Kuno von Westarp

Kuno von Westarp is an Austrian (German in-exile) national populist politician living in Vienna. Gaining popularity in the 20s and 30s through his forced exile, his far-right party WIP has been a major influence in Austrian politics.

## **Early Life**

Westarp was born in Ludom in the Prussian Province of Posen, the son of a senior forestry official. He attended the *Gymnasium* secondary school in Potsdam and studied jurisprudence at the universities of Tübingen, Breslau, Leipzig, and Berlin, passed the *Staatsexamen* in 1886 and did his military service in Breslau and Potsdam, where he was elevated to a reserve officer of the 1st Foot Guard regiment.

In 1887 he began his career in civil service at the administrative district office in Freienwalde, Brandenburg whose head was Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, the later Chancellor of Germany. After his second *Staatsexamen* in 1891 Westarp continued his career as an assessor in Gostyn and Bomst in Posen, and in Stettin. He joined the service of the Prussian State Ministry in 1902 and became Chief of Police in the Schöneberg and Wilmersdorf suburbs of Berlin, before in 1908 he was appointed a senior judge at the Prussian administrative court.

Westarp had joined the German Agrarian League in the 1890s, his political advancement began in 1908 as a member of the German *Reichstag* parliament as a member of the German Conservative Party, from 1913 to 1918 as head of the parliamentary group.

## **Conservative activism in the German Republic**

After Germany lost the Great War and the nation was in upheaval for the first 2 years of its existence, Kuno agitated for the government to use more harsh conservative measures to suppress “syndicalist dissidence” but his voice was largely ignored by the Republic, still seen as a puppet of the Entente. Because of this and his ignored pleas for the government to turn against the trade unions and striking workers, he quickly lost support of the government support and formed his own ultra-nationalist, conservative paramilitary group, known as the "German Rights League". This group, formed in December of 1917 was the biggest reactionary community formed against the rising sympathies for socialism. Before the Revolution, the German Rights League housed over 40,000 members, mostly within Berlin and within the Brandenburg province.

## **Participation in the German Civil War**

Even before the beginning of the revolution, once the general strike began in Bavaria, Kuno began mobilizing his followers to "defend German soil". However, while he was prepared to fight alongside the Republicans, he soon found anti-socialist support to be faltering country wide. More people joined in the general strike or in solidarity strikes. By February in Munich the first official fighting began between rebels and loyalists for the city, ending in a rebel victory and the proclamation of the Union of Bavaria. Hearing this news terrified Kuno and his followers of the German Rights League, and in Berlin he instructed his men to attack strikers, not fearing the government as civil war had just broken out.

While those 40,000 paramilitary units began fighting with protestors and strikers, often violently it did nothing to stop the hatred of the Republicans and German conservative. Kuno had hoped that he would be able to disperse the strikers, and possibly be allowed back into the German political scene from it, but his predictions were wrong. The strikers held their ground and the police had to be called in to break up the League and the strikers.

As the people in Germany rioted and as the territory of the Rhine was teared apart by differing factions, Berlin outlawed the League, citing their forced brawls with striking workers, "intentionally stoking the flames of hatred". Bitter and angry, the League's paramilitary force continued operating, but it was mostly silent until the syndicalists began to reach the capital, due to the fact that they were classified as being illegal, and Berlin was the only city under full control of the Republicans. During the Battle of Berlin, the League began certain operations mostly involved in capturing and killing rebel soldiers and sabotaging their efforts. While some of their efforts were successful it mostly fell flat as the much more powerful syndicalists kept attacking the capital. Once it was finally taken in late summer the League also collapsed as some people went underground, others went to loyalist help territory to try to defend anti-socialist outposts as much as possible. Kuno for his part went underground alongside over 5,000 of the League's followers.

## **Exile and life in Austria**

After the civil war was over, Kuno had decided to partake in underground banditry against the current regime, but even he had been losing support that the syndicalists could be overthrown. In October the Treaty of Sarrlouis was signed, guaranteeing that Entente intervention isn't an option. While his hopes were still high as resistance grew, the passing of the Social Protection Act crushed those hopes. Rebel leaders were arrested and killed on masse, and Kuno feared his would be spotted and arrested just like so many others. In early Spring he finally made the decision to leave Germany, leaving what remained of the German Rights League shattered.

Conspiring with the rest of the League's followers, they made plans to move out of Berlin to Stettin, where they could be smuggled to Denmark with resistance assistance. With the Social Protection Act being passed, thousands fled across German borders, and the German Resistance moved their activites to the ocean where they could assist thousands fleeing German "terrorism". Thankfully for him, Kuno was assisted in fleeing Berlin to Stettin, where he fled overnight by sea to Denmark. While he was safe from German authorities, he swore he would "restore the motherland to her rightful owners". About 5 months later he, now living in Copenhagen heard about Austria's large influx of German refugees, and that the political situation had turned towards the extreme right as a response to thousands of Germans fleeing. Kuno then made plans to travel to Austria, where he hoped it could be used as a spring board to invade Germany and dismantle syndicalism from the country. He saw it fit, as Austria and Germany were very close culturally and linguistically. After over a year of going from Denmark to France to Italy and finally arriving to Austria (mostly by illegal means), he began his new life as a national populist and ultranationalist Austrian politician.

Even after a year the political life in Austria was a mess. A good portion of the native population began rallying the government to war with the syndicalists, outraged at the amount of people that had to flee due to the brutality of the socialist regime. The current government however, was unwilling to go to war, mostly due to the fact that war against Germany would be costly and they might not even win. What happens if they loose? Syndicalism would expand its borders, they feared. While Austria was a liberal social democracy the refugee crisis lead to a rise in reactionary ideologies, a perfect atmosphere for Kuno to spread his beliefs.