Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/358

318

only to reckon with the opposition of Hungary but also to pay particular attention to the peasant voters, in the question of buying meat abroad and importing frozen meat from the Argentine. On this account, especially after the death of Lueger (on March 10 1910), a dominating personality who had held all parties together, opinion in Vienna and other towns turned against the Christian Socialists, who were accused of refusing all active measures of relief. Thus it happened that the elections to the Reichsrat in July 1911 were characterized by a temporary coalition of the German Liberals with the Social Democrats against the Christian Socialist party; this led to heavy losses on the part of the latter, especially in the towns. In Vienna especially they lost every seat at one blow, by which means Weisskirchner found himself deprived of all parliamentary support. He resigned, and with him the head of the Cabinet; all the ground had slipped from beneath his feet, and on June 19 1911 Bienerth resigned for good.

Gautsch Ministry. The Bienerth Government was succeeded by that of Baron Gautsch. 1 He too could attempt nothing more than to take up as objective an attitude as possible above parties. His first task was to try to set in motion again the negotiations for a German-Czech compromise in Bohemia. The Czechs, however, had realized that at need they could get along without a Diet, and they began once more their encroachments in Vienna. They opened a Komensky school there without proper authoriza- tion, and when this was closed by the municipal authorities, they organized a demonstration of Czech women, who crowded with their children into the Parliament House. Shortly before this the protests of Hungary had succeeded in procuring the re- jection of a cargo of Argentine frozen meat which had been destined for Vienna. The fury of the Viennese found expression in violent demonstrations, in which, for the first time, employees of the State took part in uniform, among them employees of the State railways and of the post-office. Gautsch, who was a convinced upholder of the principle of State authority, had recourse to severe measures of punishment and discipline, which had as their result a revolver attack on the Minister of Justice from the gallery of Parliament.

On Oct. 28 somewhat unexpectedly the prime minister re- signed, partly because this series of unfortunate incidents had shaken the Emperor's confidence, partly because his secret efforts to persuade the Czechs to join his Cabinet had made him suspect to the other parties. But the Czechs not only demanded two Czech ministers, but also a number of headships of departments and councillorships in each department. This would have led to an introduction of the national divisions into the central ad- ministration, and if similar claims were put in by other nations the principle of a purely objective Government transcending nationality would have been done away with. So Gautsch would have nothing to do with it.

Sttirgkh Ministry. Count Stiirgkh (b. 1859), the Minister of Education, was next entrusted with the formation of a Cabinet. He composed his Cabinet of colourless officials and confessed adherents of the various nationalities. His programme was to be an honourable mediator in the German-Bohemian quarrel, to extend the railway system, and to satisfy the wishes of the Poles in the waterways question by an expenditure of 73-4 million kronen on canal construction in Galicia, to which Galicia was to contribute only 9-4 million kronen, the State finding the other 64, and by an expenditure of 125 millions on river im- provements, 99 of which would be contributed by the State.

Early in Stiirgkh's Ministry prominence was taken by the Catholic marriage question. While in Austria the marriage of non-Catholics could be dissolved, so as to make a new marriage possible, paragraph iii. of the civil code provided that " the tie of a valid marriage between Catholic persons can be dissolved only by the death of one of the parties. And this shall be the case even when only one party was attached to the Catholic religion at the time of the conclusion of the marriage." Thus Catholic and mixed Catholic marriages were indissoluble even in the

1 Baron Paul Gautsch von Frankenthurn (b. 1851) had been Premier and Minister of the Interior, 1897-8, and Premier 1904-6.

event of a change of creed. The desire of numerous divorced persons for a change in the law which prevented their remarriage was manifested in repeated demonstrations before Parliament; especially in that of Dec. 1911, in which it was asserted that the lives of half a million divorced wives were affected. In spite of the reform of the civil law in other respects (June i 1911) these provisions remained in force until the republic. Owing to the opposition of the Christian Socialist party, they were even then not abolished; but they were relaxed by numerous dispensations in individual cases.

It was while Stiirgkh was Austrian premier that the World War broke out (see under FOREIGN POLICY, p. 327). At the begin- ning of the war the attitude of the nationalities of the Austrian Empire was somewhat unexpectedly loyal to the state. The immediate cause of war the murder of the heir to the throne had profoundly impressed all the Austrian peoples, and the belief that efforts were being made from without to destroy the old empire produced among them a strong reaction in favour of its preservation. Enrolment in the army proceeded every- where without friction, and much more expeditiously than the military authorities had expected. It was only to be expected that the Germans, whose very existence was in question, should show themselves to be patriotic. But it was somewhat surprising that at Prague, after the declaration of war, Germans and Czechs sang Die Wacht am Rhcin together in the streets, and the burgo- master, a Czech, made a speech in German before the town hall in which he called for cheers for the Emperor William and the fraternization of Germans and Czechs. On Oct. 24 1914 the Czech Union solemnly declared: " It is true that we have been against one Government or another, but never against the state." On Nov. 15 the Czech parties in Moravia issued a patriotic mani- festo. The procedure of the Poles was similar; all the Polish parties united in a joint central committee which issued a manifesto in favour of performing their duty to the state (Aug. 15). On Aug. 27 the Ruthenian Metropolitans, too, issued a protest against " tsarism," and in like manner the Ukrainians protested (Nov. i) against Russian oppression of freedom of conscience. On Nov. 23 30,000 Rumanian peasants of the Buko- vina got up a great manifesto in favour of the emperor and the empire, and on Dec. i patriotic protestations from the Rumanian Club followed. These proclamations on the part of all the Slav peoples of Austria proved that imperial sentiment was more deeply rooted than Austria's enemies had believed.

These evidences of patriotism continued for a long time during the war; even after Italy's declaration of war the majority of the Italian deputies in S. Tirol issued a loyal declaration " in the name of the overwhelming majority of the population," as they asserted (June 14 1915)- On the other hand the efforts made for years by Panslav idealists, Russophil agitators, Serbian propa- gandists and Italian irredentists, were naturally not without effect. Isolated instances of relations being established with co-nationals in the enemy camp were recorded from the beginning. The question was repeatedly raised as to why the prime minister did not take advantage of this patriotic spirit to obtain a corre- sponding parliamentary demonstration; but it had surprised him, as it had many, and he shrank from the serious responsibility which would have resulted if the experiment had turned out badly; the aged Emperor's need of quiet, and the conviction that the Reichsrat, if summoned ad hoc, would, as for so long before, be of no active use, also played their part. The population had not been consulted as to the declaration of war, and their opinion was no more listened to now; but by giving up the cooperation of Parliament the prime minister at the same time abdicated his power in favour of the military authorities. Since there was no longer a Parliament, or any personal immunity, the military authorities established unlimited police rule, which seemed to be obsessed with terror of its own citizens; anyone who seemed to them suspect was subjected to internment in concentration camps. This ruthlessness towards their own citizens, who were arraigned before military courts in trials for high treason, stood in curious contrast to the considerate treatment of " enemy aliens," who were comparatively little molested. For example, even many