Germany does not seek survival

The remaining Austro-Hungarian troops originally stationed in Tyrol were also completely reorganized by the National Socialist Party within just a few days.

Because the National Socialist Party had already taken root at the grassroots level of several divisions of the Austrian 11th Army, Faust knew the internal situation of the Austrian Army very well, and was naturally able to make highly targeted decisions very quickly.

Among the disarmed troops, according to Faust's order, some minority soldiers who stubbornly refused to cooperate with the revolutionary army's actions were to be sent back to their hometowns after being given a certain amount of travel expenses.

Among the remaining personnel, the National Socialist Party already had a list of some noble officers who had been negligent in their duties. They were directly expelled from the army and ordered to leave Tyrol immediately.

There were also some children of nobles who were not only derelict in their duties, but also committed crimes of harsh and cruel treatment of soldiers. Before the revolution, the Cheka had taken special effort to investigate this type of people. Now they would not be allowed to leave easily like the first two types of people. Instead, they would all be dismissed from their military posts, arrested and imprisoned, and publicly tried by the temporary court of the revolutionary army.

The practice of trying such people, of course, immediately caused a sensation among the grassroots officers and soldiers of the Austrian army. On the day when the temporary court pronounced the verdict in the barracks, there was a huge crowd of people. The soldiers squeezed their heads and tried to get forward to see what kind of end the noble officers who had oppressed them in the past had ended up in!

Next, Faust announced that the National Socialist Party's party organizations that had originally been operating underground in the Austrian army would all turn to open action. The German soldiers in the Austrian army, as well as other minority soldiers who did not resist the revolutionary army, such as some Czech and Slovenian soldiers who were deeply influenced by German culture during the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, would all be incorporated into the revolutionary armed forces.

The city hall of Innsbruck now had a signboard of the Revolutionary Committee of the Tyrolean Revolutionary Republic. Inside the headquarters of the Revolutionary Committee, Faust made his plans:

"The three Austrian divisions, the Dalmatian Division at Innsbruck (4,000 men), the 11th Infantry Division at Trento (8,000 men), and the 22nd Territorial Defense Division (8,000 men), have been cleared of counter-revolutionaries. These men have shown a positive attitude and were greatly influenced by the National Socialists before the uprising. They are a force that can be trusted in the future."

Hitler suggested: "The Cheka can send personnel to these Austrian troops to serve as political commissars and special commissioners to help our party control the troops."

Hitler is now the chairman of the Cheka, and he certainly wants to expand the power of the Cheka, which is why he said this just now.

Rommel's expression remained unchanged as he spoke, "Trento faces Italy. Although the Italians' main offensive targets are Trieste and Fiume, Trento could also be attacked by the Italians. The Revolutionary Committee should prioritize the military issues on the front lines. Reorganizing the Austrian troops in Trento now could cause chaos and lead to the city's fall."

Faust shook his head. "It's precisely to defend Trento that we need to reorganize the Austrian army! Otherwise, the half-hearted Austrian troops wouldn't be able to hold Trento, and our party wouldn't trust a unit with questionable positions to defend Tyrol's southern gate for us."

Faust was unwilling to compromise on the reorganization of the army: "My plan is to expand the old German regiments into three divisions, absorbing the Austrian troops to supplement our four divisions. The standards of each division will still follow the old unit format. The division and regiment will have political commissars and political departments. Battalions and companies will have branches of the National Socialist Party. Below the company level, soldiers' committees will be organized for grassroots officers and soldiers."

In the early stages of the war, the German infantry divisions adopted a two-brigades and four-regiment system, with a total strength of 1.8 men and a huge structure. This organization could still be used on the plains of the Western Front in 1914, but in the later stages of the war, it was obviously not adapted to the development of the battlefield situation.

By 1918, the German infantry division's strength had been reduced to about 1 men, the brigade-level organization had been abolished, the infantry regiments had been reduced from four to three, and assault companies had been added.

