15/6/1919 The Austrian authorities strike against Communist would-be revolutionaries

In April a Communist coup failed in Vienna, but the Hungarian communist regime of Béla Kun still hopes to spread their brand of socialism to neighbouring Austria. Kun sends Ernst Bettelheim as his representative to Vienna, charged with preparing the Austrian Communists to seize power. Bettelheim installs a new leadership of the KPÖ (the Communist Party of Austria) and draws his plans. He hopes that Austria will fall into Communist hands through an uprising of KPÖ cadres and disgruntled elements of the Austrian army, supported by an invasion from Hungary.

Alas for the onward march of Communism, it is not to be. Informers reveal Bettelheim’s plans to the authorities, and they now strike to pre-empt the Communist putsch. Between last night and this morning the police have rounded up most of the KPÖ’s leadership (though not Bettelheim himself), coming close to decapitating the party. Today Communist demonstrators march to…