AUSTRIA-HUNGARY--THE KAISER'S VASSAL STATE
Few people in America perhaps realise how completely
Austria-Hungary is under the domination of Germany and Kaiserism.
There are those who think that the hand of the Vienna Government
was forced by Berlin when the ultimatum to Serbia was answered so
reasonably by the little country to the south, but there can be
no doubt that Austria has been ever since under the yoke of the
German General Staff.
And because the first break, the first glimpse of reasonable
peace will in turn be forced on Germany by sorely tried
Austria-Hungary, bent by war and bowed by debt, it is well to
study a little the races and assess the influences of that
unfortunate land.
My wife's sister married a Hungarian Count, a member of the
Hungarian House of Lords, and I have met many of the political
leaders and magnates of that country on my trips there.
The Germans of Austria are handsomer, more attractive but far
less efficient than their bloody brethren from the cold,
wind-swept plains of Prussia. They have acquired a slight touch
of the Oriental and something of the mañana (to-morrow) of the
Spaniards, a heritage, perhaps, of the days when Spain and
Austria were so closely connected by Hapsburg rule.
In the presence of an Austrian one feels his charm instead of the
aggressive personality which is Prussian. Undoubtedly the
Prussians counted on the good nature of the southern Germans,
Hungarians, Poles and Slavs in their insidious campaign to make
these peoples, practically, if not in name, subject and tributary
to Prussian rule. The Prussian propagandist has brought them face
to face with a new Kaiserism.
Shortly after the war a great number of Austrian professors of
German blood issued a manifesto demanding closer union with
Germany--a prelude to the plots being hatched in Berlin against
Hapsburg rule.
The Court of Austria is quite different from that of Berlin; no
modern ideas during the reign of Francis Joseph disturbed his
medieval outlook.
The beautiful Empress of Austria, who was assassinated by an
anarchist in Switzerland, was probably insane. At any rate, for
many years she lived apart from the Emperor, devoted to hunting
and horses, going often as far as Ireland for her favourite sport
and seldom appearing in Vienna. Francis Joseph, however, was
consoled by an ex-actress, Frau Kathie Schratt, whom he visited
daily and who occupied a position in Vienna almost as powerful as
that of the mistresses of Louis XIV. Even in this very war when
Frau Schratt established a hospital, she was photographed in the
centre of a group of women all occupied at this hospital and all
holding the highest rank at the Austrian Court. The instant the
old Emperor died, however, her power, influence and prestige
disappeared and I imagine that her titled and high born helpers
were not long in deserting the hospital wards over which she had
presided.
That extraordinary Empire known as the Austrian Hungarian Dual
Monarchy is less an Empire or a Kingdom or a State than the
personal property of the Hapsburgs, whose hereditary talent for
the acquisition of land is recorded on the map of Europe to-day.
For centuries this royal family by treaty, by intrigue, by war,
purchase and marriage has been adding to its dominions, bringing
under its personal rule races who do not understand each other's
language and who differ widely in customs, intellectual
attainments and religion.
The last acquisition of territory by the house of Hapsburg was in
the year 1908, when the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office boldly
declared that Bosnia and Herzegovina, placed under the protectorate
of Austria-Hungary by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, had been
annexed to the Empire. The German Kaiser, standing by like a
watching accomplice while the burglary was in progress,
threatened a general European war if any nations protested.
At a time when Prussia was a struggling state, Austria was the
dominant power in Central Europe, but the one battle of Sadowa in
1866 settled for ever the question of supremacy and the German
States like Bavaria, Saxony, Würtemburg, etc., which stood with
Austria in that war, after receiving a sound beating, ranged
themselves on the side of the victor and, in 1870, joined in
acclaiming the King of Prussia as the First German Emperor.
That event settled the question of leadership in Central Europe
and the dream of the Emperor Frederick who died about the time of
the discovery of America. It was he who wrote the famous anagram
on the vowels A, E, I, O, U.
ustria st mperare rbi niverso
A E I O U
lles rdreich st esterreich nterthan
"It is the fate of Austria to rule the world."
In upper and lower Austria, so-called, there are about twelve
million German Austrians. This territory is comparatively small
and in it lies the city of Vienna. To the north and northeast lie
Bohemia and Moravia, the country of the Tchechs or Szechs of
Slavic blood. These people together number about six million.