Faust's reorganization plan was also based on the German light infantry division in 1918. The three old regiments, plus the Austrian troops and police personnel incorporated in recent days, were reorganized into three infantry divisions, a revolutionary armed force of about 30,000 people.

"As the three revolutionary armed forces born from the Tyrolean Uprising, they are now awarded the honorary designations of the 1st 'Greater Germany' Grenadier Division, the 2nd 'Republic' Grenadier Division, and the 3rd 'Faust Guards' Grenadier Division..."

In the later stages of the war, several participating countries had actually begun to award a large number of honorary numbers in order to save the morale of their respective armies which had fallen to the bottom. For example, Tsarist Russia changed all its infantry divisions to rifle divisions. Riflemen was the name of elite troops commonly used in Russia's early modern history.

Similarly, Germany also began to grant the grenadiers unit designation to its more elite troops. Grenadiers, like Russian riflemen, were elite troop designations in the early modern period. They originally referred to elite infantrymen who specialized in throwing grenades. Because grenades in the early modern period were large in size and required arm strength to throw, Prussia selected tall and brave soldiers to form grenadiers.

This name became the designation of Prussia's ace troops during the reign of Frederick the Great. At the end of World War I, the German Storm Assault Battalion also used the name of the Grenadier Battalion extensively.

This was the most cost-effective way to boost morale. The name of the army itself was a very important issue. Hitler advocated, "Now we should determine the official name of the revolutionary army. I suggest that our army be uniformly called the SS from now on. This will reflect the dominant position of the National Socialist Party."

Rommel objected: "SS! What a shameful name! It will make people suspect that the National Socialist Party is seeking to establish a dictatorship, which is not conducive to our alliance with other revolutionary forces."

Many people have suggested that the revolutionary army could follow the Soviet Union's example and directly name the army the Red Army.

Hitler strongly objected: "The name Red Army is too provocative. It will make us a target of public criticism and easily lead people to mistakenly think we are followers of Lenin. I firmly oppose it. If the National Socialist revolutionary army insists on changing its name to the Red Army, I will not do it. I would rather resign than accept it!"

Faust also felt that it was too outrageous to directly use the name of the SS. This name was almost equivalent to giving up the united front work. The good thing about the name of the Red Army was that it could clarify the revolutionary nature of the National Socialist Party. The bad thing was that, as Hitler pointed out, it could easily attract the firepower of the reactionaries and make the German revolutionaries fall behind Lenin in terms of reputation.

"We can compromise," Faust said. "Let's use a more neutral name, the Wehrmacht. How about that?"

Hitler felt that simply using the term "Wehrmacht" didn't adequately capture the socialist revolutionary nature of the National Socialist Party. Faust then added, "Then let's use the name 'Red Wehrmacht'! A compromise between the two."

"Red Wehrmacht, yes, I agree."

Hitler no longer objected, Rommel had no other opinions, and the other members of the Revolutionary Committee were completely convinced by Faust and of course had no objections. After everyone voted, they passed this resolution and officially adopted the "Red Wehrmacht" as the name of the armed forces of the Tyrolean Revolutionary Republic.

Chapter 144 Hitler's Big Hand

In terms of military work, in addition to reorganizing the Wehrmacht, the most important thing is, of course, to establish the National Socialist Party's political leadership over the Red Wehrmacht.

Because the main officers of the Wehrmacht were all from the Kaiserin's Army. People like Rommel, Kesselring, and Guderian all received complete military education during the German Empire. They all carried a strong imprint of professional officers, and did not understand or like political officers.

Faust must change this.

Faust emphasized at the Revolutionary Committee meeting: "Everyone must remember Clausewitz's words: War is a political means; it inevitably bears political characteristics and must be measured by political standards. Therefore, commanding war, in its main characteristics, is itself politics using a knife instead of a pen. But this does not mean that we no longer think according to the laws of war itself."

Clausewitz's words illustrate that in wars between nations, the consistency between strategy and politics is often vague and far from obvious.

But in civil war, political laws govern the war directly and unconcealedly.

