Imagining a Greater Germany by Erin R. Hochman

Author:Erin R. Hochman [Hochman, Erin R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Germany, Political Science, Political Ideologies, Fascism & Totalitarianism, Austria & Hungary, General
ISBN: 9781501706615
Google: eIM1DQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2016-10-04T01:10:57+00:00

The summer of 1926 also marked the first and one of the only times that large numbers of Reichsbanner men made the trip to Austria. In July, the Austrian Workers’ League for Sport and Physical Culture (Arbeiterbund für Sport- und Körperkultur) put on a Workers’ Gymnastics and Sport Festival in Vienna that included working-class athletes from Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Belgium, and Lithuania, in addition to Germany. The Reich had the largest delegation from outside Austria, consisting of four thousand Reichsbanner members who hailed from all the organization’s 32 districts and 250 local chapters.42 Demand to go among the Reichsbanner rank and file was even greater than the thousands who made the journey; numerous unemployed members discussed cycling or walking to Vienna, prompting the leadership to send out a warning against doing so.43 Although the event was designed to be a “demonstration of proletarian strength,”44 the German and Austrian participants signaled beforehand that the visit to “the capital of our German-Austrian brother state” would be “an avowal to the großdeutsch republican idea.”45 Thus, during the various activities—including a mass rally on the Heldenplatz, a torchlight parade, a gathering of the various socialist paramilitary groups, a meeting of republican students, and a four-hour parade along the Ringstrasse to the Prater—speakers such as Otto Bauer, Julius Deutsch, Karl Höltermann (a socialist journalist who would become the chairman of the Reichsbanner in 1931), Walter Kolb, Paul Löbe, and Horst Bärensprung (a police president in Magdeburg and secretary of the Reichsbanner) proclaimed socialist sayings alongside expressions of großdeutsch nationalism.46 Over the course of the weeklong gathering, participants used more general republican slogans such as “against international fascism, for the republic, and for the Anschluss of Austria with Germany,” while also calling out, “Cheers to the International!”47

And, in reactions mirroring other events bringing German and Austrian republicans together, Austrian workers expressed excitement upon seeing the Reichsbanner. During the parade, the German delegation received the warmest welcome.48 Moreover, a spontaneous Anschluss rally occurred during the departure of the Reichsbanner members from the Gau Magdeburg-Anhalt, Leipzig, and Hamburg, despite only a short notice about it in the newspaper. That Austrian workers would rally behind the Anschluss idea should not be altogether surprising, given that some members of the working class displayed interest in nationalism even before the First World War.49 Thousands of men and women gathered at the Rathausplatz as the Reich Germans assembled to march to the train station, giving the Reichsbanner men flowers, carrying their luggage, and cheering loudly for socialism and an Anschluss. As the Reichsbanner representatives made their way down Mariahilferstrasse, the windows of buildings flew open, people ran out of the coffeehouses and stood on chairs to catch a glimpse of the Germans, onlookers filled the sidewalks, traffic came to a standstill, and the Viennese cried out, “Cheers to Germany!” “Cheers to the Anschluss!” “Cheers to the great German republic!” Individuals from the Schutzbund had to close access to the train station because too many people were trying to gain entry to the platforms in an effort to say goodbye to the Germans.

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