CHAPTER IX.

THE END OF THE _HAKENKREUZLER_

At a political meeting held shortly after the expulsion of the Jews Dr. Schwertfeger said that now, when the foes of the Aryan spirit no longer resided in Austria, there would be an automatic approximation of the various party groups, and a modification of political antagonism.

He seemed to have been right. Almost annihilated by the results of the last election, dumfounded and staggered by recent events, robbed by the expulsion of their greatest minds, best journalists, and most spirited leaders, the Socialists remained silent and decided not to come out of their forced retirement for the time being. And the variance between the principles of the German Nationalists and the Christian-Socialists actually began to disappear.

After the expulsion all Vienna was transformed into an armed camp of _Hakenkreuzler_. Practically every man, woman, adolescent and child wore the emblem that was displayed on all the posters, flags and standards. But when things came to such a pass that every “drunk” and pickpocket was wearing it, when the police mentioned regularly that “the prisoner wore a _Hakenkreuz_,” then the more intelligent people began to discard it, soon to be imitated by the middle class and the masses.

It was not long before it became evident that all the parties, the Christian-Socialist as well as the Social-Nationalist, had as their common basis the portrayal of the Jew as an evil spirit, a bogeyman, and a scapegoat. Now that there were no Jews or people of Jewish descent in Austria this no longer attracted the public, and party politics became even more stupid and boring than before.

Misery, unemployment, and the cost of living increased, and demagogues were at a loss to find someone to blame. For now the rich were good Christians, as were also the exploiters and usurers, (though the latter were not to be mentioned, for that would have been an admission that Christians, as well as Jews, could be profiteers and usurers).

Formerly the _Hakenkreuzler_ had attracted notice and aroused the masses with their posters. Bosel and other Jewish plutocrats had been called the rulers of Austria, had been reviled as vampires and oppressors. But now Bosel was living in London, and the _Hakenkreuzler_ posters had become so colorless that no one bothered to read them any more.

One after the other the papers that displayed the _Hakenkreuz_ suspended publication; _Hakenkreuzler_ meetings no longer drew an audience, no more money poured into the party treasury, and the leaders found themselves in a pinch when they could no longer fleece rich Jews, and when there were no more Jewish banks to give them money. For the Christianized banks did not need to contribute--and could not have done so had they wished, for their situation became worse every day.

The leaders of the _Hakenkreuzler_ made a last effort to save themselves and their slowly dying party. On enormous posters and a million leaflets they informed the populace that it was again the Jews who were to blame for all the misery of Vienna. It was international Jewry, said they, that was shooting poisoned darts into Austria from foreign countries, that was hatching vengeance, that was forcing down the krone and, through the powerful organization of Freemasonry, was draining Austria and isolating her from international life.

For three or four days these “revelations” served as topics of conversation--for three or four days the starving, desperate, jobless people stopped before the posters and shook their fists. Then they began to shrug their shoulders and to call the whole business nonsense. For the simple reason that even the most stupid of them could see that Austria was absolutely powerless against such a “plot” of international Jewry. In the old days they could have marched from a _Hakenkreuzler_ meeting to Leopoldstadt, drunk with enthusiasm, and secretly hoping to plunder and burglarize a little on the way, to thrash a few Jews and break some windows. But now, when there were no more Jews in Leopoldstadt, such a demonstration would have been entirely senseless, and the formerly so tolerant and kindly police now would surely have cut down the looting demonstrants without much ado.

Thus it happened that one day the principal organ of the _Hakenkreuzler_ made the melancholy and yet defiant announcement that it would suspend publication; incidentally, it revealed the heart-rending fact that at the last great assembly of the _Hakenkreuzler_ there had gathered only twenty persons in addition to the officers and the waiters.

Dr. Schwertfeger had been right: Political opposition was becoming less vivid, was disappearing almost completely. But for an entirely different reason than he had believed. It was because of a total lack of motive power, and because the Jews had taken with them all the dash and spirit of politics.