Seite - 479 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Central Powers and Central Europe 479 certainly corresponds to the level of what Austria has achieved that it receives Poland. […] In spite of many weaknesses, Austria has held out well.’1130 Though the possibility that Austria might become a ‘rival for hegemony in Europe’, should of course remain out of the question.1131 Out of satisfaction at the successful outcome of the Neujahrsschlacht and a very clear weakening of the Russian opponent, Austria also deduced, however, that the time had now come to re-formulate the political aims of the war and above all  – and this then became ever more visible  – that it was also time for Austria-Hungary to offset the sac- rifices brought by the war by increasing its conditions for making peace. The debate on war aims received a new impetus and it was pursued with very different substance than in the first round, when the arguments had been comparatively modest. It had almost appeared as though the euphoria of the beginning of the war, the mood of ‘salvation through war’, had not only quickly trickled away but would also never sur- face again. However, ideas do not normally disappear into nothing, but only mutate and then re-emerge in altered form. Even so, it should be asked, however : how did the mood of salvation transform and in which shape did it resurface ? If we attempt to pick up the threads again, then this is most easily done where the question of the war aims of the in- dividual states arose and everyone sought to develop his ideas on these aims. It was here that this intellectual upsurge, as well as this revolt against the present, both of which could hardly be encountered anywhere else, could be continued. When war aims were ruminated on, when model outcomes emerged and the question of existence was com- bined with the question about the future, however, it was more than just a temptation to engage in mind games and the philosophical penetration of geopolitical questions. It was here in altered form that the meaning of life was asked, or to put it more accurately : the meaning of sacrifice. For if all of this was to have a purpose, then only of bringing about a better future. At this conclusion of the intellectual process, the formula of sal- vation through war metamorphosed into that of salvation from war, and one Arthur Schnitzler, who had initially, like most people, welcomed the war and celebrated it as the emergence of the meaning of life, wrote the sonnet that began with the line : ‘Someday peace will return.’ If there was something that offered an intellectual incentive, however, then it was the debate on war aims. For an additional challenge, though, one could also turn to the discussion that endeavoured to portray Central Europe in a new context. The Central Powers and Central Europe That which was spoken and written in this discussion, which lasted a long time and was, at least in part, pursued at a high intellectual level, had many roots. For one thing, there was the question of the economic unification of the Central Powers Austria-Hungary