The Realm of the Habsburgs

Front matter

THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS BY THE SAME AUTHOR IMPERIAL GERMANY H Critical Stu6\: OF FACT AND CHARACTER Cheap Edition. Cloth, 2s. 6d. ; Papa, is. WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford Street, Strand THE REALM eel. THE HABSBURGS 1!Y SIDNEY WHITMAN O wer weiss, Was in der Ze it en HifUergrunde schlummert ; Schiller : Don Carlos LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN '893 [All rights reserved] Jn affectionate ÆbcmorB OF H. F. W. >5< Nice, January 26, CONTENTS CHAP, PAGE INTRODUCTORY I I. PAST AND PRESENT IO II. THE GERMANS 21 III. THE CZECH 35 IV. THE HUNGARIANS 46 V. THE JEW 75 VI. THE VIENNESE ........ 92 VII. THE EMPEROR . . . . • . . . .Ill VIII. THE NOBILITY 1 29 ix. THE nobility (continued) 146 X. THE ARMY 164 XL THE ARMY (continued) 175 XII. THE PRIEST 188 XIII. THE AUSTRIAN MIDDLE CLASSES . . . .207 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XIV.

THE AUSTRIAN MIDDLE CLASSES (continued) . 221 XV. THE AUSTRIAN MIDDLE CLASSES (continued) . 24I XVI. THE PEASANT 26 1 XVII. WOMANKIND IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY . . . 278 XVIII. CONCLUSION INTRODUCTORY ov yap ol 7r\aT£is, Ovo' tvpvvitiTOL (Quires ao(paK4o-raTOi' 'AXX'oi (ppojJOvvTes ev Kparovoi iravra^ov * SOPHOCLES (Jja.i ) 1 To many Englishmen the very term " Austria," or — as this at one time most powerful country in Europe is called since the Covenant of 1867s — "Austria- Hungary," conveys a somewhat hazy geographical as well as political idea. And this is the case * " For not the stout or the broadbacked men are the most sure ; those rather who keep their wits come everywhere to the front." t The Covenant of 1867 (Law of December 21), re-constiluted the Empire as tw*o inseparable and constitutional monarchies, hereditary in the House of Habsburg-Lorraine ; it gave Hungary important separate State Eights, and perpetuated the Habsburg dominion under the denomination of Austria-Hungary.

A notwithstanding that England and Austria have been allies on many momentous occasions and fought side by side on many a hard-fought field. Who will say, too, that to-morrow some political compli cation may not again suddenly concentrate the attention of Europe on the banks of the Danube ? The country itself is comparatively seldom visited by tourists * from the west of Europe, and is even less read about. Thus it is that this most fertile, as well as most picturesque, part of the Continent — lavishly endowed as it is by Nature — is as little known to us as are the character of its inhabitants, their many racial distinctions, and their varied soci.il and political life. Yet there never was a time in which it was more imperative than it is at present to investigate the psychological aspect of things in the wide domain of the national life of neighbouring peoples.

Chapter I Past And Present

Austria erit in orbe ultima 1 The Realm of the Habsburgs is an old country in many other senses than that of antiquity of origin.* Austria is old by the tenacity of her tradition, and by the still unchanged character of her inhabitants amid the latest political innovations. While England and France are to-day so coloured by modern civilisation that scarcely more than dead stones remain to recall even the comparatively recent period of mediæval chivalry, almost everything in Austria has still a flavour of ages long since passed away. There must be something soothing in the peaceful * The name of Oesterreich, originally applied to the territory situated above and below the river Enns, is not mentioned in history much before the year one thousand of our era. It first occurs in a deed of gift in the reign of Count Henry the Strong, who ruled over the province in question about the year 994 A.D. It is about a thousand years since first mention is made of the name of Hungary. retirement of the picturesque old Austrian towns, which has so often acted as an attraction to legiti mate monarchs " out of work," and bade them seek refuge on Austrian soil in preference to any other.