"At least," Faust said decisively, "during the civil war phase, political laws govern at least 90 percent of the actions of the warring parties."

Because of the war-weariness at the end of the war, most soldiers now hate military discipline and are hostile to officers. Especially after the Kiel sailors' uprising, a wave of opposition to the traditional military structure is sweeping across Germany and Central Europe.

A similar situation also occurred in Tyrol. After the uprising, some soldiers took spontaneous action, grabbed officers, tore off their epaulettes, lynched them, beat them, and even killed them without authorization. The situation was extremely turbulent.

Faust knew that Kautsky's Independent Party and Liebknecht and Luxemburg's Spartacus League all had a childish idea of ​​contempt for the army. They all hated war, and therefore also hated the army. They firmly believed that the revolution could win victory by relying on militia forces such as the workers' Red Guards without having to establish a tightly organized regular army.

“The old army is undoubtedly the stronghold of reactionary forces, but it also has its merits. We do not need to destroy all the traditions of the old army, but rather preserve those parts of it that we can use. At the same time, in order to prevent the army from sliding into a counter-revolutionary direction, we must also promote new traditions within the Wehrmacht.”

Faust said: "The newest and greatest tradition is the soldiers' committee. Every squad and platoon must elect a soldiers' committee. This is an inalienable right of the soldiers."

At this moment, all kinds of military riots were taking place throughout Germany and Austria. After the riots, the soldiers basically organized themselves into soldiers' committees.

However, the specific content of the Wehrmacht's soldiers' committees was very different from the soldiers' committees that emerged in large numbers in other parts of Germany.

In other areas, soldiers' committees have completely replaced the role of officers and become the highest authority in the troops, with the power to elect commanders.

Although the Soldiers' Committee in the Wehrmacht has a high status, it does not have the power to directly command the troops. Instead, it exists as a supervisory body. Officers are still appointed by their superiors, and these officers appointed by their superiors are responsible for the command of the troops.

The election of commanders and soldiers' committees is not the essence of revolutionary democracy. The principle of democracy only requires that the government should be elected and supervised by the masses, and does not require the masses to usurp the functions of the government or deprive the government of the power to appoint staff.

The Wehrmacht also had a great advantage, that is, after two years of development in the army, the National Socialist Party had accumulated a large number of outstanding officers with excellent qualities. These National Socialist officers were responsible for most of the important tasks in the Wehrmacht, and they were able to strike a balance between military discipline and revolutionary democracy from the very beginning.

Because the National Socialist Party itself had a large number of military experts, it did not need to make too many compromises with the old world in terms of military officers.

What's more, most of the old officers in the Austrian army who came from aristocratic families were good-for-nothings and their professional skills were far from comparable to those of German officers. Therefore, the National Socialist Party's reorganization of the army and the complete replacement of the old officers with National Socialist revolutionary officers not only did not cause any chaos, but it was obvious that it would only improve the combat effectiveness of the Wehrmacht, rather than weaken the army's strength.

The Wehrmacht had seized a large number of weapons and ammunition in Innsbruck and Kufstein. After several days of inventory and statistics, Faust had a clear grasp of the number of weapons in the Wehrmacht's possession:

More than 40,000 rifles were confiscated, as well as more than 40 150mm and 75mm cannons made by Krupp, more than 70 Austrian cannons made by Skoda, more than 100 MG08 machine guns and more than 200 MG15 machine guns. As for the amount of ammunition, there were more than 10 million rounds of various rifle bullets, machine gun bullets and artillery shells.

In short, according to the standards of world war, the number of weapons is not only not large, but also very small. Light weapons are okay, but in terms of heavy weapons, there are not even enough to equip three standard German infantry divisions. Considering the current chaotic situation in Germany and Austria, the number of such weapons in the civil war is actually very astonishing.

In these few words, the question of establishing the Red Army was finalized. Hitler then suggested, "We must also quickly set up recruitment stations throughout Tyrol and, taking advantage of the revolutionary enthusiasm, recruit more soldiers to supplement the army."

