Heinrich Lammasch

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Heinrich Lammasch (* 21st May 1853 in Seitenstetten ; † 6 January 1920 in Salzburg ) was an Austrian criminal , state and international law , and in 1918 the last prime minister of the Imperial and Royal Austria . The staunch pacifist was one of the most important proponents of Austria's political neutrality and was internationally recognized as a legal scholar.

Photo from around 1910 by Isidor Harkányi

Legal and political career

Birthplace in Seitenstetten

Heinrich Lammasch was born as the son of the lawyer and notary Heinrich (1823–1865) and Anna Lammasch, née Schauenstein (1829–1891) in the court judge's house in Seitenstetten. Soon afterwards the family moved to Wiener Neustadt and on to Vienna . After the early death of his father, he attended the Schottengymnasium and then studied law at the University of Vienna , in 1876 he received his doctorate with excellent results. iur. He then spent a few months in Germany , France and England , the basis of his later activities for world peace and international law. In 1879 he completed his habilitation at the law faculty for criminal law and in 1882 was ao. Professor of Criminal Law . In 1885 he was appointed full professor for criminal law, legal philosophy and international law at the University of Innsbruck and again in 1889 at the University of Vienna. His main areas of work were criminal law dogmatics, extradition and asylum law .

Karl Kraus honored Lammasch's advocacy against outdated criminal laws in 1899: Lammasch's not the slightest merit is finally to have contributed to the fall of the socio-politically most insidious law of the present, the Plener - Windischgrätz'schen criminal law draft of 1893.

In 1899 and 1907 Lammasch took part in the Hague Peace Conferences as adviser to the Austro-Hungarian delegation on international law . In 1899 he became a member of the local Permanent Court of Arbitration , (including the between was in decisions of international conflicts the United States and United Kingdom Fisheries in contentious issue Newfoundland and the Orinoco -Streitfall between Venezuela and the United States) participated and served three times as president of the Court of Arbitration. He played an important role in the internationalization of disputes under international law. He was also a legal advisor to the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand , but did not become a close confidante of the heir to the throne. In 1899 he was appointed a member of the manor house of the Austrian Imperial Council by Emperor Franz Joseph I. From 1906 to 1912 he worked on the draft of a new Austrian criminal law, which, however, did not become law. Politically shaped by Catholicism , he took a moderate-conservative course, according to which he rejected the universal suffrage , which was introduced in Cisleithanien in 1907 . In 1912 he was awarded the Decoration of Honor for Art and Science .

Attitude to war

Even before the First World War , Lammasch had advocated the dissolution of the alliance with the German Empire and rapprochement with the Western powers. At the beginning, he viewed the First World War as an act of defense, but rejected expansionist war aims of the Danube Monarchy. He was a member of the peace movement ; the General Staff therefore demanded his arrest. After the war, he wanted to pursue attacks by the Austro-Hungarian army against the civilian population through international investigations.

In July 1917, when he was a candidate for the post of Imperial and Royal Prime Minister , Lammasch proposed to the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Ottokar Czernin , that Germany should give Germany the ultimatum to consent to the cession of Alsace-Lorraine to France within 48 hours , otherwise Vienna would conclude a separate peace . Czernin immediately passed the statement on to German diplomacy with the comment that he was not doing any “mess”. Under pressure from Germany and Czernin, Emperor Karl I finally had to renounce Lammasch's appointment. Lammasch remarked to his colleague Josef Redlich that Czernin “was completely guided by Berlin”.

Advocating peace of understanding

From October 1917 to February 1918, Lammasch vehemently advocated a mutual agreement with the Entente in the manor house of the Reichsrat . He warned: "The so-called Siegfriede [...] would be a lazy peace, it would be a truce before an even more powerful and horrific armed conflict." Lammasch was shouted down for it, public opinion and newspapers were against him. He worked with the pacifist so-called Meinl group around the diplomat and CEO Julius Meinl towards a peace agreement.

In the text The international law after the war (1917) he also called for the establishment of an international organization. Therefore, he expected a lot from Woodrow Wilson's idea of ​​the League of Nations . His attempts to establish direct contacts with Wilson in early 1918 during talks with the pacifist priest George D. Herron in Switzerland, however, failed.

