University of Virginia Library

AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE.

Once more Austria has emerged from a severe
ordeal. The Hohenwarte Cabinet has resigned;
the plans of the Slavs to upset the rights and
the policy of the Germans have been frustrated, and
under the auspices of the Magyars a Ministry has
been formed which, to say the least, may be credited
with just intentions towards the Germans and
an honest desire for the preservation of the State.
But the cries of joy from German breasts to
greet the deliverance from threatening danger
are isolated. Hitherto, it was customary that
our countrymen on the Danube in days of stress
should lose faith in their Government only to
regain confidence as soon as the political clouds
lifted again, and for a long time past we Germans
of the Empire have been accustomed to this
sudden change of feeling in German Austria, just
as we are accustomed to laws of nature. For
the first time, however, the old rule no longer
applies; the news from our Austrian friends reads
gloomier than ever, despite the slight change for
the better which has now taken place, and the

question is wonderingly asked how in such a
country reckless men are still found ready to
accept a ministerial portfolio. What a weird
spectacle to behold!—a great empire whose own
people have lost faith in themselves. Let us
calmly examine these serious matters. It does
not admit of doubt what we for the sake of Germany
wish for Austria. We German Unity-makers
were never the enemies of Austria; we
only contested the preponderating power which
Austria exercised on German and Italian soil to
the detriment of all parties. Now, having fought
victoriously, we are more in favour of Austria
than many Austrians themselves. Nowhere during
the last few weeks have so many warm and
genuine wishes been exchanged for the continuance
of Austria as in the lobbies of the German
Parliament. Our Empire's ambition must simply
be directed towards the building up of an independent
and solid commonwealth within our
boundaries, which will suffice to us all completely.
We have Italy's hasty agitation for unity as a
warning example before us, and must not desire
to embody, in addition to the strong centrifugal
powers fermenting in the interior of Germany and
to the inhabitants of our Polish, Danish, and
French frontiers, yet another eight million Czechs
as our fellow-citizens. In the days of Frederick
the Great, when ideas of a Slav Empire lay dormant,
it was perhaps not very difficult to turn
over Bohemia entirely to German ideals. The old
race-hatred having, however, now been aroused
again with terrific ferocity, even the united forces
of Germany might have to spend scores of years
on this difficult and perhaps sterile task, should we
ever step into the sad heritage of the Hapsburgs.
We already have more than enough ultramontane
enemies of the Empire, and we will keep them in
check; our Empire is, however, well balanced only
because of the preponderance of Protestants. We
should commit a crime against the future liberty
of thought were we to contemplate absorbing
fourteen million Catholics. Germany longs for
peace; the vapourings of the democracy regarding
the war-fanaticism of our Government are lying
statements, disbelieved even by their originators.
The collapse of Austria, however, would mean an
upheaval unexampled in history, which would
embroil us in endless wars and threaten to destroy
the development of a peaceful policy for a long
time to come.

We Germans have never understood the principle
of nationality in the crude and overbearing
sense that all German-speaking Europeans must
belong to our Empire. We consider it a boon for
the peaceful intercourse of the world that the
boundaries of nations are not engraved with a
knife in the shell of the earth, that millions of
French live outside France, and outside the German
Empire millions of Germans. If the present-day
situation in Middle Europe consolidates, if
in the middle of the Continent there are two great

Empires, the one uniform and purely German, the
other Catholic and polyglot, yet permeated by
German ideas—who will contend that such a state
of affairs is humiliating to German national pride?
More magnificent and more brilliant than the day
of Königgrätz shines the glory of Sedan; but the
firm basis of our power to-day, the creative
thoughts of a new German policy have been engendered
by the blessings of 1866. "Down with
Austria," was then our battle-cry, and Germany
breathed as if freed from a nightmare when we
separated from Austria. Every day of German
history has proved since then that this separation
was a necessity, and that only through it we have
found ourselves again. In order to satisfy unbridled
greed are we to demolish again the structure
of 1866, the foundations of our Empire?
Are we to discard like old rubbish that rich treasure
of historic-political importance amassed during
half a century by our serious thinkers as common
property of the Germans solely because our
countrymen in Austria do not immediately succeed
in adjusting themselves to the new order of things?
Not an inch of land was taken by the victor of
1866 from the vanquished; such moderation not
only arose from the desire to reconcile the adversary,
it was also clearly evident that those Austrian
provinces which were for four centuries estranged
from German life and interdependent through
political ties, as well as through mutual commercial
interests, have a good right to stand side by side
independently with Germany. Austrian pessimists
might give as an example Moscow and
Warsaw. The opinion that the capital on the
Danube is to become a German provincial town
is ridiculed as ludicrous in sober-thinking Berlin.
The German idealists of the Danube speak lightly
of the disruption of Austria as if a Great Power
could easily be annihilated; we but ask what is to
become of the territories of the Crown of St.
Stephen after the collapse of the monarchy, and,
unable to find a satisfactory reply, we desire the
continuance of Austria as a Power.

