German nationalism in Austria

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Not to be confused with Austrian nationalism.

A blue cornflower, the symbol of the pan-Germanist movement in Austria

German nationalism (

ethnic Germans, and the possibility of the incorporation of Austria into a Greater Germany
.

Over the course of Austrian history, from the

Second World War, both pan-Germanism and the idea of political union with Germany became unpopular due to their association with Nazism, and by the rising tide of a civic Austrian national identity
.

During the imperial period

stamp
of the German School League

Within the context of rising ethnic nationalism during the 19th century in the territories of the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire, the "German National Movement" (

First World War
.

After the Austrian defeat in the

German-Liberal Party (German: Deutschliberale Partei) in the government of Cisleithania. This party was considered the main representative of the German-speaking middle class, and as such, the German National Movement went on to accuse the Party of not fighting for the rights of German-speakers within the Empire. The "German School League" (German: Deutscher Schulverein) was formed in 1880 to protect German-language schools in parts of the Empire where German speakers were a minority.[8]
It promoted the establishment of German-language schools in communities where public funding was used for non-German schools.

Georg von Schönerer: radical pan-Germanist, and founder of the Deutschnationaler Verein (German-National Association)

A consortium of German nationalist groups and intellectuals published the

social democrat Victor Adler.[9] The diverse signatories of the Linz manifesto split ideologically after Schönerer revised it to add an "Aryan paragraph" in 1885.[10]

Schönerer founded the "German-National Association" (Deutschnationaler Verein), and later, in 1891, the "Pan-German Society". He demanded the annexation of all German-speaking territories of Austria-Hungary to the Prussian-led German Empire and rejected any form of Austrian pan-ethnic identity. His radical racist German nationalism was especially popular amongst the well-educated intelligentsia: professors, grammar school teachers, and students. School administrations tried to counteract these sentiments by encouraging civic pride, along with a "cult of personality" around the Emperor, but these efforts were largely unsuccessful. Vienna mayor Karl Lueger even tried to dismiss all "Schönerians" from city school administrations, but this too failed.[11] National-minded students rather identified with the Prussian-led German Empire than with the multiethnic Dual Monarchy. Many idolised the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, victor in the Battle of Königgrätz.[12]

Karl Lueger, an Austrian populist who espoused antisemitic and German nationalist notions

Members of the pan-German movement wore blue

Habsburg dynasty, and wanted to preserve the sovereignty of Austria.[16]

German nationalists protested vehemently against minister-president

Away from Rome" (German: Los-von-Rom) movement, which was initiated by supporters of Schönerer and called on "German" Christians to leave the Roman Catholic Church.[17]

From the 1880s, the pan-Germanist movement was fragmented into several splinter parties and factions. The most radical was the

First World War.[22] It disintegrated into seventeen scattered German liberal and national parties.[19]
This disintegration, combined with dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, led to the total fragmentation of pan-Germanist movement.

Dissolution of Austria-Hungary (1918–1919)

Areas claimed by the Republic of German Austria. These represent areas of the former Empire with majority-German populations.

After the end of the

Salzburg yielded majorities of 98% and 99% respectively in favour of unification with Germany. However, Erich Bielka notes that the plebiscites were marred by electoral fraud and voter manipulation:[24][25]

In addition to the massive propaganda campaign and not insignificant Reich German influence, ‘Ja’ ballot papers were pre-printed and provided at the polling stations and ballots were to be handed to an election official, undermining voter confidentiality. In addition, voter eligibility rules were liberally conceived and, therefore, open to abuse. Not only were those registered for the Nationalrat elections of October 1920 permitted to vote, but also those who registered themselves as living in Tyrol before April 1921, that is, less than a fortnight before going to the polls, as were all those Tyroleans who lived outside of the state; a train was even chartered from Bavaria to mitigate the financial burden of travelling ‘home’.[24]

