of Vienna, con­ ducted with a great show of military force, offered a pretext for wholesale arrests. Not only the Schwechat officials of the disbanded Republican Schutzbund, but a large number of men who had no, or only a very remote, connection with the course of events in Schwechat, were arrested and sur­ rendered to the federal courts. To give the affair the tone of high politics, the government proceeded to arrest Major Alexander Eiffler and Captain Rudolf Low, the leading officials of the "Ordnerschaft" (League of Order), as the successor of the dissolved Republican Schutzbund was called. The excitement that these actions of the government created in the ranks of the workers grew from day to day. For months the party executive had tried to find a peaceful solution of the crisis. It laid dozens of proposals for arbitration before the bourgeois parties and the government. When all these attempts had proved fruitless the party council, which consisted of the immediate representatives of the workers in the great industries, came before the public and raised a voice of warning. The party council at its last meeting, which took place in the middle of January, decided to inform the government that the organized workers, in spite of all that had been done to them by the government, were ready to work along toward a peaceful reorganization of Austria. And once more the Chancellor contemptuously declined. It became clearer that a peac.eful understanding with Dollfuss and Fey was flatly impossible. Dollfuss exhibited all signs of that insanity that 20 possesses dictators, which makes them inaccessible to reason, while Fey consciously and deliberately worked toward an armed clash. On the day before the outbreak of the fighting he stayed in the vicinity of Strebersdorf near Vienna, watching a military drill of the Heimwehr. After the conclu­ sion of the drill he made a speech in which he said, according to the official report ("Neue Freie Presse," Feb. 12, 1934, page 3) : "I can reassure you: His utterances of day before yesterday, and yes­ terday, have made us sure that Chancellor Dr. Dollfuss is ours. I can tell you even more, even though I must be brief-tomorrow we shall go to work, and we shall do a thor~ugh job." . On the next day the first shots were fired. The Vice-Chancellor had announced the attack in clear, unambiguous words, when he promised to do a "thorough job" on the next morning. He kept his word. Since that is the case, and since it cannot be denied by any objective observer, the Dollfuss contingent ought not to try to load the blame for what happened on their opponents as they are now doing. In a pamphlet "Who Bears the Blame?" which the Austrian government is spreading in great quantities, it is stated, among other barefaced lies; that the Social Democratic Party executive had decided to begin a revolution on February 13, 1934. This decision to be sure, is said to have been reached by a majority of only one vote. It is unnecessary to say that not a single word of this nonsense is true. That such canards are being spread by the government merely proves how weak are the arguments of Dollfuss and Fey. The second, and main, "proof" of the guilt of the Social Democrats is supposed to consist of a leaflet that was distributed on Sunday, February 11. It is best to quote this "proof" word for word as it is contained in the government pamphlet referred to above. . "Vice-Chancellor Fey speaks of a conspiracy of the Republican Schutz­ bund against the security of the state, in order thereby to give himself a pretext for a decisive blow against the Viennese City Hall and against the Social Democratic Party. Mr. Fey, who is persecuting the workers beyond endurance, dares to speak of a criminal attack on the part of the bolshevist-marxist elements on the population. The truth is that the Social Democracy never attacks either city worker or peasant. But it keeps itself in readiness for armed struggle in case the fascists should dare to attempt to destroy the constitution of the republic to which they have sworn allegiance. "If their oath is broken and the constitution destroyed, and if liberty is in danger, then the workers will take up arms." Read these grave words, which speak solely of defense and resistance to aggression and compare them to the insolent announcement that Fey uttered on the same day. Every person of normal intelligence will pro­ nounce his judgment on the question of guilt without hesitation. 21 v. The Storm Breaks

When on the morning of Monday, February 12, 1934, the workers of Vienna went to the shops, wild and exciting rumors were flying about the city. It was said that on the preceding day all the district leaders of the disbanded Republican Schutzbund had been arrested, and that even at that moment a wide-flung search for arms was in progress in all working-class districts. Both reports proved to be true. . Thereupon the workers of several great industries wanted to strike at once. Only with great difficulty did the shop councils succeed in restraining the workers from this course and in preventing for the moment the out- break of the strike. . But while the events in Vienna were still being discussed a new report suddenly exploded, which acted like a spark thrown into a powder barrel. It was reported that shooting was going on in Linz. What had happened? A detachment of police and of federal soldiers had forced their way into the Hotel Schiff, the party headquarters at Linz, to search for arms. The members of the Schutzbund present resisted; there was a bloody clash. The first victims fell. There was no retreat now. Fights throughout the whole city followed upon the battles in the Hotel Schiff. News of the events ip Linz was telephoned to Vienna. There had for a long time been a close 'connection between the workers of the two cities, and it was a matter of course that the men in Linz should at once inform their Viennese comrades of what had happened-the more so since in the days preceding February 12 frequent conferences between representatives. of Linz and Vienna had taken place, to discuss means of defense against continued provocation and persecution on the part of the government. The representatives of Linz /TIade a report on the mood prevailing amon~ the Austrian workers, who no longer understood the "brakes" applied by the party executive. Again and again they said that on the next attack on rhp part of the government the workers could no longer be restrained. Whether the party executive wjshed it or not, a clash was inevitable, because the measures of the government were designed to provoke it. Now the crisis had actually come. The avalanche was in motion and nothing could stop it. Even if now the workers had showed a more lamb-like patience, or if the party executive had applied the "brakes" even more vigorously-the course of events made inevitable by the government's meas­ ures could not have been changed. Now it was necessary to act as the logic of the situation forced upon the Austrian working-class demanded­ n6 matter what the consequences. The Viennese workers were in honor bound to support- their comrades of Linz whQ were involved in a tragic conflict through no fault of their 22 own. Apart from the moral consideration of loyalty, to which the Viennese workers felt themselves pledged, even a coldly calculating and reasonable reflection was bound to line them up with their comrades at Linz. Every Viennese worker knew that the bloody defeat of the men of Linz would lead to a reckless punitive expedition through the length and breadth of the republic. If Linz were beaten down by the soldiery, other cities would inevitably share the same fate. The fate of the Austrian proletariat was in­ separably bound up with the workers of Linz. One factory after another in Vienna closed its doors. The street railway and the power houses ceased to function; even the municipal gas works closed down. The general strike was on. The members of the former Republican Schurzbund assembled at the gathering places assigned them in the event of a general strike. As yet they were not armed. They merely waited. They let the general strike, the economic weapon of the working class, take effect. Again it was the gov­ ernment that set the ball rolling. In this extremely tense situation, in which it was clear to all that the misstep was sure to lead to a catastrophe, the government struck with a .mailed fist. It called out the police against the strikers. Even now the Social Democratic leaders tried to arbitrate. The vice­ governor of Lower Austria, Oskar Helmer, went to the Christian Social governor, Josef Reither, and implored him, at the last moment, to make an effort toward a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Reither heeded the request. He went in person to the Chancellor and the national president. This last attempt at reconciliation also was wrecked on the obstinacy of the Chancellor. The fates took their course. Before any violence had occurred in Vienna, the government imposed martial law on the city. The official notice that appeared on the afternoon of Monday, February 12, stated that: . "In Vienna sections of the Social Democratic workers in the munici­ pal powerhouses have quit work. Therefore martial law has been pro­ claimed in Vienna. The national government has taken all necessary steps, including the mobilization of all its forces, to nip in the bud these deliberate and criminal attacks of the bolshevik elements." In this official statement the shadow of coming events is clearly fore­ cast. It was the government that resorted to force. It met a mere strike with the proclamation of martial law. To grasp t~e criminal significance of this lJ1ove, it is important to remember that on the same day a general strike was carried through in France. Bur the French government did not for that reason proclaim martial law. If the assertions of the Austrian govern­ ment are true the strike in Vienna was not even general, but was-as has been officially asserted again and again-abortive. If that was the case, why the immediate imposition of martial law? It was clear that Dollfuss 23 and Fey looked upon the strike as an opportunity, to use Fey's words, to do a "thorough job." The next measures of the government were dictated by this purpose. In the early hours of the afternoon the police began to arrest all Social Democratic officials they could lay hands on. Members of Parliament, mem­ bers of the provincial parliaments, aldermen and other municipal officials were taken to jail. Soldiers surrounded the city hall, and. Mayor Karl Seitz was forcibly dragged from his desk. Not only in Vienna, but throughout the republic, Socialist officials were arrested simultaneously. Even in the most remote villages the deputies were arrested between one and two p. m. This is further proof that the government had prepared the blow. For example, in Dornbirn, in Vorarl­ berg, where there was no strike, and where the workers had made no other moves, the leading official, Deputy Anton Linder was arrested at his home by the police at one-fifty p. m. At the same time all other officials of the labor movement of Vorarlberg were seized. It is worth noting that before a single shot had been fired in Vienna, upon the mere announcement of the general strike, the government inter­ vened with all its repressive measures, with martial law and the arrest of labor representatives in the whole nation. Detachments of soldiers and police, armed to the teeth, entered the Viennese suburbs. Wherever mem­ bers of the Schutzbund were thought to be, the houses were surrounded. Agents of the government entered and' tried to disperse the Schutzbund sections. In the process they made reckless use of firearms. The Schutzbund resisted. The first shots were exchanged. The bloody struggle was on. '

24 VI. The First Battles: Margareten and Meidling

The "Belt," lined by beautiful and new parks, curves in a great arc around the first ten of the Viennese wards. To distinguish it from the magnificent "Ring" that encircles the inner city and that is occupied by people of wealth, the "Belt" has often been called in recent years the "People's Ring." On the "Belt" the red municipality had erected a number of municipal dwelling houses. One of these is the Reumannhof, named in honor of the first Social Democratic mayor. Proletarians, rescued from the notorious Viennese slums, live here in bright, sunny, sanitary rooms. Early on the afternoon of February 12, a number of raiding cars loaded with policemen suddenly appeared in front of the Reumannhof. The police, with steel helmets on their heads and carbines in their hands, forced their way into the building. Without a word of warning they attacked the workers inside, beat them without mercy and tried to drag them out of the building. The police evidently had orders to clear the place, which they suspected of being a rendezvous of the Schutzbund. The occupants of the house, outraged by the brutality of the attackl raised the alarm. Men and women appeared in the doorways and at the windows and shouted un­ flattering remarks to the police. Then the latter cried "Away from the window, or we shoot." Before anyone had time to obey this warning the first shots rang out. Now the members of the Schutzbund resorted to arms. A bitter fight developed. The police set up machine guns and shot into the windows without regard for the women and children in the houses. All this hap­ pened so quickly that it was impossible for anyone, even for the women and children, to leave. The police were re-enforced by detachments of sol­ diers. All the exits of the great complex of houses were guarded, and the assault upon the building began. There was fierce fighting on the stairways and in the corridors. Machine guns rattled, rifle and revolver shots rang out, and hand grenades exploded. The forces of the state won their first "victory." To be sure, they could not celebrate, for public indignation rose so high that workers gathered again and again near the Reumannhof and attacked the sentries. Fighting went on in this section until Wednesday. It was the same story in nearby Meidling. In this district the fighting started when a raiding auto of the police drove through Oak Street and there met an assemblage' of workers. The poliee jumped out of the auto and tried to disperse the gathering. There·were shots from· both sides. Severalweie killed ·and wounded. 25 The workers withdrew to the Philadelphia Bridge, a viaduct used by the Southern Railway. Policemen and soldiers followed, and once more the machine guns and rifles went into action. The fight moved in the direction of the Wienerberg. It lasted through the night, continued on the following evening and did not end until Wednesday. The Schutzbund de­ fended itself as long as its ammunition lasted. When that gave out, it gave up the hopeless struggle. Not far from the Philadelphia Bridge are the Meidling Barracks, located on a hill that overlooks the whole neighborhood. On the roofs of the bar­ racks machine guns had been posted. For all that, the soldiers had no easy task, for the Schutzbund had taken up a position in the Tivoli settlement and in the municipal houses located below the barracks, and kept up a lively fire on the machine· gun attachments. The barracks were held in check throughout the battle so that the garrison could participate in no offensive action, but had to be content with remaining on the defensive. There was fierce fighting at still another spot in Meidling-near the large park of the Fuchsenfeldhof. Soldiers and policemen on entering the building, met with determined resistance on the part of the Schutzbund. Supported by the occupants of the house, the latter put up an heroic defense. Here the people themselves took part; they formed a living wall about their own flesh and blood, the Schutzbund, and fought with all the means at their disposal. They did the same at the Bebelhof, which the govern­ ment troops were able to take only after a fierce battle. They did not suc­ ceed in capturing the barricades and in forcing an entrance into the munici­ pal house until the soldiers brought up armored cars. Inside the building the fighting continued until all the male occupants had been forcibly re­ moved, and only women and children remained. Eye witnesses in this district report a characteristic detail, which shows what methods the state forces used. On Tuesday morning there had been minor skirmishes in front of the Liebknechthof. At 10 a. m. an ambulance drove up. The Schutzbund, in the belief that it had come to fetch the wounded, let it pass. But when the ambulance drew up at the gate of the Liebknechthof, armed policemen sprang out and opened fire on the Schutz­ bund men. After a short engagement, the police were dispersed. The ambulance fell into the hands of the Schutzbund, who found in it another machine gun and seven hundred rounds of rifle ammunition. The Meidling fighting groups were in constant communication with one another. They were not content merely with defending the municipal houses but planned to take the offensive. On Tuesday morning one of the ftw offensive actions of the Schutzbund was launched. Early in the morn­ ing the attacking forces marched from the Wienerberg, where a large number of Schutzbund men had gathered, across Lingefeld Street, picked up a detachment at the Liebknecthof and the Bebelhof and reached the Margareten "Belt." Here a lively action developed between the Schutz- 26 bund and government troops. At 9 a. m. the commanding officers thought it would be wiser to withdraw the Schutzbund. Keeping up a steady fire the Schutzbund retreated into the municipal houses called Fuchsenfeldhof, Liebknechthof and Bebelhof. In the meantime armored trains had ap­ peared on the tracks of the Southern Railway which shot upon the exposed flank of the retreating Schutzbund. The Schutzbund men fortified them­ selves in the municipal houses, barricaded them and defended them. When the municipal houses could no longer be held the Schutzbund men tried to fight their way to Favoriten. They moved over Wienerberg towards Laaerberg, but only a few got through. The rest were scattered.