The dualism which so often is depicted as the
beginning of the end appears to us in a different
light. The agreement of 1867 has not exactly
created a new state of affairs, but merely reconnected
the thoughts of the only Austrian sovereign
who intelligently and successfully understood the
handling of internal reforms. To leave the lands
of the Hungarian Crown under their former constitution,
and to form the Crown lands of the west
into one political unit, were the plans formerly of
Maria Theresa. It is due to Deak that this long-forgotten
policy has been renewed in modern form.
Our political pride may revolt, yet we cannot think
it unnatural that Hungarians have finally assumed
political direction in the dual Empire. Those
six million Magyars, together with the two million
Hungarian-Germans who obey the former almost
blindly, form the biggest political entity of the
Empire. They have the firm legal basis of an old

historic constitution—an immense advantage in
comparison with the chaotic conditions of public
law in Cisleithania. They alone amongst the
people of Austria have conquered freedom by
dint of hard work; they surpass all others in
political training and experience. Thus historic
necessity has finally brought it about that for the
present only a Hungarian Prime Minister is
possible. We shall not be expected to throw a
stone at the deposed Count Beust. The most
spiteful remarks which could be made about him
are at the outset silenced by his charmingly
ingenious eulogies, which, in the style of the Duke
of Coburg, he himself has made regarding his own
importance. Credit is due to him for having
recognized the moment when it was in the interest
of the Crown to submit to the conditions of the
Hungarians. In all other matters he displayed
as Imperial and Royal Chancellor of the Exchequer
exactly the same lack of tact and foresight which
in times gone by we admired in the diplomatic
faiseur of "Pure Germany." Everything in politics
turned out with regularity differently to
what he anticipated. The neutrality of Austria
during the last war was not due to him but to our
quick successes, to the bad condition of the Austrian
army, to the threats of Russia, the bravery of the
German-Austrians, and the clearheadedness of
Count Andrassy. It was an admission of weakness
on the part of Austria that a State ailing
from severe moral troubles should have for its
salvation called upon such a frivolous man, who
never claimed to possess the moral seriousness
of a reformer; and it is perhaps still more regrettable
that many an honest citizen to-day waxes
bitter in his outcry against the fallen dignitary
after having for five years been an eye-witness of
his debaucheries. Count Andrassy has at any
rate this advantage over his predecessor, that he
believes in himself and in his cause. He is an
honest Hungarian patriot, and therefore must try
to maintain the State in its entirety, as Hungary
is not yet powerful enough to exist without German
Austria. He must also defend the Constitution
of Cisleithania, as it is only with constitutional
Cisleithania that constitutional Hungary has
come to a settlement. He never recognized the
Concordat for Hungary although it existed in
Cisleithania, and for that reason alone he is the
enemy of the Ultramontanes and the Feudalists.
He cannot favour federalism, because Hungary
prefers discussing mutual Imperial affairs with
the delegates of Parliament instead of with
seventeen Diets. Besides, federalism in Bohemia,
Moravia, and Krain would inevitably throw the
Germans under the yoke of the Slavs; Hungary,
however, can make herself easier understood by
the Germans than by the Czechs. Count Andrassy
solemnly assures us of his love for peace, and we
have no reason to mistrust him. The weakness of
Hungarian politics lies in the fact that the mental
and economical development of the leading half
of the Monarchy is vastly inferior to that of
Cisleithania. Only by continued and peaceful
efforts may Hungary expect to somewhat adjust
this proportion. A Magyar at the head of Austrian
affairs should therefore wish for peace if he honestly
desires that his country shall retain the leadership
within the Monarchy.

