The Undermining of Austria-Hungary Also by Mark Cornwall THE DEVIL'S WALL: The Nationalist Youth Mission of Heinz Rutha The Undermining of Austria-Hungary The Battle for Hearts and Minds Mark Cornwall pal grave macmillan © john Mark Cornwall 2000 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-80452-0 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or * transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1 N 8TS Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-059429 Transferred to Digital Printing in 2014 For my parents, fohn and Benita Cornwall Contents List of Tables ix List of Illustrations X List of Maps xi Preface xii Preface to the Paperback Edition XV List of Abbreviations xix 1 A Theory of Front Propaganda 1 2 Austria-Hungary and the Control of Wartime Morale 16 3 The Experience of Propaganda against Russia 40 3.1 The campaign on the Eastern Front 40 3.2 The 'breaking of Russia' 49 3.3 The Serbian campaign 62 4 Austria-Hungary's Campaign against Italy 74 4.1 The Italian target 74 4.2 The launch of an Austrian campaign 78 4.3 The impact of Austria-Hungary's front propaganda 92 5 The Seeds of Italy's Campaign 112 5.1 Obstacles to effective propaganda 112 5.2 The role of Italian military Intelligence 122 5.3 The dream of Carzano 131 5.4 The propaganda duel 149 6 Italy's Campaign against Austria-Hungary 174 6.1 The British contribution 174 6.2 Steed's coordinating mission 185 6.3 The Padua Commission 202 6.4 Trench propaganda 228 7 Austria-Hungary on the Defensive 257 7.1 The perception of enemy propaganda 257 7.2 The Feindespropaganda-Abwehrstelle 268 7.3 The case of the 42nd Honved Infantry Division 287 7.4 Austria loses the propaganda duel 299 vii viii Contents 8 The Climax of Italian Psychological Warfare 320 8.1 The pressure of Crewe House and the Italian obstacle 320 8.2 An Italian or an Allied campaign? 332 8.3 Padua's summer campaign: the 'Oppressed Nationalities' 342 8.4 Padua's summer campaign: the Magyars and German-Austrians 362 8.5 New trials in trench propaganda 373 9 Disintegration 405 9.1 The failure of patriotic instruction 405 9.2 A final duel in front propaganda 415 10 Conclusion 433 Appendix 445 Bibliography 454 Index 466 List of Tables 7.1 Diminishing strength of the 42HID (1918) 297 7.2 Percentage of literate males, aged 16--50, in Austria, Hungary and Bosnia-Hercegovina 300 7.3 Desertions to the Italian 4th Army, 15 May-14 June 1918 301 8.1 Propaganda and Reconnaissance Units, June-November 1918 377 9.1 Desertions from the Austrian 11th Army, 1-30 September 1918 408 ix List of Illustrations 4.1 'A Joke against a Joke': Austrian propaganda, lampooning Gabriele D' Annunzio (KA: 6sterreichisches Staatsarchiv, Kriegsarchiv, Vienna) 87 4.2 'Spaghetti Signori!': Austrian propaganda, satirizing the Italians (KA) 88 6.1 The Padua Commission in June 1918 (Antoni Szuber, Walka o Przewage Duchowq, Warsaw, 1933) 206 7.1 Manifesto 16: Trumbic announces to Zagreb and Ljubljana that Italian-Yugoslav relations are excellent (KA) 266 8.1 Manifesto 169: Serbs should reflect on the lessons of Kosovo (KA) 347 8.2 Manifesto 243: Two Czech brothers meet on Val Bella (KA) 354 8.3 Manifesto 131: Czechs ought to follow the example of Jan Hus (KA) 356 8.4 Manifesto 109: The death of Hungary is announced (KA) 364 8.5 Manifesto 228: Austria's identity papers are marked 'Unscrupulousness', 'Slovenliness' and 'Hunger' (KA) 368 9.1 America rejects Burian's peace offer: Austria's final effort at propaganda against Italy (KA) 418 9.2 Manifesto 352: A poem of Sandor Petofi to inspire the Magyars (OHM: Orszagos Hadt6rteneti Muzeum, Budapest) 425 X List of Maps 2.1 Austria-Hungary in the First World War 17 4.1 The Italian Front in 1918 83 5.1 The Italian Front in 1917 132 5.2 The Front east of Asiago (June 1918) 146 xi Preface In his most influential book published in 1927, Harold D. Lasswell, one of the pioneers of the modem study of propaganda, wrote that when the First World War had receded into the past it would be possible to write 'at least a fragment­ ary history of the international propaganda of the time' .1 The following work is a contribution to that history. Its purpose is to examine one facet of wartime propaganda: the phenomenon which can be termed 'front propaganda', or the use of propaganda as a weapon of warfare against the enemy. Since Lasswell's study appeared, only a few authors have attempted to assess this modernized weapon of the Great War. The first, Hans Thimme, concentrated on the West­ em Front in his Weltkrieg ohne Waffen. Another, lesser-known, work was by a Pole, Antoni Szuber, and dealt extensively with the Italian Front, the theatre where he had served as a wartime propagandist; however, his study in Polish could only reach a limited audience. 2 Later works, most notably those of George Bruntz, Luciano Tosi, and Michael Sanders and Philip Taylor, continued to emphasize the theme from a western perspective, in the latter cases setting front propaganda in the context of a specifically national wartime development of propaganda (British or Italian).3 The result has again been to present a fragmented picture of how the weapon was wielded among the belligerents. Indeed, as this study will argue, the effect of these works, even though each has contributed its own piece of the propaganda jigsaw, has been to distort the historiography, building consistently upon long-established myths about western, or more specifically British, superiority in the field of psychological warfare. This study does not profess to give a complete picture of how front propa­ ganda was exercised during the First World War. My aim is to restore a balance to the historiography, particularly to move away from a British focus, and to do so by investigating the propaganda weapon as wielded by and against the Habsburg Empire. In tum, this serves to open up other facets of the Great War which remain under-researched or often inaccessible to a western audi­ ence. Thus, the analysis of front propaganda is concentrated upon the Italian and Eastern Fronts, scenes in any case of the most significant propaganda campaigns of the war (although they are barely mentioned in existing historio­ graphy). And because the Habsburg Empire is the focus, either as propagandist or as victim of enemy propaganda, the work naturally explores the strengths and weaknesses of Austria-Hungary during its last war, assessing especially the degree to which its citizens were successfully mobilized on behalf of the Empire or were susceptible to arguments or information which could damage morale xii Preface xiii and ultimately undermine the Monarchy's viability. In this way, while main­ taining front propaganda as the key focal point, the book has a second major purpose of contributing towards the historiography of the collapse of Austria­ Hungary. The project was initially envisaged with a British focus, as a study of wartime British propaganda against the Habsburg Empire, but its concept was gradually moulded into its current shape as a result of the evidence which I discovered in Vienna, Budapest and Zagreb. I owe a special debt to Roy Bridge and Nicholas Pronay of the University of Leeds, who first suggested the research project, provided vital contacts in central Europe, and guided me with enthusiasm and criticism through the early stages: their support has been invaluable. During my research visits to foreign archives, I benefited greatly from lively discussions in Vienna with Lothar Hobelt, Peter Broucek and Steven Beller. In Budapest, my struggle in an environment where the language was wholly foreign to me was significantly eased through the help of Geza jeszenszky, Marton Farkas and Daniel Szabo. In Zagreb, I was privileged to talk to the late Dragovan Sepic, one of the wise doyens of Croatian history, and also secured untiring assistance from Zvonimir Passek in using the papers of the Yugoslav Committee, and from Damir Zagotta at the Croatian State Archives.