Legitimist Corps

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Corps Danubia

Legitimist corps were a phenomenon of interwar Austria . It was a question of striking legitimist student associations , which in all known cases sooner or later referred to themselves as corps . What these alliances had in common was that they arose after the collapse of the monarchy from conservative circles, former nobility and the military. That is why they had a more or less legitimate reputation for being legitimist . For the corps, loyalty to the emperor and political neutrality were well compatible before the First World War . In the First Republicon the other hand, perceived as politically positioned, start-ups had no place in the corps associations. Nonetheless, the legitimist associations differed from most conservative associations; because they were neither denominational nor national: the Roman Catholic connections rejected the Mensur, the fraternities pushed the German National Movement and the Kösener Corps , especially since the German War, tended more towards the Protestant crown of Prussia than towards the Catholic Habsburg monarchy .

history

In the winter of 1918/19, Karl's loyal followers formed . I ; Baron Werkmann , the emperor's last secretary, published the Staatswehr magazine. The party of all black and yellow Legitimists (SGL) was founded , which took part in the National Council elections in 1923 under the name Kaisertreue Volkspartei , but remained without a mandate .

Soon there were also students who joined together in the German-Christian-academic association Wasgonia . With the large number of members on the one hand and the deliberate isolation from the Kösener Corps on the other, Wasgonia founded subsidiary associations in order to find counter-timbres for scales . These six associations became like Wasgonia (legitimist) corps outside the KSCV. The Wasgonia scale book suggests a lively corps life. The unity of the corps in the WSC waned at the end of the 1920s when the Viking corps turned to the Kösener Corps in Vienna and gave up the strict legitimist positions.

When the NSDAP came to power in Germany, the political situation in the corporate state (Austria) also changed . There was less and less room for ideals loyal to the emperor; the legitimist corps lacked young talent. Participation in commemoration ceremonies such as the one in April 1934 for the former Emperor Karl I in the Votive Church in Vienna was seldom without physical violence instigated by the SA .

The historical attempt to gain a foothold in the First Republic as links loyal to the emperor after the end of the Danube Monarchy must be viewed as failed by 1935 at the latest. The police files of that time show that the Wolsungen, Athesia and Karolinger corps had hardly any events from 1933 onwards. After all student associations were banned, actions in the resistance group around Karl Burian are known only from the Ottonians .

After the Second World War , the legitimist corps were not reconstituted. As their successor corps, the Corps Ostarichi was founded on May 22, 1948 by the old men of the dissolved corps. One can doubt that it actually had active members and that it had a corps operation. The Ostarichi went out on October 4, 1960.

An exception is the Corps Ottonen, which was re-established in 1992 as the "Austrian Student Union Ottonia" as the successor to the old Corps Ottonen. In 2007 the conversion of the Ö.St.V. Ottonia in the Academic Corps Ottonen. The corps uses the old colors black-gold-green and the motto Kaiser and Reich.

Vienna Seniors' Convention

In interwar Austria, the WSC was an amalgamation of the Viennese legitimist student associations Wasgonia, Ottonen, Woelsungen, Karolinger, Palaio-Austria, Athesia and Wikinger as well as the Pennal Corps Austro-Germania Klosterneuburg. This amalgamation should not be confused with the SC zu Vienna, which later became the Vienna Corps in the Kösener SC Association .

The WSC was founded on October 18, 1923 with the colors black and gold on red and the motto honor, loyalty, fatherland . Relationships and bang-out ratios existed between the WSC Corps mentioned and the Corps Danubia Graz until the early 1930s. Above all, the Wiener Ottonen and the Grazer Danuben had several members in common.

This trend subsided as early as the late First Republic. Wasgonia suspended in the early 1930s . All connections of the Wiener SC went under at the latest with the "Anschluss" of Austria , since a monarchist corps life was impossible during the time of National Socialism . Rather, the corps had to pay a particularly high toll in blood. What is unique in the history of the corporation is that with the Ottonen Corps a whole connection changed to a resistance group, to the Burian group. It was dug in 1943. The Ottonen senior , Captain Karl Burian, was executed on March 13, 1944 in the Vienna Regional Criminal Court. Ottone Karl Alfons von Portele was sentenced to death, but not executed while he was in prison for five years. A total of around 4,500 legitimists and people close to them were arrested and taken to concentration camps .

The color of the corps in the WSC includes almost without exception the colors black and gold for the House of Habsburg . The red percussion is reminiscent of the colors in the Austro-Hungarian coat of arms . With the ban in 1938/39, the following corps went out:

Wasgonia , founded June 20, 1920

Wasgonia's ribbon award ceremony to Emperor Karl I.

