Hitler's Gurus

HITLER' S GURUS & MODELS :

The anti-semites & the Socialists

Lueger became
leader of the
Association
known as "The
Anti-Semites"

G. von Schönerer & K.Lüger

          #1 SCHOENERER, THE FUHRER's FUHRER
          #2 LUEGER, THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE

Georg von Schönerer, born in Vienna in 1842, had a huge influence on
Austrian political life at the end of the XIXth century. Pan-german,
anti-semite, anti-Catholic, he sow the seeds of a climate of hatred and
intolerance that Hitler reaped some twenty years later.

Few historians to the exception of Brigitte Hamman (1) have given to
Schönerer the place he deserves in Hitler's life, ascension and policies.
If one had to summarize the role of Schönerer, one could coin the phrase
: "He was the Fuhrer's Fuhrer."

Born in 1842 in a wealthy family in Vienna, Schönerer attended
agricultural schools and became administrator of his father's big estate
in Waldviertel, Hitler's family homeland. He turned out to be very diligent,
capable and progressive in his management : he created social benefits
for the peasants and workers and was universally appreciated and
lauded. His generosity and clairvoyance were proverbial. But the defeat
of Konigsgrätz in 1866 where the Habsburgs were defeated by the
Prussians started his involvement in politics : he became a rabid
despiser of the Dual Monarchy and a fervent admirer of Bismarck and
Germany.

                     The expandable Habsburgs

Henceforth he considered the Habsburgs as expandable and the
Hohenzollerns as the real leaders of all German-speaking people. In
1873 he was voted into the Reichsrat as a representative of the
Fortschrittliche Volkspartei (German Progressive Party) referred to in
Parliament as "Liberals". But in 1876, his strong personality led him into
a split with his own party and he started to fight Liberalism, Capitalism,
the Jesuits, Rome and the Jews and became increasingly Pro-German.
His motto became "Not liberal, not clerical but national"
(german-national of course) and his party became the Pan-German Party
(Alldeutsches Partei).

In 1885, he added the "Aryan clause" to the Linz Program, hence
excluding the Jews from German brotherhood. If you were Jewish, you
could not be German. This decision was duplicated by many German
fraternities who expelled their Jews : thus he started out the
"de-Jewification" and men like Viktor Adler, Arthur Schnitzler and
especially Theodore Herzl were kicked out ot their fraternity. The birth of
Zionism can probably be traced to this fatal day.

The Schonerians were a large flock of German-speaking Austrians and
they had their own symbols and signs of recognition, notably the "Heil"
greeting. They also had their culture and rejected, years before
Hitlerism, the "international" and "Jewish art" as "degenerated". They
were mostly vegeterians, like Hitler after 1931, and strengthened their
bodies with gymnastics and calisthenics, like the "Hitler Youth" of the
1930s. Their slogan became "Through purity to unity", they salute their
leader with "Heils!" and saw in him the sole and absolute "Fuhrer". And
like Hitler after 1933, der Fuhrer could not be wrong or if he were wrong,
he had to pay for his mistakes with his life.

                     Conversion to Lutherianism

Schönerer went as far as introducing a German calendar which began in
113 BC when the Cimbri and the Teutons defeated for the first time a
Roman legion : so overnight the year 1888 turned to be year 2001. In
1888 however, Schönerer was sentenced to 4 months in prison for an
attack on a Jewish newspaper but was stripped off his nobility and his
political rights for 5 years. The punishment imposed by Crown Prince
Rudolf had the effect to bolster his supporters fanatism which shaked
the Prince's belief in the viability of the austro-hungarian federation and
played certainly a significant role in his suicide in 1889.

But this year was also the peak of his political career : in 1889, two of his
followers formed political parties, Karl LÜger, the Christian-Socials, and
Viktor Adler, the Social-Democrats. When he returned to Parliament in
1897, he was only 57 years old but he was mainly noticed for his brawls
and insults. So at the time where Hitler was living in Vienna his attraction
had faded and he became all the more extreme and virulent. His main
ennemies, besides the Jews, were the Catholics and his new slogan
became "Los-von-Rom" (away from Rome) which was a serious political
mistake in a country as Catholic as Austria. He urged his followers to
convert to Lutherianism which he himseld did in 1900. The idea behind
this conversion was to facilitate the annexation of Austria to Germany in
another decade.

