Austrian Pan-Germanism and the origins of Nazi ideology

¶ … Austria which influenced Hitler and presaged the rise of Nazism in Germany. As an Austrian born on the Bavarian border, Hitler's ideas and political techniques were forged in the cauldron of decline, nationalist feeling and industrial difficulties encountered in Austria.

The primary movements covered in this paper include Pan-Germanism, the Linzer Programm, the Deutsche Verband and the beliefs of nationalists and the fringe philosophers of post-Empire Vienna. It will also discuss the specific cultural differences in Austria, including the post-feudal attitudes towards workers from the nobility, the close connection of the Church to the political hierarchy, and the specific attitudes of the Austrian peasant and industrial worker. The parties that were hurt by Liberalism and the impending industrialization of Austria are mirrored by those in Germany, but Germany industrialized much more quickly and thoroughly than Austria. Thus, Austria's inherently more rural and deferential culture played a role in the creation of their approach towards Germanization and later combination with the emerging German empire.

The Pan-Germanism movement was substantially different in Austria than in Germany for a series of historical reasons, which will be covered in this paper. Hitler and his fellow Austrians carried a sense of inferiority compared to the Germans, which colored their view of the Catholic Church, their imperial government, and the presence of non-Germanic immigrants and Austrians. The philosophical, cultural and historical underpinnings of the Austrian Pan-Germanist movement are important to understand as important precedents to the subsequent rise of Nazism, the Anschluss and the Holocaust.

Historical Underpinnings in Austria

Austria's empire had been under substantial pressure for several decades prior the decision to split Austria and Hungary into a dual monarchy in 1867 (Burant 1989).

The Austrians lost significant land and sovereignty to the French in 1806, which represents the time when the decline of the Habsburg Empire would begin. The period from 1806 to 1859 was marked by a gradual reduction in power and influence by the Habsburgs over the remnants of the Holy Roman Empire. During this same period, the German principalities and kingdoms were combining in ways that would assure their future industrial success, most notably with the German Customs Union of the 1840's, and the eventual combination of German regions to form the modern nation in 1861.

During this time of German rise and unification, the Austrians were losing ground. The Austrians lost in battle to the French at the Battle of Solferino in 1859 and to the Prussians in 1866. Both defeats demonstrated the weakness of the Habsburg monarchy, and led to subsequent division of the empire and the greater independence of Hungary, the Czech regions and parts of what became Yugoslavia. The subsequent split of the empire into the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867 represented a recognition that the German-speaking parts of Austria could no longer exercise complete hegemony from Bohemia to the shores of the Adriatic at Trieste.

The German-speakers in Austria, particularly in the West, realized that their interests lay closer to those of the rest of Germany rather than with the mixed races and cultures of the rump Austrian empire. Germany had come under the uniting influence of the Prussians and Otto von Bismarck, uniting the key principalities and city-states under the influence of the Prussian monarch, including Wuerttemburg, Bavaria and Hessen. Bismarck chose not to bring in the western Austrians because their Catholicism threatened to unbalance the mix between the Protestant (mostly Lutheran) north and the Catholic South (Bavaria being mostly Catholic, Wuerttemburg being half Catholic and half Protestant).

This decision on the part of newly-emerged Germany not to include the German-speaking Austrians, despite their overwhelming wish to join, resulted in a search within the German Austrian community to separate themselves from non-Germanic and, in some cases, non-Catholic influences. This created a sense of inferiority in the German-speaking Austrians which formed later pan-German movements, and influenced Hitler in his belief that he was 'more German than the Germans.'

Austria's weaknesses as an independent rump empire were both cultural and economic. Austria no longer had a seaport (Trieste had been the traditional port for Vienna and the surrounding area), nor no access to other key trading routes. The German Customs Union, which had been formed in the 1840's, was a precursor to industrial strength and unity; it imposed a penalty on Austrian exporters and importers, who relied on the Danube into Germany as a major trading route.