Prague is the capital of Bohemia, while in Moravia there is no
great city. For centuries these peoples have been oppressed by
the Austrians and in the Hussite rebellion the lands of Bohemia
and Moravia were parcelled out to the Austrian nobles as well as
to the warlike adventurers who had joined the Austrian armies.
With extraordinary obstinacy and patriotism these peoples cling
to their old language and customs. They have suffered much
during this war and many tales are told of the shooting of all of
the officers of Tchech regiments and the execution of every tenth
man among the privates.
It is a bit of poetic justice that the town of Bethlehem in
Pennsylvania, where my friend Schwab is making so much war
material to be used against the Central Powers, was founded by
fugitives, who, rebelling against oppression, left Moravia in
search of liberty.
North of the Carpathians lies Galicia, a Polish country, with
Lemberg and Krakow as its capitals, and in the eastern part the
Ruthenians, a race identical with the Russians. These Ruthenians
number upwards of four million.
It is a peculiar fact that in the curious Dual Monarchy each race
oppresses some other. The Ruthenians complain that they are
oppressed by the Poles. The kingdom of Hungary lies to the east
of Austria containing in its twenty million inhabitants about ten
million Magyars, who are the dominant race and who in turn rule
over a population of one and one-half million Ruthenians, two and
one-half million Slovacks or Tchecks, three million Roumanians in
the southeastern portion and about three million of the race now
known as Jugo-Slavs. Of these Jugo-Slavs about two million are in
that part of the Dual Monarchy under Austrian rule. These are the
principal divisions of peoples. A Slavish race differing somewhat
from the others is in the mountains to the east of Hungary where
much fighting has taken place in the last war known as Boukovina.
In the southeastern part of Hungary there is a German speaking
country, known as Siebenburgen, where live the descendants of a
German colony planted about two centuries ago.
In Styria, in the mountainous districts of Austria to the west of
Hungary, lives a race differing again from all the others, a
mountain race supposed to be eaters of arsenic, a drug which they
believe gives them a good complexion and stamina for mountain
climbing. It is said that the bodies of these arsenic eaters
remain undecomposed for a long time. And from this part of the
world comes the curious superstition of the existence of human
vampires.
Slovenes, and Jews, Carinthians and inhabitants of Carniola, Serbs
living like Moslems in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italians in Trieste
and the Trient--all make up the strange Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
The union between Austria and Hungary is a personal union. The
Emperor of Austria is King of Hungary. Only in four particulars
are the Empire and the Kingdom united, namely, a joint administration
of the army and navy, of diplomatic affairs and of such finances
as are connected with joint expenditures for these purposes.
In 1848 Hungary sought to break away from Austria. Kossuth
heroically led the Hungarians against their Austrian masters,
only to be beaten in the end because of the advent of the
Russians, because one autocrat came to the aid of another.
Since then, by superior political talents and taste for intrigue,
the Magyars have not only held the Slovaks, Roumanians, etc., of
their own country in political subjection, but have held much of
the power in the Dual Monarchy. Their danger lies, however, in
the predominance of German influence; and some day the gay,
easy-going, pleasant Hungarians may awake to find the Prussian
Eitel Fritz seated on their throne and to learn what Prussian
efficiency means when applied to those whom Germans consider an
inferior people.
The twelve million Austrian Germans differ much in character from
the Prussians. They are far more polite, far more agreeable, far
more fond of amusement of all kinds. Indeed it is because of
their pleasant personal characteristics that so many other
nations have been content to remain under their rule. In no city
of the world is the mass of the population as fond of pleasure as
in Vienna. The best light operas come from that city. Vienna is
the original home of the waltz. The "Blue Danube" was composed on
the shores of the river which flows through the Austrian capital.
The dominant religion of the German Empire is Protestant, but in
the Dual Monarchy it is Roman Catholic among the ruling Germans
in Austria and Magyars in Hungary.
In Austria and in Hungary most of the land is held in great
estates. The peasants, as in Germany, sometimes own a few strips
of land near their miserable villages. Possession of land is
necessary to the standing of any noble. In Hungary, for example,
no noble sits in the house of Magnates or House of Lords unless
he is the owner of a certain amount of land.
