Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

festival as arranged by the Commune, was only a mirage à la Potemkin; and that behind those flag-bedecked, inviting and magnificent façades, lurked enemies, determined on destruction and blood, who were only waiting for the appointed moment to fall upon the innocent and let loose the forces of licence and destruction.

The daily papers at the time published such detailed reports of the shocking events of July 15 and 16 last, that we may spare ourselves the trouble of describing them here in order the more thoroughly to inquire into the causes and earlier history of those events, which must be difficult for foreigners to understand. Above all things it would be a great mistake for the outside world to believe that the trial at Schattendorf was the cause of the outbreak, as it certainly appeared to be. This trial was the occasion, and not the cause, which lies deeper and dates much further back. In order to realise the position, it must first be borne in mind that in Austria four great military organisations exist side by side. They are the 'Bundesheer' (Army of the Union), which is the official military instrument of the Union Government; the 'Republikanische Schutzbund' (The Defence of the Republican State); the 'Frontkämpfer' (Fighters from the Front); and the 'Heimwehr ' (Home Defence).

With regard to the Bund Army, it has gradually arisen out of the famous Volkswehr' (People's Army), which was formed after the overthrow and break-up of the old Imperial and Royal Army, and was of a thoroughly Bolshevistic character. Without discipline, a wild and, on account of their arms, a dangerous horde, they were a terror to the civilian population. They committed excesses and crimes of every kind, and mutinies and robberies were of daily occurrence. These scoundrels at that time represented the Austrian Army. Only when the Social Democrats lost the supremacy, which they had seized on the overthrow of the Empire, did these sad conditions in the army begin to improve ; slowly indeed, but, nevertheless, surely, the War Minister, Vaugoin, a member of the Christian Socialist party, although no soldier, succeeded in making out of those wild bands a military and disciplined army which, in consequence of the dictates from Saint-Germain, was

TE

da

totally inadequate in numbers and weapons, and, therefore, useless as an instrument of war, but might be considered as a nucleus or basis for a genuine army. Naturally this change in the character of the army met with the strongest opposition from the Social Democrats, and they made every effort to overthrow the War Minister, but in vain; he remained and continued his work of regeneration. This army now consists of 65 per cent. of organised Social Democrats, and only 35 per cent. of the three citizen parties, which makes their political reliability most uncertain. Vaugoin has, however, performed a great service, in that the Union Army to-day is no longer the willing instrument of the Social Democrats that it was before. The average strength of the Union-Army is modest, and with its approximate 17,000 men, far below the 26,000 men allowed to Austria by the Treaty of Saint Germain.

As the Government was successful in gradually freeing the Bund Army from the domination of the Social Democrats, they felt that their power was endangered, and themselves organised a special army under the pretext that the Republic was threatened, calling it the 'Republikanischen Schutzbund.' In reality, it was nothing else than a Red Prætorian Guard. It was recruited from the Social Democratic working-men, and there was no question of volunteering but of the despotic compulsion, characteristic of all masses of Social Democracy. In this way the Red Party Army increased to a considerable number. Whether or not it really reached 250,000 men, as an article in the 'Münchener Neuesten Nachrichten,' which evidently was written by some well-informed person, asserted, must remain uncertain. In any case this Red Frætorian Guard, so far as numbers are concerned, leaves nothing to be desired. And so it is with its equipment, for according to the same authority it has over 250,000 rifles and 500 machine guns. At the head of this is Julius Deutsch, who as First Lieutenant of the Reserve to the Ministry of War, in the last years of the War, misused his position of trust by betraying to his party certain military secrets of which he had become cognisant, a fact of which he boasted afterwards in his book on the Revolution. As he was in consequence publicly declared to be a

blackguard, he brought an action against his accusers; but in doing so suffered a double defeat. At the first hearing it was established that the term was justified by his treachery; and at the second hearing he suffered a yet more lamentable defeat, for the judgment ruled that a man who was guilty of acting in this way deserved the name of blackguard.' It is this honourable gentleman who is at the head of the Red Prætorian Guard.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The Heimwehr' (Home Defence) and the Corps of 'Frontkämpfer' (Fighters from the Front) had been established before the Republikanische Schutzbund' (Defence of the Republican State), and during that miserable period, after the downfall of the Empire, when it seemed probable that Austria would be dominated by the Social Democrats, and the already notorious 'Volkswehr' (People's Army) as the official army of the Republic through their lawlessness had made the country unsafe. The Heimwehr, therefore, as their name indicates, were only called into being for purposes of defence. They were drawn for the most part from the peasant population. In the towns their place was filled by the Frontkämpfer; which corps was by no means made up of mature soldiers, as its name seems to indicate, but chiefly of young men who had not taken part in the War, and who wished to occupy their leisure with military interests, and who, exasperated by the Red Terror, had developed a desire for action.

