Page - 644 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

644 Emperor Karl on, when the new Emperor was attempting to obtain an overview, the problems came tumbling down on him. As though it were necessary for the most burning social con- cerns to become blatantly obvious, food riots took place on 27 November in several Austrian localities, not even a week since the death of the old Emperor.1460 The Emperor was expected to be ready with a solution to every problem  – and, to some extent, he was. It was above all apparent that with every problem he attempted to push through his own personal ideas and to consolidate his power. He brought himself to mind as an element of politics and the conduct of war far more than Emperor Franz Joseph had done, and in view of the division of power in Austria-Hungary he endeav- oured to exercise the function of a real imperial ruler and head of government for both halves of the Empire. To be sure, in terms of neither his moral weight nor his appeal could Emperor Karl be the anchor that the old Emperor had embodied. From the first day on, he was vulnerable  – and had to be so  – and he laid himself open to the criticism and, ultimately, to the attacks. He directly exposed himself to them. There is something else that cannot be overlooked in this transfer of power : as a member of a considerably younger generation, Karl was also confronted with those expectations that are always placed in a younger, less jaded generation. He benefitted from the older ones offering their loyalty more unreservedly and enduringly than the younger ones. But this did not help very much. Everyone wanted to measure the Em- peror by his successes and conceded him very little ; above all, however, they did not give him the benefit of his inexperience. They were guided by the Monarch’s first proc- lamation, in which he promised to end the horrors of the war at the earliest opportunity and to return the blessings of peace to his peoples. Karl almost instantly created new foci and power centres. He did not reside in Schönbrunn Palace, but instead in Laxenburg Castle. In doing so, he not only relo- cated away from where Franz Joseph had lived ; he also escaped unwanted influences and the direct monitoring of his policies. Even before his accession to the throne he had made it known that he intended to spend only a minimum of his time taking care of paperwork ; instead he wanted everywhere to acquaint himself on the spot with his people and their problems.1461 It was characteristic of his style of governance that Emperor Karl travelled to the south-western front straight after the funeral of Franz Joseph and then from there to the Army High Command in Cieszyn (Teschen). It was barely possible to gauge the meaning of the frequent journeys, but it was foreseeable that there would repeatedly be communication difficulties. And it was not always met with enthusiasm that very many policymakers had to travel with the royal train or that the Emperor conducted numerous important discussions whilst on it. The new Emperor and King began his reign with a mixture of inexperience, idealism, defiance, personal preference and personal aversions. It it probably not valid to use ex- actly the same yardsticks to measure the period before the accession to the throne with