Page - 2 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

2 chapter 1 theSocial-Democraticmovementwerewidening.Moreover, therewasa lack of developed organisational principles and tactics for the workers’ struggle against fascism.Bauer’s funeral on6 July 1938at thePèreLachaiseCemetery inParis,whichcommencedwitharenditionoftheInternationale, turnedinto ademonstrationofworkers’ solidarity.3Manyrenownedactivistsof the inter- national labourmovement, party comrades, and hundreds of workers were present.Asanhomage toBauerandhis legacy,his asheswereplacednext to theurnsoftheParisCommunefighters, thenwrappedinaredflag,coveredin red flowers, andpassedto twoyoungAustriansocialists.4Speecheswereheld byLéonBlum,who represented theFrenchSocialist Party, FriedrichAdler, a friend and colleague of Bauer’s, GustavRichter (JosephButtinger), the chair of theRevolutionary Socialists of Austria, and Louis de Brouckère, the chair of theLabourandSocialist International. Blum’swordswerea fitting résumé of the aspirations that had defined the entire life of the departed theorist and politician: ‘Each and every one of us feels that Bauerwas cut from the same cloth as leaders such as Jaure, Guesde, andVaillant: always illuminat- ingactionthroughtheory, always invigorating theory throughaction’.5Hedid notmerelywant tobe a socialist inparliament. Rather, he viewedhis duties as issuingtheguidelinesofhistoricalmaterialismwheninvestigatingsocialist transformationandutilising the results todetermine the strategyand tactics of theworkers’party.Theyservedto improvetheeconomicandpolitical situ- ation of the proletariat and allied groups and, ultimately, herald the victory of socialism. Even the illegal periodical of the Communist Party of Austria, whichwashostile towardsSocialDemocracy,printedanoteafter the funeral, attesting toBauer’s undisputedauthority as an ideologist and theorist of the sdap.6 OttoBauerwasbornon5August 1881 inVienna.Hewasthefirst-bornsonofa wealthytextilefactoryownerandmerchantinnorthCzechia,PhilipBauer,and hiswifeKäthe (bornGreber). At that time,Otto’s family, includinghis sister Ida,whowas a year younger thanhim, lived in the Jewish district, Leopold- stadt, and later changed its residence several times. The roots of his father’s 3 Weinzierl 1984,p. 11. 4 See ‘ZumTodeOttoBauers’,rsKorrespondenz inDiariesandMemoirs. 5 Ackermann1969,p.6. 6 ‘BauerstampedhispersonalityonanentireperiodoftheAustrianworkers’movement…To honourOttoBauer’sworkcritically,toovercomehiserrorscriticallyremainsataskforus.The greatnessofthistasktestifiestothegreatnessofthemanwhodepartedfromus’.WegundZiel 7,p.249.