Otto Bauer (5 September 1881 – 4 July 1938) was one of the founders and leading thinkers of the left-socialist Austromarxists who sought a middle ground between social democracy and revolutionary socialism. He was a member of the Austrian Parliament from 1907 to 1934, deputy party leader of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) from 1918 to 1934, and Foreign Minister of the Republic of German-Austria in 1918 and 1919. In the latter position he worked unsuccessfully to bring about the unification of Austria and the Weimar Republic. His opposition to the SDAP joining coalition governments after it lost its leading position in Parliament in 1920 and his practice of advising the party to wait for the proper historical circumstances before taking action were criticized by some for facilitating Austria's move from democracy to fascism in the 1930s. When the SDAP was outlawed by Austrofascist Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg in 1934, Bauer went into exile where he continued to work for Austrian socialism until his death. Education and military training Otto Bauer was born in Vienna, son of the wealthy, politically liberal Jewish textile manufacturer Philipp (Filipp) Bauer and Katharina (Käthe) Bauer, née Gerber. He completed elementary school in Vienna, and high school in Vienna, Merano and Reichenberg (the latter two at the time part of Austria-Hungary). In addition to German, he spoke English, French and, after his years as a prisoner of war, Russian. To fulfill his compulsory military duty, he enlisted as a one-year volunteer with the 3rd Regiment of the Tyrolean Rifle Regiment in 1902, completed his active military service after passing the reserve officer exam, and was transferred as a reservist to the Infantry Regiment Frederick VIII King of Denmark, No. 75. He went on to study law at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in 1906. His political interests were reflected in his university studies, where in addition to law, history, languages and philosophy, he enrolled in classes in national economics and sociology. In 1900 Bauer began to be politically active in the Social Democratic Workers' Party, as the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) was called before 1945, and became a member of the Free Association of Socialist Students. At the university he met the somewhat older Socialist Party members Max Adler, Rudolf Hilferding (who later became a minister of finance in the Weimar Republic) and Karl Renner, who was Chancellor of Austria