CAN AUSTRIA SIRVIVE?
Viola, Wilhelm
Can Austria Survive? By WILHELM VIOLA HARDLY had the Moscow Conference in 1943 declared that Austria was to be "free and independent" again than voices in Britain and America were heard to say,...
...Of course not...
...Out of economic despair a genuine Anschluss movement among the people started...
...In a Europe or rather world of reasonable conditions—and they became more reasonable before the world depression—Austria could live...
...AUSTRIANS resent that they are considered only as musicians and dancers...
...This would cover about 10 European states...
...Austria exported music...
...Austria was "between Mussolini and Hitler" for more than 10 years...
...MRS...
...And of oil, the much bombed oil wells of Zistersdorf near Vienna produced about 2 million tons annually, which means that they are in Europe surpassed only by Rumania and GaHeia...
...Is Switzerland self-supporting...
...More and more Americans and Britishers visited the country...
...The provisional government, created immediately after the liberation of Vienna by the Russians, is not very different from the government in 1918...
...HARGROVE suggested in her article in The Progressive as a cure the Anschluss of Austria to Switzerland...
...It can safely be said that any Anschluss movement, after the events of 1938 and after, is finished...
...Among the great economic assets of Austria is the tourist traffic...
...Austria has a surplus of iron ore which is of a quality not inferior to Swedish...
...We call upon those who believe the works and values of art to be the only stable things in the eternal changes of time, to join us and to help us to establish a refuge in the name of Mozart, where the art lovers of all countries may unite in festive delight once the dark clouds of this world catastrophe have passed...
...What seems to be more practical is a close economic cooperation between as many European countries as possible, or, to use sacred American initials, a "DVA," a "Danube Valley Authority...
...Austria provided electricity for Germany long before the Anschluss, thanks to her waterpower slumbering in mountain streams...
...I do not think that it would be different today...
...Is Switzerland with her 4 million citizens ready to welcome 6 1/2 million newcomers ? What would, for instance, French and Italian speaking Swiss say ? Switzerland is roughly two-thirds Protestant...
...Chancellor Renner is the same, and it is a coalition of Labor, Roman Catholic party (Christ-lichsozial is sometimes wrongly translated by Christian Socialist), Communists, and Independents, of whom the 3 Communists are new...
...Nobody knows what the next hour is going to bring...
...Secondly, the Moscow Declaration—different from 1918—drew attention to the economic security of Austria and her neighbor states...
...After the last war our railways were gradually electrified...
...By WILHELM VIOLA HARDLY had the Moscow Conference in 1943 declared that Austria was to be "free and independent" again than voices in Britain and America were heard to say, "But how can this small country survive, particularly economically...
...In a remarkable article by Elizabeth Hargrove who has spent half of her life in Vienna, "Austria: Pawn Of Power Politics...
...NO doubt, after 1918 when suddenly there were only 6 1/2 instead of over 50 million Austrians and a small territory instead of the big old monarchy, serious problems arose, such as lack of food and fuel...
...After 1933, when Hindenburg appointed Hitler, the frightful unemployment in Austria helped the Anschluss...
...Let us hope she will be—together with her neighbor Czechoslovakia—a tie between the West and the East—as before...
...Unemployment was not an Austrian disease, it was an international epidemic...
...So the French withdrew credits from Austrian banks and helped to provoke the collapse of the Credit Anstalt, the chief financial institution in Central Europe...
...If there should be again (Heaven forbid) world unemployment another world war would very likely be the consequence...
...The London Times welcomed the provisional government as reasonable, regretting only that it was created without reference to the Governments of Britain and the U. S. Under the circumstances of Russia's unilateral action there hardly could have been better selection...
...Banks crashed through Europe like tin pans down a concrete alley...
...John Gunther in his excellent book Inside Europe says this about the Schober-Curtius plan: "This, of course, aroused French rage, because the Quay d'Orsay saw in it a first step to Anschluss, union of Germany and Austria...
...Did the 3 Great Powers decree the independence of Austria out of love for the Blue Danube, or rather was it, firstly, enlightened self-interest which dictated the policy that this center of Europe, this "Bastion," must not fall into doubtful hands ? How prophetic was Gedye's book Fallen Bastions...
...Of 6 1/2 million Austrians far more than 1/2 million were permanently unemployed...
...It would be kindest, she says, "perhaps hitching Austria to Switzerland...
...When conditions in Austria improved, this gradually vanished, but when in 1929 the world slump started it revived at once, and it found its culmination in Chancellor Schober's attempt to make a customs union with Germany...
...The royalties paid to composers like Lehar meant millions to the Austrian treasury as well...
...All the same, we will dare to express the thought of a Salzburg festival dedicated to peace, art, and joy...
...Vienna has accomplished in the workmen's dwellings something outstanding, and without foreign loans as it is sometimes maintained...
...Austria is again in the news...
...published in The Progressive of March 6, 1944) the fear is expressed that the sad history of Austria, after 1918, might repeat itself because this country simply cannot be self-supporting...
...I should like to quote the words of a great Austrian, Hofmannsthal, who wrote in 1916: "Mist surrounds the world and there seems to be no end to the cruelest of wars...
...In the Weltwoche of Zurich, an important Swiss weekly paper, a short time ago one could read: "The cultural significance of Austria as a liaison between the best German and truly European spir,it will be of decisive importance for the renaissance of the Continent, and it could happen that for Austria after 7 meager years of National Socialism which began in 1938 now new years of happiness begin...
...I bought myself a pound of Austrian butter in 1934 during a lecture tour in Wales...
...Will they accept 90 per cent Roman Catholic Austrians...
...When in 1919 the Austrian province Vorarlberg with about 150,000 inhabitants who speak an Aleman dialect like the Schivyzer Dytsch wanted to join Switzerland, they were told at once, No...
...Precious magnesite is exported...
...In the less mountainous Austria it is only 10 per cent of the country which cannot be used for any cultivation.- After several years of serious efforts to improve Austria's agriculture—a relatively small loan of the League of Nations helped to buy first class breeding cattle—Austria was capable of exporting butter and cheese...
...Results : the German bank-ing crisis, the reparations moratorium, the flight from sterling...
...Austrians hardly would object to Vienna becoming the seat of the new world authority which will be the result of this war—if we are lucky...
...It has been suggested among others by Dorothy Thompson that the new world organization should have its headquarters in Vienna, and that Austria should become a kind of National Park...
...Of timber —the British House of Commons is or rather was partly furnished with Tyrolean oak...
...Hargrove mentioned the Salzburg Festival...
...This wish to unite with a Germany, which was at least technically democratic, had nothing to do with National Socialism...
...Yes, there is very little first class coal in Austria, only brown coal, but Switzerland and other countries have flourishing and export industries without any coal mines...
...By the way, 22 per cent of Switzerland is rocks, glaciers, etc...
...A politico-economic quarrel in remote Vienna, it was proved, could—and did—shake Great Britain off gold...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 33
