Citizen's Ministry

Citizens Ministry and Doctor Ministry were the unofficial summary descriptions used in the political debate, and later in the history of the four ( referred to 1918 Ministry ) governments of the Austrian half of Austria - Hungary from December 30, 1867 to April 4, 1870 ( withdrawal) or. April 12, 1870 ( dismissal ), starting with the first ministry after the Austro - Hungarian Compromise ( by the internal politics of the two halves of the empire was separated) and the entry into force of the December Constitution, the Ministry K. Auersperg, followed by the largely personal identical ministries Taaffe I Plener and Hasner. The Cabinet members came mostly from the German Liberal Party. The Citizens Ministry ran a decidedly liberal policies, but failed in 1870 to the stark contrasts of nationalities: When the Emperor the proposal of the Ministry Hasner, dissolve uncooperative country days, refused, the cabinet resigned, bringing the historiography regarded the citizens Ministry of ended.

Designations

The term citizen Ministry refers to the fact that four of the nine members of the government of the Ministry Auersperg K. Bourgeois (without nobility ) were and another member ( Plener ) had been knighted only eleven years before. The majority of ministers was therefore bourgeois origin, in the Danube monarchy a novelty.

Doctor Ministry refers to the fact that five of the nine members of the government had completed her studies with a doctorate and three others ( Auersperg, Taaffe, Plener ) had completed the study of law. Thus, the proportion of graduates among ministers was enormous, even so until then, not common practice in imperial Austria.

Members

On December 30, 1867 proclaimed Emperor Franz Joseph I. the former President of the manor house of the Imperial Council, Prince Karl of Auersperg, as "President of My Ministers represented in the Imperial Council kingdoms and countries." After conflicts in the cabinet to the question of how many concessions the various nationalities ( ethnic groups ) in the multiethnic state Austria should be made by elements of federalism, he resigned in protest already on 24 September 1868. He was succeeded by up to 15 January 1870 Eduard Taaffe, followed by Ignaz von Plener ( to 1 February 1870) and Leopold Hasner, Ritter von Artha to 12 April 1870.

Ministers appointed by the Emperor on December 30, 1867 " citizens or doctoral Ministry " were

  • Deputy Prime Minister, also in charge of the agendas for national defense and public security: Count Eduard Taaffe (previously Minister of the Interior, September 24, 1868 Prime Minister and State Minister of Defense, 15 January 1870 removed [*])
  • Minister of Home Affairs: Dr. Carl Giskra (previously President of the Lower House of the Imperial Council )
  • Minister of Finance: Dr. Rudolf Brestel
  • Minister of Justice: Prof. Eduard autumn
  • Minister of Agriculture: Count Alfred Potocki ( 15 January 1870 removed [* ], from April 12, 1870 Prime Minister of Cabinet officials ); February 1: Dr. Anton Banhans
  • Trade Minister: Ignaz Edler von Plener ( January 15 to February 1, 1870 also Minister of Defense and State )
  • Minister of Culture and Education: Dr. Leopold Hasner, Ritter von Artha (from February 1, 1870 Prime Minister ); Succeeded by: Dr. Karl von Stremayr (1879 Premier )
  • Minister [ without portfolio ]: Dr. Johann Nepomuk Berger ( 15 January 1870 removed [*])
  • Country's defense minister: 15th January 1870 Count Taaffe ( see above); until February 1, 1870 by Ignaz Plener ( see above); then Lieutenant Field Marshal Johann von Wagner

[* ] Taaffe, Potocki and Berger the majority opinion of the Cabinet to the procedure could concerning federalism (see below ) does not connect and therefore investigated the Emperor to be relieved from their posts, which was granted. The resignation of Prime Minister Taaffe moved since the Cabinet was not on the confidence of Parliament depends, not the resignation of the entire government by itself.

In later Cabinets public safety was assigned to the Ministry of Interior (since the military police in 1869, replaced by the civilian kk security guard ) and 1896 brought the railway section of the Department of Commerce to the Ministry of Railways.

Requirements

With the Compromise of 1867 the hitherto unified Empire of Austria was divided into two states, which could make under the Emperor and King as head of state of a real union of their domestic policies independently. In Cisleithania, the " represented in the Imperial Council kingdoms and countries," the so-called citizens Ministry was the first government after the revolution.

While foreign policy, Army and Navy as well as the financing of these areas of common Kuk Ministers were managed with responsibility for all of Austria - Hungary, were all the other topics for Austria the responsibility of the new Cisleithanian government (which came to currency, customs and trade policies, corporate and patent registration and other matters to voluntary agreements of both halves of the empire ).

Cisleithania was just like Transleithania continues to be a multi-ethnic state. In Austria, the German nationality formed the largest group, the Slavic nationalities (especially in Galicia, Bohemia and Moravia ) put together the majority of citizens. However, this was not yet fully exploited, since universal suffrage for men was only forty years later, in 1907, introduced.