For Tyrol, the overriding concern was not Anschluss, but reunification with South Tyrol. The Tyrolean elites vehemently reasserted their cultural autonomy from Austria, and the policy of the Tiroler Volkspartei, the dominant party in the province following the 1919 elections, was independent Tyrol and not unification with Germany.[25] Tyrolean politicians unequivocally rejected the Anschluss policy of the central government, contemplating every conceivable alternative, including the possibility of an independent Tyrol linked in a loose union with Switzerland or Italy, or of a fusion of the ‘western provinces’. Some conservative factions supported the idea of a union between Tyrol and Bavaria, or even the creation of a south German state.[24][25] Regarding the plebiscite in Salzburg, Erich Bielka argues that Salzburg was culturally and politically unique from the rest of Austria, and its potential support for Anschluss did not reflect the general Austrian opinion at that time:[25]

The situation was similar in Salzburg province, where democratic principles were also liberally violated. Again, the majority of the ruling elite supported Anschluss, but the circumstances surrounding the ballot make it an unreliable indicator of public sentiment, let alone pan-German attitudes. What is more, Salzburg can in no way be considered paradigmatic for the rest of Austria. Salzburg, which had been independent until the early nineteenth century, had spent the shortest time under Habsburg rule; when it finally fell to Austria in 1816, part of the province, the Rupertiwinkel, had remained with Bavaria, which had ruled Salzburg during the Napoleonic years. Therefore, for Salzburg, union with Bavaria was an entirely logical step that might actually restore the provinces historic borders.[24]

The victors of the First World War who drafted the

Social Democratic Workers' Party, served as chancellor of German Austria. Renner himself was a proponent of the idea of "Greater Germany", and penned the unofficial anthem Deutschösterreich, du herrliches Land ("German Austria, you wonderful country").[27][28] Renner was born in southern Moravia, which was one of the lands claimed by German Austria, but instead given to the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Despite his background, however, he signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain on 10 September 1919, which established the Allied-drawn borders of the new Austrian republic, and formally forbid any attempt to unify the German-speaking lands of the former Austria-Hungary with Germany.[27] The name "German Austria" was changed to "Austria", removing any hint of pan-Germanist sentiment from the name of the state. Nevertheless, the Social Democrats would not forget their pan-Germanist roots. To them, the Weimar Republic was regarded with "exaggerated sympathy", whilst the Czecho-Slovak Republic was viewed with "exaggerated suspicion".[29]

During the First Republic and Austrofascist period (1919–1938)

During the First Austrian Republic, pan-Germanists were represented by the Greater German People's Party and the agrarian Landbund.[30][31] Although initially influential, these two groups soon lost most of their voters to the Christian Social Party and the Social Democratic Party. Both the Christian Socials and the Social Democrats accepted that unification between Austria and Germany was forbidden by the Treaty of Saint-Germain. A conflict would develop, however, between those who supported an Austrian national identity, such as the Christian Socials, and those rooted in German nationalism, such as the Social Democrats.

Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany, was born in Austria and propagated radical German nationalist views.

One of the foundational problems of the First Republic was that those who had supported the concept of a democratic republic from the German Austria period onward, such as the Social Democrats, did not consider themselves "Austrian", but instead were German nationalists.

Fascist Italy.[32][33]

One of the exceptions to this, however, was the Communist Party of Austria. The KPÖ supported independent Austria and a separate identity from Germany, with leading communist intellectual Alfred Klahr writing that the view that the Austrian people were a part of Germany was theoretically unfounded.[34] The fact that the socialists took a different view from those of Karl Renner's wing of the Social Democrat Party was one of the factors behind the collapse of the left-wing coalition, leading all successive governments to be dominated by the anti-Anschluss Christian Social Party under Ignaz Seipel instead.[35] As the economic situation of Austria improved, the sentiment for Anschluss soon declined.[36] According to Stefan Zweig, Seipel was staunchly against unification with Germany:

Seipel stood in deep rooted opposition to German, Prussian Protestant militarism as incompatible with the traditional ideas of Austria and her Catholic mission. Anschluss would invariably mean becoming a province among provinces under the leadership of Prussia. To Seipel, this westernized concept of a nation state was not only unsuited for the German context, it could not be the ultimate incarnation of German nationhood, precisely because Austria had undergone a different historical experience.[37]

