A History of The Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918

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A HISTORY OF THE
HABSBURG EMPIRE
1526-1918
A HISTORY OF THE
HABSBURG EMPIRE
1526-1918
Robert A. Xann
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Berkeley / Los Angeles / London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
Copyright © 1974, by
The Regents of the University of California
ISBN: 0-520-02408-7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-97733
Printed in the United States of America
Jo JVlady
Contents
PREFACE xi
Chapter 1. TOWARD THE UNION OF THE HABSBURG

LANDS i
A. The political evolution of the Alpine Hereditary lands be¬
fore 1526 * 4
B. Social and cultural conditions in the Hereditary lands be¬
fore 1526 12
C. The evolution of the Eastern crowns and their status at the
time of the union of 1526-1527 18
Chapter 11. TURKS AND PROTESTANTS (1526-1648) 25

A. The beginnings of political integration 25
B. Sovereignty in the Austro-German and Eastern Habsburg
lands 32
C. Principles of foreign policy 34
D. The Turkish wars 37
E. The Thirty Years’ war; Protestantism and the Habsburg
cause 45
Chapter 111. AN EMPIRE EVOLVES AND ASSERTS ITSELF

(1648-1748) 54
A. Common succession and common institutions 54
B. Resumption of the Turkish wars 62
C. Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and the Habsburg scepter 70
D. The struggle about the balance of power 77
E. Stalemate and decline 90
F. The Great-Power position is tested 96
vii
viii History of the Habsburg Empire
Chapter IV. LATE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE AGE
IN THE HABSBURG LANDS (1526-1740) 102
A. Over-all issues 102
B. Reformation and Counter Reformation 104
C. Socioeconomic trends ny
D. Estates and princely absolutism 125
E. Administration 129
F. Judicial system 131
G. Defense system 132

H. Church-State relations *33
I. Cultural evolution *35
Chapter V. AN EMPIRE REASSERTS ITSELF (1740-1815) 156

A. Foreign policy (1740-1792) 156
B. The Reform era 170
C. Feudalism versus centralism in the Reform era *74
D. Economic policies 181
E. Josephinism 183
F. Church-state relations 187
G. Education 192
H. The peasant question *95
I. Hungary and the end of the first Reform era 199
J. Foreign policy (1792-1815) 208
K. Domestic administration of Francis 1 (1792-1815) 235
Chapter VI. STANDSTILL, DECLINE AND STABILIZA¬

TION (1815-1879) 243
A. Foreign policy (1815-1879) 243
B. Domestic affairs from 1815 to the revolution of 1848-1849 282
C. The revolution of 1848-1849 299
D. Neoabsolutism 318
E. Transition to constitutional government (1860-1867) 326
F. Domestic affairs (1860-1879) 342

G. The end of an era 365
Chapter VII. CULTURAL TRENDS FROM LATE ENLIGHT¬

ENMENT TO LIBERALISM (from mid-eighteenth
century to the 1860’s) 367
A. The Austro-German orbit 37°
B. The Magyars 379
Contents ix
C. The Czechs 384
D. The Slovaks 389
E. The Poles 390
F. The Ruthenians 391
G. The Southern Slavs 394
H. The Latins 400
I. Summary 404
Chapter VIII. DECLINE AND DISCORD (1879-1914) 406

A. Politics in Austria-Hungary 406
B. Cisleithanian Austria 424
C. Hungary , 452
D. Economic developments in Austria-Hungary 461
Chapter IX. WORLD WAR AND DISSOLUTION (1914-1918) 468

A. Conduct of the war 469
B. Domestic developments in Austria-Hungary 487
C. The conflict between the national groups comes to a head 497
D. A final reflection on the dissolution process 517
Chapter X. NEW BEGINNINGS: CULTURAL TRENDS

FROM THE 1860’s TO 1918 521
A. The Latins (Italians and Roumanians) 524
B. The Ruthenians and Poles , 526
C. The Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes 529
D. The Slovaks 532
E. The Czechs 533
F. The Magyars 538
G. The Austro-German orbit 544
H. Conclusions 5^T
Chapter XI. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY 565

I.The Habsburg empire, general works 568
II. Literature on the history of the national groups 587
appendix 1. Population and nationality statistics 603

appendix 11. The Austrian Habsburg and Habsburg-Lorraine rulers
from the middle of the 15th century to 1918 609
appendix hi. Chronology
appendix iv. Maps 616
INDEX 623
Preface
The history of the Habsburg empire began with the union of the
Alpine hereditary lands and the crowns of Bohemia, Hungary, and
Croatia in 1526-1527. The first background chapter discusses the late
medieval history of the hereditary lands more broadly than that of the
eastern (Hungarian, Croatian, and Bohemian) crowns, because they were
for two and a half centuries the heartlands of Habsburg rule and the
nucleus of the evolving empire. From then on the various political units
and national groups of the Habsburg lands are covered on a completely
equal footing.
A Habsburg empire existed in name but not in fact throughout modern
history, long before the proclamation of the Austrian empire of 1804.
This declaratory imperial act as a consequence of the French political
and military advance into Central Europe was indeed the mere external
confirmation of a social and political evolution that had gone on
throughout modern history. The succession treaties which came into effect
in the sixteenth century could merely institute the premises for this
step-by-step evolution of an empire. Not before the end of the first
quarter of the seventeenth century was Habsburg rule in the Bohemian
lands firmly established and not before the last decade of that century
in the Hungarian-Croatian orbit. Consequently this study has to meet
several demands. It has to show the rise of the Habsburg power, in
Oswald Redlich’s words, “Das Werden einer Grossmacht,” its subse¬
quent status and action as a great power, and finally its dissolution. It be¬
longs to the paradoxes of which the history of the Habsburg empire is so
rich that its official birthday in 1804 does not mark the beginning of an
era of leadership in Central Europe. On the contrary, this date is close
to the beginning of the disintegration of Habsburg power.
This volume attempts to give equal attention to political, cultural, and
socioeconomic history. This has been attempted before, and only the one
xt
xii History of the Habsburg Empire
who sets about this task again, knows the difficulties which the historian
has to face when he struggles with the problems of the multinational,
multicultural empire. Yet in some respects the approach of this study
differs from previous ones. Generally students of Austrian history have
tried to give their undertaking as far as possible unified structure by
pressing the many-faced problems into the frame of a centralized empire.
Such method follows the philosophy of a German-directed centralism,
which after 1867 had to yield to a German-Magyar diarchy. In some
studies written from this viewpoint a German national and later also
Magyar national bias is expressed. Yet in most cases criticism of this kind
would be unfair. Frequently authors adopted this centralistic method not
as a result of national preference but of methodical convenience. Some
works which follow such patterns are outstanding. Their authors have
perceived the empire from the-center, not because they were biased but
because it seemed to them the best way to give structure and coherence
to their story. Just the same, such a presentation leads, however un¬
wittingly, to a distorted structure.
The problems of the Habsburg empire can be fully understood only
if equal attention is given to the various political entities and ethnic
groups which formed it. There is no one stage of action but several
stages, which have to be presented in a synchronistic view. This does not
mean that all arenas are necessarily of equal importance, and certainly
not at the same time. The part of the stage where the action takes place
is illuminated, and then it falls back into darkness when history shifts to
some other place. It is necessary, however, to keep in mind that specific
aspects of history have to be viewed in the first place from the angle of
particular groups. This method applies to national and cultural problems
but also to political and socioeconomic events. Due attention will be paid
to the task of the central administration, and not only in regard to foreign
policy, defense, and legal institutions. These are important aspects of the
history of the Habsburg empire but not the essence of this history. It rests
in the synthesis between supranational and national problems. In cor¬
relating them as seen from different angles this study has tried to break
new ground.
The most formidable difficulty in a work of limited size and wide
scope is the presentation of the cultural evolution of the various national
groups. Partly this difficulty results from the fact that the whole book is
based primarily on works available in western languages. On the other
hand, in the past two decades studies in eastern and central European
history and literature, and translations from eastern languages, have in-
Preface xiii
creased in quantity and quality, thus diminishing language limitations.
More difficult to solve is the problem of selecting significant authors
and artists representative for a national culture. Here one has to navigate
between the Scylla of a superabundant number of outstanding works and
the Charybdis of heaping name upon name in the manner of a telephone
directory without proper evaluation. A perfect solution to this problem,
particularly in works of limited size, has to my knowledge not yet been
found. An author is bound either to discuss too few significant person¬
alities or to list too many names without necessary analysis. In this
dilemma of choice between evils the former seems to me the lesser one
and I have acted accordingly.
Several technical problems require brief comment. One is the use of
geographical names which in line with the principles traced above can¬
not be necessarily or uniformly German. I tried to adopt a middle ground
between the ethnic-linguistic name of a place and the historical name
used throughout an important period of development. In many in¬
stances, therefore, more than one name had to be used. The one primarily
in use at the time under discussion is stated first, the other, or in some in¬
stances others, in parenthesis. The main consideration is that the names
used are or become familiar to the reader. Automatic consistency has to
yield to this consideration. This flexible approach pertains also to the use of
anglicized or vernacular names of individuals. The same principle is ap¬
plied to the terminology used in referring to the political body with which
we are concerned, the Habsburg empire. In another work, The Multina¬
tional Empire, Vol. I, I discussed the legal and political question to what
extent the term “Habsburg empire”—at some times a controversial one—
may be used. Furthermore, whether “Austria” refers to the western parts
of the Habsburg lands or to the whole, whether “Austria-Hungary” after
1867 stands for two unequal halves of one great power or for one single
power, and other debatable questions of this kind were discussed there.
The deductions drawn in the quoted work apply to this volume as
well. From the point of view of semantics, as distinguished from politics
and law, the problem shrinks indeed to manageable size. The empire is
generally understood as the whole area and the total of peoples with
which we are concerned. What the term Austria means in specific places
can generally be understood within the context. Where doubt exists, the
meaning is clarified.
Dates are used sparingly throughout the book but I hope frequently
enough to serve as scaffold for the understanding of political history. In
the chapters on cultural history, biographical dates have been used where
xiv History of the Habsburg Empire
they are helpful to place the efforts of a person with precision within
the intellectual currents of his time. They have purposely been omitted
where this does not seem necessary. Here the line has to be drawn between
a textbook, which this volume is not, and a historical introduction to the
problems of the Habsburg empire which it hopes to be.
At this point it is a pleasant duty to express my sincere thanks for con¬
tinued support of this study to the Research Council of Rutgers Uni¬
versity, The American Council of Learned Societies, and the American
Philosophical Society. I am obliged to Columbia University Press for
permission to have five maps from my study The Multinational Empire:
Nationalism and National Reform in the Habsburg Monarchy 1848-1918
(2 vols., 3rd ed., 15S70) reproduced in this book. I am greatly indebted to
Mrs. Sophia Kurzweg for her never-failing help in the preparation of a
difficult manuscript. Dr. Zdenek David, Slavic bibliographer of Prince¬
ton University, advised me on questions of spelling of Slavic names,
bibliographical problems, and selection of Slavic literature. I am indebted
to Dr. Denes Koppanyi, Princeton, for advice concerning spelling in
Hungarian. Finally and above all my thanks are due to Max Knight,
editor of the University of California Press. I have benefited as much
from his wise counsel as I have enjoyed our many battles in which he
has deployed an impressive array of weapons of critical acumen and wit
to make this a better book.
R.A.K.
CHAPTER I
Toward the Union oj the
UahsburcJ Lands
The permanent affiliation of the Habsburg dynasty, the ruling house in

