Seite - 215 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Wounded, Sick and Dead 215 Similarly, not all that much was known about developments within the states and the municipalities. Those Landtage (regional diets) of the Austrian half of the Empire that had still functioned up to July 1914, namely in Dalmatia, Carniola (Krain), Gorizia (Görz), Moravia, Upper and Lower Austria, Silesia and Styria, had then been sus- pended like the others. The consultations of the communal bodies took place behind closed doors. At least at this level, however, there still existed something like pluralism, since the municipal councils still held regular meetings and here not only was the busi- ness that occurred at the lowest level taken care of ; there was also at least a minimal co- ordination of interests. Here the divergence of opinions and class antagonisms merely covered up by the necessities of war could also partially be felt, for example when the absorption of war gains, a particular tax burden on the rich, the abolition of censorship or measures targeting food profiteering were discussed.509 The axis from the Ministry of the Interior via the deputy state governors to the state governors also functioned to a certain extent. Yet the emergency legislation and the decrees were superordinate to this. In some ministries there was a considerable proliferation of agendas ; on the other hand, the central administration did not remain untouched by the direct impact of the war because a considerable number of the lower and mid-level civil servants were called up, the administration devolved on older civil servants and these were often no longer able to cope with the increased accrual of paperwork. In this way, a deceleration of the entire administrative process occurred,510 which truly had nothing to do with laziness but was instead a result of the war that could be observed after only a few months. It would thus be appropriate to understand the term ‘total war’ as something that is also applicable to the First World War and, indeed, from the outset of this conflict. For the home front, the fundamental threat to life did not exist as it would do later in the Second World War, but precisely in Austria-Hungary, whose existence was ultimately more threatened by the war than that of the German Empire, no-one could say from the first weeks onward that the war had not had any effect on his life. When people then saw the wounded arrive and the first cripples surface, daily life on the home front was put into perspective to a certain extent, though only as long as they were prepared to open their eyes not only to their own but also other realities. Wounded, Sick and Dead The war had embraced the entire territory of the Dual Monarchy not only in the sense that industries produced above all for the requirements of the army in the field ; restric- tions of every kind could be observed and shortages emerged. Even more evident was the circumstance that ultimately everyone was affected and everyone suffered when they came into contact with the wounded, the sick, the crippled and the dead.