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

introduction to the english edition xxiii The sources formybookwereBauer’s12 andotherAustromarxistwritings, a selection of their articles, speeches held in parliament and at party con- gresses,documentsoftheirworkinthethreeinternationals,letters,diaries,and memoirs,sdapprogrammes,protocolsofsdapcongressesandconventionsof theSecondInternationalandLabourandSocialist International.Ofno lesser importancewere theworksof theclassicalMarxists, representativesofdiffer- entMarxist trends–Kautskyism, revisionism,andLeninism,amongothers– andthosewhowereopposedtoMarxism,e.g.positivism,neo-Kantianism,and normativism. Studies andarticles on thehistoryofAustria, Europe,Austrian SocialDemocracyandtheinternationalworkers’movementformedaseparate group.13 Thebiography is complementedby contemporary literaturedealing with the respective areas of study. I collected thesematerials in the Social- Democratic archiveofBonn–BadGodesberg, and in the followingAustrian archives: Adler-Archiv, Allgemeines Verwaltungsarchiv, Archiv der Republik, Haus-,HofundStaatsarchiv,Arbeiterkammer,VereinfürGeschichtederArbei- terbewegung;andinthelibrariesofBonn,Leipzig,Heidelberg,Warsaw,Krakow andVienna. Threequestionsrequireexplanation.WhendepictingthesystemofBauer’s socialandpoliticalthought,Iendeavouredtopointouthowhiswayofthinking andtheresultinginconsistenciesinhisideologicalandpoliticaldecisionswere conditioned. The reason for thiswasmywish to avoid ‘pigeonholing’ Bauer by simply falling backon the readily availablemodel of threemain currents 12 Bauer’s extensive legacy of writing varies in quality. Besides his significant theoretical treatises, thereareoccasionalwritings thatareprimarilyofpolitical andpropagandistic value.Whatfurthercomplicateshisworkisthefactthathemergedscientificwithjourn- alistic language, aswell as occasionally, in theheat of themoment, entirely eschewing scientificdiscourse infavourofrevolutionarypathos. 13 Someof themost valuablepublicationsonAustromarxismasapoliticalmovementare theworks ofAustrian andGermanhistorians andpolitical scientists. Their analyses of thehistoryofSocialDemocracyintheFirstRepublictakeabroadspectrumofphenomena andsocialprocessesofthisperiodintoaccount,placingthemwithinthepoliticalcontext inAustriaatthetime.OfparticularinterestaretheworksofZöllner,Pollak,andBrügelon thehistoryofSocialDemocracyagainstthebackgroundofAustrianhistory;thoseofBotz, Tallos, Neugebauer, Konrad, Panzenböck, andHanisch on nationalism, Austrofascism, andtheAnschlussquestion;LeserandGlaseronAustria’spoliticalandintellectualculture; Konrad andMommsen on the national question; Mozetič on Austromarxism’s social theory;andFischer,MattlandMärzoneconomicquestionsandtheeconomicpoliciesof Austromarxism.NotethatAustromarxismdidnotmeetwithanygreatinterest inPoland. Polishpublicationson thesubjectsare: Sobolewski 1956;Rudziński 1956; thechapteron ‘TheAustromarxists’ inKołakowski2005;andmyaforementionedwritings.