In almost every respect in which the Pan-German movement failed the dispositions of the Christian Socialist Party were well and correctly thought out.
It had the necessary understanding of the signifi¬ cance of the masses, and from the very start it attracted to itself a certain section of them by outspoken assertion of its social character. And since it did really set out to win the lower middle and artizan classes, it gained a faithful and permanent following, ready for self-sacri¬ fice. It avoided fighting with any religious institutions and thus gained support from the powerful organiza¬ tion represented by the Church. It realized the value of propaganda on a large scale and specialized in influencing psychologically the instincts of the masses, their adherents.
The fact that this Party failed in its dream of saving Austria was due to its methods, which were mistaken in two respects, and to the obscurity of its aims.
Instead of being founded on a racial basis, its antiSemitism depended on the religious conception. The reason why this error crept in was the same