In Europe

and an early example of modernist architecture. It was a reaction to all those ‘neo’ styles that dominated the major cities of Europe until 1914. But in the eyes of many Viennese citizens of the day, the house was a monstrosity. It was a textbook case of all of the dangerous modernity being dumped on the German race by the liberals and the
krummnasige Hebräer
. All things ‘historically healthy’ had to be protected against this ‘corrupt art’, and whether Adolf Loos was actually a Jew or not is of no real concern. For many German and Catholic citizens, ‘Jewish’ and ‘modern’ were synonyms. This was, however, not completely wide of the mark: without Mahler, Wittgenstein, Freud, Schnitzler, Zweig, Roth, Herzl, Kraus and all the rest of the city's Jewish talent, Vienna would never have been such an important cultural centre.
    Almost everything that would prove formative to the twentieth century was already lying dormant within Vienna in 1900. That also went for the politicians. The street here was ruled by the same characters one came across later all over Europe: the ideologist, the populist, the pioneer and the social democrat, all of whom would, in time, set everything right.
    Let us first consider the last of these. The founder of Austrian socialism, Victor Adler, was born a Jew and baptised a Christian, he was a humanist,a liberal and, in his younger years, even a German nationalist. He felt that a great working-class revolution was inevitable; in the meantime, it was up to the socialist movement to prepare to take over the country's reins. He devoted himself, therefore, to advocating all forms of adult education, public libraries, workers’ groups and other social-democratic organisations. In 1905 he organised a general strike to force the introduction of universal suffrage. In 1907 he finally got his way: the social democrats won eighty-seven seats on the imperial council.
    Adler in this way became the nexus of a parliamentary movement that was peppered with radical slogans, but which, in practice, focused less and less on the class struggle and more and more on the welfare of the community as a whole. His son, Friedrich Adler, had other ideas. He chose the path of violent revolution. In 1916, he assassinated the prime minister.
    The second prototype that Europe would come to see often was that of the nationalist ideologue. Georg Ritter von Schönerer was short and stocky, and ‘his fat, red, beery face did not make an unpleasant impression at first,’ as a contemporary put it. ‘But as soon as he opens his mouth, this man shows himself to be very different. Then the otherwise tired eyes begin to shine, the hands begin to move and the face takes on a lively expression, while the words that roll from his lips resonate loudly through the chamber.’ Schönerer, however, lacked the charisma needed to mobilise a mass following. His influence was derived from street violence and heated rhetoric.
    In his early years, Schönerer had been a progressive landowner, the founder of schools and libraries, a father to his subordinates. He had worked closely with Victor Adler and other progressive liberals. Later, however, like many liberals, he became obsessed with the idea that ‘his’ superior Germans were being besieged within the Habsburg Empire by a circle of Slavic peoples. The only real liberals, he felt, were German liberals; only they were the bearers of the true cultural heritage. He had the words
Heil, Bismarck!
chiselled in huge runes on boulders at his estate.
    In anti-Semitism, too, he was exceptionally fanatical. He demanded that Jews be expelled from most professions, institutions of learning and the newspapers – yea, from the German people as a whole: ‘
Durch Reinheit zur Einheit
’. On 18 February, 1884, at a party meeting, he became the first political leader in Europe to have posted a sign saying ‘
JUDEN
IST DER EINTRITT VERBOTEN
’. Hundreds of clubs – gymnastics, music, mountaineering, cycling, student, walking and book clubs – followed his example.
    In the long run, Schönerer's movement developed into a kind of pseudo-Germanic cult with symbols and rituals of its own: runes, ‘
heil
’ salutes, solstice celebrations, bonfires, battle songs, all under the leadership of a single führer. Before being allowed to marry, his followers first had to prove their Aryan descent and ‘biological’ health. Anyone not wishing to contribute to the ‘
Reinheit des deutschen