Hitler always wanted to give his Cheka more power, but Faust disagreed. He believed that conscription should be handled by the Revolutionary Committee.

Germany's military tradition is that the General Staff is in charge of all military affairs such as strategy, tactics, logistics, and intelligence, and holds core powers such as combat planning, troop dispatch, and officer promotion. During the Ludendorff period, the German General Staff developed to the point where it took over all military and political power in Germany.

Faust certainly did not want the General Staff of the Revolutionary Republic to continue to maintain the same tremendous power as during the Ludendorff era.

Faust's approach was to establish the National Socialist Military Committee above the General Staff. As the supreme command body of the revolutionary armed forces, the General Staff still retained the power to independently formulate combat plans, but all combat plans had to be reviewed by the Military Committee. This move stripped the General Staff of its strategic decision-making power and made it an executive department of the Military Committee.

Faust also appointed the honest Paulus as the head of the General Staff, and added a new political department to the General Staff to ensure the party's influence on the General Staff.

After discussing these military issues, we will discuss the more important issues.

That was the National Socialist Party's policy in the economic field.

Since the National Socialist Party claimed that the Tyrolean Uprising was a revolution of a socialist nature, it was necessary for the revolution to make certain adjustments to Tyrol's capitalist economy, at least at this stage.

But Hitler strongly opposed nationalization and planned economy: "We Germans must not learn from Lenin, we must not learn from the Bolsheviks, everyone!"

On the economic front, Hitler seemed to be afraid that Faust would turn to Lenin's policies, and he said anxiously: "Comrades, the completely unrestrained capitalist economic form leads to an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor. It creates methods of exploitation and ultimately leads to the depersonalization and degradation of the entire economy. It also triggers long-term economic struggles, while the powerless and passive state itself is forced to stand by and watch..."

“This is certainly a disaster, but Lenin’s policy is by no means a panacea for this disaster!”

Hitler blushed and said to Faust, "My leader, my Führer, the Leninist economic form of constraints, restrictions and plans is not much better. Under such a system, economic results will shrink and decline because it will eliminate the most powerful factor of production - the individuality that produces personality!"

What Hitler called production personality can be understood as the unique characteristics and behaviors exhibited by different producers in the production process.

Different companies or individuals have differences in production technology, management model, innovation ability, risk preference, etc. These differences will affect their production decisions and production efficiency.

For example, some companies may focus more on technological innovation and are willing to invest a lot of resources in research and development to develop more competitive products; while other companies may be more inclined to adopt mature technologies and production models, pursuing stability and low cost in the production process.

The most popular economic theory in Austria at that time was the Austrian School founded by Menger, the imperial tutor of the Habsburg royal family. The economic thought of this school of thought certainly had a great influence on the Austrian Hitler.

After Menger, his successors were also professors of economics at the University of Vienna, such as Böhm-Bawerk and Mises. Menger's most famous student was Hayek, the author of "The Road to Serfdom".

If you understand Hayek's economic thoughts, you will probably understand what the Austrian School is all about.

Hitler, an Austrian, was not an expert in the field of economics, nor was he directly influenced by the Austrian School at the University of Vienna. However, it is not surprising that he was indirectly influenced by the Austrian School through the influence of his surroundings.

Just look at how Hitler criticized the planned economy and nationalization with such fierce attitude, which was completely different from the socialist revolutionary stance he usually claimed to have.

Unfortunately, the National Socialist Party was a revolutionary organization developed from the German Emperor's Army. It had a strong military nature and a large number of military experts, but it lacked talent in the economic field. Even the speech of Hitler, a failed art student, could make the other members of the Revolutionary Committee frown and they didn't know how to discuss the matter.

Chapter 145: Marx of the National Socialist Party

“What is the overall purpose of the national economy?!”

Hitler waved his hands and said excitedly: "Comrades, please tell me, what is the overall goal of the national economy? First, to fully meet the three basic necessities of all people: food, housing and clothing. Secondly, according to the current technical conditions and income conditions, to meet all needs of a cultural and civilizational nature!"