The Duchess of Berry, Charles X., the late Duke of Chambord, and, lastly, the late King of Hanover, all ended their days on Austrian territory. Decadence and decay lose much of their terrors amid scenery, the effect of which is to remove our thoughts from earthly vanities. It is only in accordance with the fitness of things that a long line of kings of another powerful monarchy of the past — that of Poland — should also have found their last resting-place in Austria.* As in the case of Poland, the history of Austria is inseparably connected with that of its monarchs. In truth, we have here the history of one and the same family registering the ups and downs, the sunshine and storm, which have affected the fortunes of millions of human beings for six centuries t and marked the destiny of a realm, the sway of which was at one time more extensive than the rest of Europe combined.

At the time of the Reformation, her rule was so extensive that the Emperor Charles the Fifth could boast — as Queen Victoria may to-day — that the sun never set in his dominions. Even in our time, the Emperor of Austria-Hungary rules over 41,000,000 * The kings of Poland are buried in Cracow. t Since 127S, the date of the battle of Marchfeld, in which Rudolph of Habsburg defeated Ottokar, king of Bohemia. human beings, distributed over an area of about 240,000 square miles ; the greatest number of souls and the largest extent of territory, if we except Russia, under the direct sway of any one monarch in Europe. Ll The Hohenstaufen, the Habsburgs,* and the Hohenzollerns are the three great royal Houses round which has revolved the political history of the middle of Europe during the last eight hundred years.

All three are of Germanic blood, all three are descended from families whose ancestral castles, strange to say, were situated in close propinquity to one another in the south-west of Germany. Though identical in origin, however, their part in history has, on the contrary, been widely divergent. The HohenstaufenEmperors, nearly 800 years ago, endeavoured to play the great national part which has fallen to the lot of the House of Hohenzollern in our time. " Frederick the Second, the ablest and most accomplished of the long line of German Cæsars, had in vain exhausted all the resources of military and political skill in the attempt to defend the rights of the civil power against the encroachments of the Church. The vengeance of the priesthood had pursued his House to the third generation, Manfred * Habsburg (originally Habichtsburg, that is, Hawkscastle), an old German family, which takes its name from the old Swiss castle of Habsburg, now in ruins, situated on the river Aar in the Canton of Aargau. had perished on the field of battle, Conradin on the scaffold."* They were in truth before their time, and to the Habsburg dynasty fell the succession to the dignity of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

But whereas the Hohenstaufen had perished fighting for essentially German ideals against the temporal power of Rome, tho Habsburgs became great by direct co-operation with Catholicism. There was a time, during the Reformation, when the power and with it the supremacy of the Habsburg rule was seriously imperilled ; but the regeneration of Catholicism during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries strengthened the founda tions of Habsburg power and ensured their successive possession of the elective dignity of Holy Roman Emperors of German nationality, down to the final collapse of the Holy Roman Empire itself. It is beyond our province to dwell even in outline on the record of what is, broadly speaking, the history of the human race for a long period. All through succeeding centuries we find the power of the Church as the basis of the Catholic State, which in its turn is supported in its autocratic character by the priesthood of Rome — notably the Jesuits.

Throughout this period Catholicism is seen work ing side by side with the House interests, the so called House policy of the Habsburgs. And this continues down to the time when the latter are confronted by an antagonistic force of a * Lord Macaulay : Essay on Ranke's History of the Popes, similar kind — namely, the expansive ambition of the Royal House of France. From the time of Charles the Fifth down to our own, the policy of France was almost solely directed towards the humbling of the power, which uniting the Netherlands, Burgundy (in part) and Spain under its sway, had taken a French king prisoner in battle. We all know how the growth of French power, only rendered possible by the internal dissensions of the Teutonic race which lasted for several centuries, gradually forced the House of Habsburg from their possessions in the Netherlands, Spain, and even the Rhine, until the work of Richelieu was crowned, and the Habsburgs were compelled to give up most of the immense territories which they had gained by a succession of prudent marriages.