Lammasch's "Ministry of Liquidation"

Heinrich Lammasch was the last Prime Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ( Cisleithanien ): On October 27, 1918, the then 65-year-old professor of criminal law and legal philosophy was appointed by Emperor Karl I to succeed Baron Max Hussarek von Heinlein (a legal scholar like Lammasch) ( see Ministry of Lammasch ). Outwardly, Lammasch's name was intended to guarantee the cabinet “the etiquette of a peace government”. The day before his appointment he was announced in the Viennese daily Neue Freie Presse as the “liquidator of old Austria” and his government as the “liquidation ministry”. The Reichspost , which is close to the Christian Social Party , called the Lammasch cabinet the "Ministry of Order".

From October 30th, after the abandonment of the predominantly German-speaking areas, he and his ministers handed over the German-Austrian business to the new German-Austrian State Council and the Renner I state government appointed by him .

On November 9, when the abdication of Wilhelm II was announced, the Council of Ministers under Lammasch's chairmanship dealt in two sessions with the consequences for the monarchical form of government in Austria. Karl Renner and Karl Seitz also took part in some of the deliberations as representatives of German Austria. Here the emperor's proclamation was drafted in detail, including by Lammasch himself, and edited. The next day, on November 10th, Renner announced that on November 11th, the Council of State would resolve the motion to the Provisional National Assembly for German-Austria to introduce the Republic. Lammasch therefore held another conference with the emperor on the same day.

In order to bring about the smooth completion of the transition to the new state order, which began in October, Lammasch finally convinced the emperor on November 11th in Schönbrunn Palace (also through discussions with Empress Zita ), the waiver declaration drawn up by politicians of the old and the new order at noon to sign. The emperor's formula contained therein, "I renounce any share in state affairs", was included in the declaration at the instigation of Ignaz Seipel .

On the afternoon of November 11th, the Lammasch cabinet was formally removed from office by the Emperor. (In the Feldkirch Manifesto , the former bearer of the crown (as the republican state called him in the Habsburg Law of 1919) claimed on March 24, 1919, on the occasion of his departure to Switzerland, that he had only given the declaration of renunciation and under no circumstances had permanently renounced his rights to rule.)

First republic

After the end of the war, Lammasch drafted a League of Nations statutes and tried to achieve tolerable peace conditions for Austria through writings and petitions. In 1919, at the invitation of the Renner government, he took part in the peace negotiations in Saint-Germain-en-Laye as an expert for German Austria . Lammasch advocated an independent and neutral republic known as "norisch" and "ostalpin". In an article for the newspaper of the journalist and writer Richard A. Bermann , member of the official peace delegation "German Austria", "For the good of Austria itself and the preservation of European peace", Lammasch, who had already raised the question of neutrality as a member of the manor house, advocated the independent Republic of Austria as a neutral buffer state in the middle of Europe.

Lammasch was described as a "courageous pioneer of the peace movement". Against the general attitude that demanded unification with Germany, he advocated a neutral buffer state Austria. This contradicted the opinions of the head and other members of the delegation and the essay was confiscated. Bermann wrote: “I protested against the attempt to silence such a venerable scholar and statesman [...] in vain. [...] This affair and the pain for South Tyrol that soon followed it contributed a lot to the end of the wonderful man; he died soon after the peace conference, which he left indignantly. ”And he described“ that the old man began to cry after he had heard of the peace dictation ”.

death

Memorial plaque on the house where he was born in Seitenstetten

Lammasch died in 1920 at the age of 66 after a stroke. The Neue Freie Presse wrote in its obituary that Lammasch's death would be viewed as a loss to science far beyond Austria's borders . The next day she reported that State Chancellor Karl Renner had sent a condolence rally to Lammasch's widow , in which he celebrated the deceased as a pioneer of international peace.

The much more detailed and prominently placed obituary in the Wiener Arbeiter-Zeitung , the central organ of the social democracy in German Austria , stated that Lammasch was one of the few to have passed the test of character during the war , honored the truth and resisted the intoxication of war . The recognition and gratitude of the democratic popular masses follow him to the grave . Lammasch have to in the mansion vulgar onslaught of all victorious peace bonds to exist had that executed moral contempt for the people have.

