Neue Freie Presse
- Final Resignation of the Ramek Cabinet
- Residence Ban in Germany for the Ex-Kaiser
- A Series of Political Murders in Warsaw
The front page of 16 October 1926 led with a long Vienna editorial on the final resignation of Chancellor Rudolf Ramek's cabinet and the return of Ignaz Seipel, with the civil servants' strike still unresolved. The writer called Ramek better than his reputation. It praised his patience in a sixteen-hour negotiation with officials and credited him with administrative reform, the end of League control and better relations with Germany and Czechoslovakia. It argued that the cabinet had depended on a tolerant Social Democratic opposition and on Seipel's work behind the scenes, and that both were lost after the school dispute and the Zentralbank collapse. Shorter telegrams reported a Social Democratic bill in the Reichstag to bar ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II from Germany, tied to Prussia's new property settlement with the Hohenzollerns. Another reported four political killings in three days between Communists and their opponents in a Warsaw workers' district.
Translation
Final Resignation of the Ramek Cabinet
Final resignation of the Ramek cabinet. Dr. Seipel his successor. The strike problem not solved.
Vienna, 16 October. Human beings are to be pitied. This, perhaps the finest saying of August Strindberg, must force itself on anyone who observes Austria. People first laughed, and later smiled, at the idea that Dr. Ramek, the representative of Salzburg, could become Dr. Seipel's successor. It seemed a plunge into the abyss, an oddity, a political satyr play after the tragedy. The famous creator of the Geneva Protocols, the man who saved Austria from currency collapse and inflation, steps down in favor of an unknown and unnamed man, a provincial notable with no knowledge of the world, without the faintest affinity for international connections! Surely that could only be a stopgap, at the very most for two or three months. Dr. Ramek was much better than his reputation. He does lack individuality in the higher sense of the word, but amid a thousand difficulties and obstacles, without good and equal helpers, surrounded by snares at every step, he stayed at his post for almost two years; in purely physical terms an enormous achievement in itself in a country like Austria. He was able to accomplish it above all because he possesses a splendid nervous system. Dr. Ramek has an equilibrium, an ataraxia, as the ancients called it, which enabled him to negotiate at length and with great patience, to push the undergrowth carefully aside and, through matter-of-factness, through a decency that radiated almost physically, gradually to win over his opponent, to hold irritations in check and to steer around conflicts. The sixteen-hour negotiation with the civil servants, from evening until noon of the next day, is still well remembered; we still have before our eyes the vision that chance granted us, the foggy picture of that club room with the haze of countless cigars, with the ghostly sight of those overtired people who nevertheless preferred to suffer the most extreme torments of the nerves rather than part without result. In the administrative and constitutional reform as well, in the renewal of good relations with Germany and Czechoslovakia, in the ending of the control, in the carrying out of the gold balance sheets, in many an economy measure — these are the ministry's most important merits — the Chancellor proved that he is much more than an interchangeable part; that under other circumstances, surrounded by stronger collaborators, under happier conditions, he could have held his own even longer. For that, however, two important preconditions would have been needed. One was that the Opposition should not change its tactics. For Dr. Ramek could win all his domestic successes — the completion of the definitive budget, keeping within the limits of the League of Nations budget for next year as well, the understanding with the provinces — only because the Opposition met him with goodwill and let the parliamentary machine run with calm and forbearance. The Opposition knew exactly what the Steirerbank was, yet it did not bestow even the customary obligatory copies of abuse on a Finance Minister who had been vice-president of the Steirerbank. The Opposition knew perfectly well why it adopted this tactic, for it received — how and through whom has not been established — sixty billion for the bankrupt public-economy enterprises, it was able to keep raising unemployment benefits, and so it contented itself, in individual cases such as the Mataja affair, with using a violent cannonade to disguise the fact that on the whole it considered this gentle regime more desirable than Dr. Seipel's return to the direction of policy. Kollmann too was still able to enjoy this mildness; as late as early summer one had the feeling of complete stability; then came the unfortunate school affair and the even worse catastrophe of the Zentralbank, then the wish for peace on the Left was scattered, and the wildest radicalism gained the upper hand. With that the vital principle, the raison d'être, of the ministry was in fact destroyed. For the attitude of the Opposition had to be complemented by the unity and firmness of the majority. But that cohesion was conceivable only through Dr. Seipel's selflessness and his uninterrupted work behind the scenes. When Seipel went to America, probably with the feeling that everything in Vienna was now really in the best of order, the whole edifice began to totter; then the calm, the …
Residence Ban in Germany for the Ex-Kaiser
A Social Democratic motion. Telegram from our correspondent.