The coming of the financial panic in 1873 exacerbated the Austrian economic situation, much as Germany was hobbled during the period of the Weimar Republic in the 1920's. The following prolonged period of economic problems caused a massive influx of new residents to Austria from Eastern Europe, and the city of Vienna tripled in size from 1870 to 1914 (Nitsch 1999). Amongst those immigrants were Jews, Czechs, Slavs and others. Their new presence on Austrian soil, coupled with massive unemployment, economic and political uncertainty, led to an underlying resentment of all "non-Germanic" Austrians.

Rise of Nationalistic and Linguistic Minorities

The accord creating the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867 stimulated other ethnic and linguistic minorities in Austria. The Czechs and Slavs (of what is now Slovakia, Slovenia and parts of the former Yugoslavia) were particularly insistent on achieving parity of their language and culture. Both groups insisted that their children be taught in their language, and that culturally-important traditions for those minorities be upheld.

The German-speaking majority in Austria felt put-upon by these demands. One consequence to the nationalistic fervor of their neighbors was to develop a sense of "German-ness," separating them from the culturally diverse former empire. Deeply hurt by Bismarck's and Prussia's rejection of their accession to greater Germany, German-speaking Austrians tried to divest themselves of any elements which would make them unwelcome in Greater Germany.

Austria's Catholicism was always a differentiator from the rest of the Germanic nation, with the exception of the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Habsburgs maintained their power through collusion with the Catholic Church, whose leaders exerted strong political control in the country. For this reason, the "Weg von Rom" movement, started in the 1880's by Georg Ritter von Schoenerer, attempted to sever ties with the Church in the same way that the French and British had done in previous revolutions, and which the Italians, Spaniards and French were continuing in the 1860's and 1870's (Pulzer 1964). Austria was the last holdout, with a powerful Church in league with the Liberals in power. While the nationalistic Germanic Austrians were not anti-Church, they were against what they saw as the liberalizing and weakening influence of the Church in politics. Hitler's later dealings with the Catholic Church were cordial, but he made it clear that the Church's role was not in the political sphere.

Liberalism's Flower and the Conservative Backlash

The main tenets of nineteenth-century European Liberalism may be summarized as parliamentary government, the rule of law, the absence of legally established class privileges, a laissez-faire economy, and freedom of speech and association (Pulzer 1964).

Thus the newly-democratic governments of Germany and Austria put in place the elements that led both to economic growth and conservative backlash. Those who were of the liberal persuasion were the new industrialists, the financiers, the free-thinkers and those who supported progress. Those of the conservative persuasion represented nationalism, a nearly feudal care for the downtrodden and the peasant, a separation from Rome but a belief in the Catholic Church, and a reimposition of the laws favoring the Guilds and excluding those of non-Austrian and non-Germanic extraction.

The Liberals stood for the new Austrian republic, including the forces of integration, immigration and internationalism. Led by for the last 8 years of the Liberals' reign, Prince Adolf Auersperg, the government liberalized trade with other European nations and favored industrial expansion. The result was a more difficult competitive situation for Austrian industry unused to foreign competition. The textile mills of France and England, the grain from the Ukraine and Russia, and steel from Great Britain flooded Austria and Germany, helping to depress the economy and hurting industrial and agricultural workers.

Liberalism had a specific meaning, much as democracy did after the first flowering of new governments in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. And like that later event, more liberal governments were later replaced by backward-looking, paternalistic governments with a predilection for ethnic purity. Thus the inclusion of xenophobic, anti-Semitic parties in coalition governments in Eastern Europe in the 1990's had an echo in earlier history in Austria, for many of the same reasons.

Liberalism stood for everything that the "native" German Austrians despised, from national weakness (the Liberals had ushered in the twin capitals of Budapest and Vienna, oversaw the dissolution of the empire, helped to decrease the power of the Guilds and disadvantaged the peasants and the industrial workers) to collusion with the Church of Rome, to separation from the German homelands.

Those in the German-speaking working classes, particularly the guilds, had lost power due to new, liberal legislation introduced in 1860.