the German Alpine hereditary lands, with the lands of the Bohemian and
Hungarian-Croatian crowns in 1526-1527 initiates the beginning of the
history of these realms as an over-all political entity. The designation
given to the study of this process indicates the position of the historian.
We could speak either of the history of the Habsburg monarchy or of the
Habsburg empire.
To speak of the Habsburg “monarchy” implies that the bond between
the eastern crowns and the hereditary lands (the Erblande, that is, the
Alpine domains from the spurs of the Alps in the north to the shores of
the Adriatic in the south, from the Bavarian frontier in the west to the
Hungarian plains in the east) is the monarchical principle. Seen from
the point of view that in 1526-1527 three political systems begin to merge
under the rule of the same dynasty, the basic element in the joint history
of the Habsburg realms is the common allegiance to the Habsburg scepter.
To speak of the Habsburg “empire,” however, as this writer does, im¬
plies a closer affiliation. What is an empire? It covers many political,
cultural, and social factors of great significance without concentrating
unduly on the dynastic element, important as it is as one factor among
others. Webster calls such empire “an extended territory usually compris¬
ing a group of nations, states, or peoples under the control or domination
of a single sovereign power.” Such an empire “has a great extent of terri¬
tory and a great variety of peoples under one rule and often has a ruler
with the title of emperor.” According to Webster, empire in its original
2 History of the Habsburg Empire
Latin meaning of imperium stands also for “supreme or absolute power,
especially of an emperor,” and finally the concept empire represents “an
extended territory . . . dominated or successfully controlled by a single
person, family, or group of interested persons.” 1
If we thus accept the term empire which in our case means Habsburg
empire, we can avoid terminological pitfalls of perceiving the history of
our subject as that of Austria or of the Austrian lands. In doing so we
would neglect the fact that at the time when this history commences only
a large part of the Alpine hereditary Habsburg lands was associated with
the name of Austria. Subsequently it was extended, by custom rather
than by law, to the major, primarily western portions of the lands under
the German Habsburg line. Finally the concept of Austria was used also
as frequently as incorrectly for all the lands under the rule of the German
Habsburgs, (“the house of Austria”).2 By using the term Habsburg em¬
pire we can thus steer clear of these contradictions which in a sense are in
themselves a characteristic element in the story presented here.
The Habsburgs, beginning with the union of 1526-1527, ruled over wide
territories and a great variety of peoples, including Germans, Magyars,
Carpatho-Ruthenians, Czechs, Croats, Slovaks, Slovenes, Italians, and
Roumanians. The question has been raised whether these peoples, to whom
within three centuries Poles, Serbs, and more Italians and Ruthenians
were added, lived actually under the control of a single sovereign power,
that is, whether they lived in an empire under a sovereign generally re¬
ferred to as emperor. The title “emperor” of the Habsburgs referred until
August 14, 1804 not to the rule over their own lands but to the crown of the
Holy Roman Empire. Only afterward can we speak of an Austrian empire
under an Austrian emperor. Yet this empire, created by a mere declaratory
1 Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language

(Springfield, 1965).
2 Robert A. Kann, The Multinational Empire, Nationalism and National Reform
in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848-1918, 2 vols. (New York, 1950, 2nd reprint
1970), I, 4-28 “Empire and Nationalities.” For the literature on the subject see
ibid., pp. 346-349.
For a revised and enlarged version, brought up to date to the bibliographical
state of 1964, see Robert A. Kann, Das Nationalitdtenproblem der Habsburger-
monarchie: Geschichte und Ideengehalt der nationalen Bestrebungen vom Vorm'drz
bis zur Auflosung des Reiches im fahre 1918 (Graz-Cologne, 1964, 2nd ed.), I, 17-
39, 344-350 “Das Reich und die Volker.” See also Alphons Lhotsky, “Was heisst
Haus Osterreich?” Anzeiger der Philosophisch-Historischen Klasse der osterreich-
ischen A\ademie der Wissenschaften (Vienna, 1956), XI, 155-173.
The concept of Austria for the western part of the Habsburg empire was
officially introduced only in 1917, one year prior to the empire’s dissolution.
Toward the Union of the Hahshurg Lands 3
act in the face of the pending dissolution of the Holy Roman empire un¬
der the duress of the Napoleonic wars, had to yield within two generations
to the dualistic union of the two states of the Austro-Hungarian mon¬
archy in 1867. These legal-political qualifications do not invalidate the
social and ideological concept of empire. Neither is it nullified by the fact
that the imperial crown never fully absorbed the royal honors and privi¬
leges of the various Habsburg domains, of which one, the lands of the
Holy Hungarian crown of St. Steven, remained for a major part of the
history until 1918, fully coordinated and not subordinated to the Habsburg
imperial power.3
The salient issue of this imperial power is the uniformity of the raison
d’etre of Habsburg rule in all domains and the common institutions and
values in these lands. This kind of unity—if it exists—gives meaning to
the idea of a centuries-old empire. Differences of the constitutional status
of the ruler in his various lands and their diverse historical traditions
recede thereupon into the background as secondary issues.
The Habsburgs ruled from the time when imperial history unfolds in
the early sixteenth century to the end of 1918 in their German lands, for
all practical purposes, by the law of hereditary succession. The same holds
true for most future acquisitions outside of the Hungarian borders and
those of the Bohemian lands. But in the lands of the Bohemian crown un¬
til 1620, and those of the Holy Hungarian crown of St. Steven until 1687,
the Habsburgs ruled by election through the estates. Actually, hereditary
succession in the Bohemian and Hungarian lands remained by law and in
the Hungarian lands in fact as well conditioned by estates rights.4 Tech¬
nically no common, but only individual, allegiances of various political
3 Ernst R. Huber, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit ij8g (Stuttgart, 1957), I,