It is true that Austrian public authority assumes
peculiar and complex forms. In Transleithania
a Parliament of two Houses and the Croatian Diet;
in Cisleithania a Parliament of two houses and
seventeen Diets; for both halves of the Monarchy
delegations with two divisions—altogether twenty-one
Parliaments with twenty-four Houses. But
these complicated forms are only the true reflection
of the variegated ethnographical and historic
conditions of the whole State, and does not our
own Imperial State teach us that even amongst
complicated institutions a healthy political life
may prosper? Still, it does not appear quite
impossible that an intelligent plan may be adopted
which the best heads of German-Austria have
conceived unfortunately only very late in the day.
If the Germans in Cisleithania are desirous of
obtaining predominance, which by rights is due
to them, this overloaded body must be freed of
some heterogeneous members. Dalmatia, by virtue
of her geographical position as well as by
virtue of her interests, belongs to the eastern half
of the Monarchy; the "triune Illyrian Kingdom"
longed for by the Slavs of the South in 1848 may

materialize and gain vitality if that South Slav
State decides to recognize the supremacy of the
Crown of St. Stephen; Galicia, on the other hand,
justly claims independence by the side of Cisleithania,
in the same way as Croatia by the side of
Hungaria. If this separation were successful,
and at the same time direct parliamentary elections
were introduced, German Austria, as a
country with fourteen million inhabitants and an
adjoining country of about six millions, would
face sixteen millions of the Crown of St. Stephen,
and the German element could retain the upper
hand in Parliament.

We in Germany are willing to remain on good
terms with Austria as long as Count Andrassy
does not depart from his peaceful programme.
The old feud is honestly fought out, and in to-day's
conditions of Austria there are at present only
two questions which might possibly compel us
to terminate friendly relations with the Empire.
If the Magyars misuse their power and upset the
German tendencies of the Suabians in Hungary,
or even those of the Transylvanian Saxons, the
best German race in the south-east, the friendly
tendency in Germany will rapidly disappear.
Our national pride has, God be praised, become
more sensitive to-day, and we all feel that our
Empire cannot silently put up with acts of violence
against our own flesh and blood. The alliance
which for centuries has united the Hapsburgs with
the Polish Republic is still operative. During the

last ten years Austria has given free rein to the
Polish "Junkerdom," and for the Poles Galicia
is the stronghold of their nationality. If Galicians
obtain the desired autonomy, Polish liberty will
quickly show its true colours, and will reveal itself
in overbearing tyranny against all non-Poles.
The principle of nationality which represents
to-day the forlorn hope of the Poles, has not been
so shamelessly trampled upon by any nation in
Europe as by the Poles in the days of their good
fortune. In Cracow the last German professors
of the University have already been sent away,
and the old German college is in the hands of the
Poles. Soon perhaps the Jews of Kasimierz will
be the sole representatives of Germany in the old
town, which owes its existence to the Germans.
Soon enough, also, the Ruthenian eastern half of
the country will have tales to tell of the atrocities
of Polish Junkers and of the clergy. All this does
not touch us immediately. West Prussia is preparing
to gratefully celebrate next summer the
centenary of the first division of Poland; in Posen,
likewise, German culture and German development
is making progress; the Posen peasant knows
that his position under Polish nobility was incomparably
harder than under the present-day
Prussian sceptre. In this district we are immune
from any rising, provided no artificial agitation
is introduced from without. But moderation is
not to be expected from the hereditary political
incapacity of the Polish Junkers. Once masters of
Galicia this province will be the heart of busy
Polish propaganda, and the frantic cry, "Ancient
Poland down to the green bridge of Königsberg"
may soon be heard again. Thus Austria's Polish
policy cements the friendship between Prussia and
Russia, the old faithful allies, and prevents us following
unsuspiciously the Danube Empire's measures.

