Prince Ernst von Rudiger Stahremberg, the new chieftain of the Heimwehr, Austria’s private nationalistic militia, maintains complete silence on the Jewish policy of the Heimwehr under his leadership in replying to a telegram from J. Lippowitz, a converted Jew and publisher of the non-political Weiner Journal, asking for a statement concerning Stahremberg’s attitude toward anti-Semitism. The Heimwehr leader merely stressed the fact that the Heimwehr is above party.
Lippowitz’s telegram had demanded that the Heimwehr officially renounce anti-Semitism as one of the planks in its platform and that it assure equal rights to Austrian Jews who are loyal citizens of the Republic. Lippowitz pointed out that anti-Semitism in the Heimwehr movement was threatening to split the united front of all those in Austria who are opposed to anti-Semitism and at the same time fighting the Socialists.
The Weiner Journal, an ardent supporter of the Heimwehr movement, also published an article in which it warned that the united front of the Austrian anti-Marxists will be broken if the Heimwehr persists in its anti-Semitic course, since it will be impossible to realize the aims of the organization without the support of loyal Austrian Jews.
Commenting on Prince Stahremberg’s reply to Lippowitz’s telegram, the Weiner Journal deplores the Heimwehr leader’s silence on the question of anti-Semitism. On the other hand, the Christian Socialist Neugkeit Weltblatt, urges the Heimwehr chieftain to “shake off the Jewish parasites who fear a stronger anti-Semitism following his election, while previously they could exploit the movement for the benefit of the Jews.”
The accession to power of Prince Stahremberg, following the resignation of the former leaders, Steidle and Pfreimer, makes the Heimwehr even more anti-Semitic and nationalistic than it has been in the past because of Stahremberg’s close relations with Adolph Hitler, leader of the anti-Semitic National Socialists in Germany, Stahremberg participated in Hitler’s putsch at Munich in 1923.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
