Page - 120 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

120 Unleashing the War happened during those days. It is understandable that nothing more was felt of the convulsion caused by the murders in Sarajevo. The excitement was of a different kind, and it now gained ground and eclipsed everything else. Austrian newspapers such as the Reichspost had written already hours before the severance of diplomatic ties with Serbia that the latter would not accept the ultimatum. The announcement from St. Petersburg that Russia was ‘not able to remain indifferent in the Austro-Serbian conflict’ was cor- rectly understood to mean that Russia would support Serbia and that as a result it would be very unlikely that the war would remain limited to Serbia and, perhaps, Montenegro. But who cared about that ? On the evening of 25 July celebrations took place in Vienna and the large cities of the Dual Monarchy and even in Berlin multitudes of people gath- ered at the Austro-Hungarian embassy and sang the Emperor’s Hymn. The tune was well-known, as it was the same as that of the German patriotic song, the Deutschlandlied. ‘We have started this war, not the Germans, and still less the Entente  – that much I know’, wrote Leopold von Andrian-Werburg. He had experienced the July Crisis at the Ballhausplatz.259 But years later he was still absolutely convinced that they had acted correctly in July 1914 and that it had not been possible to act differently. We can concur with Conrad von Hötzendorf : ‘Besides, the World War was one of those catastrophes that are neither caused by an individual nor can be stopped by one.’260 The roots of the war stretched back a long way and it could have broken out much earlier. During all the crises since 1908, Austria-Hungary had played an important role. It was always the Balkans that threatened to explode and brought about interventions on the part of the great powers. Everyone felt called upon to intervene and make clear the interests of his own country. Austria also had interests, and it also certainly had cause for greater con- sternation than any of the other intervening powers. The experience of a considerably longer period of time was reflected in the actions of those responsible in Austria-Hun- gary than just the few weeks of July 1914. The conviction was reflected of being partially encircled by opponents, or, in fact, enemies and being vulnerable everywhere and only being able to waste away, awaiting decomposition. The Sarajevo murders had been a hu- miliation. Yet it was the state of an actual inability to act that then entered the picture and the hope of putting an end to it all that then resulted in the decision to go to war. Ultimately, the honour of the Empire repeatedly played a role and this resulted in the saying of Emperor Franz Joseph to the effect that if the country did have to go under, it should at least do so ‘honourably’. Franz Joseph I One of the central questions in the context of the unleashing of the military conflict is of course the role played by the Emperor in the decision to wage war against Serbia.