As long, however, as our Polish possessions are
not endangered, Germany is willing to extend
benevolent sentiments to her neighbour, an honest
intention which does not lose its value because it
is expressed without sentimental tenderness. A
State like Austria cannot exact affection from
independent people. Our interests induce us to
desire the continuance of the Empire of the Lothrings,
and these interests form the closest tie
between the States. But are our devout wishes
a power strong enough to face fate? Who amongst
us desired the recent war? Nobody; and yet
inexorable fate dragged us into it. The mutual
interests of neighbouring Powers may afford a
small State an unjustified existence for centuries;
a big Power, however, cannot exist if it lacks
vitality, and if it does not appear as a blessing,
or at any rate as a necessity to its own people.
Were we to ask such questions regarding Austria,
innumerable apprehensions and considerations
present themselves. The most confident can
to-day only say it is possible that Austria may keep
together; but all the foundations of that State
belong to a period of the past.

When Austria lost her unnatural power over
Germany and Italy, many hopeful prophecies were
expressed that the Empire on the Danube would
rejuvenate and breathe freely again, like the
Prussian State after having renounced Warsaw.
Exactly the contrary has happened. Austria's
worries have incessantly increased since 1866.
By withdrawing from foreign territory she has not
found herself again, but abandoned her old historic
character. Ever since its existence, the aims of
the Austrian Empire were exclusively directed to
European politics. An internal reign taken as a
whole did not exist at all. Once the creed of unity
was established, the Crown allowed everything to
go as it did, and was satisfied when its people
silently obeyed. Hardly ever has the House of
Hapsburg-Lothring bestowed a thought upon
improving her administrative machinery, the
furtherance of the people's welfare, popular education,
and upon all the seemingly insignificant
tasks of internal politics which to other countries
are of cardinal importance; only Maria Theresa
and Joseph II realized the seriousness of their
duties. To-day, however, humbled and weakened,
hardly able to maintain the position of a big
Power, Austria finds herself compelled to reconsider
her ways. External politics which formerly
meant to her everything have now lost importance;
the whole country's powers are invoked to
repair the internal damage, and whilst the "Hofburg"
(the Imperial Palace), although unwillingly,

is compelled to expiate the sins of neglect of many
centuries, the question is asked, with steadily
growing insistence, whether this age of national
State formations still has room left for an Empire
which lacks national stamina.

Undoubtedly the natural form of government
for such a conglomerate Empire is absolutism.
An independent monarch may maintain a neutral
attitude over his quarrelling people; he may in
happy days lull his country into comfortable
slumber in order to play one nation against the
other in time of need; but these old tricks have
long ceased to be effective. In every conceivable
form absolutism has been tried by the "Hofburg,"
only to finally prove its complete all-round inefficacy.
Cisleithania's population owes its constitution
to the failure of absolutism, and not to its
own strength. To us Germans of the Empire
it was clear beforehand that liberty bestowed in
this way could thrive but slowly, and only after
severe relapses. True, some democratic dunces
in Berlin formerly applauded the juggling tricks
of the "People's cabinet," and have claimed for
Prussia "liberty as in Austria." But all sensible
people in Germany find it natural that the constitution
in Austria so far has caused only venomous,
complicated, and barren party quarrels. More
serious than the infantine diseases of constitutionalism
seems the terrible growth of race-hatred.
Here, as elsewhere, parliamentarism has accentuated
national contrasts. As Schleswig-Holstein

experienced it with the Danes, so Austria experiences
it now, that free people learn far more slowly
than legitimate Courts the virtue of political tolerance
and self-restraint. As was to be expected
of the Hapsburg-Lothrings, the constitutional Imperial
Crown has remained thoroughly despotic
in sentiment. As yet none of the innumerable
ministers of the present Emperor have in reality
guided the country. Count Beust could be pardoned
everything except popular favour, which
was his main support. The just plaint of the
Germans who are true to the constitution is that
"mysterious forces"—a deeply veiled Camarilla
of subaltern bureaucrats and ultramontane noblemen—dominate
the Court, and, in spite of the
abolition of the Concordat, the relations between
the "Hofburg" and the Roman Curia have not
come to an end. Since Austria's withdrawal
from the German alliance the house of the Lothrings,
now fatherless, has no further inducement
to favour the Germans, and the Court already
displays marked coolness towards German ideals.
The spokesmen of the Germans are men of the
Liberal Party, who in their dealings with the
Crown have unfortunately displayed clumsy
ignorance about constitutional doctrine. The
Magyars show chivalrous respect for the wearer
of the Crown of St. Stephen, and the Court commences
to feel comfortable in Budapest. The
feudal leaders of the Slavs conscientiously display
their dynastic tendencies; the German Ministers,
however, behave as if the Emperor were really
the only fifth wheel of the cart after Rotteck and
Welcker, and in the lower Austrian Diet Liberal
passion recently descended to most unseemly
remarks against the Imperial family. Does Vienna
not remember that the Hapsburgs never forget?
Thus the ties between the Crown and the Germans
are loosening.

