Page - XV - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

introduction to the english edition xv TheSocialistPartyofAustria that rose fromtheashesof theSocial-Demo- craticWorkers’Party(sdap)afterWorldWariidecidedlybrokewith its roots. Thiswaschallengedbymanysocialists– includingOskarPollak,whodeman- ded that the gains of Austromarxism, especially Bauer’s, be preserved.5 The intellectual leaderofpre-warSocialDemocracy fell intooblivion.Meanwhile, hisformerpartycomradesKarlRenner,AdolfSchärf,andOskarHelmer–who, admittedly,hadalreadyrenouncedBauer’spoliticalcoursebefore1934–adop- ted political positions in the SecondRepublic close to those of theAustrian People’sParty (övp). This trendpersisteduntil theendof the 1970s.Only the year1978sawachangeindirectionwhenAustria’ssocialistpartywascaptured bythegeneralwaveofAustromarxistrevival.Atthepartycongressinthesame year,BrunoKreiskyintroducedBauer’sconceptionofsocialdemocracyintothe programme.6 The renaissanceofBauer’s viewsandAustromarxismbeganwithadebate inspiredbyNorbertLeser’s 1968monograph,ZwischenReformismusundBols- chewismus.DerAustromarxismusals Theorie undPraxis (BetweenReformism andBolshevism.AustromarxismasTheoryandPractice),which is regardedas a standard referencework onAustromarxism to this day. The argument put forward by the author – a historian, political scientist, and philosopher at ViennaUniversity–provokednumerouscontroversiesamongscholarsofAus- trian Social-Democratic history.Many found it difficult to agreewith Leser’s theses,whichallocatedtheblameforthedefeatoftheSocial-Democraticparty in 1934 one-sidedly toBauer and thepolitical line hehad adopted.Not only Otto Bauera (1881–1938), Vol. 2 (The Lost Democracy. A Study of Otto Bauer’s Socio-Political Thought,Poznan1998);andOttoBauer.Studienzursozial-politischenPhilosophie(OttoBauer. AStudyofSocio-PoliticalPhilosophy,Frankfurt2005),whichwasbasedontheaforementioned Polishpublications,PhilosopherandDemocratandTheLostDemocracy. It isworthmention- ing that Bauer himself did not refer toAustromarxismas an exclusivelyAustrian current, but rather as an ‘international ideological trend of theMarxist centre, which constituted, basedon scientific analysis, a specific partypolicywhichaimed topreservea centrist pos- ition “betweenreformismandBolshevism”andmaintainaunionof revolutionarywork for the future andpractical reformistwork in thehere andnow’ (our translation)– seeBauer 1927,p.549.Boudinwasthe first tousetheterm‘Austromarxism’ in 1908.LeonTrotskypop- ulariseditafter 1918 inhiscritiqueofthepoliticalmovement. 5 SeeHindels 1981,p.5. 6 Atthetime,Kreiskyexpressedsentimentsclosetotheoldleader’sviews: ‘Wesocialistsaspire to a classless society inwhich relationsof dominationandprivilegeshavebeenovercome, andwhichrestsonthefundamentalvaluesof freedom,equality,equalrights,andsolidarity’ (our translation)–Hindels 1981, p. 7.KreiskyhadenjoyedawarmrelationshipwithBauer, whoselastdisciplehehadbeen.Thepartymovedtotheleftwhenhebecameits leader.