Provisional National Assembly for German Austria

The Provisional National Assembly for German Austria (unofficially also the Vienna National Assembly ) was the first parliament of the state of German Austria . She was active in and after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy from October 21, 1918 to February 16, 1919. The last session took place on February 6, 1919, when the rules of procedure of the Constituent National Assembly were adopted. The assembly consisted of those members of the House of Representatives of the former Reichsrat elected in June 1911 , who had represented the German-speaking areas of the Austrian half of the double monarchy there. There were therefore also members of parliament whose territories were ultimately not allowed to belong to the state of German-Austria because the victorious powers of the First World War determined it differently. The 208 MPs were all men; in the 1911 election women were not yet eligible to vote.

Invitation from the emperor, foundation

On October 16, Emperor Karl I issued the proclamation with which he announced the conversion of the Austrian half of the empire into a federal state with extensive autonomy for the individual nations and invited the nationalities of Cisleithania to form national councils for this purpose. This proclamation was published on October 17th and historians call it the People's Manifesto .

Four days later, 208 self-named German Reichsrat members elected in 1911 met and constituted the Provisional National Assembly. 85 of them had been elected in areas whose membership of German Austria could not be brought about later (e.g. the last President of the House of Representatives, the Moravian MP Gustav Groß ). It soon emerged that the national councils of the other nationalities were not planning autonomous areas in an imperial Austria, but states independent of Vienna (and also proclaimed them by the end of October 1918), of which the Czechoslovak Republic, founded on October 28, 1918, with German Austria had (and was able to enforce) competing territorial claims. MPs from areas to which the German-Austrian claims had to be given up in 1919 actively participated until the end of the legislative period; Ferdinand Hanusch and Otto Glöckel - both in Bohemia - and Josef Redlich - elected in Moravia - were then active as politicians in republican Austria.

Meeting place, name, president

The first meeting on October 21, 1918

A total of 208 seats

SDAP : 38
D : 4
Independent: 5
CS : 65
DN : 96

The sessions of the Provisional National Assembly initially took place in the Lower Austrian Landhaus in Vienna's Herrengasse , and from November 12, 1918 in the Parliament building on Vienna's Ringstrasse .

At the first session on October 21, 1918, the members of the parliament decided on the name Provisional National Assembly for German Austria and thus the name of the state. They elected three MPs to be presidents with equal rights:

Franz Dinghofer ( German national party ), until 1918 Mayor of Linz , Upper Austria ,
Jodok Fink ( Christian Social Party ), farmer in Vorarlberg , and
Karl Seitz ( Social Democratic Workers' Party ), teacher, Vienna (then in Lower Austria ).

Before the meeting on October 30, 1918, Fink resigned from his presidential function, which he had assumed because of illness from Johann Hauser , prelate from Linz and chairman of the Christian Social Party, and was replaced as president by Hauser.

Provisional constitutional rules

On October 30, 1918, the Provisional National Assembly passed the resolution on the basic institutions of state power (StGBl. No. 1/1918), which can be viewed as a transitional arrangement from the monarchy to the people's state or as part of a provisional constitution. (The formal introduction of the republic remained open because the political parties had not yet reached an agreement and they wanted to avoid open conflict with the emperor or with the previous constitutional order.) On the same day, the assembly established the 23-member, including its three presidents Council of State as its executive committee, which immediately appointed the Renner I state government headed by Karl Renner . October 30, 1918 is therefore considered to be the founding day of German Austria.

On November 12, 1918, the National Assembly passed the law on the form of state and government in German Austria . According to the stenographic minutes of the meeting, President Dinghofer unanimously approved . The law is one of the essential building blocks of the Federal Constitution of the new state passed by the Constituent National Assembly in 1920 . The decision was made public by the Presidents of the Provisional National Assembly on the parliamentary ramp; The decision and announcement are referred to in historiography as the proclamation of the republic .

The first two articles of the law read:

article 1

German Austria is a democratic republic. All public powers are employed by the people.

Article 2

German Austria is part of the German Republic . Special laws regulate the participation of German Austria in the legislation and administration of the German Republic as well as the extension of the scope of application of laws and institutions of the German Republic to German Austria.