61-74. Kann, The Multinational Empire, I, 18-28, 349-355 and of the same author
Das Nationalitatenproblem, I, 30-39, 349-356.
4 Richard Plaschka, “Das bohmische Staatsrecht in tschechischer Sicht,” in Ernst
Birke and Kurt Oberndorffer, eds., Das bohmische Staatsrecht in den deutsch-
tschechischen Auseinandersetzungen des ig. und 20. Jahrhunderts (Marburg/Lahn,
i960), pp. 5-14; Ernst C. Hellbling, Osterreichische Verf assungs- und Verwal-
tungsgeschichte (Vienna, 1956), pp. 248-58; S. Harrison Thomson, Czechoslova\ia
in European History (Princeton, 1953), pp. niff; Dominic C. Kosary, A History
of Hungary (Cleveland, 1941), pp. 33 fT., 94 ff., 132 ff.; Henry Marczali, Hungary in
the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1910), pp. xvii-lxiv; see also Josef Polisensky,
Robert A. Kann, Fran Zwitter, Der osterreichisch-ungarische Ausgleich 1867 in
Ludovft Holotik and Anton Vantuch, eds. (Bratislava, 1971), pp. 14-23, 24-44,
45-75; Stanco Guldescu, The Croatian-Slavonian Kingdom i$26-iyg2 (The Hague,
1:970), pp. 9—18; L. von Siidland, Die Siidslawische Frage und der Welthrieg
(Vienna, 1918), pp. 30-70.
domains to the Habsburg sovereignty existed. This distinction is reflected
before 1526-1527 in the diversity of customs and laws of the peoples under
the Habsburgs and in the paucity of common institutions thereafter.
Yet the fact that this joint structure operated throughout four centuries,
in spite of pressure from foreign powers and domestic conflicts, indicates
the existence of substantial cohesive factors. What they were, how they
evolved, worked, weakened, and failed is the concern of this study.
A. The political evolution of the Alpine

HEREDITARY LANDS BEFORE 1526
The Erblande, the hereditary lands of the Habsburgs, have to be per¬

ceived as the heartland of the future empire. Beginning with the reign of
Rudolf of Habsburg in the late 13th century, these lands formed the his¬
toric and political nucleus of- the dynasty’s power. Due to the initially
intermittant and later practically permanent connection of Habsburg rule
with the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, the dynasty possessed in the
eastern Alps and the valley of the Upper Danube a core area and base for
her great-power aspirations. Although western central Hungary rather
than the eastern parts of the hereditary lands stood for the geographical
center of the empire in the last two centuries of its existence, Vienna, the
capital of the Austrian Habsburgs, and the immediately surrounding area
represented the political, administrative, and economic hub of Habsburg
power. The combination of these three factors—the historic-traditional
weight of the hereditary lands, their interrelationship with the crown of
the Holy P.oman Empire, and the administrative-economic power center
in Vienna—established a fourth one: the German-speaking Austrians,
henceforth referred to as Austro-Germans, who are settled in this area. In
terms of political and economic power they became the leading national
group of the empire. This primacy was contested only in political matters
by the Magyars in the last half century of the empire’s existence.
The Austro-Germans claimed this leadership by right basing it primarily
on their unquestionable cultural advantages as part of the large German na¬
tion over the other peoples under Habsburg rule. This bold assertion, gener¬
ally upheld in German historiography to varying degrees, but pervasive also
in western languages beyond the German orbit, is not acknowledged in
this study, unlike the other factual reasons for German supremacy previ¬
ously referred to. We reject the notion of ideological, cultural, or racial
superiority of any people, Germanic, Slavic, or Romance.
In 976, at the time when the Bloly Roman emperor Otto II invested a
member of the house of Babenberg with the Carolingian Eastern March
Toward the Union of the Hahshurg Lands 5
established by Charlemagne in the later years of his reign, it included

only the larger part of what is today Lower Austria. By the middle of the
twelfth century the march included a part of the future crownland of
Upper Austria as well. Perhaps more important, the so-called privilegium
minus of 1156 granted by Frederick Barbarossa to Henry II (Jasomir-
gott) of Babenberg raised the march to a largely autonomous duchy, and
limited its obligations to participating in imperial wars and to attending
imperial diets. The weakening of the bonds between the empire and its
advanced domain to the southeast started with this act of state.5 The trend
accelerated with the enlargement of the Babenberg possessions, in Styria
by the end of the twelfth century, in—what is called today—Lower and
Upper Austria, Carinthia, Friuli, and Carniola in the first half of the
thirteenth. By the end of the century Tirol, a major part of Vorarlberg
and Istria, Trieste, were added by successive treaties. The remainder of
the Litoral (borderlands on the Adriatic Sea) was gained by 1500. This
evolutionary development stretching over more than three centuries was
interrupted when the house of Babenberg expired with the death of the
belligerent duke Frederick II in the battle against an invading Magyar
force in 1246.
Because of its close connection with other developments in Central
Europe, this event turned out to be of far-reaching significance. The
vacancy of the Babenberg fiefs in the east coincided practically with the
great interregnum in the empire brought about by the death of Frederick
II, the last Ghibeline (Hohenstaufen) emperor, in 1252. Hungarian at¬
tempts to advance toward the west and expansionist policies by the new
king of Bohemia, Premysl Ottokar II, who moved into the vacated Baben¬
berg fiefs, created a dynamic new situation. It was cleared up only when
in 1273 princes of the empire elected a king Rudolf of Habsburg, a
lord endowed with considerable possessions in southwestern Germany.6
The great showdown between the imperialist ruler of Bohemia and the
first Habsburg led to the former’s defeat in 1278 and to the joint accession
of Rudolf’s sons in the Austrian lands and in Styria in 1282. This rule by
5 See particularly Heinrich Fichtenau, Von der Mar\ zum Herzogtum (Munich,
1958), pp. 36-54; see also Heinrich Mitteis, Der Staat des hohen Mittelalters:
Grundlinien einer vergleichenden Verjassungsgeschichte des Lehnszeitalters
(Weimar, 1968), pp. 254-257.
6 The rulers of the Holy Roman empire who were not crowned in Rome are
properly referred to as king, rex Romanorum, of the Holy Roman empire. Those
who were crowned in Rome by the Pope are designated as emperors. This dis¬
tinction becomes, however, meaningless after the last coronation of an emperor in
Rome, that of Frederick III in 1453. All rulers of the Holy empire afterwards, al¬
though none of them was crowned in Rome, are generally referred to as emperors.
the Habsburg dynasty lasted until the disintegration of the Habshurg
empire in 1918. Yet the decisive importance of the events between 1273
and 1282 goes beyond its dynastic aspects. Rudolf’s rule as German king
from 1273 to 1291 helped to restore law and order in the empire. But the
strengthening of imperial judicial and general administrative institutions,
in particular military defense, the collection of custom duties, and the pro¬
tection of urban development, was not brought about directly by imperial
power but by the newly established hereditary dynastic powers of the
Habsburgs in the southeast and those of other princes in the west and
north. Imperial power was strengthened only when it did not collide with
princely power; in a conflict of interests it had to yield. Thus while the
Habsburg accession intermittently strengthened imperial power, it did so
only in a supplementary way. In the long run, Habsburg power absorbed
imperial power and not the other way round. This means a further weak¬
ening of ties to the empire.
Was this true also in the national sphere? Using the term national in
the late Middle Ages with caution, the question is still legitimate, whether
the entrenchment of a new German dynasty in the hereditary lands for
more than six centuries meant a strengthening of the German impact in
eastern Central Europe. Was such impact not even further strengthened
by the fact that the Habsburgs bore the imperial crown for more than
five of these six centuries? Ottokar II with German help might have ad¬
vanced Czech economic and cultural development faster and perhaps
further had he not been stopped by Rudolf. German national-oriented his¬
toriography, on the other hand, has held that the breakdown of Ottokar’s
great design to establish the rule of his Czech dynasty in the Austrian and
imperial lands actually put a stop to a complete Germanization of the
core lands of the Bohemian crown—Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia—since
this brilliant ruler had made the widest possible use of the skill of German
professional men and craftsmen in his domains.7 Such far-reaching con¬
clusions, which underrate the solid foundations of Czech national culture
and overrate the importance of a superstructure of a highly selective im¬
migration, are hardly warranted. There is indeed little evidence in Otto¬
kar’s policy or that of his heirs, who ruled for another generation in the
7 Typical for this line of thought are the interpretations of Adolf Bachmann,
Geschichte Bohmens, 2 vols. (Gotha, 1899-1905), I, 556-658, see particularly 593-
608; Berthold Bretholz, Geschichte Bohmens und Mahrens, 4 vols. (Reichenberg,
1924), I, 76-160. Fully objective is the presentation by Karl Richter, “Die
bohmischen Lander im Friih- und Hochmittelalter” in Handbuch der Geschichte
der bohmischen Lander, Karl Bosl, ed. (Stuttgart, 1967), I, 272-305.
Toward the Union of the Habshurg Lands 7
Bohemian lands, that a radical wholesale Germanization policy was ever
contemplated.
The supremacy and extension of Habsburg rule between the Danube,
the Adriatic, and the Little Carpathians in the following century strength¬
ened Germanic influence. Yet this influence in turn was not only shaped
by the evolving autonomous power of the Habsburg hereditary lands, but
also the social and cultural influence of Czech, Magyar, Slovene, and
Italian peoples. The German character of the Habsburg lands in the south¬
east of the Holy Roman Empire had thus become a complex composite
concept, different from that of the southwest, whence the Habsburgs and
their entourage had come. These southwestern lands were German, the
southeastern were predominantly German, but the ethnic features of
many people were superimposed on the German structure.
In the fourteenth century, Habsburg rule was extended to Carinthia
and Tirol, and the noncontiguous Breisgau and Trieste. The privilegium
mains of Duke Rudolf the Founder of 1359, further strengthened the
autonomous power of the Habsburgs versus the empire in regard to
heredity of fiefs, exemption from taxation, military obligation, and recog¬
nition of supreme judicial power.8 The fact that the privilegium mains
was in essence a forgery, emphasizes its significance; the privilegium is a
triumph over legal objections. Within another century the Habsburgs
had the rights claimed by the privilegium recognized by an emperor from
their own house. This proves that Rudolf, shortly after 1359 recognized
as archduke, a title which assimilated his status in some respects with that
of the seven electors of the empire, had foreseen—and, indeed, influenced—
the course of future events.
There were setbacks. By the end of the century the Habsburgs had lost
their domains in Switzerland. More important, internal dissension within
the dynasty lead to several partition treaties of the Habsburg lands be¬
tween 1379 and 1396; they delayed the rise of the Habsburg power in
Germany. However, from 1438, beginning with the election of Albrecht V
of Austria as German king to the extinction of the male line in 1740,
only Habsburgs were Holy Roman emperors. The brief reign of the
gifted Albrecht, as king the second of his name, is also insofar significant,
as his marriage to the daughter of the last Luxemburg emperor established
8 See particularly “Epilegomena zu den osterreichischen Freiheitsbriefen,” in