Stefan Zweig , one of only five mourners, described the funeral of the former prime minister in the cemetery in Salzburg-Aigen as “poor and sad”.

After Lammasch's death, Christian socialists attempted to reclaim the highly respected, who rejected their enthusiasm for the war, for their movement. Karl Kraus then threatened:

"Shortly before his death, Lammasch, who had tried in vain throughout the war to persuade the Reichspost to adopt a more humane attitude, made the statement that about those personalities who, like few others, should be singled out after the end of the world war that Mr. Funder belongs, shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Benedikt, the other Benedict . Should the Reichspost make one more attempt to dishonor the name Lammasch by recognizing it, it can receive the statement in such a precise form that even its stupid readers, who then accepted bestiality as they now accept humanity, have concerns would. "

- Karl Kraus : In: The torch

Between 1915 and 1918 Lammasch was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times . In 1957 his remains were reburied in the family crypt in the Bad Ischl cemetery .

Family and aftermath

Heinrich Lammasch was married to Leonore, née Gmeiner, and had a daughter (probably Marga); both lived in Bad Ischl until their deaths.

In 1953 a Lammasch bust by Michael Drobil was placed in the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna . In 1954 the Lammaschgasse in Vienna - Floridsdorf (21st district) and in 1998 in Halle an der Saale, Germany, a square was named after him. On April 20, 2008, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the house where he was born in Seitenstetten.

Quotes

"I don't believe in eternal peace, but I believe I have to do everything I can to bring it about."

- Heinrich Lammasch

“We can only fight this danger [anarchy] by fulfilling the legitimate wishes of our people, by giving the nationalities that have awakened their rights to self-government [...] Our war has been a defensive war from the start. […] The so-called Siegfriede […] would only be […] a lazy peace, it would only be a truce before an even more powerful and horrific armed conflict. The nations have not given their hearts to such peace. [...] It is the great merit of our emperor that he first accepted this principle [...], the principle of mutual agreement. "

- Heinrich Lammasch : Speech in the manor house of the Imperial and Royal Reichsrat on February 28, 1918

“Dear Dr Lammasch! With selfless willingness to make sacrifices, you have taken over the management of my Austrian Ministry in extremely difficult times, following my call. If I now, in compliance with your request, relieve you from the post of my Austrian Prime Minister, I urge me to express my opinion for the tireless work that you have developed in the interest of the initiation of peace among nations, and for the excellent service you have rendered to me with patriotic devotion special thanks and my fullest appreciation. As a visible sign of my affection, I will award you the Grand Cross of My Order of St. Stephen tax-free.
Vienna, November 11, 1918. "

- Emperor Karl I : letters of thanks on the day of the dismissal of the last imperial-royal government and the declaration of renunciation by the monarch himself

“[...] I can't help writing to you today: I'm from Heinrich Lammasch's funeral. Never in my life have I seen such a funeral, so poor, so sad, we were five people at the grave of a former prime minister of a country of thirty million, the great and famous scholar, a great hero of thought. Not a single member of the government, none of his former supporters; they were all afraid of counting as monarchists if they were to attend the funeral of the unfortunate Karl's last faithful. My wife and I, who were supported by his great kindness and the clarity of his vision during the war, were moved to tears. This is how to bury the vanquished of immortal ideas! [...] "

- Stefan Zweig : In a report on January 10, 1920 to his friend, the French humanist and Nobel Prize winner Romain Rolland .

"After his passing, the wish remains that the time that was not worthy of his life might be honored by his memory."

- Karl Kraus : In: Die Fackel , No. 521-530, February 1920, p. 153, Lammasch and the Christians

“[…] You may sorely miss one thing, namely from Lammasch, whom you had considered one of your own for so long […] Lammasch would not have congratulated. He finally concluded his correspondence with Mr. Funder with the realization that it would not be possible, at least until defeat, to induce the Reichspost to adopt a humane attitude in the war. "

- Karl Kraus : In: “Die Fackel”, No. 608–612, end of December 1922, p. 12; Comment on the letters of congratulations that had arrived at the editorial office of Friedrich Funder , the editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper “ Reichspost ”, on the 50th birthday of the newspaper , and which were reported on in the paper.

