Page - 22 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

22 chapter 1 the test. In the autumnof 1918, Austria, particularly Vienna,was gripped by arevolutionarywave.Thesituationwascontradictory: radical splintergroups of theworking class urged theparty leadership to takepower and introduce thedictatorshipoftheproletariat.Meanwhile, theleadersofthesdap,aparty amongwhose ranks the necessity of revolutionary transformationhad been repeatedlyevokedsince1889,assumedacriticaldistancetotheevents. Infact, theydeployedallmeansat theirdisposal topreventaproletarian revolution. While Victor Adler feared revolution despite considering its outbreak inev- itable in 1918, Bauer and Friedrich Adler, who had educed the trust of the workingclass throughreformist successes,activelyattemptedtoconvincethe proletariat that revolution inAustriahadnopurposeandwasdoomedto fail. Bauer’s standpointwas characterisedby a strongpragmatic perspective that outweighedtheoreticalconsiderations.Thepoliticaldecisionforthereformist path,forparliamentarydemocracy,andagainstadictatorshipoftheproletariat was based on an actual estimation of the social balance of power.56 Vienna inparticularwas revolutionary, yet the rural provinceswereunderChristian Socialinfluenceandwerehostiletowardsrevolution,andtheCommunistParty ofAustriaandradical leftgroupswereisolated.UnliketheRussianproletariat, whohadnothingtolosewhenfacedwithananalogoussituation, themajority of theAustrianworkingclassdidnotwant to jeopardise thegainsof reform- istpolicies.ToassumethattheAustrianworkerswouldleavetherevolutionary rankswhenfacedwithdifficult timeswastherefore justified. The lineofBauer’s foreignpolicieswaswhollydominatedby thedesire to maintain thenationalunityofGermans in the faceof social revolution(from 21November1918until26July1919,hewasforeignsecretary).Duringthepeace negotiationsof Saint-Germain inMay 1919, theAustrianpeacedelegation led byChancellorRennerborewitness toadisaster.Thevictoriouspowers found Austria-Hungaryguiltyofinitiatingthewar,andasaresult imposedwarrepar- ations, and drewnewbordersmeaning the loss of territories inwhichGer- mans were themajority, such as Bohemia, Moravia, South Tyrol, and parts of Carinthia and Styria. During this arduous time, Bauer’s primary objective wastoregaintheseterritories. IntheArbeiter-Zeitung,heprotestedagainstthe decision toblame thenewAustrian state for the foreignpoliciesof themon- archy.57However,hededicatedmostofhisattentiontothequestionofanAus- trianAnschluss toGermany,whichhadbeen ignored in the treaty.Bismarck’s ‘lesser German solution’ of 1871, in which Austria had been excluded from 56 Iwillconsiderthismoreextensively inpoint1.2ofChapter5. 57 SeeBotz1978,p.32.