Austrian action

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The Austrian Action was the catchphrase for a loose association of monarchist or patriotic political, cultural and economic ideas in Austria in the 1920s and 1930s, whose supporters advocated an Austrian self-confidence on a Catholic-conservative basis. The representatives of the Austrian Action saw themselves as a "community of ideas and deeds" and were anti-Prussian and spoke out against joining Germany and in favor of European integration. They stood up for a Greater Austrian League of Nations of the Czech-Slovak, Hungarian, South Slavic, Austrian and possibly Polish or Romanian national states. Above all with regard to the opening of customs and currency borders and to loosening up the isolation after 1918. The name was chosen in conscious reference to the Catholic Action and the monarchist right-wing extremist Action française , in whose tradition it is also seen. The Austrian Action was originally aimed at restorative and anti-republican policies.

The ideas and publications of the members of the Austrian Action often found confrontation in Austria during the interwar period. While their criticism of political Catholicism in the Fatherland Front was not appreciated, the social democracy did not go far enough in the desired common front against National Socialism. Many activists of the Austrian Action also met resistance to the Habsburg loyalty. The National Socialists in particular fought against the formation of a united front against them, the deliberations on an Austrian nation and the development of an Austrian identity. After the Second World War, Austrian Action was largely suppressed or forgotten - also because many of its members did not survive the Nazi era.

As early as 1925, the supranational "Greater Austrian Community" was founded. Its members published extensively on the Austrian identity, on the “Austrian people”, on Austrian patriotism and were vehemently against a greater German sentiment. In particular, they saw the fate of the new Austria linked to the fate of Europe ("The European thought is the keeper of the Austrian"). The aim was a rapprochement between the states that had been separated since 1919 within the framework of a supranational union of independent, culturally related peoples. At the European level, they advocated the opening of customs and currency borders and a loosening of the isolation of the individual European states. From 1927 there was the two-month publication "Vaterland". Later there was the magazine "Wiener Politische Blätter" and the "Österreichische Bücherei". The aim of the publications was also to create an Austrian front from right to left against the emergence of National Socialism. According to Friedrich Heer, "the political proposals made an impression on the right with Austrian patriots and on the left with the great old man of Austrian social democracy, Karl Renner."

They advocated social reforms, were against political Catholicism and in favor of strengthening the workforce. The representatives of Austrian Action were often in conflict with the leaders of the bourgeois parties at the time. Theorists and founders of the Austrian Action were Hans Karl Zeßner-Spitzenberg , Ernst Karl Winter , Alfred Missong , August Maria Knoll and Wilhelm Schmid . In 1927, the jointly written work Die Österreichische Aktion was published. In addition, Eduard Kaminitzky, Paul Kries, Georg Fleischer, Ernst Joseph Görlich , Viktor Gromaczkiewicz, Ludwig Reiter, Gregor Sebba, Aurel Kolonai, etc. a. counted as part of the Austrian campaign. It was a “group of Austrian Catholic legitimists and patriots” who went public with this writing, which is considered to be the “most important intellectual achievement of the monarchist movement” in the First Republic. In particular, she also influenced Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi and the supranational Paneuropean idea of ​​a united Europe.

The best known is the formula that Winter gave to the Austrian campaign: "Stand on the right and think on the left". By this he understood a conservatism that should not turn against time:

“The future belongs to historically and sociologically consistent conservatism, which knows what it wants and who takes the present as it is, to conservatism, which - to use a paradox! - has the courage to 'stand on the right and think left', that is, to take into account the demands of the times, as left as they appear to be, in the name of tradition. "

In 1930 there was a split. Zeßner-Spitzenberg continued the legitimist wing of the re-establishment of the House of Habsburg . Although he remained a monarchist, Winter did not share this point of view and founded " Aktion Winter ".

