Chastity commission

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Ignaz Parhamer, first praeses of the Chastity Commission from 1752 to 1753

The chastity commission , or the chastity court or breeding court , was a branch of the judiciary that existed in Vienna from 1752 to the beginning of the 19th century , punished and censored prostitution , extramarital sexual intercourse , offensive behavior and homosexuality .

Goals and Organization

Johann Michael Mettenleiter: The investigation commission

After her accession to the throne, Empress Maria Theresa set up her own jurisdictions to improve morality and beliefs parallel to the Haugwitz reforms. The establishment of a chastity court was based on local traditions. Already Ferdinand I had in 1560 under the influence of the Jesuits used chastity commissions. There were also moral courts in imperial cities, including Hamburg , Nuremberg and Strasbourg .

The chastity commission was set up as a separate court commission by edict of February 12, 1752. Chastity commissioners, of which there were 500 according to Casanova, worked on the courts with their own judges. They had extensive powers, including access to private houses and apartments, and relied on numerous informers and informers.

The Jesuit Ignaz Parhamer was appointed the first President of the Chastity Commission, who allegedly insisted on whipping naked prostitutes himself. In May 1753 the Chastity Commission was incorporated into the Representation and Chamber in Austria down the Enns under its new President Heinrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz. From 1759 it was led by the governors of Lower Austria. Count Franz Ferdinand von Schrattenbach (1707–1785) held office from 1759 to 1770. He was followed by Christian August Graf von Seilern from 1770 to 1779. The governor was subordinate to State Chancellor Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz .

The files of the Chastity Commission kept in a large room in the Vienna Palace of Justice are said to have been burned in the Vienna Palace of Justice fire in July 1927 . The activities of the commission and its executors can therefore only be traced today through literary treatment, diary entries, memoirs and contemporary satires.

The main victims were the Viennese prostitutes, whose number in Theresian Vienna is estimated at 10,000. In the event of damage to the client or his infection with sexually transmitted diseases, there was a risk of cutting off the hair and ears, tarring of the head, flogging in front of the nearest church or, in the worst case and relapse, deportation to the Banat with the so-called Timisoara water rushes . Citizens and citizens' sons were usually fined if they did not get away with bribery. The commission took action against adulterers, sodomites , homosexuals and interfaith sexual intercourse with all the severity, including the death penalty . The chastity commission is repeatedly named as a censorship agency in contemporary sources. Dancers such as Santina Zanuzzi, choreographers such as Noverre and Tilly and Charles Hyam, the well-trained son of the horseman and showman Hyam, known as Hyam the younger, were affected. Outpatient theater companies were systematically monitored and repeatedly deported.

Another monitored Viennese focus was the Prater . By order of the Chastity Commission, the bush population in the area was thinned out so much that there was an overview for a crowd of watchdogs. According to Johann Kaspar Riesbeck , single lovers who were caught there were summoned to the chastity commission and forced to marry when they were transferred. With this measure, infanticide should be avoided.

As a result of the trial on the Donnerbrunnen , the Chastity Commission had its sculptures removed in 1773 because of their offensive nudity. They were not set up again until 1802.

Seat of the Chastity Commission

With the integration into the presentation and chamber under the Enns, the chastity commission was led from the seat of the president or governor in the Palais Niederösterreich . According to Josepha Amprukin's protocols, the detention, the interrogation, the gynecological examinations, the punishment and the final reprimand took place in the Schranne at Hohen Markt 10-12 . This confirms Alfreth von Arneth's assumption that the chastity court was a branch of general Viennese jurisdiction. The copper engraving “The prisoners in Vienna who were sentenced to sweep the streets” from 1782 by C. Schütz shows a realistic picture of the tribunal and its composition, taking into account a numerically exaggerated clientele.

