German nationalism in Austria
German nationalism is a political ideology and historical current in Austrian politics. It arose in the 19th century as a nationalist movement amongst the German-speaking population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It favours close ties with Germany, which it views as the nation-state for all ethnic Germans, and the possibility of the incorporation of Austria into a Greater Germany.
Over the course of Austrian history, from the Austrian Empire, to Austria-Hungary, and the First and the Second Austrian Republics, several political parties and groups have expressed pan-German nationalist sentiment. National liberal and pan-Germanist parties have been termed the "Third Camp" of Austrian politics, as they have traditionally been ranked behind mainstream Catholic conservatives and socialists. The Freedom Party of Austria, a far-right political party with representation in the Austrian parliament, has pan-Germanist roots. After the Second World War, both pan-Germanism and the idea of political union with Germany became unpopular due to their association with Nazism, and by the rising tide of a civic Austrian national identity.
During the imperial period
Within the context of rising ethnic nationalism during the 19th century in the territories of the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire, the "German National Movement" sought the creation of a Greater Germany, along with the implementation of anti-semitic and anti-clerical policies, in an attempt to entrench the German ethnic identity. Starting with the revolutions of 1848, many ethnic groups under imperial rule, including the Serbs, Czechs, Italians, Croats, Slovenes, and Poles, amongst others, demanded political, economic, and cultural equality. Traditionally, the German-speaking population of the Empire enjoyed societal privileges dating back to the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, and that of her son, Joseph II. German was considered the lingua franca of the Empire, and Empire's elite consisted primarily of German-speakers. The struggle between the many ethnic groups of the Empire and German-speakers defined the social and political landscape of the Empire from the 1870s, after the Compromise of 1867, which granted renewed sovereignty to the Kingdom of Hungary, until the dissolution of the Empire after the First World War.After the Austrian defeat in the Battle of Königgrätz of 1866, and the unification of what was then known as "Lesser Germany" under Prussian stewardship in 1871, the German Austrians in the Austro-Hungarian Empire felt that they had wrongly been excluded from the German nation-state, whilst other ethnicities within the Empire were tearing at its fabric. Conflict between Germans and Czechs grew particularly tense in 1879, when minister-president Viscount Taaffe did not include the German-Liberal Party in the government of Cisleithania. This party was considered the main representative of the German-speaking middle class, and as such, the German National Movement went on to accuse the Party of not fighting for the rights of German-speakers within the Empire. The "German School League" was formed in 1880 to protect German-language schools in parts of the Empire where German speakers were a minority. It promoted the establishment of German-language schools in communities where public funding was used for non-German schools.
A consortium of German nationalist groups and intellectuals published the Linz Program in 1882, which demanded the recognition of German predominance in the Empire, along with the complete Germanisation of the Empire. This manifesto was signed by the radical German nationalist Georg von Schönerer, Vienna's populist, pro-Catholic, and royalist mayor Karl Lueger, and the Jewish social democrat Victor Adler. The diverse signatories of the Linz manifesto split ideologically after Schönerer revised it to add an "Aryan paragraph" in 1885.
Schönerer founded the "German-National Association", and later, in 1891, the "Pan-German Society". He demanded the annexation of all German-speaking territories of Austria-Hungary to the Prussian-led German Empire and rejected any form of Austrian pan-ethnic identity. His radical racist German nationalism was especially popular amongst the well-educated intelligentsia: professors, grammar school teachers, and students. School administrations tried to counteract these sentiments by encouraging civic pride, along with a "cult of personality" around the Emperor, but these efforts were largely unsuccessful. Vienna mayor Karl Lueger even tried to dismiss all "Schönerians" from city school administrations, but this too failed. National-minded students rather identified with the Prussian-led German Empire than with the multiethnic Dual Monarchy. Many idolised the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, victor in the Battle of Königgrätz.
Members of the pan-German movement wore blue cornflowers, known to be the favourite flower of German Emperor William I, in their buttonholes, along with cockades in the German national colours. Both symbols were temporarily banned in Austrian schools. Like Schönerer, many Austrians hoped for an Anschluss with Germany. However, although many Austrians accepted the ideas of the various pan-German movements and felt part of the German nation, they accepted the existence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were loyal to the Habsburg dynasty, and wanted to preserve the sovereignty of Austria.
