Page 281 - Il 1919. Un’Italia vittoriosa e provata in un’Europa in trasformazione. Problematiche e prospettive - Atti 11-12 novembre 2019

IV Sessione - L’Italia a Versailles. Aspetti di politica internazionale 279

Moravia, and the Sudetenland, however, had been initially planned but – due to
the foreign policy decisions taken – was illusive and therefore unrealistic.

From the Volkswehr to the National Defence Act of 1920
While the Volkswehr had been intended as a temporary solution on the road
towards “armed forces” structured like a militia for the Republic of German-
Austria, by the spring of 1919 it became necessary to develop a meaningful ne-
gotiation strategy towards the victorious and successor states regarding the
problem of national defence. German-Austria was officially invited to join the
Paris Peace Conference on 2 May 1919. As the Social Democratic perspective -
arming of the people and militia system by way of a preceding temporary solu-
tion in the form of the Volkswehr – had not changed, the idea of the Christian
Social (CS) Party seems interesting, as it was in a coalition government with the
Social Democrats (SDAP). In respect thereof the Christian Social representative
Theodor Kirchlehner formulated the party’s line as follows, «We are content with
a gendarmerie designed according to the times, in which we want to see our de-
serving professional NCOs and officers well sheltered […] our nation shall be
spared from military service for several years and free to work productively so
that we can recover […] later after we have regained some of our strength, we
23
shall continue talking about new armed forces». Of course, Deutsch promptly
accused these ideas of being “reactionary” behaviour, since obviously, the
“cadres” of the old army were to be largely preserved, to create a continuity of
personnel and presumably also ideology with the Imperial and Royal armed
forces. Naturally, this assessment is understandable when considering the political
conceptual world of Deutsch, however, the Christian Social Party seems to have
emphasized the protection of the civilian population in the economic crisis of
the period of upheaval as well as on the aversion to military service and high mil-
itary expenditure. In 1925, a conservative officer, Major General August Pitreich,
retroactively postulated about his party’s stance in 1919 regarding the problem
of national defence, «by its lack of interest this pacifistically inclined party was
quick to trade the Armed Forces away to the Left and thereby has become guilty
beyond redemption». For the German-Nationalist Party, on the other hand, the
24

23 Deutsch, Aus Österreichs Revolution, p. 64
24 Peter Broucek: Militärische Vorbereitungen für die Friedenskonferenz. In: 1918 – 1968, Die
Streitkräfte der Republik Österreich. Katalog zur Sonderausstellung im Heeresgeschichtlichen