The Vienna Melody (67 page)

“That very afternoon he returned with the statement that he had spoken to Hitler on the telephone and was authorized to say: ‘Tell Schuschnigg I am waiting for him with outstretched hands. He cannot possibly refuse the hand of a friend!' I replied evasively and addressed myself through the Italian Minister Salata to Mussolini, who, in the Pact of Rome, guaranteed our independence and that of Hungary. Minister Salata that same evening said that he had communicated with Mussolini and Ciano and that Mussolini had declared: ‘Schuschnigg is enough of a statesman to know what he must do.' Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister, had said, ‘By all means accept the invitation.'

“After I had reported to the President and the Cabinet and the decision had been reached that we could not turn down an offer from Germany to settle our far-reaching differences by peaceful means, I informed von Papen that I accepted the invitation and left on the night of the twelfth for Berchtesgaden. Accompanying me were our Foreign Minister Guido Schmidt; my personal adjutant, Major Bartl; my secretary, von Fröhlichsthal; six detectives; and a personal bodyguard of six men.”

He interrupted his dictation to say, without looking up, “That was your wish, Guido!”

“At Freilassing on the frontier,” the Chancellor went on, “three gentlemen from the Gestapo, in civilian dress, entered my compartment. They identified themselves as Chief Commissar Dittrich, Chief Commissar Holz, and Commissar Fischer, and produced a typewritten order according to which I was to cross the frontier accompanied only by Minister Schmidt and Major Bartl. All the other Austrian functionaries were obliged to remain behind in Austria.

“I declared that this was not in accordance with international law with respect to the representatives of a sovereign state. The gentlemen expressed regret and said that was their order. When I inquired who had signed the order, since the signature on the bottom of the typewritten slip was illegible, the only answer was that no information could be given on that score.

“Under those circumstances I refused to continue my journey and went out into the corridor for the purpose of leaving the train. But at this moment the train was already moving and I saw my escort, except for Minister Schmidt and Major Bartl, left behind on the platform. They were taken off the train while I was talking to the Gestapo men. Immediately after the train left the border station a captain of S.S. by the name of Spitze introduced himself as a ‘guard of honor' sent by Hitler and prevented me from executing my intention of pulling the emergency signal cord. Later I discovered that this Spitze was an Austrian who had been banned from Austria by Chancellor Seipel for his Nazi propaganda and had been commissioned as a captain by the Nazis.

“From Berchtesgaden I was taken in a closed car to Obersalzberg. In the car Herr Spitze sat beside me. I wished to open the window, but Herr Spitze prevented me from doing so with the words that it would be against his orders. It was five minutes past nine when we entered Hitler's house.

“Herr Spitze announced me at once, but it was at least twenty minutes before I could go in. During those twenty minutes I waited in an antechamber filled with officers. I recall that it was nine-thirty by the clock on Hitler's desk when I stood before him. He did not rise to greet me, but remained seated at his desk, and yelled at me vehemently as I entered, ‘It's a filthy mess you have in Austria!'

“‘Good morning, Herr Reichskanzler,' was my greeting to him.

“Without returning it, giving me his hand, or offering me a chair, he jumped up and paced around the room while I remained standing near his desk.

“‘Of all the unheard-of baseness! An infamous breach of trust and faith such as history has never known! Pure Austrian ways!' he said in an ever louder voice as he paced round the room. ‘That is something you have on your conscience! You and no one else! But let me tell you that from today it is going to stop! Even my patience has a limit! I will not tolerate it any longer! Do you understand? I will not tolerate it!' This last he screamed.

“I was literally speechless in the face of such treatment. As I learned later, Hitler's outbreak of anger was due to the arrest of the Viennese Nazi propagandist, Captain Leopold, which I had ordered in the latter part of January.

“‘Are you dumb?' Hitler stormed at me. ‘You can open your mouth all right if it's a case of slandering or when you make your Catholic genuflections before the heads of the so-called democracies. You're in the wrong pew now! I am no incense swinger and no weakling like the French and English gentlemen. With me it's a case of looking facts in the face!' He rushed back to his desk and handed me the memorandum attached to these notes.