German nationalists protested vehemently against minister-president Kasimir Count Badeni's language decree of 1897, which made German and Czech co-official languages in Bohemia and required new government officials to be fluent in both languages. This meant in practice that the civil service would almost exclusively hire Czechs, because most educated Czechs knew German, but not the other way around. The support of ultramontane Catholic politicians and clergy for this reform triggered the launch of the "Away from Rome" movement, which was initiated by supporters of Schönerer and called on "German" Christians to leave the Roman Catholic Church.
From the 1880s, the pan-Germanist movement was fragmented into several splinter parties and factions. The most radical was the German Workers' Party, formed in 1903, which later transformed into the Austrian wing of the Nazi Party. Other pan-Germanist parties that contested elections during the first decade of the 20th century include the German People's Party and the German Radical Party. A broad coalition of all ethnic German national and liberal political parties known as the Deutscher Nationalverband was formed to contest the 1911 election to the Cisleithanian Imperial Council. It went on to gain the most seats in lower house of the council, the House of Deputies, replacing the previously dominant Christian Social Party. Despite this victory, the German National Association was always a very loose coalition with little unity amongst its ranks, and collapsed in 1917 at the height of First World War. It disintegrated into seventeen scattered German liberal and national parties. This disintegration, combined with dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, led to the total fragmentation of pan-Germanist movement.
Dissolution of Austria-Hungary (1918–1919)
After the end of the First World War, which saw the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, German-speaking parts of the former Empire established a new republic under the name "German Austria". The republic was proclaimed on the principle of self-determination, which had been enshrined within American president Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points. A provisional national assembly was convened on 11 November, at which the Republic of German Austria was proclaimed. The assembly drafted a constitution that stated that "German Austria is a democratic republic" and "German Austria is a component of the German Republic". This phrase referenced the establishment of the Weimar Republic in the former lands of the German Empire, and intended to unite German-speaking Austrians with the German nation-state, completing the Greater Germany plan. Plebiscites held in Tyrol and Salzburg yielded majorities of 98% and 99% respectively in favour of unification with Germany. However, Erich Bielka notes that the plebiscites were marred by electoral fraud and voter manipulation:For Tyrol, the overriding concern was not Anschluss, but reunification with South Tyrol. The Tyrolean elites vehemently reasserted their cultural autonomy from Austria, and the policy of the Tiroler Volkspartei, the dominant party in the province following the 1919 elections, was independent Tyrol and not unification with Germany. Tyrolean politicians unequivocally rejected the Anschluss policy of the central government, contemplating every conceivable alternative, including the possibility of an independent Tyrol linked in a loose union with Switzerland or Italy, or of a fusion of the ‘western provinces’. Some conservative factions supported the idea of a union between Tyrol and Bavaria, or even the creation of a south German state. Regarding the plebiscite in Salzburg, Erich Bielka argues that Salzburg was culturally and politically unique from the rest of Austria, and its potential support for Anschluss did not reflect the general Austrian opinion at that time:
The victors of the First World War who drafted the Treaty of Versailles and the Saint-Germain-en-Laye strictly forbade any attempt by German Austria to unify with Germany. They also gave some lands that had been claimed by German Austria to newly formed nation-states. An example of this was the giving of the provinces of German Bohemia and the Sudetenland to the Czecho-Slovak Republic. These lands, having German-speaking majorities, were prevented from being within their own nation-state. Instead, they were trapped in the nation-states of other ethnicities. This grievance would play a fundamental part in the rise of pan-Germanism during the Interwar period. Karl Renner, a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party, served as chancellor of German Austria. Renner himself was a proponent of the idea of "Greater Germany", and penned the unofficial anthem Deutschösterreich, du herrliches Land. Renner was born in southern Moravia, which was one of the lands claimed by German Austria, but instead given to the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Despite his background, however, he signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain on 10 September 1919, which established the Allied-drawn borders of the new Austrian republic, and formally forbid any attempt to unify the German-speaking lands of the former Austria-Hungary with Germany. The name "German Austria" was changed to "Austria", removing any hint of pan-Germanist sentiment from the name of the state. Nevertheless, the Social Democrats would not forget their pan-Germanist roots. To them, the Weimar Republic was regarded with "exaggerated sympathy", whilst the Czecho-Slovak Republic was viewed with "exaggerated suspicion".