Alphons Lhotsky, Vortrage und Aufsdtze, edited by Hans Wagner and Heinrich
Roller (Vienna, 1970), I, 265-282. Ernst K. Winter, Rudolf IV. von Osterreich, 2
vols. (Vienna, 1934-1936), I, 309-395.
8 History of the Habshurg Empire
for the first time long-range Habsburg claims to the crowns of Bohemia
and Hungary. Similar demands were made before, but now the Habs¬
burg power was sufficiently strong to raise them seriously, though not
yet strong enough to have them met in full. The long reign of the un¬
distinguished but tenacious Frederick III (1440-1493), the last emperor
crowned in Rome, is filled by a continuous struggle to come into the
Bohemian and Hungarian heritage. These claims were blocked at first by
the mere existence of Albrecht’s late-born son, Ladislas [Posthumus]
(1440-1457). Frederick could prevent the son’s accession, but he could
not secure his own. Foiled later by the powerful Hussite regent and
eventually king, George of Podebrady in Bohemia (1452-1471), the Hun¬
garian regent John Hunyady (as such 1446-1452), and, above all, by his
great son, King Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490), Habsburg rule even in
Austria was put on the defensive. The victorious Matthias resided in
Vienna after 1484. The new feuds about the succession between the various
Habsburg lines were resolved in favor of the emperor only in 1490, after
the Hungarian king’s death. Yet even if Matthias Corvinus had left a
legitimate heir and had not been threatened by the advancing Ottoman-
Turkish power, an empire approximating the Habsburg power of the
coming generations could hardly have been established under Hungarian
leadership.
The Hungarian power potential, squeezed between Germans and
Turks, as later between Germans and Russians, was too narrow. At the
same time, the imperial connections of the Habsburgs in the west were
strengthened by the political marriage of Emperor Frederick’s son Max¬
imilian with the heiress of Burgundy and the Netherlands in 1577. Ac¬
cordingly, the new Polish Jagiello dynasty in Bohemia and Hungary had
little chance to conduct an active policy against the rising Habsburg
power.
Besides, Frederick Ill’s son Maximilian I (1493-1519) was a ruler of
greater capabilities than his indecisive, unreliable, but stubborn father.
Maximilian’s over-all policy was more German-oriented than that of the
old emperor but it was characteristic of Habsburg power that foreign
policy objectives might have been neglected for a time but hardly ever
abandoned. This applies to Maximilian’s eastern objectives. In the south
the only tangible achievement of the new reign was the succession in
Gorizia and Gradisca after the ruling house there had become extinct.
The so-called Holy League, in which Maximilian joined the pope and
the Republic of Venice against the expansive policy of Charles VIII of
France and his successor Louis XII, marked the beginnings of a quarter
Toward the Union of the Hahsburg Lands 9
of a millennium of wars between the Habsburgs and the French. The

Holy League failed as completely as a few years later the League of Cam-
brai, directed now against Venice and cosponsored by the emperor. Only
some small Italian domains, until then under Venetian rule, could be
joined to Tirol. On the whole, the conflict with France could be side¬
tracked temporarily as long as merely northern Italy was the issue.
Taking a long-range view, developments in the east were more serious.
Turkish forays had threatened southern and western Hungary, and even
Styria, during the later years of Frederick Ill’s reign. These hit-and-run
attacks could not be stopped under Maximilian, either. Only ten years
after his death, the Turks swept through Hungary and laid siege to
Vienna in 1529. And yet the Turkish danger is as closely related to the rise
of the Habsburgs as the ultimate victory in the east.
In this respect one thinks first of Maximilian’s marriage policy, which
made the Habsburgs heirs to the crown of Hungary, vacated in the strug¬
gle against the Turks. Thereby they became also the chief carriers of the
fight against the Turkish advance. When Maximilian concluded the pact
of Wiener Neustadt with the Jagiello king Ladislas II of Hungary (Vladi¬
slav V of Bohemia) in 1506, according to which Ladislas’ daughter should
marry the emperor’s grandson, Ferdinand, and Ladislas’—not yet born—
son Louis was supposed to marry the emperor’s granddaughter Maria, he
hoped to establish Habsburg claims to the crowns of Bohemia and Hun¬
gary.9 The unexpected death of Louis II of Hungary in the swamps of
Mohacs in battle against the Turks in 1526 changed the situation radi¬
cally. Hungary ceased to be a functioning political body and the Habs¬
burg succession moved from the sphere of speculation into that of reality.
Considering the steamroller power and speed of the Turkish advance, the
unrest in an anti-foreign, and this meant largely anti-Habsburg Hungary,
and the religious division in Bohemia, the Habsburgs did not seem to be
exactly in luck when Ferdinand succeeded to the crowns of Hungary,
Croatia, and Bohemia. Yet the formidable power of the Habsburgs, with
its claims to the three crowns, was the only political force in its time and
9 The actual conclusion of the double marriages in 1515 and 1516 carried him
one step further. Yet these rights to succession were mutual and a scion of the house
of Jagiello might have succeeded with equal probability in the hereditary lands as
the Habsburgs did in Hungary. In fact, the law passed by the Hungarian diet of
1505, according to which a born Hungarian would have to succeed Wladislaw on
the throne, seemed to be a major stumbling block for Habsburg ambitions, since
its provisions might easily be extended into the future. As to the important peasant
riots in Tyrol see Josef Macek, Der Tiroler Bauern\rieg und Michael Gaismair
(Berlin, 1965), (transl. from the Czech).
place which could have resisted the Turkish advance with or without
rights established by marriage. These rights in themselves would have
meant nothing without the right constellation of geography, cultural af¬
finity between Christian nations, and corresponding military and political
power. To trace the rise of the Habsburg empire to the marriage policy
of the dynasty is a patent oversimplification of history.
Where the component geopolitical factor did not exist, as in the two
western political marriages—that of Maximilian to the heiress of Bur¬
gundy in 1477 and that of his son Philip to Juana, heiress to Castile and
Aragon, in 1496—the interrelationship between political marriage and
evolution toward empire failed to work. This point has frequently been
obscured. Many historians have traced the world position of the house
of Habsburg to the Burgundian and Iberian unions of 1477 and 1496
rather than to the ties with the Jagiellons in the east. This is true only to a
point. The Burgundian marriage brought the Netherlands under the
Habsburg scepter. The Iberian marriage made Charles, the grandson of
Ferdinand the Catholic of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and also of
Emperor Maximilian, sovereign of three of the most powerful political
entities of his time: the Holy Roman empire, Spain (formed out of the
union of Castile and Aragon), and only lastly the crowns of Bohemia,
Hungary, and Croatia. They were first linked merely by geographic con¬
tiguity to the ancient Habsburg hereditary lands, which had become a
political unit beside, rather than of, the empire.
These marriages established the world power of the Habsburgs, unques¬
tionably the greatest, but also the most complex of its time. Within a few
years, by the family compact of Brussels of 1522, the Austrian hereditary
lands, though still part of the Holy Roman Empire, were transferred
from the emperor’s to his brother Ferdinand’s administration and
princely sovereignty. In 1526-1527, the three eastern crowns were added to
this new power structure. Within another generation, in 1556, the ab-
diction of Charles V (as king of Spain Charles I) led to the permanent
separation of the crown of the Holy Roman Empire from that of Spain.
The Netherlands remained a noncontiguous and isolated appendage of
the Habsburg crowns, changing from Maximilian’s eastern realm to that
of Charles V and his heirs in the west. After the richer northern part of
the Netherlands was lost less than two generations after Charles’ accession,
the major portion of the southern half was returned after the War of the
Spanish Succession, by the peace of Rastatt of 1714, to eastern control.
Farts of the Italian appendages of the Spanish empire came at the same
time under the rule of the eastern Habsburg line, usually referred to as
Toward the Union of the Habshurg Lands II
the German line. The power which the German Habsburgs derived from
the temporary union with the Spanish crown and its immense colonial
empire was impressive, and influenced European power politics. Yet the
inheritance which the Habsburgs secured through the western political
marriages did not lead to the evolution of a specific Habsburg empire.
The crowns of Charles V in east and west remained disparate in an ad¬
ministrative, economic, and cultural sense, even when they were united
under one head. After his death, until the extinction of the Spanish line
in 1700, the bonds between the two branches of the house were reduced
to diplomatic and military alliances. The appendages in the Netherlands
and Italy, which after the War of the Spanish Succession accrued to the
German-Austrian Habsburgs, were never fully integrated into their em¬
pire. The last remainders of this heritage were lost in the process of Italian
unification in the mid-nineteenth century.
The Jagiello marriages, on the other hand, had supplemented and
cemented the contingencies of geographic, economic, and military af¬
finities and also of cultural needs. The western marriages could not sup¬
plement bonds that did not exist before; the marriages attempted to
create those bonds. Lacking the geographic, social, and cultural prerequi¬
sites, they failed to create integration, although they succeeded in increas¬
ing political power.
The eastern empire began to emerge under the rule of Maximilian’s
grandson Ferdinand I. It is necessary to survey here its component parts,
first the hereditary lands, that is, predominatly German-speaking posses¬
sions of the Habsburgs. Their political evolution in the Middle Ages has
already been traced. They included roughly the territories of the present
Republic of Austria and most of the German part of former South Tirol
and Italian domains as far as Lake Garda. In the south, Carniola, Gorizia
and Gradisca, and Trieste were part of the hereditary power and, in line
with the provisions of the privilegia minus and maius of 1156 and 1359,
loosely affiliated with the Holy Roman Empire. Inasmuch as the Habs¬
burgs, in addition to their rule in the hereditary lands and the west Ger¬
man possessions (Vorlande),10 bore the crown of the Holy Roman Empire
10 The Vorlande, generally referred to also as Vorderosterreich, included Upper

