More than One Brand of Fascism

Wrangel - or What's Right With Fascism · Jasenovac - or what is wrong with "Fascism" · More than One Brand of Fascism

Between Austrian members of NSDAP and Austrian members of the Austro-Fascist Régime, a coalition between the Christian Social Party and the Heimwehr, who killed Bettauer?

Maximilian Hugo Bettauer* (18 August 1872 – 26 March 1925) was a prolific Austrian writer and journalist, who was murdered by a [??] follower on account of his opposition to antisemitism. He was well known in his lifetime; many of his books were bestsellers and in the 1920s a number were made into films, most notably Die freudlose Gasse (The Joyless Street, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1925), which dealt with prostitution, and Die Stadt ohne Juden (The City Without Jews, directed by Hans Karl Breslauer, 1924), a satire against antisemitism.

I have omitted the party designation.

The Nazis branded Bettauer* a "Red poet" and "corruptor of youth", and an Austrian party member published a series of articles calling for "radical self help" and "lynch justice against all polluters of our people".[3] On 10 March 1925, a dental technician named Otto Rothstock shot Bettauer several times.[3] He was taken to hospital in Vienna with serious injuries and died on 26 March 1925. He was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering, where also his ashes are buried.

Seems some of both wanted people like Bettauer lynched. On the one side THE Nazis, on the other side ONE member OF the "Austrian Party" - here a misnomer for back then Christian Social party, of which Austrian Party is a post-War successor. But what was the loyalty of Otto Rothstock?

As a young member of various different political parties, Rothstock** was enraged by Bettauer's newspapers that he claimed to be pornographic. On March 10, 1925, Rothstock entered Bettauer's office and shot him five times at point-blank range. Hugo Bettauer died on March 26, 1925, from his wounds.

At his trial, Rothstock justified what he had done as necessary to save European culture from the menace of degeneration. His lawyer, Walter Riehl, (himself a National Socialist functionary) argued that his client was guilty but insane, with which the jury agreed. However, within twenty months Rothstock was released as “cured” from a mental hospital.[3] A fair amount of money was collected from the general public for him.[4]

Rothstock was an unrepentant Nazi. In a 1977 interview on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Rothstock reportedly boasted of Bettauer's "extinction".[5]

In other words, the killer was a National Socialist.

Heinrich Schenker died 1935, under Austrofascism. His widow Jeannette died 1945, under National Socialism. How did each die?

Schenker*** died on 14 January 1935, age 66 at 2 AM, the cause of death listed as diabetes and arteriosclerosis. He was buried on 17 January at the Wiener Zentralfriedhof, Gate 4, Group 3, Series 4, number 8.[55] The inscription on his grave reads: "Hier ruht, der die Seele der Musik vernommen, ihre Gesetze im Sinne der Großen verkündet wie Keiner vor ihm" (Here lies he who examined and revealed the laws concerning the soul of music like none other before him).

Jeanette Schenker stayed in Vienna after the Anschluss. She was rescued twice from the Nazis before being arrested and transported on 29 June 1942. She died in Theresienstadt on 8 January 1945.[56]

I think it is pretty safe to say, Austrofascism was lots healthier for Jews than National Socialism was.

But which one of them did Jews like better?

In einem Brief an seinen° Schüler Felix-Eberhard von Cube begrüßte er am 14. Mai 1933 den politischen Aufstieg Hitlers als Zeichen einer kulturellen Umkehr.

In a letter to the pupil Felix-Eberhard von Cube, on the 14th of May 1933, he saluted the political rise of Hitler as a sign for a cultural revolution.

On the other hand, the one occasion in which Austrofascists on a larger scale got "physical" with Jews were fistfights where Heimwehr punched Jews for insulting the memory of Dollfuss. So, Jews had insulted Dollfuss, so probably were not as fond of Austrofascism.

And as for doctors ...

"Nach einer wochenlangen Medienkampagne gegen Bettauer schoss der 21-jährige Zahntechniker Otto Rothstock"
"On 10 March 1925, a dental technician named Otto Rothstock shot Bettauer several times."

Or the tombstone of Hans Tita Probst in Graz:

New blog on the kid : I thank the Cemetery of Graz
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2014/01/i-thank-cemetery-of-graz.html

Please note, I did not thank the cemetary of Graz most for honouring the probable last wishes of HTP, but - here is my reason:

Thanks to this, it may at last be known outside Austria too that this man, who has a Swastika and not any Cross on his grave, whose headstone features no Cross even for the date of his death (and no star for the date of his birth, just "24.3.1897 - 27.7.1934", no star and no cross), who died in the July Putsch of 1934, who was a comrade thus with the other Nazi who killed Dollfuss, who was an SA Sturmbannführer, and who was called Hans Tita Probst, was a Medical Doctor and thus likely to have been in life an Atheist or Pantheist, but at least no Catholic Christian. Unless there was a cross above the piece shown in the picture. Even so, it is likely as with Georges Lemaître he was getting more of his worldview from non-Christian, non-Catholic sources than from orthodoxly Catholic ones.

In Austria, Nazis were progressives, precisely like Social Democrats. Austrofaschists were Reactionaries.

As a Reactionary Austrofaschist, I am thankful it be known that Hans Tita Probst, Sturmbannführer and Medical Doctor, was shot by Austrofaschist either police or military or Heimwehr. Thanks for proving I am not a Nazi! Es war sehr schön, es hat mich sehr gefreut!

Unfortunately, the article I linked to in 2014, is down. You will have to trust my honesty as to not have invented the parts I now cite, and my judgement as to not have extrapolated Hans Tita Probst as being medical doctor for no reason at all.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Decapitation of St. John the Baptist
29.VIII.2022

PS, as I mentioned medical personnel, how about this, here:

Schenker's*** father was a doctor who had been allowed to settle in Wiśniowczyk, a village of only 1,759 inhabitants, according to the 1869 census.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Bettauer

** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Rothstock

*** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Schenker

° https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Schenker