[2][3] The Nationalverband managed to gain 104 seats at the 1911 election, making it the largest bloc in the Imperial Council, and ousting the previously dominant Christian Social Party.
[3] It relied on voters from areas of ethnic strife, such as in the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Duchy of Styria, but received very few votes in the Imperial capital, Vienna.
[4] A plan for the division of Bohemia on ethnic lines was put forth by the bloc, but the outbreak of the First World War stopped any further discussion of administrative reform.
[4] He wrote in August 1914 that, after a quick victory, peace negotiations could be used to establish German as the official language of the state, and also to detach the largely Slavic-speaking kingdoms of Dalmatia and Galicia from Cisleithania.
[5] Gross's leadership was viewed as inept and moderate by younger members of the Nationalverband, especially because of his willingness to collaborate with the Christian Socialists in a war-time government.