Eduard Taaffe

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Eduard Count Taaffe

Count Eduard von Taaffe (born February 24, 1833 in Vienna , † November 29, 1895 in Ellischau , Bohemia ) was an Austrian statesman, conservative social reformer, Prime Minister of Cisleithania , several times minister and regional president in Salzburg , governor in Austria on the Enns and later governor in Tyrol . His family was of primitive Irish descent and he held the titles of Viscount Taaffe and Baron Ballymote in the Peerage of Ireland .

Life

Count Taaffe (since 1873, after the death of his older brother Karl, also 11th Viscount Taaffe) was a childhood friend of Emperor Franz Joseph I. Taaffe studied law at the University of Vienna . Due to the position of trust with the emperor, at the age of 28, in 1861, he became governor and head of the district authority in Prague , in 1863 regional president (state chief) in the crown land of Salzburg and in January / February 1867 was governor (state chief) in the crown land of Austria above the Enns .

During the term of office of Prime Minister Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust , who was negotiating and concluding the Austro-Hungarian settlement at the time , the Kaiser appointed him head of the Ministry of Administration in February 1867 and appointed him Minister of the Interior in March .

Subsequently, at the end of 1867, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister Prince Karl von Auersperg and at the same time entrusted with the agendas for national defense and public security. After Auersperg resigned, the emperor appointed him imperial and royal prime minister and national defense minister on September 24, 1868 .

Since he remained in the minority in the so-called Citizens' Ministry with his intention to better meet the demands of the non-German nationalities, he applied for removal, which the Emperor granted him on January 15, 1870. On April 12, 1870, the Emperor appointed him Minister of the Interior in the Potocki Ministry , which was appointed on that day, and made him head of the Ministry of National Defense. The Potocki Ministry was removed in February 1871.

From May 1871 to June 1879 Taaffe was then the Imperial and Royal Governor (Landeschef) in the Kronland Tyrol . During this time, in April 1878, he was awarded the highest decoration of the monarchy, the Order of the Golden Fleece , by the emperor . On August 12, 1879, he was reappointed imperial and royal prime minister by the Kaiser and served until November 11, 1893.

Marie Amalie Taaffe, photo from the Adèle studio

In 1862 he married the Hungarian noblewoman Irma Csáky de Körösszegy et Adorján, with whom he had four daughters and the son Heinrich Taaffe . His daughter Marie Amalie married Max von Coudenhove in 1889 .

Act

The appointment of the conservative monarchist Eduard Taaffe brought about a fundamental change in politics. It marked the end of the political supremacy of the liberals , the government through lawyers and entrepreneurs .

In 1882, at his suggestion , the Reichsrat lowered the census limit (minimum tax payment) for voter participation from ten to five guilders , which gave the commercial middle class the right to vote (so-called five-guilder men ). This strengthened its parliamentary base.

In economic policy, the dominance of the market and competition was replaced by protectionism . The Taaffe government strengthened customs protection for Austrian industry. It departed from the principle of freedom of trade and introduced certificates of proficiency for craft trades.

In the social policy a trade inspection law was created in 1883, according to which the working conditions in the companies were to be controlled. The trade law amendment of 1885 prohibited factory work for young people under the age of 14; those up to the age of 16 were not allowed to do heavy work. Night work was forbidden for them as for women . The maximum working day was fixed at eleven hours. The truck system - i.e. remuneration with goods - was forbidden, technical and sanitary facilities were prescribed, wage protection provisions and welfare measures for women who had recently given birth were issued.

In 1887 an accident insurance law was passed, which came into force in 1889. The Health Insurance Act followed in 1888 . Austria thus took on a pioneering role in worker protection legislation in Europe. All of these reforms were planned and carried out in the lead by Emil Steinbach as a leading employee and later also finance minister under Taaffe.

The ideological background for Taaffe's politics was formed by Christian social teaching , as articulated above all by Karl von Vogelsang . He rejected pure income maximization and placed solidarity and social responsibility at the center of his considerations.

The freedom of the press was massively restricted under Taaffe. He set up a police-state surveillance system and introduced harsh laws against the labor movement in 1884 .

Taaffe made it easier for the Czechs to obtain civil servant positions through a language ordinance of 1880, which provided for the (additional) use of the Czech official language in the predominantly German areas of Bohemia . His compromise negotiations with the Czechs in Vienna in January 1890 failed due to the resistance of the nationalist party of the Young Czechs .

In October 1893, tired of the obstructionist politics of the established parliamentary parties, he submitted the draft of an amendment to the electoral law for elections to the Reichsrat, which would have meant the introduction of general, but not equal, (male) suffrage. Emperor Franz Joseph I took the failure of the proposal as an opportunity to remove Taaffe as Prime Minister. In 1897, his successor, Kasimir Felix Badeni, expanded Taaffe's easing of the language differences in Cisleithanien with the Baden language ordinance , which also triggered serious conflicts because the Germans of Cisleithania did not want to forego their privileges.

During Taaffe's tenure as prime minister, Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide in 1889 . In the course of the following investigations, the Kaiser handed him secret documents relating to this process (Mayerling Papers). The Prime Minister should not transfer these to the State Archives, but keep them private at the Emperor's request. The whereabouts of these files has not yet been clarified.

literature

Web links

Commons : Eduard Taaffe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daily newspaper Wiener Zeitung , Vienna, No. 84, April 13, 1870, p. 1, official part
predecessor Office successor
Franz von Spiegelfeld Governor (Landeschef) of the Crown Land, Duchy of Salzburg
1863–1867 		Karl Count Coronini-Cronberg
Franz von Spiegelfeld Governor (Landeschef) of the Crown Land Archduchy of Austria ob der Enns
1867 		Ignaz von Schurda
Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust kk Minister of the Interior for the kingdoms and states represented in the Imperial Council in
1867 		Carl Giskra
none; Johann von Wagner Imperial and Royal Minister for National Defense
1867–1870; 1870/1871 		Ignaz von Plener ; Julius von Horst
Prince Karl Auersperg Imperial and Royal Prime Minister for the kingdoms and states represented in the Imperial Council
1869–1870 		Ignaz von Plener
Carl Giskra kk Minister of the Interior
(2nd) 1870–1871 		Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart
Johann von Vorhauser Governor (regional chief) of Tyrol and Vorarlberg
1871–1879 		Johann von Vorhauser (2.)
Karl Ritter von Stremayr kk Prime Minister
(2nd) 1879–1893 		Alfred Prince Windisch-Grätz
personal data
SURNAME Taaffe, Eduard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taaffe, Eduard von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician, Prime Minister
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1895
Place of death Ellischau , Bohemia