Otto Bauer (5 September 1881 4-July 1938) was the leading figure of the Austrian Social Democratic Workers Party. An early inspiration for the New Left and Eurocommunist movements in later decades, his theories of imperialism and the national question, as well as his practical work building a mass organization, made him a key figure in the Second International and then in attempts at re-integrating the social democratic and communist wings of the labor movement.

Walter Baier, an economist in Vienna, was National Chairman of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) from 1994 to 2006. He was an editor of the Austrian weekly Volksstimme and from 2007 has been Coordinator of the network transform!Europe, a network of 36 think tanks and educational organizations from [...]opean countries, which is recognized as the associated political foundation of the Party of the European Left (EL).

First Section: War and Revolution

The Southern Slavs and the War

The Czechs and the Empire

The Poles and the Central Powers

German Austria in the War

Second Section: The Upheaval

The Formation of the “Nation-States”

The Disintegration of the Empire

The German-Austrian Republic

National and Social Revolution

Third Section: The Predominance of the Working Class

Revolutionary and Counter-Revolutionary Forces

Between Imperialism and Bolshevism

The Revolution in the Factories

The State and the Working Class

Fourth Section: The Period of Equilibrium Between Class Forces

Economic Upheaval and Social Regrouping

The Struggle for Republican Institutions

The Battle Against the Counter-Revolution

The People's Republic

Fifth Section: The Restoration of the Bourgeoisie

The Monetary Catastrophe

The Geneva Treaty

The Outcome of the Revolution and the Tasks of Social Democrac

Index