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

introduction to the english edition xvii became attractive to Christian theorists at that time. The idea of collabora- tionbetweenthechurchandthestatepropagatedbyFranzKönigharkedback directly toBauer’spositiononthenecessityofco-operationbetweenpolitical andchurch leaders indenouncingexploitationandsocial injustice, aswell as indefending social rights andmass access to culture. These ideaswere seen asconstitutingthe foundationforamoral renewalofcontemporarycapitalist societies. Atthispoint,IwouldliketoretractsomestatementsImadeintheintroduc- tiontothePolishandGermaneditionsofthisbookconcerning‘Austromarxism asaclosedchapter’.Workson thispolitical current continue tobepublished tothisday, thebestexamplesbeinganoutstandingbiographybytheAustrian historian,ErnstHanisch,DergrosseIllusionist.OttoBauer 1881–1983 (TheGreat Illusionist, 2011) andOlaf Leiße’sDerUntergang des österreichischen Imperi- ums.OttoBauerunddieNationalitätenfrageinderHabsburgerMonarchie (The Declineof theAustrianEmpire.OttoBauerandtheNationalitiesQuestionof the HabsburgMonarchy,2012).Totheextentthiswaspossible, Ihaveincorporated worksthatappearedaftermyPolishandGermanpublications,aswellasbooks andarticlespublished from1984–2014 that Ihadbeenpreviouslyunawareof, intothescopeofthepresentwork. Theirprotagonist,OttoBauer,wasatrueauthorityintheinternationalwork- ers’movement inhis lifetime.Heentered thehistoryofpoliticalmovements as the ideological leader of Austrian Social Democracy in the First Repub- lic; co-founder andprimemoverofAustromarxism from1906–38, state func- tionary, influential theorist, and one of the leaders of three internationals – theSecondInternational, theInternationalWorkingUnionofSocialistParties (‘Second and a half international’), and Labour and Socialist International, respectedparliamentarian,outstandingspeaker,editorofsocialistnewspapers and journals, and teacher at the ‘workers’ college’.No less respectedwerehis theoreticalcontributionsasahistorian,sociologist,philosopher,Sovietologist, political thinker, andauthorof textsoneconomics.Hewrote47monographs and around 4,000 articles – his written publications amount tomore than 10,000printedpages.ThearticlesBauerwrotefortheArbeiter-Zeitungnewspa- perandDerKampfmonthly journal informedreadersextensivelyonnational and international political events and acute questions in the international workers’movement andhis party, andat the same timecrucially influenced publicopinion.9Allof thissuggeststhat intheeyesofcontemporarysocialists 9 Bauerbeganwritingaged24in1904andcontinuedtowriteuntil theendofhis life.Thatthe magazinesPrzedświtandRobotnikcontinually translatedhiswritings intoPolish testifies to