27 VII. Favoriten and Simmering

At the southern boundary of Vienna lies the populous suburb of Favor­ iten, a stronghold of the Social Democracy, once Victor Adler's district. Just behind the sea of houses rises the Laaerberg, a gentle slope covered with small settlements and little truck gardens. Here the Schutzbund gath­ ered on the afternoon of February 12. It made the usual preparations for the defense of the Laaerberg. The streets between the houses were shut off by barricades. Trenches were dug in the open fields. The garrison pre­ pared to defend the Laaerberg, the highest point in the southern part of the city, an important strategic position. About a mile from the Laaerberg a reinforced battalion of the Schutz­ bund held the block of municipal houses at Quellenstrasse 24a-24b. Be­ sides, the car barn at Favoriten,the Workers' House, several factories, and a few small houses were occupied. Regular communication was established among these groups. In Favoriten, too, the Schutzbund remained at its post and waited. It did not attack the police and the government troops, which moved into the district on Monday afternoon. Not until the government forces tried to drive the Schutzbund out of its positions did the fighting start. It was continued with varying fortunes until Wednesday evening. On Thursday morning a brigade of the regular army at war strength moved toward the Laaerberg. Since in the meantime the people of Simmer­ ing, whose task it was to cover the right flank of the men on the Laaerberg, had been defeated after three days of fierce fighting, the Laaerberg position had to be given up. An officer of the regular army describes the advance of the army on the Laaerberg in the following words: "Soon after the outbreak of the revolt Schutzbund men in large numbers moved to the Laaerberg, which although only 800 feet high, is of strategic importance. There they were able to colleer reinforce­ ments from the neighborhood, particularly from Schwechat. Whole sec­ tions of Simmering could be swept by machine-gun fire. More than two thousand members of the Schutzbund had gathered on the Laaerberg and had established fortified positions. On Monday, February 14, it was therefore decided to root out this focus of unt.est in order to pre­ vent an attack of the rebels on Simmering and Favoriten. The police were heavily engaged elsewhere, and therefore the first brigade of the regular army (the Burgenland Brigade) was called upon for this task. Five battalions divided into three columns advanced. A battalion of the Second Viennese Regiment, combined with two -batteries under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Freudenseher, occupied the cone of the mountain, while one battalion of the Fifth Viennese Infantry and 28 one of the First Wollersdorf Infantry, also with two batteries, led by Colonel Pfann of Simmering, cleared the central cemetery and the vicinity of the crematorium. Colonel BIeyer, with a battalion of the Third Infantry, from the· Rennweg Barracks, and the Jager Battalion of Stockerau, advanced on bicycles supported by a motor battery, against Inzerdorf, Oberlaa and Schwechat, in order to cut off retreat from the south. The Hainburg Infantry and the Eisenstadt Jager formed the reserve." Against this superiority of the government forces the Laaerberg could not be held. The Schutzbund withdrew, but it was held in such respect that the government troops did not dare until several hours later to occupy the positions left by the Schutzbund. The men were exhausted because of insufficient clothing and the more than meagre food. It was a great achieve­ ment to fight on, in spite of cold and hunger, for three days and three nights of a cold February. East of Favoriten lies the workers' suburb of Simmering. From that point the Schutzbund undertook an offensive against the third Viennese suburb. At the Eastern Railway and near the St. Marks stock farm they came in contact with government troops and police detachments sent against rhem. The members of the Schutzbund fought with rifles and machine guns, while the army used heavy guns. Cannons and howitzers, armored cars and trains came into action. Nevertheless the Schutzbund held out until Wednesday morning, in spite of the heavy losses that it suffered. Not until it ran short of ammunition, and had no means of replenishing irs stock, did the Schutzbund retreat from the railway and the district boundary to­ ward the interior of Simmering. In the streets of the suburb the fight went -on, all possible resistance being offered to the advancing government forces. What the situation was at the end of the battle can be seen from a report of a bourgeois reporter: "Great mail buses full of soldiers drive through a narrow side alley. Suddenly shots come from a window. The autos stop, soldiers jump out, seek cover behind the car-and at once a wild shooting affray is in progress. Windows are smashed and a few minutes later pieces of plaster and glass, cartridge shells and bits of lead litter the street. A machine gun is brought up; the house is searched, and prisoners are led away under a heavy guard. That is about the way things have been going during the last two days. Police and soldiers have orders to search the municipal hous.es for weapons. When they arrive in the great raiding cars or on foot they are shot at out of the windows, and the result is a siege of the houses and more or less fighting. We drive through the battle area. Our auto is stopped on the main street. At one point a man with revolver drawn stops us. His head is bandaged; an hour ago his head was grazed ~y a bullet. In the miCldle 29 of the street stand machine guns and armored cars, their guns trained on the houses. At the moment the task is to seize the weapons still in the houses and so to prevent renewal of the fighting. If battles suddenly start in various parts of the city, it is always because the state authorities have learned that arms or explosives are stored in this block of houses or the other. When the police arrive the people resist until surrender is forced by the pressure of superior weapons and training, and the white flag is raised. . There is one alley in which hardly one house has been spared in the fighting. The police and the soldiers have been shot at from the win­ dows until the houses were taken. The wires of the street lights hang in shreds. In one house, that had to be taken by storm, all the windows in front, and all the sashes were smashed, and the gaps are boarded up. The Widholzhof and the Betzoldhof have been the centers of resistance in Geiselbergstreet. On the open field below the tracks of the Eastern Railway there are two cannons with steel shields, aimed at the munici­ pal houses. In the squares and on the streets machine guns have been set up. White flags now flutter from all these houses. In reality they are not flags, but linen sheets and towels hanging from the roofs. A search is in progress in these houses. Every apartment is being searched for weapons and explosives; even the cellars are not overlooked."

30 VIII. Ottakring

In Ottakring two places were defended with especial stubbornness­ the great municipal dwelling house Sandleiten, and the Workers' House. Sandleiten is a gigantic complex of houses in the center of which there is a beautiful recreation ground for children. In happier days thousands of strangers came here to see this unique welfare project of Red Vienna. Now a battery of cannon had been set up in front of this beautiful struc­ ture, with their gaping mouths aimed at its walls. The Schutzbund was invited to surrender. When this request received no answer the bombard­ ment began. The rattling of the rifles and of the machine guns went on without interruption. After a bombardment of several hours an assault by the government forces followed and the numerically far weaker defenders finally had to yield. The police, however, captured only four prisoners, because most of the Schutzbund men were able to withdraw under cover of night. A number of them went into the canals and reappeared a little later in other parts of the suburb. In the meantime violent battles had begun near the Workers' House. The battalion of the Third Infantry and the artillery that had fought near Sandleiten were now brought up against the Workers' House, where they Joined an already preponderant government force. The Schutzbund had erected three great barricades in front of the Workers' House and in front of the neighboring Volkenhof. Pipes, pieces of sheet iron, iron bars, etc. were brought from the nearby yard of a junk dealer to strengthen the bar­ ricades. The bombardment of the soldiers proved ineffective. The barricade was defended successfully in a battle that went on for hours. Finally one of the new and modern police tanks was brought up. Like an antedeluvian monster the tank moved against the barricades, unhindered by the fire of the Schutzbund. The tank bowled over all obstacles, ripped them apart and caused a great breach in the lines of defense. Against it the Schutzbund was powerless. The men had to withdraw into the Workers' House. The horrible night battle for the Ottakring Workers' Houses began. The soldiers fired on the houses with mountain cannon, mine-throwers and when this proved useless, finally with two howitzers which were put in position on a playground opposite. Not until 6 a. m. did the first sol­ diers enter the completely demolished house. Its outside showed innumer­ able bullet marks, and in many places the projectiles of the artillery had made holes the size of a man. On the stairs inside of the house many bloody traces bore witness of the hand-to-hand fighting that had occurred. It was the same before the Volkerthof. The streets round about both buildings were littered with rifle bullets, shrapnel, pieces of glass and of brick. 31 During the bombardment the old men, the women and the children had not been able to leave the houses, and many of them were killed or wounded. The wife of the former suburban mayor and member of parliament, Albert Sever, received a mortal abdominal wound from a bit of a shrapnel. The battles for the Workers' House inspired the Schutzbund in the nearby sections, Hietzing and Rudolfsheim, to try a diversion. The actions they started were quickly suppressed. On the other hand the offensive of an Ottakring battalion not engaged in the Workers' House had a partial success. It might have advanced further, and strengthened by other detach­ ments, might even have changed the situation in the district if the treason of the local leader Korbel, in command of Ottakring, had not in the mean­ time become known. This news, and other evil reports, shook the confi­ dence of the workers. Some of the men lost courage and gave up the fight. Now the only thing to do was to retreat. Here and there the battle flared up on the next day. Snipers shot at the police and the Heimwehr patrols. There were a number of clashes, but they could no longer alter the state of affairs.

....

