Strikes, trade unions and red flags is something that is usually associated with socialism. It would be rare, at least before 1933 to talk about a nationalist workers’ movement. However in Austria-Hungary, there was a different story. With a series of nationalist, völkisch and national socialist workers unions active throughout Austria, Bohemia and Moravia, since the late 1800s, Austra and the Sudetenland stands out as an odd example. In essence being the brewing ground for the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei founded by Ferdinand Burschofsky and Hans Knirch in November 1903. The rightfully predecessor to the German NSDAP. And in fact, the first National Socialist party in history.
In Bohemia especially, many organizations sprung up as a reaction to the influx of ethnical Czech workers migrating from the central parts of, what would become Czechoslovakia, to the bordering parts, which was home to large portions of Germans. The Czech domestic immigration was a threat to the very core of German identity and supremacy in the areas which was considered German by German nationalists.…
