Seite - 1011 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Epilogue Once the revolution had gradually spread to all the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, many did not want to accept it, but one glance at the surging masses said everything. Vast crowds moved through the streets of Vienna, Prague, Budapest and other capital cities. They did not want to ‘watch the revolution’ but actually to be a part of it when in the centre of Europe nation states were founded and an affirmation of one of the new states was demanded of every single person. Whoever attempted to make it clear that they still felt obligated to the Imperial and Royal government ran the risk of being physically reminded of the new realities. The scenes differed only marginally from one another : in one city, it was the nationalist radicals and in another the political and ide- ological fanatics who set the tone. A not to be underestimated group was formed by all of those who had not been radicalised by ideologues and ideas of the nation state but simply no longer wanted the war. Into the midst of these came the soldiers returning from the fronts who multiplied the revolutionary potential. Let us once more single out the scene in Prague in the last days of October and the first days of November 1918, about which the now former station commander wrote : ‘There could be no talk any more of correction and discipline. […] No-one any longer gave the military salute ; jostling of all officers, whether white-red or black-yellow, was the order of the day. A wild band of soldiers emerged overnight. All factories were inactive. Everything was decked with flags ; in pan-Slav and red flags. Workers and soldiers carried little red flags. Young and old, men and women, rejoiced over the day of the long-awaited freedom, the day on which the hated yoke of the Habsburgs was cast off. If one had asked any of the red flag-carriers what this yoke had actually been, I am convinced that none of them would have been able to provide an accurate answer.’2528 It was not possible for everyone  – in fact not for the majority  – to be involved in the proclamations of new statehood. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were still march- ing back from the fronts and sought to somehow find their way to their respective homelands. Non-compliance and veritable battles among the former comrades were such a daily occurrence that they actually hardly any longer aroused any attention. One group declared that they did not want anything to do with another group, and then it was the turn of the second group to do the same. Those who were on the return