Alsatia, the Breisgau, until the 14th century domains in Switzerland, and after the
middle of the 18th century also Suebian possessions. The Alsatian territories were
lost in the Westphalian peace treaty of 1648, the remainder in the peace of Press-
burg of 1805. Actually the terms Vorlande and Vorderosterreich are not fully
identical but overlapping. The latter is the wider one. See also Otto Stolz, Grundrifi
der osterreichischen Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte (Innsbruck, 1951),
pp. 71 ff.
from the accession of Albrecht II to the death of Charles VI in 1740 for
three centuries without interruption, the extent of this affiliation created
no constitutional problem. An emperor from another dynasty would
hardly have confirmed the pnvilegium maius as the Habsburg ruler
Frederick III did in 1453. A problem, however, v/as the question of the
division of rule in the hereditary lands between the various lines of the
Habsburg dynasty themselves; but in 1490 all possessions of the house
were reunited under Frederick III, and the Austrian hereditary lands
remained united until the death of Ferdinand I in 1564. When the prob¬
lem of partition reappeared at that time, it affiected the struggle between
Reformation and Counter Reformation in the hereditary lands.
B. Social and cultural conditions in the
HEREDITARY LANDS BEFORE 1526

H.
The hereditary lands represented, in historical terms, the cradle of the

future Habsburg empire. For this reason their social and cultural institu¬
tions in the transition period from late medieval to early modern history
are discussed in this section, whereas similar developments in regard to the
eastern crowns, apart from predominantly political issues, will be taken up
later.
Institutions and conditions in the hereditary lands in the last century
before the union with Hungary were subject to frequent change. The
estates, particularly in the Alpine lands, played an increasingly active part
in government. They consisted of the high clergy as the first curia, the
lords and knights as the second, and the princely towns and markets as
the third. Only in Tirol could the free peasants join this third curia. The
right of convocation of the diets, in the Alpine lands occasionally also that
of general diets of several lands, belonged to the sovereign. The estates
were convoked to approve extraordinary taxes, particularly in wartime,
rarely regular taxes; the estates had some say in the allocation and collec¬
tion of taxes. Otherwise, the regalia (mining, minting, hunting, fishing
privileges, industrial and commercial semimonopolies, special taxes on
Jews etc.) and the income from the princely domains, represented the main
financial sources of the administration.
Courts, (Lcindrechte), nominated by the estates and appointed by the

sovereign, had jurisdiction over nobles and in general over those who
owned lordly estates. Another court, the Chamber Court, (Hof- or Kam-
mergericht), composed of counselors selected by the prince, officiated at
his residence. It adjudicated issues of direct importance to him. Lower
Toward the Union of the Habsburg Lands 13
courts (Landgerichte) in towns and markets increased in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries in number and importance. They were still to be
distinguished from the mere patrimonial jurisdiction of the lords. The
right to judge capital crimes (high crimes) had to be conferred on every
single court by the sovereign. Town courts, established by princely priv¬
ileges, corresponded to the Landgerichte in the countryside. The reintro¬
duction, the so-called Reception of Roman law, enters the Austrian lands
relatively late, in substance not before the middle of the fifteenth century.
Secular and ecclesiastic lords held considerable power in a country

where more than four-fifths of the population lived outside of towns. Yet
apart from the autonomy granted to ecclesiastics and from the estates rights,
this power in the late medieval period was more socioeconomic than
political. The peasantry, the largest class, lived in various subject relation¬
ships to the lords: Feudal contracts between lords and tenants were in¬
creasingly restricted to one year and renewed only with one-sided con¬
cessions to the lord. Lifelong covenants were more favorable to the peas¬
ants and could be transmitted to the heirs or sold. A still more rigid form
of lord-subject relationship called for personal services, either by personal
labor or by payment of rent in kind, frequently both. Only a small group
of free lieges were exempted from such obligations and restricted to pay¬
ment of rents. Money payments took their place gradually besides those in
kind—a change within a very incomplete money economy—to the disad¬
vantage of the peasantry. The peasant riots and revolts in the late fifteenth
and sixteenth century in the Austrian lands, resulted to a large extent
from the advance of the money economy, for which the commercial towns
were better prepared than the lords and peasants.11
From the fourteenth to the end of the fifteenth century, a large number
of towns were founded in the Alpine lands. Few increased to substantial
size, although the flight from the land on the part of the impoverished
peasantry favored their growth. Attacks by knights in the thirteenth cen¬
tury, later the threat of Hungarian, Bohemian, Hussite, and Turkish in¬
cursions, widespread and deadly plagues, frequently checked their further
expansion for a long time. Political power in the towns was shared by the
11 See Alphons Huber and Alphons Dopsch, Osterreichische Reich s geschichte

(Vienna, 1901), pp. 61-90; Arnold Luschin v. Ebengreuth, Osterreichische Reichs-
geschichte (Bamberg, 1901), pp. 189-287; Otto Brunner, Land und Herrschaft:
Grundfragen der territorialen Verfassungsgeschichte Osterreichs im Mittelalter
(Vienna, 1959, 4th revised ed.), pp. 240-356 and Alphons Lhotsky, Geschichte
Osterreichs seit der Mitte des 13. ]ahr-hunderts (1281-1338), (Vienna, 1967),
passim.
id History of the Habshurg Empire
wealthy burghers with hereditary citizenship rights. They, above all, were
represented in the town councils, although the guilds and brotherhoods of
craftsmen also exercised substantial influence. In the late fifteenth century
the influence of hereditary patricians was in decline. The two violent con¬
flicts between sovereign and burghers in Vienna at the beginning and
after the middle of the fifteenth century, which led to the execution of two
mayors, Konrad Vorlauf and Wolfgang Holzer, involved different strata
of the burghers: the first, patricians; the second, primarily wealthy immi¬
grant merchants.12 In both cases Emperor Frederick III violated the rights
of the burghers, as he did those of the noble estates in Styria.
Industry and commerce were on the rise. The iron foundries in Styria
and glass industry in Tyrol are worth mentioning. Salt, silver, and gold
mining in the Alpine lands were significant. A main commerce route be¬
tween Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary was the Danube. Cloth and salt
were being transported downstream, wine and cattle up the river. The
hereditary lands profited more from transit traffic—including that from
Germany to Italy—than from exports of their own limited industrial
goods. In fact, exports of domestic lumber and silver13 were restricted to
protect domestic needs.
Except for the fine arts, medieval culture was on the decline in the
hereditary lands in the fifteenth century. Only in the last years did the
new humanism, in particular Renaissance culture, show promise at the
court of Maximilian I. The great days of knightly chivalry and min¬
nesingers had ended in the fourteenth century. Ecclesiastic chronicles in
Latin were frequently historically significant, but the verse novels and
rhyme chronicles in German were of greater social than literary interest,
except for the poetry of Oswald von Wolkenstein (about 1377-1445).
More important were the scholarly chronicles of the historian and one-time
rector of the University of Vienna, Thomas Ebendorfer (1387-1464). In
his Austrian chronicles, the Kaiser and papal chronicles, he transcended
in method and scope considerably the work of other contemporary chron¬
iclers. Still, he belonged to the late medieval world, like the famous
astronomers of the University of Vienna in the early fifteenth century,
Georg von Peuerbach, Johannes Muller (Regiomontanus), and Johann
12 See Franz von Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte Osterreichs, 4 vols. and index
vol. (Berlin, 1880-1881), see particularly II, 224 f., 375-391; Hans Tietze, Wien:
Kultur, Kunst, Geschichte (Vienna, 1931), pp. 100-107.
13 Ferdinand Tremel, Der Vruh\apitalismus in Innerosterreich (Graz, 1953), pp.
96-147 and by the same author Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte Osterreichs: Von
den Anjangen bis 7955 (Vienna, 1955), pp. 142-229.
Toward the Union of the Hahshutg Lands 75
von Gmunden. Only the mystical genius of the Copernicus’ precursor,

