Memoirs by Ludwig vonMises

Author:Ludwig vonMises [vonMises, Ludwig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute

Such a question could only be asked by a bourgeois who does not realize that the future belongs to us alone. Where should such a party come from: a party that would dare to confront the organized proletariat? Once we have come to power, there will be no more resistance.

Marxism made the Social Democrats blind and stupid. During the early years of the Austrian Republic, I once heard the Social Democratic Mayor Seitz remark, “The rule of Social Democracy in Vienna is now secured forever. A child in kindergarten is already instilled with a proletarian consciousness. The schools teach Social Democracy, and labor unions complete this education. A Viennese is born into Social Democracy, lives in it, and dies as he has lived.”

I incurred the disapproval of all present when I reduced my reply to a Viennese saying: “Es sollen auch schon vierstöckige Hausherren gestorben sein.”16

As early as the winter of 1918/1919, the terror caused by the Social Democrats forced other Austrians to try to expand their defenses. After various failures, the “Home Guard” achieved some organizational success. But, in 1934, its methods and its number of members remained modest, and rivalries between its leaders crippled its power to act.

I watched this clearly unavoidable development with horror. It was plain that Austria was moving toward civil war. I could do nothing to prevent it. Even my best friends were of the opinion that the threat posed by the Social Democratic Party could only be opposed by violence.

The emergence of the Home Guard introduced a new type into politics: adventurers without education and desperados with limited perspectives ascended the ranks because they were good at drill and had command of loud voices. The manual of arms was their Bible, “authority” their slogan. They identified democracy with Social Democracy and therefore saw in it “the worst of all evils.” Later, they clung to the catchword “Ständestaat,” or “corporate state.” Their social ideal was a military state in which they alone could give orders.

With the collapse of the Bodenkreditanstalt in May of 1931, the third phase of my activity with the Handelskammer came to a close. A limited scope of activity was all that remained available to me. I summoned all of my strength to fight the inflationary policy that had again been taken up by the government. That the inflation went no further than to the 175 Austrian shillings (up from 139 shillings) for 100 Swiss francs and that new stabilization at this rate of exchange resulted soon thereafter was my achievement alone.

But the fight for Austria remained lost. Even if I had achieved complete success, Austria could not have been saved. The enemy who was to destroy it came from the outside. Austria could not forever withstand the onrush of the National Socialists who were soon to overwhelm all of Europe.

Austria’s problems were no longer domestic. Her fate lay in the hands of Western Europe. Anyone wanting to help Austria had to do so abroad. When I was offered the chair

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