What I knew of Social Democracy in my youth was precious little and that

little was for the most part wrong. The fact that it led the struggle

for universal suffrage and the secret ballot gave me an inner

satisfaction; for my reason then told me that this would weaken the

Habsburg regime, which I so thoroughly detested. I was convinced that

even if it should sacrifice the German element the Danubian State could

not continue to exist. Even at the price of a long and slow Slaviz-ation

of the Austrian Germans the State would secure no guarantee of a really

durable Empire; because it was very questionable if and how far the

Slavs possessed the necessary capacity for constructive politics.

Therefore I welcomed every movement that might lead towards the final

disruption of that impossible State which had decreed that it would

stamp out the German character in ten millions of people. The more this

babel of tongues wrought discord and disruption, even in the Parliament,

the nearer the hour approached for the dissolution of this Babylonian

Empire. That would mean the liberation of my German Austrian people, and

only then would it become possible for them to be re-united to the

Motherland.