Berlin, 15 October. The Social Democratic parliamentary group today introduced a bill in the Reichstag providing that the former Kaiser be prohibited from entering or residing in the territory of the Reich. In the event that Wilhelm II directs hostile undertakings against the Reich or Prussia, the Prussian state shall have the right to confiscate the property awarded to the former imperial house under the property settlement adopted today by the Prussian Landtag. Members of families one of whose members ruled in a former German federal state up to November 1918 are to be prohibited by the Reich government from entering or residing in the territory of the Reich, or restricted to certain parts or places of the Reich, if the concern is justified that otherwise the welfare of the Republic would be endangered. In the event of a contravention, they are to be expelled from the territory of the Reich by decision of the Reich government.
A Series of Political Murders in Warsaw
Telegram from our correspondent.
Warsaw, 15 October. An epidemic of political murders has broken out in Warsaw. Within the last three days, today's is already the fourth murder in the workers' district, a bloody settling of accounts between Communists and their opponents. In every case the perpetrators escaped undetected, with the exception of one man who gave himself up to the police.
Context
How the civil servants' pay dispute and the school conflict ended Ramek's chancellorship
The editorial's subheading, "The strike problem not solved," points to the immediate cause of the cabinet's fall. A University of Innsbruck report on Franz Schausberger's biography of Ramek says the civil servants demanded salary increases that could not be reconciled with Austria's League of Nations agreements, and that this civil servants' strike ultimately brought about Ramek's resignation. The same account traces the government's weakening to the school conflict of 1926. Education Minister Emil Schneider, in the Chancellor's absence, had negotiated a compromise with the Social Democrats that would have created two different school systems within Austria. Ramek had to reverse it and get the minister to resign, and unrest and Social Democratic mass demonstrations followed. This is the "unfortunate school affair" that, in the editorial's telling, ended the opposition's forbearance. The paper called the resignation final on 16 October, but reference works date the end of Ramek's term to 20 October 1926, when Seipel again succeeded him. English Wikipedia links the resignation to a crisis around the state-owned Postsparkasse, whereas the editorial names the collapse of the Zentralbank, so the two accounts stress different financial scandals of the same autumn.
Ramek's record and Seipel's role behind the scenes
The editorial's praise of Ramek largely matches the achievements historians later attribute to his government. Under Ramek the Schilling became Austria's official currency in 1925, and in 1926 the League of Nations' financial control over Austria was lifted under the Geneva Protocols. That lifting is the "ending of the control" that the paper counts among the ministry's chief merits. The early derision the editorial recalls, of Ramek as the "representative of Salzburg" and a provincial notable, reflects his career path: in 1909 he had moved to the office of a well-known lawyer in Salzburg, and from 1918 to 1927 he also sat on the Salzburg municipal council while holding government posts in Vienna. The editorial's central argument is that the majority held together only through Seipel's "uninterrupted work behind the scenes." The Innsbruck account supports this reading, noting that while Ramek was chancellor until October 1926, Seipel remained active in the background as chairman of the Christian Social Party. Seipel's return to the chancellery therefore restored formal office to the man the paper already regarded as the real leader of the governing camp.
The ex-Kaiser bill and the Hohenzollern settlement of 15 October 1926
The Berlin telegram ties the Social Democratic bill to a property settlement the Prussian Landtag had just approved. That settlement closed the 1926 dispute over the former princes' property. In January 1926 the KPD and SPD had introduced a Reichstag motion for expropriating the former ruling houses without compensation by means of a referendum. After the referendum failed on 20 June 1926, most state governments reached financial compromises with their former dynasties fairly quickly, and in Prussia a settlement between the state and the House of Hohenzollern was concluded on 15 October 1926, the "today" of the telegram. The bill's entry ban had a precedent. The 1922 Law for the Protection of the Republic already allowed members of former ruling families living abroad to be barred from Germany or restricted in their residence, a provision that clearly included Wilhelm II. That law made the measure conditional on the concern that the welfare of the Republic would otherwise be endangered, nearly the same formula used in the 1926 bill. When a second version of the law was later drafted, the clauses of the first law that violated the constitution were removed, including Section V on the former sovereigns.
