Neue Freie Presse
- The meaning of the Lueger commemoration
- Miami resort destroyed by hurricanes
- Greece’s intended war against Turkey
A Vienna editorial uses the Lueger commemoration to warn against political self-destruction. Other columns report uncertain Miami casualties and Pangalos’s alleged invasion plans.
Image-checked selected first-page passages; partial reading, not the whole page or complete articles.
Translation
The meaning of the Lueger commemoration
The covering has fallen, and the statue of one of our city’s most distinguished men now belongs to everyone. We opposed Dr Karl Lueger so long as his political direction carried the danger of religious hatred and demagogic one-sidedness. Yet even an opponent must recognize that unity of purpose, strength and personal energy, and popularity in both the nobler and less noble senses of the word, can overcome a great many substantive objections.
[…]
Remembering Lueger should be an occasion to temper political conflict and recognize the ruinous effects of unrestrained self-destruction. We are heading toward a crisis in a winter of unemployment, stagnation and the gravest exhaustion. Take care not to create tensions in which a single spark would suffice to set the building ablaze. Austria expects its political parties to ease its distress and undertake fruitful, practical work.
Miami resort destroyed by hurricanes
News comes from Miami, Florida, that a hurricane raging across southern Florida has killed many people and injured 2,000. Reports of the death toll differ. Miami lies in ruins, all communications have been cut off since Friday night, and property damage is estimated at $100 million. The ships in Miami harbour have sunk. Fort Myers and other towns are isolated.
Greece’s intended war against Turkey
General Pangalos has revealed a sensational plan intended to lead to war against Turkey to a reporter sent to visit him in Crete by the newspaper Eleftheron Vima. Pangalos stated that he had intended to occupy Thrace. He had kept his plan entirely secret, informing neither his foreign minister nor his chief of staff. A former chief of staff himself, he had worked out the entire deployment plan against Thrace alone.
Context
Why honouring Lueger was politically charged
Karl Lueger’s political legacy combined a strong popular following with antisemitism. Vienna’s historical account identifies antisemitic agitation as part of his political practice. That background makes the editorial’s reference to religious hatred concrete: the unveiling was not simply a ceremony for an uncontroversial civic benefactor. The paper was trying to acknowledge a former opponent’s political force while retaining its objections to how he mobilized support.
A monument used to argue for compromise
The editorial moves from a dead politician to the coming winter. Unemployment, economic stagnation and exhaustion are presented as reasons for today’s parties to reduce confrontation. Its burning-building image makes the stakes collective: political victory would be worthless if the struggle destroyed the society the parties sought to govern. Lueger’s commemoration becomes an appeal to turn political energy toward relieving hardship.
Pangalos and the prospect of another war
Pangalos had sought to revise Greece’s position against Turkey after the settlement of the early 1920s. Historian Harry Psomiades describes his interest in exploiting Turkey’s disputes with other powers and seeking outside support for territorial gains. His regime fell in August 1926. The September interview therefore looks back on ambitions associated with a fallen ruler; its striking detail is the claim that he had excluded even the foreign minister and chief of staff from planning.
Original
Der Sinn der Lueger-Feier
Die Hülle ist gefallen und das Standbild eines der Hervorragendsten unserer Stadt ist Gemeingut. Wir haben Dr. Karl Lueger bekämpft, solange seine Richtung die Gefahr des Glaubenshasses und der demagogischen Einseitigkeit an sich trug. Aber auch der Gegner muß erkennen: die Geschlossenheit, die Kraft, der Schwung der Persönlichkeit, die Volkstümlichkeit im edlen, wohl auch im unedleren Sinne des Wortes sind imstande, sehr viele sachliche Bedenken zu überwinden.
[…]
Die Erinnerung an Lueger, sie sollte Anlaß geben zur Milderung des politischen Kampfes, zur Einsicht über die Verderblichkeit zügelloser Selbstvernichtung. Wir treiben einer Krise zu in einem Winter der Arbeitslosigkeit, der Stagnation und der schwersten Erschöpfung. Sorget dafür, daß nicht Spannungen entstehen, bei denen ein Funke genügt, um das Gebäude in Brand zu setzen. Oesterreich erwartet von den politischen Parteien die Linderung seiner Not und fruchtbare und sachliche Tätigkeit.
Zerstörung von Bad Miami durch Wirbelstürme
Aus Miami in Florida kommt die Nachricht, daß bei einem Wirbelsturm, der über Südflorida wütete, viele Menschen getötet und 2000 verwundet wurden. Die Nachrichten über die Zahl der Todesopfer lauten verschieden. Die Stadt Miami liegt in Trümmern, alle Verbindungen sind seit Freitag nacht abgeschnitten, der Sachschaden wird auf 100 Millionen Dollar geschätzt. Die im Hafen von Miami liegenden Schiffe sind gesunken. Fort Myers und andere Städte sind isoliert.
Beabsichtigter Krieg Griechenlands gegen die Türkei
General Pangalos enthüllt einem von dem Blatte „Eleftheron Vima“ zu ihm nach Kreta entsendeten Berichterstatter einen aufsehenerregenden Plan, der zum Kriege gegen die Türkei führen sollte. Pangalos erklärte, daß er beabsichtigte, Thrazien zu besetzen. Er hatte seinen Plan völlig geheimgehalten und weder seinem Minister des Aeußern noch seinem Generalstabschef davon Kenntnis gegeben. Selbst früher Generalstabschef, hatte er den ganzen Aufmarschplan gegen Thrazien allein ausgearbeitet.