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threemillionUkrainians, andonemillion Italians.44 Itwas a state that com-
prisedterritoriesofvarying levelsofeconomicdevelopment. Industrialisation
was accomplishedparticularly inLowerAustria, Styria, Silesia, Bohemia and
Moravia. In the other parts of the country, especially Hungary and Galicia,
industrial developmentwas low– above all, large-scale land ownershipwas
animpendingfactor, takingupsome45percentof the landsurface.Asmono-
poliesformed,smallandmedium-sizedbusinessescouldnotcompetewithbig
Germanenterprises.Thesecountriesprovidedabasis for rawmaterialsanda
supplyofcheaplabour.Particularly inBohemia,MoraviaandGalicia,wherea
strongbourgeoisie emerged in the 1880s, thedependencyonGermancapital
wasviewednotonly fromaneconomic,butalso fromanationalperspective.
Inallcountriesruledbythecrown, increasingexploitationwenthandinhand
with political subjugation: an anti-democratic systemof governmentwhose
political,military and administrative postswere staffedmainly byGermans,
alongsidediscriminationineducationandagainstnational languagesandcul-
tures.Anothersourceofconflictbetweenthepeopleswassocio-economicdif-
ferencesbetweenrulingandsubordinatedcountries.Theyaffectedtheworking
classfirstandforemost–therelativelygoodconditionsenjoyedbyCzechwork-
ers employed inGerman-speaking territorieswere an exception to the rule.
TheGerman-Austrianworkers formedthe ‘labouraristocracy’of theempire–
which, incidentally, significantly influenced thenationalpoliciesof thesdap
leadership.Their incomewasa fifthhigher thanthe incomeofworkers in the
other countries, they were better educated, and they had better developed
organisational structures in the tradeunions.45 Furthermore, theywere very
receptive to petty-bourgeois ideology, part of which was German national-
ism.Opposingeconomicinterests,competitionbetweenGermanworkersand
thoseofothernationalities, andrampantnationalismmadeanemergenceof
classconsciousnessandaunitedstruggleof theAustro-Hungarianproletariat
impossible; the effect was that differences within the class concurred with
nationaldifferences.At theendof thenineteenthcentury, anti-Semitismand
conflictsbetweencompetinglocalnationalisms,skilfullyfosteredbytheChris-
tianSocialParty, threatenedthepeacebetweenthepeoplesof themonarchy.
There ismuch to suggest that national conflicts were indeed among the
mainreasons for the longstandingdivisionwithintheAustrianworkers’party
from1866–89.Bothfactions–themoderatesundertheleadershipofHeinrich
44 Kreisler 1970.Rauscherdepicts the rootsofnational conflictsunder theHabsburgmon-
archyinaninterestingfashion–seeRauscher1995,pp.45–6.
45 CompareMommsen1963,p.88.
Otto Bauer (1881–1938)
Thinker and Politician
- Title
- Otto Bauer (1881–1938)
- Subtitle
- Thinker and Politician
- Author
- Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp
- Publisher
- Brill
- Location
- Leiden
- Date
- 2017
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-90-04-32583-8
- Size
- 7.9 x 12.0 cm
- Pages
- 444
- Keywords
- Otto Bauer, Österreich, Österreichische, Politiker, Denker, Austomarxismus, Sozialismus, Moral, Imperialismus, Nation, Demokratie, Revolution, Staat, Faschismus, Krieg, SDAP
- Category
- Biographien