But it is quite sure that young Hitler who arrived in Vienna the next year
fell under the influence of this man and his party. The Schönerians had
their own newspaper, the Alldeutsches Tagblatt, that Hitler could read
every day at Mannerheim and in which Schönerer made often vibrant
appeals to the Emperor "to deliver the people of the yoke of the Jewish
press". In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that "when I came to Vienna, my
sympathies were fully ansd wholly on the side of the Pan German
tendency." It is though unlikely that he ever met Schönerer who almost
never set foot in Vienna after 1907 until his death in 1921. But Hitler had
many opportunities to witness the agressivity of the only three
Pan-German Party deputies in the Parliament : with the Czech National
Socialists they were extremely vocal and violent and excelled in
filibustering. There is no doubt either that he became familiar with
Schönerer's biography's first volume published in 1912 for the 70th
birthday of the parti's founder. This volume became a bona fide Bible for
his supporters and probably also for young Adolf Hitler, then 23 years
old, who was extremely serious with what he used to call his "Studies",
i.e. reading during the night at the Mannerheim pamphlets, brochures,
newspapers and others political, architectural or historical magazines
and publications supposed to contribute to his education.

                Away from the yoke of the Church

Adolf Hitler, while in Vienna, often echoed the Pan-german sympathies to
his friend Kubizek and went as far as saying to him :"it is one of the
cultural tasks of the future to liberate the German people from the yoke
of the Church." This was verbatim Schönerer's language and ambitions.
Actually Hitler's ideas became simple copycats of Schönerer's and he
adopted almost all his principles and hatreds : his views on
anti-semitism, his contempt for the Social-Democrats and
Parliamentarism in general, his hatred of the Church and the Jesuits, his
constant berating of the Jewish press, his immutable love for the
German people were borrowed from Schönerer and openly attributed in
Mein Kampf. He will dedicate many pages to his idol in the book and will
constantly praise him and his key words like "Through purity to unity",
"Heil", "der Fuhrer" will become Hitlerites slogans and emblems as well.

However Hitler avoided some of the main mistakes of Schönerer like
fighting too many foes at the same time : after 1933, Hitler focused his
hostility against the Jews who became responsible for everything wrong
in Germany. Hitler had well done his "Studies".

It is thus not surprising that at the Declaration of War in August 1914
Hitler was rejoicing. He wrote in Mein Kampf: "For me these hours came
as a deliverance from the distress that had weighed upon me during the
days of my youth. I am not ashamed to acknowledge to-day that I was
carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment and that I sank down
upon my knees and thanked Heaven out of the fullness of my heart for
the favor of having been permitted to live in such a time." Millions of
German-speaking Austrians felt the same but they will have to wait until
1937 for the fulfilment of their ancestral dream : the Anschluss (3).

In the meanwhile, Hitler continued to ingurgitate and digest Schönerer's
ideas with realism and lucidity. He made good use of them and he never
forget what he owed to the "great man" : in 1938, as Fuhrer of the
Greater German Empire, he paid hommage to his idol by supporting the
final two volumes of his biography and purchasing half the edition of a
thousand copies. In 1939, Munich's Habsburg Square was renamed Von
Schönerer Square and in 1941 the NSDAP headquarters in Vienna were
adorned with a Schönerer memorial plaque.

The Emperor Franz Josef died in 1916 during the War. His successor
was his gran-nephew Karl who tried to negotiate a separate peace with
France but failed. He bas beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004.

The other Viennese politician who became a model hero for Hitler was
Karl Lueger, born in 1844 in a modest family. Lueger's anti-semitism and
personal charisma fascinated Hitler and even if the Fuhrer criticized his
hero in Mein Kampf for not being anti-semite enough, it is evident that his
oratory talents, his political skills and his expertise at masses'
manipulation impressed young Hitler and left him in awe.