32 IX. The Battle at the Karl Marx Hof

The stranger who comes to Vienna on the Francis Joseph Railroad sees at the right on entering the station of Vienna-Heiligenstadt a huge, color­ ful building. It is the Karl Marx Hof, architecturally one of the most interesting and daring houses in Vienna. The bright, unrelieved, many­ windowed front of the building extends for more than a kilometer, broken here and there by huge archways and towers, and embedded in the greenery of beautiful gardens. On February 12 the Schutzbund men of the 19th Viennese Ward wished to assemble in the Workers' House at Dobling. When they came there they found the house already occupied by the police. Thereupon they went to Children's Home opposite the Karl Marx Hof. They had hardly reached it when the police appeared and scattered the as yet unarmed men with rifle fire. Now the Schutzbund also took up arms and home-made hand grenades. Several police stations were attacked and cleared. Heimwehr detachments, who came up to support the police, were put to flight after short skirmishes. On Monday night a large part of the district was in the hands of the Schutzbund. On Tuesday morning the counter attack of the regular army began. Strong detachments with arms of all types took a hand in the battle and forced the Schutzbund back until finally it occupied the Karl Marx Hof as their last line of defense. The battle for the Karl Marx Hof belongs to the most heroic acts of the February battles. The regular army had surrounded the building with a ring ofiron. For hours it was besieged with all the modern weapons of aggression. Infantry with rifles and machine guns were stationed in front of the house. Artillery had been placed in a high tower, beyond the reach of rifle fire. It poured a hail of heavy shells on the Karl Marx Hof, although hundreds of women and children were in the apartments. In vain the Schutzbund tried to bring the women and children to safety. Some refused to go; others could not be removed because of the heavy fire. When the command of the regulars believed that the building was ready for an assault, an attack was started on all sides. The Schutzbund put up a heroic defense. Each courtyard and each staircase was defended. The machine gun marksmen in the so-called "Blue Tower," a block of apart­ ments higher than the rest, held out the longest. There was incessant fire from that point long after the battle was over in other parts of the Karl Marx Hof. The machine gun crew held out in order to cover the retreat of their comrades. Thanks to the heroism of the defenders of the "Blue Tower" relatively few of the Schutzbund men were captured. Only a handful of men held the "Blue Tower," but they were men! 33 The battle for the Karl Marx Hof would have lasted longer if the Schutzbund had not felt itself compelled, for the sake of the women and children, to retreat. The unrestrained brutality of the regulars, who did not shrink from shooting at unarmed non-combatants, in order to break the morale of their opponents, carried the day. For the Schutzbund it was a test of courage to hold out as long as they did in the face of rifle fire, mine­ throwers and armored cars. The officers of the regular army have tried to justify the use of artillery by calling the Karl Marx Hof a fortress. Later, to be sure, the bourgeois architects of Vienna, who erected the buildings, protested against 'this idiotic fairy tale. But right after the battle the officers, in order to create a favorable public opinion, made the following statement: "From a military point of view the Karl Marx Hof in particular is a very skillfully constructed fortress. Countless bay-windows, balconies and projecting walls serve not only the convenience of the occupants, but are, in the case of a defensive action, flanking and enfilade positions. It is almost impossible for the attacking forces to approach the build­ ings without subjecting their flank to the fire of the defenders. Under cover of 'modern architecture' very mysterious passages have been con­ structed within the building, which allegedly serve to conduct gas and water pipes. In these passages, which parallel the staircases, ladders have been built which make it possible to go from one story to the next without being seen. Inside these secret passages, which they used with strategic skill, the Schutzbund men moved about, and could at appointed places, either attack the unsuspecting Heimwehr soldiers who had forced their way into the wells of the staircases from the rear, or else retreat." The lie describing the Viennese municipal houses, and the Karl Marx Hof in particular, as fortresses, found its way into several foreign papers. Building "experts," carefully selected by the police, led the newspapermen into the houses after the fighting, and tried to persuade them of this non­ sense. To give point to this patriotic propaganda these excursions ended in royal feasts for the reporters-- To the honor of most of the foreign journalists and reporters, it must be stated that they turned away in disgust from this sort of propaganda. Only the "co-ordinated" Viennese press keeps on insisting that the Social Democratic municipal buildings had provided 60,000 families with beautiful, bright and pleasant homes, not for hygienic but for strategic reasons. But this Viennese press is to-day nothing but a journalistic mouthpiece of the chancellor's office. Let us return from this excursion into the field of official lying to our brave and unassuming Schutzbund men. One of the defenders of the Karl Marx Hof tells us his experiences: "At the gathering place to which I was assigned not a single comrade was absent. Street-car traffic had stopped. Every few minutes someone 34 went to the switch to turn on the light, in order to see if the power houses were still working. There was no electric light. After a time the emergency technicians succeeded, by installing surface conduits round about the Karl Marx Hof, in restoring the lights. But for the moment we did not know abour that. We waited. Finally our leader arrived and in a whisper gave us our orders. Thereupon we sent our our men and in the COurse of an hour and a half we had placed 98% of our strength. The other 2 % were late because of the street-car strike. In the course of the night they arrived, too. "Our morale was excellent. In order not to attract the police we played cards and some of us sang. At dark each group went to its place. One by one we fetched our weapons. We had one gun and several hundred rounds of ammunition and from three to five hand grenades for each man. Several of us, who had mistrusted the equipment of the Schutzbund, had brought along pistols on our own account. We had no machine guns. We were enraged when we saw the electric lights flare up around the Karl Marx Hof. "The streets were quite empty. Now and then a policeman with a steel helmet, carbine and bayonet, appeared. When a policeman attacked three civilians with his bayonet, and wounded one of them in the arm, one of our patrols interfered. The policeman called for help, and the fight started. The police opened with rifle fire against our group from the guard house opposite the Heiligenstadt Railway Station. We re­ sponded at once, sallied out in open formation, subjected the guard house to cross-fire, systematically destroying every bulb so that our sector was soon dark as pitch. "It was remarkable that among the veteran soldiers all the manoeuv­ ers they had learned in the service came automatically into use again. Men jumped up and down, backward and forward as in the old imperial army. The police force, too, acted in military fashion. It had an advan­ tage over us in that its men were better trained and maintained excellent discipline while our young comrades wasted a good deal of ammunition. Nevertheless we succeeded in driving the police back into the guard house. We came so close to the house that we could hear the ringing of the telephone inside. Finally we risked an assault. We succeeded in dispersing the police, who withdrew behind the Heiligenstadt Station. We were too weak to pursue them. In any case, we had cleared our sector of the police. "The comrades of the neighboring groups had also been successful, so far as I could see. They, too, succeeded in driving the police away, and in carrying our attack as far as the streets around the Karl Marx Hof and into Sickenberg and Grinzinger Streets. We stopped firing. In the distance we heard the firing of other Schutzbund troops. 3S "On Monday evening, at ten o'clock, the whole region about the Karl Marx Hof was firmly in the grip of the Reds. We set up sentries, and sent out scouting patrols. Up to this time we had not had a single fatal casualty. Doubtless we had some wounded men, but I did not see any, for I was lucky enough to bring my entire company back out of the Karl Marx Hof entirely unhurt. "After ten o'clock there were movements on the street side of the Marx Hof, so that we had to withdraw men from the front facing the railway embankment. Three large lorries filled with Heimwehr troops came up and tried to pass Heiligenstadt Street, which was fully lighted. We opened a heavy fire on the three cars at once, and without doubt we inflicted losses on our enemies. Afterwards we found the nickel bands of automobile lamps and several steel helmets on the street. We tried to secure Heiligenstadt Street against other lorries by means of a patrol. This patrol was lost. During the later battles we were not able to estab­ lish any communication with it. Our comrades had hitherto always succeeded in evading the police. This sortie of the Heimwehr lorries was probably part of a definite plan, for a short time afterwards there was a movement on the railway embankment. A train brought new police forces and two machine-guns. From this moment, that is from Monday evening at 10, we were convinced that our prospects of success were very slight, for we saw quite clearly that the railway men had failed us. They had not joined the strike. At once we opened a heavy fire on the police, who tried to line up in front of the station. Never­ theless, the police succeeded in putting a- machine-gun in position. Four members of the 'Young Gymnasts' in the next sector attacked the machine gun post with pistols. One fell as soon as he rose from cover, but the other three succeeded in wounding the policeman who served the machine gun, so that it was out of action for about ten minutes. During this interval we tried to fortify ourselves behind the narrow house entrances. In these moments, when we all knew that the hardest fighting was ahead of us, all the windows above us opened and strangers threw down to us fruit, provisions and cigarettes. "After a short pause the police machine gun opened up again, and kept up fire for almost an hour. It swept almost our entire front. We stayed under cover and hardly moved. We shot only when one of the policemen dared to advance. We came through the machine gun fire, too, almost without loss, since the police aimed too high. The bullets entered the wall almost a yard above our heads. Sometimes a veritable shower of brick and dust came down on us. When the police, after about an hour, set up another machine gun, and when Heimwehr troops in Heiligenstadt Street moved up, so that the Marx Hof was entirely surrounded, we withdrew into the house. "I received the command to make a sortie with thirty men at the upper end of the Marx Hof to find out how things stood at the Francis 36 Joseph Station at Heiligenstadt. We had the strange experience of enter­ ing a completely deserted quarter of the city. We saw neither civilians, nor Heimwehr, nor police. From the distance we heard the shooting near the Marx Hof. The station itself was quite deserted. Without difficulty we climbed the railway embankment and there, too, we found no one. We chased away a railroad man who wanted to get to the telephone, and we tried, by means of hand grenades to destroy the tracks outside the station in front of the Kahlenberg Hof. We made a poor job of this, for, so far as I know, the trains rode past again on the next day. Toward 2 a.m. we were back again in the Marx Hof. Little had changed there. From a distance we saw police patrols. At every sus­ picious movement the machine gun of the police fired on everyone who dared to come close. - "At about 9 a.m. we heard the news of the heavy fighting that had meanwhile developed in other districts of Vienna. Above all we heard, too, that in Vienna-Neustadt the regular troops had mutinied and that the Schutzbund of Neustadt was on the march to Vienna. This report later turned out to be false, but it gave us courage. But at this time the fighting in Vienna was probably concentrated in only a few places. We came to this conclusion when we saw that increased forces were being sent against us. At the time of our greatest strength we numbered only a few hundred men in the Marx Hof. The government, at a mod­ erate estimate, had mobilized 2,000 men against us. "From Tuesday at 10 a.m. the administration began to hurl its_ heaviest weapons against us. Our groups were isolated from each other and had to fight alone. Only the continued rattle of the rifles told us that the others were fighting on. Our comrades at district headquarters suc­ ceeded in sending us two machine guns. In this successful effort three of our men were killed. That the venture succeeded at all is proof of the unsurpassed courage and solidarity of our comrades. We who were in the field never saw anything in the old army to equal it in boldness and skill. For about an hour the two machine guns gave us a breathing space. We could withdraw from the front line a few of our comrades who were close to physical collapse. "Then, however, the government's attack began anew, and after that we did not know what happened. Indescribable confusion prevailed. Hell broke loose everywhere. Until then we had dealt with a visible enemy; now new machine gun fire came from the high tower. The government succeeded in taking the lower end of the Marx Hof. Now the enemy was inside the house. In several rooms the gas pipes had been broken by bullets so that we had to leave them for fear of an explosion. In the morning we had tried to remove the women and children, -the men who could no longer fight, as well as those who had not fought at all. We succeeded only in part. Not until later did we succeed in remov- 37 ing all die children <;I.nd some of the women. I have myself seen a woman and two children killed by police bullets. "Toward noon the firing on the part of the police suddenly 'grew weaker, and a grand company of police officials came for an inspection. We felt like animals in the zoo. We opened fire on the gentlemen, espe­ cially on a civilian who stood among the officers. One of the officers was wounded. Afterwards we heard that Vice Chancellor Fey had visited us in person and that we had wounded his adjutant. . "At this time artillery fire started against the center of the Marx HoE. At short intervals we heard three loud explosions. At about the same time several of our comrades in the upper part of the building suc­ ceeded in establishing contact with the outside by means of the canals. They succeeded in getting through the underground canals to a remote district that cannot even now be named lest people still in Vienna be endangered. There they bought provisions and cigarettes. "Toward 3 p.m. the police had already advanced so far that my com­ pany had to leave the Marx Hof. With all our weapons and provisions we also went through the network of canals. In a remote district we climbed carefully back into the city with the intention of fighting our way to Floridsdorf or Ottakring, since our comrades had told us that at these points there was still some hope of success. We could no longer get either to Ottakring or Floridsdorf. We therefore hid our arms and scattered. "No one in our company even for a moment thought that what we were doing or had done was wrong or unlawful. On the contrary, we considered ourselves the lawful defenders of the Austrian constitution, which had been set aside by the Chancellor after March, 1933. During the fighting we did not hear the radio. Only after we had left the Marx Hof were we told what lies and fabrications the government had spread on the air. None of us believed a word of it. When we were told that the government was saying that Bauer and Deutsch had fled, we all had just one wish. We hoped that both of them were really safely out of the country, and that the two comrades would from some foreign country organize the underground Austrian movement. "We were all very tired. We felt that we had lost a battle, but not a war. And this confidence that the war goes on is with us to-day."

38 ' x. Floridsdorf

The most complete military action that the Viennese Republican Schutz­ bund fought was that at Floridsdorf. Located on the left bank of the Danube, and connected with Vienna only by a few bridges, Floridsdorf with a few neighboring communities is a city in itself. The police and the govern­ ment troops were at the beginning of the battles too much occupied on the right shore of the Danube to be able to send large detachments across the bridges to Floridsdorf. Therefore the Schutzbund, which acted at once and with energy, succeeded in getting control of the greater part of the Florids­ dorf territory. The immediate occasion for the fighting was. in Floridsdorf also an attack on the part of the police. In the Schlingerhof, one of the new groups of dwelling houses, a conference of the Floridsdorf Shop Councils was in session at noon on February 12. The police entered, arrested some of those present and dispersed the rest. At the same time a detachment of police . appeared at the gas works at Leopoldau, occupied them and tried to force the strikers to take up work again under threat of being shot. The answer to these police brutalities was an attack of the Schutzbundon the police stations of Floridsdorf which were captured in the course of the night. Only the police headquarters of the district were able to hold out. During the fighting the Schutzbund put to flight a detachment of police who had ar­ rived in a raiding-auto, and captured two machine guns. On the morning of February 13 the Schlingerhof and all other municipal buildings occupied the evening before by the police, were in the hands of the Schutzbund. Now followed the arming of the firemen, led by their commander, the engi­ neer WeisseL The fire company received orders to keep the headquarters in check, but could not carry out this task. It was defeated after a short engage­ ment. A larger detachment of the Schutzbund attempted to win back the headquarters of the firemen. The attack was in full swing when armored cars appeared and opened fire. The Schutzbund retreated toward the Schlingerhof. Soldiers and police followed, supported by artillery. The decisive battle for the Schlingerhof began. Let us read the story as told by one of the combatants: "The detachments of the regular army advanced from Paul Hoch Park toward the Schlingerhof. The garrison of the car barns fired on their flank, and a heroic hand to hand encounter followed. Under the shelter of armored cars the regulars succeeded in reaching the corner of Brunner St. and Peitl Alley. Our men were not only raked by a sharp machine gun fire from the armored cars but were also bombarded with hand grenades. How violent the battle raged· there is shown by the following incident: the hand grenades thrown out of the armored car were picked up by our men before they exploded, and thrown back. 39 VI EN NA---before FebruarYt 1934---

and AFTER---

"For a parallel to the picture that the ruins of these buildings presented one would have to turn to photographs of Chateau-Thierry or some other.well-shelled town in the World War." .-The New York Times