Once across the Hungarian border, one sees the people taking a
certain delight in refusing to understand German. The names of
the railway stations are in Hungarian, and the uniforms of
station officials, conductors, etc., differ from those in
Austria. Every effort is made by the population to emphasise the
fact that Hungary is an independent kingdom, joined to Austria by
personal rule alone.
There is no melting pot in this part of the world. In the Lower
House of the Hungarian parliament sit forty-three Croatian
delegates, Croatia being that part of southwestern Hungary near
the Adriatic where the inhabitants are of Slav blood. By the
Hungarian constitution those delegates have the right to speak in
the Hungarian parliament in their own language and so from time
to time a Croatian delegate arises in his place and delivers an
ambitious harangue in Croatian, understood by no one except his
fellow delegates who already know what he intends to talk about.
This is only one example of how these peoples cling tenaciously
to their language and national rights.
It is possible to find in Hungary an Hungarian village, a German
village, a Slav village and a Roumanian village, all within a
short distance of each other. Men from each of these villages
after one month in the United States throw aside their national
costume and buy their clothes in the same Bowery shop, eat the
same food and send their children to the same public school not
only without protest, but with eagerness, whereas, in Hungary,
not one of the inhabitants of these different villages would
think of abandoning his national traits to learn the language of
his German neighbours.
Because commands are given in German in the armies of the Dual
Monarchy all the male population, at least during the term of
their military service, have been compelled to learn some German.
But this they forget as soon as possible when they return from
their period of military service.
Many members of these races go to America and after working there
a short time amass enough money to return to Austria-Hungary and
purchase a small piece of land,--the ambition of every one born
of the soil.
One of the sons of Prince Lichtenstein told me that a friend who
was running for the Hungarian Lower House in a district of
Hungary largely inhabited by Slavs, spoke in Hungarian and,
finding that his audience did not understand him, tried German.
Finally, when matters had come to a standstill, some one in the
back of the room called out to him, asking if he spoke English.
The candidate answered that he did. Whereupon the crowd told him
to speak English which nearly all understood, and so the
Hungarian, a candidate for parliament in Hungary, was forced, in
order to be understood, to address his Hungarian electors in the
language which they had learned in America.
Franz Ferdinand, whose murder at Sarajevo was used by the Central
Powers as a pretext for a war determined on long before that
time, was the heir to the throne of the late Francis Joseph. He
was a romantic character. He visited frequently at the house of
Archduchess Isabella, where Countess Chotek, of a Bohemian noble
family, was a lady in waiting. Franz Ferdinand fell violently in
love with the fair Bohemian, and in his desire to marry, enlisted
the aid of Koloman Szell, Premier of Hungary. Szell told friends
how Franz Ferdinand loved mystery and how, when he wanted to talk
to him about marriage plans, instead of meeting somewhere openly
in Vienna, would arrange that Szell's train should stop in the
open fields. Szell, on alighting and following directions, would
find Franz Ferdinand hiding behind a designated haystack.
In a country where one royal family not only rules but owns the
land, this attempt of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, then heir to the
throne, and mad with love, to marry Countess Sophie Chotek, lady
in waiting to Archduchess Isabella, caused a palace revolution.
By the aid of Szell he at last succeeded in carrying out the
marriage. But this was only after he and his wife had been
required to submit to the most humiliating conditions and
subscribe to a marriage contract or promise which was not only
enacted thereafter as a statute in Hungary, but was formally put
on record by the Austrian parliament.
In this declaration, Franz Ferdinand declared it to be "his firm
and resolute resolve to marry Countess Sophie Chotek, that he had
sought, in accordance with the laws of the house, to obtain
consent of the Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, the Emperor
and King, Francis Joseph I, gloriously reigning, that the most
serene, supreme head of the Arch house had deigned graciously to
grant this permission and that Franz Ferdinand, however
(describing himself as 'We'), recognise the house laws and
declare them binding on Us particularly with regard to this
marriage declaration, that our Marriage with Countess Chotek is
not a marriage of equal birth, but a morganatic one and is to be
considered as such for all time, and that in consequence neither
our wife nor our issue or descendants is entitled to possess or
claim those rights, titles, armorial bearings and privileges that
belong to wives of equal birth and to children of archdukes or
marriages of equal birth." Franz Ferdinand, further, recognised
that his children from this marriage would have no right to
succeed to the throne in the kingdoms and lands of Austria nor,
consequently, to the lands of the Hungarian Crown and that they
were excluded from the order of succession.