As to the strength of the Frontkämpfer, we have no certain data, but this much is certain, that their number is only a modest fraction of the strength of the Republikanische Schutzbund. Five thousand of its men are attributed to Vienna alone; but, on the other hand, that number is said to be too high and should be put at only 1500. Whether that be so or not, the strength of the Frontkämpfer is really absurdly small. Much larger is the Heimwehr in the country districts, but we have no particulars of these.

As to the political trend of the Heimwehr and Frontkämpfer, it is in no way monarchical as the Social Democrats have repeatedly asserted. That the Heimwehr, recruited as it is almost exclusively from the peasant population, should contain many faithful followers of the old-established dynasty, is to be expected,

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

and only redounds to their credit; but monarchicalrevolutionary ideas are not indulged by such peaceloving folk; their loyalty to the Crown is purely passive, and it is questionable whether the majority are monarchists. It is more probable that they have become reconciled to the Republican form of government; though not to the Social Democrat supremacy which, in spite of the citizen-government, has been maintained in Austria since the Revolution. Still less does the reproach of monarchical propaganda lie on the Frontkämpfer, who, for the most part, are Germannationalists; indeed, the majority, consisting of the socalled 'Haken-kreuzler,' are opponents of the House of Habsburg. There are other smaller military organisations which need not be described in detail.

It was only to be expected that conflicts should arise between these different organisations, as actually happened. The Heimwehr alone, faithful to its defensive principles, has taken no part in them. The Frontkämpfer and the Schutzbündler fought each other, generally with bloodshed and death. Frequently members of the Schutzbund lost their lives, and thereby gave the Social Democrats an opportunity of representing themselves as being persecuted and innocent of the terrorism attributed to their opponents; tactics as bold as cunning, for as a matter of fact it was the other way about. There can be no doubt that the Schutzbündler were not terrorised by the Frontkämpfer, for in any case the numbers of the Frontkämpfer were far too small. was the Schutzbündler who, whenever they heard of any meeting of the Frontkämpfer, hastened to disturb and if possible to break it up. As the Frontkämpfer naturally opposed those efforts, conflicts resulted in which they had the disadvantage because of their inferiority in numbers. In their anger and necessity naturally they used weapons, and as sometimes a Schutzbündler or other Social Democrat was killed, the Social Democrats treated such occurrences as a matter for the intervention of the authorities and the State. Their newspapers raged with indignation, shouting of 'Murder' and 'Terror'; while their leaders delivered noisy speeches charged with threats against the National Council, speeches intended for the man in

It

[ocr errors]

the street; the affair culminating in the funeral of the
martyr, which, with great skill, they make the occasion
of a grand procession, so that the people might see their
strength and fear it.

One would have thought that, after the first of these
bloody combats, the Government would have issued a
decree that neither party might bear arms or have pro-
cessions in uniform. They omitted, however, to do this,
and when, after repeated disturbances, they decided to
act, it was worse than if they had left it alone, for their
order was only against the Frontkämpfer. They dared
not interfere with the Schutzbündler, and even allowed
Herr Deutsch, the notorious General-in-Chief of the Red
Army, to hold a review of his Prætorians at St Pölten,
the second largest provincial town of Lower Austria,
where, it is said, there were about 20,000 men, to whom
he made a speech threatening the State. That this
weakness (to put it euphemistically) on the part of the
Government must have created bitterness in the citizen
parties is clear.

It was obvious that the Frontkämpfer would pay no attention to the order, and so it turned out that everything remained as it was, and the disturbances continued. The Union Government, by their feebleness, had brought things to such a pass that Austria had sunk to the political level of one of the lesser states of Central America.

This led up to the occurrences at Schattendorf. On Jan. 30, 1927, the Frontkämpfer had arranged to hold a festival in this village of the Burgenland. The Republikanische Schutzbund determined to prevent this, and attacked them at the railway station, causing bloodshed. When later the Schutzbündler entered Schattendorf and prepared to storm the inn, that belonged to the landlord, Tscharrmann, shots from the house killed an invalid soldier and a boy. At the trials which took place in the following July it could not be proved, although no less than 125 witnesses were called, whether those deaths were due to the shots from the inn or from the ranks of the Schutzbündler. Even experts were unable to prove whether rifle or revolver shots had caused those deaths. The jury did not dare pronounce the three accused men as guilty in the face

[merged small][ocr errors]
« VorigeDoorgaan »