"I saw the effects of the shell fire with which Dollfuss destroyed the Socialist government in Vienna, one of the most bloodthirsty; unwarranted, inex~usable employments of armed force against helpless women and children in all history." ., -Frank Knox, Publisher, The Chicago Daily News On one such occasion a machine gunner, O. D., was torn to pieces by a grenade that was thrown right in front of his gun. Our machine gun nests were well placed, but in spite of their well-aimed fire they could not affect the outcome of the battle. Artillery destroyed the guns one after the other, and at 4:30 p.m. we finally had to clear the Schlingerhof. "The regular army and the police kicked in the apartment doors, dragged women and children into the street and drove them at the point of their guns toward our last position in Floridsdorf, the car barns. Since our district headquarters were not far from the barns, these had to be moved quickly into the suburbs. Inside the barns and on the roof about thirty. sharpshooters were posted. Since, however, women and children were:: being driven against us, the order had to be issued to clear the barns; We withdrew towards Jedlersdorf." The detachment that was still holding the Schlingerhof went back to Jedlersdorf along the railway embankment. There a short wh1le before a police raiding'C;ir'had,been captured by the Schutzbund. No harm was done to the police crew. They were merely locked in a cellar-gentle treatment that soon later w~s rewarded by the government troops in their peculiar fashion. During the fighting night came on. The situation was confused. In the interior of Flofidsdorf and in the'so-called Garden City there were still Schutzbund detachments. On the other hand, as we have seen, other groups had retreated to Jedlersdorf. In the neighboring communities, Leopoldau and Donaufeld there was' fighting throughout the night, during which the regular army used artillery. In the Floridsdorf Railway Station the Schutz­ b\Jnd held its own, although the regulars sent two armored trains into the battle. In these struggles the Workers' House near the station was taken by the soldiers, retaken by the workers and again lost, until the building was a heap of ruins. On Wednesg,ay morning the army moved to the attack with strong reinforcements that had come up in the night. The Second and Fiftl1 In­ fantry together with a motorized Alpine Battery, the Second Battalion of the Fourth 'Infantry and half a battalion of cadets were sent in. These troops came from Vienna. In the opinion of the army command even these were not enough. Therefore in the course of the night the Second Battalion of the Sixth Infantry stationed at Krems, the First Battalion of Pioneers, one ' and a half batteries, a company of Pioneers from Kornenburg, the Second Jager Battalion on bicycles, two howitzer batteries from Stockerau, and a large number of armored cars, mine throwers and two armored trains were brought up. This tremendous force, supported by the Heimwehr and the police, was used to put down the Schutzbund men who had fought without interruption for fifty hours, who during this time had had almost no food. Only a few had received bread and tea from proletarian women. 42 The 'batteries of the regular army were set up on the right -bank of the Danube and on the Bisamberg, beyond the range of rifle and machine gun' fire. On Wednesday morning the cannonade started with increased weight. It was drum fire. Aimed at the Schutzbund positions in the Garden City of Floridsdorf and in ]edlersdorf, and above all at the Goethehof opposite the Reichsbridge. Some Schutzbund men had reassembled in the Schlinger­ hof, and took part in the battle. In spite of the physical exhaustion of the Schutzbund, which had become almpst unendurable, they did not retreat before the barrage: When the army command thought that the Schutzbund positions were ripe for assault, they launched an infantry attack. Fierce fighting developed, in which every inch of ground was contested. The official army report of this action states: "The advancing lines were subjected to machine gun fire. In front of the car barns barricades made of overturned snow-plows had been set up opposite the Schlingerhof. The fighting here was very sharp. First of all the tower of the Schlingerhof, which had been turned into a veritable machine gun nest, had to be shot to pieces. Then the infantry advanced under cover of an armored police car. The Second Battalion of the Fourth Infantry in the meantime tried to advance fighting hard against a flanking machine gun fire from the Northern railway embank­ ment, and under infantry fire out of the gardens above the Floridsdorf bridge. The machine guns could be silenced only by mine throwers. On advancing further the troops were attacked in the rear by rifle fire from the Garden City." The technical superiority of a modern army here, too, carried the day over the relatively faulty equipment of the Schutzbund. Hard as it was for the Schutzbund there was nothing else to do but retreat. The government troops pursued, and the Heimwehr, too, which until then had distinguished itself nowhere in the fighting in Vienna, now came alive. Since the enemy wa's defeated it could afford to show its courage in this way. Together with the police it entered the municipal houses behind the advancing sol­ diers. Doors were kicked down, furniture was smashed and thrown into the street, and where a Schuzbund man was captured he was beaten without mercy. When the Heimwehr came to ]edlersdorf it freed the crew of an armored car that had been locked in a cellar. The policemen, who had not been harmed when they were captured, now joined the Heimwehr in man­ handling the occupants of the municipal houses, and participated in the most repulsive brutalities. Even wounded men who fell into the hands of the barbarians, were not spared. Once more the Schutzbund men assembled in their retreat. They occupied the gas works at Leopoldau. Soldiers and policemen had already surrounded portions of the works when the Schutzbund men who had escaped death or wounds, met for a final confer<;nce. They were informed that the army was threatening to take the gas works by howitzer fire. The consequences 43 would have been incalculable since one shot into the. gas tanks would have caused an explosion. To avoid this the Schutzbund decided to clear the gas works and to give up further resistance. Their heroic resistance was at an end. The main attack of the governing forces had, as mentioned above, been directed against the Goethehof opposite the Reichsbridge. Two participants in the engagement tell us about it: "On Monday night we were already standing as sentries before the Goethehof. There was a petty skirmish in which we captured a Heim­ wehr man. Nothing happened to him; we merely took away his gun. On Tuesday we heard that artillery would be brought up against the Goethehof. Thereupon we barricaded the whole building and set up sentries everywhere. After dark we were sent with a small detachment of thirty to Stadtlau where it was said the regular army would encamp. "On the bridge near the railroad we built a barricade, and deter­ mined not to retreat from this spot. Several times during the night we had to go from the barricade to the Goethehof and back. On Wednesday at 8 a.m. we heard the news that the Goethehof had been given an ultimatum, and one hour in which to accept or reject it. Now we went back to reinforce the Gothehof with a car which we had commandeered, on which we loaded our weapons. Aside from rifles our detachment had six machine guns. The whole afternoon we encountered heavy fighting, and at 2 p.m. the artillery fire was increased. We counted 205 grenades and shrapnel shells that struck the Goethehof. When at 6 p.m~ we saw that we could no longer hold out, the white flag was raised, while we fled through the rear exits across the fields." Another Schutzbund man, who fought in this neighborhood, was with a detachment that wanted to make an attempt, the next morning, to turn the tide by an attack on the Reichsbridge. By this means the retreat to Vienna was to be cut off for the government troops fighting in Floridsdorf. This man writes us: "At 7 a.m. we intended to take the bridge by storm. All was ready, when at 6:30 the order to retreat was given. I was beside myself when I had to look on while all was given up--" Nor is this the only utterance that showed that the heroic spirit of the Schutzbund was unbroken. It finds expression in far stronger form in a bold retreat undertaken by one group, which led to the Czech boundary. A dozen Schutzbund men, gun in hand, fought their way through. Let us allow a participant in this noteworthy undertaking to tell us the story in his own words: "After the end of the fighting we determined to fight our way from Floridsdorf to the Czecho-Slovakian border. Sixty-seven comrades started out. We had two machine guns. We passed the gas works where several others joined us with another machine gun, and went on to Siissenbrunn: 44 Along the railway embankment were some Heimwehr men who at once retreated when they saw us; the police in the same place behaved in the same manner. In Siissenbrunn we were shot at by men in an armored car. "From 10 a.m. to 12:30 at night we marched without rest to Uherska vas opposite Angern. Outside a village we bought six loaves of bread for six schillings from a baker's wagon. A loaf of bread was given us at an estate where we stopped for water. We pretended to be Heim­ wehr men, but were probably recognized as members of the Schutzbund. We had no other food. We did no looting. "On the way we met two raiding cars. Fifty men jumped Out, but when they saw that we advanced in fighting order we were allowed to pass unmolested. The two raiding cars now rode ahead and tried to cut off our road. Our advance guard kept the enemy in check by an occa­ sional shot. We marched on by a side road. "Ten of our comrades were too tired to go further. They went back and we have heard nothing of them since. There were now fifty-seven men with us. "Near Strasshof five of our men who had gone for water contrary to orders were attacked by gendarmes who had come up in a raiding car. One policeman was shot dead. Our messenger sent to fetch the five men was captured. Now we hear that he is accused of having killed the policeman. "The police again tried to cut off our retreat in the woods. When they saw themselves face to face with machine guns all set up they let us march on undisturbed. Toward evening and after dark we marched in battle formation and moved toward the railway embankment pre­ pared for an attack. We told a woman who passed by that we would wreck the village if we were shot at. We were allowed to climb" over the embankment without interference, but in so doing we ruined a machine gun. "We reached the Northern Railway. Armed with hand grenades we went to a railway block house and asked the way. We had apparently evaded the police. Our people could hardly go further without water or food, and burdened by the heavy guns. We rested near a hay stack until our leaders had been told in what direction to go. Three of our men had to be forcibly awakened and made to go on. "Twenty minutes this side of the boundary they had to leave two machine guns behind, because we could not drag them further. We put them out of commission first. One comrade was delirious and wanted to shoot at us, taking us for the enemy. We staggered across ditches and brooks. At midnight we crossed the March which was almost entirely frozen, often wading waist high in icy water. 45 "We literally dragged ourselves through water and over frozen fields, most of us with torn shoes. After we had crossed the March we met two Czech soldiers. in uniform, who were very much astonished when we came across armed. "We went to the nearest inn. There the men toppled over for weari­ ness, but we were saved. "The youngest of us was not even 16." Any word added to this heroic epic of an unknown revolutionary would weaken its effect. The march to Uherska vas will :find its poet.

46 XI. Treason within the Schutzbund -Resistance Wanes

The Republican Schutzbund in Vienna had been divided several years before into five districts, for the sake of more convenient administration. Each district embraced several city wards. The Western District including Wards 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, and 16, was recently commanded by Edward Korbel, a teacher in the public schools. Korbel, who had several times volunteered to buy explosives and who had actually done so on several occasions, had brought suspicion on himself in the summer of 1933 by becoming involved in a very strange affair. He had again gone out to buy explosives, and had taken for this purpose 7,000 schillings-of which not a penny was ever seen again. Nor did the explo­ sives allegedly purchased by him materialize. Korbel told a queer story, according to which the police had got wind of his intentions, and therefore the man he dealt with was no longer able to deliver the material. His efforts to get the money back had also failed. Soon thereafter the dealer in question died, so that nothing could be proved against Korbel. An investi­ gation of Korbel's acts was undertaken, but since the chief witness was dead it could accomplish nothing. For lack of evidence Korbel was kept at his post. Nevertheless, from that time on a vague distrust of him prevailed in the Schutzbund. How well founded this was is evident from Korbel's behavior on Feb­ ruary 11. A few days earlier he was arrested with other Schutzbund leaders, but strangely enough he was released on February 11. Now he conspicuously began to visit Schutzbund officials-but after each such meeting a police official appeared and arrested the Schutzbund man with whom Korbel had spoken. It was clear that Korbel was in the pay of the police. This man, on Tuesday evening, made a statement to the police in which he announced his resignation from the Social Democratic Party, and uttered the usual calumnies of the leaders. In this statement he says: " "I announce the unconditional surrender of my district, which in­ cludes Wards 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, and 16, and I shall order all former Schutzbund men under my command to abandon all violence and all opposition to the state, and to surrender their arms to the police. "I ask for mercy for my men, who in blind confidence in their party leaders, have allowed themselves to be misled to the sad excesses of the last few days." One may readily imagine what it meant to the fighting Schutzbund men when they heard that one of their commanders had basely betrayed them at the moment of their greatest need and danger. But its moral effect 47 was not the worst result of Korbel's treason. The whole district which Korbel had led was put hors de combat. The men of Ottakring did stick, but the other wards of the district collapsed. The thirteenth ward in par­ ticular, which, after Ottakring, was the strongest contingent of the district, suffered from the treason of its leader. That in the thirteenth ward (Hietz­ ing) there were only isolated actions of the Schutzbund, easily suppressed by the police, was in no small measure the result of Korbel's treason. Now there was a wide gap in the ring with which the Schutzbund had surrounded the inner wards of Vienna. This was particularly disastrous for the men fighting desperately at Ottakring, who were now completely iso­ lated. The flank of the Meidling forces was now also exposed. Another gap developed in the front of the Schutzbund. The twentieth ward, Briggittenau, did not go into action. The arrest of its leaders in the days before the battle was a catastrophe inasmuch as the subalterns did not know where their hidden arsenals were located. The usually fully justified precautions not to let too many people into the secret was in this case a misfortune. The Schutzbund of the district could not be armed, and had to go home with its job not accomplished. Briggitteneau, lying on the Danube, was to have attacked the rear of the government troops advancing on Floridsdorf, and should have obstructed or even prevented the advance across the Danube bridges. The default of Briggitteneau was the second serious blow that struck the Schutzbund. Finally the fact that the Schutzbund remained too long on the defensive contributed much to enable the government troops to crush one detachment of the Schutzbund after another. A quick and determined offensive might have changed the outcome. As it was, even in Favoriten, where the position of the Schutzbund was strong, whole s~ctions of the district were surrendered to the government forces without a blow. The headquarters of the Schutz­ bund located there was several times surrounded by the police and the army, and communications with the detachment in the various districts could be maintained only under fantastic difficulties. Nor should it be forgotten that the persistence of the men of Favoriten in remaining on the defensive caused the bold offensive of nearby Simmering to collapse. These tactical errors and accidents were doubtless serious, but they were by no means decisive. Far more important than the default of one or several Schutzbund detachments was the government's use of the radio throughout the whole period of the action-the most effective means of influencing public opinion. The radio lied in the most shameless manner, but its inces­ sant lies and false reports did not fail to have their effect. Lacking all opportunity to correct the radio lies many succumbed to them, including members of the Schutzbund, who were isolated, had no connection with other cities and therefore thought their cause lost long before this was really the case. So, for example, a whole battalion quit at Favoriten when it was 48 announced over the radio that the Schutzbund was everywhere beaten and its leader Deutsch had fled. The radio reported from the beginning that the government was master of the situation, and thereby prevented the uprising of the Schutzbund particularly in the lowlands. The leaders of the party and of the unions dared to make no decision, because if they trusted the radio reports they were bound to believe that all was in vain, and that the situation was hope­ less. Referring to places where at the moment the cannons were thundering, the radio declared that "The peace has not been disturbed" or "Order has been restored." The noise of cannons was heard only within a radius of a few dozen miles, but the radio was heard throughout the country. The radio did not shrink from spreading lies and slanders about the leaders. It was stated on the very first day of the fighting that Bauer and Deutsch had fled. Since there was no way, not even by means of leaflets, of counteracting these lies, they were effective. Discouragement set iri among the workers, and many were deeply shaken. But, heavily as the influence of the radio might weigh, even this was not the worst. Without a doubt the deepest reason for the defeat was the fact that the general strike was not complete. The railroads "functioned, even if not so punctually as in normal times, the bourgeois papers appeared, and in many other enterprises work went on. Those circumstances were bound to have greater effect than any tactical error of the Schutzbund and any radio lie, however insolent. It is not our task to inquire into the reason for the failure of the general strike. Probably the cause was the industrial crisis, and the resulting economic and moral weakening of the working class. Be that as it may. When it was clear that the strongest economic weapon that the workingclass possesses-the general strike-was not effective, the will to resist of the struggling workers waned.