While most of right-wing

putsch against a Christian Social government in September 1931. The putsch was directly modelled on the Benito Mussolini's March on Rome, but failed almost instantly due to lack of support from other Heimwehr groups. Pfrimer subsequently founded the "German Heimatschutz", which would later merge into the Nazi Party.[39]

The idea of an Anschluss (union between Austria and Germany to form a

National Socialist (Nazi) Party. Nazism can be seen as descended from the radical branches of the pan-Germanist movement.[40] In 1933, the Nazis and the Greater German People's Party formed a joint working-group, and eventually merged.[41] During the period while the Nazi Party and its symbols were banned in Austria, from 1933 to 1938, Austrian Nazis resumed the earlier pan-Germanist tradition of wearing a blue cornflower in their buttonhole.[42]

Hitler announces the Anschluss to roughly 200,000 German Austrians on the Heldenplatz, Vienna, 15 March 1938.

The Nazis firmly fought the

Fascist Italy. Mussolini's support for an independent Austria can be seen in a discussion he had with Prince Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, an important Austrian nationalist and Heimwehr leader. He said that "an Anschluss with Germany must never be permitted ... Austria is necessary to the maintenance of Europe ... the day that Austria falls and is swallowed up by Germany will mark the beginning of European chaos."[43] The Austrofascist party, Fatherland Front, would echo the sentiments of Mussolini, and continue to struggle for an independent Austria. Nazis in both Germany and Austria intended that the German Reich would quickly annex Austria, the homeland of its leader, Adolf Hitler. They attempted to bribe many low-ranking Heimwehr leaders, and also attempted to bring Starhemberg into their fold, in effect merging the Heimwehr with the Nazi Freikorps.[44] Gregor Strasser, an early, prominent Nazi figure, was charged with this effort. When Starhemberg, a fervent believer in an independent Austria, rejected his merger proposal, Strasser said "Don't talk to me about Austria. There is no Austria ... there was once a living corpse which called itself Austria ... that this Austria collapsed in 1918 was a blessing ... particularly for the German people, who were thereby given the chance to create a Greater Germany."[44]

In February 1934, the government's search for weapons belonging to the Republican Protection League, the banned paramilitary arm of the Social Democrats, led to the outbreak of the brief Austrian Civil War. Even before the victory of the Austrofascist government, the Social Democratic Party was outlawed entirely.[45] A few months later, the worsening tensions between the Nazis and Austrofascists culminated in the July Putsch of 1934, when Nazis attempted to overthrow the government. Whilst they managed to assassinate chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, the putsch was quickly crushed by the police, army, and Heimwehren. This, in tandem with a continued a campaign of violence and propaganda by the Nazis, destabilised the Austrofascist regime, and rallied many to support the idea of Anschluss.[46]

The Nazi campaign was ultimately successful, and Hitler would go on to annex Austria in 1938 with the Anschluss. Hitler's journey through his home country Austria became a triumphal tour that reached its climax in

NSDAP.[54]

Hitler responded to the foreign press regarding the Anschluss by saying: "Certain foreign newspapers have said that we fell on Austria with brutal methods. I can only say: even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier (into Austria) there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators."[55]

Following the Anschluss, the historical aim of the German nationalists who supported the union between Austria and Germany was completed.[9] The pan-Germanists were then fully absorbed into the Nazi Party (NSDAP).[56]

During the Second Republic (since 1945)

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After the end of the

Allies, and represented the interests of former Nazis, Wehrmacht, and SS soldiers. In 1956, the Federation was transformed into the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). In the 1950s and 1960s, the German nationalist movement, represented by the Freedom Party and its affiliated organisations, was very active in universities, where the Burschenschaften, a type of student fraternity, helped spread German nationalist and liberal views. Inside the Freedom Party, the liberal wing grew to overtake the pan-Germanist wing, and Austrian patriotism was gradually incorporated into the party's ideology.[56][58] During Norbert Steger's party leadership during 1980–1986, and the Freedom Party's participation in a coalition government with the Social Democrats, the pan-Germanist faction was weakened further.[59]