Casanova in Vienna

The chapters in Giacomo Casanova's memoirs on his stays in Vienna are very informative . The Venetian was surprised at the first wild pee in 1753 and was informed of the offense by a chastity commissioner with a round wig. On January 23, 1767, Casanova was summoned by Count Schrattenbach and expelled from Vienna with gross condescension. Count Kaunitz, to whom Casanova had turned, only granted an extension of a few days. In his memoirs Casanova sums up: “Shameful spies, called chastity commissioners, were the relentless tormentors of all pretty girls; the empress had all the virtues, but not tolerance, when it was a question of impermissible love between man and woman ”and“ even if, according to the truths of our religion, the great Maria Theresa enters into what is called eternity or life beyond, she must be damned; even if she has committed no other sin than to persecute the poor girls in a thousand ways who benefit from their charms. "

Schulenburg-Esterhazy affair

The basic attitude of Empress Maria Theresa was particularly evident in the Schulenburg-Esterhazy affair . Ferdinand Ludwig Graf Schulenburg-Oeynhausen had torpedoed a marriage of the high nobility founded by the Empress by kidnapping and impregnation. Upon personal intervention by the Empress, the Count was sentenced to death in 1775. Through the use of the husband, the death sentence was converted into a deportation.

The Zalheimb criminal trial

In the files of the Zalheimb Trial from 1786, the interrogation protocols of the Chastity Commission on the arrests of the victim Josepha Amprukin from the years 1769, 1770 and 1772 have been preserved. They are attached as Appendix B to the publication of the process.

Succession and End

At the end of the chastity commission there are different details, which mention the times between 1769 and 1802. The last water push in Timisoara took place at the end of 1768. After that, the prostitutes were only pushed in front of the gates. Emperor Joseph II abolished most of the Theresian moral laws and thus limited the influence and punishment of the Chastity Commission. Only Franz II is said to have finally abolished the special jurisdiction of the chastity commission after 50 years of existence at the beginning of the 19th century.

Eduard Nusser came to the retrospective conclusion in 1863 in his treatise on the problem of prostitution in Vienna: “It is a fact that this institution completely failed its purpose, it caused family accidents of all kinds, it only promoted general immorality by arousing public scandals , generated the most sophisticated intrigues and made the female sex only more inclined to the wishes of men. "

Sources

It has repeatedly been claimed that the chastity commission is part of the Viennese city fama, as the files and documents are actually extremely poor. Alfred Ritter von Arneth , at first doubtful himself, found in a letter from the Venetian ambassador Correr dated May 19, 1753, the statement that the Representation and Chamber of Austria down the Enns had just been merged with the previous Security and Chastity Commission. From 1758 Friedrich II used the chastity commission twice for satirical purposes. David Hume reported, irritated, about their introduction in Scotland. The most detailed report comes from Giacomo Casanova, one of the most accurate and reliable portrayals of private life of his time. Casanova's difficulties with the chastity commission of 1766/67 are also confirmed by letter from Da Ponte . Jean Georges Noverre wrote a letter to Prince Kaunitz in 1767 about the censorship of his ballet scenarios. In 1771, Baron Pilati von Tassulo did not want to stay a moment longer in the city after he was informed about the work of the chastity commission by his host. The records of the Chastity Commission on Josepha Amprukin that have been preserved exemplarily show the spying and the actions of the commissioners in the years 1769, 1770 and 1772. Josepha Ambrukin was arrested four times for actual carelessness, gynecologically examined and beaten with rods. As an exception, the files of the ballet master Jean Tilly from 1774 to 1775 have been preserved in the archives of the Ministry of the Interior. Friedrich Nicolais , Johann Kaspar Riesbeck and Johann Friedel's reports are based on their visits to Vienna at the beginning of the 1780s, when they still noticed the work of the commission.

Prominent cases of the chastity commission

President of the Chastity Commission

Independent KuK Chastity Commission

  • 1752–1753 Ignaz Parhamer

President of the Archduchy of Austria under the Enns:

  • 1753–1758 Heinrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Haugwitz

Governor of the Archduchy of Austria under the Enns:

  • 1759–1770 Count Franz Ferdinand von Schrattenbach
  • 1770–1779 Christian August Graf von Seilern-Aspang
  • 1779–1782 Joseph Johann Nepomuk Graf von Herberstein

President of the Archduchy of Austria under the Enns:

