Page - 213 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The War Economy Dominates Everyday Life 213 serviceable flying machines. But by the end of 1914 not only had 91 more been built but also new factories established.503 If something initially hampered the armaments industry, aside from the shortage of workers, then it was the scarcity of raw materials and basic materials as well as the considerable difficulties involved in ensuring the transport of goods. During the first two months of the war the government imposed strict restrictions on the transport of industrial goods, since the military authorities required all available railway carriages for the transport of soldiers, weapons and equipment to the deployment zones and the fronts. As winter approached, however, there arose a need for transport capacity for coal that was inevitable and no longer even remotely possible to meet.504 A particular phenomenon caused by the war was the growth in the circulation of money and a generosity with funds on the part of the treasury. In order to give the armaments industry a boost but also to improve medical provisions, to set up and oper- ate prisoner of war camps and, above all, to cover the huge material needs at the front, enormous sums of money were required. Thrift and cameralistics got the short end of the stick and everything was approved in short order with reference to the necessities of war. It should not be overlooked that the setbacks in the Galician theatre of war gave rise to a sudden stream of refugees and that the accommodation of these tens  – and ultimately hundreds  – of thousands constituted an administrative and a financial prob- lem.505 In order to obtain the required sums, negotiations were very soon conducted with the German Empire over a loan to Austria-Hungary. The German loan market, however, was reluctant and the imperial government raised difficulties. Thus, in No- vember 1914 only part of the sum solicited was granted as a loan. It must be emphasised once again, however, that the war was begun by all sides with more or less the same fixed notion that it would only be of short duration. Hardly anyone had doubted that Austria would stroll through Serbia and rout the Serbs and the Montenegrins. There was hardly anyone in the general staffs of Austria-Hungary and the German Empire who had not believed France would be defeated in six to eight weeks, at which point it would be Russia’s turn and, in the words of Kaiser Wilhelm : ‘By Christmas you’ll be back [home] with your mothers.’ This all proved to be a mirage. However, a phase then began in which it was the Habsburg Monarchy that became increasingly strong and was not only not inferior but in fact partially superior to its op- ponents. The long war appeared after all to turn in favour of the Central Powers  – had there not been different writing on the wall. The situation within the Dual Monarchy was initially characterised by the individual parts of the Empire moving apart. Cisleithania and Transleithania had gone to war in noticeably different ways : the Hungarian half of the Empire with a functioning parlia- ment and a prime minister who with particular skill underpinned his policies via this parliament. In this way, his steps gained a different weight, as they were backed by a