By contrast, Jörg Haider's assumption of party leadership in 1986 was considered a triumph by the German nationalist faction.[58][59] However, Haider's right-wing populism did not stress pan-Germanist traditions, as doing so would have cost votes. In 1987, only six per cent of Austrian citizens identified themselves as "Germans".[60] While Haider had branded Austrian national identity as an ideological construct, going so far to refer to it as a "monstrosity" (German: Mißgeburt) in 1988, he launched the "Austria First" petition in 1993, and claimed two years later that the Freedom Party was a "classical Austrian patriotic party", expressly renouncing his earlier "monstrosity" statement.[61] The influence of German nationalism was still present, however, and could be seen in hostile actions against Slavic minorities in Austria, such as in conflicts over bilingual road signs with the Carinthian Slovenes, along with hostility to immigration and European integration.[56] Traditional Greater German ideas have therefore been replaced by a German-Austrian concept (i.e. only considering Austrians of German origin and tongue as "real" Austrians).[61] This may be summarised as an "amalgamation of traditional German nationalism with Austrian patriotism".[62]

Presently, the pan-Germanist wing is only a minor faction within the Freedom Party. In 2008, fewer than seventeen per cent of the Freedom Party's voters questioned the existence of a unique Austrian national identity.[63] German nationalists, including Andreas Mölzer[64] and Martin Graf,[65][66] now refer to themselves as "cultural Germans" (Kulturdeutsche), and stress the importance of their identity as ethnic Germans, in contrast to the distinct Austrian national identity. In 2006, FPÖ members of parliament reaffirmed the party's root in the pan-Germanist tradition, at least symbolically, by wearing blue cornflowers in their buttonholes, along with ribbons in Austria's national colours (red and white), during the initial meeting of the National Council. This caused controversy, as the media interpreted the flower as a former Nazi symbol.[67]