The Army is no longer an absolutely reliable
support of the State, because it has undoubtedly
lost in quality since the day of Königgrätz. A
State which resembles the "Wallenstein Camp"
can gain great victories only by means of homeless
mercenary troops. Any improvement of modern
warfare impairs the fighting capacity of Austria.
The more the moral element commences to enter
into the calculations of war the more the cruelty
of the private soldier and the deep-laid mistrust
which separates Slav troops from their German
officers will give rise to apprehension. The customary
foolery about clothing, which has finally
led to concocting for the Imperial and Royal Armies
the ugliest uniform in the universe, makes
just as little for the fitness of the forces as the
improvement of weapons. The introduction of
compulsory military service, which can serve a
useful purpose only in a national State, was in
Austria a thoughtless precipitation; for the moment
it has disorganized discipline, and it is questionable
whether the future will show better results.
German students, Polish noblemen, fanatical

Czechs, join the ranks of the volunteers and are
promoted to officers' rank in the militia; but this
new corps of officers does not invariably, as of
yore, seek its home under the black and yellow
standard. The militiaman acquires at home all
the prejudices of race-hatred; the Hungarian
"honveds" are certainly brave soldiers, but equally
surely cannot be led against an enemy. The
young noblemen who formerly gladly gathered
round the Imperial Standard now stay away, and
race-hatred impairs comradeship. The officers
of the German Army at times glance critically at
the history of Austria's military forces, who, with
rare exceptions, have for 130 years always fought
bravely and—unsuccessfully; and they compare
the days of Metz and Sedan with the hopeless
campaign against the Bochese. The old remedy
of hard-pressed Hapsburgs—a state of siege—
promises but scant success for an army thus
constituted.

In addition thereto, are public functionaries of
generally very inferior education, whose corruption
does not admit of doubt, servile and yet always
argumentative; we refer to the Czech bureaucracy,
indescribably hated and despised by Germans and
Hungarians alike. In the Church there is a
strictly Roman party with very well meaning but
also very vague Old-Catholic aspirations, and there
exists widely diffused a shallow frivolity which
derides as Prussian hypocrisy all agitations for
moral seriousness. In the same way the quondam

