Arbeiterinnen einer Munitionsfabrik in der Mittagspause, Illustration aus Illustrierte Kronen-Zeitung, Ausgabe vom 17. Januar 1917

After the outbreak of war most Social Democrats – at least in the first two years of the war – pursued a “truce policy”. Very little was left of their pre-war pacifist commitment; they now supported the war.

In 1916 the hunger disaster spread unstoppably throughout the Habsburg Monarchy. In their affliction women became the harshest critics of the state, demanding an end to the war.