He further agreed and promised not only for himself but for his
wife and children, that none of them would ever attempt to revoke
this declaration.
The old Emperor gave the wife of Franz Ferdinand the title of
Princess Hohenberg and later raised her to the rank of duchess
which, in the Central Empires, is a higher rank than that of
princess. She was also created a Serene Highness after the birth
of her third child, Prince Ernest, in 1904. The first child,
Princess Sophie, was born in 1901, and the second, Prince
Maximilian Charles, in 1902.
In spite of the rank thus granted to her, the Duchess of
Hohenberg was frequently slighted by Archdukes and Archduchesses
of the House of Hapsburg, and when the present Emperor, the
Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, married Princess Zita of
Bourbon-Parma, in 1911, and this marriage was followed by the
birth of a son, on November 20, 1912, it was plain to Franz
Ferdinand and his wife that the hostility of the old Emperor and
the other members of the House of Hapsburg, aided by events, had
succeeded in definitely excluding his children by Countess Sophie
from the throne.
These slights to his wife, so marked as to cause the publication
of articles inspired by himself in a newspaper devoted to his
interests, and the birth of the heir to Carl, must have had a
profound influence on melancholy Franz Ferdinand.
In all Europe there was one monarch clever enough to take
advantage of the situation, to win Franz Ferdinand to him by the
honours he paid to the Duchess of Hohenberg,--the German Emperor.
Kaiser Wilhelm invited the pair to Potsdam and there both were
made to feel that in one court, at least, the honours due to a
wife of equal birth were paid to the ex-Countess Sophie. This
Potsdam visit was in 1909, and I believe that, thereafter, the
German Emperor and Franz Ferdinand met on other occasions.
In the chapter on Emperor Wilhelm, I have stated the belief
prevalent, even in Germany, that he intended as his first step
towards his openly expressed ambition for world dominion, to make
himself, on the death of Francis Joseph, Emperor of a Great
Continental Empire in which the German Princes, his sons, should
occupy the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia, the heir of the House
of Austria to rule as king or grand duke of Austria with possibly
another German ruled kingdom touching the sea on the south.
There are some who believe that when the Kaiser, accompanied by
von Tirpitz, visited Franz Ferdinand at Konopisht in June, 1914,
before the Kiel week, that a great conspiracy was entered into,
in which it was arranged that a great Central Empire should be
created with one of the sons of the Duchess of Hohenberg on the
throne of Bohemia and the other provided for by some newly carved
out kingdom made from Bosnia, or a portion of Serbia. And it may
have been part of this plot that Eitel Fritz and other sons of
the Kaiser should be provided with thrones derived from Balkan
territory.
It will be remembered that as Franz Ferdinand and his wife fell
under the assassin's bullet at Sarajevo he called out: "Sophie,
live for our children!" His devotion to his wife and to their
children was extraordinary. He was continually sparing from his
income so that on his death his sons would have a large sum of
money, saved from the income of estates which they could not
inherit.
It is hard to believe that such a crime against the House of
Hapsburg and against his own country was contemplated from the
inside of royalty. But one event seems a confirmation of this
theory. The dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were buried with
such lack of honour, almost with such contempt, as to lead to the
belief that the head of the House of Hapsburg, Emperor Francis
Joseph himself, without whose directions the Chamberlain, Count
Montenuovo, would not have dared to act, discovered his heir in
some act against the laws or fortunes of the Imperial House.
For the funeral arrangements were such, that the Austrian and
Hungarian aristocracy were moved to protest and as a result a
belated order was issued directing that the troops of the Vienna
Garrison should take part in the funeral ceremonies. About one
hundred and fifty members of the leading families of Hungary and
Austria, without invitation, entered the funeral procession and
followed the bodies to the railway station. The _London Times_
correspondent called attention to this in cables to his newspaper
at the time.
Personally, I do not incline to this view, but I do believe that
at Konopisht the war of 1914 was finally agreed on. Too many bits
of evidence point to this and from something said to me at Kiel
by a very high personage, before the assassinations at Sarajevo,
I would have guessed that war was coming, had it not been
impossible for me to believe that the world was to be plunged
into war simply because the German people were restless under the
rule of the autocracy.
