Herein lay the man’s weakness. His achievements as Burgomaster of the city are immortal in the best sense of the word ; but even so he could not save the Monarchy. It was too late.
His rival, Schoenerer, saw this more clearly. What Dr. Lueger took practically in hand succeeded wonderfully ; what he hoped for as a result of it came to nothing.
Schoenerer failed to carry out his desires ; his fears were realized, alas ! in a terrible fashion.
Thus neither of them attained their further objec¬ tive. Lueger could not save Austria, and Schoenerer could not guard the German race against ruin.
It is most instructive for us to-day to study the causes of the failures of both these Parties. For my friends it is essential, since in many points conditions to-day are similar to those of that time, and it may help us to avoid making the mistakes which led to the death of one Movement and the barrenness of the other.
The fate which overtook the Pan-German move¬ ment was due to the fact that it did not at the start attach supreme importance to gaining adherents amongst the great mass of the people. It grew bour¬ geois and respectable, but underneath it was Radical.
The German position in Austria was already desperate by the time of the rise of Pan-Germanism. With each succeeding year Parliament was acquiescing more and more in a policy of gradual extinction of the German race. The only hope for any belated attempt to save it lay in the removal of that institution ; there was, however, but very little prospect of this.