Germany's economic expansion after 1866 outpaced the rest of Europe, with production of key industrial items, like coal, steel and textiles approaching that of the United Kingdom by the turn of the century. During this period, Austria also continued industrial expansion, but at a slower pace than Germany.

With growth came further instability. Investment and founding of new organizations exploded since 1867, with over 400 new corporations being founded (Pulzer 1964) from 1867 to 1872. This was the age of the Gruender, which meant "entrepreneur," but also came to be associated with financially shaky schemes which resulted in the bursting of a speculative bubble in 1873.

The period of the Liberal government spanned from 1867 to 1879, a period during which Austria lost its power and prestige, unemployment and economic insecurity reigned, and newly-vociferous minorities were exerting their rights to equality in language and culture. In the meantime, Germany seemed to be growing from success to success, as its liberalization engendered national unity and a growth in wealth and military power.

Conservative Ascendancy in Austria

The nature of the conservatives in Austria was different than in other Germanic countries. It was backward-looking in a way that rejected the new industrializing tendencies of neighboring Germany and Switzerland. Although a democracy, the Austrian government only enfranchised wealthier working men (largely guild members) in 1882; these so-called "5-guilder men" were generally urban and in the elite. Broader enfranchisement waited until 1896, when peasants and farmers came into the voting public (Grandner 1994).

The accession of 5-guilder men and later the peasants fueled a backlash in Austrian politics. The industrial workers were under threat from immigrants, free trade and industrialization. The peasants were also under threat from cheaper labor and cheaper imported foodstuffs. Thus the political backlash against trends in Austria was exacerbated by a change in voting eligibility during the period.

Austria joined with Germany in 1879 in a Zweibund, in which both countries agreed to share in commercial and political efforts. Austria began to adopt some of the same social welfare policies as Bismarck in Germany, primarily as a response to the emerging dangers of socialism. Although Austria tried to emulate Germany as much as possible, it was a profoundly poorer and more rural country: in 1879, over 55% of Austria's citizens still lived on the farms, while only 20% were involved in industry. The comparable figures in Germany were 44% and 33% respectively (Grandner 1994). What industrialization there was in Austria took place in pockets, rather than throughout the country as in Germany.

Thus the reasoning for social legislation in Austria, and Austria's more-limited pocketbook, resulted in an incomplete "social safety net" for Austrians as compared to their German and Swiss neighbors. As a result, economic uncertainty continued to bother Austrians in the working and agricultural classes more than in Germany, and created fertile ground for xenophobia.

Influence on Adolf Hitler and the Founding of the Nazi Party

Adolf Hitler was born in Brunau, a small town across the border from Bavaria, in 1889. Hitler grew up in a town which was left behind by industrial expansion and the explosion in wealth experienced in most industrial nations at the time. Like over half of Austria, Hitler was born into a peasant family with an uncertain economic foundation.

Hitler later credits von Schoenerer for the foundations of his beliefs in Mein Kampf. He respected von Schoenerer for his belief that he was even more German than the Germans, for his belief in racial and ethnic purity, and for the need to drive out non-Germans, particularly the Jews. Hitler also had a hatred of other non-Germans, and non-Aryans. This belief may have been part of the circulating dislike of Hitler also had other heroes in his pantheon. The former mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger, represented the political deftness than von Schoenerer never had -- he was able to appeal to the petit bourgeois, the peasant and the manual laborer for support, much in the way that Hitler attempted to do in 1924 and succeeded in the 1930's.

Hitler moved during his teenage years to a Vienna that was crawling with dissidents and malcontents. The city had grown by a factor of three from 1870 to 1914, which created a class of discontented intellectuals and an out-of-work underclass of immigrants which resulted in a rich soup of off-the-wall ideas (Hamann 2001).

Hitler's budding philosophy of racial supremacy was informed by von Schoenerer's "Deutschen Worter," and the Alldeutscher Verband.

