In the German press published in Opava, Silesia, at the beginning of the 20th century there was outlined the mostcomprehensive program of excluding Jews from the protection of otherwise commonly binding law. What preventedits popularization was the intervention of the Austrian public prosecutor as the censoring agency. The programanticipated the provisions of the later Nazi Nuremberg laws. In the Austrian monarchy, the propaganda of racialanti-Semitism that was launched by the German nationalistic press and alluded to an alleged anthropological inferiorityof the Jews aimed at fostering a universal disdain toward them and promoting an acceptance of their legalexclusion. The Austrian prosecuting agency reacted sharply to these attempts and confiscated each issue of Germannationalistic press products in which references to the ideology of racial anti-Semitism and appeals to the legal exclusionof the Jews were detectable.The type of anti-Semitism that dominated in Galicia and in the Czech area was different in its nature. It had economic,cultural and religious backgrounds. It tended to evoke animosity and hostility toward Jews in order to separatethem from the Christian part of society. In Galicia, attempts to resort to administrative and legal measuresagainst the Jews and reduce them to citizens of an inferior category were rare. In the anti-Semitic texts that werecensored by the Cracow or Lvov prosecuting agencies there were no open demands for the deprivation of the Jews oftheir public and civic rights as “a suitable method of getting rid of the pernicious influence of the Jews on Polishsociety”. In Galicia, it was thanks to the role played in education by the conservative and catholic class, which ruledthe province, that the question of abolishing equal rights for Jews did not become part of the public or political discourse.

Schlagworte:

The universities did not remain unaffected by the social and cultural transformations of the First World War. Thewomen's movement had already secured access for women to the Faculties of Philosophy and Medicine at the Habsburguniversities (1897 and 1900 respectively), but the Law Faculty still remained closed to them - as did Theology.The war not only gave the women's movement a boost but also showed that there was a need (although mostly only'apparent' in very specific areas) for legally educated females, for example in welfare, youth welfare in particular.The women's associations backed up their claims to equal rights with references not just to the constitution but alsoto the idea of culture: they contended that it was unworthy of a 'Kulturstaat' such as Austria-Hungary not to allowits women access to education when it had become the norm elsewhere. Since 1871 in particular, Austria-Hungaryhad sought to represent itself as a 'Kulturstaat' (cultured state), in contrast to the Prussian 'Machtstaat' (powerstate). Above all, the Viennese Professor for Constitutional and Administrative Law, Edmund Bernatzik, supportedby his daughter Marie Hafferl-Bernatzik, petitioned alongside the women's associations for women to be admitted tothe study of law. The struggle over the law faculties as male bastions was intimately connected to the progression ofthe war for Austria-Hungary. Jurisprudence had always been an integral part of the governmental system: the titleDoctor iuris was a necessary prerequisite for any position in the higher echelons of the Austrian civil service wellinto the twentieth century, and most influential politicians generally came from the ranks of law graduates. Accessto knowledge about the law and the state was therefore a direct qualification to act in and on the law and the state.This action became all the more significant as the Habsburg Monarchy gradually disintegrated. Political consequenceswere not drawn from the accelerated social change until the upheaval of 1918/19, when the law facultieswere also finally opened to women.

Schlagworte:

The paper deals with the homage of the ‘Steirische Landstaende’ – the representatives of the different estates – to theArchdukes of the Habsburg hereditary lands as a legal act. It examines how the act developed into the main mode oflegitimizing any kind of rule in the Early Modern Period. Also it focuses on the fundamental importance of the ‘alteHerkommen’ (old customs). The act of the representatives’ homage to the Archduke regularly was a focal point ofdifferent interests in terms of power-politics. Based on an overview of the Styrian homages’ development and thespecial case of the homage to Archduke Leopold I. in 1660 the paper tries to examine the decrease of the homages’importance and function in the Styrian dominions.