Ottonen , founded October 18, 1922

Woelsungen , founded October 10, 1929

Carolingian , founded September 2, 1922

Palaio-Austria , founded December 4, 1908

Athesia , founded October 14, 1926 as the successor to Palaio-Austria

Vikings , founded April 1, 1922

Danubia Graz

Erwin Drahowzal (1889–1967)

Danubia was created in 1921 as a free association. The donors were former officers, soldiers from the front and military academics of the Austro-Hungarian Army . As supporters of the Habsburgs, they had sought a way into civil life in the First Republic and began studying in Graz. With their notions of comradeship and honor, they were at a losing position at the universities. In order to keep to themselves, they decided on May 17, 1921 Danubias Foundation. The birthday of Franz Joseph I (Austria-Hungary) was chosen as the foundation day on August 18 . The term Danubia also evoked the Danube monarchy.

In the founding resolution it was declared that the Ristow Code of Conduct was to be followed in matters of honor . Later one adhered to the knightly honor protection customary among weapons students . The color was black-gold-purple when it was founded. The fact that the dark blue cap was changed to brown in the same year was due to the color of the artillery officers' skirt and financial reasons; because it allowed the sparsely living post-war students to have their hats made from discarded uniforms . That Danubia oriented itself as a fraternity was due to personal contacts of a member to Gustav Stresemann . He was a member of an ADB fraternity (and basically a monarchist). The motto also referred to the fraternity honor, freedom, fatherland .

Danubia's attitude is shown in a letter from the founding senior Bäuml to the executive committee of the Christian Social Party (Austria) , in which he asks for support for legitimist activities. One can assume that in the early years all statements about the apolitical orientation were only camouflage. The benevolent attitude of the CSP leadership in turn testifies to strong monarchist tendencies in their ranks, even though the party expressed itself cautiously in public.

Struggle for recognition

10th Foundation Festival (1931)

From the beginning Danubia had to fight against the republic . The Karl-Franzens-University denied her the right to access and paint, which amounted to non-recognition. Although Danubia strongly advocated determination and saber games, she initially strived for admission to the General German Burschenbund . This was rejected in 1925. In order to publicly counter the legitimist accusation, it was decided in the spring of 1922 that at the reception, also to swear to the observance of the law and thus to recognize the republican order. In the fall of 1923, the chaos year of the Weimar Republic , these decisions were far beyond the reach; Political activity was banned not only from the association but also from its members. This decision proved to be an untenable burden in the disputes over the direction of the First Republic and especially in the 1930s.

The admission into the KSCV, which was sought after turning away from the ADB, turned out to be difficult. Not even in the (Kösener) SC zu Graz could measure lengths be covered. Therefore Danubia approached the legitimist Wiener SC, especially the Corps Wasgonia. The Ottonen covered many games. The offer of a formal connection to the Vienna SC was rejected, however, because the SC was relatively open to legitimism. The last measure with frets of the Wiener SC was carried out in 1932. Some Danuben also wore a ribbon from the Vienna Corps. The weapons protection department of Corps Teutonia Graz paved the way to matches in Graz . At the end of 1924 the Graz universities granted the right to access and paint. The fact that Danubia took up the representatives' meeting (later the Grazer Korporationsring) in 1928 made it possible to have a regular paucity with the Graz connections. In 1929 they finally declared themselves to be a corps against the protest of the SC. At the same time Danubia changed the colors to black-gold-blue: the skirts were brown, the trousers blue, the buttons golden and the lapels of the kk artillery officers black. The new colors were approved by the university in 1931.

Conflict

The Austro-fascism and the self-dissolution of parliament split Danubia. In 1934 the university was informed that active business had ceased: a large part of Aktivitas had left and found accommodation with the Viruna community . When it was banned by the state police in 1936 , many viruns found their way to the Corps Teutonia Graz. At Danubia there remained conservatives who wanted to continue the strictly apolitical line, but could no longer maintain active operations. The fact that the resigned members kept in touch with the Corps later made possible mutual band awards. After the annexation of Austria , Danubia received a notice of termination like all student associations, despite its apolitical line. A continuation as comradeship is not documented, but mutual help and meetings of the members.

Danubia also illustrates the conflict between monarchy and National Socialism . Even if they adhered to the Habsburg monarchy, many Danubes could not escape the Greater German idea . This almost split the covenant. Rittmeister v. Hoffinger , the senior in the 1931 summer semester, embodied the purely Austrian line, loyal to the emperor. Ferdinandea Graz awarded him the ribbon in the Academic Association of Catholic-Austrian Landsmannschaften in 1948 (before Danubia's reconstitution). The turning away from a striking to a Catholic-legitimist connection testifies to v. Hoffinger's unconditional loyalty to Habsburg.