This, however, is beside our purpose, as also is the trite assertion that if the Habsburg dynasty had not invariably been guided by dynastic rather than by broader national considerations, a Habs burg Kaiser might still be crowned in Frankfort-on the-Main, and Metz and Strasburg need never have formed part of France. The history of the world is as full of " might have been " as the life of any humble inhabitant of our planet. Ill The result is all that concerns us. The Catholic Habsburgs were unable to dim the glorious German national traditions attaching to the memory of the Hohenstaufen. These embodied an idea, which the Habsburgs ever failed to realise, and this idea became engrafted on and found nourishment in the spirit of Protestantism. The Catholic and politically egotistic character of the House of Habsburg failed to awaken that sympathy in their fortunes which would have been necessary in order to bring the genius of Germany to identify its interests with those of Austria.

That Germany should do so was, perhaps unconsciously, the ambition of the Emperor Joseph II. He endeavoured to break with priest power and inaugurate a new era. But although he was never tired of asserting that he was above all a German Sovereign, the sufferings of centuries made Germany deaf to his words. Nor was he one of those historic personages capable of changing the current of history. He perhaps foresaw that Catholicism meant in the end severance from the best intellect of Germany. Nature had not, however, fitted him for great political work. He would actually rush out at night to assist in extinguishing a fire in Schonbrunn, whilst the kingdom of Bohemia was aflame with war brought about by his state manship. In this way, then, originated a split in the great central Teutonic Empire of Europe, and it has been left to our time to witness the final result — namely, the severance of Protestant and national Germany from the Catholic House dominion of the Habs burgs.

In this instance the fortunes of one autocratic and Catholic family have swayed a mighty period of the past. By a strange coincidence its eclipse was almost coeval with the great economical, intellectual, and political evolution in the midst of which we are all living to-day. The political factors of the past are no longer the leading ones in the life of nations at the present time. The attachment of the Germans to the head of the Holy Roman Empire died out with the Thirty Years' War. The loyalty of the Austrians for their monarch is still strong, but it is no longer as of yore their only guiding star — not even when backed by Catholicism. Human pas sions are ever the same, though they run in different grooves : but human institutions, human ideals, these change with the times. Now, if in the past the history of a great por tion of Europe may be fairly identified with the history of one ruling family, such is unlikely to be the case in the near future.

Autocracy in Europe has had its day ; modern revolution has rendered this an anachronism. And as if to make its reappearance, even in Catholic countries, doubly impossible, the Catholic Church is no longer to be relied upon as the ally of autocratic monarchy as opposed to the social and political aspirations of communities or nationalities. The expansion of the individual, even when united with a strong feeling of attachment to the Sovereign, has evoked aspirations among the masses which must lead to acuter perceptions and desires. The growing acuteness of the economical struggle for life has necessitated universal education as a weapon to meet its conditions. The outcome of this and of many other factors of our day has been a renewal of the feeling of race and nationality, which, though always existent, was formerly forced more into the background by the supreme importance of community of faith or loyalty to a Sovereign.

Nowadays the elements of political economy have supplanted the figment of loyalty — even of creed — from the first rank of popular interests. And this remains a fact even where Catholicism — the strongest of all religious creeds — is supreme. Thus we note Protestant leaders con trolling a Catholic race agitation in Ireland ; Pro testant clergymen inciting their flocks in Alsace to remain faithful to the lost connection with Catholic French nationality. So, too, in Austria, we see a rivalry of races, supplanting almost every traditional influence of the past : whilst the Catholic Church marche3 on amid the debris of discarded autocratic shibboleths. The individual is no longer satisfied with the knowledge of being the unit of a great Empire, as is more or less the case for the moment in Germany.

The particularism which statesmen have striven to stamp out in Germany, and which has given place to the class war of socialism, is to day the rising tide in Austria, though its source and character are different. It is not an attachment to a petty Sovereign, as in old-fashioned Germany : B it is democratic, even verging towards republicanism ; it has a social tinge as well as a political character. The unit of each community has been taught to ask for something, to strive and to agitate in order to obtain it. He is no longer satisfied with the eratification of his own individual wants. In olden days these were small, and easily supplied. To-day, bis energy and ambition are awakened, and with an increasing perception of his scope of mental effort, comes the desire that the political and the economical benefits to be obtained, should become the common property of his class, of his brothers, of his particular nationality.