Schlagworte:

The Austrian farmer, politician and academic Ernst Schönbauer(1885–1966) had a self-willed and versatile personality. In histeaching and research he did not restrict himself to his actual discipline,i.e. Roman Law, but he also knew well how to point outdevelopments in legal history up to the present day.Even before 1938, Schönbauer had shown an affinity for NationalSocialism, albeit without having been a party member. As a prospectiveand then as an actual party member he looked after peoplepersecuted by the system between 1938 and 1945. In his functionas Dean of the Faculty of Law (1938–1943), for instance, he upheldthe traditional Austrian way of making new appointments to vacantchairs, a procedure which was contrary to the national socialist‘Führerprinzip’. He also proved stamina when various partyorganizations tried to influence him. This also meant that he didnot leave his post as Dean at a time when attempts were made fromdifferent sides to remove him from his office because of his nonconformism.He left when the opposition against him had come toan end. He did not echo what the respective rulers or moving forces in the Austrian corporative state and duringNational Socialism said, which exposed him repeatedly to vehement criticism or entailed disadvantages.He felt hurt when he was dismissed from university after 1945, an act he considered dishonourable. However, thisdid not stop him from remaining true to academia – especially to the Austrian Academy of Sciences – by being immenselyproductive until the end of his life. He remained vulnerable when the well-being of his family was at stake;for their sake he eventually refrained from realizing his political ambitions in the Second Republic.

Schlagworte:

Monsignor Ignaz Seipel was one of the most important Austrian politicians of the 20th Century. In the last days ofthe monarchy, he became minister for social affairs in the last imperial-royal government and played an active roleduring the collapse of the monarchy. After the proclamation of the republic in 1918, Seipel worked in the ConstitutionalCommittee and presented its draft to the Constitutive National Assembly, which adopted the text on 1st October1920. Later, Seipel became head of the Christian-Social Party and Federal Chancellor. The present article dealsparticularly with the substantive positions of Seipel on the problems of nationalities and estates, on monarchy andrepublic and most of all, on Seipel’s thinking on democracy. It turns out that Seipel was not a friend of a Westernunderstanding of democracy.

Schlagworte:

After the coup d’état on March 4th, 1933, the Austrian government not only banned the Communist Party, the socialdemocratic paramilitary organization (‘Republikanischer Schutzbund’), the Nazi Party and in 1934 also the SocialDemocratic Party itself, but also persecuted their supporters by various measures. Particularly after the uprisingof the Social Democrats (‘Schutzbundaufstand’) in February 1934 and the ‘Naziputsch’ in July 1934 innumerablepolitical opponents were sent to jail or an internment camp (‘Anhaltelager’). Individual pardoning of the imprisonedand interned opponents soon started in reaction to diplomatic pressure on the Austrian government, whichthus also targeted at international pacification. The article deals with the ‘amnesties’ from December 1934 to April1938, which have been rather neglected by historical research so far.

Schlagworte:

Aim of this study is to prove influences of the political development in France, as well as those of contemporaryenlightened literature, on the so-called “Jacobins” of the Habsburg monarchy by using examples of their politicaland legal ideas.There can be no doubt that French events and ideas have significantly influenced the democratic groups reviewedhere. However, elements derived from the political philosophy of authors such as Montesquieu or Rousseau can befound as well. And not least it was the ideology of enlightened absolutism as practised by emperors Joseph II. andLeopold II. from which the ideas of many democrats developed.Although these democrats labelled “conspirators” by the governmental authorities indeed often wished for a revolutionaryoverthrow of state and society and some even tried to act towards this goal, they never managed to become aserious danger to the monarchy from an objective point of view.

Schlagworte:

In Austria laws were made by the Emperor alone until 1860/61, when Austria became a constitutional monarchyand the legislative procedure was changed. Now a provisional act of parliament and the Emperor’s sanction werenecessary to enact a new law. Nevertheless the prevailing legal doctrine still considered the Emperor the only legislator.This theory had been developed by the German scholar Paul Laband and was widely adopted in Austria. A fewyears before World War I two young Austrian constitutional lawyers, Josef Lukas and Hans Kelsen, began to questionit.

Schlagworte:

The article deals with the constitutional development of Czechoslovakia from its creation (28th October 1918) to theadoption of its Constitutional Charter (29th February 1920). It looks for similarities and differences between theconstitutional laws and parliamentary rules of procedure of the Habsburg Monarchy and the new republic. Also, itobserves the discussions in the Constitutional Committee and in the plenary sessions of the National Assembly andcompares the Rules of Procedure of the House of Commons of the Reichsrat of 1875 and Act No. 325/1920, On theRules of Procedure of the House of Commons of the National Assembly. Despite the change of state form there were,especially at the level of parliamentary rules, many similarities which resulted from a common tradition and theexperiences of leading Czech politicians in the Viennese parliament.

Schlagworte: