Page - 159 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the national question 159 divergencesandnationalconflictsof interest.Nonetheless,hedefendeditasa principlethatwouldguaranteethepreservationofthestate.Inresponse,Kaut- skyaccusedBauerof fetishisingthestateasagoal initself insteadofregarding itasatool intheclassstruggle. The sdapmajority also judged themodel of national-cultural autonomy negatively.Theprevailingviewwasthatnosuggestionsforreformingthestate should bemade in parliament. In light of strong national antagonisms, and because each respective country aspired to extractmore concessions at the expenseofothers,suchreformsmightleadtoadisasterandthefallofthemon- archy.Thisoutcome,inturn,wouldrendertheparty’sstrategiclineinvalid.One shouldnot forget that thesdap,whichwasembroiled in thestruggle foruni- versalsuffrageatthebeginningofthetwentiethcentury,didnotyetrepresent a seriouspolitical counterweight to theChristianSocial andGreaterGerman camps.Argumentsabout the liberationof theSlavicpeoplesemerging in the ranks of Social Democracy only complicatedmatters further. AsMommsen states,eventhesuggestiontodividethestateintodistrictstoprotecttherights of CzechGermanswas strongly opposedby SocialDemocrats.92 TheCzechs disapprovedoftheproposal to increasethestatebudget forculturecontained inBauer’smodel. In theirview, thiswouldprimarilybenefit theGermanpop- ulation.Conversely, theywereeagertogetsubsidies fromAustria.Thegovern- ment successfully suppressed theirefforts, asdid theGerman-AustrianSocial Democrats.OnemightevenspeakofacertainalliancebetweenSocialDemo- cracyandthecrownduringtheperiodleadinguptoWordWari. Incontrastto thepeoplesofthemonarchy,theybothrepresentedcentralisttrends.Centralist tendencieswerealsomanifest inbothautonomymodels, even if theydoubt- lesslyhadaprogressivecharacter inAustriaat the time. In 1920,HansKelsen harkedbacktooneoftheirsuggestions:ethnicallyhomogeneousautonomous regionsweretobecomeafundamentalelementofthenationalfederationand thefederationofnationalstates.Histextsinspiredtheco-foundersofAustrian statehood. 2.2.3 RemarksonNationalAssimilation The assimilation process, which comprised all ethnic groups equally, was a significantphenomenonof theHabsburgstate.Thesloganof ‘nationalassim- ilation’becameacauseofdisagreementbetweenGerman-AustrianandCzech SocialDemocrats especially after 1897.At the turnof thenineteenthcentury, increasing levels of Czech economicmigration toVienna andLowerAustria 92 SeeMommsen1963,p.209.