Karl Renner

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Karl Renner (disambiguation) .

Karl Renner (born December 14, 1870 in Untertannowitz , Moravia , † December 31, 1950 in Vienna ) was an Austrian social democratic politician ( SDAP / SPÖ ) and lawyer. After the First World War and the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy , he played a key role in the establishment of the First Republic of Austria from 1918 to 1920 as State Chancellor ( State Government Renner I , Renner II and Renner III ) . He headed the Austrian delegation during the negotiations in Saint-Germain . From 1920 to 1934 Renner was a member of the National Council .

In 1931 he became President of the National Council ; his resignation and that of his two deputies on March 4, 1933, was welcomed by Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss as a self-elimination of parliament and used as a pretext for the establishment of the corporate state dictatorship , which their opponents called Austrofascism .

In 1938 he was the most important social democratic proponent of the “annexation” of Austria to the National Socialist German Reich and in the same year supported the annexation of the Sudetenland by Nazi Germany (see Munich Agreement ).

When Austria was re-established as an independent state after the Second World War , he was once again one of the main actors as State Chancellor of the Provisional Government at the age of 74. From December 1945 until his death in 1950 he served as the first Federal President of the Second Republic.

Renner was a supporter of parliamentary democracy in the sense of Lassalle and as such belonged to the right, pragmatic wing of his party . In doing so, Renner always insisted on being regarded as a Marxist , albeit as a Marxist own observance . Renner is considered a prolific publicist whose specialty was legal sociology .

Karl Renner (around 1905)

1870–1920: The early years

Childhood and studies

Karl Renner grew up in poor conditions in the village of Untertannowitz in South Moravia, which is almost exclusively inhabited by Germans . With his twin brother Anton, he was the 17th or 18th child in a wine growing family ( Carl was entered in the baptismal register as his first name ). Renner's parents' house was forcibly auctioned off as a result of the large number of children and the agricultural crisis . The family members scattered around the world, distributed among the most varied of professions and attitudes towards life, which was a typical process for the social restructuring around 1900.

While Renner's parents had to move into the poor house, he was able to attend high school (one of his teachers was Wilhelm Jerusalem ). He graduated with honors in Nikolsburg ( Mikulov ) and studied law at the University of Vienna from 1891 to 1896 . In 1895, Renner played a key role in founding the international movement for friends of nature , which today has over 500,000 members worldwide.

In 1895, after completing his studies, he was given a temporary position in the library of the Reichsrat , the parliament of the Austrian half of the empire, on the recommendation of his university teacher Eugen von Philippovich . There he should first take up the book inventory again in order to be able to put a catalog of materials in print until he would get a definitive official position . Renner agreed, as this gave him access to the Parliamentary Directorate and could also work on his own works. In 1904 he published “The Social Function of Legal Institutions, especially Property”. In 1896 Renner married Luise Stoisits , with whom he had had the daughter Leopoldine († 1977) since 1891.

Social Democratic Labor Party

As a part-time job he was involved in the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP). In his first major work he devoted himself to the acute nationality community . His approach: The membership in the nation should not be regulated according to territorial, but according to personal aspects. The associations to be formed on an ethnic minority basis should represent their interests in the joint Reichsrat according to their strengths.

Renner was not only a socialist theorist, but also a socialist functionary with a high level of commitment to the grassroots. After his appointment to the Reichsrat in 1907, he continued to devote himself to the cooperative system , since he regarded it as a particularly important part of the “socialist trinity” (cooperatives, trade unions, educational work). In 1910 he wrote an extensive treatise on "agricultural cooperatives" and "consumer associations".

In 1911 he was elected chairman of the Central Association of Austrian Consumers' Associations (ZÖK) . In order to free the partly financially troubled cooperatives from the dependency of big bourgeois banks, he founded the credit association of Austrian workers 'associations in 1912 , which was converted into the workers' bank in 1922 . The socialist trade unions and the large purchasing company for Austrian consumer associations (GÖC) each owned 40% of the shares in “ Arbeiterbank AG ” .

Renner's cooperative work bore measurable fruits. She created a circle of grateful members of the cooperative that he could always rely on. This fundamentally anti-revolutionary activity as well as his country house in Gloggnitz made him, to whom "any tendency towards violent overthrow was actually alien", to the target of the left wing of a party which, at least in theory, stood on the ground of the overthrowing Communist Manifesto . For example, Friedrich Adler , who in 1917 converted his murder trial into a settlement with the SDAP, accused him of "honest mendacity", "lack of principles" and "juggling" on behalf of the right wing of the party. This accusation cannot be ignored, as Renner warned in a parliamentary session in 1917 that the French would establish republics across Europe as the downfall of civilization, while in 1919 he described the monarchy as a “dungeon”.

Politics in the First World War

Karl Renner, like a large part of the German-Austrian social democracy, was an advocate of Friedrich Naumann's Central European ideas during the war and was sharply criticized by Adler for this reason. In his optimism, Renner overlooked the fact that the Western powers rejected German hegemony. In a meeting on July 13, 1915, Renner spoke out against German land acquisition in the West, but admitted to the ally,

“That the relationship between Belgium should be arranged in such a way that it is not an obstacle to future wars. In the east there is only annexation country [...]. You are doing no service to lasting peace if you only strive for a peace that is only a truce. "

Galicia and Prussian Poland should be annexed to an independent Poland , which presupposed a hegemony of the Central Powers .