See also

  • Austria-Germany relations

References

Notes

  1. ISBN 9783638715454
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  2. ISBN 9783205992226
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  3. ISBN 9783826015540. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  4. ^ "Das politische System in Österreich (The Political System in Austria)" (PDF) (in German). Vienna: Austrian Federal Press Service. 2000. p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 April 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  5. ISBN 0-582-35393-9
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  6. ISBN 0-226-79145-9
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  7. ISBN 9783825230760
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  8. ISBN 978-1557534439. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  9. ^
    ISBN 9780415161121
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  10. ISBN 9783205773375
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  11. ISBN 9783205784708. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  12. ^ Suppan (2008). 'Germans' in the Habsburg Empire. pp. 171–172. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  13. ^ Giloi, Eva (2011). Monarchy, Myth, and Material Culture in Germany 1750–1950. Cambridge University Press. pp. 161–162.
  14. ISBN 9781557534002
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  15. ^ Low 1974, p. 14.
  16. ^ Low 1974, p. 15.
  17. ^ Suppan (2008). 'Germans' in the Habsburg Empire. pp. 164, 172. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  18. ISBN 3-205-99400-0
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  19. ^ a b "Deutscher Nationalverband". Encyclopedia of Austria. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  20. ^ "The New Austrian Reichsrath". The Nation. Vol. 93. 3 August 1911. pp. 92–93. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  21. ISBN 978-1557534439
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  22. ISBN 978-1557534644
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  23. ^
    ISBN 3-88680-200-0
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  24. ^ a b c d Manning, Jody Abigail (2012). "Austria at the Crossroads: The Anschluss and its Opponents" (PDF). Cardiff University. pp. 62–66. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  25. ^
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  26. ^ "Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Austria; Protocol, Declaration and Special Declaration [1920] ATS 3". Austlii.edu.au. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  27. ^
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  28. ISBN 3-203-50897-4
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  29. ISBN 0-226-79145-9
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  30. ISBN 9780807847138
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  31. ISBN 9783205985877
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  32. ^
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  33. ISBN 1-4128-2189-4. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
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  34. ^ Alfred Klahr, also known as "Rudolf". (1979). Zur nationalen Frage in Österreich; in: Weg und Ziel, 2. Jahrgang (1937), Nr. 3 (in German.)
  35. ^ Manning, Jody Abigail (2012). "Austria at the Crossroads: The Anschluss and its Opponents" (PDF). Cardiff University. pp. 68–69. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  36. ^ Manning, Jody Abigail (2012). "Austria at the Crossroads: The Anschluss and its Opponents" (PDF). Cardiff University. p. 75. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  37. ^ Zweig, Stefan (1941). "The World of Yesterday" (PDF). Cassell & Co. p. 99. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  38. ^ Kriechbaumer, Robert (2005). Österreich! und Front Heil!: Aus den Akten des Generalsekretariats der Vaterländischen Front – Innenansichten eines Regimes. Böhlau. p. 175.
  39. ^ Aicher, Martina (2012). "Heimwehren (Österreich)". Organisationen, Institutionen, Bewegungen. Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Vol. 5. de Gruyter. p. 310.
  40. ISBN 9780807847138
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  41. ISBN 0-415-16942-9
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  42. ^ Dostal, Thomas (2002). Das 'braune Netzwerk' in Linz: Die illegalen nationalsozialistischen Aktivitäten zwischen 1933 und 1938. Vol. 1. Archiv der Stadt Linz. p. 116. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  43. ^ Ernst Rüdiger, Prince of Starhemberg (1942). Between Hitler and Mussolini. London: Harper & Brothers Publishers. p. 26.
  44. ^ a b Ernst Rüdiger, Prince of Starhemberg (1942). Between Hitler and Mussolini. London: Harper & Brothers Publishers. pp. 36–45.
  45. ^ "The State that the Elite Didn't Want". February 1934. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  46. ISBN 3-453-16343-5
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  47. ISBN 9780191610462
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  48. ^ In German: "Als Führer und Kanzler der deutschen Nation und des Reiches melde ich vor der deutschen Geschichte nunmehr den Eintritt meiner Heimat in das Deutsche Reich."
  49. ^ "Video: Hitler proclaims Austria's inclusion in the Reich (2 MB)". Retrieved 11 March 2007.
  50. ISBN 0-395-90371-8
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  51. ISBN 978-1-101-87277-2
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  52. ^ Knaur, Peter (1951). The International Relations of Austria and the Anschluss 1931–1938. University of Wyoming. p. 370.
  53. ^ von Halasz, Joachim (1938). Adolf Hitler from speeches 1933-1938. Terramare Office. p. 23.
  54. ^ Knaur, Peter (1951). The International Relations of Austria and the Anschluss 1931–1938. University of Wyoming. pp. 367–369.
  55. ^ William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, p.349
  56. ^ a b c d Pelinka, Anton (2002). "Die FPÖ im internationalen Vergleich: Zwischen Rechtspopulismus, Deutschnationalismus und Österreich-Patriotismus" (PDF). Conflict & Communication Online (in German). 1 (1): 7.
  57. ISBN 9781109059632
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  58. ^
    ISBN 9781845451905
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  59. ^
    ISBN 9783826015540. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  60. ^ Bruckmüller, Ernst (1998). Die Entwicklung des Österreichbewußtseins (PDF). p. 17.
  61. ^ a b Bruckmüller, Ernst (1996). Nation Österreich: Kulturelles Bewusstsein und gesellschaftlich-politische Prozesse. Böhlau. p. 40.
  62. ^ Pelinka, Anton; Sickinger, Hubert; Stögner, Karin (2008). Kreisky – Haider: Bruchlinien österreichischer Identitäten. Braumüller. p. 18.
  63. ^ Österreicher fühlen sich heute als Nation (in German). 12 March 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2011. {{cite book}}: |newspaper= ignored (help)
  64. ^ "Ab nach Brüssel?: Die Spitzenkandidaten für die EU-Wahl". Die Presse (in German). Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  65. ^ Regina Pöll (4 June 2012). "Eine stete Graf-Wanderung". Die Presse (in German). Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  66. ^ Zur Zeit. No. 43. 2008. p. 2. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  67. ^ "Anklänge an illegale NSDAPler". ORF.at. 30 October 2006.

Bibliography

External links

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