much-talked-of inexhaustible resources of the
Danube Empire prove to-day a pleasant fairy
tale. An Exchequer, which has twice within
ninety years covered yearly expenditure by regular
receipts, and has now again just weathered veiled
bankruptcy—such incredible financial mismanagement
has not only destroyed the private fortunes
of thousands; it has also largely stimulated the
habit of gambling and of prodigality. In nearly
all the Crown lands of Cisleithania agriculture
lacks a body of educated middle-class farmers;
it is the link between farms and the vast estates
of noblemen which is missing. The development
of industry is similarly handicapped. Whilst in
most provinces trade and commerce are in their
infancy, Vienna is agitated by feverishly-excited
speculation. For ever so long the Vienna Stock
Exchange has drawn the "smart set" into its circle.
Pools and syndicates carry on the organized
swindle, and the small man is also dragged into
the turmoil by innumerable commission houses.
The magnificent capital is of course a grand centre
for every kind of intercourse, but its corruption
reacts detrimentally upon the commonwealth.
The bulk of the citizens are still healthy and capable,
but amongst the always immoral masses of
the metropolisan impudent socialism is to-day at
work, which derides the spirit of the Fatherland as
reactionary, and amongst all the races of Austria
most vehemently attacks the Germans as "bourgeois."
Of the moral conditions of the upper
classes, and particularly of Stock Exchange circles,
the Vienna newspapers, which are closely allied
with the latter, give ample testimony. Vienna
journalism, although highly developed, is, on the
whole, the most immoral press of Europe—Paris
by no means excluded. The German party in
Vienna is about to initiate the Deutsche Zeitung,
because an honest party cannot rely upon the
existing big German newspapers. All these powerful
journals are nothing else, and do not pretend
to be anything else, than industrial undertakings,
and a smile of compassion would greet those who
were to speak to those literary speculators about
political tendencies. By the side of the big organs
of the Stock Exchange jobbers, there is a huge
crowd of dirty halfpenny rags, which live on
extortion and journalistic piracy, for in this frivolous
town there are many with a bad conscience,
and liberal payments are made to stop the slanderous
tongue of the blackmailer. Since the first
happy days of Emperor Francis Joseph, when
court-martials condemned to death, New Austria
has attempted nearly every imaginable political
system; such a sudden change is bound to unsettle
the sense of justice and the people's opinions respecting
their country. The views of the German-Austrian
pessimists are very unpalatable to
Germans in the Empire, as they cross our political
calculations. But let us also be just, and let us try
to place ourselves in the position of a warm-hearted,
scientifically-educated young German-Austrian.
Why in the world should this man love his country
in its entirety? Ancient faith, force of habit, fear
of the uncertain future and of radical changes, all
these considerations retain him within Austrian
boundaries; but to rejoice his heart, he casts his
eyes northwards, where he beholds his countrymen
in a respected, mighty Empire, in a well-secured
national commonwealth, with orderly
economic conditions, and he perceives them in
every respect happier than he is himself. He hates
the "rugged Caryatid-heads of the servile classes,"
as Hebbel, amid great cheers, once said of the
German-Austrians, and above all he hates the
Czechs. To keep this slavedom in subordination
and to shield the best he calls his own, i.e., German
thought and German sentiment, from the aggressive
waves of barbarism he looks to the Empire
for protection. We seriously point out to him
the much-praised "colonizing vocation" of Germanism
in Austria. He, however, borrows from
the rich treasure of the Imperial and Royal bureaucratic
language a beautiful phrase, and bitterly
suggests that this calling has now gradually become
obsolete ("in Verstoss gekommen"). In Hungary,
in Bohemia, in Cracow, in the Tyrol, everywhere
Germanism is retrograding, and everywhere it is
proved that the atmosphere of the Hapsburg rule
is detrimental to German nationalism. He complains
that, "Centuries ago the liberty of German
faith was wrested from us, clerical pressure weighs
upon the soul of the people, and we have not
sufficient iron left in our blood to protect ourselves
against the numerical majority of foreigners."
He tells us of the political leaders of his race, how
they are nearly all done for and worn out, many
of them ill-famed for being deserters, sellers of
titles, or promoters. Then he asks whether it
behooves Germans to be governed by Hungarians
after the dicta of Magyar policy, and confidently
finishes up thus: "Certainly Austria is a European
necessity, but the Austria of the future borders in
the west on the Leitha, and we Germans belong
to you." We give him to reflect that after all it
is an honour to belong to Austria, that ancient
mighty Power, whereupon he shrugs his shoulders.
"Times of the past," he says. "When recently
Count Hohenwarte spoke to us of the real Austrian
nationality he was greeted by peals of derisive
laughter on the part of the Germans. We remind
him of the Oriental mission once entrusted by
Prince Eugene to the realm on the Danube.
Drily he replies: `A State which can hardly stand
on its own legs will still less be able to subdue
foreign people, especially when violently hated by
them.' "

After the first great defeat of New Austria at the
battle of Solferino, Austrian Germanism began
to awake from its deep slumber. Notably in the
universities a more active national sentiment
developed, and we subsequently witnessed the
realization of what we German patriots always
anticipated, i.e., that Austria's exodus from the

