Page - 162 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

162 chapter 4 to support professional training and raise the cultural level of Czechwork- ers in Austria, arguing that it would accelerate the process of their assim- ilation with Germany. It is justified to say that Bauer’s entire line of argu- mentation with respect to national assimilation testified to his vivid aver- siontowards theoppressedpeoples’decentralist aspirations.What ismore, it markedthe transitionofAustrianSocialDemocracy towardsnationalistposi- tions. 2.3 TheProgrammeoftheLeftandtheDemiseoftheMonarchy TheconflictbetweenAustriaandSerbiathatfollowedtheannexationofBosnia andHerzegovinamade theAustrian Social Democrats aware that the unre- solvednationalitiesquestionmightleadtoaworldwarinthenearfuture.With theexceptionofa tinygroupof imperialofficials andanumberof state-loyal SocialDemocrats, fewhaddoubts that aworldwarwould result in thedisin- tegrationof theHabsburgEmpire.Bauerwasoneof the fewwhoanticipated suchahistoricaldevelopmentasearlyas1908:hebelievedthattheoutbreakof thewarwould triggerawaveof revolutionsacrossEurope, inevitably leading tothedemiseofmultinationalstates.96 In1911,hewarned: Austria, too,willbecaughtupintheseupheavals.Thenational struggles andtherelationshiptoHungarypushforthewholeoftheimperialstruc- ture tobeoverturned. EitherAustriawill be transformed into a federal statecomprisingofautonomousnations,or itwillceasetoexist.97 The outbreak of war weakened the party-internal bonds of the sdap and deepenedthedifferencesbetweenBauer’sandRenner’snationalitiespolicies. Inhiswartime texts,ÖsterreichsErneuerung (Austria’sRenewal) andMarxis- mus, Krieg und Internationale (Marxism,Warand the International), Renner continuedtodefendtheprincipleof themultinational state.Thiswas,onthe one hand, an expression of his old belief that Social Democracy could suc- cessfully continue its politics within the existing constitutional framework. Buton theotherhand, it alsobetrayedhis opposition to changing the socio- politicalorderandhisaffirmativestancetowardsthecapitalist state–anatti- tude thatBauerharshly criticised. The taskof SocialDemocracy inwartime, Bauer argued,was toprepare themasses for the forthcoming revolution, not todefendastate thatwoulddisintegratedue to thedecentralist effortsof the 96 SeeBauer1996,pp.5–6. 97 Bauer1975d,p.940.