Page - 604 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

604 The Nameless the desire for a violent intervention by the army. Favour was curried with the Germans and it was wished that they be deployed for the solution of all problems in life, but then, conversely, they were repulsed and their increasingly palpable dominance was condemned. Stürgkh was particularly alone and appeared to now only wait for something to happen that would enable his resignation. The death of his Emperor would have been just such an occurrence. The Prime Minister had shown himself to be inaccessible to all demands that he resign and seemed not to be impressed by real letters of rejection. No-one wanted to support him any longer, aside from the more radical groups of the nationalist associations. At Pentecost in 1916, the Reichsrat deputy Friedrich Wichtl had presented him with the prospect of breaking off all relations of the German Na- tional League (Deutscher Nationalverband), above all because of the relations Stürkgh had entertained with Kramář. Wichtl had written to the Prime Minister and given a copy of his letter to the German ambassador to be forwarded to Berlin : ‘Prime Minster Count Stürkgh, I publicly bring the charge against you that your tenacious adherence, your clinging to the ministerial seat, is suited to benefit our enemies, but can inflict untold damage on the state that you are obligated by oath to serve’.1392 Stürgkh awaited a new settlement with Hungary and the solution to the Polish question, which was designed to give imperus to imperial reform. He also waited for a vote from the old Emperor, the only one to which he felt unconditionally obligated. And he doubtlessly knew about the criticism of him and his policies. His anti-parlia- mentarianism had been expressed in anecdotes. Afterwards, Stürgkh had passed the parliamentary building on Wiener Ring and remarked : ‘The most important act of my ministry was to transform that building into a military infirmary.’1393 Even if this was ever actually uttered in this way, however, it no longer applied, since Stürgkh had gradually also come to the conclusion that the reconvention of the Reichsrat, which had been suspended in March 1914, was the lesser of the two evils. Lead articles in the Neue Freie Presse had called for this step, as had countless articles in other newspapers of all political convictions. Members of the upper house of the Reichsrat, such as the Bohemian right-winger Count Ernst Silva-Tarouca, had voted in favour of it being summoned, whilst the Viennese Mayor Weiskirchner advocated the end of governance without parliament : Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, southern Slavs  – all of them wanted a return of the parliament in view of the exploding food problems, but also in order to discuss the foreign policy of the Monarchy, the post-war situation and naturally also the war situation and the relationship of the peoples of the state to one another.1394 Stürgkh continued to make a stand. His concern was that in the Reichsrat there might be an official rejection of the Monarchy by the nationalities and that this might result in a disintegration of the Empire visible to all. And this demonstrated the em- inent weakness of Stürgkh and his dilemma : a man who was treated with hostility by