Council of Ministers for Common Affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy

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Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary Council of Ministers for Common Affairsp1
State level Supreme organs of the Real Union
position Decision-making body of the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary in matters of foreign policy and the common army
Consist December 21, 1867 ( constitutional law on the exercise of government and executive power ) –31. October 1918 ( collapse of Austria-Hungary , termination of the Real Union by Hungary)
Headquarters Vienna and Budapest
management Emperor of Austria / King of Hungary (i. V. Minister of the Imperial and Royal Houses and Foreign Affairs )

The Council of Ministers for Joint Affairs of Austria-Hungary , or joint ministry for short , was the advisory and decision-making body of the monarch in his capacity as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary after the compromise of 1867 .

The Council of Ministers consisted of the three joint ministers and the prime ministers of both “halves of the empire” . The monarch himself appointed and removed the politicians belonging to the body, without being bound by official proposals. The monarch was free to personally chair the meetings of the Council of Ministers.

Function and development

Initially, only the three joint or kuk ministers were members of the Council of Ministers:

From 1869 onwards, the Austrian and Hungarian Prime Ministers also took part with the right to vote, if necessary also ministers from both halves of the empire and specialist officials.

Usually the chief of staff was also present, who had the right to speak directly to the monarch. The monarch himself was present at his discretion.

Only the first chairman of the joint council of ministers bore the title of Chancellor , which corresponded to the wishes of the emperor and top Austrian politicians, but not to reality. The representatives of the Kingdom of Hungary, which became more and more emancipating over time, ensured that chairmen no longer wore this unrealistic title from 1871 onwards. At the request of Hungary, the title Reich Finance Minister was no longer used from 1903 onwards and from 1911 the title Reich Minister of War was no longer used; they were replaced by the designations joint finance minister (to distinguish from the finance ministers of the two halves of the empire) and minister of war (there were no war ministers in the two halves of the empire, but ministers for national defense).

In accordance with the Basic Laws of Compensation, the sphere of activity of the joint Council of Ministers was limited to foreign policy , warfare and both financing as well as to the constitutional principles of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (pragmatic matters) and to the participation in the negotiations between Austria and Hungary, which take place every ten years to adapt above all the financial compensation schemes.

The question of whether the joint Council of Ministers was a joint government of Austria-Hungary can only be answered in the affirmative with great reservations and restrictions due to the competence situation. The common council of ministers was above all the highest advisory body of the monarch, his cabinet , the main function was the oral debate. Here an attempt was made to reconcile the often conflicting interests and views of the Austrian and Hungarian governments, insofar as they related to matters of importance for the state as a whole. The minutes of the Council of Ministers show that the Hungarian Prime Ministers took an active part and that not a single important step could be taken without their consent.

The most momentous decision of the joint Council of Ministers in July 1914 was the recommendation to the emperor and king to declare war on Serbia . The kuk foreign minister made the declaration of war on behalf of the monarch.

During World War I , there was a contrast between the accelerated pace of war events and the sluggishness of the monarchy's constitutional structure . In the later course of the war, under Emperor Charles I , the joint Council of Ministers was limited to consultation and appraisal. The ruler's power, as a remnant of absolutism, occasionally pushed the Council of Ministers aside as part of the constitutional structure. Due to his inexperience and his ability to be influenced, however, Karl's sphere of influence and authority were transposed to the person of the foreign minister and his clique and perceived by them.

The last meeting of the joint Council of Ministers took place on October 24, 1918; Hungary had terminated the real union with Austria with the consent of the monarch in mid-October at the end of October 1918 . The to October 31 joint ministerial currently the Ministry Lammasch conducted their ministries in Vienna liquidating further, after the resignation of the monarch of 12 November 1918, under the supervision of German Austrian government Renner I .

Original sources

Council of Ministers for Common Affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: Protocols.

  • edited by Miklós Komjáthy: Protocols of the Joint Council of Ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1914–1918) . Budapest 1966.
  • published by the Institute for History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Waltraud Heindl, Horst Brettner-Messler, Stefan Malfèr, Thomas Kletečka, István Diószegi, Miklós Komjáthy, Helmut Rumpler: The minutes of the Council of Ministers of Austria and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy . 2nd series: The Joint Council of Ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 1867-1918 , Budapest 1984 ff.
  • published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences: The minutes of the Council of Ministers of Austria and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 1848–1918. Series 2: The Protocols of the Joint Council of Ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. 1908-1914. Verl. Of the Österr. Akad. Der Wiss., Österr. Bundesverl., Öbvhpt Verl., ISBN 978-963056005-4 - previously published:
    • Volume 1/1. 1867-1870 , Eva Somogyi (ed.), 1999;
    • Volume 1/2. 1870-1871 , Éva Somogyi (Red.) 2011;
    • Volume 4. 1883-1895 , Eva Somogyi (Red.), 1993;
    • Volume 5. 1896-1907 , István Diószegi (ed.), 1991;
    • Volume 6. 1908–1914 , Anatol Schmied-Kowarzik (ed.), Éva Somogyi (ed.), 2011.

The minutes of the joint Council of Ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 1867–1918, together with those of the Austrian Council of Ministers 1848–1867, are available online in the database of the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (see web links ).

literature

  • Éva Somogyi: The Joint Council of Ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, 1867-1906. Volume 73 of publications of the Commission for Modern History of Austria . Verlag Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1996, ISBN 978-320598572-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ludwig von Flotow : November 1918 on Ballhausplatz , edited by Erwin Matsch, Böhlau-Verlag, Graz 1982, ISBN 3-205-07190-5 , p. 385, note 75
  2. ↑ Source: Protocols (1914–1918) , Komjáthy, 1966, pp. 82ff.
  3. ↑ József Galántai: The foreign policy of Austria-Hungary and the ruling classes of Hungary . In: Austria-Hungary in world politics 1900 to 1918 . Berlin / GDR 1965, pp. 255–266, here: p. 266.
  4. ↑ Source: Protocols (1914–1918) , Komjáthy, 1966, pp. 61 and 132.