Hence, in the case of Austria-Hungary, composed as it is of a variety of distinct nationalities, a rivalry of race is at work, the course of which will be followed with no ordinary interest by politicians of all countries. IV In some recent numbers of the Revue des Daw Moneies* M. Anatole de Leroy Beaulieu sug gests the possible obliteration of the connection between race, language and nationality, and he instances the Turks, with whom identity of creed is everything, and race and language a secondary consideration. And by way of showing what may be possible under conditions of Asiatic decaying * " Les Juifs et l'Antisemitisme," Revue des Deux Mondes, February 15, May 1, July 15, 1891. autocracy in the past, the example may stand. But surely M. Leroy Beaulieu would not ask us to believe that what is feasible in Asia could ever be a possi bility in Europe.

He cannot intend us to believe that it is a matter of detail for the future of a country whether this or that race be on the decline or in the ascendant, and therefore destined to impress its character on the entire community. For when we read the lessons of the past, the interpretation of historical fact points all the other way. What, we may ask, were the ancient Britons until reinforced by the hardy Norseman, by the Dane and the Saxon ? To the blood of those Northmen, who furrowed the German Ocean with their many-oared galleys, a thousand years ago, can in a measure be traced the world colonising power of the Enghind of modern times. Some of the vicissitudes of modern French history can as clearly be traced to the idiosyncrasies of the Celtic Gaul as observed by Cæsar, as the fixity of purpose of a Richelieu, the ruling qualities of the French nobility through the centuries of the build ing up of the French monarchic State can be traced to the infusion of the Burgundian, the Frank, and the West Goth blood during and after the Vblker wanderung in the fifth century of our era.

And yet the train of thought of M. Anatole de Leroy Beaulieu might lead us to believe, that it were a matter of no moment to the course of the future history of Austria, whether the Turanian Hungarian, the Slavonic Czech, the Teuton, or the Hebrew should form the future dominant element on the banks of the Danube. Let us for a moment sup pose that the majority of Austria's population were thrifty Belgians or hardy Scotchmen. Would any body aver that this would mean no difference in Austria's political, social, and economical problems to-day ? In any case, there can be no doubt that it is a matter of life or death to Austria what race becomes the dominant one in her midst ; the result must infallibly decide the lines of her foreign policy in the future, and that in its turn must influence the political future of the Realm of the Habsburgs.

The Habsburgs may broadly be said to have sacrificed the hegemony of Protestant Germany for the sake of Catholicism, and for the sake of those Catholic provinces over which they have ruled so many centuries. Will those elements stand by the Habsburg family in the future ?

Chapter II The Germans

Auch (iber die Hiinge der Alpen kreist Keine Schranke kennend der deutsche Geist Rob. Hamerling* I The Germans — at all events those of distinct Ger man race and language — form in Austria-Hungary between nine and ten millions out of the total of forty-one million inhabitants. Thus, numerically, they only take a secondary place among the races of the Empire. On the other hand, the Austrian Empire is itself a German product. The Habsburg history of the last six hundred years is essentially the history of a German Roman Catholic family and of German Roman Catholic civilisation. Vienna, the capital, was always a German city, from which German university life, laws, institutions, sciences, arts, and customs were promulgated, spread and took effect throughout the Habsburg dominions. The aristocracy, the army, the official world — in one word, * The spirit of Germany hovers even over the slopes of the Alps, despising all restraint. ■ 2 the governing influences of the country — were almost entirely German in character, if not also in race.

