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Austrian Social Democratic Foreign Policy and the Bosnian Crisis of 1908

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Ruth D. Roebke-Berens
Affiliation:
Northern Michigan University

Extract

During the first decades after it came into existence the Austrian Social Democratic Party dedicated itself to preserving the multinational Austro-Hungarian empire as a state in which it could pursue socialist goals. The party leaders primarily concerned themselves with practical problems of party and trade-union organization, with devising a nationality program to resolve domestic tensions, and with winning the battle for universal suffrage. Before 1908 domestic issues clearly took precedence over international affairs.

Type
Nineteenth Century Politics and Diplomacy
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1981

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References

1 For information on the Austrian Social Democratic nationality program and analyses of Karl Renner's and Otto Bauer's writings on national autonomy, see Briigel, Ludwig, Geschichte der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie (5 vols., Vienna: Wiener Volksbuchhandlung, 1922)Google Scholar; Hantsch, Hugo, Die Nationalitatenfrage im alien Osterreich (Vienna: Verlag Herold, 1953)Google Scholar; Kann, Robert, The Multinational Empire (2 vols., New York: Columbia University Press, 1950)Google Scholar; Leser, Norbert, Zwischen Reformismus und Bolschewismus. Der Austro-Marxismus als Theorie und Praxis (Vienna: Europa Verlag, 1968)Google Scholar; and Mommsen, Hans, Die Sozial-Demokratie und die Nationalitatenfrage im habsburgischen Vielvolkerstaat (Vienna: Europa Verlag, 1963).Google Scholar

2 General accounts of Austrian foreign policy in this period include Albertini, Luigi, The Origins of the War of 1914. Translated and edited by Massey, I. M. (3 vols., London: Oxford University Press, 1952), Vol. 1Google Scholar; Bridge, F. R., From Sadowa to Sarajevo: The Foreign Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1866–1914 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972)Google Scholar; Charmatz, Richard, dsterreichs dufiere und innere Politik von 1895 bis 1914 (Leipzig: B. T. Tuebner, 1918)Google Scholar; May, Arthur J., The Hapsburg Monarchy, 1867–1914 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1951)Google Scholar; and Macartney, C. A., The Habsburg Empire, 17901918 (New York: Macmillan, 1968).Google Scholar

3 Bauer, Otto, Die Nationalitdtenfrage und die Sozialdemokratie (2nd ed., Vienna: Ignaz Brand, 1924), pp. 496497.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., pp. 498–501 and 509.

5 Ibid., pp. 505–506. At a party conference in Briinn in 1899 the Austrian Social Democratic Party adopted a program calling for the reorganization of the Habsburg state into a democratic federation of national self-governing regions. Ethnic groups were to have full control of or autonomy over their cultural concerns, while the central government was to retain authority over political and economic affairs. See Verhandlungen des Gesamt-Parteitages der Sozialdemokratie in Österreich zu Brünn 24.–29. September 1899 (Vienna: n. p., 1899), p. 74.Google Scholar

6 Wank, Solomon, “Aehrenthal and the Policy of Action” (Ph. D. dissertation. Columbia University, 1961), pp. 249251.Google Scholar For general accounts of Aehrenthal's foreign policy, see the foreign policy sources listed in n. 2 and Huebmer, Hans, Österreich-Ungarns Balkanpolitik vor dem ersten Weltkrieg (Bregenz: Eugen Russ Verlag, 1964)Google Scholar; Schmitt, Bernadotte E., The Annexation of Bosnia, 1908–1909 (Cambridge, England: University Press. 1937)Google Scholar; Übersberger, Hans, üsterreich zwischen Russland und Serbien. Zur Südslawischen Frage und der Enlstehung des ersten Weltkrieges (Cologne: H. Bohlaus. 1958)Google Scholar; and Wedel, Oswald H., Austro-German Relations, 1908–1914 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1932).Google Scholar

7 Macartney, , The Habsburg Empire, pp. 779780.Google Scholar

8 Schmitt, , The Annexation of Bosnia, pp. 4647.Google Scholar

9 Bridge, , From Sadowa to Sarajevo, p. 306.Google Scholar

10 Bauer, Otto, “Österreich und der Imperialismus,” Der Kampf, Vol. II (10, 190809, 1909), pp. 1920.Google Scholar

11 Ibid., p. 20.

12 Otto Bauer, “Sozialdemokratische Friedenspropaganda,” ibid., p. 102.

13 Otto Bauer [Heinrich Weber], “Das südslawische Problem.” ibid., pp. 292–293.

14 Ibid., p. 294.

15 Otto Bauer [Heinrich Weber], “Nationale und internationale Gesichtspunkte in der auswiirtigen Politik,” ibid., p. 541.

