Ernst Plener and the Final Liberal Coalition Government, 1893–95

Abstract

Plener’s response to the scenes surrounding the Trautenau obstruction was to draw a political cordon sanitaire around the Young Czechs and their actions. In the subsequent elections to the delegations Plener arranged for no Young Czech rep- resentation which brought considerable animosity from Josef Herold and Tomas Masaryk on behalf of the Young Czechs. This was perhaps the only occasion in Plener’s voluminous memoirs where he admitted that he might have made a mis- take.1 For the Czechs, Plener had now become a hated figure; the arrogant, patri- cian leader of the Germans. Yet, within his own ranks, Plener was under pressure to copy the Young Czechs, intensify the use of the’ sharper key’ and create a German national radical party.2 The Ausgleich of 1890 had clearly failed, Bohemia was in turmoil (martial law was declared in Prague on 12 September 1893 following weeks of Czech street demonstrations) and Taaffe was still in power. Plener, per- haps through a combination of personal distaste at Young Czech obstruction and of long-held beliefs about a German-led Austrian state, began to manoeuvre the United German Left towards government and away from radical political tactics.