49 XII. Lower Austria Remains Quiet

To the south of Vienna there is a great industrial district which extends as far as Semmering. Here live 10,000 proletarians, workers who for decades have been faithful to the Social Democracy. To the west of Vienna, an hour's journey away, lies the industrial centre of St. polten. In the neigh­ boring valleys of the Trais and of the Gals, of the Ybbs and of the Erlaff, the socialist movement has a strong hold. To be sure there are many unemployed in these regions. It is a miracle that these people, who have been without work for years, still cling to their organizations, although in times of crisis these can help them very little. Nevertheless they did remain faithful. When the first shots were fired in Vienna on February 12, the members of the Schutzbund listened eagerly for the response in the cities and indus­ trial communities of Lower Austria. There was none. Apart from a few local clashes Lower Austria remained on the whole quiet. Why? At the moment there is no answer. As yet we know too little; as yet we are too close to events to make an objective verdict possible. Perhaps the immediate reason for the struggle was too little understood in Lower Austria. Per­ haps events took people by surprise. Perhaps discouragement and disinte­ gration had affected the workers in consequence of the long-enduring unem­ ployment. We do not know. Only one thing is sure: there was no lack of co-ordination and planning, as has been asserted here and there in extenu­ ation. Apart from the fact that the environment of Vienna knows about as much about events in Vienna from personal contact as does one of the Viennese wards, from noon of February 12 motorcyclists raced into the Lower Austrian industrial districts to announce the beginning of the general strike. The telephone, toO, still functioned at this time, and kept the labor leaders of Lower Austria informed about the situation in Vienna and in Linz. As a matter of fact there were a few isolated actions. In Neunkirchen there was a fight in the market place in which a few shots were exchanged. In Vienna-Neustadt there were a few collisions. In Ternitz the Schutzbund tried to oppose the police, who were reinforced by the Heimwehr, and a few fights ensued. The government forces had to put up. a fight near the St. Polten Children's House, in which the Schutzbund had assembled. In the streets of this city also there also was shooting. In the valley of the Trais there were several clashes between the Schutzbund and the Heimwehr in which the Heimwehr was defeated. Not until the soldiers advanced and attacked the almost exhausted Schutzbund with superior force 9id the latter retreat. On Rudolfshohe near Wilhelmsburg the Schut2bund held out for five days. In the valley of the Gals, Rohrbach held out for several days, as did the Ybbs valley. Nowhere was the Heimwehr equal to the Schutzbund; on the other hand the Schutzbund regularly succumbed to the army. 50 The fact that Lower Austria, but for a few local outbreaks, remained quiet, enabled the'regular army and the police to concentrate all their forces on Vienna. The Vienna Schutzbund had reckoned on having its rear covered by the rising of the Lower Austrians, but it turned out otherwise. From Lower Austria the government forces poured into Vienna. It must be pointed out that other provinces, too, failed to participate. This would to some extent explain the events in Lower Austria, since the recurrence of the phenomenon serves to indicate a common sentiment in the provinces in question. In many places the proletarians did what they could to support their brothers fighting in Vienna, in Styria and in Upper Austria. In Salzburg they interrupted railway service by acts of sabotage and the use of dynamite, lessening in this way the movement of government troops. A few clashes with the Heimwehr also took place. In Tyrol the workers in Worgl and the mine slaves in Haring-Kirchbiehl arose. For days they held out with defiant courage, fighting in an exposed and hopeless position. In Burgenland, in the Siegendorf community there were fights between the Schutzbund and the Heimwehr, in which the latter had the worst of it. When the soldiers came to the rescue of the Heimwehr the Heimwehr men avenged themselves by barbarously beating the captured Schutzbund men. There was no lack of actions small and large. Very often these engage­ ments were marked by a degree of heroic courage on the part of the Schutz­ bund in no way inferior to that of the Viennese, the Styrians and the Upper Austrians. But since there was no general uprising the government forces were able to gain the upper hand.

51 XIII. The FighHng in Upper Austria

A comprehensive report of the progress of the early battles in Upper Austria, which were the signal for the rising in the whole country, is given in a Prague journal. (In Austria only stories favorable to the government could be printed.) The "Prager Tageblatt" of February 13, 1934, states: "In Linz the federal police planned a search for arms in the Hotel Schiff, the Workers' House of the Social Democrats of Linz. The Social Democrats were informed of this, and about one hundred members of the illegal Republican Schutzbund congregated in the Workers' House and barricaded it. When the police arrived at the Hotel in four raiding cars, a hand grenade was exploded by the Social Democrats. The police at once closed all approaches to the highway on which the Hotel Schiff is located and forced back the demonstrators, who appeared in great num­ bers. There was some hand to hand fighting. More than fifty demon­ strators were arrested. "Now the police, equipped with steel helmets and guns, attacked the barricades of the Hotel Schiff. The first shot was fired and soon the action was under way. Policemen and workers were wounded and the injured policemen were taken to the hospital. A company of the Seventh Alpine Regiment and a machine gun section of the regular army appeared on the scene. They undertook an assault on the building, whose windows were shattered by bullets. At the same time the building was systemat­ icallyencircled. Several machine gun volleys were aimed at the windows and the gate. "Toward noon the Hotel Schiff was taken by the police and the soldiers, and forty persons were captured. A machine gun and many grenades were taken. Artillery was set up near the wharf where Social Democratic and Communist workers had barricaded themselves. At this time the Linz Railway Station was still in the hands of the Schutz­ bund. "The garrison of the Park Baths in Linz surrendered upon the threat of artillery bombardment. A move in the center of the city was quickly suppressed. In the afternoon there was one more action near the Dametz Hof and the Diestering School, in which the-artillery was also used. "The street fighting between Social Democrats and the state forces went on without interruption the whole day. On both sides there were many seriously wounded and some dead. At the Pestalozzi Place there was a violent encounter between the Schutzbund and the police, during which a hand grenade was thrown which smashed some windows in the neighborhood. Then the Social Democrats undertook an assault on a police station in the Pestalozzi Place, put the police to flight and smashed 52 the furniture. Freinberg was at noon still in the hands of the Schutzbund, which planned to attack the town of Linz from that point with machine guns. Soldiers and policemen forced the Schutzbund men back to the Hotels 'Tauern' and 'Jiigermeister,' where they dug in. In spite of heavy losses-six dead are known-the Schutzbund succeeded in holding out until 5 p.m. At this hour the police captured this position at the cost of one dead and four wounded. "The new Danube Bridge was occupied on the Urfahr side by the Republican Schutzbund, on the Linz side by soldiers and the Heimwehr. Both camps kept up a steady fire. Two people who wanted to walk on the bridge just after it was closed off, were shot. One was killed outright. The Park Baths of Linz were badly damaged by bullets. The number of dead and wounded at this battlefield has not yet been ascertained. It is said that forty wounded men have been taken to the hospital. "On the square in front of the railway station there was a sharp encounter between the Heimwehr and the Schutzbund at about 3 p.m. Here, and at one other place, several men were wounded. The hospitals ar'e overtaxed by the injured. There are said to be more than one hundred of them. "At 5 p.m. there was heavy machine gun firing from the castle barracks directed against the Urfahr end of the Danube Bridge. In the evening there was street fighting in several places in the city. The building at the shipyard wharf was taken and cleared toward evening with the help of artillery. Here 140 Social Democrats were arrested. The Alpine Jager Regiment of Wels was ordered to Linz. The Director of Public Safety has proclaimed martial law in all Austria. "Toward 7 p.m. the administration succeeded, after a stubborn fight, . in penetrating into the Park Baths and in taking prisoner the 40 Schutz­ bund men who were barricaded there. Toward 9 p.m. the town was quiet again." The peace of which this report from Linz speaks was not of long dura­ tion. The Schutzbund withdrew to Urfahr, a district on the other bank of the Danube, where fighting began afresh during the night. It was continued on the next day with varying success. The regulars did not succeed in getting control of Urfahr until Tuesday noon. Behind the regular army came the Heimwehr to do its share after the fighting was over, by indulging in acts of brutality. The main railway station was also occupied by the Heimwehr. One Schutzbund man gave the reason for the final retreat in the laconic sentence: "In the first place we had no ammunition; in the second, we were cut off on all sides." In Linz artillery was used by the regular army from the beginning of the action: When the whole world cried aloud in indignation at the use of 53 cannon against dwelling houses, the Austrian government press replied with the idiotic pretense that the Viennese houses were fortresses. At Linz there were no such houses, but for all that the big guns fired their shells agains-t the Schutzbund. When the events in Linz became known in Steyr, the second largest town in Upper Austria, the workers in the arms factOry of Steyr (which after the war was chiefly devoted to the making of autOmobiles)' at once laid down their tools. The Schutzbund assembled. There was some fighting. The police were forced to retreat and the regulars took up the fight. The most important Schutzbund positions, located in Ennsleiten, a suburb of Steyr, were taken by howitzer fire. For hours the shells fell; then followed machine gun fire until the commander of the regulars thought that the Schutzbund position was ripe for an attack. On Tuesday afternoon the main positions of the Schutzbund were taken after many vain attempts by the regular troops. The Schutzbund men retreated as a body intO the hills where they tried for days to hold out. Cut off from all the world, frozen, and wading in deep snow, hungry and exhausted, they did hold out to the end. A participant describes the fighting near Ennsleiten in these words: . "An hour later (after the outbreak of the strike) the cannon and the mine throwers were in action against the quickly barricaded workers' suburb of Ennsleiten. We returned the fire as well as we could. We aimed in particular at the mine throwers, and finally did reach them with our machine guns. They had to be withdrawn behind protecting walls. From that point they continued their murderous work. Covered by the fire of the guns and the mine throwers, the regular army garrisons of Steyr made attack after attack. All were repulsed. Finally the army succeeded in bringing up a machine gun to within fifty paces, and began to fire on us. The soldiers believed that they could now take our posi­ tion by storm. They were again repell€d, and our comrades made a sortie and captured the advanced positions of the soldiers. The battle lasted until late at night. Ennsleiten was nOt taken. "At night the government brought up reinforcements. The garrison of Enns came into action with heavy artillery. At 3 a.m. the new bom­ bardment of the workers' quarters began. The district was soon in ruins. A new infantry attack was repulsed. "At 8 a.m. we could see from our position that the barracks of the regular army, 2500 paces away from us, was under heavy Schutzbund fire. On the previous day, too, attacks had been made to relieve us. Now our brave comrades of the neighboring villages of Sierning, Neuzeug and Letten were making a new attempt. We counted four successive attacks. Marvelous as was the tenacity of the attackers, it was unsuc­ cessful against the overwhelming power of the regular army. "As the second day proceeded resistance became more and more hopeless. Newly arriving cannon were put in position against us. Th~ 54 effect of the shells was frightful. The main stronghold of the Schutzbund was so shot to pieces that houses collapsed and buried m~ny a brave fighter under their ruins. That was the situation at 4 p.m. on February 13. At 4:30 we again repelled an attack of the regular army. "Then we were told that we were to retreat because the battle had become hopeless. Some of the Schutzbund men withdrew into the woods. Early in the evening the soldiers moved into Ennsleiten. The house to house search followed. The whole population was led out, women and children to the right-then men, with hands upraised to the left. About a thousand men were arrested, whether they had taken part in the fight­ ing or not. The soldiers behaved in incredible fashion. They shot at defenseless workers who had already laid down their arms. Many people were the victims of their blood-thirstiness. Twilight brought no rest. Whenever a man stirred a shot was fired, and the territory back of the town was subjected to artillery and machine gun fire. "The prisoners had to stand in the barracks yards all day and all night without food. Many were so badly beaten that they collapsed in bloody heaps. The Heimwehr, which did not appear until the fighting was nearly over, especially distinguished itself for brutality." That the tragedy might not not lack comic relief, the national leader of the Heimwehr, Starhemberg, announced in the papers that he himself would lead strong Heimwehr detachments against the Schutzbund of Steyr. When the prince arrived at the head of his column of automobiles it turned out that the Heimwehr had reached this battlefield, too, too late. On the other hand, Heimwehr companies seem to have been engaged in considerable numbers in the battles near the coal mine district of Wolf­ segg-Traunathal. The official Heimwehr report mentions five battalions which fought against the mine workers side by side with the regulars. We have no reports from the Schutzbund on the events of this battle, and are therefore compelled, for the time being, to rely on the official version. Not only the battle itself, but perhaps even more the events that followed the fighting in the Upper Austrian mine district urgently call for a thorough and objective investigation. The official reports merely state in a few words that after the fighting that accompanied the capture of the Workers' House in Thomasroith there was a frightful massacre of Schutzbund men. Govern­ ment officials insisted that the Schutzbund had fired although the white flag had already been raised over the Workers' House. The official report itself is forced to admit "that the Heimwehr men, deeply outraged by this beastly way of fighting, killed a few Schutzbund men here and there." In other words, defenseless Schutzbund men were murdered by the soldiery after the battle. . This official report, although it presents the bare facts, gives a false and distorted picture. In a small and remote mine village the following took place: 55 When the mine workers of Holzleiten had to give way, on Tuesday evening, February 13, after a hard fight against threefold odds, and raised the white flag over the Workers' House, the soldiers and the Heimwehr moved in and searched all the rooms. In the cellar it found the house force and six ambulance men attached to the mine fire company in . Thomasroith who had placed themselves at the disposal of the workers for the care of the wounded. They were driven into the main hall. The house force was, with difficulty, able to escape, but the ambulan<;:e corps was brought to the platform of the hall and shot down. Thirty shots were fired. The wall back of the place where these comrades were slaughtered was a fearful sight. It was covered with blood. The names of five of the slaughtered comrades are Karl Richter, two brothers called Zerebnitzky, Andreas Grobtschek, and Karl Groiss. One name we do not know. Five of the men were from Thomasroith, the other from Holzl­ eithen. Most of them were married and had children. One of the six saved himself. He received a bullet wound in the leg and played dead. A doctor later picked him up. During the search for weapons the home of Comrade John Groiss was also searched. His wife had given birth to a child the day before. She was brutally torn from her bed by the Heimwehr men. After the inhuman treatment she received she had to be taken to the hospital. Taking at face value the radio speech of the chancellor on February 14, in which he offered a pardon to all Schutzbund men who surrendered by noon on the following day, a few Schutzbund men of Holzleiten reported to the authorities. The brothers Helml surrendered at the police station in Manningottnang to District Inspector Karl, who struck Ludwig Helml eleven times with the butt of his gun. A Schutzbund man, Karl Meisinger, who also surrendered, was treated in the same way. He returned home with his face covered with blood. These comrades who gave themselves up were first allowed to go home, but were re­ arrested the next day. That was the pardon that Chancellor Dollfuss had offered in his radio address. Of the other events in Upper Austria we can report as follows: In Klein­ miinchein near Linz, in Attnang-Puchheim, the big railroad station, in Manthausen, an important stone quarry, and in other small places there was fighting. The Schutzbund at Ebonsee, on the Trauf?see, where the salt workers were the backbone of the rising, held out the longest. There the police barracks and other municipal buildings were taken by the Schutz­ bund, and policemen and Heimwehr men were captured. When a battalion of the Fourteenth Infantry moved up, the Schutzbund men defended them­ selves behind barricades. They held out until Wednesday, when after a brave fight they succumbed to the superior strength and technical equipment of the army. ' 56 The shell hole in the heavy masonry throws a spotlight on the beheaded statue of· a blacksmith in a workers' apartment at Ottakring. XIV. The Fighting in Styria