"The national economy as a whole must serve the people and, more importantly, the greatness and well-being of the nation. A country's economy is not an end in itself. It is not intended to enrich individual business leaders at the expense of officials, employees, and workers, nor is it intended to be exploited by international high-level finance. At the same time, individual business leaders cannot be destroyed to satisfy the short-term needs of officials, employees, and workers!"

“Socialism is not egalitarianism!”

Hitler became very emotional when he talked about the economy, especially when he was at a meeting of the Revolutionary Committee and heard someone start talking about Lenin's nationalization measures, Hitler became so excited that he lost his composure.

The mustache man was so excited about what the Bolsheviks did in Russia, namely the confiscation of large banks and nationalization of large enterprises, that Faust felt that it might be because of Hitler's racial discrimination against the Slavs.

The man with a mustache slammed the table. When he mentioned Lenin's nationalization measures, he used the German word "Gleichmacher" - egalitarianism. This word has a somewhat derogatory meaning. It means to artificially eliminate objective, individual characteristics and differences, that is, "reduce" or "homogenize", to erase differences and make people become the same.

Among German socialists, the word "Gleichmacher" is generally not used to refer to economic policies that put the pursuit of fairness first, but rather the word "egalitar".

In the German context, egalitarianism has much less negative connotations than egalitarianism.

But in Austria, because of the dominance of the Austrian School in the field of economics, Austrian socialists are generally more inclined to oppose egalitarianism in economic thought.

Austrian economists, such as Menger, the imperial tutor of the Habsburg dynasty, and Böhm-Bawerk and Mises, the authorities at the University of Vienna, all liked to distort Marxism. Like Hayek, who later became famous, they always claimed that socialism was equal to absolute egalitarianism and negative egalitarianism.

Hitler was still going crazy, and Faust's face was already tense.

"Comrade Adolf!"

Faust tapped the table with his fingers. "This is the highest meeting of the Revolutionary Committee, not the place for you to go on a rampage, Hitler. Please don't go crazy here. We value a democratic atmosphere for discussion and allow you to express your personal opinions. But if you can't respect your National Socialist comrades and the procedures of the meeting, then I'm sorry, Comrade Adolf, I have to ask you to leave. Please go to the corridor and calm down."

As soon as Faust opened his mouth, Hitler fell silent as if he had heard a dog whistle. His mustache blushed slightly, and he hesitated for a moment before bowing to Faust and muttering an apology: "I'm sorry, my leader, I just want to oppose the idea of ​​blindly imitating the Russians..."

Faust said calmly, "Comrade Adolf has also pointed out some very valuable insights. Negative egalitarianism is not the true transcendence of private property, but merely the equal distribution of wealth to all. It simply aims to turn everyone into the owner of private property and into a slave of wealth."

In fact, in Marx's "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844", he focused his criticism on "crude communism".

The so-called "crude communism" refers to a kind of communism that advocates "absolute equality". Its representatives include Babeuf, Cabet, Desamy and others in France. They advocate the abolition of private property, the establishment of a society without any distinction and complete equality, and the unified management of social wealth through the "National Commune".

This absolute egalitarianism is very negative because it only requires the equal distribution of existing social property, but tends to eliminate property that is difficult to distribute.

This kind of intangible property that is difficult to distribute is what Hitler called "productive personality", such as talent, ideas, self-control, etc. Things that cannot be distributed equally as private property to all members of society will be directly wiped out by the advocacy of absolute egalitarianism.

As a result, absolute egalitarianism will negate talent and individuality, and will eventually lead society to develop into a society where all citizens are in widespread poverty and lack individuality and vitality.

"Marxism believes that social wealth is divided into two categories: means of production and means of subsistence. Means of subsistence are owned by individuals, which opposes negative, absolute egalitarianism. Means of production are owned by all of society. However, considering that means of production such as large factories cannot be disassembled into 60 million parts and distributed equally among 60 million Germans, the common ownership of the means of production means that 60 million Germans have ownership of the means of production in a communal manner."