From 1947 the corps revived in occupied post-war Austria. The permission (better: the non-prohibition) to reactivate was obtained in 1952. The reactivation was achieved when the student group Corona engineer was absorbed in Danubia. In 1954 the goal of admission to the Kösener Seniors Convents Association , which had been pursued for 30 years, was achieved; but had to be suspended for three years due to a lack of active members. The old rulers continued and largely accepted membership in the Graz Corps Teutonia, Joannea and Vandalia. Danubia reconstituted with the support boys of this corps in the winter semester 2006/07. If only three old men were alive before the reactivation, there were now several tape recordings by Austrian and West German corps students. In the 2007/08 winter semester, Danubia was accepted as a full member of the Grazer Korporationsring.

With the General Convention on January 31, 2008, the last chapter of the active Danubia began. It was foreseeable that even an active report from old men could not stop the renewed suspension. That is why the suspension was decided. Numerous representatives of the SC and foreign corps, fraternities and country teams came to the pub , with which this chapter of the active Danubia ended. Despite the suspension, the Corps celebrated the 90th Foundation Festival on a large scale in autumn 2011. It was able to further expand its membership. As has always been the norm in Graz, Danubia is open to students from all Graz universities. About a hundred men joined it.

Danuben

Colors corps danubia graz.svg

literature

  • Christian Prosl : Deadly Romance. The legitimistic academic corps "Ottonen" (=  Austrian Association for Student History [Hrsg.]: Tradition and Future . Volume 12 ). Vienna 2008.
  • Walter Rabe: Austria's corps loyal to the emperor in the First Republic (=  Association for Corps Student History Research [Hrsg.]: Einst und Jetzt . Volume 23 ). 1978, p. 11-47 .
  • Willy Klein: Adventurers against their will - memories of a member of the Academic Corps Ottonen (= Austrian Association for Student History [Hrsg.]: Tradition and Future . Volume 9 ). Vienna 2006, p. 11–47 (translated from French and edited by Christian Prosl).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Archive of the University of Vienna , Constitution of the Corps Wasgonia and Ottonen and the Vienna Senior Citizens' Convention .
  2. ↑ Wasgonia's scale book from 1923/24 to 1928.
  3. ↑ files of the association office of the Federal Police Directorate Vienna; XV6627, XV7132, XV7198, XV8006, XV9972, XV7205, XV11842 and V157.
  4. ^ Corps Ostarrichi in the DNB .
  5. ^ A b Walter Rabe: Austria's corps loyal to the emperor in the First Republic (= Association for Corps Student History Research [Hrsg.]: Einst und Jetzt . Volume 23 ). 1978, p. 11-47 .
  6. ^ Christian Prosl: Deadly Romanticism. The legitimistic academic corps "Ottonen" (= Austrian Association for Student History [Hrsg.]: Tradition and Future . Volume 12 ). Vienna 2008.
  7. ^ Festschrift for the 95th Foundation Festival of the Academic Corps Ottonen . Vienna 2017.
  8. ^ Wiener SC in the catalog of the German National Library.
  9. ↑ a b Paulgerhard Gladen : Gaudeamus Igitur. The student corporations then and now . Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7667-0811-2 , p. 64.
  10. ↑ a b Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW).
  11. ↑ a b Österreich Journal (2005) (PDF; 1.5 MB).
  12. ↑ a b Peter Krause : O old lad glory . Styria , Graz et al. 1997, ISBN 3-222-12478-7 , p. 189.
  13. ↑ Friedrich Wagner: The Austrian Legitimism 1918 to 1938, its politics and journalism. Dissertation at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Vienna, June 1956.
  14. ↑ Drahowzal was after the Danuben senior in the summer semester of 1922 as the "real pioneer of the legitimist student movement"; see letter from Kubin I to Wasgonia (1929).
  15. ↑ Gustav Ristow: Code of Honor. With an appendix containing hints and advice for the conduct of the officer (officer or cadet aspirant) and one-year volunteers in honorary matters . LW Seidel, 1917. GoogleBooks .
  16. ↑ a b c Corps history.
  17. ^ Letter from Bäuml to the Christian Social Party from 1920.
  18. ↑ History Virunas before the Second World War. (No longer available online.) Virunia zu Graz, September 29, 2007, archived from the original on September 29, 2007 ; accessed on October 6, 2018 .