In the little cities and markets of Styria several years ago Heimwehr fascism was the rage among the intellectuals and semi-intellectuals. Physi­ cians, lawyers, notaries, postal .qfficials, court clerks, railway officials, etc., were largely in the camp of the Heimwehr. The factory officials of the biggest industrial enterprise in Austria, the Alpine-Montan Co., impressed a number of the workers into the Heimwehr at the orders of the general management.'. The movement finally culminated in September, 1931, in the adventure of the pfrimer "putsch." The episode is mentioned so that the hypocrisy of the Heimwehr leaders, __ who now express themselves in the accents of the deepest moral indignation at the Republican Schutzbund, while they themselves staged a regular putsch three years ago, may be exposed. There is besides a very real differ­ ence between the two events. The Pfrimer "putsch" was a coup d'etat, an admittedly plotted attack on the constitution, while in February days the Republican Schutzbund was on the defensive, and was fighting for what was left of the Republican constitution. The organized workers of Styria three years ago were the wall on which the Heimwehr "putsch" was smashed: In 1934 the Heimwehr was in a posi­ tion to take revenge on the side of the state. The Schutzbund fought in Styria under the same disadvantage as in the other provinces. In the industrial districts of Styria, too, the fighting measures of the workers failed because of the industrial crisis. In the provincial capital Graz it was clear on Monday morning that the general strike would fail. The Schutzbund was, besides, in rather doubt­ ful mood. Several sections were ready to fight, but had no arms. Neverthe­ less the Schutzbund violently opposed the attempts of the police to clear the streets. In the course of the encounters several police stations were cap­ tured, the policemen were dispersed or taken prisoner. When, however, the police were reinforced the Schutzbund had to withdraw. Since in the interior of Graz a continuation of the fighting seemed futile, a part of the Schutzbund retreated to the towns around Graz where on Monday night some serious fighting developed. The battles in Eggenberg were the worst. There the Schutzbund had gathered in the building of the Co-operative Society where it was attacked by the police, the soldiers and the Heimwehr. When the government troops started to attack the build­ ing they were met with heavy fire. In the course of the fighting the Heim­ wehr entered the home of the Director of the Co-operative, who was also mayor of Eggenberg, and plundered it. The same thing happened soon thereafter in the building of the Co-operative itself. The houses were bom­ barded by artillery, which was erected at the Plabutsch, and with hand 58 grenades. When, in consequence of the bombardment the Schutzbund had to withdraw, the Heimwehr seized the building of the Co-operative. It began looting at once. All the stores of flour, bread-stuffs, bread, etc., were loaded on cars and driven away. Whatever of provisions could not be taken away were befouled .and ruined. After this heroic deed the Heimwehr men seized a number of women, cursed them in a most degrading manner, and after manhandling them took them to prison. The Schutzbund made a counter-attack, recaptured the Co-operative and forced the government troops back to the city limits of Graz. They had to retreat there before artillery fire. But the regular forces had to fight every inch of the way. Not until their ammunition was exhausted, and not before they were fatigued from lack of food did they give in. The Schutzbund in many other Styrian cities and market places fought no less bravely. There was courageous resistance in the Graz suburbs Andritz, Gasting, Puntigam, in St. Michael, Thad, Gratkorn, Gass, Sinners­ dorf, St. Peter-Freienstein, Strassgand, Leoben, Kaflach, Voitsberg, Juden­ burg, Kindberg and Weiz. If the fighting in these consisted of mere skirmishes, that at Bruck-on- . the-Mur and Kapfenberg was much more important. The battles in these twO cities were among the most important the Schutzbund fought in the February days. The workers of Bruck and Kapfenberg were for years the best organized in Styria. Even at the height of the Heimwehr terror they did not yield, but kept faith with the Social Democratic Party and with the free unions. The upbuilding of this good organization and the solidarity of its members was in no small measure the work of their leader, Koloman Wallisch. Born in Banate, Wallisch came into Styria after the collapse of the Hungarian Soviet Government. Because at the time of the soviets he held a government post in his native land, he has been described in Styria, and later in all Austria, as a wild bolshevik. Wallisch was never a communist, not even at the time of the Hungarian Soviets. He has always been a Social Democrat. In matters of tactics he was always sane and moderate, and had a strong sense of responsibility. He was a proletarian in the best sense of the word. There was a natural bond between him and the masses of the workers whom he led. He was flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone. A stroll with Wallisch through the city of Bruck was a revelation. Young and old greeted him, stopped him, asked him for advice. He was friend, adviser, leader and minister to the workers in one. After many years of labor as leader in Bruck he was elected secretary of the party in Styria and had to go to the provincial capital. Before he left Bruck he promised the workers that he would return when the hour for the final conflict struck. He kept his word. When, on February 12, the general strike was called he hurried to his comrades in Bruck. 59 · The first struggles revolved about possession of the police barracks. In Bruck and in Kapfenberg the barracks were cut off, the police surrounded and put out of action. When the regulars came up the siege of the barracks had to be given up. The Schutzbund took a strong position on the hill that commands the city of Bruck. Not only the Schutzbund of Bruck, but also that at Kapfenberg, Diemlach, Hafendorf, Parschling, Thod and other nearby places took part. From all sides sections of the regular army, strengthened by Heimwehr formations, advanced against the hill. Artillery bombarded the Schutzbund positions. On Tuesday night the assault of the government forces began. The battle surged back and forth; the contesting parties fought on equal terms for hours, until the better arms of the government and the lack of ammunition among the Schutzbund decided this battle, too. The Schutz­ bund had to surrender the citadel. But even now the brave men did not admit defeat. Wallisch led 400 of his faithful followers through the Utsch ravine, across the Eisen pass to Hochanger. There he intended to go down to Frohnleiten. His company wandered about for six hours, knee-deep in snow. Ex­ hausted, plagued by hunger,.they reached the top of the peak, 7500 feet above sea-level, in a blinding storm. Most of the Schutzbund men were ill-equipped for this march. They lacked shoes and clothing. The few moun­ tain huts offered no shelter from the wind. They were desperate. For two days they held out on the peak in spite of all their suffering. Then many said they could endure it no longer. Wallisch held a conference with his aides, and advised those comrades who thought they could no longer stand such hardships to go down into the valley. The whole force was called together. For the last time Wallisch spoke to the workers of Bruck. He paid tribute to their deeds, thanked his brave comrades, and urged them, in spite of their momentary defeats, never to give up hope for the final victory of Socialism. There were tears in the eyes of the Schutzbund men when they said farewell to their beloved leader -never to see him again. Then began the descent of those who, creeping through the woods, turned back to Bruck. On the way down they hid their rifles and other weapons. Wallisch decided to fight his way to the Jugoslav border with the rem­ nant of the Schutzbund. About forty men stayed with him. He undertook a bold march across the mountains, pursued by large detachments of gov­ ernment troops. All the roads that led to the valley were shut off. On the mountains soldiers and policemen on skiis appeared. The attempt to get through seemed increasingly hopeless. Vice-Chancellor Fey had set a price of 1000 schillings on Comrade Wallisch's head; a few days later this sum was increased to 5000 schillings. Wallisch separated from his com­ panions and attempted flight, accompanied only by his wife. When Wal­ lisch and his wife, on leaving the mountain, were hurrying through the 60 valley they were recognized by a railway worker. The wretch was tempted by the high reward. He betrayed the fugitives. Policemen in cars and on motorcycles started out in pursuit and succeeded in capturing Wallisch on the road between Ardning and Liezen. One of the most loyal and bravest of men was in the power of the bloodthirsty police. The man who betrayed Wallisch did not for long enjoy his reward. His body was found a week after the betrayal, pierced by many bullets, near the place where Wallisch had been seized by the police. * ** *' * One of the faithful men who held out to the end with Wallischreports the events of their last days together. "After the departure of most of the Schutzbund men from the plateau a remnant of about one hundred stayed with Wallisch. We went on, after a short rest, in the direction of Frohnleiten. About half an hour's walk away from the little village some comrades from Frohn­ leiten approached us and asked how many of us there were. When Comrade Wallisch inquired about the situation in the village and asked how strong the army was there, we learned that there were no soldiers at all in Frohnleiten. We rested for about an hour and ate bread and milk, the first meal we had had for many hours. "There followed a brief conference among the leaders, and the party representatives, after which we withdrew again to the mountains. It had been decided early the next morning to free the party secretary who was being held prisoner in the district court in the village. Comrade Wale tisch sent a reconnoitering party consisting of eight men. The patrol had hardly been gone for five minutes when we heard the sound of shooting. The men had fallen into the hands of soldiers who had arrived in the meantime. Several were wounded, others were arrested and only one succeeded in escaping. He told us what had happened. Our men now prepared for battle. We resisted the soldiers for a while, but since we could not hold out against the superior force of the enemy we fled into the mountains. When after a more or less orderly retreat we once more gathered about Comrade \Vallisch there were only 25 of us. We could only guess what had happened to the others. "The soldiers did not pursue us. When. we arrived at the top of the Hochalm, Comrade Wallisch sent to Frohnleiten, Pernegg and Bruck, for information and for provisions. He gave each of the messen­ gers 20 schillings. None of them ever returned. Since the nights were too cold we could not stay out in the open any longer, and we looked for a refuge. We found an empty farm house near the Hochalm and we took refuge in it after setting up sentries. Comrade Wallisch asked us several times if we were willing to stay with him under the circumstances. When all the comrades said they were, he was moved to tears and 61 thanked them heartily for their confidence. Toward 2 p.m. a peasant who acted so strangely that we took him for a spy, joined us. Comrade Wallisch asked the man what he was doing, whereupon he answered that he was inspecting the roads since he intended to conduct a hay transport from the Hochalm in the next few days. We were all sure that he was a spy. About an hour after he left us we noticed that, at some distance first one man, then at short intervals five men at a time passed over the next peak-it was the pass over which the peasant had to go on his way back-until some fifty or sixty men had passed. From our position we could not tell whether these were Schutzbund men or soldiers. Comrade Wallisch gave the order to the remaining nineteen comrade~ to deploy in fighting formation, to advance and be ready to shoot. When we had gone forward a little we noticed that the new­ comers were soldiers who had just captured our sentries and who were searching them. Wallisch had taken command and was at the head of our line. He ordered us to stand in a semi-circle, to seek cover, so that we would not be surrounded, and not to advance or fire until he gave the word. Hardly had he given these orders when we heard Comrade Wal­ lisch fire the first shot. This was the signal for the attack. Through the energetic and intelligent action of our commander, Comrade Wallisch, we succeeded-in spite of overwhelming odds-in driving back the sol­ diers in spite of their machine guns. Those who saw Comrade Wallisch in action learned to respect him as a real fighter. The battle beggars description.

"We advanced to the edge of the woods; we could not go further because there was a broad meadow which offered no cover between us and the enemy. After a battle of almost half an hour we saw that two of our captured sentries were being driven in front of the soldiers. They called out to us over and over again "Comrades, don't shoot. There are only comrades over here." We did not allow ourselves to be deceived by this ruse. In this battle one of our comrades was badly wounded by a shot in the chest. We took him with us in our retreat. After we had collected again we noticed that again several of our men had left us. There were now only ten of us. Since we realized the futility of further resistance we went over the ice toward the pass, which is about 2500 feet high, in the hope of finding a shelter and a hiding place there, since the forests and ravines there are in large measure pathless.