Nicolas of Cusa (1401-64), later bishop of Brixen and cardinal, pointed
to modern times.
The University of Vienna, founded by Rudolf IV in 1365, developed
undl the mid-fifteenth century in a fairly satisfactory way, although the
crisis of Frederick Ill’s wars and domestic disorders paralyzed the intel¬
lectual climate for the next generations. As yet it had been little affected
by new ideas evolving farther west.
The coming era of Austrian Renaissance and Humanism is closely
related to the personality of the long-time private secretary and diplo¬
matic adviser of Frederick III, Eneas Silvius Piccolomini of Siena (1405-
1464), as pope from 1458 to 1464 known as Pius II. Eneas Silvius’ literary
writings, whether amatory literature, didactic tracts, or travelogues on
Bohemia, the Rhineland, Austria, and particularly Vienna, reveal ele¬
gance, charm, and keen observation. The Sienese pope may well be called
a friend of Austrian culture. Conrad Celtes (1459-1508), the South German
poeta laureatus at the courts of Frederick III and Maximilian I, was an
Austrian by choice. Neither his Latin poetry and epigrams nor his his¬
torical study on Nuremberg are of the first order, but his break with
the scholastic method and the direct turn to Humanism were significant.
Celtes’ colleague and successor, Johannes Cuspinian (1473-1529), who
came from the same homegrounds, was an important historian though his
work did not have the same breadth as that of Celtes. The Renaissance in
Austria was centered in the court; its spread to the burghers and urban
culture was more limited than in Germany. Yet it was significant enough
to perceive Emperor Maximilian I as the first great Renaissance patron in
in the hereditary lands rather than as the cliche of the last knight.
Architecture, sculpture, and painting at the turn from the fifteenth to
the sixteenth century, as in the Gothic period earlier, were sponsored by
the dynasty, the aristocracy, and, particularly at the height of Gothic art,
by the Church. This holds fully true for the great Austrian Gothic art.
Even the artistic achievements of urban culture were not primarily de¬
termined by the activities of the burghers, despite the dedicated coopera¬
tive efforts of the craft guilds.
Because of this only slowly changing social structure, bourgeois Renais¬
sance architecture, sculpture, and painting which in western countries
were furthered by a powerful urban upper middle class, played only a
minor, though attractive part in Austrian culture. The fine arts, even
later, throughout the Baroque age, prospered because of the sponsorship
of a counter-reformatory ecclesia triumphans and the rising secular power
of the house of Austria and its aristocracy. The social forces which
favored this art were still little affected by the demands and values of
bourgeois culture.14
Feudal and ecclesiastic influence remained dominant in the cultural

field. The Church in Austria retained its eminence of status, although it
could not be unaffected by the crises of the Babylonian captivity of the
popes, papal schism, Waldensian and Hussite heresies in south, west, and
north. The foundation of Church-state relations in Austria was the Con¬
cordat of Vienna of 1448, the preliminaries of which were negotiated by
two of the truly great and greatly different representatives of the Church,
Nicholas of Cusa for the Pope Nicholas V, and Eneas Silvius for Em¬
peror Frederick III. The Concordat, which in its principal features re¬
mained valid until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, provided
for free election of bishops by the cathedral chapters, but subject to con¬
firmation by the pope. The papacy on its part agreed in the next genera¬
tion to the establishment of the bishoprics of Vienna and Wiener Neu-
stadt, which strengthened the imperial power against the mighty bishop
of Passau and the archbishop of Salzburg.15 This diocesan church or¬
ganization was the first pillar of ecclesiastic power in the cultural as well
as in the political sphere. The second was monasticism.
Yet the great times of monastic culture in Austria were the High Mid¬
dle Ages and the Baroque period. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
belong to the intermediate period of crisis in monastic life and of fre¬
quent violations of the three vows in orders and secular clergy. Rapid
changes may have been partly due to the diminished prestige of the
Church, which had suffered from schism and heresies. The liberalizing
influence of Italian Renaissance life played a part too. Extremes in the
opposite direction, religious craze and zealotry, were manifested in flagel-
lantism and later witchcraft trials. Between these two currents stood the
great reformers and crusaders Nicholas of Cusa and Johannes of Capistran,
who fought simony and heresy. The powers of the Church in secular
affairs were in slow retreat. Church jurisdiction in matters effecting clergy
and laymen was frequently contested, even in marital affairs. Of even
greater importance were the restrictions imposed on the Church for eco-
14Alphons Lhotsky, Thomas Ebendorfer: Ein osterreichischer Geschichtsschreiber
(Stuttgart, 1957) 5 Hans Ankwicz-Kleehofen, Der Wiener Humanist Johannes
Cuspinian (Graz-Cologne, 1959); Otto Rommel, ed., Wiener Renaissance (Vienna,
1947)-
16 Josef Wodka, Kirche in Osterreich (Vienna, 1959), pp. 170-179; Alois
Knopfler, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte (Freiburg i. B., 1920, 6th ed.), pp. 503 f.
Toward the Union of the Hahsburg Lands iy
nomic reasons, above all in regard to acquisition of landed estates. Further¬
more clerical tax exemptions were frequently challenged on the local
level. The prohibition of the promulgation of papal bulls and decrees of
excommunication ex cathedra without consent by the secular authority
as part of the centuries-old conflict between state and Church power
existed in the Habsburg lands as in all Catholic countries. But unlike
conditions in many of them, it implied here no decline of religious
feelings.
Two basic facts should be added to this sketch of social and cultural
conditions in the hereditary lands. The first is the scope and objectives
of Maximilian Fs sweeping administrative reforms. They represented a
step in the transition from the feudal state of lord-liege relations to the
bureaucratic state of appointed office holders. This transition reached only
the higher levels of administration and even here economic matters re¬
mained still primarily part of the feudal system. Yet the over-all reor¬
ganization of the hereditary lands was based on the new principles of
administrative expediency as from now on modified but not voided by
historic tradition. Two major administrative units were established,
Lower and Upper Austria. The former included the Lower and Upper
Austria of today, only approximately within their present boundaries, as
well as Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. Upper Austria then comprised
Tirol, Vorarlberg, the Windisch Mark (roughly, the Slovene territories
between Styria and Carniola), Gorizia, Istria, Trieste, and the noncon¬
tiguous southwestern German domains, the Vorlande or Vorderoster-
reich. The government of the Lower Austrian unit was in Vienna, that of
the Upper Austrian in Innsbruck. The individual lands of which the
main units were composed were subdivided into major administrative
and smaller judicial districts. The sovereign appointed the chiefs of gov¬
ernment of the individual lands, who were to be supported by likewise
appointed counselors. Symbol of the preservation of some unity of the
administratively divided hereditary lands was the general diet of 1518,
convoked by Maximilian the year before his death.
The second fact was the over-all political and national orientation of
the regime. Of the two main units, the Lower Austrian lands were
clearly German in character; Upper Austrian had a predominantly
Slovene and Italian population in the south and southeast. Since the
Slovenes lacked a nationally conscious nobility and urban middle class
and the Italian domains were fragmentized, these ethnic factors were as
yet politically insignificant. Maximilian’s political philosophy was clearly
German-oriented. Here, as so often in this imaginative emperor’s plan¬
ning, his designs outran the adminstrative potentialities of the day. The
establishment of the Aulic Council (Hofrat) as common supreme court
for the hereditary lands and the empire, and the Court Chamber (Hof-
\ammer) as joint supreme financial body, met opposition from the im¬
perial estates and proved to be unworkable. The same was true for the
division of the Holy Roman Empire into ten imperial districts, of which
the combined hereditary lands should form just one. The plan was re¬
jected by the electors but also by lesser princes of the empire and by the
estates in the hereditary lands. It was no longer compatible with their
autonomous development that had begun with the privilegium minus.16
C. The evolution of the eastern crowns and their status at the
TIME OF THE UNION OF I526-I527
The German-ruled and German-oriented lands represented and re¬