Renner's demand for a comprehensive territorial reorganization in order to achieve a lasting peace aroused the open criticism of Adler. But because of the Poland question, Adler was also prevented from taking up the popular slogan of peace without annexations at an early stage . In early 1916, in negotiations with German Social Democrats, Renner had agreed to a Central European economic alliance that allowed free trade , but rejected a political and military union. Until then, Karl Renner believed he had a chance at the post of Imperial and Royal Prime Minister, the head of government of Cisleithanien , in order to realize the models developed and worked out in his books for the internal pacification and salvation of the multi-ethnic state. At an audience with Emperor Karl, Renner then felt that he was not recognized or encouraged to do so and turned away from Habsburg.

In mid-June 1917 Renner and Karl Seitz finally demanded peace in the Reichsrat without annexations and contributions . At the Stockholm Peace Conference in the early summer of 1917, Renner, like Victor Adler and Wilhelm Ellenbogen, took the view that peace should not be concluded at the expense of the territorial integrity of the Habsburg monarchy.

State Chancellor, foreign politician and opposition leader

Renner in the negotiations in Saint-Germain (second from left)

After the collapse of the monarchy , Renner was elected State Chancellor by the Provisional National Assembly for German Austria on October 30, 1918 , sworn in on the following day, and remained in this position until July 7, 1920. He played a major role in the formal establishment of the Republic, in the Habsburg Law and the creation of the Federal Constitutional Law . Most recently, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, like the other Social Democrats, he left the government on October 22, 1920 (to which he and his party friends would not return until 1945).

Renner composed the text for the unofficial hymn “ German Austria, you marvelous land ”. He headed the German-Austrian delegation during the peace negotiations, which were perceived as dictates, and signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain on September 10, 1919 , which was approved by the Constituent National Assembly on October 21 was ratified: The state now had to be called the Republic of Austria and had to remain independent ( connection ban ). The German-populated areas in South Tyrol , Bohemia , Austrian Silesia ( Sudetenland ) and Moravia - Renner's homeland - were definitely lost to the state, but German-West Hungary could be won over to Austria, but without the planned capital, Ödenburg . With the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the idea of ​​a Danube federation was also vehemently opposed. Renner reported that the Italians in particular would raise objections to this structure to be created.

Since the summer of 1920, the country had only one managing government, the Mayr I state government , as the former coalitionists could no longer agree on a common government policy. However, work on the Federal Constitution was completed and the Federal Constitutional Act was passed on October 1, 1920. On that day, the Constituent National Assembly held its last session before the first National Council election .

Please refer:

• State government Renner I
• State government Renner II
• State government Renner III

Differences with Otto Bauer (1918–1934)

In the first two turbulent years, during which the SDAP, as the parliamentary group with the largest number of votes, shared government responsibility with the Christian Socials, there were no significant tensions between him and the deputy party chairman Otto Bauer , who as the party's chief ideologist and leader of the left (Marxist) Flügels shaped the party, while the party chairman Seitz devoted himself mainly to his role as mayor of Vienna. When Bauer, against the will of Renner and numerous other functionaries , brought the party into the opposition after the election defeat on October 17, 1920 , and thus ceded control of the armed forces, tensions grew. They were never carried out openly within the framework of party discipline; in publications of the opponents they sounded 'between the lines'.

In 1931 Renner gave a speech on the assumption that the election of the Federal President would be made for the first time by popular vote. But there was no popular election: Wilhelm Miklas was instead (re) elected Federal President by the Federal Assembly on October 9, 1931.

Renner and Bauer - different understanding of democracy

Initially, the attitude towards the state was different. For Marx as well as for Otto Bauer, the democratic state was seen merely as an instrument of repression for the ruling class. As such, according to Bauer, he had a certain justification even in the phase of the dictatorship of the proletariat ; In the future socialist society, however, this crutch would no longer be needed, the state would dissolve:

"The [true] socialist polity is opposed not only to the modern state, but to all historical forms of state."

Renner such as the co-creator of the Austrian Federal Constitution , Hans Kelsen , saw the state as an indispensable framework of management, legislative, executive and administrative organs at all times and in all forms of society, which makes it possible for people to live together in a larger community in the first place make. The permanent adaptation of this framework to the changing society is one of the most important tasks of the people's representatives. Different views also prevailed about the use of the term democracy . Bauer refused to put “bourgeois democracy” with its majority principle in “opposition to and above socialism”. He advocated a “socialist democracy” in which the will of the majority was not fundamentally essential. Renner, who referred to Hilferding and Kelsen on this point , countered the priority of socialism with an unconditional commitment to (bourgeois) democracy:

“If we prevent free social democracy, then we destroy the fertile soil from which everything new grows, the social experimental field from which all material and spiritual rejuvenation of society sprouts! Dictatorship in all forms and under all circumstances means making society's means independent in order to make it its masters. Rule for rule's sake. "

There were also serious differences in attitudes towards the party. While Bauer advocated unconditional party patriotism, Renner said:

“The party is never the whole, it can never represent or replace the whole. The whole lives in the interrelation of the parties to one another and in the conflict of their programs, in the same pros and cons that characterize the process of conflicting considerations before the decision of the individual. "

