Page - 320 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

320 Under Surveillance discussed were anything but noble ones, such as human rights, democracy or tackling social injustice, but instead usually focussed on how to gain advantages and satisfy the demands of the individuals themselves, their narrower community or their own nation- ality. The Poles had the unification of their torn-apart country in mind, the Ruthenians wanted independence from Poland, the Czechs hoped to attain a similar status to that of the Hungarians, while the Croats also had Hungary in mind, albeit for other reasons, and wished above all for stronger independence and the end of Magyar dominance. Similar sentiments were also felt in Romania. The Hungarians for their part wanted the broadest possible degree of independence from the Cisleithanian parts of the Habsburg Monarchy, although in the event that the common empire were to remain, combining posts emerged as an option. A Hungarian officer who deserted at the end of May 1916 described in the most simplistic terms the yearning that had taken root in the Magyar soul : the majority of Hungarians wanted Hungary to detach itself from Austria. The attitude towards Germany was friendly, however, for the most part due to fear of the Russians. It would also be Germany that in future would take Hungary under its wing and protect it from its nationalities and  – though not explicitly stated  – from Austria.749 To put it simply : Austria was to be exchanged for Germany. The German Austrians however left no doubt as to the fact that they were tired of incessantly having to take into account the sensibilities of the other nationalities. Since they naturally found no support for their goals among the other peoples of the Empire, it emerged that in spite of all the reservations that were time and again felt, they sought help from outside, from their big German brother. Stereotypical attitudes had also arisen among the army in the field over time, which then led to a state of affairs in which after just a few weeks and months, judgements were made about the behaviour of the different peoples of the Empire. In order to objectify individual accounts and above all tendentious reporting, efforts were made to gather a range of different statistics, since the subjective accounts of heroic fighters on the one hand and cowards on the other frequently failed to hold up to investigation. Of Heroes and Cowards Since the beginning of the war, the losses had repeatedly been ascertained and reported. Initially, the casualty lists were also publicised, although this was later no longer the case. Naturally, the count continued nevertheless. During the process, those who were involved in recording the figures clearly became increasingly doubtful as to the valid- ity of the information. Finally, in March 1915, a new count was made from the set of casualty lists in the Imperial and Royal War Ministry.750 From then on, the latest figures were added month by month. However, the statistics suffered from the fact that