German Alliance would greatly enliven and
strengthen the mental intercourse between us and
the Germans on the Danube. Never before has
our political work met with such friendly reception
amongst the Austrians as amongst the German
nationalists of Graz and Vienna to-day. We
heartily apologize for the severe injustice done
years ago to the German "Gothærn"; nothing is
more touching than the youthful and amiable
enthusiasm which these circles harbour for our
new Empire; nowhere has Prussia warmer friends.
From the bottom of our heart we wish that the
noble German national pride, the healthy political
intellect of this party, may display all its energy
in the perfecting of the Cisleithanian constitution.
The German-Austrian who greets every shortcoming
of his country with a jubilant "Always
livelier and livelier" does not assist Germany in
her great object; she has only use for the active
man who works physically and mentally in order
to procure for the Germans the leadership in
Cisleithania. The German national pride in
Austria is a child of woe; it has invariably been
aroused by the defeats of the monarchy, and at
each fresh awakening it has given proof of greater
power. Up till now only a small portion of the
German-Austrians evinces strong German national
sentiment; the history of the recent war shows to
what extent. The thinking middle classes followed
our battles with a hearty and active interest
never to be forgotten, and the brave German peasants
in the Alps likewise recollected their heroic
wars against the Wallachs. The high nobility, however,
and the masses in the towns persevered in the
old hatred against Prussia. The small gentry of
Imperial and Royal licensed coffee-house keepers
and tobacconists doted on the French Republic.
As always in Austria, the big financial interests
gave proof of their unprincipled meanness, and
insufficient attention has been paid in Germany to
the great dispatch of arms which went from Vienna
via Trieste to France. German national sentiment,
however, is visibly in the ascendant, and it grows
daily on beholding the new German Empire.
National pride and hatred permeate, so to say,
the atmosphere of this unlucky State, whose future
entirely depends upon the reconciliation of national
interests. The growing hatred against the Slavs
may by and by press the broad masses of German
population into the ranks of the German nationalists,
and unless fairly well-regulated constitutional
life can be established in the near future in
Cisleithania the Germans might finally also realize
that their nationality is dearer to them than their
Government.

Closer ties attach the greater part of the Slavs
to the Austrian Monarchy. When from the
distance we hear only the uncouth blustering of
Czech fanaticism, when we listen to the assurances
of German scientists in Prague, that a Czech
university by the side of a German one is at any
rate more endurable than a university with mixed

languages, which must infallibly lead to the destruction
of Germanism in Bohemia; when we
thus behold the battle of the elements in the
territories of the Crown of Wenceslaus, we are apt
to think that such blind national hatred would
not shrink from the destruction of Austria. On
closer examination, however, secret fear and a
singular cowardice are easily detected, which hide
behind the uproar of the Czechs. They are noisy,
they bluster and twist the law, but they do not
dare to start war. In the midst of their roarings
they feel that they cannot dispense with the
Monarchy because, unlike the Germans, no home
is open to them outside Austria. Not even the
hotheads dare count with certainty upon the
fulfilment of Pan-slavist dreams, and that is why
for the time being the autonomous crown of
Wenceslaus or the division of Cisleithania into
five groups united by federalism suffices for them.
The tameness of the Czechs is, however, not due
to honest intentions, but to the consciousness of
weakness, which can and will change as soon as
Czechdom finds support in a great Slav power,
and it is already patent that the Poles regard
Galician autonomy only as the first step towards
the re-establishment of the Empire of the Sarmats.

Amongst all the nations of Austria the Magyars
must to-day display the greatest energy for the
maintenance of the Monarchy. The newly-established
Crown needs Cisleithanian support; those
people, with their lively ancestral recollections,

know only too well how often Austria and Hungary
have mutually saved each other. The convention
was in every respect vastly in favour of the Magyars.
Hungary contributes thirty per cent. towards
the general expenditure of the Monarch
and to the payment of interest on the debt of the
country; if closely calculated it will be found to be
even less. And in spite of all, the Magyars cannot
overcome the old mistrust of the "Hofburg";
the tribunals of Eperies and Arad can no more sink
into oblivion than the impudence of the "Bach"
Hussars. In Parliament a strong and growing
Opposition has aims beyond the convention, and
it appears full of danger that this Opposition
consists almost exclusively of pure Magyar blood.
The delegate "Nemeth" recently offered his
solemn congratulations in Parliament to the
German-Austrians on the impending union with
their German brothers. Should disorder continue
to reign in Cisleithania less hot-blooded Magyars
will also soon raise the question whether a union
with "Chaos" be really an advantage for Hungary.