Renner and Bauer - different visions of the future

Attitudes towards the future were also different. While Bauer resigned himself to the real existing objective conditions as a prerequisite for the inevitable revolution, Renner, like Victor Adler, was convinced that one should not remain in a “political waiting loop” or “revolutionary break”, but with whatever partners must work to create the conditions for the ultimate goal, the socialist society, ourselves. Renner's criticism of the Marxist wing of the party was also based on the conviction that the world of work at the turn of the 20th century no longer corresponded to the world of work that Marx had taken as the basis for his manifesto. He was of the opinion that the term proletarian fixed on the industrial worker - in the sense of Lassalle's perception of work activity - must now be extended to other areas of work, especially intellectual work. This would take more account of the economic and social realities of the modern industrial state with its blurring of class boundaries and the emerging, rather peaceful development towards a classless society . Renner therefore pleaded, also in the spirit of Lassalle, to shift the weights from revolution towards evolution and from confrontation towards cooperation and to get constructively involved in political events even under bourgeois majorities:

“The theory of socialism has for a long time stared blindly at the development of capital ... and expects that at a certain point in this process, socialism will come into the world through its sudden change ... The one-sidedness can be perceived in two directions: Both pure economically, in that it stares at the development process of capital and socialist society expects it to turn over, and purely politically, in that it ascribes the task of the political revolution of the proletariat to artificially accelerate the turnaround from capitalism to socialism and in one fell swoop to complete. One direction easily falls into political quietism, the other into political hyperactivity. The latter had a particular effect in Russian Bolshevism. "

Renner left it open as to who had succumbed to political quietism ; according to the prevailing opinion, this meant Otto Bauer.

Renner and the parliamentary rules of procedure crisis of 1933

During these years, Renner repeatedly advocated collaboration with the Christian Social Party . Only in 1931 did he speak in the party executive committee against the coalition with the Christian Socials offered by Chancellor Ignaz Seipel .

In connection with the rules of procedure crisis in March 1933, which was used by the Christian Socialists under Dollfuss for a coup d'état (and propagandistically referred to as “ parliamentary self-elimination ”), he played a controversial role as the first President of the National Council. He was persuaded by Bauer and Seitz to resign from office for technical reasons. Following the resignation of the other two Presidents, this created a situation for which the Rules of Procedure had not provided for. However, on March 15, 1933, Dollfuss prevented this crisis of the rules of procedure from being settled with the help of the executive, and the members of parliament could not meet.

Renner remained inactive after his resignation and did not use his position as the former first President of the National Council. The former third President of the National Council, the German National Sepp Straffner , convened the National Council on March 9 for March 15. The federal government under Dollfuss qualified this convocation as contradicting the constitution and announced that it would “counteract an impending constitutional infraction” , on entering the meeting room.

Renner and the "connection" to Germany

After Austria's "annexation" to the German Reich on March 13, 1938, Renner gave the Neue Wiener Tagblatt an interview authorized by the Nazi state, which appeared on April 3, 1938. In the article entitled "I agree with yes", he distanced himself from the methods with which the connection was made, but stated:

“Nevertheless, since 1919 I have continued the struggle for the Anschluss in innumerable writings and innumerable meetings in the country and in the empire. Although not achieved with the methods to which I profess, the connection has now taken place, is a historical fact, and I regard this as a real satisfaction for the humiliations of 1918 and 1919, for St-Germain and Versailles. I would have to deny my entire past as a theoretical champion of the right of nations to self-determination and as a German-Austrian statesman if I did not greet with a joyful heart the great historical act of the reunification of the German nation. [...] As a Social Democrat and thus as an advocate of the right of nations to self-determination, as the first Chancellor of the Republic of German-Austria and as the former President of its peace delegation to St-Germain, I will vote yes. "

Renner's offer to the new rulers had continued; he had offered an active yes campaign. Renner made the offer to Vienna's NS mayor Hermann Neubacher, which went far beyond the "simple" interview:

"Yes, I would like to ask you to give me the opportunity, either in the newspaper or in appeals that could be printed on posters, to call on the old Social Democrats of Vienna on my behalf to vote for Greater Germany and Adolf Hitler on April 10th . "

The Nazi regime refused and was content with one newspaper report.

Both in 1938 and after 1945, Renner himself spoke of having made the declarations of his own free will. Renner's behavior was later often tried to excuse the fact that with this declaration he wanted to protect the then Central Secretary of the Social Democratic Party, Robert Danneberg , who was brought to the Dachau concentration camp with other prominent Austrians on April 1, 1938. In the English World Review he justified his approval, but at the same time criticized the constraints of a military state socialism and a "comprehensive racial regime". Renner's daughter Leopoldine Deutsch-Renner (1891–1977) emigrated to London in 1938 with her Jewish husband Hans Deutsch-Renner (1879–1953) and their three children, but in 1939 they returned to her father in Gloggnitz.

In 1938/39 Renner wrote the manuscript "The founding of the Republic of German Austria, the Anschluss and the Sudeten Germans - Documents of a Struggle for Law" , in which he described the "Anschluss" of Austria and the Sudeten German territories - and also the actions of Hitler and his government in this Context - presented in great detail in a positive way. Renner praised the "unparalleled perseverance and drive of the German Reich leadership". The manuscript remained unpublished at the time, as Hitler anticipated the publication of the brochure through the rapid annexation of the Sudetenland. The text was only edited and commented on by Eduard Rabofsky in 1990. Anton Pelinka noted in 2009 that Renner's second adjustment step had de facto been suppressed by the Social Democrats after 1945 and that it had not appeared in any of Renner's social democratic hagiographies . In 2012, the historian Oliver Rathkolb said that Renner could not have become head of state in 1945 if this text had been known at the time (see the aftermath section). To explain Renner's attitude at the time, it must be taken into account that his immediate homeland, the German-populated South Moravia , could not reach German-Austria in 1918/19 against the will of the population , but was occupied by the Czech military and incorporated into the Czechoslovak Republic .

