Emil Steinbach

Robert Wilhelm Emil Steinbach ( born June 11, 1846 in Vienna, † May 26 1907 in Purkersdorf, Lower Austria ) was an Austrian jurist, politician and Minister of Finance. He was the Senior Officials and Ministers by a number of important legislative reforms, some of which continue to reverberate to this day.

Life

Youth and Education

Emil was born as the first of three children of self-employed goldsmith William Steinbach († 1877 ) and his wife Emilie († 1881), nee Ofner, in Vienna Mariahilf. The father came from Arad (then Kingdom of Hungary ) and was converted occasion of his marriage from the Jewish to the Roman Catholic faith. The family lived in modest circumstances. Emil's brother William died at the age of 18 renal colic.

Emil tried as high school students, to support the family with private lessons. 1862 joined the extremely dedicated students as Externe to the academic high school and graduated a year later, even as a 17 -year-old, with an excellent secondary school leaving certificate.

Steinbach then studied law at the University of Vienna, where by his almost photographic memory, he made a great impression on colleagues and professors as already at the school. He received his doctorate in 1868 for Dr. jur. Until 1874 he graduated from the Advokaturpraxis as trainee, passed the bar exam and became a lecturer and later professor of law and economics at the Graduate School of the Vienna Commercial Academy ordered. A private life was of a deeply religious Catholic who was never married and worked tirelessly, hardly. After the death of his parents, he joined the second of his brother Robert family. His personal friends were Burgtheater director Max Eugen Burckhardt, the writer Eduard Pötzl, the journalist James Duke and the scholar Hermann of laborers.

Ministry of Justice

Steinbach was the end of 1874 k.k. Taken as a Justice Department ministerial Vice Secretary, because he was noticed by good legal articles. In 1880, he was already Sektionsrat, 1882 and 1890 Ministerial Section Chief. His post at the commercial college he practiced besides still out until 1885. He was the senior officials of civil law and especially the representatives of the Ministry before both Houses of the Imperial Council and its committees. He played a leading role for his work in committees and boards at the introduction of accident and health insurance for workers, the worker protection provisions, the factory inspectors law, the establishment of the Post Office Savings Bank and the nationalization of the railways. Most were the areas that do not directly lay the control of the Ministry of Justice. But the little competent Minister Alois Prazak had found in Steinbach a talented helper. Even Prime Minister Eduard Taaffe became aware of Steinbach and installed him as special adviser. The reform of the liberal trade order, politically endorsed with a restriction on the freedom of trade for the protection of small business owners, Taaffe, was designed by Steinbach. However, this also provided for worker protection provisions such as the prohibition of child labor and night work for women, and created the British model the industrial inspectorate. The reforms led even the leader of the Social Democrats Victor Adler 1891 to exclaim, Austria possesses in addition to England and Switzerland, the best worker protection law in the world.

In its central function in the ministry, he brought in May 1890 Showing An attempt Minister of Agriculture Julius von Falkenhayn concerning stricter criminal law provisions, because of the rampant strikes, to case.

Finance

From February 2, 1891 to November 11, 1893 Steinbach was Finance Minister in the Cabinet Taaffe. He was decisive role in the social legislation of the Taaffe era and argued for an extension of the suffrage. In 1892 he introduced a currency reform to restructure the economy and tax reform, with the introduction of a progressive income tax, by. The personal income tax on income that exceeded 600 guilders, was only 0.6 % to a maximum of 4 % for very large incomes above 100,000 guilders. The currency reform, switching from silver to gold guilder currency, the gold crown, he was able to perform together with the Hungarian Finance Minister Sandor Wekerle.

He rushed together with Taaffe in an attempt to introduce universal suffrage. Parallel to the existing Curia suffrage men should in principle obtain the right to vote from the age of 24. German conservatives and the club Poland had allied with their opponents, the German liberals for the purpose of its fall.

Supreme Court

Following his ministerial office was Steinbach Senate President of the Supreme Court, a post which had been specifically created for him. In 1899 he was second in 1904 and first president of the Supreme Court. He also served as president of the Law Society. Emperor Franz Joseph, who particularly appreciated Steinbach, awarded him the title of nobility, several orders, and appointed him in 1899 as a member of the manor of the Imperial Council.

His unhealthy lifestyle, too much work and too little sleep caused severe health problems. After a stroke, brought to the sanatorium Purkersdorf to recovery, he died there on 26 May 1907 hemiplegia and pulmonary edema. It was the year in which universal suffrage was finally introduced in Austria.

Politics

Due to the experienced in his childhood relationships Steinbach developed for radical democrats and fundamentally opposed to the capitalist market economy. Steinbach was coined during his studies by his teacher Lorenz von Stein and his views of curbing the evils of capitalism by a balancing role of the state. Anti-Semitism and the backwardness of this school of thought did not stop Steinbach, you attach life. In his reforms Steinbach took the idea of using the bureaucracy as an element to overcome class antagonisms. Initially, the left-liberal camp belonging, Steinbach joined in later years in the camp of conservatives. His ideas identified points of contact with those of Bismarck and Karl von Vogelsang. Although he was guiding spirit of electoral reform, which meant a fundamental democratization, he claimed that democratically elected parliaments were completely unable to legislative work. For him, the electoral reform was a means to calm the workers' movement for the suppression of liberalism, weakening and fragmentation of the parliament and strengthening of emperors and government.

His friend the social politician Joseph Maria Baernreither described Steinbach and his views critical:

"He was basically a good person, but he hated the possession [ ... ] The propertied, educated, often half-educated middle class, was repugnant to him, that what is called bourgeoisie, middle class in England, he considered socially and politically incapable of the to solve governmental functions. The economic importance of this class he completely underestimated and sought to limit where he could [ ... ] Hence his overestimation of the official stand. His ideal was the exercise of all governmental and economic functions as an official. In this he was quite socialist older style. For self-administration, he had self-activity only contemptuous words [ ... ] The German liberalism has had no greater enemy than in Austria Steinbach. His recipe for the cure of Austria was therefore very simple. The representatives of these layers are incapable of governing the state; one must dig deeper, where the unused resting healthy forces of the Austrian peoples. Through a radical suffrage the middle classes need to be restricted or the bottom, politically pristine layers to the surface. "