“‘Herr Reichskanzler,' I said, ‘I had not believed such treatment possible. There is now standing before you not a person who chances to bear the name of Schuschnigg but the representative of a sovereign state. Even if you believe that you are not called upon to respect a man of my name I do demand that respect from you for Austria, where you were born!' After a fleeting glance at his list of demands, and realizing what was at stake, I decided not to give him any occasion for further outbreaks.

“‘You could have sat down by yourself,' was his rejoinder. ‘I am a man of the people. I don't bother about ceremony. But I save my people. You stick to ceremony and let your people go under!' He had seated himself at his desk and telephoned the order to have von Papen and Minister Schmidt sent in.

“In their presence we discussed the memorandum with the demands point by point, against point 5 of which, containing the principal demand—the naming of Dr. Seyss-Inquart to the Ministry of the Interior—I remonstrated especially, because this would have delivered the Austrian police into the hands of the Nazis. My actual words to Hitler were, ‘Herr Reichskanzler, with the nomination of Seyss-Inquart you are asking for something which actually runs counter to conditions in Austria. Austria has, at most, twenty-seven to twenty-nine percent, of National Socialists. The turning over of the portfolios of the Interior, War, Justice, and Education to the National Socialists, as you require in your memorandum, would be in gross disproportion to the actual distribution of parties—that is to say, the will of the people, which you on many occasions have indicated as the basis for your own Government.'

“‘One moment!' Hitler interrupted, and again by telephone gave an order to have a general sent for, who, when he came, was introduced to me as von Reichenau.

“‘How long would you need to occupy Austria, General von Reichenau?' he asked him.

“‘Twelve days if we were held up, otherwise three, my Führer!' the general replied with a laugh.

“And Hitler laughed too, for the first time. ‘You see, Herr Schuschnigg,' he said, ‘those are the actual proportions.'

“Up to this moment I had firmly suppressed the thought that Austria might be attacked by a German army. In the World War I had fought beside the Germans and formed an opinion of the spirit of the German Army. I had believed that an ally's army cannot fall on an ally—and still believe it. There is one card in the game which is being played against us. I admit it is a trump card but neither is Hitler in a position to play it. The honor of the German Army could not submit to the shame of attacking an unarmed ally, not even if its supreme command has been changed. Under Blomberg and Fritsch not even the threat of such a thing would have been possible. On that belief I based my refusal which I justified point by point.

“The negotiations were interrupted by a brief midday meal, the only meal which was offered me during my stay of eleven hours. My seat was between General von Reichenau and the chief of the German General Staff, von Keitel. Opposite me sat two other generals and a colonel, whose names have slipped my memory. During the meal there was talk of nothing except the armed invasion of Austria. ‘And what do you think about it?' Hitler asked one general after another. Sometimes he added, ‘Did you hear that, Herr Schuschnigg?'

“After luncheon I lighted one of my own cigarettes, as I need to smoke to help concentrate my thoughts. Hitler stopped me with the words, ‘No one is allowed to smoke in my presence! ‘If you want to smoke go outside!'

“In the course of the afternoon he modified his manner noticeably. He said, ‘I know you too are temperamental. You will not hold my outbreak of temperament of this morning against me?' I assured him I should not.

“When we separated towards nine o'clock in the evening we had not made any actual progress whatsoever. I had positively declared that under the Constitution I was not authorized to make the required agreements, because they lay in the jurisdiction of the President. I promised to report to the constitutional authorities and meanwhile to take the memorandum with me for purposes of reference. As I went to put it in my pocket Hitler attempted to prevent me from so doing; it was only due to the interference of General von Keitel that I was able to keep the document.

“Herr von Papen was present at both parts of the discussion. Minister Schmidt was present only in the morning.”

When the speaker, still in an even voice struggling for self-control, had finished his dictation, the State Secretary, Zernatto, said, “You should never have gone! One doesn't trust people like Papen!”