Karl Renner monument in Siegendorf / Burgenland

Renner spent the period of Nazi rule under house arrest in Gloggnitz , where he owned a house. This house arrest was measured very generously by the National Socialists. He was also still allowed to write, and he wrote (without the possibility of publication) Das Weltbild der Moderne , an extensive verse epic based on Lucretius .

Renner and the founding of the Second Republic (1945–1950)

Stalin and Renner

The refusal of the Austrian Socialist Mission Abroad (AVOES) to work with other Austrian groups in exile meant that no Austrian diplomatic mission or government in exile was established during the war and that there was political freedom in Austria at the end of the war. The Soviet government wanted to use this freedom as soon as possible to form a government that would please it. With the order to search for Karl Renner immediately after the entry of the first Red Army soldiers into Austria, Stalin took the first steps in this direction. These intentions were withheld from the Western Allies, as the Soviet Union knew that they only wanted to transfer political responsibility to the Austrians after the end of the war, and then only in small steps. Stalin made this decision against the will of the KPÖ . This had asked for time to set up a new party organization in Austria, since the old party organization, which had been infiltrated by Gestapo informers, had been almost completely destroyed during the war. The Austrian Marxist Erwin Scharf said:

“It was incomprehensible that Renner, of all people, who had allowed himself to be abused by the Nazis as an agitator for sanctioning the occupation of Austria, was entrusted with the formation of a government ... I only received some explanatory information when the issue was raised in later years in the KPÖ's Political Office : In fact, Franz Honner and other leading functionaries of the KPÖ were not of the opinion that a provisional government should be formed immediately after the military liberation. Because beforehand one had to build up the democratic organizations, create a solid unit of all democrats and patriots, separate the opportunist chaff from the anti-fascist wheat, and only then could a government be formed based on the new political groupings. But this plan could not be realized. The Red Army High Command had ... Dr. Karl Renner invited to form a provisional government. "

On April 4, the command of the 103rd Guards Rifle Division reported that the wanted Karl Renner had reported on his own initiative in the Gloggnitz area and made himself available to form a government. In addition Renner:

“If I got involved in negotiations, it could end with the loss of my good name and my political honor and, moreover, it could turn out to the Social Democratic Party ... to the disadvantage ... after a long struggle I decided to take all risks in order to possibly To give Austria the chance to tear apart the fateful ties to Hitler's Germany itself [...]. On the other hand, I was clearly aware that I, as the representative of Russia, could never take on and carry out the mission. The order had to come from Austria itself. "

Renner was referred to the staff of the 9th Guard Army. After consultation with Moscow, the Soviet troops accepted his offer to help and assigned him to Eichbüchl Castle near Wiener Neustadt , where he was supposed to put his proposals for a government on paper according to Corps Commissioner AS Scheltow . When he refused the Soviet Union's request to appeal to the Red Army a little later , he feared that his mandate to form a government could be withdrawn from him. He now addressed a letter to Stalin which led to misunderstandings. Although this letter shows embarrassing flattery, it does not contain any promise from the Soviet Union regarding the formation of a popular front with the KPÖ. This letter was received with skepticism by the Soviets, but Stalin nevertheless took it as an opportunity to commission Renner to form a government. Negotiations followed with the interest groups regarding the composition of the provisional committee, whereby Renner had to pay attention to the acceptance in the West.

Attitude of the western powers

The United States and Great Britain did not find out about the Soviet project, Provisional Government Austria , until April 26, 1945, on the sidelines of the Foreign Ministers' Conference. There, the Deputy Soviet Foreign Minister Vyshinsky only casually informed his British and American counterparts that the Renner cabinet would be sworn in on the following day in Vienna . This was the time when the German troops were still fighting with the Red Army on the outskirts of Vienna. The British immediately protested. The US did not join this protest, but refused to recognize Renner's ministerial team, as did the British. On April 27, Renner and his team were officially received by Marshal Tolbuchin , the commander-in-chief of the 3rd Ukrainian Front operating south of the Danube in Austria . With 29 men and one woman, work in parliament began immediately. The most important task of the Soviet Union had ordered the provisional cabinet to prepare nationwide elections. This project was also supported by the (provisional) governors of the western federal states. There, the provisional governor of Tyrol Karl Gruber had started an initiative for an undivided Austria and won over his colleagues in western Austria to work with Karl Renner and his provisional government. After tough negotiations, on September 20, the British declared their readiness to abandon the blockade of the elections and to grant the provisional government authority over all of Austria, at least with regard to elections. They also agreed to a country conference to prepare for the election.

Decision of the national conference

On September 26, 1945 at this international conference everything was once again on the knife edge. The communist members of the provisional government refused to give the representatives of the western federal states cabinet posts, and the conference was on the verge of breaking off. It was then the social democratic mayor of Linz, Koref , who introduced the compromise proposal that was finally accepted by the KPÖ. The way for nationwide, free elections was now paved. On November 25, 1945, however, they did not bring the absolute majority for the SPÖ (44.6%) and KPÖ (5.4%) and the chances of an Austria-wide popular front, as expected by the Soviet Union, but the absolute majority in the ÖVP (49.8% of the vote).

The USA and Great Britain were pleased with the election result and did not hesitate to recognize the Figl concentration cabinet . The disappointed Soviet Union, on the other hand, gave the new federal government its blessing only after the exchange of three ÖVP federal ministers. The election results of November 25, 1945 had no influence on the top organization of the KPÖ. The Soviet Union took into account that Koplenig and comrades had warned strongly enough about Renner and early elections. With this election the foundation stone was laid for the “special case” Austria, a status that gave the country full sovereignty as early as 1955.

Karl Renner was elected by the Federal Assembly as the first Federal President of the Second Republic on December 20, 1945 and remained so until his death on December 31, 1950.

anti-Semitism

Debate on National Council speeches in the 1920s

In 2012, the historian and ÖVP politician Franz Schausberger drew attention to what he thought was anti-Semitic statements made by Karl Renner and, after the Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Ring was renamed "Universitätsring", also called for the Dr.-Karl-Renner- Rings in “Parliamentary Ring ”, as this section of the ring was called until 1956.

Schausberger pointed out that in his parliamentary speeches Renner had "given the terms" Jewish "or" Jews "a negative twist". According to Schausberger, Renner was not concerned with “criticizing big business, Manchester liberalism in general and the banks, it was always about“ Jewish big business ”,“ Jewish banks ”and“ Jewish Manchester liberalism ”.” It was also Renner 1920 did not deal with surreptitious traffickers in Vienna in general, "it was always the" Jewish surreptitious traffickers "that he accused, although a large number of them were non-Jewish." Renner called Ignaz Seipel a "Jewish liberal in a cassock" and accused him, among other things, of "the Subordination of the entire petty bourgeoisie to the leadership of Jewish big business, to make a fact ... by finally placing the noble couple on the throne of our finances: Christ and Jud, Doctor Gürtler and Dr. Rosenberg. "

For critics, however, these quotes were grossly out of context. Among other things, Schausberger was criticized by the historian Oliver Rathkolb for having presented the cited speeches in the National Council in abbreviated form and for presenting them differently in the full text. However, Renner exaggerated his polemics and related anti-Semitic stereotypes to Leopold Kunschak's anti-Semitic policies . Rathkolb also said of Schausberger's allegations: “There is a difference between anti-Semitic calls in a debate by Renner, which were sometimes, but not always, intended to be provocative against Leopold Kunschak, and Lueger's strategy. To equate the overall profile of the anti-Semitism of a Lueger with Renner is simply wrong. "

Ludwig Dvorak, editor-in-chief of the social democratic monthly magazine “Zukunft”, described Schausberger's statements as “a response to Kurt Bauer's contribution on Leopold Kunschak's anti-Semitism” and as a “relief attack against Karl Renner” and said that “quotations are alienated by omissions or taken out of context “Be. Schausberger had reinterpreted Renner's sarcastic criticism of the Christian Social Party's hostility to Jews as his own anti-Semitic statements.

The journalist and political scientist Herbert Lackner said: “What the lawyer, who was born in Moravia in 1870, uttered in the National Council in the 1920s is not inferior to the anti-Semitic sayings of the notorious Viennese mayor Karl Lueger . ... Renner's anti-Semitism had other roots again: It merged with that anti-capitalism charged with conspiracy theory that both the left and the extreme right cultivated into an evil conglomerate ”.

"Jewish big business"

What the social democratic agitation in Austria and Germany of the 1920s had in common was that they repeatedly made use of the prejudice of “Jewish big business” and thereby reinforced it. In contrast to the programmatic anti-Semitism of Karl Lueger, according to Rathkolb, anti-Semitism did not represent a public political category for Renner. The British historian Robert Knight stated that he would “not flatly label Renner an anti-Semite because it was not the core of his worldview . Unlike Kunschak or Lueger, he was not an ideological anti-Semite. ”Renner did not attack Judaism as a collective.

As early as 2005, Rathkolb stated on the subject of the SDAP and anti-Semitism and Renner's general aversion to the return of Jewish exiles in 1945 that in the latently anti-Semitic mood of the First Republic, social democracy had been " stigmatized in the propaganda of the Christian Socials and German Nationalists about the Jewish party ", "during the Labor Party for its part did not shy away from anti-Semitic attacks in its anti-capitalist argument ”.

The social philosopher Norbert Leser , who was closely connected to the Renner family, defended Renner and said: “When Renner spoke of a Jewish financial power in connection with the Geneva restructuring in 1922 and the associated League of Nations dictate, he was not using anti-Semitic clichés, but instead posed just one fact. "

Exclusion of Jewish returnees and Holocaust survivors after 1945

The Renner mitentworfene and signed as first signatories Austrian declaration of independence on 27 April 1945. mentioned the fate of Jewish Austrians in the Nazi dictatorship, mainly to the then common victim theory to support and putting aside any reparations to the victims of National Socialism. The proportion of Austrians as perpetrators was passed on to the " Reichsdeutsche ", the reappraisal of the National Socialist crimes against Austrian Jews as a matter of the mostly "Reich German" National Socialists with the help of "illegal" Austrian followers. The question of collective guilt and the reappraisal of the crimes were thus removed from the consciousness of the new republic, which Renner made clear with the words: "In principle, the population as a whole should not be made liable for the damage caused to Jews". Displaced or refugee Jewish Austrians were only invited to return in exceptional cases. With regard to reparation, Renner refused to accept that "every little Jewish merchant or peddler" is being compensated.

As State Chancellor of the Provisional State Government , Renner also briefly addressed the Jews at the 28th Cabinet Council meeting on August 29, 1945 in a long contribution to the debate about problems with the "small" National Socialists, without going into any further detail:

“I think we are in a critical position with regard to the handling of the Nazi problem. I do not want to claim that I am right, but I feel that all these little officials, these little citizens and business people did not have any far-reaching intentions when they joined the Nazis - at most that one is doing something to the Jews - but above all has not thought of provoking a world war. "

According to Siegfried Nasko and Johannes Reichl, this was an unbelievable derailment of Renner and shows his lack of understanding for the fate of the Jews after the Nazi crimes or the Holocaust to speak out as if it were nothing to “do something to the Jews”.