When the murders occurred at Sarajevo, all plans had been laid
for war and the death of Franz Ferdinand and the Duchess of
Hohenberg merely gave another excuse to begin hostilities, after
Austria, in the Council of Potsdam, had ratified all the
arrangements made by the Emperor Wilhelm and Franz Ferdinand for
the European war. Undoubtedly the German Emperor used his
influence with Franz Ferdinand and his wife in order to secure
the former's aid in dragging Austria into the war,--a war begun
to win the dominion of the world.
How many in America have heard the name of Sophie Chotek? Yet the
ambitions of this woman have done much to send to war the
splendid youths who from all the ends of the earth gather in
France to fight the fight of freedom.
The clever German Emperor, playing upon her ambitions, induced
the gloomy, hated Franz Ferdinand to consent to the world war,
and matters had gone so far that even the death of the Archduke
Franz Ferdinand could not change the situation nor turn the war
party of Hungary and Austria from their programme of blood.
Eighty-four years of age, the old Francis Joseph could only offer
a weak defence to the martial insistence of Tisza, Premier of
Hungary, and his able understrapper, Forgotsch, who represented
him in the Foreign Office at Vienna and who undoubtedly is the
man who drafted the forty-eight hour ultimatum to Servia.
[Illustration: MAIN STAIRWAY IN THE AMERICAN EMBASSY, BERLIN]
Berliners say that although the German Emperor gave the Duchess
of Hohenberg all the honours due to the wife of an Austrian
Archduke, heir to the throne of the Austrian Empire, he was
careful not to bring her claims in direct conflict with any
Prussian female Royalty and that on the first visit of Franz
Ferdinand and his wife to Potsdam, when the doors of the banquet
room were thrown open, it was seen that the Kaiser had skilfully
placed all the guests at small tables, sitting at one with the
Empress and his two guests. In this way he prevented a conflict
of precedence and a possible scene with some Prussian royal
princess.
After one of these Potsdam visits, the Austrian government
appropriated three hundred millions for new Skoda cannon and a
great and unexpected increase of the navy was voted. In Austria
itself it was seen that the German influence was dragging
Austria-Hungary nearer and nearer to war.
Ferdinand disliked the Hungarians and in turn was hated by them.
If he had attained the throne of the Empire, as his children
could not inherit, he would have endeavoured first to remove that
obstacle, but if he had not succeeded he intended, as I have
said, either to restore the kingdom of Bohemia and place his son,
child of a Bohemian mother, on the newly created throne, or
create, possibly from conquered lands, another kingdom over which
his heir could reign.
The Magyars, the real Hungarian ruling race, are most skilful
politicians. Their elections often are corrupt and all the tricks
of the politician are in use in Hungary.
In many families political talent seems hereditary. Tisza, the
Premier of Hungary for the period for some time before the war,
was the son of Tisza, who was Premier of Hungary about the year
1875. Kossuth, son of the great Kossuth, has been active in
politics. The father of Count Julius Andrassy was Premier about
1866 and favoured Germany, a policy which has been inherited by
his son. One of the sons-in-law of Count Andrassy's wife, Marquis
Pallavicini, came to America to act as best man when my wife's
sister married Count Sigray.
Andrassy came to Berlin during the war where I had several long
talks with him. The one desire of Hungarians and Austrians alike
is for peace, but surrounded by the armies of their German
masters, they have lost their independence of action, a bitter
blow to the Magyars, who are not fond of the Germans.
Count Stephen Tisza is an obstinate and able man, so many sided
that it is related of him that he fought a duel, rode a
steeplechase and made a great speech in Parliament, all in one
day.
Duelling is still a custom in Hungary, Austria and Germany. Once
when I was in Hungary I took supper with a Count who had been
second in a duel that day. One young Magnate was at a restaurant
with an actress who wore a wide brimmed hat. Another young
Magnate of his acquaintance looked under the hat brim to see who
the girl was. Result: a duel with sabres in a riding school. On
this occasion, as the insult was not deadly, the use of sharp
points was forbidden. The duel was stopped after one young
Magnate received a cut on the forehead.
