alternatehistory.com

The road to the union between Austria and Germany can be taken back to the final disintegration of the Holy Roman Empire in the early nineteenth century. The demise of the ancient confederation had provoked calls for a unified nation of those who German speaking peoples who had made up the majority of its population. This idea became especially pronounced in the wake of the liberal and nationalist revolutions that erupted throughout Europe in 1848 where the two most powerful German states of Austria and Prussia both pledged themselves to the idea of a Greater Germany, at least in theory. In practice both states vying for dominance over any potential union left the issue unresolved for decades until the wars of German unification. Through these conflicts Prussia established its primacy over the other German states in the Austro-Prussian War before carving out a unified German state in the Prussian image amidst their victory in the Franco-Prussian War. Austria turned inward, attempting to resolve internal divisions within its multicultural empire by reestablishing itself as a dual monarchy between Austria and Hungary whilst maintaining its place as the major power in the Balkans.

The German speaking peoples of the empire, despite their dominant position within the Empire continued to yearn for unification with Germany and this began to manifest itself in new political ideals, such as in the futurism of a young Adolf Hitler. Ethnic and nationalist tensions in the Balkans, and within the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself, worsened as the twentieth century began and were the major factor in the outbreak of the First World War. Austria fought alongside Germany within the Central Powers but performed poorly, frequently relying on their more powerful ally to achieve success whilst internal divisions only grew worse. In the face of a swathe of economic, military and political crises Austria-Hungary began to fall apart and even before the war had ended it had dissolved entirely.

The creation of the Austrian Republic in the aftermath of the First World War was a troubled one. The vast losses of territory imposed upon it by the post-war settlement left Germans as the vast majority of the remaining populace and a German identity dominated from the outset with even the preamble of the Republic’s constitution stating a desire to one day unify with Germany. The post-war settlement however also stipulated that the new republic was not allowed to compromise itself, effectively prohibiting it from joining Germany and leaving Austria as an independent state with a populace who largely didn’t want it to be.

The political atmosphere of the short-lived republic was one where a competition between Austrian and German nationalism was prevalent alongside those issues more common to Europe at the time, namely divides between urban and rural populations and, most importantly, the class conflict. Austria was a largely rural state but one with an peculiarly large urban sprawl in the form of Vienna which had been built around the function of being an imperial capital with an industrial base to match. Within Vienna and other industrial cities the dominant political force was the Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs (Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Austria) or SDAPÖ who, similar to their German sister party had been a powerful force in the old Austria-Hungary before playing a leading role in the foundation of the new republic. This was despite the party’s stated desire for union with Germany. Their main rivals were the Christlichsoziale Partei (Christian Social Party) or CS, who represented the conservative ideology of the old Austrian elites and rural peoples. With some of their beliefs bordering on fascism, they favoured an Austrian identity based around Catholicism in contrast to the largely Protestant, Prussian notion of Germany and the ‘Judeo-Bolshevik’ Social Democrats. Whilst the two parties tended to be evenly matched at a national level the CS could rely on the support of smaller conservative and liberal parties (who tended to be German nationalists themselves) and as such it would tend to be the ruling party within coalitions at the National Council, the republic’s legislative assembly with members of the party making up most of the nation’s Chancellors throughout the life of the republic.

This political dominance by the right did not translate to political stability however with the twenties being fraught with strike action, inflation crises, and political violence. This reached a peak in the July Revolt where the murder of an eight year old boy and his father, supposedly by members of the far-right Heimwehr militia, led to an uprising within Vienna after those accused of the murder were acquiited. Armed police had fought workers wielding construction materials; dozens were shot down and hundreds injured in the ensuing violence. The Social Democrats were wary of civil war and urged restraint in the aftermath of the slaughter. Further violence was averted but tensions remain high throughout the country, exacerbated first by the Wall Street Crash and then the collapse of the nation many Austrians considered their true Fatherland into Civil War.

