Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0025/00255.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 21KB | 401 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00255}
$Pretitle{376}
$Title{Austria
Appendix}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Federal Press Service}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Austria, Washington DC}
$Subject{austria
herr
dollfuss
nazi
peace
nations
upon
austria's
every
state}
$Date{1986}
$Log{}
Country:     Austria
Book:        First Republic 1880-1938
Author:      Federal Press Service
Affiliation: Embassy of Austria, Washington DC
Date:        1986

Appendix

See ill. 13:

2nd Pastoral Letter.
The Bishops of Austria
invoke on behalf of their congregations the benediction of the Lord.

Dearly Beloved,

     The Holy Year 1933 has bestowed great blessings upon all of Christendom
and has furthermore brought great joy to our fatherland Austria.

     Austria finds itself today, as it were, the focus of world interest as an
example and model of a Christian political order and a sincere advocate of
peace. Austria has embarked upon the path towards becoming once more what it
was for centuries: a bastion of peace between nations and a repository of
western culture founded upon the Christian faith. Accordingly we hope and pray
for a happy future for our fatherland as also for all those nations and
peoples who are willing to go forward hand in hand with us, to share our
principles and to further our intentions.

     This applies equally to our neighbours and brothers, the people of
Germany. Deplorable strife has driven an artificial wedge between our two
nations. This is not the appropriate occasion to discuss how such a division
came about. But one thing is beyond doubt: it was not we Austrians who
provoked the strife; civil conflict was forced upon us. We have repeatedly
made overtures of peace, and we shall continue to do so until they are
accepted in the spirit of reconciliation. Let us not forget, however, that
true and lasting peace must be based on legitimate rights. If our government
demands that Austria's full political sovereignty and its unimpaired authority
be respected, then it is invoking rights which every sovereign state is
required to demand - rights which it cannot forfeit without forfeiting its
very existence, betraying its legitimate interests and disregarding historical
and national realities.

     We, the Bishops of Austria, have in our Pastoral Letter of February 7
1932 warned against national socialism. In the intervening months individual
bishops have expounded the religious aberrations of this ideology. In the
light of the growing religious perils we regard it as our episcopal duty to
point out these underlying deviations in brief and concise form.

     We would set four fundamental truths against the teachings of national
socialism:

     The first fundamental truth: Mankind is a unified family existing on the
basis of justice and love. We therefore condemn national socialism's illusory
racial theories, which will inevitably incite racial hatred and conflict
between peoples. We likewise deplore the unchristian sterilization law, which
is irreconcilable with natural rights and Catholic Christian belief.

     The second fundamental truth: True Christian nationalism is inspired by
God and endorsed by the Church. For it is inherent in man's nature to love his
own people and to feel a bond of allegiance to his fatherland. We therefore
extol the virtue of Christian patriotism, condemn betrayal of the fatherland
and deplore radical racial antisemitism.

     The third fundamental truth: The nation and the state are distinct
concepts, whereby the state is of a higher order. We therefore condemn the
principle of extreme nationalism, uphold the historical rights of our
fatherland and applaud the fostering of the Austrian idea.

     The fourth fundamental truth: Religion comes before any form of
nationalism, for religion is not national but international. Religion invests
every nation with greatness and is a blessing for every people. It is the
source and the support of true culture in every people. But religion is not
confined to individual peoples; on the contrary, it is the apt medium by which
the message of Salvation is transmitted to all peoples and at the same time by
which temporal wellbeing is promoted. Therefore we condemn all ideas and
tendencies which will eventually lead to the creation of a national church and
thus to an open breach with the Catholic Church.

     May this our Pastoral Letter convey the blessed peace of Christmastide to
all men of good will. May Almighty God the Father and the Son and the Holy
Ghost bless you. Amen.

Vienna, December 21 1933.

Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna
Ignatius Rieder, Prince Archbishop of Salzburg
Adam Hefter, Prince Archbishop of Gurk in Klagenfurt
Ferdinand Pawlikowski, Prince Archbishop of Seckau in Graz
Johannes Maria Gfollner, Bishop of Linz
Michael Memelauer, Bishop of Sankt Polten
Sigismund Waitz, Apostolic Administrator of Innsbruck-Feldkirch.

     This Pastoral Letter is to be read from the pulpits on December 24 of
this year.

See ill. 15:

OBITUARY
HERR DOLLFUSS
A CHANCELLOR OF
COURAGE

     Herr Dollfuss, whose murder at the age of 41 by Nazis is announced on
another page, will always be remembered as the Chancellor of Austria who, when
called to lead the patriotic resistance of his country against the coercive
attempts of German Nazism to assimilate it to the Third Reich, put up a fight
of the utmost gallantry in the face of heavy odds. For Austria and himself he
won sympathy and respect from every foreign country except his adversary, and
his example was inspiring to many at a most disheartening period. If Austria
had quickly succumbed to Nazi pressure, as it had been widely thought that she
might, the evil consequences for her neighbours and the rest of Europe might
have been beyond repair.

     Dollfuss was one of those who have greatness thrust upon them. A man of
diminutive stature - he was 4ft. 11in. in height - he was only chosen after
some hesitation by the Clerical Christian Social Party, on whom the main
responsibility for the central government fell after the War, to guide the
country out of an awkward Cabinet crisis. This he did at a time when Austria
was on the verge of bankruptcy and when the Austrian Nazi Party had just
proved that it was a rising political force. For the best part of a year
Dollfuss quietly and tenaciously kept the mastery over his many difficulties
by the established methods of Parliamentary Government. Then, in the face of a
continued deadlock, recognizing the obvious dangers of plunging Austria into
an electoral campaign, he passed like Herr Bruening in Germany to
emergency-decree rule. As he had commanded an uncertain majority of one in
Parliament, to most Austrians it seemed as if his days as Chancellor were
numbered.

STRUGGLE WITH THE NAZIS

     Soon afterwards the Nazi storm broke loose, and Dollfuss rose to the
occasion. He was reviled and threatened by every device known to the Nazi
propaganda machine, and at the same time involved in milder hostilities with
the Social-Democrats. But he stuck to his guns unflinchingly, declaring after
a narrow escape from assassination that his motto had become Jetzt erst recht.
With capable helpers he was able, not only to pursue the fight against Nazi
lawlessness, conspiracy, and propaganda after the proscription of the party's
activities with a vigour unlooked for in Austria, but also to conduct an
intensive campaign and organize a wider following for the patriotic revival
which he saw was necessary before he could turn the Nazi tide.

See ill. 16:

EUROPE AND THE NAZI NIGHTMARE.

"PUBLIC ENEMY No 1"

HERR DOLLFUSS AS MARTYR.

     The important, perhaps historic sequel to Wednesday's outrage is the
increasing concentration of a whole world's thought, not upon Vienna, but upon
Berlin. During the last three days the unpleasant truth has appeared in an
ever clearer light. Even ignorant people, who did not know the immediate
circumstances, instinctively knew that this was the appalling, blundering
climax of the terror that is modern Germany