In February 1946, Federal President Renner gave an address to the Palestine Committee on the future of Austria's Jews as follows:

“... the Jewish community can never recover. (...) I don't think that Austria in its current mood would allow Jews to build up these family monopolies again. Surely we would not allow a new Jewish community from Eastern Europe to come here and establish itself here while our own people need work. "

Maximilian Gottschlich wrote in 2012: “The anti-Semitic evil was not only in the subordinate offices, but also at the top of the state chancellery. The Austrians would not allow Jews to establish themselves in Austria again - that was what the highest representative of the newly founded state could say at the time and at the same time be sure of the majority approval of the population and the political class. “Of the racially persecuted was not otherwise Speech. Gottschlich: "In order to be able to define yourself as a victim, you had to hide the Holocaust victims from public perception."

Renner's anti-Semitism was mainstream of public opinion at the time. Otherwise, it was rarely specifically addressed by Renner research. In 2013, Andreas Mailath-Pokorny regretted that there was little historical work on Renner and called for historical research to be intensified.

Marko Feingold , concentration camp survivor and president of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Salzburg , made a personal statement about Renner in an interview on the occasion of his 100th birthday in 2013:

“I'm angry with Renner. As a politician, he must have known exactly what happened in Germany. But Renner was an enthusiastic supporter of the 'Anschluss' to Hitler Germany. "

In 2018, Feingold said in an interview in the Kronenzeitung :

“Karl Renner, after all the first Federal President of the Second Republic, had long been known in the party as an anti-Semite. He didn't want us concentration camps in Vienna after the war and he also said frankly that Austria would not give anything back to 'them'. "

Death and Posthumous

Karl Renner's grave

Renner suffered a stroke on Christmas Eve 1950 . He died on December 31 at 1 a.m. He was buried in the presidential crypt of the Vienna Central Cemetery .

aftermath

• Renner is best known abroad as one of the founding fathers of legal sociology . A plaque with his name can be found among those of the 15 most important legal sociologists who adorn the walls of the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati ( Gipuzkoa , Spain ). This position is based, among other things, on his early work on the social function of the legal institutions of private law (1904) and on the efforts (together with Otto Bauer) to secure the rights of ethnic minorities.

• Renner most closely embodied the charismatic politician in social democracy, with populist appeals to the “people's soul”, a strategy that Victor Adler rejected. As early as 1917, Friedrich Adler referred to him as the liar of social democracy . Bruno Kreisky described Renner as a politician who moved “like a pipe in the wind”, which could explain Renner's political elasticity in 1938 and 1945.

• In 1964, the so-called foot affair occurred in Vorarlberg , when the SPÖ Transport Minister Otto Probst was responsible for naming a Lake Constance ship (later the MS Vorarlberg ) with the name Karl Renner . The Vorarlbergers did not primarily oppose the choice of the name itself, but rather the "Viennese centralists" ignoring the Vorarlbergers' wishes and concerns in this regard.

• In connection with the renaming of the Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Ring in 2012, Rathkolb, chairman of the Commission of Historians on controversial street names acting on behalf of the City Council for Culture, discussed the possible renaming of the Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring , which adjoins the Luegerring to the south . As has long been known, shortly after the annexation of Austria in 1938, Renner advocated a yes to the staged “referendum on the reunification of Austria with the German Reich” in a media declaration. According to Rathkolb, however, he also wrote pro-Nazi polemics on the smashing of Czechoslovakia in 1938 (which, see section Renner and the “Anschluss” to Germany, remained unpublished at the time); had it been known in 1945, he would not have been able to become head of state . The historian was therefore able to get used to the idea of ​​renaming the Renner Ring, for example, the Parliament Ring. Rathkolb's advice was not taken.

Recognitions

Renner bust by Alfred Hrdlicka next to the parliament building in Vienna, Rathauspark , corner of Universitätsring (formerly Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Ring), unveiled in 1967

50 Schilling silver coin for the 100th birthday of Renner (1970)

• 1945: Renaming of the state bridge in Gloggnitz to Dr.-Karl-Renner-Brücke
• 1951: Karl Renner Prize of the City of Vienna
• 1956: In Vienna's inner city (1st district) part of Vienna's Ringstrasse was renamed Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring .
• 1964: Dr. Karl Renner Journalism Prize
• 1970: 50 Schilling silver coin for the 100th birthday
• 1972: The Political Academy of the SPÖ in Altmannsdorf Palace in Vienna is called the Dr. Karl Renner Institute .
• 1979: A Dr. Karl Renner Museum was established in the Renner Villa Gloggnitz .

Fonts

Renner's pseudonyms were Synopticus , Josef Karner and Rudolf Springer .