The collapse of the Creditanstalt bank was the first major shock to Austrian society brought on by the global depression and the German Civil War. The announcement in the October of 1930 that the bank had lost more than half of its capital and hence, by Austrian law, had to be declared failed was a disaster for the country. Not only was the Creditanstalt bank the country’s largest, it was bigger than all other banks put together. Its balance sheet was larger than the government’s annual expenditure and more than two thirds of Austrian corporations did business with it. This gave the bank an apparently unassailable position within the Austrian economy and with it an undue amount of influence upon Austrian politics. The bank was too big to fail, and if that wasn’t the case financially the government had made sure of it by other means.

Creditanstalt had actually been in trouble for a while, since at least 1925 where it had never really recovered from the hyperinflation the Austrian economy had suffered in the previous years. Short term loans were sought from Britain and France with that money then being plunged into uncertain investments in the former territories of the Habsburg empire. These poor investments and increased debts only led to further trouble, exacerbated by urgent demands of payment following the stock market crash. By early 1930 the bank was already buying its own stock to prevent panic. The CS-led government knew about this and actively colluded in the cover-up. The outbreak of civil war in Germany gave both the bank and the government the opportunity to blame the failure on external factors beyond their control but too many people were involved in the previous cover-up for it to be anything other than a poorly kept secret. When the government announced a rescue package to bailout Creditanstalt, one which would incur severe cuts to government spending alongside tax rises, the stories of collusion began to run amok and the public were inflamed with anger over the conspiracy. The governing coalition collapsed as each party involved attempted to distance themselves from the scandal but in the resulting elections the public were granted a chance to punish those responsible.

The result was a crushing victory for the Social Democrats who came close to securing a majority in the Nationalrat. They were assisted into government by the Kommunistische Partei Österreichs (Communist Party of Austria), or KPÖ, who entered the assembly for the first time on the basis of an increased anti-capitalist radicalism within industrial areas. The Communists, who were a small albeit disciplined organisation, were aided in exploiting this due to the actions of Adolf Hitler, an Austrian Communists who they had previously distanced themselves from but whose popularity they now exploited on the basis of the public being oblivious to the intricacies of the far-left. The historic enmity between the Communists and the Social Democrats, particularly with the the former’s allegiance to contemporary Comintern line of ‘Social Fascism’ prevented any United Front from being formed between the two but the willingness of the handful of newly elected Communist members to work on a vote by vote basis in the Nationalrat left the Social Democrats with an effective majority. What had happened in Germany made both parties keen to avoid the left being unnecessarily divided, particularly with the growth of the far-right within Austria.

With their record of good governance in ruins the Christian Social Party had turned to the tried and tested methods of blaming ethnic minorities and Jews for the country’s economic woes. Their propaganda had always portrayed the Social Democrats as being in hoc to these groups along with being guilty of atheism, Viennese cosmopolitanism, Bolshevism, and other alleged sins but this had often been in the background in times where a greater respectability could be maintained. Now this poisonous rhetoric made up the bulk of their platform during the election campaign. It didn’t work, such talk could find an audience but it wasn’t one willing to listen to men who had just destroyed the nation’s economy. However, the fact that men in senior positions were willing to come out with such rhetoric did open the door for such ideas to be openly entertained in a way they hadn’t necessarily been before.

This allowed men who were also willing to espouse such beliefs but weren’t tarnished with economic failure to prosper. The Heimatblock (Homeland Bloc), the political wing of the Heimwehr, was catapulted into becoming the second largest party in the Nationalrat in spite of this being their first attempt at electoral politics. This was an organisation that believed in German unification as much as the Social Democrats but they had no intention of joining a Germany governed by the United Front. Indeed, their ranks were galvanised that Winter by a large number of former Volkisch Bund Blackshirts fleeing Germany. These were men who hoped to return to Germany one day but for now they were keen on maintaining their safe haven.

Hence by 1931 there were finally governments in both Berlin and Vienna committed to the practicalities of union but those who opposed both governments were now also coalescing to defend an Austrian identity they did not truly believe in.




~ Shaun Williams, Weimar's Rise and Fall


---

The painting is Allegory of Vanitas by Antonio de Pereda