Policy

The central point of conflict was the relationship of the Germans to the other nationalities. While striving for a strong centralists ( German dominated ) central government, the desire of the non-German crown lands was significantly influenced federal order. Was opened as the Diet of Bohemia on August 22, 1868 the 81 Czech deputies did not appear, but called for the lands of the Bohemian crown a scheme similar to the just for the countries of the Hungarian Crown came into force, thus autonomy from the government in Vienna. On October 10, 1868 this government declared a state of siege in Bohemia. In Moravia, the Czech member of parliament behaved well.

In Galicia the Poles demanded complete autonomy (which she also received a few years later for the most part, what they then the government in Vienna Imperial Council supported ); Slovenians required to summarize all Slovene- populated areas ( Lower Styria, Southern Carinthia, Carniola and coastal land ) in a kingdom Slovenia. In Dalmatia 1869 revolt against the militia law has emerged. The Tyrolean Parliament, dominated by Ultramontanes rejected the new constitution from because of their liberalism in church affairs.

In the civil Ministry no consensus was reached on how the Viennese government should behave. Taaffe, Potocki and Berger were ( as Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust, imperial foreign minister and in Austria - Hungary the only carrier of the title Chancellor ) a for a settlement with the nationalities. They demanded, therefore, choose to let the Imperial Council under this aspect, New, and then to adapt the Constitution. The majority of ministers ( Hasner, Brestel, Giskra, Plener and autumn) held the last selected for Imperial Council appointed to carry out constitutional changes. For larger changes, it is up to the end of the monarchy in 1918, did not come.

In the Empire of Austria the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church was enshrined in the constitution. The position of this church was reflected in the Concordat of 1855. The Citizens Ministry aimed at to eliminate the primacy and to ensure the neutrality of the state in matters of faith. The Concordat itself was indeed terminated immediately ( this only happened in the summer of 1870), the privileges of the Roman Catholic. Church but were reduced in three adopted by the Imperial Council and centers announced on May 25, 1868 individual laws:

  • Jurisdiction in matrimonial matters was transferred to the secular courts.
  • Top management and supervision of the teaching and education now the state took over.
  • The confessions were formally equal (although the usual unofficial primacy of Roman Catholicism continues to this day and always meant this confession in doubt with the Church in Austria ).

Pope Pius IX: Even if these conflicts were less violent than the Kulturkampf in Prussia, is considerable resistance to the measures suggested. stated the three laws on 22 June, null and void, but Austria stuck to the rules.

Among other topics, a series of demands of the liberal upper middle class has been implemented in cultural, economic and domestic policy. Finance Minister Rudolf Brestel achieved a reduction in the government deficit. In the Reich Law Gazette were published, among other things:

  • Conversion of the title of the national debt (Most debt of the state were converted into uniform pa state bonds with an interest rate of 5% of the interest rates were 16 % tax to be paid. )
  • Law on reconciliation attempts to initiate legal divorce ( Divorce willing were released from the legal obligation to inform their pastor of her divorce intention; had this made ​​no attempts at reconciliation, the court was now obliged to do so. )
  • Act on the cost of the Vienna Danube regulation (they were divided into thirds between the State, the Crown Land Austria below the Enns and the City of Vienna )
  • Law on the organization of the Supreme Court ( the highest court represented in the Imperial Council kingdoms and countries)
  • The unofficially known as the " Imperial Elementary School Law" legal norm
  • Law on k.k. Landwehr ( the territorial defense of Austria)

Links / sources

  • Entry to citizens in Ministry: Austria-Forum, the Austrian knowledge network - online ( in AEIOU Encyclopedia of Austria )
  • Thomas Kletecka, Stefan Malfer: The Protocols of the Austrian ( Cisleithanian ) Ministers from 1867 to 1918; Volume II: 1868-1871
  • Meyers Encyclopedia, 5th Edition, Volume 13, Bibliographical Institute, Leipzig and Vienna, 1896, pp. 320 f
  • Eduard von Wertheimer: feuilleton. The genesis of Austrian citizens Ministry in 1867. According to unpublished records. ( Part I). In: New Free Press, Morning Journal (No. 20575/1921 ), December 9, 1921, pp. 1 ff ( online at ANNO ) Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp, -: -. ( Part II). In: New Free Press, Morning Journal (No. 20583/1921 ), December 17, 1921, p 1 f (Online at ANNO ) Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp, -: -. (Part III and Final ). In: New Free Press, Evening Gazette (No. 20586/1921 ), December 20, 1921, pp. 3 f (Online at ANNO ) Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
Liberalism in Austria Habsburg Monarchy Baron Ignaz von Plener Eduard Herbst Johann Nepomuk Berger (politician) Realunion Imperial-Royal Landwehr
154168
de