Further activity, succession

The Provisional National Assembly made many other decisions to build a democratic republic and expand workers' rights. Their decisions were published in the State Law Gazette, which was published by the State Chancellor. It can be read electronically on the web portal of the Austrian National Library on historical legal and legal texts. (The citation is usually not made according to the date of the legal gazette, but according to the consecutive number that the relevant text has received and the date of the regulation itself.)

At its last session on February 6, 1919, the Provisional National Assembly decided on the rules for its successor, elected in the first Austrian elections in which women and men could participate equally. They took place on February 16, 1919. The new parliament now called itself the Constituent National Assembly , as it had the task of creating the republican constitution of German Austria. From October 1919 on, the state was no longer called German Austria, but was designated the Republic of Austria at the instigation of the victorious powers (see Treaty of Saint-Germain , ratified by the National Assembly on October 21, 1919). With the passing of the Federal Constitutional Law on October 1, 1920, federal legislation was transferred to the National Council together with the Federal Council on November 10, 1920 .

Laws

In addition to the above-mentioned provisional transitional or constitutional rules and various tax and finance laws, the Provisional National Assembly passed the following provisions published in the State Law Gazette:

1918

Abolition of censorship ( StGBl. No. 3/1918 )
Repeal of military jurisdiction for civilians ( StGBl. No. 13/1918 )
Provisional state assemblies, elected governor ( StGBl. No. 24/1918 )
Basic Law of November 22, 1918 on Judicial Power ( StGBl. No. 37/1918 )
Extent, boundaries and relations of the national territory of German Austria (including non-realizable territorial claims, StGBl. No. 40/1918 ) with a supplementary state declaration (StGBl. No. 41/1918)
Gendarmerie as civil guard of the German-Austrian state ( StGBl. No. 75/1918 )
Ban on the export and sale of objects of historical, artistic or cultural importance ( StGBl. No. 90/1918 )
Convocation of and election regulations for the Constituent National Assembly ( No. 114 and 115/1918 )
Collection of direct taxes ( StGBl. No. 121/1918 ), Law against tax evasion ( StGBl. No. 122/1918 )
Detection and prosecution of breaches of duty by military organs during war ( StGBl. No. 132/1918 )
Eight-hour working day in factories until peace is concluded ( StGBl. No. 138/1918 )
Changes and additions of December 19, 1918 to the resolution of October 30, 1918 on the basic institutions of state authority (three presidents with equal rights, one each in the National Assembly, one in the State Council, one in the State Government; weekly change; three: State Council Directorate with Head of State; StGBl. No. 139/1918 )
Restriction of child labor (except agriculture and household not under 12 years of age, no night, Sunday or holiday work; StGBl. No. 141/1918 )

1919

Establishment of a Supreme Court ( StGBl. No. 41/1919 )
Establishment of juvenile courts ( StGBl. No. 46/1919 )
Establishment of a German-Austrian constitutional court ( StGBl. No. 48/1919 )
Expropriation for residential purposes (against compensation; StGBl. No. 82/1919 )
Establishment of a state audit office (which is subordinate to the National Assembly; StGBl. No. 85/1919 )
Establishment of a German-Austrian administrative court ( StGBl. No. 88/1919 )
Provisional provisions on armed power ( StGBl. No. 91/1919 )
Majority at 21 instead of 24 years of age ( StGBl. No. 96/1919 )
Rules of Procedure of the Constituent National Assembly ( StGBl. No. 101/1919 )

List of members of the Provisional National Assembly

literature

Ernst C. Hellbling: Austrian constitutional and administrative history. A textbook for students. Volume 13, Vienna 1956
Wilhelm Brauneder : German Austria 1918. The republic comes into being. Amalthea Signum Verlag, Vienna 1999. ISBN 978-3-85002-433-4
Christian Neschwara / Michael Rainer: 100 Years of the Republic. The Provisional National Assembly and its role in the creation of the Republic of German Austria . Ares Verlag, Graz 2018. ISBN 978-3-99081-0064 .
Stenographic minutes of the House of Representatives XII. Legislative period (XXII. Session: May 30, 1917 - November 12, 1918), register of persons: Members of the House on ALEX - Historical Legal and Legal Texts Online
Stenographic minutes of the Provisional National Assembly, Part 1, Register of persons, B. Members of the Provisional National Assembly