“Yes,” agreed the man who showed the bitter insults he had suffered, “it was a mistake. But, so help me God, I shall make up for it! Hitler's argument is that the will of the people is decisive. Very well! I shall let the will of our people decide! We shall hold a plebiscite on whether the Austrian people want Hitler or Austria. At least seventy percent will be against Hitler. In that way he will be downed with his own weapon!”

Zernatto was silent. Hans would have liked to say something encouraging. He was so infinitely sorry for this gray, tired man. The trust which he placed in him was as boundless as his trust in human decency. Not by a single syllable or thought had he ever made him feel that he was Hermann's brother. Anyone else in his stead would not have allowed him to come near him. He not only had him around but allowed him to come humanly close to him. But when Hans now saw his questioning look resting on him, all he could answer was, “A plebiscite without the working men is impossible!” This was a point on which they had tried to agree an untold number of times before. Hans had explained again and again that Austria was suffering more from February 1934, when the workers' resistance to Dollfuss was broken by murderous force, than from St. Germain. Now he said it again.

“Shots were fired on both sides,” declared Zernatto. “The Government and the workers lost an almost equal number of dead and wounded. You forget that. And you forget too that shots were fired only because the workers were about to cut off our light, our current, and our water.”

“Then we should have just gone for two or four days without light and water,” said Hans. “You cannot fire on workers!” he repeated, desperate that he had to say so obvious a thing again and again and that no one wanted to listen.

The Chancellor had locked up his papers in his leather briefcase. He went up to Hans. “I have a request to make of you,” he said. “I know you're friendly with Ebeseder. Help me to make peace with the Austrian workers. Will you do that? As far as I'm concerned, I honestly wish it.”

“I'd like nothing better!” Hans answered with passion. “Now Austria is saved!”

The State Secretary shrugged his shoulders. “Saving Austria has been the order of the day since the Turkish wars! Come along, you optimist. I shall dictate to you the saving plan of our friend Hitler.”

Hans had hade an appointment to meet his mother in the Three Hussars restaurant in Weihburggasse. As often as he could he gave her the pleasure of being ‘taken out.' She was so pleased to be rid of housekeeping cares. But he was late again on this evening, as on nearly every evening since he had begun roaming about town.

Henriette was at first inclined to suspect a woman. She was concerned about the boy, as she still called her forty-seven-year-old son. The dark shadow which he had piled up between them had long since vanished, and all her love come back. Only a woman could bring him help, yet she, his mother, felt herself incapable of it. What had she still to offer him except tenderness and the bit of experience she had gleaned from life? But on closer observation it did not look to her as though Hans's absences were connected with a woman. When he went out he wore his oldest clothes. When he telephoned it was to that man Ebeseder whom he seemed to be in really unbroken communication with day and night. Always politics. Even in her father she had never been able to understand it. Yet in Professor Stein's day Austria had been a Great Power, whereas now …? God save us!

Waiting for her son, she was seated at a table on the raised platform in the restaurant then favored by Vienna Society. When Hans was over an hour late she began to be uneasy.

At the next table sat the von Kageneck couple from Brünn. Had they not seen Henriette? So much the better! Otherwise they would be smothering her with attentions. The wife was so expansive, one could never extricate oneself from her flattery. Opposite sat the Italian Minister with his flirtatious daughter. Henriette waved to the daughter. She wore an incredible hat! A large velvet pansy plastered at an angle on her head was literally all there was to it. Was this the Paris style in spring hats?

The young Italian returned her greeting. Now she would probably call out through the whole place, “
Buona sera
,
Mammina
!” which annoyed Henriette so. The older she grew the less she enjoyed public show. But the Italian said nothing.

Captain Kunsti of the Ravag broadcasting station came in. He too was an admirer of hers. The nicest people came here. After that evening of chamber music at Peter's he had presented her with a record from the Ravag record files of Selma's “I will deliver you from fear” speech. He had thought this would greatly please her, for of course he could not know how things really stood. Anyhow, the letter he sent with it was one of the most charming Henriette had ever received: “To the best dancer of Viennese waltzes; to the most enchanting young Viennese lady!” It was no empty dream—Austrians did have charm! “Good evening, Captain,” Henriette said to the delightful man. But he was talking to someone else and did not hear her.