Raised by his widow mother, Lueger graduated from Law School in
1866, 23 years before Hitler's birth. Coached by the Jewish doctor and
local politician Dr. Ignaz Mandl, he went into politics as an advocate of
the disavantaged. His main enemies were then the "big business" and
the "proletarian" Social-Democrats. Additionally he put on the list the
"immigrants", generally from austro-hungarian provinces. His voters
were the Viennese lower middle-class professionals and in 1875 he was
elected to the city's council. In 1885 when the census suffrage was
almost abolished, he added to his list the really needy classes. His
ambition has always been to be Vienna's mayor and of course a
Reichrat's representative but his real aim was Vienna city hall.

        From the Anti-Semites to the Christian-Socials

In 1887, he joined the fights of the Christian Social Association who was
for a "re-Catholization" of Austria which implied a split with his Jewish
mentor and friend Dr.Mandl. He soon became leader of the Association
known as "The Anti-Semites" and as of 1893 it turned it into a powerful
party called the Christian-Socials. The fading star of Schönerer since
1887 helped him to secure his goals and he banked on his downfall to
promote anti-semite slogans like "Greater Vienna must not turn into
Greater Jerusalem."

A very efficient mayor and a powerful tribune

As mayor, he was extremely bold, audacious and energetic : he
implemented a policy of municipalization that extended to trash
collection, public transports and ever breweries. He won over the
masses with a constant appeal to emotions and instincts that young
Hitler did not fail to notice, admire and duplicate later on. He gave the
people of Vienna "self confidence" showing them that it was not
necessary to be wealthy and educated to have one's say in public life. In
Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that "Lueger had a rare knowledge of men...
and excelled in "not trying tio achieve success in pleasing a few
scholars or young aesthetes." Nicknamed the "People's tribune",
Lueger became a model hero for young Hitler who even attended his
funerals in 1910.

Lueger's anti-semitism was excessive and probably more used as a
political tool than really reflecting his leanings but it paid off : slogans like
"anti-semitism would perish but not until the last Jew has perished"
certainly left lasting impressions in the public's mind and in young
Hitler's as well. The irony is that Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that Lueger
was not anti-semitic enough underlining that "lacking was the conviction
that this was a vital question for all humanity, with the fate of all
non-Jewish people depending on its solution." One could not better say
that Lueger was not really anti-semitic but rather a shrewd politician
who knew how to appeal to masses. Even the Jewish merchant
Sigmund Mayer said once to Lueger :"I am not blaming you for being
anti-semitic, I am blaming you for not being anti-semitic" (i.e. for lying
about your anti-semitism). However Hitler could not fail to notice that
Lueger's exaggerations and outrances were paying off.

His inflammatory speeches had a devastating effect on the masses and,
as writes Brigitte Hamman in her book (1), "even if no Jew was killed,
people's old prejudices were confirmed by their idol." Lueger's success
was phenomenal : among the 148 city councilmen there were 136
anti-Semites." (4)

                        Admirer but not disciple

In 1910, whereas Hitler has lived almost 2 years in Vienna, Lueger fell
gravely ill : he had terrible kidney diseases and was almost blind. The
health of the "Lord God of Vienna" was the talk of the town, notably at
the Mannerheim. Hitler who was then a fanatical supporter of Lueger
told every details about Lueger's career to his comrades at the hostel,
notably to the Social Democrats whom he hated (to him they were the
despicable Reds). The mayor died on March 10, 1910 and hundreds of
thousands of Viennese marched down Rotenturmstrasse to the
cemetery where the public was not admitted. Hitler was one of them.
However, in spite of his admiration for the man, he never joined the party
which was too clerical and outrageously Catholic. In the eraly 1900s, no
public building or utility could be inaugurated in Vienna without the
presence of the Bishop of the city or representatives of the Church. As
Hitler put it in Mein Kampf, " I could not make up my mind to enter any of
the existing organizations. Even then I regarded all political movements
as unsuccessful and unable to carry out a national reawakening of the
German people on a larger and not purely external scale."

Hitler was very much his own man but, in their virtues and their flaws,
the two Viennese politicians, Schönerer and Lueger, served Hitler as
political models. However he never became a disciple, he was too full of
himself for it and to much aware of the weaknesses of both of the men
which he profusely studied. As he did all his life he picked up the bits that
served or interested him to fabricate his own "Weltanschauung" (2).
What he admired most in Lueger was his concentration on one single
foe, the Jews. In Mein Kampf, he wrote "the art of all truly great national
leaders consists in not dividing the attention of the people, but in
concentrating it upon a single foe." He started to do it from German soil
some ten years later with the success that everybody knows. In 1942,
the movie Wien 1910 by director Emerich Walter Emo -showing Lueger's
last three days- paid a last hommage to the man.