• State and Nation , Vienna 1899 (as Synopticus)
• The legal institutions of private law and their social function. A contribution to the criticism of civil law (as Josef Karner)
• Austria's renewal , Vienna 1916
• Paths to Realization , Berlin 1929
• People and Society , Vienna 1952
• Changes in modern society , Vienna 1953
• The modern world view , Vienna 1954
• Writings , Salzburg 1994
• At the turn of two times . Memoirs of Karl Renner, Vienna 1946
• The founding of the Republic of German-Austria, the Anschluss and the Sudeten German Question , written in 1938/39, edited and commented on by Eduard Rabofsky, Vienna 1990 (unpublished until 1990)

literature

• Elisabeth Dietrich-Schulz , Karl Megner: Karl Renner. Notes on his area of ​​activity in the parliamentary library (library of the Reichsrat) 1895–1907. Typescript Parliament Library, Vienna 1993.
• Walter Goldinger :  Renner Karl. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 9, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7001-1483-4 , p. 80 f. (Direct links on p. 80 , p. 81 ).
• Siegfried Nasko , Johannes Reichl: Karl Renner. Between the Union and Europe . Verlag Holzhausen, Vienna 2000 , ISBN 3-85493-026-7 .
• Siegfried Nasko : Karl Renner. Wrongly controversial? A search for the truth. Residenz Verlag, Salzburg / Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7017-3400-9 .
• Anton Pelinka : Karl Renner for an introduction. Edition SOAK published by Junius-Verlag, Hamburg 1989 , ISBN 3-88506-846-X .
• Hugo Portisch : Austria II . The rebirth of our state. 2 volumes, Verlag Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-218-00422-5 .
• Walter Rauscher: Karl Renner, an Austrian myth. Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-8000-3558-8 .
• Karl Renner - nature lover and European . Collected lectures of the international symposium “Dr. Karl Renner - Nature Lover and European “v. June 16, 2007 (Ed. Vd Naturfreunde Internationale; Red. Manfred Pils). Vienna 2008, 47 pages (contributions by Siegfried Nasko, Oliver Kersten, Manfred Pils, Bruno K. Lampasiak).
• Peter Riesbeck : Social Democracy and Minority Law. The contribution of the Austrian social democrats Otto Bauer and Karl Renner to international minority law. Verlag für Entwicklungspolitik, Saarbrücken 1996, ISBN 3-88156-686-4 .
• Erwin Scharf : I dared with my senses ... Decisions in the anti-fascist resistance, experiences in the political confrontation . Globus publishing house, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-85364-199-7 .
• Erika Weinzierl :  Renner, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 430-432 ( digitized version ).
• Richard Saage : The first president. Karl Renner - a political biography. Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-552-05773-9 .
• Florian Jagschitz, Siegfried Rom, Jan Wiedey: Karl Renner and the consumer cooperatives . Publication series of the research association Development and History of the Consumer Cooperatives (FGK), Vol. 7 Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-9501499-6-8 .
• Richard Saage : Karl Renner: On the political profile of an Austromarxist . Philosophical Conversations, Volume 41. Helle Panke e. V. - Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Berlin. Berlin, 2016. 40 pp.