Polish Communists in 1926: underground and shaken by the May coup
The Warsaw telegram's "bloody settling of accounts between Communists and their opponents" took place around a party that had long been illegal. The Communist Party of Poland lost its legal status during the Polish–Soviet war and remained an underground organisation until its dissolution. On 12 May 1926, five months before these killings, Józef Piłsudski launched his coup. During it the KPP fought street battles against troops loyal to Wincenty Witos's government, which it called fascist. Afterwards Stalin sharply denounced the KPP leadership, which was eventually ousted for its "May error." The party was therefore illegal and, after the coup, also under criticism from Moscow for its own conduct. Under the Sanation regime, KPP members were persecuted and often imprisoned. The telegram describes the parties only as "Communists and their opponents," so the individual victims and attackers cannot be identified from this page.
Original
Endgültige Demission des Kabinetts Ramek
Endgültige Demission des Kabinetts Ramek. Dr. Seipel sein Nachfolger. Das Streikproblem nicht gelöst. Wien, 16. Oktober. Es ist schade um die Menschen. Dieses vielleicht schönste Wort von August Strindberg, es muß sich jedem aufdrängen, der Oesterreich beobachtet. Man hat zuerst gelacht und später gelächelt über den Gedanken, daß Dr. Ramek, der Vertreter von Salzburg, Nachfolger von Dr. Seipel werden könnte. Ein Sturz schien es ins Abgründige, eine Seltsamkeit, ein politisches Satyrspiel nach der Tragödie. Der berühmte Schöpfer der Genfer Protokolle, der Retter Oesterreichs vor Währungsverfall und Inflation, er dankt ab zugunsten eines Unbekannten und Ungenannten, einer Provinzgröße ohne Kenntnis der Welt, ohne die leiseste Affinität mit internationalen Zusammenhängen! Das konnte doch nur ein Provisorium sein, im äußersten Fall für zwei oder drei Monate. Dr. Ramek war viel besser als sein Ruf. Wohl fehlt ihm die Individualität im höheren Sinne des Wortes, aber unter tausend Schwierigkeiten und Hemmungen, ohne gute und gleichwertige Helfer, bei jedem Schritt umstellt von Fußangeln, ist er beinahe zwei Jahre auf dem Posten geblieben; rein physisch schon eine gewaltige Leistung in einem Lande wie Oesterreich. Er konnte sie vollbringen, vor allem, weil er ein glänzendes Nervensystem besitzt. Dr. Ramek hat ein Gleichgewicht, eine Ataraxie, wie die Alten sagten, die ihn befähigte, lange und mit großer Geduld zu verhandeln, behutsam das Gestrüpp beiseite zu schieben und durch Sachlichkeit, durch eine beinahe körperlich ausstrahlende Anständigkeit den Gegner allmählich zu gewinnen, Reizungen hintanzuhalten und Konflikten auszubiegen. Die sechzehnstündige Verhandlung mit den Beamten vom Abend bis zum Mittag des nächsten Tages ist noch in guter Erinnerung, wir haben noch die Vision vor Augen, die der Zufall uns verschaffte, das Nebelbild dieses Klubzimmers mit dem Dunst der unzähligen Zigarren, mit dem geisterhaften Anblick dieser übermüdeten Menschen, die dennoch lieber die äußersten Nervenqualen erleiden wollten, als fruchtlos auseinanderzugehen. Auch bei der Verwaltungsund Verfassungsreform, bei der Erneuerung des guten Verhältnisses zu Deutschland und zur Czechoslowakei, bei der Beendigung der Kontrolle, bei der Durchführung der Goldbilanzen, bei mancher Maßregel der Ersparnis - das sind die wichtigsten Verdienste des Ministeriums - bewies der Kanzler, daß er viel mehr ist als ein auswechselbarer Bestandteil; daß er unter anderen Verhältnissen, umgeben von stärkeren Mitarbeitern, unter glücklicheren Bedingungen sich noch länger hätte durchsetzen können. Dazu hätte es jedoch zweier wichtiger Voraussetzungen bedurft. Die eine war, daß