Fonts (selection)

  • Extradition obligation and right of asylum. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887.
  • Outline of Austrian criminal law. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1899.
  • The training of international law through the Hague Conference. Jos. Roth'sche Verlagshandlung, Vienna 1900.
  • The legal force of international arbitration awards. Aschehoug, Kristiania 1913.
  • International law after the war. Aschehoug, Kristiania 1917.
  • The Peace Association of States. The New Spirit, Leipzig 1919.
  • The Association of Nations for the Preservation of Peace. 1919.
  • Europe's eleventh hour. 1919.
  • Woodrow Wilson's peace plan. 1919.
  • League of Nations or Genocide. 1920.

literature

  • Marga Lammasch, Hans Sperl (ed.): Heinrich Lammasch. His records, his work and his politics. Franz Deuticke, Vienna / Leipzig 1922 (with a contribution by Hermann Bahr : His essence. )
  • Georg Cavallar : Eye-deep in Hell. Heinrich Lammasch, the Confederation of Neutral States, and Austrian Neutrality, 1899-1920. In: Rebecka Lettevall, Geert Somsen, Sven Widmalm (eds.): Neutrality in Twentieth-Century Europe. Intersections of Science, Culture, and Politics after the First World War. Routledge, London / New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-203-11679-1 , pp. 273-294.
  • Dieter Köberl: Heinrich Lammasch legal scholar, pacifist and last Imperial and Royal Prime Minister. In: Salzburg Archive 35, series of publications by the Friends of Salzburg History Association, Salzburg 2014, pp. 346–374 ( PDF 496 kB).
  • Dieter Köberl: For the good of Austria. Features on the 90th anniversary of Heinrich Lammasch's death. In: Die Furche , No. 7/2010, February 18, 2010, p. 13. (Online in the entry on Lammasch, Heinrich in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon ))
  • Dieter Köberl: Heinrich Lammasch. A conservative reformer and an unwavering champion for world peace. In: Communications from the Brenner Archive No. 38–39 / 2019–2020, Innsbruck university press, University of Innsbruck 2019, pp. 123–143 ( PDF, 1.8 MB ).
  • Gerhard Oberkofler : neutrality "for the good of Austria itself and the maintenance of European peace". A basic idea from Heinrich Lammasch. In: Mitteilungen der Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft, No. 3/2005 ( online ).
  • Gerhard Oberkofler, Eduard Rabofsky: Heinrich Lammasch (1853-1920). Notes on the academic career of the great Austrian scholar of international law and criminal law. Archives of the Leopold Franzens University, Innsbruck 1993.
  • Gerhard Oberkofler: Heinrich Lammasch. In: Winfried Böttcher (Ed.): Europe's forgotten visionaries. Reconsideration in times of acute crisis. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2019, ISBN 9783848745838 , pp. 339–344.
  • Stephan Verosta : Theory and Reality of Alliances. Heinrich Lammasch, Karl Renner and the Dual Alliance (1897–1914). Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1971.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Lammasch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Walter Goldinger , Stephan Verosta:  Lammasch Heinrich. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 4, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1969, p. 415 f. (Direct links on p. 415 , p. 416 ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Bruno Simma :  Lammasch, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 447 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ " Die Fackel " magazine , Vienna, No. 17, September 1899, p. 12
  4. ↑ a b c d Dieter Köberl: For the good of Austria. Features on the 90th anniversary of Heinrich Lammasch's death. In: Die Furche , No. 7/2010, February 18, 2010, p. 13. (Online in the entry on Lammasch, Heinrich in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon ))
  5. ^ Ingeborg Meckling: The foreign policy of Count Czernin. Vienna 1969, p. 96; and Manfried Rauchsteiner : The Death of the Double Eagle. Austria-Hungary and the First World War. Böhlau, Vienna / Graz / Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-222-12454-X , p. 490f.