mained the nucleus of the Habsburg power, to which in 1526-1527 the
Bohemian, Hungarian, and Croatian crowns were joined. The lands
of the Bohemian crown and those of the Hungarian crown (including
its unequal union with the Croatian crown), were more distinct political
entities than the hereditary lands. The latter were separated from each
other by family compacts that divided sovereignty between the branches
of the dynasty for the major part of the high and late medieval period.
All hereditary lands were held together, however, by a loose associa¬
tion with the Holy Roman Empire. This flexible concept of the hereditary
lands favored political and administrative adjustments when the Habs¬
burg domains became the basis of an evolving new empire. The greater
rigidity of the state concepts of the Bohemian and Hungarian-Croatian
crowns made such adjustment more difficult, as the history of the follow¬
ing centuries shows.
The hereditary lands had a particularly close connection with the
Habsburg-empire concept and its envisaged social structure, in contrast
with the greater constitutional and cultural distinctiveness of the eastern
crowns. The lands of the Bohemian crown had been under Habsburg
rule twice before 1526-1527, in 1306-1307 and in 1437-1439.17 The first
union, under Rudolf III (grandson of Rudolf I, first Habsburg king of
16 Heinrich Ullmann, Kaiser Maximilian 1, 2 vols. (reprint), (Vienna, 1967), see

I, 292-403, II, 561-657. Huber and Dopsch, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte, pp.
87-90.
17 In theory the Habsburgs’ claims in this respect continued until the death of
Ladislas Posthumus in 1457.
Toward the Union of the Habshurg hands ig
the Holy Roman Empire), would not be important except that the con¬
nection between the young king’s accession and the extinction of the
house of the Premyslids which had ruled in the Bohemian lands for four
centuries gave his brief reign significance. The Premyslids, raised to
royalty by the German counter king Philip of Swabia at the end of the
twelfth century, pursued a policy of close affiliation with the empire and
of the influx of German culture into the Bohemian lands. This policy
was confirmed by Ottokar IPs aspirations to the crown of the Holy
Roman Empire, which ended on the battlefield of Diirnkrut in 1278. The
house of Luxemburg, which succeeded the Premyslids in 1310 after a
short interlude, made an equally strong contribution to Czech history
as the Premyslids and one not less influenced by German cultural con¬
tacts. In fact, the synthesis between Czech and German institutions and
achievements from inside and outside the Bohemian lands was elevated
under Emperor Charles IV (1347-1378) to the highest levels of national
culture in Czech history. Under Charles and his sons until the extinction
of the German-Bohemian branch of the house in 1437, the lands of the
Bohemian crown, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, unlike the
situation under the Premyslids, were not mere appendages of the Holy
Roman Empire. For a brief period they had become its center of power
and in many ways also of culture, even under an unworthy king like
Vaclav IV, the older son of Charles IV. Under the last Luxemburg
rulers the curious combination of a Bohemian geographic fringe position
and a central power position in relation to the empire accentuated the
incipient conflict between Czechs and Germans, which was interwoven
with the religious aspects of the Hussite movements.18
The election of Duke Albrecht V of Austria as king of Bohemia in
1437, ^1S investiture with Moravia, and in the following year his corona¬
tion as king of Hungary and election as Roman king in Frankfurt, pre¬
ceded this development. Albrecht died soon, in 1439. The fact that for the
first time the imperial crown and those of the Bohemian and Hungarian
lands could be claimed by the same ruler was thus of the very short
duration. Moreover, Albrecht’s rule was merely based on a relationship
through marriage. It was heavily contested by all Hussite factions. And
yet we face in this second affiliation of the Bohemian lands with Habs-
burg rule a chain of events of great historical significance.
18 Particularly
important were in this context the social conflicts between the rela¬
tively moderate Calixtines or Utraquists, the social revolutionary Taborites and,
later, the Bohemian Brethren, in whose doctrines the religious and social tenets of
both trends merged in some measure.
In the first place, Albrecht’s possession of the three crowns: of the em¬
pire, Bohemia and Hungary, in addition to the rule in the hereditary
lands, was not a mere transitory event like Rudolf Ill’s brief kingship
one and a half centuries before. Albrecht’s claim lived on in his son
Ladislas Posthumus (1440-1457), born after the king’s death. Had it not
been for the personal aspirations of his guardian Frederick of Styria, the
later emperor Frederick III, the union of 1526-1527 could have been con¬
ceivably established already under a boy king in mid-fifteenth century.
More important were two other themes during Albrecht’s brief reign.
First, the Turkish threat in the east. Albrecht, who died while prepar¬
ing for a campaign against the Turks in Hungary, represented one of
the major reasons for the later union of the crowns: the necessity to ward
oflf the threatening holocaust of the advancing Turks. Second, Albrecht’s
contested rule in Bohemia represented the idea of a kind of Counter
Reformation there, which throughout the centuries was related to Habs-
burg rule. For another two decades this particular brand of Counter
Reformation was checked by the rule of the truly national Czech king
and moderate Hussite leader, George of Podebrady. After his death, the
election in 1471 of Ladislas II, son of the king of Poland from the house
of Jagiello, revived the counterreformatory idea. The elevation of Ladislas
to the throne of Hungary after the death of Matthias Corvinus accentu¬
ated again the common defense interests of Bohemia, Hungary, and now
also Poland, against the advancing Turks. Ladislas II and his young son
Louis II, the last Jagiello king of Hungary and Bohemia, who died on
the battlefield of Mohacs in 1526, were too weak to see either policy—
defense against the Turks and counterreformatory objectives—through to
a successful end. Jointly with the national issue of the struggle between
Czechs and Germans, unresolved through the centuries, we face here the
ever more accentuated main problems of Czech development within the
• 1 ft
new union.
The Hungarian crown, under the last Luxemburg ruler Sigismund,
after 1386 and throughout the reign of Albrecht II until 1439, was worn
also by the king of Bohemia. Here, too, the succession was the result of
a marriage. Like the election of Albrecht V of Austria as king of Bo¬
hemia, the coronation of Vladislav III, the king of Poland from the house
19 Karl Richter, “Die bohmischen Lander im Friih- und Hochmittelalter,” pp.
257~347 and Ferdinand Seibt, “Die Zeit der Luxemburger und der hussitischen
Revolution,” pp. 351-568, both in Karl Bosl, ed., Handbuch, Vol. I; Count Franz
von Liitzow, Bohemia, revised by H. A. Pichler (London, 1939), pp. 38-202;
Robert W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (Hamden, 1941),
pp. 23-88; Ernest Denis, Fin de Vlndependance Boheme (Paris, 1890), II, 3-29.
of Jagiello, as king of Hungary in 1440 20 indicated the evolution of a