Two neighbours of Austria, i.e., Russia and Italy,
believe with the greatest positiveness in the collapse
of the Monarchy, and truly everything seems
possible in the vicinity of the Orient. The Oriental
question extends, moves westwards, and resembles
a stone which, when thrown into water, draws
ever-widening circles. It already enters into the
domain of the far horizon which has to be considered
in the politics of the German Empire. Very

probably the fate of Austria and the still not
definitely solved Polish question will in time to
come be mixed up with the enigmatical future of
the Balkan population. In Russia's leading circles
fierce hatred, only too easily understood, rages
against Austria, a hatred which the prudence of
clever statesmen may temporarily suppress but
cannot stifle altogether, the highest interests of the
two neighbours in the East as well as in Poland
being in closest vicinity. Certainly one needs the
happy levity of Count Beust in order to look with
steadfast confidence into the future of Austria.
What follows? The struggle of German-Austria
against the Slavs is at the same time a struggle of
the modern States against feudal and ultramontane
Powers. The constitution of Cisleithania honestly
kept and intelligently developed offers room for all
nations of German-Austria. Whoever has the
freedom and peaceful development of Middle
Europe at heart must earnestly wish that the oft-proved
vitality of the old State may once more
assert itself, and that the Germans this side of the
Leitha may hold their own. The perfecting of this
constitution can, however, even under the most
favourable auspices, only take place very slowly;
there is an immeasurable distance between the
wretched indifference which was prevalent in
German-Austria after the battle of Königgrätz and
the present national sentiment. The German
tongue and German morals must not anticipate
great results from the Lothrings; it must suffice
to us if Germans maintain their possessions against
Slavs and Magyars. The complete solution of a
great European task is no more to be expected
of this infirm country. Only after ten years of
internal peace will Austria, if ever, gain power to
pursue serious plans in the East. An unreservedly
sincere friendship we must not expect of the
"Hofburg." The policy of silently preserving
all rights is understood in Vienna as well as in
Rome. And however honestly well-wishing we
might be, the Lothrings know from Italy the
mighty attraction of national States, and know
that their Germans cannot turn their eyes from
our Empire. Because of its existence alone the
German Empire is viewed by them with suspicion,
and prudent circumspection is appropriate. Every
uncalled-for attempt at intervention in Austria's
internal struggle accentuates the mistrust of the
"Hofburg" against our countrymen and prejudices
the German cause. This Prince Bismarck magnificently
understood when he abstained at Gastein
from all observations against the Hohenwarte
Cabinet. It was very badly understood by the
honest citizens of Breslau, Dresden, and Munich,
when they decided on their heartily well-meant
and heartily stupid declarations of sympathy
for German-Austria. Lucky for German-Austria
that, thanks to our sober-mindedness, such madcap
ideas did not find sympathy; but all our interest
in Austria does not justify us in shutting our eyes
to the possibility of her collapse. The perfection
of the Cisleithanian constitution presupposes the
good intentions of all parties; at present such
intention is, however, found to exist only among
part of the German-Austrians. The Italians are
in the habit of saying, Austria is not a State but a
family. When the foundation of Hapsburg power
was laid, the expression tu felix Austria nube met
with admiration in the whole world and Emperor
Frederick III, regretfully looking at his amputated
foot, said: "Itzt ist dem Reich der ein Fuss
abgeschniedten" ("Now one leg has been cut off
the Empire"). The times of imperial self-worship
and State-forming marriages of princes are no
more. Will a country which owes its origin to the
senseless family policy of past centuries, which in
character belongs to ancient Europe, be able to
satisfy the demands of a new era? We dare not
answer negatively, yet as brave and vigilant men
we must also contemplate that in years to come
Fate may reply to the question in the negative.
If the calamity of the destruction of Austria were
to occur,—and it would also be a calamity to Germany,—then
our Empire must be ready and prepared
to brave the forces of Fate to save Germanism
on the Danube from the débris. "To be
prepared is everything," saith the Poet.