Seite - 664 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

664 The Writing on the Wall final figure would subsequently reach 134,000. Later, the war kitchens, where mem- bers of the middle classes could purchase simple meals at low cost, had to be closed, since they were sent no further deliveries of food. Warm shelters, day centres and the aforementioned ‘Soup and Tea Establishments’, where above all hot drinks were served, provided sustenance to tens of thousands of people every day. Since a minimal supply could be secured with the aid of the war kitchens, the measure was even considered of prohibiting cooking in small, private households, since this consumed more energy and food than in the large kitchens.1512 Emperor Karl received letters that left no room for misunderstanding. ‘Your Maj- esty,’ wrote one correspondent, ‘do not send the War Minister to the front, since there, he will encounter the brightest end of the spectrum of our suffering’. The letter contin- ued : ‘Send him to the replacement cadres, where men with severe tuberculosis of the lung are dragging themselves across the parade ground. […] Send the War Minister to the edge of Vienna, to Ottakring, to Favoriten, where the women, who have descended into unrecognisable, typical starved apparitions, with emaciated children in their arms, are standing in line in front of the shops. […] Your Ministers, Majesty, only see the people on the Kärnterstrasse street, who are protected against hunger and malnutrition by their fat war profits  – and one can still obtain anything at a high price. […] Majesty ! Your name as the Emperor of peace will outlive this conflagration and live on in history : do not allow it to become besmirched through the narrow-hearted pursuit of power, and as soon as the first opportunity arises, and before it is too late, sacrifice a portion of your power, for it is worth forfeiting for the sake of the loyalty of your people.’1513 It was not only letters of petition to the Emperor that contained this message. Similar information was also passed on by the Chief of the Base High Command to Conrad von Hötzendorf, albeit in a ‘de-personalised’ form, and had also not shied away from writing about corruption and denouncing the economic mismanagement in detail : rationing had been introduced too late. In Vienna, he claimed, there was an actual requirement of 40 wagons of flour per day. However, 60 were used. The warehouses emptied within a very short space of time. Maximum price regulations had caused products to disappear from the market and had only fuelled speculation. Civilian and military authorities had inter- vened with contradictory and unhelpful rules, he said. In Hungary, according to Höfer, the distribution measures were catastrophic, causing profiteering and usury to flourish there, too. And private distribution organisations such as the ‘Miles’ in Austria or the ‘War Products Joint Stock Company’ in Hungary even had to pay high fees to the mili- tary authorities, with a benchmark price of 1,000 kronen per wagon.1514 However, it was not only the shortage of goods on offer that was to blame for this scandalous practice, but to an at least equal extent, the lack of rolling stock. In this respect, the war with Romania had particularly negative consequences, since almost 34,000 wagons were required for the deployment and initial provisioning of the troops, and these had to be withdrawn