In the end, one can wonder whether German National-Socialism did not
take birth in Vienna as soon as the end of the XIXth century, promoted by
Viennese aristocratic agitators and politicians and implemented by a
failed artist plebeian who hated multicultural Austria but had visions of
grandeur for himself and Germany. Without the destructions and havoc
spread out by WWI, it is however very unlikely that those Viennese-made
products would have been imported into Germany and had any
successful career in spite of the political genius of an anti-semitic
Bohemian Lance-Corporal.

Schoenerer, Guru : a
teacher and especially
intellectual guide in
matters of fundamental
concern.

It is probably during his time
in Vienna that Hitler painted
this watercolour which
shows a "certain talent"

Although extremely progressive on the social front, Schönerer turned more and
more anti-semitic, anti-Slav and anti-monarchy. He even set out a Linz Program
that called for an independant Hungary, a Germanized Austria and a lose
confederation of Southern Slavs countries, actually prefiguring the Europe of
1945. After 1881, the pogroms of Jews in Russia brought an inflow of refugees in
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, notably in Vienna, and Schönerer let his anti-semitic
stance turned lose. He became the most vociferous promoter of ethnic
anti-semitism, going as far as attacking the Rothschilds for ripping off the
Austrian public in the conduct of the very profitable Emperor Ferdinand Northern
Railways company and asking for nationalization. The Rothschilds were eventually
forced to increase the fee they were paying to the State to run the Railways. He
was finally nicknamed by his followers the "dragon slayer" against "Jewish
Corruption".

His supporters remained nevertheless many and
powerful on the basis of the superiority of the German
race to all other peoples and his press kept on berating
the Jews. But he made a second big political mistake
when he put as a pre-requisite to joining the Pan German
Party to embrace the Lutherian faith. This time, the fate
of his party was sealed. Even the powerful German
School Association severed links with him and he
founded the School Association for Germans with little
success. Then on, he became a joke figure, a solitary
and almost a mad man ; he lost in seat in Parliament in
1907.

Austro-Hungarian empire was a mosaic of
ethnies, languages, races, cultures and
religions

In Mein Kampf, he explained why Schönerer failed to impose
his "Weltanschauung"(2) to the Austrian people for several
reasons :

* The leaders did not have a clear concept of the importance of
the social problem : the Pan-German Movement should have
devoted its efforts to winning over the masses
* The position of the Germans in Austria was already desperate
when Pan-Germanism arose : the only hope for any
eleventh-hour effort to save it laid in the overthrow of the
parliamentary system; but there was very little prospect of this
happening.

"Greater Vienna must
not turn into Greater
Jerusalem."

He eventually managed to incarnate anti-semitism to the point that anybody
opposed to Lueger would be suspect of being a philo-semite. His enemies
tried to intervene to the Vatican on the basis of his anti-semitism but Pope
Leo XIII who appreciated his political platform and social reforms in Vienna
(and probably as well his anti-semitic stand) sent them back and supported
him openly. It was a triumph for Lueger and in 1895 eventually, he won the
local elections and was elected mayor of Vienna. The opposition appealed
to the Emperor Franz Josef who refused to endorse the election. The
election was held again and again Franz Josef refused to accept it. The
circus went on for two years and four more times the Emperor denied the
victory and Lueger became a hero and a martyr. Eventually in 1897, the
Emperor yielded in and Karl Lueger became mayor of Vienna. It was a
severe blow for the monarchy and a triumph for Lueger.

Pope Leo XIII liked very much
his buddy Lueger, the
anti-semite, and supported him
in spite of pressing demands
from his opponents

Even young Hitler, then barely 20,
attended Lueger's funerals in Vienna

(1) Hitler's Vienna. The Dictator's apprenticeship, Oxford,
1999
(2) A comprehensive conception or apprehension of the
world especially from a specific standpoint
(3) Literally the term anschluss means union and not
annexation as it is currently and falsely understood
(4) In 1910 Vienna with a population of 2 millions
inhabitants was the 6th largest city in the world.