If Bohemia was once a Slavonic kingdom, so too were large tracts of what now is Prussia once Slavonic in character, even as they are still racially. Bohemia became German by the right of conquest, and remained so unchallenged for cen turies. If the Magyars first constituted Hungary as a State, if Latin was the language of culture and officialdom, the Germans founded the towns of Hungary, the social life of her citizens, their com merce and industry. The German origin of many towns in Hungary is shown by their German names : Oedenburg, Stuhlweissenburg, Fiinfkirchen, etc. Even the old name of the capital, Pesth, is not a Magyar name, but one of Slavonic root. Indeed, we are told,* that as early as 1240, Pesth was known as a very wealthy " German " town. To-day there is not a town in Hungary which was not at one time entirely or partially inhabited by Germ ans. t Transylvania at an early period became a German colony, and is an essentially German province still.

Thus it has come about that Austrian civilisation is almost entirely a product of the Teuton race. It was the Teutonic element which not only founded the Austrian Empire, but provided the grit Qdndendc * " Ethnographie von Ungarn." Paul Hunfalvy. P. 281. Budapesth, 1877. + Ibid. p. 2S2. Kraft) which enlarged, elevated it to its world dominating position, and held it together amid the vicissitudes of centuries. And as long as the Habsburgs in person united the titular leadership of the German Empire, nothing seemed to call the legitimate supremacy of the German ruling element into question. It was only in the present century that the racial struggles began, the results of which are still in progress. Their first powerful manifestation was, of course, the Hungarian rebellion of 1848; that, however, Austria overcame with the assistance of Russia.

The Slavonic propaganda of the Czechs were still only working silently underground. Thus as long as Austria retained her position as titular head of the Germanic confederation, we find the German race, at all events outwardly, master of the situation. II It is only since the final ostracism of the House of Habsburg from Germany and the introduction of Liberalism and the new order of things, that the German element in Austria has been gradually losing the immense political prestige which it for merly enjoyed, and has been thrown back more and more upon its own resources, to stand or fall on its merits ; as merits go in such struggles nowadays. Since that time the German race shows signs of a steady declension. No wonder, then, that there are coteries among the German ruling class of Austria which still resent the blow dealt them by Protestant Prussia twenty-six years ago.

No sooner had Hungary gained autonomy, than she proceeded to use the very same weapons which the House of Habsburg had used in the past against her. The Magyar tongue became universally obligatory in official life, and everything was done to ostracise the German language by strenuous agitation and other means.* For the Hungarians, in common with the Czechs, are in constant fear that, unless they succeed in extirpating the German language, they will never be safe against the more powerful German volume of culture which finds its way into Austria by means of the universities of Germany proper. And they have both been largely successful in their efforts in this direction. Thus, while in the year I 869 there were still one thousand two hundred and thirty-two German schools in Hungary, now there are only half that number.

Ten years ago the German language was still predominant in Budapesth, now only two-thirds of the inhabitants speak it. The Hungarians have also extended their efforts in the same direction among the German population of Transylvania, and have been indirectly assisted here by the stagnation in the German population of Transylvania. It is said that the Transylvanian * Germans have repeatedly been fined by the police in Hungary, for drinking to the health of the Emperor of Austria as such, Saxons have of late years adopted the custom of limiting the family to two children ; the only population of Teutonic race which hitherto has done so. In the meantime the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia have not been slow to follow the example set by Hungary, as yet only by tacit agreement among themselves. Even as far back as the year 1872, when Czech hatred of everything German had not reached the pitch it has now attained, many Czechs refused an answer if addressed in German.

At present they are eager to possess a law making the Czech language officially obligatory, and if they succeed in this endeavour the use of the German tongue will be still further restricted in Austria. Vienna, once the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, a thoroughly German city, is gradually but surely assuming the character of a Slavonic city. And not only is this the case, but a still surer sign , if possible, is to be found in the decay of German influence ; Vienna is gradually losing much of its former life and bustle, and trade is on the decline. Prague, which since the Thirty Years' War had become as much a German town as Vienna, is to day Slavonic. And not only in the large towns, but in the rural districts the same influences are at work, narrowing down and superseding the Germanic elements.

