Seite - 771 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Fortress Syndrome The unsuccessful efforts to break free of the war gradually created a ‘fortress syndrome’ in Austria, which dominated large parts of the population and would never again dis- appear.1796 For years, attempts had been made to ‘break out’ of the fortress, and to create space to breathe through a massive military sortie. They had all failed. Now, ne- gotiations were arranged. Still, the occupiers demanded surrender. This does not reflect the full picture, however. Among parts of the fortress garrison, the feeling grew that they had been taken hostage by the commanders of the fortress themselves, that not everything was in reality being done in order to achieve an end to the siege, to secure supplies of food once more and to create a minimum degree of normality. Instead, the sorties had to be continued, while the energy and the stockpiles were coming to an end. And there is something else to be added to this image : among some nationalities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, particularly among the Germans, the impression was created that while in the war they had held out and had not been conquered in the field, the enemy was beginning to hollow out the country from the inside. Hatred welled up as a result. However, in most cases, the dominant mood was apathy, recalcitrance,and disinterest. The conclusion drawn in the reports on the general mood by the War Sur- veillance Office was that : ‘Apathy and resignation are increasingly spreading. Utter disappearance of any joy of living, disappearance of the sense of purpose in work and earning are becoming increasingly evident as a characteristic symptom. This gloomy state of mind is colouring the view of the future and is also clouding any objective observation of external events. Political resentment, resentment in reaction to any new official decree, angry or hateful diatribes regarding the forthcoming war bond, charita- ble activities such as public collections, [or] even the exchange operations [of prisoners of war] currently underway, appear as outlets for this inclination.’1797 From then on, the variations on this ‘theme’ appeared in every analysis. It was an open secret that Austria-Hungary was not in a good state. This fact was known not least to its enemies in this war. Politicians and newspapers in the Entente countries also came increasingly under the influence of the Czech and southern Slav émigrés, ‘who did all they could to portray the situation as dramatically as possible, and to exaggerate it for propaganda purposes’.1798 The depictions of the repression of the Slavs and of the desire among the Slavs in the north and south to leave the Aus- tro-Hungarian Monarchy reinforced the intention among the Allies to regard the de-