17 Austerlitz, Friedrich, “Neues Vaterland,” Arbeiter-Zeitung, 10 9, 1908, p. 1.Google Scholar

18 Friedrich Austerlitz, “Die Demokratie und die Balkanfrage,” ibid., October 9, 1908, p. 1.

19 Friedrich Austerlitz, “Österreichischer Imperialismus,” ibid., June 10, 1909, p. 1.

20 See Karl Rentier's speech to the Austrian house of representatives on December 17, 1908, in Die Sozialdemokratie und der Frieden. Reden der sozialdemokratischen Abgeordnelen fiber die bosnische Frage und die Kriegsgefahr (Vienna: Ignaz Brand, 1909), p. 11.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., pp. 12–13.

23 Ibid., pp. 17–18.

24 Renner's speech to the house of representatives on March 11, 1909, in ibid., pp. 29–30.

25 Renner's speech to the delegations of the Reichsrat on November 9, 1910, as quoted in Verosta, Stephen, Theorie und Realitdt von Biindnissen. Heinrich Lammasch, Karl Renner und der Zweibund (1898–1917) (Vienna: Europa Verlag, 1971), pp. 595 and 597598.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., pp. 599–600 and 602.

27 Ibid., p. 604.

28 Ibid., pp. 605–606.

29 Ibid., p. 622.

30 Adler, Friedrich and Pollatschek, Gustav (eds.), Victor Adlers Aufsätze, Reden mid Briefe (11 vols., Vienna: Wiener Volksbuchhandlung, 1929), Vol. IX, p. 22.Google Scholar

32 Haupt, Georges, Socialism and the Great War: The Collapse of the Second International (Oxford: University Press, 1972), p. 24.Google Scholar

33 Adler, Victor. Für die Nationen! Wider die nationalistischen Helzer (Vienna: Wiener Volksbuchhandlung. 1908). pp. 1213.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., pp. 15–17.

35 Adler, Victor, Die Sozialdemokratie imd der Frieden, pp. 67.Google Scholar

36 Ibid., p. 7.

37 Brügel, , Geschichte der österreichischen Sozialdemokralie. Vol. V, p. 66.Google Scholar

38 Adler, and Pollatschek, , Victor Adlers Aufsätze. Reden und Briefe, Vol. IX, pp. 2425.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., p. 25.

40 Ibid., p. 27.

41 Ibid., p. 24. This motion is quoted in the editor's explanatory notes to Adler's speech.

42 Bridge, , From Sadowa to Sarajevo, p. 317.Google Scholar

43 Speech by Němec, Antonín to the Austrian house of representatives on December 16, 1908, in Die Sozialdemokratie und der Frieden, p. 8.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., pp. 9–10.

45 Speech by Daszyński, Ignacy to the Austrian house of representatives on December 17, 1908Google Scholar, ibid., pp. 18–19.

46 Ibid., pp. 19 and 21–22.

47 Ibid., p. 22.

48 Ibid., p. 23.

49 Demetrović, Juraj, “Dualismus oder Trialismus”, Der Kampf, Vol. II, pp. 203205.Google Scholar

50 Juraj Demetrović, “Die Entwicklung der südslawischen Frage”, ibid. Vol. V (October, 1910–September, 1911), pp. 549–550. In January, 1910. the Balkan socialists held their first conference in Belgrade, where they called for the formation of a democratic republic of the Balkan peoples.

51 Huitiéme Congr´es Socialiste International, tenu à Copenhagen du 29 aout au 3 Septembre 1910. Compte rendu analytique (Gand: n. p., 1911), pp. 205206.Google Scholar

52 Ibid., pp. 208–209.

53 Protokoll des Parieitages. Verhandlungen der deutschen Sozialdemokratischen Arbeiterpartei in Oslerreich in Reichenberg 19. Seplember–24. September 1909 (Vienna: n. p., 1909), pp. 266267.Google Scholar

54 Ibid., pp. 267–268.

55 Ibid., pp. 270–271.

56 Ibid., p. 272.

57 For a more detailed examination of the views of the Austrian Social Democrats in regard to foreign policy between 1908 and 1914, see Roebke, Ruth D., “Austrian Social Democratic Thought on the Nationality Question and Foreign Policy, 1890–1914” (Ph. D. dissertation, Marquette University, 1976), Chapters 4–7.Google Scholar

58 Prolokoll der Verhandlungen des Parteitages der deulschen Sozialdemokralischen Arbeiterpanei in Österreich in Wien 31. Oktober zum 4. November 1912 (Vienna: n. p., 1912), p. 110.Google Scholar