Stephen Tisza, on first taking office, was permitted by the old
Emperor to obtain some apparent concessions for Hungary in order
to make his premiership popular. It was arranged that Hungarian
flags should be carried by Hungarian regiments, and that the
officers of those regiments all should be Hungarians, but German
was to be used as the military language and language of command
even in the Hungarian regiments.
As soon as Tisza became premier for the first time, Count Apponyi
left the Liberal party and lately Count Julius Andrassy and his
wife's sons-in-law, Count Karoli and Marquis Pallavicini, have
been in violent opposition to Tisza, Pallavicini even fighting a
duel with the Prime Minister.
In a country where the majority of the inhabitants are Roman
Catholics it is rather strange that Tisza and his father, both
strong Protestants, should have attained the Premiership. The
father of Count Stephen Tisza was even more obstinate than his
son and greatly oppressed the Slovaks and Roumanians within the
borders of Hungary.
A great responsibility lies at the door of Stephen Tisza. He
allowed the Germans to use him in bringing on the world war.
Doubtless he believed that Russia and the Powers would not move,
that Austria-Hungary could seize or invade Serbia, while Germany
terrorised the world as in 1908 when Bosnia and Herzegovina were
added to the Imperial dominions. But his failure to read the
intentions of Russia and the other Powers is no excuse for the
calamity he brought on Hungary and the world, no excuse for the
fact that his country is now overwhelmed by Kaiserism, its armies
surrounded by the armies of Germany and its very independence
threatened by the subtle influence and intrigues of the master
intriguer of the world,--the German Kaiser.
The franchise in Austria and in Hungary is like that given
grudgingly to the Prussian, a mere ghost of suffrage. Autocracy
rules. In Hungary, particularly the Magyars, seeking to keep the
political power in their hands, oppose a broadening of the
franchise. Tisza has always been against any letting down of the
bars, but when the young and brilliant Count Esterhazy was made
Premier, many looked for a change--a change which has, however,
not yet come.
The new Emperor Carl at first seemed to exhibit Liberal
tendencies, but only for a moment.
The events in Russia will have a grave effect in Austria-Hungary.
More than a million Russians are prisoners in the Dual Monarchy,
nearly a million of whose subjects are in Russia--and of these at
least fifty thousand Czechs are fighting the Austrians and
Germans in the ranks of the Roumanian army. Many more will refuse
to leave Russia, but the coming back of one-half, after having
witnessed the winning of liberty by the Russians, will influence
their countrymen in no small degree. Just as the French soldiers
under Lafayette and Rochambeau, after helping us gain our
independence, returned from the free fields of America to a
France where the burdens of the plain people were almost
unendurable and brought on the great French Revolution, the
soldiers and prisoners who return to Prussia and to Austria-Hungary
from the strange scenes of the Russian Revolution may, perhaps,
leaven the inert slave masses of the Central Empires with a
spirit of revolt for liberty.
We should institute a great propaganda from the Italian front.
For instance, I have been told by a man who has been on that
front, a man who should know, that if a few American troops were
sent there and signs erected stating "Come over and surrender to
the Americans, you will be taken to America well fed and paid a
dollar per day when you volunteer to work," there would be a
great rush of Austro-Hungarian troops eager to be taken prisoner.
The losses of Austria and Hungary have been enormous--men up to
fifty-five have been drafted for the army, and the troops have
often suffered defeat and the horrors of retreat at the hands of
Russians, Serbians, and Italians.
And all the time the iron hand of the German Kaiser grasps more
and more of the power. Cheerless prospect it is for the once gay
Hungarians, the once happy Austrians, if to financial ruin and
the killing of the flower of their youth is to be added the iron
horror of Prussian domination.
Our citizens of Austrian and especially of Hungarian descent have
been loyal to their new flag. And our great President with
enlightened wisdom has eased the enemy alien regulations so as to
favour those born in the Dual Monarchy. America will never
forget the loyalty, ungrudgingly given by those of her people
born under the double eagle of the Hapsburgs.
In my many visits to Hungary I grew to like and admire the
Hungarians. Natural in manners, hospitable, polite, there is
something in them that wins Americans. How different the open
hospitality and friendliness in Budapest from the stern, cold
formality of the Prussian capital!
And with all friends of Hungary I hope that that country will
soon throw off the trance of Prussianism, which has led the Dual
Monarchy into a Dance of Death.