Web links

Commons : Karl Renner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Karl Renner on the website of the Austrian Parliament
• Literature by and about Karl Renner in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Karl Renner in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Website of the Renner Museum in Gloggnitz
• The voice of Karl Renner : original recordings in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library (speeches, interviews, radio reports).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Walter Goldinger, Dieter A. Binder: History of the Republic of Austria 1918–1938. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna / Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7028-0315-7 , pp. 79 ff. And 298.
2. ^ Joachim Riedl: Karl Renner: A Marxist own observance . In: The time . February 22, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed March 27, 2018]).
3. ^ Jacques Hannak : Karl Renner and his time. Attempt a biography. Europa Verlag, Vienna 1965, p. 398.
4. ↑ Große Österreicher , Ueberreuter , publisher and author Thomas Chorherr .
5. ↑ Oliver Kersten: The Friends of Nature Movement in the Berlin-Brandenburg Region 1908–1989 / 90. Continuities and breaks . Berlin 2007 (also dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin 2004) (Naturfreunde-Verlag Freizeit und Wander), pp. 22–24; Fig. P. 180, ISBN 978-3-925311-31-4
6. ^ Richard Saage: The first president . Ed .: Paul Zsolnay Verlag. 2016, ISBN 978-3-552-05773-9 , pp. 415 .
7. ↑ Karl Renner: At the turn of two times. Life memories .
8. ^ Siegfried Nasko / Johann Reichl: Karl Renner. Between the Union and Europe . 1985, ISBN 3-218-00422-5 .
9. ^ Karl Renner: The social function of legal institutions, especially property .
10. ^ Synopticus: State and Nation . Vienna 1898.
11. ^ Walter Rauscher (1995): Karl Renner . P. 76.
12. ^ JW Brügel: Friedrich Adler before the exceptional court (Vienna 1967)
13. ^ Hans Mommsen : Viktor Adler and the politics of Austrian social democracy in the First World War . In: Isabella Ackerl (Hrsg.): Politics and society in old and new Austria. Festschrift for Rudolf Neck for his 60th birthday , Verlag für Geschichte u. Politics, Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-7028-0189-8 , pp. 387-408, here pp. 387 and 395 f .; and Robert A. Kann: The nationality problem of the Habsburg monarchy. History and ideas of national endeavors from the Vormärz to the dissolution of the Reich in 1918 . Volume 2: Ideas and Plans for Reich Reform . Verlag Böhlau, Graz / Cologne 1964, p. 257.
14. ^ Richard W. Kapp: Divided Loyalities. The German Reich and Austria-Hungary in Austro-German Discussions of War Aims, 1914–1916 . In: Central European History . 17 (1984), pp. 120-139, here pp. 128 f.
15. ↑ Johannes Sachslehner: 1918 - The hours of downfall. Styria, Vienna / Graz 2014, ISBN 978-3-222-13435-7 , p. 81.
16. ↑ Manfried Rauchsteiner: The First World War and the end of the Habsburg Monarchy 1914–1918. Böhlau, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-205-78283-4 , p. 765.
17. ↑ Andreas Gémes: Austria, Italy and central European integration plans . In: Maddalena Guiotto, Wolfgang Wohnout (ed.): Italy and Austria in Central Europe in the interwar period / Italia e Austria nella Mitteleuropa tra le due guerre mondiali . Böhlau, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-205-20269-1 , p. 70 .
18. ↑ Renner's speech  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
19. ↑ Otto Bauer: The question of nationalities and social democracy . Verlag Auvermann, Glashütten im Taunus 1971, (reprint of the 1924 edition), p. 508 f.
20. ↑ Renner: Ways of Realization , p. 109.
21. ^ Karl Renner: Demokratie und Bureaukratie , p. 40.
22. ↑ Karl Renner: Ways of Realization , p. 128 f.
23. ^ Adolf Schärf: Memories . P. 117
24. ^ Günther Schefbeck: Austria 1934. Prehistory - events - effects . Oldenbourg, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-486-57607-0 , p. 116.
25. ↑ March 1938 From the DÖW's collection of leaflets
26. ↑ Text in the Neue Wiener Tagblatt ( memento of the original dated December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Rennermuseum 
27. ^ Peter Csendes : Vienna. History of a city. Volume 3, Böhlau, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-205-99268-7 , p. 514.
28. ↑ Norbert Leser: Grenzgänger. Austrian intellectual history in necromancy. Volume 2, Böhlau, Vienna 1981 ISBN 3-205-07183-2 , p. 259.
29. ^ Ernst Hanisch: Austrian History 1890-1990. The long shadow of the state . 1994, p. 347.
30. ↑ 1938: The connection of Austria to the Greater German Reich - KPÖ Upper Austria. Retrieved March 27, 2018 . 
31. ^ Anton Pelinka: After the calm. A political autobiography , Lesethek Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-99100-006-8 , p. 9
32. ^ Sergei Shtemenko : In the General Staff . Volume 2, Berlin 1975, p. 403.
33. ↑ Sharp: With your senses . P. 111 ff.
34. ^ Karl Renner: Writings . P. 203.
35. ↑ Portisch. Austria II. P. 152
36. ^ Sergei Shtemenko: In the General Staff . Volume 2, Berlin 1975, p. 413.
37. ↑ ^{a b c d} austria-forum Karl Renner - gegen Christ und Jud , accessed on September 24, 2014.
38. ↑ ^{a b} When Renner asked the “Jewish question”. The May 7, 2013 standard.
39. ↑ ^{a b c d} Vienna's street names since 1860 as “political places of remembrance” (PDF; 4.4 MB), p. 176ff, final research project report, Vienna, July 2013
40. ^ Website of the daily newspaper Der Standard , Vienna, May 7, 2013 , accessed on September 24, 2014
41. ↑ Ludwig Dvorak: On the questionable handling of "useful" quotations. In: Der Standard daily newspaper , Vienna, March 29, 2013.
42. ^ Website of the news magazine Profil , Vienna, March 26, 2013 , accessed on September 24, 2014
43. ↑ Oliver Rathkolb: The paradoxical republic. Austria 1945 to 2005. Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-552-04967-3 , p. 100.
44. ^ Website of the daily newspaper Der Standard , Vienna, March 20, 2013 , accessed on September 25, 2014
45. ↑ Cf. Gerhard Zeillinger: “Reparation? - I can't hear the word anymore! ”In: Der Standard from December 23, 2017.
46. ↑ Robert Knight (Ed.): "I am in favor of dragging the matter out." The verbal minutes of the Austrian Federal Government from 1945 to 1952 on the compensation of the Jews. Böhlau, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99147-8 , p. 85.
47. ↑ See Siegfried Nasko, Johannes Reichl: Karl Renner. Between Anschluss and Europe (2000), p. 273
48. ↑ Robert Knight (ed.): "I am in favor of dragging the matter out." Verbal minutes of the Austrian federal government from 1945 to 1952 on the compensation of the Jews. Athenäum Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-610-08499-5 , p. 60 f. Quote from: Richard Crossman: Palestine Mission. A Personal Record, London 1946, p. 100.
49. ↑ Maximilian Gottschlich: The great aversion. How anti-Semitic is Austria? Critical findings on a social illness. Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-7076-0410-8 , pp. 64, 65 and 50
50. ^ Website of the daily newspaper Der Standard , Vienna, May 7, 2013 , accessed on September 24, 2014
51. ↑ Ursula Kastler: A Resistant Life. Marko Feingold will be 100 years old on May 28th. In: Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper , May 25, 2013, weekend supplement, p. VII, interview.
52. ↑ 1st SPÖ President "was known for a long time as an anti-Semite". June 3, 2018, accessed June 5, 2018 . 
53. ↑ Arbeiter-Zeitung, January 3, 1951
54. ^ Austrian media library: [1] Report from the funeral conduit with Karl Renner's catafalk car, accessed on September 13, 2015.
55. ^ Anton Pelinka: Karl Renner for an introduction. Edition SOAK in Junius-Verlag, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-88506-846-X , S. 22.
    Inge Zelinka: The authoritarian welfare state. Gaining power through compassion in the genesis of state welfare. Lit, Wien / Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-8448-1 , p. 231.
56. ↑ Josef Gebhard: New name for Renner-Ring? In: Kurier , Vienna, No. 118, April 28, 2012, p. 18