Winter, then the former Vice Mayor of Vienna, argued, in contrast to his inner-Catholic opponent, Federal Chancellor Schuschnigg, for military resistance during the German invasion, because only “an Austria that offers resistance can save its future and rise again after the catastrophe”. In his memorandum of March 1, 1938, written for Schuschnigg, he stated that even a small state must have the courage to resist the greatest blows of fate. From the German occupation in March 1938, the publications of the Austrian Action were banned or tangible copies destroyed and the supporters persecuted. Many members of the Austrian Action, such as Hans Karl Zeßner-Spitzenberg , Viktor Gromaczkiewicz or Walter Krajnc , were killed during the Nazi era.

After the Second World War in 1945, members and the community of Austrian Action were involved in the re-establishment of Austria. Alfred Missong was one of the founders of the ÖVP and the author of its first Christian-social program. August Maria Knoll was a co-founder of the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW) and its president. Wilhelm Malaniuk was involved, among other things, in the development of the Austrian post-war justice system and Ernst Karl Winter continued to deal with his life's work, the policy of reconciliation between the Catholic camp and the Social Democrats.

literature

  • Alfred Diamant: The Austrian Catholics and the First Republic: Democracy, Capitalism and Social Order , Verlag der Wiener Volksbuchhandlung, Vienna 1960, p. 112ff.
  • Gottfried-Karl Kindermann : Conservative thinking and the question of Austrian identity in the First Republic , in: Robert Rill / Ulrich A. cellsberg (ed.): Conservatism in Austria . Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz / Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-7020-0860-8 , pp. 213-230, pp. 218f.
  • Ernst Florian Winter : "We carried Austria in our hearts" , in: Helmut Wohnout : Democracy and History (= yearbook of the Karl von Vogelsang Institute for Research into the History of Christian Democracy in Austria, Vol. 5). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3205770242 , pp. 79–101, pp. 79–81.

Individual evidence

  1. See Gottfried-Karl Kindermann "Austrians against Hitler" (2003), p. 61.
  2. Cf. u. a. Friedrich Heer "The Struggle for Austrian Identity" (1981), p. 397.
  3. Peter Eppel: Between cross and swastika. The attitude of the magazine “Schönere Zukunft” to National Socialism in Germany 1934–1938. Böhlau, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3205087429 , p. 55.
    Gerald Stourzh : Alfred Missongs historical significance. In: Alfred Missong jun., Cornelia Hoffmann, Gerald Stourzh (eds.): Alfred Missong. Christianity and Politics in Austria. Selected Writings 1924–1950. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Graz 2006, p. 57–68, here: p. 58.
    Anton Bettelheim , Heinrich Studer : New Austrian Biography from 1815. Volume 19, Amalthea, Vienna 1977, p. 71.
  4. ^ Anton Bettelheim, Heinrich Studer: New Austrian Biography from 1815. Volume 19, Amalthea, Vienna 1977, p. 71.
  5. Cf. u. a. Friedrich Heer "The Struggle for Austrian Identity" (1981), p. 397.
  6. See Gottfried-Karl Kindermann "Austrians against Hitler" (2003), p. 61.
  7. Friedrich Heer "The Struggle for Austrian Identity" (1981), p. 397.
  8. Ernst Florian Winter: We carried Austria in our hearts. In: Helmut Wohnout: Democracy and History, Vol. 5, p. 80.
  9. ^ Walter Jambor: Key Years and Basic Problems of the First Republic in the Mirror of Contemporary Literature. In: Isabella Ackerl (ed.): Spiritual life in Austria during the First Republic. (= Publications, Scientific Commission for Researching the History of the Republic of Austria, Volume 10), Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-48653-731-8 , pp. 64–76, here: p. 68.
  10. Norbert Leser (Ed.), Alfred Diamant: The Austrian Catholics and the First Republic. Democracy capitalism and social order. Wiener Volksbuchhandlung, Vienna 1960, p. 112.
  11. ^ The Austrian Action. Vienna 1927, p. 9.
  12. Ernst Florian Winter: We carried Austria in our hearts. In: Helmut Wohnout: Democracy and History Volume 5, p. 81.
  13. ^ Ernst Hanisch: Austrian History 1890-1990. (1994), p. 343.
  14. Gottfried-Karl Kindermann : Austrians against Hitler. (2003), p. 304 u. 330