  • 1782–1790 Johann Anton Graf von Pergen
  • 1791–1795 Wenzel Graf Sauer von und zu Ankenstein
  • 1795–1797 Count Franz Joseph von Saurau
  • 1797–1802 Jakob Reichsfreiherr von Wöber zu Hagenberg

literature

  • Franz S. Hügel: On the history, statistics and regulation of prostitution. Social-medical studies in their practical treatment and application to Vienna and other large cities . Zamarski, Vienna 1865 (The chapter The Chastity Commission , pp. 61–72, adheres to the travel reports of Friedrich Nicolai)
  • Benjamin Tarnowsky, Prostitution and Abolitionism , published by Leopold Voss, 1890
  • Andreas Trupp, The Vienna Chastity Commission. What effects did the politics of denominational Catholicism under Maria Theresa (1740 to 1780) have on people who did not believe and did not act Catholic ?, Vienna 2017. Dissertation.

Contemporary reports

Literary

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anita Winkler: Maria Theresia and the Sixth Commandment . In: “Die Welt der Habsburg.” Retrieved on May 30, 2013
  2. ↑ Christian Brandstätter: StadtChronik Wien: 2000 years in data, documents and images, Brandstätter, Christian, 1986, p. 163
  3. ↑ Susanne Mauthner-Weber: Venus ways: an erotic guide through old Vienna. Promedia, 1995, p. 26
  4. ^ Archives for Austrian History, Volume 122, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1959, p. 159
  5. ^ Egon Caesar Conte Corti : The Empress: Anecdotes about Maria Theresa. Styria, 1953, p. 121, footnote 21.
  6. ↑ Helmut Graupner: The late human right. Sexuality in European and Austrian Law. In: Sexuologie, 2004, issue 22, p. 122.
  7. ↑ Olivier Marmin: Diagonales de la danse. Editions L'Harmattan, 1997, p. 302.
  8. ↑ Some account of the famous chastity commission, instituted at Vienne by the late empress. In: The Edinburgh magazine, or Literary miscellany, 1785, p. 275.
  9. ^ Moritz Bermann: Austria-Hungary in the nineteenth century. H. Engel, 1884, p. 211.
  10. ^ Johann Kaspar Riesbeck: Letters from a traveling French. 1783, volume 1, 22nd letter ( online )
  11. ^ Alfred Ritter von Arneth: History of Maria Theresa, Volume 9, Vienna 1879, p. 399 ff.
  12. ↑ Giacomo Casanova :; Story of my life, Propylaea, Berlin, Volume 3, p. 260
  13. ↑ Giacomo Casanova :; Story of my life, Propylaea, Berlin, volume 8, p. 250f
  14. ^ Johann Werfring: The Chastity Commission of the Empress. In: Wiener Zeitung of September 3, 2001, p. 7
  15. ↑ Gustav Brabée, Criminal Process Zalheimb ( Franz de Paula of Zahlheimb). Josephinische cause célèbre, 1786. Communication of all related original acts of the Viennese city and the kk lower Austria. Appeal Court, published for the first time. As a contribution to the characteristics of Joseph II and to the legal, moral and cultural history of the 18th century , Vienna, W. Braumüller, 1870, p. 125. ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fbabel.hathitrust.org%2Fcgi%2Fpt%3Fid%3Dumn.31951p00109524t%3Bview%3D1up%3Bseq%3D143~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D )
  16. ^ Eduard Nusser: Prostitution and its regulation in Vienna. From a general practitioner. Förster and Bartelmus, Vienna 1863, p. 13 ( online )
  17. ^ Alfred Ritter von Arneth: History of Maria Theresa, Volume 9, Vienna 1879, p. 399 ff.
  18. ↑ Horst Albert Glaser (Ed.): The turn from the Enlightenment to Romanticism 1760-1820, Volume 1, John Benjamin Publishing, Amsterdam 2001, ISBN 90-272-3447-7 , p. 165
  19. ↑ Sibylle Dahms: The conservative revolutionary: Jean Georges Noverre and the Ballet Reform, Munich, epodium 2010, p. 42
  20. ↑ Rudolf Lehr: LandesChronik Oberösterreich: 3000 Years in Data, Documents and Images, Brandstätter, 2004, p. 179