Page - 21 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

otto bauer andhis time 21 politician, Josef Redlich, wrote: ‘Adler demands the republic, the Christian Socialsdemandthemonarchy,andtheGreaterGermansdemandannexation to the German Reich’ (our translation).54 During the first cabinet meeting, VictorAdlermaintainedthat thecoalitionwasahistoricalnecessity, andthat parliament had tobe recognised as an instrument of struggle for power and socialism.Moreover, he voiced anxiety about the fate of theGermannation inAustria, claiming that it would face annexation byGermany if it did not found its own state as soon as possible.His fear at the timewasunjustified. The German Reich, after all, faced the same fate as the Habsburg Empire, with revolutionary uprisings spreading over Germany. Nonetheless, his fear possibly reflected the vivid aversion of the working class towards Prussian Germany. On 12 November 1918, the Provisional National Assembly decided uponaconstitutioninwhichGermanAustriawasdeclaredaconstituentpart oftheGermanRepublic.Thepurposeofthiswastopreventafurtherescalation of workers’ demonstrations.55 The constitutional decision to grant popular determination of public rights, however, did not settle the question of state order, the extent of mass participation in state power, and the role of the workers’,peasants’andsoldiers’councilsthathadexistedsince1917.Ontheday beforetheproclamationoftherepublic,VictorAdlerdied, leavinghislegacyto Bauer. Fromthatmoment, Bauerwas the factual, if not formal, leader of the sdap.Healsoassumedthe leadershipof theparliamentary fractionandtook overAdler’s role as chair of the foreignministry.Additionally, hebecame the chairof thesocialisationcommitteeinMarch1919. Bauerbecamethedefacto leaderofthepartyatatimewhenitsentirepolit- ical line todate, aswell as thepolitics ofAustromarxismat large,wasput to 54 ‘Adler verlangt die Republik, die Christlichsozialen dieMonarchie, die Deutsch-Natio- nalendenAnschlussandasDeutscheReich’–Weinzierl 1982,p. 12.Thecoalitiondivided responsibilitiesamongpartiesaccordingtogeographical locations: theSocialDemocrats maintained their influence in the cities, while the Christian Social Party focused on maintainingtheirsinthecountryside.Oneconsequenceofthisdivisionoflabourwasthat circa 500,000members of the rural proletariat remainedout of reach for the sdap and werenot taken intoconsiderationwhen it came to social legislation.This strengthened thebourgeoisie inthecountryside. 55 TheCommunist Party ofAustria (kpö)– aparty that emergedout of theLeft Radicals around Paul and Elfriede Friedländer, Russian prisoners of war, and radical youths – attemptedtoseizethemomentduringtheproclamationoftherepublicandwinoverthe protestingworkers tothe ideaofestablishingasoviet republic.However, itwastooweak organisationally,numerically,andpolitically. Its long-timepartyleader, JohannKoplenig, in Koplenig 1963, p. 118, confirms this. The kpö was not represented in the National Assemblyor intheregionalassemblies, theLandtage.