  6. ↑ Hartmut Lehmann: Czernin's peace policy 1916-18. In: The world as history. 23 (1963), pp. 47-59, here: p. 56.
  7. ^ Heinrich Benedikt: The peace campaign of the Meinlgruppe 1917/18. The efforts to reach a mutual agreement based on documents, files and letters. Böhlau, Graz / Cologne, 1962, p. 247.
  8. ^ Betty Miller Unterberger: The United States, revolutionary Russia, and the rise of Czechoslovakia. In: Texas A&M University Press, College Station 2000, ISBN 0890969310 , p. 100 ff.
  9. ↑ a b Upcoming appointment of Hofrat Lammasch as prime minister. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, October 26, 1918, SS 1, left column center (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp: "It is about the formation of a liquidation ministry"
  10. ↑ a b c The world until yesterday: marginal figure in world history. Heinrich Lammasch. The last Prime Minister during the collapse in 1918. In: Die Presse , October 18, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  11. ↑ A Ministry of Lammasch. Imminent resignation of Baron v. Hussarek. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, October 26, 1918, p. 1, middle and right column, especially the end of the article (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp: “… Hofrat Lammasch, as Prime Minister, is to become the liquidator of old Austria. We would have wished him a less painful duty. "
  12. ↑ Das Ordnungsministerium Lammasch. In:  Reichspost , Morgenblatt, October 26, 1918, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / rpt
  13. ↑ Josef Redlich in his diary, quoted from: Rudolf Neck (Hrsg.): Austria in the year 1918. Reports and documents. Oldenbourg, Munich 1968, p. 132 f.
  14. ↑ The Christian Social Leaders during the Revolution. In:  Reichspost , June 8, 1923, pp. 2–3, here in particular p. 3 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / rptSubtitle: A historical account of the events of autumn 1918 by the Christian Social Association.
  15. ↑ Thomas Olechowski: Ignaz Seipel - from kk minister to reporter on the republican federal constitution. In: Thomas Simon (ed.): State foundation and constitutional order. In development, Vienna 2011, p. 143f. Online version, January 3, 2011: Kelsen Working Papers. Publications of the FWF project P 19287: “Biographical Researches on H. Kelsen in the Years 1881–1940” (PDF; p. 12f)
  16. ↑ a b c d Quoted from Dieter Köberl: Festschrift for the unveiling of a memorial plaque at the birthplace of Heinrich Lammasch. (Seitenstetten 2008.)
  17. ↑ Small Chronicle: Dr. Heinrich Lammasch †. In:  Wiener Zeitung , supplement to Wiener Zeitung , January 7, 1920, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz
  18. ^ Neue Freie Presse , Vienna, January 7, 1920, Abendblatt, p. 2
  19. ^ Neue Freie Presse , Vienna, January 8, 1920, p. 5, Small Chronicle
  20. ↑ Arbeiter-Zeitung , Vienna, January 8, 1920, p. 1
  21. ^ Gert Kerschbaumer: Stefan Zweig. The flying Salzburg man. Residenz, Salzburg 2003, ISBN 3-70171-336-7 , p. 87.
  22. ↑ Die Fackel magazine , Vienna, No. 588–594, March 1922, p. 24.
  23. ^ The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Peace, 1901-1956
  24. ↑ a b Friedrich Wiener: The Ischler Friedhof. Friedhofsführer, 2nd edition, Ischler Heimatverein, Bad Ischl 2008. (Online: Friedhof Bad Ischl: Heinrich Lammasch. ) Picture of the grave and description of the location on the website of the Ischler Heimatverein, picture 7/19.
  25. ^ Database Women in Movement 1918–1938 of the Austrian National Library
  26. ↑ See Marga Lammasch, Hans Sperl: Heinrich Lammasch. His records, his work, his politics. Franz Deuticke, 1922.
  27. ↑ Stenographic Protocol. Mansion. XXII. Session. 28th meeting. Thursday, February 28, 1918, p. 812 ff.
  28. ↑ a b Quoted from Gerhard Oberkofler: neutrality "for the good of Austria itself and the maintenance of European peace". (Vienna 2005.)
personal data
SURNAME Lammasch, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian constitutional and international lawyer, politician and the last Imperial and Royal Prime Minister of Austria
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Seitenstetten
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1920
Place of death Salzburg