14th December 1941, evening
Pan-Germanic supporters and the Austrian Christian Socialists—Schönerer and Lueger—Anti-Semitism in Vienna.
Lueger, who had belonged to the Pan-Germanist movement, went over to the Christian-Social party, for he thought that anti-Semitism was the only means of saving the State. Now, in Vienna, anti-Semitism could never have any foundation but a religious one. From the point of view of race, about 50 per cent of the population of Vienna was not German. The number of Jews, amongst a million eight hundred thousand inhabitants, was close on three hundred thousand. But the Czechs of Vienna were anti-Semitic. Lueger succeeded in filling thirty-six of the hundred and forty-eight seats of the Vienna Municipal Council with anti-Semites.
When I arrived in Vienna, I was a fanatical opponent of Lueger. As a Pan-German, and as a supporter of Schönerer, I was accordingly an enemy of the Christian-Socials. Yet in the course of my stay in Vienna I couldn’t help acquiring a feeling of great respect for Lueger personally. It was at the City Hall that I first heard him speak. I had to wage a battle with myself on that occasion, for I was filled with the resolve to detest Lueger, and I couldn’t refrain from admiring him. He was an extraordinary orator.