Was Austria founded by an antisemite?
ONE hundred and fifty years ago last month, in what is now Dolní Dunajovice in the Czech Republic, Karl Renner was born.
One of the most significant figures in modern Austrian history, the Social Democrat was Austria’s first chancellor after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918.
In 1945, he formed a provisional government with Soviet approval and became the first president of the postwar Second Republic.
For twice securing Austrian statehood, Mr Renner is recognised as one of Austria’s great statesmen. Yet two charges remain hanging over him: first, that he was an antisemite; second, that he supported the Anschluss in March 1938.
They were first levelled by the historian and former governor of the state of Salzburg Franz Schausberger in 2012 in the Catholic weekly magazine Die Furche. “Whenever he could, in his parliamentary speeches, Renner gave the terms ‘Jewish’ or ‘Jews’ a negative spin”, Mr Schausberger wrote.
In 2012, the city of Vienna was debati n g whether t o rename a part of the Ringstrasse honouring its former mayor, the antisemite Karl Lueger.
The opposition People’s Party, to which Mr Schausberger belongs, contended that if Mr Lueger’s name were removed from the Ring, the adjacent Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring should also be recast.
“A section of the Ring in front of the Austrian parliament bears the name of a proven antisemite and supporter of the Anschluss, and thus, the destruction of the Austrian state”, Mr Schausberger argued.
Mr Lueger’s name went. Mr Renner’s stayed. But for Mr Schausberger — by way of a recent debate in the pages of the Standard with the second president of the Austrian parliament, the Social Democrat Doris Bures — the argument continues.
The first charge that Mr Renner was an antisemite is contested.
Political rhetoric between the wars was certainly heated in Austria - it was a time of deep division between the socialist and Catholic political camps which ended in 1934 in civil war.
Antisemitism was part and parcel of political discourse, especially on the Catholic right and Greater German far-right.
Mr Renner did use terms like “the Jewish question” and “Jewish smugglers” or propagate antisemitic stereotypes against Jewish “bankers” or “capitalists” in his parliamentary speeches.
More often than not, however, the record shows this was done in an ironic or mocking way, confronting the antisemitic rhetoric and politics of the Catholic right.
“Never a truer word said”, the Jewish newspaper Die Wahrheit said of one of Mr Renner’s fiery speeches concerning antisemitism in 1920.
Antisemitism “was absolutely not the core of his worldview”, the British historian Robert Knight argued of Mr Renner in 2013.
On the other hand, after the Holocaust, Mr Renner was not hospitable to the idea of a Jewish community reconstituting itself in Austria.
He believed “the Austrian people should not be held accountable for the harm done to the Jews”.
Mr Renner supported returning Aryanised property to the Jewish community as opposed to disposed individuals fearing “a massive sudden return of displaced persons”.
The first charge, then, remains a matter of debate. But the second — that Mr Renner supported the Anschluss — is incontestable.
Austrian social democracy had pan-Germanist persuasions in the interwar years and Mr Renner voted ‘yes’ in the Anschluss referendum of April 10, 1938.
He believed in the idea of a Greater Germany and welcomed the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland in October 1938.
Mr Renner’s support for the Anschluss “remains a shadow over his lifework”, Ms Bures wrote, also criticising his political flexibility and indifference towards Austrians’ participation in the Holocaust.
Nonetheless Ms Bures concluded: “The historical achievements of a man who twice had a decisive influence in gaining Austria’s freedom and independence must be recognised”.
The charge that Renner was an antisemite is contested ’
It is incontestable that Renner supported the Anscluss’