Galician Parliament

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Galician Parliament in Lviv, built from 1873 to 1877, architect: Julian Zakhariyevych (1837–1898), today Lviv University

The Galician Landtag (more precisely: the Landtag of Galicia and Lodomeria ) was the Landtag of the Crown Land of Galicia from 1861 to 1918 .

Prehistory: the estates

1782 Medal by the artist Wirt for the constitution of the assembly of estates in Galicia and Lodomeria with the Roman-German Emperor Joseph II , obverse
1782 Medal by the artist Wirt for the constitution of the assembly of estates in Galicia and Lodomeria with Joseph II, reverse

Under Polish rule, the Galician nobility participated in the Sejm and local provincial parishes. With the first partition of Poland in 1772, this form of participation ceased to exist. In 1775, estates were brought into being by imperial decree . The members were not elected, but consisted of representatives of the nobility, the church and the cities. They also had no formal skills. In 1782 the estates were constituted for the first time. With the 3rd partition of Poland in 1795, the West Galician territories were added. The estates were not convened afterwards because they were now too big and cumbersome.

With Article 5 of the Treaty between Russia and Austria of April 25th / May 3rd, 1815, it was agreed at the Congress of Vienna that the Poles should be represented in Austria. The powers of this representation should only exist to the extent that the “governments consider them useful and suitable”. With a patent dated April 13, 1817, Emperor Franz I renewed the Galician estates and tried to fulfill the treaty.

The estates consisted of high dignitaries, bishops and large landowners. However, the interest of the several hundred members in participating was low. Only between 50 and 70 members came together annually and quickly worked through the agenda. The estates elected a standing committee, which had a small budget (domestical fund) and was responsible for the registers of the nobility .

In 1845 the estates met for the last time. With the March Revolution , the estates became anachronistic. They were formally dissolved neither by an imperial patent nor by a declaration of their own. However, they just stopped meeting.

The standing committee continued until the Galician Parliament was formed in 1861.

Although the people in Galicia also called for the formation of a freely elected Landtag in 1848 (e.g. in the Lviv petition of March 18, 1848), such a Landtag was never established.

The Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria

With the February patent , a state parliament was also set up in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria . The state parliament consisted of born and elected members.

The born members came from two Curiae :

  1. The Catholic Church had seven (from 1896: 8) virile votes . These were the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lviv , and the Bishops of Przemyśl , Tarnów and, since 1896, Kraków , the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Lviv and the Bishops of Przemyśl and Stanislau, and the Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Lviv . The three archbishops as well as the Kraków bishop were also members of the manor in the Imperial Council .
  2. The universities had two virile votes from the rectors of the universities of Lviv and Cracow . In 1900 the Presidents of the Cracow Academy and the Rector of the Technical University in Lviv joined them.

The elected members came from four Curiae:

  1. The landowners' curia had 44 mandates. Owners of tabular goods were entitled to vote, i.e. goods that had previously been in noble possession and that paid a tax of at least 100 guilders annually. Women, incapacitated persons and legal entities were also entitled to vote. However, they had to be represented by an authorized representative. A much discussed conflict was that traditionally goods were leased in Galicia. However, the tenant was not entitled to vote. The election was made directly , but the right to vote could be transferred to proxy. The right to stand as a candidate was reserved for men. Each MP represented between 47 (1876) and 52 (1908) voters.
  2. The Curia of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry consisted of three members. One member each was elected indirectly by the Chamber Councils in Lemberg, Cracow and Brody . Each of these MPs represented 8,700 primary voters at the beginning of the 20th century .
  3. The curia of the cities was formed by 23 (from 1863: 26; from 1900: 31) members. These were directly elected by the eligible citizens of the cities listed in the electoral code. The eligibility to vote was subject to a variable census : the citizens of the city were sorted according to tax payments. Those 2/3 with the highest tax payable were entitled to vote (in the event of a tie, the electoral right was given). The census was thus different - depending on the wealth of the city. Citizens were also entitled to vote on the basis of their offices or their level of education. This affected clergy, officers, doctors and teachers in high schools and directors of elementary schools. The number of residents in these cities rose from 22,005 (1876) to 64,084 (1908) without the number of mandates being adjusted in the same way. One MP represented between 1,000 and 2,000 voters.
  4. The curia of the “other municipalities” was elected indirectly in 74 single-person constituencies (corresponding to the 74 district authorities of the Crown Land). The right to vote in the first stage was determined analogously to that of the cities (i.e. 2/3 of the highest tax or office / education). In addition to these “primary voters”, there were the tabular landlords who paid taxes below 100 guilders (but at least 25 guilders). These “primary voters” elected electors (there was one elector for every 500 primary voters). The electors voted for the MP. This election was made public (which was also due to the fact that the illiteracy rate was high). In this curia there were 6,879 (1876) and 8,792 voters (1908) to one member.

The right to vote led to a dominance of landowners. The owners of the tabular goods (i.e. primarily the former landlords) made up 0.4% of the population, but made up 28.2% of the mandates (1876). The “other municipalities” made up 95% (1876) and 90.8% (1908) of the population, but only made up 52.3% and 46% of the MPs.

This distribution also had an impact on the distribution of nationalities in the state parliament. The Ukrainian population, which made up 40% of the total population, lived primarily in the rural communities and could achieve a maximum of 15% of the seats in the state parliament. The isolated and often the only members of parliament of German nationality came predominantly from the western Galician city of Biala , u. a. Antoni Seidler , Franz Strzygowski , Rudolf Bukowski , Johann Rosner , Franz Stanislaus Strzygowski , Karol Hempel .

The dominant party in the state parliament was the Poland club ( Koło polskie ) until 1907 .

Galician compensation

In 1907 the curia system in the Reichsrat was abolished. A change in the electoral law was also negotiated in Galicia. With the state law of February 14, 1914, the Galician equalization in the electoral law was created. Due to the war, however, there was no election under the new electoral law. In addition to 12 virile votes, six voter classes were now planned, which resulted in a much more even voting weight.

tasks

The Landtag had legislative competences for tasks delegated by the Reich (e.g. local self-government, church affairs, school system), social welfare and “state culture”. The latter term actually related to agricultural policy, but was largely interpreted in Galicia, which led to a concretization of the relevant § 18 of the state constitution in 1909, which defined "national culture" as an agricultural sector in § 18a.

organization

Leon Prince Sapieha
Count Andrzej Potocki

The state parliament was elected for six years. The annual state parliament sessions were convened by the emperor. The venue was usually Lviv. The emperor also appointed the country marshal (the president of parliament ), who was of Polish nationality (his deputy was Ruthene ).

Land marshals were:

The negotiating language was Polish and Ruthenian (rarely German). The specific use of languages ​​in the debate and the minutes has been the subject of conflict.

State Committee

The state government (the state committee) consisted of 7 members. In addition to the land marshal appointed by the emperor (as chairman), he had 6 members who were elected by the state parliament. Landowners, cities and other municipalities were elected to the curia. The other three members were elected from the plenary.

From 1914 an increase by two more state committee members was planned. These places should go to Ruthenian applicants.

literature

Web links

Commons : Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LguVBl. No. 65/1914