Even in the south-west, in the Tyrol, the German language is receding before the Italian. Count Wolkenstein, a Tyrolese noble man, lately asked for a railway ticket at Roveredq for " Botzen." " We don't know the place," replied the official. " I presume you mean ' Bolzano ' ? " Thus while in the east the Hungarians, in the west and south-west of Austria the Slavonic races are respectively making great headway against the only opposing barrier there — what is German. In fact, the elimination and suppression of the German race and language is going on throughout the length and breadth of Austria-Hungary, and the loss of the language goes hand in hand with the loss of old German feeling. Those of German parentage be come, with the adoption of another tongue, totally dead to their lost nationality, and often even fana tical adherents of the adopted one.

Ill Since the advent of the present Ministry of Count Taaffe, the neglect of German race interests and the suppression of the German language are viewed with favour if not officially encouraged. This is, perhaps, the most ominous sign of all. For if the official world (the Emperor and the Imperial Arch dukes at its head), itself largely German, turns against them, it is difficult to see how German interests are to be safeguarded. Still, no official leaning would by itself have been able to bring about the alarming symptoms of the last decennium. In truth, other factors have to be added to account for the results obtained. In the first place, there is the aggressive antagonistic national aspirations of the other races ; in the second, the activity of the Roman Catholic priesthood ; in the third, the want of political resistive force of the German race itself.

The enmity of the Catholic Church is, both directly and indirectly, at the bottom of almost all the attacks to which the Germans are exposed. The Catholic Church, like Russian diplomacy, never changes its course, and her course in this case means undying enmity to the German element. We may lose sight of questions of race ; not so Rome the Eternal, though to her they may be but means to an end. Monarchy may receive her protection to-day, a Republic to-morrow, a Democracy the day after ; these may pass away, but a race survives. Catholicism knows that of the two, the Slave and the German, the former will be more malleable stuff' in his hands than the latter. For the German will sooner or later fall back upon his splendid literature and rebel against the slavery of the mind, irrevocably involved in Roman priest-rule.

Hence it is the Catholic priesthood which is trying to stamp out the German schools in the German Tyrol, of which a part belongs to the diocese of the Archbishop of Milan. It is the Catholic priesthood which is doing the same work among the Czech peasantry of Mo ravia and Bohemia — in fact, everywhere throughout Austria-Hungary. Lastly, it is the Catholic priesthood which is responsible for the desertion by the great German- Austrian nobility of the German cause. The Catholic priest influences them through the con fessional. By means of his strong hold over the women of the aristocracy, he nurtures a hatred of the German element, particularly of its liberal and Jewish sections. Another strong argument in the hands of the priest in dealing with the aristocracy is, that the Slave is likely to prove more submis sive to the territorial supremacy of the aristocratic landowner than the more individualistic German.

The aristocracy believe this, but it is possible that a rude awakening may await them. The signs of it are to be gathered from among the young Czechs, who are likely to be socially more iconoclastic in the future than the Germans. It is more than possible that the German aristocracy may find that they have made the same mistake which the German barons of the Baltic provinces made through many centuries, in endeavouring to exterminate the Ger man peasantry. To-day the Russians are about to Russify them ! IV When we bear in mind that the German Language has always been that of the army and of the whole official world, that the culture of the whole monarchy with its German universities, had long been essen tially German, it was only to be expected that the great development of local activity in large towns since 1867 would at least strengthen the dominant German element in those towns, whatever might happen in the rural districts ; particularly as the German language is still obligatory in the whole army.

Instead of this, the exact opposite has taken place. A signal proof, too, is here afforded of the weak power of resistance possessed by the German race in Austria. No wonder that the political fail ings which have characterised Austria in the past, are most strongly typified in the German element to-day ; for they are the direct inheritors of the flabby official past. For the mere mechanical nature of language alone cannot account for such phenomena. Nations have gradually changed their tongue, but retained their characteristics. Where these are strongest the method of expression adapts itself, as is evidenced by the merging of alien colonies in the ruling community without compulsory cause ; thus, instead of endeavouring in the past to coerce other tongues, the Austrians should have gained the mastery of the mind, and the language would have adapted itself.