Hitler took his pro-German ideals and anti-Semitism from von Schoenerer:

The principal tenet of his political doctrine was that the Jews had undermined the national economy and therewith created the social problem, which in turn was costing much money. Close to Schoenerer was the Ostara group, the publication sponsored by whom is an important source of more modern anti-Semitic propaganda. (Hitler 1934)

Although he admired von Schoenerer's zeal and feel for the common man, he did not respect the nobleman's political abilities. He was much more intrigued by Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna:

He (Lueger) had a rare gift of insight into human nature and he was very careful not to take men as something better than they were in reality. He based his plans on the practical possibilities which human life offered him, whereas Schnerer had only little discrimination in that respect. All ideas that this Pan-German had were right in the abstract, but he did not have the forcefulness or understanding necessary to put his ideas across to the broad masses. (Hitler 1934)

Hitler was influenced by a number of other philosophers and agitators during his stay in Vienna. Georg Lanz von Liebenfels, a former monk, had developed a Manichean view of the forces of "light" and "dark," casting the pure Germans as the saviors of the world, struggling against the darkness of the non-Germans. Von Liebenfels argued that the 'light' were the 'pure' Nordic-type blonds, while the non-Aryans were the dark side. Lanz was the writer of the Ostara journals, referred to above in his Mein Kampf. Lanz' dichotomous vision became the foundation for the Nazi's black-and-white view of racial purity and ethnic cleansing when they came to power.

Otto Weininger published a book in 1916 called "Sex and Character," which argued that race and gender determined human history. He argued that the Aryan was superior over the non-Aryan, and the man superior to the woman. Weininger, a Jew, later committed suicide.

Hitler's ideas were informed both by the then-current intellectual ferment of a dying empire, but also by his upbringing. Unlike the United States, there was a strong and continuing relationship between religions and specific parties, to the extent that both religions and parties can be associated with the same colors. Hitler was born "Schwarz" in one of the most deeply traditional areas of Austria. One of the reasons that Bismarck and the Prussian Kaiser resisted including the Catholics of Western Austria is that they were not only Catholic, but deeply opposed to Protestantism, Judaism, and a number of other progressive beliefs. In a sense, Hitler's milieu in Brunau was medieval, rather than modern.

The Catholic Church in Austria had fought against northern, secular and Protestant influences during the Counter-Reformation, with the full collusion of the Habsburgs. This collusion created benefits for both the Crown and the Church. Unlike France, which had forcibly disenfranchised the Catholic Church and taken its lands from 1789 and throughout the 19th century, the Austrians had redoubled their allegiance to the Catholic Church.

Examples of Austria's maintenance of medieval beliefs extended throughout its culture. While Otto von Bismarck enacted social welfare reforms in order to keep the socialists at bay and incent the workers to come to the factories, the Austrians took a greater paternalistic role in adopting milder social welfare reforms. The Austrian peasant and poor city-dweller had had no experience with democratization or Anschluss, combining several regions into a powerful nation. On the contrary, the Austrian empire was in constant dissolution, and a harkening back to more traditional values was therefore more appealing to the Austrian than to the German. Hitler's upbringing was associated with an affinity for the common man, the supremacy of the Church, and the maintenance of traditional, German values.

When Hitler left Vienna for Germany, he went to Munich, not Berlin. His outlook, his religion and his respect for the old ways played much better to the Bierhall public in Munich than in Northern Germany. His respect for the political instincts of Lueger appealed more to the Lumpenproletariat than to the middle or industrial classes of Northern Germany. Hitler's feelings of wounded national pride played better in Bavaria during the Weimar Republic than they would have played in Hamburg or Berlin. Indeed, if one looks at Hitler's later sources of political strength, they were much more with the farmers and simple workers of Wuerttemburg and Bavaria than they were with the cool "Sau Preussen."

Hitler's philosophical underpinnings were as practical as they were theoretical. In Mein Kampf, Hitler praises the political capabilities of some of his Austrian predecessors. He recognized that, in Germany, his natural enemies would be the "bourgeoisie," which he felt was intensively pacificist, conciliatory and hostile to his ideas of Aryan hegemony. As in Austria, he recognized that those who would support his national socialist ideology would be the disenfranchised, the left-behind, the traditionalists, the Catholics, and the misfits.