"When dark came we reached a mountain hut. We were so exhausted because of hunger, thirst and exertion that we had to use all our strength merely to remain upright. Comrade Wallisch asked me, since I was per­ sonally acquainted with the occupant of the hut, to go to him and to ask him to give us food. It required considerable argument to persuade the peasant woman who was in the hut to cook a couple of pounds of meat, and since she had no bread in the house, to go to another hut, an hour's 62 walk away, to fetch some. This was the first decent meal we had had after three days of fighting and hardship. "After we had finished our meal we discussed what to do next, and agreed to separate into small groups, each of which should try to escape as best it might. Comrade Wallisch, Comrade X and I stayed together. The others went off, and except for two, who crossed our path during their flight, I never saw any of them again. "We hid in hay stacks during the next two days. Comrade X foraged for us. Since we could not, however, endure our hiding places because of the cold, we later hid in barns, where we were somewhat warmer. "On Friday evening, Comrade Wallisch asked me to go on a toboggan to a nearby village to find out how the land lay, for we had had no news from the outside world for days. When I reached the village I tried to reconnoiter in a number of directions, and tried to learn more particu­ larly, if the ctossings over the Mur were occupied and if flight over the river was P9ssible. Finally, I was to get money for our flight. We had no more. I learned that the Mur was not too strongly garrisoned. I could not. get money, for the treasurers, or those comrades who had funds, had been arrested or had fled. I heard further that it was already known that Comrade Wallisch and others were hiding in the woods, and that 300 soldiers on skis were already searching for W allisch. We were strongly urged by friends to flee. After I had brought this report to Comrade Wallisch we decided to ride on a toboggan in the early morning hours of February 17th to the village of Utsch. In the valley we went from one hut to the other. By chance we heard that the wife of Comrade Wallisch was hidden somewhere in this region. After a long search we found her. "Our greatest task was to get money for further flight, and I was asked to make another attempt to do so. For this purpose I went in secret to several comrades and to acquaintances, but in vain. Then I tried to get back to Comrade Wallisch, but in this, too, I failed. I never saw him again."

63 xv. The Vengeance of the Victors

On February 17th the following official report was issued: "President Miklas yesterday at 4 p.m. received the Vice Chancellor, Major of the Reserves, Emil Fey, Knight of the Order of Theresa, in order to hear his final report on the conclusion of the disturbances of the last few days. On this occasion, the President thanked the Vice Chancel­ lor for his energetic, intelligent and wisely moderate conduct of the defensive war that was forced upon him-" And then "President Miklas handed the Vice Chancellor the insignia of the Great Order of Honor that had been bestowed on him." We do not know whether President Miklas blushed for shame when he thanked Fey for his "wise moderation" in the "defensive war forced upon him." We do not believe that the Austrian national president is so stupid that he did not know what really occurred in these days of horror. Of course Mr. Miklas probably has not been told all that a brutal soldiery and, more, all that a bestial, bloodthirsty Heimwehr did. But the President cannot be quite so innocent as he pretends. For after all he does speak with other people than the creatures of Dollfuss and Fey, in spite of the traditional aloofness of the head of a state. We assume that much was kept from him, but also that he was told much. If we assume that he knows only a fraction of what we know then he must surely be aware that the government troops placed defenseless captive Schutzbund men against the wall and shot them, that hundreds of prisoners were badly mistreated; that they were herded into prison and left for days without food or water, that wounded Schutzbund men were allowed to bleed to death because surgical aid was denied them. It maybe that, as against these demonstrable cases, the excuse will be ' used that they were the immediate consequencs of the fighting, and there­ fore understandable, if not pardonable. But what should be the attitude of a civilized man-and of a believing Christian at that!-toward the fact that many days after the battles the Heimwehr men forced their way at will into the homes of the workers, made arrests, barbarously beat up the prisoners, and smashed their poor furniture? Or to the fact that they looted the shops of the Workers' Cooperatives, destroyed the Children's Homes, and destroyed the Workers' bookshops; that they drove women and children out of their homes at night; that they deprived thousands of their jobs, who were guilty of no other crime than being members of the Social Democratic Party? We quote a single case out of the wealth of remarkable material, because it is typical of the manner in which the Heimwehr behaved. Heimwehr men entered a tenement building in the 3rd Viennese ward, where there had been no fighting, on Wednesday, February 17th. The Heimwehr men looted the house, beat the occupants, and in some cases the dep~aved scoundrels 64 even used guns. A forty-year-old nurse named Therese Gegenhuber, a widow with one child, had returned from work. The Heimwehr let her pass. But when she crossed the staircase on the fourth floor, to reach her apart­ ment two shots rang out, fired by a Heimwehr man. She died immediately. Her body was allowed to lie on the stairs for twenty-four hours, although the house-management asked for permission to remove it. * **** Objective reports of foreign journalists bear witness to the look of things after the workers were crushed. In Austria itself nOthing of this can appear. A wall of silence encloses the unhappy country. But beyond the Austrian boundary new and terrible details became known each day, which show how the vengeance of the victors fulfills itself. While the Austrian radio and the bourgeois press untiringly praised the "pacifying" and "moderate" acts of the Catholic hangmen, while it was reported in how kind a manner the families of the shot and hanged Schutz­ bund members were being cared for by the Relief Committee of'Mr. Doll­ fuss, hundreds of families were evicted on two-weeks notice from the Karl Marx Hof. More, while the attempt was made to assuage the hatred of the wives of the killed for the hangmen by means of a few packages of food, the families of the prisoners in Vienna and in all other Austrian provinces were charged for their maintenance. An average of 50 schillings per month was demanded. One may imagine how the hungry families of the imprisoned Schutzbund men feel in the face of this "Christian" charity of the Catholic government of Dollfuss. The government is not content with robbing the families of the prisoners of their unemployment dole. The Catholics prevent the people from receiv­ ing any aid from others than their persecutors. An old female relative of a man who was hanged had received a loaf of bread from some comrades. A policeman who saw that she was receiving visits from Social Democrats told her that she would be locked up if she accepted presents from the "red bums." Unimaginable things happened in Bruch-on-the-Mur. More than half of the male population is under arrest. The prisoners sleep on the bare asphalt pavement, without blankets. They suffer frightfully from hunger and cold. The women who want to bring them food and clothing are brutally cursed and driven away by the watch. When the women came the first time they were told, "Your men don't need anything. They're all going to hang in two hours." The panic that followed this announcement beggars description. The one Socialist lawyer in the village was arrested. The prisoners are without any legal advice. The position of the prisoners is in part very bad. From many sources, very reliable reports of grave mistreatments seep through. It was learned 65 from the Goethehof and'the Schlingerhof that relatives of prisoners who were in good health when taken, finally found their people after long search in the police hospital, in very bad shape. Until the present moment (the middle of March) foreign journalists have been denied access to prisoners, including the prominent Social Democratic leaders. The wife of a captured leader received permission to speak for five min­ utes with her husband under strict observation. After a brief greeting the man said, "Weare beaten, but not subdued. The fight goes on. I shall do without the remaining four minutes." This message spread through all Vienna. The prisoners have been deprived of combs. They are not shaved and look greatly dilapidated. No prisoner may wear glasses. Glasses have been taken even from the most near-sighted, so that they are entirely helpless. The use of toothbrushes is denied them; these too have been taken away. Foreigners are not allowed to visit the prisoners. ***** The victorious reaction has at all times been crueller and more blood- thirsty than the revolution. This age-old experience is bound to harden the Austrian workers after the February battles. The Fascist counter-revolution is going its bloody way over the bodies of hundreds of martyred dead, over thousands broken in spirit, over countless ruined lives, over the misery of barbarously tortured women and children. Austria's "Christian" government permits no relief for the survivors of fallen Schutzbund men, because it sees in relief a "political demonstration." It lets thousands of Social Democrats, among them men and women grown gray in the service of the common good, rot in cells not fit for human beings. Every alleviation of their condition is brutally denied, even to the sick. Those who could not be sent to prison, even by the most arbitrary courts, go for indefinite terms to the concentration camps. Yes, indeed. Dollfuss learned from Hitler how to get rid of political opponents. There was but one difference between the two: the one did his dirty work motivated by the delusions of race; the other acted in the name of Christianity. The result is the same in Nazi Germany and in pious Chris­ tian Austria-the abasement of humanity.

66 XVI. Court Martial

The first Schutzbund member to come before the court martial was the cobbler, Karl Miinichreiter, aged 43, married, father of three small children. He haq been wounded in the fighting in Hietzing and had to be brought into the court-room on a stretcher. In answer to questions as to how he had been wounded, Miinichreiter stated: "I had thrown myself to the ground, and all of a sudden the word came to retreat, but to take our guns with us. Suddenly I received a wound. I hid behind a pile of straw and threw away my gun and my cartridges. Next to me lay a Schutzbund man with a wound in the head. I was trying to bandage him when I got my second wound." The presiding judge asked Dr. Sauer, who had been called as an expert, whether Miinichreiter was not to be considered seriously sick in the legal sense in which case he could not be tried by court martial, but would have to be arraigned before the civil court, which could not impose the death penalty. Dr. Sauer answered in the negative. He stated that Miinichreiter's wound was serious, but in his opinion, not in the sense of the law. There­ upon the state's attorney, who evidently would have been willing to accept a less rigorous interpretation of the law, said regretfully, "I must be guided by the expert opinion of the doctor-" The court denied the motion of counsel for the defense to transfer the case to the regular courts. That sealed the fate of the Schutzbund man, Miinichreiter. The rest was a mere formality. The defendant was sentenced to death by hanging. The execution of Karl Miinichreiter was one of the greatest abominations in history. The badly wounded convicted man had to be carried to the gal­ lows on a stretcher. That which was a rare occurrence even in war times­ since it contravenes the Geneva Red Cross agreement-took place here in the civil war: a seriously wounded man was hanged. A reactionary Viennese paper, filled with self-righteousness, published the following report of the execution: "3.41. The executioner in a black gown, with black gloves and wear­ ing a black hat is standing in the court yard. Only the officials of the court, Supreme Court Judge Kreuzhuber with his advisers, and State's Attorney Dr. Wachsman, a priest and the attending physician have come to the place of execution. The sentence is quickly reaa once more. The face of the condemned man twitches. When the executioner puts the noose around his neck Miinichreiter utters a few Marxist phrases and then gives way to mad and obscene curses against the COurt martial. What follows takes only a few seconds. The assistants of the executioner who have until now supported the condemned man, now take the ladder from 67 under the dangling body. The criminal has been executed. After seven and one-half minutes the doctor reports the man dead." Karl Miinichreiter died like a hero. When he was being taken from his stretcher to the gallows he cried aloud: "Long live Social Democracy. Liberty." Those were the Marxist phrases for which the slimy journalist condemned him after he was dead. The second case before the court martial was that of the commander of the Floridsdorf fire company, George Weissel, an engineer. As child of pro­ letarian parents Weissel early became acquainted with misery and want­ but he soon realized that the working class must fight its own battles. Even as a student he was active in the Socialist movement. The relationship of the proletariat to the state particularly interested him. He eagerly studied military tactics. For a time he was commander of the academic legion of the Republican Schutzbund, beloved and respected by his associates. After con­ cluding his studies Weissel entered the service of the city of Vienna, but in his new sphere of activity he retained, as a matter of course, his old views. He devoted all his free time to the labor movement. Occasionally his revolu­ tionary temperament carried him beyond everyday realities, an.d he dreamed of the grear.revolution which, at one blow, was to put an end to the sufferings of the proletariat. February 12 found him at his post. He did his duty, unselfish as ever, devoted to the idea that was more to him than life. A few characteristic it.ems from his testimony are worth repeating here. Judge: Did you know that an action against the government was in progress? Weissel: Of course. Judge: If you had the courage to take part in such an action, and if you were willing to tell the Fire Commissioner that you are a revolu­ tionary, you ought to have the courage to admit it now. ,Do you admit that you intended to fight against the government? Weissel: Yes. Judge: Will you give the name of the man who gave you the order to fight? Weissel: It was Heinz Roscher of Leopoldau, who worked at the gas works. Roscher told me to arm the fire company. Judge: From who did Roscher receive his orders? Weissel: Must I answer that? Judge: No. You have courageously confessed. You do not have to implicate others. Were the firemen compelled to belong to the Schutzbund? Weissel: No. Never. 68 Once a show-place of "Red Vienna"-the Socialists, conquered but not subdued, now derisively dedicate it to Marshall Fey. Judge: Did all your men go with you without hesitation? Weissel: Yes. My men were well-disciplined. Judge: Did you fire any shots yourself? Weissel: 1 fired one shot on the stairs. Judge: You were warned by an engineer named Ruttner. Why did you arm the men in spite of that? Did you act from conviction? Weissel: Yes. Judge: YoU: might have had a chance to give up your venture. Weissel: 1 passed up the opportunity. 1 told the Fire Commissioner that 1 could not retreat, that we were on the point pf revolution. When 1 was again asked to give up my intentions it was too late. Retreat was already cut off by the police. Judge: Why did you surrender to the police? Weissel: Because there were toO few of us. Judge: And if there had been more of you you would not have surrendered? Weissel: Of course not. There were only sixty men in the company, and only a few were armed. Attorney: You probably thought that a revolution had started. Weissel: We waited for reinforcements. None came.

