Secret conference
The Secret conference was between 1664/1669 and 1749 a predominantly involved in any foreign policy issues central body for the Austrian inheritance , but also influence the foreign imperial policy took.
development
The Secret Conference was founded in 1669. However, approaches go back to 1664. The background was the enormous growth of the Secret Council , which no longer allowed confidential and effective deliberations. The Secret Conference was established as a committee of the Secret Council. At the time of Leopold I , the committee initially only had four members. At last he had 12 people.
Like him, the conference dealt with the affairs of the imperial house and the (foreign) state affairs of the Holy Roman Empire and the emperor as the Austrian sovereign.
Both the council and the conference were usually presided over by the chief steward . The rapporteur was initially the Imperial Vice Chancellor and later also the Austrian Court Chancellor . The conference reported not to the Privy Council, but to the Emperor himself.
In the time of Leopold I, the Secret Conference was the central body for foreign policy, while the Council dealt with tax issues, and the granting of grace and privileges. However, there was never a delimitation of competencies. With the founding of the conference, however, the Secret Council lost much of its importance.
About ten years after its inception, deputy councils were introduced in the secret conference to facilitate the work. Even under Leopold I, the entire committee was no longer convened, but the various questions were referred to different commissions for discussion.
At the time of Joseph I , the general conference was officially canceled in 1705. It was replaced by seven different conferences for different problem areas. The Reich Vice Chancellor should now be excluded. As a representative of the empire, he should no longer be able to gain insight into internal Habsburg affairs. He and the President of the Reichshofrat were only called in when there were Reich matters to be discussed.
This structure failed, so a permanent secret conference was established in 1709. Foreign questions, affairs of the Reich and questions of war were to be discussed and decided under the chairmanship of the emperor.
At the time of Charles VI. the secret conference in favor of some strong ministers, especially Eugene of Savoy , lost its importance. However, with the establishment of the Austrian and the Bohemian Court Chancellery, it got a new order. Since then, representatives of the Court War Council , the “Spanish authorities” of the Hungarian and Bohemian Court Chancellery, have also been invited to speak before the conference. The Austrian court chancellor usually presented the foreign policy problems. The Reich Vice Chancellor also had to present the Reich matters at the conference.
It was abolished in 1749. The highest dignitaries of the state and the court advised the monarchs during the course of the Secret Council and Secret Conference. But the body never developed into a real government.
literature
- Harm Klueting: The Empire and Austria 1648–1740. Münster, 1999 ISBN 3-8258-4280-0 p. 63
- Erwin Matsch: The Foreign Service of Austria (-Hungary). 1720-1920. Vienna u. a. 1986, ISBN 3-205-07269-3 , pp. 31-33.