If Hitler had not gone crazy here, Faust would not have intended to discuss socialist theory in the Revolutionary Committee. Now the most important task of the Revolutionary Committee is action, action and action.

At this moment of the November Revolution of 1918, action was far more important than theory.

Faust slammed the table again and said, "Given the National Socialist Party's current limited capabilities in the economic sphere, we should be cautious in our economic policies. My personal opinion is that, given that the Austro-Hungarian Empire's public finances collapsed at the end of the war, and agriculture and industry and commerce are on the verge of collapse, the most urgent tasks now are just two things: first, ensuring agricultural harvests to guarantee food rations for our army, and second, taking over the military industry to guarantee our army's logistics."

"Does anyone have any objection to this?"

As soon as Faust spoke, Hitler stopped refuting and made a 180-degree turn in his attitude. He now began to actively support Faust's statement.

The other members of the Revolutionary Committee looked at each other, some speechless about Hitler, while others agreed with Faust's words.

Paulus said, "Your Excellency, what can we do in the agricultural field? It is still winter."

Faust replied, "Winter is a good time. We should seize this window of opportunity. At least during this time, whatever we do won't disrupt the farming season. I suggest that the party's first task is to take over all the unowned wasteland created by the war and revolution in the name of the revolutionary government, organize the peasants to engage in production, and declare all debts incurred due to the war before 1918 to be canceled. This will encourage the peasants to support us and encourage them to send eggs, vegetables, meat, butter, and wheat produced in Tyrol to Innsbruck."

Because compared with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although the National Socialist Party was of the German ethnic group with the same language and culture, it was also an alien group and had no interest in the local people. Therefore, everyone readily agreed with Faust's move. After all, abolishing all war debts was one of the revolutionary slogans of the National Socialist Party, and it would not harm the interests of everyone.

As for industry and commerce, Faust made the final decision: "I believe it is absolutely necessary to immediately establish a national economic socialization committee. We should publicly announce a call for economists in Germany and Austria who support socialism to join this committee. In terms of action, the committee's current goal is to accomplish the simplest tasks first, such as taking over major banks and public utilities like railways, electricity, and communications."

As a group mainly composed of military elites, the National Socialist Party has very few economic and political experts in its lap. If military personnel can still be in charge of the political field, then Faust is not confident that Hitler or Rommel will be fully responsible for the economic field.

This is a major disadvantage of the National Socialist Party compared to the Social Democratic Party, the Independent Party and the Spartacus League. It is also because the National Socialist Party has too shallow historical background. Therefore, Faust wanted to launch an uprising as soon as possible and make the Tyrol Uprising a precursor to the November Revolution. In this way, the influence of the National Socialist Party in the German world would be expanded, and there would be a chance to further absorb professional talents.

Munich and Vienna in the early 20th century were both avant-garde centers of various avant-garde thoughts and doctrines. Among them, the most notable left-wing avant-garde thought was the so-called Austrian Marxist school.

The leaders of the Austrian Marxist school were mainly scholars from the University of Vienna and the University of Munich, such as Otto Bauer, Rudolf Hilferding and Karl Renner.

Perhaps because it lived in the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austrian Marxism had relatively weak achievements in the field of political philosophy, and its main academic research was concentrated in the ethnic field. In addition, because Vienna was the absolute center of the development of European economics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Austrian Marxism was influenced by this and repeatedly struggled with the right-wing Austrian school in the field of economics, and also achieved great success.

In contrast, the German socialist school centered in Berlin is the European Marxist school that considers itself to be the orthodox school.

Judging from the name alone, the European School of Marxism in Berlin is more orthodox than the Austrian School of Marxism in the south.

The European Marxist school is more concerned with the field of political practice, and the leader of the school is undoubtedly Kautsky, known as the Pope of Marxism.

However, with the development of the European socialist movement in later history, the German left-wing revolution suffered a heavy blow after the war. Both the European Marxist school and the Austrian Marxist school eventually gave way to the orthodox status of the Soviet Union.