Hitler's roots in Austria gave him the tools to exploit discontent in Germany. Germany's situation was significantly different than Austria's, but Hitler's appeals worked as well (in the long-term) in Germany as they eventually did in Austria -- but for different reasons.

Germany had suffered from the World War in a way that Austria did not. Although Austria lost parts of its empire -- Tyrol to Italy, Czechoslovakia, parts of Slovenia and Yugoslavia, and Trieste -- these losses were simply a continuation of a long slide since French defeats in 1806.

Germany, on the other hand, was a rising power. Its industrial production by 1914 had equaled or exceeded that of Great Britain. Its population, at 100 million, dwarfed the rest of Europe, including France, which had been the dominant continental political and armed power in Europe in the previous centuries.

Germany had entered the Great War with the justifiable feeling that the 20th century was "their turn." The United States, which stayed out of the War until 1917, was as likely to support Germany as Great Britain and France. The German Kingdom quickly associated with Austria in a pan-German war to establish, once and for all, its supremacy on the Continent. There was reason to believe, with the successful execution of the von Schlieffen Plan, that the World War would be short and decisive, and that Great Britain, the United States and Russia would accept the status of Germany as the center of a German-dominated Europe.

Unlike Austria, therefore, Germany fell much further and faster. There was no reason for the German populace in 1914 to believe that, five years later, they would be dealt the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The subsequent imposition of payments to the victors, and the humiliations of the Weimar Republic, resulted in a resentment that the other major powers would never allow Germany to resume its rightful place as a dominant power in Europe.

Thus Hitler's ideas, forged in Austria, fell on fertile ground in Germany. His theories were threatening to many, and may have resulted in the rapid quenching of the fires he fanned in his Putsch of 1924. Subsequent events in Germany demonstrated that the Great Powers (with the exception of the United States) would not allow Germany to rise.

Austria had encountered a similar repression. The most galling in 1918 was the refusal of France to allow Western Austria to combine with Germany. The French were concerned with a reemergence of a greater Germany. Austria's particular ideas of pan-Germanism combined with their distrust of a Church too close to Rome, and a similar economic and moral depression which made it easier to forge a common goal with Germany.

Conclusion

Hitler's ideas were forged in a specific culture which was based on disenfranchisement and resentment. Born to a poor family in rural Austria, Hitler was bound to feel the inferiority of the Austrian German on several fronts. The Austrian German of the late 19th century was part of a rapidly-dwindling empire, one in which non-Germans were asserting their freedoms and abilities to compete on the basis of language and culture with what Hitler and other Austrian Germans regarded as 'their' land.

In addition, Hitler grew up in an Austria whose entreaties to Bismarck and the "Sau-Preussen" was denied in 1866, based on a concern that the Austrians were too wedded to a Catholic Church and a state that was beholden to it. This must have inculcated a feeling of inferiority in the Austrians, leading von Schoenerer in the 1870's and Hitler in the 20th century to insist that they were "more German than the Germans" because they had to fight for their Germanness in a difficult environment.

Hitler learned from his Austrian experience that his enemies were the "pacifist" bourgeoisie, who would never accept his traditional nationalistic ideals. His enemies were the industrialist, the modern industrial worker, and the internationalist. His friends were the peasants, the Catholics, the lowly industrial worker, the disenfranchised. Hitler shared the almost feudal ideal of the state and the common (albeit German) man. He believed in the supremacy of man over woman, German over non-German, Aryan over Jew.

Hitler's anti-Semitism was curious, as the Jews were not the "overclass" in Austria as they had been in Germany. His anti-Semitism, which he attributed to von Schoenerer, was imported from Germany, and stoked by the immigration into "rump" Austria of Jews from other parts of the former Austrian Empire. Hitler may have had his own, personal "demons" in formulating his specific hatred of Jews; it is instructive, however, that his hatred of non-Aryans extended to Slavs, Gypsies and others. These were the immigrants who took jobs from Austrian peasants and industrial workers, and who crammed into an overcrowded Vienna at the time that Hitler moved there.