The Austrian Party Press and the First Republic: a Study in Political Journalism
| Author | Robert Schwarz |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295901200411 |
| Published date | 01 December 1959 |
| Date | 01 December 1959 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
1038
THE
AUSTRIAN
PARTY
PRESS
AND
THE
FIRST
REPUBLIC:
A
STUDY
IN
POLITICAL
JOURNALISM
ROBERT
SCHWARZ
Carnegie
Institute
of
Technology
HE
MOST
LOGICAL
dividing
line
in
Austrian
history
since
1918
is
the
year
of
the
merger
with
Germany.
Closing
a
chapter
in
her
JL
history
which
was
at
once
historically
distinct
and
politically
dis-
astrous,
Austria
in
1938
entered
into
her
seven
lean
years
of
Nazi
occupation
and
war,
which
were
followed
by
ten
years
of
Allied
control.
Not
until
1955,
the
year
of
the
state
treaty,
was
Austria
free
to
turn
a
new
leaf
in
her
historical
career
by
putting
behind
her
the
painful
experiences
of
Nazi
an-
nexation,
war,
and
wardship
to
four
military
powers.
The
story
of
Austrian
history
between
the
end
of
World
War
I
and
her
union
with
Germany
has
been
written
and
rewritten
in
numerous
publica-
tions
and
need
not
be
repeated
here.
We
may
also
pass
over
the
well-
remembered
episode
of
German
occupation
and
war.
Beginning
with
the
Allied
occupation,
Austria
was
governed
by
a
coalition
of
her
two
major
parties.
The
life
and
death
struggle
between
the
Social
Democrats
and
the
far
right
in
the
First
Republic
had
given
way
to
co-operation
between
the
two
parties
which
are
heirs
to
the
Social
Democrats
and
the
Christian
Socials
respectively:
the
Socialist
Party
of
Austria
(S.P.Oe.)
and
the
Austrian
People’s
Party (Oe.V.P.).
The
historian
is
delighted
to
see
an
instance
of
man’s
having
learned
a
lesson
from
the
past.
But
before
we
rejoice
too
much
in
the
reasonableness
of
man,
let
it
be
remembered
that
the
presence
of
Communist
power
in
Austria
from
1945
on
had
more
to
do
with
the
estab-
lishment
of
this
collaboration
than
the
sensible
judgment
of
postwar
politi..
cos,
and
that
if
it
had
not
been
for
this
clear
and
present
peril
of
communism,
which
both
parties
of
the
coalition
detest,
there
might
have
been
(it
is
fair
to
assume)
almost
as
much
party
strife
in
postwar
Austria
as
there
had
been
between
1918
and
1934.
Before
an
analysis
of
newspaper
sampling
is
made,
a
profile
of
the
coalition
must
briefly
be
drawn
so
that
party
press
reflexes
may
be
better
understood.
It
should
be
remembered
that
one
of
the
two
parties,
which
together
command
today
the
confidence
of
roughly
85
per
cent
of
the
enfranchized
citizenry,
the
Austrian
People’s
party,
is
now
more
democratic
than
was
its
ancestor,
the
Christian
Social
party;
that
is
to
say,
the
present
heir
to
the
Christian
Socials,
still
bourgeois-clerical-peasant
in
orientation
and
social
philosophy,
has
come
a
long
way
from
the
fascist-dominated
days
of
1933
when
the
old
party
in
effect
opened
the
door
to the
Heimwehr
before
fold-
ing
up
itself.
The
lineal
descendants
of
the
Christian
Socials
have
to
a
large
extent
purified
themselves
of
non-
and
anti..democratic
forces
from
1039
within.
The
Socialists
are
perhaps
more
truly
heir
to
their
political
fore-
fathers,
the
Social
Democrats
of
the
nineteen
twenties
and
early
nineteen
thirties,
except
that
they too
have
&dquo;grown
up&dquo;
in
the
sense
of
rejecting
more
vigorously
the
Soviet
pattern
of
Marxism
than
many
veterans
in
the
party
twenty
years
ago
had
been
willing
to
do.
As
is
well
known
to
observers
of
the
Austrian
scene,
there
is
decidedly,
even
now,
a
left
wing
present
in
the
party,
but
its
leftness
consists
more
in
economic
radicalism
than
in
tampering
with
democratic
processes.
Thus
it
is
seen
that
the
Soviet
danger
to
Austria
has
brought
in
its
wake
a
positive
good:
the
active
and
constructive
co-
operation
between
the
two
prominent
political
orientations.
As
already
indicated,
this
co-operation
is
not
the
same
thing
as
true
friendship.
Older
members
of
the
Austrian
People’s
party
never
tire
of
&dquo;holding
up&dquo;
to
their
coalition
partners
that
in
the
First
Republic
the
latter
felt
mildly
sympathetic
toward
the
U.S.S.R.
On the
other
hand,
as
will
be
seen,
the
Socialists,
equally
unwilling
to
let
bygones
be
bygones,
not
in-
frequently
editorialize
in
their
press
that
the
Christian
Socials,
parent
group
of
their
present
coalition
partners,
ended
Austrian
democracy
by
suppressing
the
Social
Democrats
in
and
after
February,
1934,
and
that
the
fault
for
much
of
Austria’s
troubles
lay
with
the
ultraconservatives
and
reactionaries
who
were
coddled
by
the
Christian
Socials.
While
it
would
therefore
be
an
error
to
confuse
the
coalition,
which
was
essentially
the
fruit
of
a
common
fear of
the
Soviet
Union,
with
a
genuine
atmosphere
of
good
feeling
between
the
two
parties,
it
should
be
borne
in
mind
that
it
is,
naturally
enough,
the
recognized
extremists
on
both
sides
who
usually
open
up
old
wounds,
while
the
moderate
elements
in
both
parties
are
compromisers
in
the
British
tradition
who
minimize
differences
of
a
socio-economic
nature,
stand
for
a
bipartisan
foreign
policy,
find
when-
ever
possible
a
modus
vivendi
in
the
intense
strife
over
patronage
and
edu-
cational
and
social
legislation,
and
above
all
endeavor
to
maintain
the
coali-
tion
at
all
costs.
During
the
first
few
years
of
postwar
occupation
such
moderates
as
the then
Vice-Chancellor
Adolf
Schaerf
(Socialist),
the
then
Chancellor
Leopold
Figl
(People’s),
and
Interior
Minister
Oskar
Helmer
(Socialist)
realized
that
if
either
party
were
in
office
alone,
the
opposition
would
tend
not
to
co-operate,
and
that
this
weakness
would
have
meant
a
breach
in
the
solid
Austrian
front
against
the
Soviet
effort
to
turn
Austria
into
a
People’s
Democracy.
As
a
matter
of
fact,
the
realities
of
political
life
are
such
in
Austria
that
even
without
a
Russian
threat
a
coalition
would
have
made
much
sense:
in
the
first
place,
the
electorate,
as
is
generally
known,
is
fairly
evenly
divided
between
the
two
parties;
and
in
the
second
place,
the
hope
of
a
landslide
for
either
side
is
slim
(in
spite
of
a
certain
fluidity
of
late)
so
that
there
is
little
illusion
on
the
right to
sway
the
people
in
the
cities
toward
the
&dquo;bourgeois&dquo;
party,
or
on
the
left,
despite
some
hope-
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