Constitutional large estates

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The constitutionally loyal large landowners , also the association of constitutionally loyal large landowners or constitutional party , was in the last decades of the monarchy a political grouping and honorary party in the cisleithan crown lands of Austria-Hungary , i. H. in old Austria. She belonged to the liberal camp .

At the beginning of the 1860s, the aristocratic large estates split politically into “constitutional loyalty” and “ feudal conservatives”. Those loyal to the constitution stood in the camp of German liberalism and represented a right to vote based on “property and education” , were Habsburg- loyal, supranational, state-preserving and centralized. The Germans were less national reasons championed viewed as a guarantee of the integrity of the monarchy but rather.

After the loss of the liberal majority in the Austrian Reichsrat in 1888, those loyal to the constitution were part of the United German Left . The party played an important role in the Vienna Imperial Council; Politicians such as Joseph Maria Baernreither , 1885–1907 in the House of Representatives , then in the Herrenhaus , and Karl Stürgkh , 1891–1907 in the House of Representatives, later Imperial Minister and Prime Minister, were their representatives.

After the Reichsrat elections of 1896, for which the circle of eligible voters was significantly expanded by the introduction of a 5th electoral class of all adult male citizens, the constitutional property of politicians like Oswald von Thun and Hohenstein and Erwein von Nostitz-Rieneck , both manor houses and Bohemian state parliament members and Alain Rohan , Bohemian state parliament member, continued as an independent, supraregional parliamentary group.

In 1896, the German-Bohemian MPs separated from the association because of their rejection of the Czech-friendly language ordinances from Imperial Prime Minister Badeni , who also carried out the reform of the electoral law. The party disintegrated over the course of the following year. 33 remaining MPs constituted themselves in May 1897 as the German Progressive Party (not to be confused with the party of the same name, which was active in the German Reich until 1884). It disappeared after the electoral law reform of 1906, which took effect for the first time in 1907 (see Reichsrat election 1907 ) with the emergence of the mass parties from parliament.

In the Austrian manor and in the parliaments of the Crown Lands , in which universal and equal male suffrage was not introduced until 1918, especially in the Bohemian Landtag (it was no longer convened from 1913 to 1918 ), the party still played an important role. From 1903 Ottokar Czernin , later Minister of the Imperial and Royal Houses and Foreign Affairs , stood out for the party in the Bohemian Landtag . Rudimentary forms of party organization developed late. There was no actual party program, and daily political events were responded to with occasional publications.

Chairperson

literature

  • Ernst Rutkowski: Letters and documents on the history of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . Oldenbourg publishing house.
    • Volume 1: The Constitutionally Loyal Large Estate 1880–1899 . Munich 1983, ISBN 3-486-51831-3 .
    • Volume 2: The Constitutionally Loyal Large Estate 1900–1904 . Munich 1991, ISBN 3-486-52611-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Hannes Stekl: Nobility and bourgeoisie in the Habsburg Monarchy, 18th to 20th century . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-486-56846-9 , p. 28f.
  2. ^ A b c Ernst Rutkowski: Letters and documents on the history of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . Volume 1: The Constitutionally Loyal Large Estate 1880-1899 . Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-486-51831-3 , p. 16 f.
  3. ↑ a b United German Left . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Volume 20. Leipzig 1909, p. 48 (zeno.org).
  4. ^ Peter Berger: Brief history of Austria in the 20th century . 2nd edition, Verlag facultas.wuv / maudrich, 2008, ISBN 978-3-7089-0354-5 , chapter A European anomaly: “Kakanien” 1898–1918 , section Mobilizing the electorate , p. 14 ( limited preview in Google Book search).