die Opposition ihre Taktik nicht veränderte. Denn Dr. Ramek konnte all seine inneren Erfolge, die Fertigstellung des definitiven Voranschlages, die Einhaltung der Grenzen des Völkerbundbudgets auch für das nächste Jahr, die Verständigung mit den Ländern nur dadurch erringen, daß die Opposition ihm mit Wohlwollen entgegenkam, mit Ruhe und Schonung die parlamentarische Maschine laufen ließ. Die Opposition wußte genau, was die Steirerbank war, aber sie hat nicht einmal mit den üblichen Pflichtexemplaren der Beschimpfung einen Finanzminister bedacht, der Vizepräsident der Steirerbank gewesen ist. Die Opposition wußte ganz genau, warum sie diese Taktik einschlug, denn sie bekam - wie und durch wen, ist nicht festgestellt - sechzig Milliarden für die verkrachten gemeinwirtschaftlichen Anstalten, sie konnte dauernd die Arbeitslosenunterstützung erhöhen, und so begnügte sie sich im einzelnen wie im Falle Mataja, durch eine gewaltsame Kanonade zu verschleiern, daß sie im ganzen dieses sanfte Regime für wünschenswerter hielt als die Rückkehr Doktor Seipels zur Leitung der Politik. Noch Kollmann konnte diese Milde genießen, noch im Frühsommer hatte man die Empfindung voller Stabilität, da kam die unglückliche Schulaffäre und die noch ärgere Katastrophe der Zentralbank, da zerstob der Friedenswunsch auf der Linken, und der wildeste Radikalismus bekam die Oberhand. Damit war eigentlich das Lebensprinzip, die Raison d'être, des Ministeriums vernichtet. Denn zu der Haltung der Opposition mußte ja als Ergänzung auch noch die Einheitlichkeit und Festigkeit der Majorität hinzukommen. Diese Konsistenz war aber doch nur denkbar durch die Selbstlosigkeit und die ununterbrochene Arbeit Dr. Seipels hinter den Kulissen. Als Seipel nach Amerika fuhr, wohl mit dem Gefühl, daß in Wien jetzt eigentlich alles in bester Ordnung sei, da begann das ganze Gebäude zu wanken, da vermochten die Ruhe, die " Mitteleuropäische Wirtschaft " Feuilleton.
Aufenthaltsverbot in Deutschland für den Exkaiser.
für den Exkaiser. Ein sozialdemokratischer Antrag. Telegramm unseres Korrespondenten. Berlin, 15. Oktober. Die sozialdemokratische Fraktion hat heute im Reichstag einen Gesetzentwurf eingebracht, der bestimmt, daß dem ehemaligen Kaiser das Betreten des Reichsgebietes und der Aufenthalt darin untersagt wird. Für den Fall, daß Wilhelm II. feindliche Unternehmungen gegen das Reich oder Preußen richtet, hat der preußische Staat das Recht, das Vermögen einzuziehen, das dem vormaligen Kaiserhause durch den heute vom preußischen Landtage angenommenen Vermögensausgleich zuerkannt wurde. Mitgliedern solcher Familien, von denen ein Angehöriger bis November 1918 in einem ehemaligen deutschen Bundesstaat regiert hat, ist von der Reichsregierung das Betreten des Reichsgebietes oder der Aufenthalt darin zu untersagen oder auf bestimmte Teile oder Orte des Reiches zu beschränken, falls die Besorgnis gerechtfertigt ist, daß andernfalls das Wohl der Republik gefährdet wird. Im Falle der Zuwiderhandlung sind sie durch Beschluß der Reichsregierung aus dem Reichsgebiete auszuweisen. Eine Serie politischer Morde in Warschau. Telegramm unseres Korrespondenten.
Eine Serie politischer Morde in Warschau.
schluß der Reichsregierung aus dem Reichsgebiete auszuweisen. Eine Serie politischer Morde in Warschau. Telegramm unseres Korrespondenten. Warschau, 15. Oktober. Eine Epidemie politischer Mordtaten hat in Warschau eingesetzt. In den letzten drei Tagen ist heute bereits der vierte Mord im Arbeiterviertel zu verzeichnen, bei dem es sich um eine blutige Abrechnung zwischen Kommunisten und ihren Gegnern handelt. Die Täter sind in allen Fällen unentdeckt entkommen, mit Ausnahme eines Mannes, der sich selbst der Polizei stellte.