Weissel's chief, Fire Commissioner Wagner, gave an account of his argu­ ment with the defendant when he heard that the fire brigade was being armed. A colleague of Weissel, an engineer named Ruttner, reported on Tuesday at 8 a.m. that Weissel was arming the firemen. Thereupon he, Commissioner Wagner, gave an order at once to disarm the men. Weissel interrupted the telephone conversation and said "it won't do"-"he would not do it." Fire Chief Wagner asked him if he had gone crazy and Weissel answered: "1 will not desert my comrades" and hung up. Ruttner called again and the witness ordered him to climb over the fence and notify the police. At the next call the telegrapher, Maus, answered. He called Weissel to the phone. On being ordered to give up his arms the latter said, ''I'll not do it. 1 am a revolution~st." The fire chief thereupon notified police head­ quarters. Weissel was courageous when the death penalty was imposed, as he had been during the fighting, and during the court proceedings. At 9.43 p.m. the court returned to the court-room, and the presiding judge, Vice,President Hanel, announced the verdict. The defendant, George Weissel, was found guilty of inciting to riot, and in accordance with paragraph 74 of the penal law, he was sentenced to death by hanging. Weissel heard the verdict 70 unmoved, and to the question whether he had understood the verdict he answered "yes" in a loud firm voice. Judge: There is no appeal from this sentence. Do you want spiritual consolation? Weissel: No. The sentence was executed after midnight. Unbowed and with head erect Weissel walked to the gallows. He de­ voted his last words 'to the idea for which he had lived, and for which he died in his thirty-fifth year. When the hangman put the noose around his neck his voice rang out for the last time: "Long live revolutionary socialism." *** ** After the death of Miinichreiter and Weissel came the execution of the Vienna Schutzbund member, Emil Swoboda, of Victor Rauchenberger and Johann Hoys of St. Polten, of Josef Ahrer of Upper Austria, and of Josef Stanek of Styria. The secretary of the Graz Chamber of Labor, Josef Stanek, had been sentenced to death because he resisted arrest, gun in hand. Stanek, a man of fifty, had spent his life in the service of the proletariat. A skilled metal worker, he early achieved office in his union and rose until he finally became head of the metal workers in Styria. He was always in the front ranks in a fight, but he was at all times a quiet, careful man who never lost his head. The death sentence was imposed on him because the government wanted to hang one of the leaders, to satisfy the blood-thirstiness of the Heimwehr. Koloman Wallisch had to die for the same reason. Before the court martial he showed himself an upright Social Democrat and a brave man. When asked by the presiding judge about the military plans of the "putsch," he answered, "We had no military plans for a putsch, but only for defensive action." Judge: Are weapons necessary to make a general strike effective? Wallisch: That, too, may be the case. Then Wallisch justified his attitude during the days of battle in a gripping speech: "It is not my intention to apologize. What I have done I shall admit. I have never been anything else but a Social Democrat. I have devoted my life to the working cl.ass. I know that I am being condemned for it. I do not ask for mercy; I need no mercy. Whoever fights for the rights of the working class must be ready to die for them. I would be glad to fight on for our cause. But if that may not be, others will carryon." The court martial sentenced him to death by hanging. His wife broke down, but he consoled her and his brother-in-law, who had come to say good- 71 bye to him with the words, "Heads up. Don't cry. Don't disgrace me. Be brave." As he was being led to the gallows he cried to friends and comrades in battle, "Promise me that you will be brave and carryon. Long live Social Democracy. Liberty!" So died Koloman Wallisch, the hero and leader of the Styrian workers. The hangman could destroy his body but not his spirit. That will live on in the mountains and valley of the Alps, in the huts of the poor and the oppressed, throughout the world.

72 XVII. Flight

The time has not yet come to report personal experiences of the February battles. Comrades who are still within reach of the Dollfuss government might be endangered thereby. So far as it was necessary to counteract the lies about the behavior of the leaders, spread by the newspapers and over the radio, Otto Bauer has done this in his pamphlet, "The Uprising of the Aus­ tria9 Workers." (Published by the German Social Democratic Labor Party of Czecho-Slovakia, Prague, 1934, pp. 22 to 24.) "On Monday at noon Deutsch and I went to a Viennese working class District to attend a meeting of the central board of strategy. The fact that we were there kept the police from finding us. The board of strategy established and maintained contact with the fighting groups in Vienna and also in the provinces so far as possible. Bur it had to work under extraordinary difficulties. The district in which it was located fell into the hands of government forces. Nevertheless, threatened with momentary arrest, we continued our work there until Tuesday morning. Then this was no longer possible. Our scours, who brought information and carried orders, met with military and police patrols as soon as they left the house in which we were working. We therefore divided the board and transferred it to two other districts. But after a few hours these districts, toO, were in the hands of the enemy; there, too, all resist­ ance was at an end. We now tried to join one of the fighting groups. This attempt failed because of the military blockade through which we could not penetrate. Our scours could no longer get through to the fighting groups. We were cur off from the men who were still fighting. The police was at our heels. In spite of my disguise I was recognized on the streets. Deursch, already wounded, escaped arrest only by an almost miraculous accident; policemen were searching the house in which he was staying and did not notice him. Withour any prospect of taking part in last battles we had only the choice of waiting for our arrest, or of flight. Not until all fighting was at an end in the whole section of the city in which we were staying, and not until all hope of a change had vanished, did we decide to attempt to reach the Czecho-Slovakian border. Several groups of workers had preceded us to Bratislava. A few hours after we arrived 57 Schurzbund men who had withdrawn from the Floridsdorf fighting, crossed the Czecho-Slovakian border, fully armed. They had fought their way through against Heimwehr detachments that pursued them. We were in Vienna much longer than the government believed. When Minister Schuschnigg said over the radio that we had deserted the workers on the barricades, we were at the headquarters of the board of strategy. When Vice-Chancellor Fey announced over the radio that we 73 had arrived at Prague, we were still in Vienna. Since Mr. Fey has said that we had provided ourselves richly with funds for our flight I might as well tell this chivalrous enemy that when I crossed the border I had 105 schillings. Deutsch had even less." I have nothing to add to Bauer's narrative in so far as it concerns us both. Only with reference to the last phase of my flight, which I undertook quite alone, I can add a few remarks. On Wednesday evening, when all was over, and all further resistance was futile I decided to leave Vienna. I was face to face with either court martial, or a vague hope in flight. A lucky accident led me near the Czecho­ Slovakian border. I was walking in the dark of night on the broad highway from Petronell to Altenburg. From there the road led to Hainburg, on the Danube. When I approached Hainburg I remembered my hlst visit to this town. It was during the national elections of 1930. I addressed a large meeting. The workers and the Social Democratic city authorities received me at the city gate, for Hainburg was a red city, and the workers' youth, singing revolu­ tionary songs, led the great procession to the meeting place, where a splendid demonstration was held. Certainly many comrades in this city would recognize me as soon as they saw me. Should I entrust myself to them, and ask for a guide on the unfa­ miliar road to the border? No! I reflected that the warrant for my arrest was following at my heels. It had been announced only a few hours earlier by radio. Anyone who helped me in my flight, ran the risk of vanishing into jail for many years. No one should be exposed to this danger for my sake. I decided therefore, to risk the journey over the border alone. In Vienna the region had been described to me by friends. Accordi~g to them I must reach the border by turning off left beyond Hainburg, from the road that leads to the customs house, and taking a road through a forest. I reached Hainburg unrecognized and walked along on the highway. There were more people on it than I had expected. I met someone or other every few moments. This was inconvenient, since it was not so easy to dodge into the iced bushes. Then I noticed a wagon road that led across the railway tracks toward the open fields. I turned into it. But at that moment three men in civilian clothes, who were clearly watching this wagon road fell upon me, grabbed me and asked "where the devil I was going?" Was I lost? Were these three civilians, who were apparently volunteer border watchmen, the agents of fate? I tore myself. loose and began to curse and scoli:!. them. What sort of place was this where a man was attacked when he lost his way in the dark. The people of Hainburg ought to provide better lighting for'their town and the streets around it, so .that one did not stumble on the wrong road in the 74 dark. What sort of conduct was this-to attack a stranger like a pack of bandits! My assailants were taken aback. Then one of them said that after all it was suspicious when a man came sneaking around at night. I shouted at him, "How could he say I was sneaking?" I turned around indignantly, walked back the few steps to the highway and marched on, ostentatiously stamping my feet on the pavement. The three men were puzzled, discussed the matter for a moment while I went my way. They still felt there was something wrong for soon thereafter I saw an auto coming from the direction of Hainburg, which began to sweep the road and the land around it with strong lights. The three volunteer border watchmen had informed the police who were now on my trail. As soon as the light of the reflector of the slowly moving auto flared up I stopped stiff as a ramrod on the edge of the road. I hoped that at a distance I would be taken for a bare tree-trunk. But the car came nearer and nearer. What was I to do? Just as the reflector was shut off again for a moment I saw next to me a rather large tree. With one jump I was behind it. The car that was following me came past a few seconds later at a very slow pace. I saw armed men in the car. Perhaps they were Heimwehr men? Now I scrambled up the street embankment to reach the open fields. Out of breath I stood at the top to get my bearings. It was a pitch black night. I could not see two paces ahead. Where was I to go? At a great distance I saw on the horizon a dim streak of light. Perhaps Bratislava? I decided, for lack of any other signpost, to make this strip of light my goal, and to head for it. That was more easily said than done, for now, when the tension of the battles and of the flight had lessened, my wounded eye began to hurt. My vision grew worse, and I began to walk unsteadily. With difficulty I felt my way from one stubble field to another. The ground was frozen. In spots it was like ice. I slipped and fell, picked myself up, only to find myself on my back again a moment later. I made headway slowly-too slowly for a fugi­ tive. That went on for a long time. Time is endless if there is no way of measuring it. A glance at my watch would have done no good, for I was half blind and could not have seen the hands even by the light of a match. So I stumbled on across the fields, always careful not to lose sight of the dis­ tant strip of light that was Bratislava. Just as I was about to leave a snow-covered field for a road, I distin"'ctly heard loud voices. I remained motionless, lying on the snow. The voices came nearer. They belonged to two policemen who were patrolling the border. It seemed to me that lying on the white snow I must be clearly visi­ ble to them. I pulled in my head and pressed my body to the ground in order to look like a stone in the darkness. But the policemen paid no attention to me. They walked past me, not five paces from me, talking. I heard some- 75 thing about a woman named Anna whom they were discussing. I wished them and their Anna joy. After they had passed I rose cautiously, slid down the snowy slope, crossed the road and began to climb up the other steep side. And again I had bad luck-my right shoe fell from my foot. During the fighting I had several times exchanged shoes with some of the comrades; sometimes we needed heavy shoes for marching, and again light shoes for a walk in the city. When the end came I was wearing a pair of oxfords, which were much tOo big for me. Now, just as I was anxious to get beyond the reach of the policemen, this damned shoe slipped from my foot. I tried to hold it with my hand, but couldn't. The shoe rolled down the slope. In despair I looked after it. It was next to impossible to get on in the snow and on the ice-fields without shoes. I had to have my shoe again, at any price. It seemed to me that my swollen eye began to hurt more than ever. I strained it to see my shoe, but couldn't find it. Now there was nothing else to do but lie flat on the ground and to .feel for the shoe with my hand. That was hard work, but I was lucky. After a while I found it. With a piece of string that I found in my pocket I tied both shoes more firmly to my feet. Now I could go on. The rest of my journey was not so adventuresome as it was wearisome. Across fi~lds, through woods and thickets I went ahead, taking care at every road I had to cross, not to run into the hands of a patrol. It is strange how the snow crunches just when you want to walk without making a noise. Suddenly I stOod before a broad white surface. I went tOward it. It crunched under my feet. I drew back. I had come to a frozen tributary of the Danube. I had almost fallen through the ice. I rejoiced, not only because I had been spared a cold bath, but because I now had my bearings. Somewhere, not far away, this tributary was bound to flow into the Danube. If I walked along it I could not fail to reach the border. I merely had to be careful not to encounter a patrol walking 011 the banks. Watching carefully, and walking softly, I followed the tributary and later the. Danube itself. The road along the banks was easier than wander­ ing in the trackless forest. Nevertheless I was growing tired. I was hungry, tOo. I had eaten nothing since breakfa'st, and it was now past midnight. Without further accident I reached 'a broad street. A flash-light flared up in front of me and a rough voice barked at me. I held my knife in my hand­ I had no other weapon-tO defend myself. They were not going to take me without resistance. ' But it was not an Austrian. It was a Czech policeman who approached me on the street in the dark. He looked at me in astOnishment. My hands and face were covered with blood. I was covered with dust and filth and my clothes were tOrn. I was not a figure calculated to arouse confidence. I tOld 76 the Czech patrol who I was; whereupon he asked me, politely and quite properly, to accompany him to the nearest police station. I walked through the night accompanied by a Czech border guard, yet a free man, over the border, a fugitive from my native land which I had expected to serve as long as I lived.

77 XVIII. Epilogue

The world will never know how many victims the February battles in Austria demanded. The government, to calm down foreign opinion, gave out clearly false figures when it spoke of three hundred dead. Unfortunately this number must be multiplied many times. Very often the Schutzbund did not give up their dead, but buried them themselves. It was also said that bodies were thrown into the Danube. The civil war in Austria was one of the bloodiest in the history of the last century. It has brought untold suffering to thousands of families. Shall these sufferings have been without purpose? We cannot believe it. An idea for which so many men fight and die must be great and noble. It cannot and will not die our. The bloody sacrifices of the February days shall not have been made in vain. On the contrary, they will give new moral strength to those who war for the liberation of the working class. We cherish the confidence that the bloody events of those days will serve coming generations as a symbol; that they will be a shining symbol of faithfulness to duty for the youth of the working class. When in later days a happier generation shall walk the earth in the light of freedom, the dead of February, 1934, will be held in honor. / But we who live in these days of transition, in this time of battle, we do not think of giving up the fight. We have been beaten, but we are not sub­ dued. In us lives the will to remake the world. That is the task we must perform. That is the admonition of the dead to the living. The dead of February-they have not died. They will live again.

78