defensive alliance system of the eastern nations against the Turks. The
three-cornered struggle for the crown of Hungary among Emperor Fred¬
erick III, his ward Ladislas Posthumus, and John Hunyady (and Hun-
yady’s son Matthias Corvinus), presented the further development of this
alliance. Although Matthias remained victorious, Frederick after the
death of Fadislas Posthumus appropriated the deceased king’s claims to
the Hungarian crown. Yet Frederick’s election as Hungarian king—or
rather counter king—against Matthias in 1459 never led to the assump¬
tion of power. Just the same, the ambitions of the slow, indecisive, but
stubborn and ruthless Frederick paved the way for the double marriages
between Jagiellos and Habsburgs, on which the further political destiny
of Hungary and Bohemia was to be based.
The significance of the struggle between Frederick and Matthias
Corvinus went further. In the first place, the rule of the Hungarian king
relied on his support of lesser nobility and towns, but also of the upper
strata of the peasant population. They all had much to gain from further
centralization of the kingdom. Matthias’ opponents were the powerful
landed aristocrats who succeeded in securing the election of the weak
Jagiello king of Bohemia, who ruled in Hungary henceforward as Ladi¬
slas II. Under his son, Louis II, the last Hungarian king before the
Plabsburg accession, early Protestant thought was studied and cultivated
at the court, an incipient development to which Louis’s successor Fer¬
dinand I, the first Habsburg ruler in Hungary, put a stop. Yet the late
Jagiello rulers of Hungary had made their peace with the Habsburgs,
who soon would be heirs to the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia. Like
their Jagiello predecessors after the death of Matthias in 1490, the Habs¬
burgs became identified at the beginning of their rule with the interests
of the Magyar magnates, who had been opposed to the major reforms
associated with the reign of Matthias. Yet neither Jagiellos nor Habsburgs
could rely on the gratitude of the national aristocracy. On the contrary,
either dynasty had to face increasingly stiffened opposition by the mag¬
nates. The weakness of the Jagiello regime had shaken the defense capa¬
bilities of Hungary against the Turks. This weakness went back to the
reign of Matthias. Had this truly national king not felt that the defeat
of the emperor was necessary to establish a workable alliance between
Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, he might not, as often charged, have
conducted an offensive western policy at the cost of the neglect of ade¬
quate defense against the east.
20 As king of Hungary Ladislas I.
22 History of the Hahshurg Empire
All this does not mean that Matthias’ policy was free of imperialist
designs and in that respect very different from that of Frederick III, but
he had the ability to appeal successfully to broader strata of the eastern
European peoples than Frederick. However, the crushing of the Hun¬
garian peasant revolt of 1514, undid much of Matthias’ reform legislation.
The great law code of the new Hungary, the Tripartitum of the brilliant
but narrow-minded lawyer Stephan Verboczi, identified the political na¬
tion for centuries to come with the nobility. Although this concept of
nobility included the gentry, it was still narrower than the political and
social stratification of Hungary evolved between the Hungarian Magna
Charta—the Bulla Aurea of 1222—and Matthias’ death. At the eve of the
Turkish onslaught, which was to engulf Hungary for one and a half
centuries after 1526, the Habsburgs, a foreign dynasty preceded by an¬
other foreign one, became heirs to a divided and weakened political na¬
tion. They were faced by the threefold evil of foreign occupation, and in
a sense deriving from it religious and ethnic division and conflict.
This last conclusion pertained in more than one way also to Croatia-
Slavonia-Dalmatia, the triune vassal kingdom of Hungary.21 The Habs¬
burgs succeeded here in 1527 after due election by the Croatian estates as
heirs to the Hungarian rule established in the early twelfth century. They
had to face a Turkish occupation with social consequences even more far-
reaching than in Hungary proper, and a gradually evolving Southern
Slav ethnic problem which was to engulf Hungary and eventually the
rising Habsburg power altogether. The union had started under inauspi¬
cious beginnings.22
The question may be raised at this point whether one can speak of
political and institutional bonds between the political entities of the heredi¬
tary lands and the lands of the Bohemian and Hungarian-Croatian crowns
in 1526-1527. Did any social-political premises exist, furthering the coming
process of integration? Undoubtedly the rising Turkish danger from the
east accentuated the problem of common defense needs of Christian
Europe, as they had existed at the time of the Magyar invasions of Central
Europe in the tenth century and of the Mongolian forays into eastern
Central Europe in the thirteenth. Both dangers resulted in a measure
of political integration. The Turkish advance in the early sixteenth cen-
21 The rule over Croatia was contested by claims of the Venetian republic.
22 Balint Homan, Geschichte des ungarischen Mittelalters (Berlin, 1943), Vol. II;
Kosary, A History of Hungary, pp. 44-91. Laslo Makkai, in Ervin Pamlenyi, ed.,
Die Geschichte Ungarns, (Budapest, 1971), Chapter II, pp. 23-127. Stanko Guldescu,
History of Medieval Croatia (The Hague, 1964), pp. 215 f. and by the same author
The Croatian-Slavonian Kingdom is,26-ijc)2 (The Blague, 1970), pp. 9-28.
tury represented a more lasting and better organized offensive than pre¬
vious invasions, yet it might have been fought equally well by mere de¬
fensive alliances between the threatened countries.
Cultural ties between the Hungarian and the hereditary lands did
exist to some extent under the reign of Matthias Corvinus. His death in
1490 and the hit-and-run attacks of the Turks were not conducive to
further cultural progress and to the strengthening of cultural bonds with
the west.
As for Bohemia, fairly close ties between the Bohemian and hereditary
lands had existed as long as the cultural center of Prague was furthered
by the German-Luxemburg rulers, who valued both, the imperial crown
and the Czech national tradition. Yet the Hussite wars and the con¬
comitant social upheavals in Bohemia strained cultural relations with
Habsburg Austria (and Jagiello Hungary) even more than the political
instability brought upon Hungary by the Turkish offensive. The fact
that the Jagiello kings ruled in Hungary and the Bohemian lands at the
same time changed little in this respect. Basic experiences, the Turkish
danger, and the struggle between Matthias Corvinus and Frederick III
in western Hungary and eastern Austria, and the social and religious
impact of the revolution in Bohemia, were not shared.
In the socioeconomic field Hungary after the death of Matthias was too
exposed to the eastern danger to be considered a reliable trading partner
with west and north. As for the peasant situation, the reform movement
of Matthias was stopped and the peasant revolt of 1514 headed by George
Dozsa in the rural towns, although put down with savage ferocity by
the authorities, revealed the continuing instability of existing conditions.
Undoubtedly this social crisis weakened resistance against the Turkish
oq
conquerors.
The union of 1526-1527 occurred at a time when cultural relations be¬
tween the hereditary lands and the Bohemian crown were weaker than in
the late fourteenth century. Strong ties between the hereditary lands and
Hungary developed under Matthias Corvinus but they ended with his
death. Bohemian, Hungarian, and Austro-German social conditions in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries showed many similarities. The
superiority of the Bohemian urban social structure in the fourteenth
century, however, was less marked in the time of troubles of the fifteenth
23 Peasant revolts followed also in the Habsburg domains of lower Styria,

Carinthia, and Carniola, but they did not coincide there with an immediate threat
of foreign aggression. Accordingly the impact of these revolts on international re¬
lations was limited.
2^ History of the Hahshurg Empire
century. Social progress in Hungary, which advanced considerably under
Matthias had no chance to develop further. This becomes apparent in the
socially backward law code of the Tripartitum Verboczi. Croatia was
now almost fully absorbed by the Turkish invasion and had for a long
time no major role to play in the social-cultural relationship between the
historico-political entities which were to form the Habsburg empire.
Peasant unrest in the Austrian Hereditary and Hungarian lands was
similar, although the peasants primarily affected in Hungary in the last
decades preceding the union of 1526 belonged to a higher order than the
revolutionary peasants in Austria; in Bohemia similar social problems
were tackled if not solved almost a century earlier.
Yet common problems do not necessarily make for common solutions.
The conditions for the union of 1526-1527 were unfavorable because of
external threats and internal resistance in the various units and because
the social and cultural structures of the major historico-political entities
were different. Political history, however, worked for integration. His¬
torical developments in the two centuries following the union of 1526-1527
will be discussed in the next two chapters, social-cultural issues in Chap¬
ter IV. The mentioned major social and cultural differences in the heredi¬
tary and the newly gained Habsburg lands bode ill for the prospects of
durability of the new union. The problem which we have to discuss in
the following is, to what extent these impediments could be overcome by
political association.
CHAPTER II
Turks and Protestants fl526-ioisj
A. The beginnings of political integration
The succession of the Habsburgs to the crowns of Bohemia and

Hungary-Croatia established merely the dynastic premises for the evolu¬
tion of an eastern Central European empire. These premises were as yet
feeble. Only in the German Alpine lands was their hereditary basis un¬
challenged, while in Hungary recognition of the king by the diet and in
the Bohemian lands his formal election by the estates were necessary.
Considering the political rifts inside Hungary, which followed the di¬
saster of Mohacs and the religious and social division within the lands
of the Bohemian crown, one has to look for deeper reasons than succes¬
sion pacts to explain the integration process toward the formation of an
empire.
Four such reasons will be advanced here: First, the Turkish advance
into Central Europe, which coincided with the Habsburg succession in
Hungary, created common defense needs. They could be met in the long
run only in an empire-like organization. Second, the fight between the
rapidly spreading Reformation and the incipient and ultimately victorious
Counter Reformation established a political bond between the Habsburg
domains. These two issues have been mentioned before. Third, it is said
that the hereditary lands and the new Habsburg crowns supplemented
each other economically. Lastly, geographic conditions were claimed to be
conducive to integration.
All these advanced reasons are controversial. The relatively most con¬
vincing one is the Turkish danger since the needs for defense against it
were sound enough. Yet this is something rather different from the fre¬
quently proclaimed Austrian mission to defend Christianity against the
25
Ottoman onslaught. It is, of course, true that ideological reasons played
a part, but primarily we face here just a common European defense policy
against imperialist aggression. Austria’s contribution to it was great, and
particularly so in view of underhand French attempts to support her
enemies, but by no means exclusive.
As for consequences of the Turkish wars, seen in the more modest
frame of the Danube basin, the almost two centuries of Turkish inroads
into Hungary, and particularly the first 150 years of them, had exacer¬
bated previously existing differences between Hungary and the hereditary
lands. Moreover, a number of new ones, clearly traceable until the end of
the empire, were created by the impact of the Turkish wars.
The Counter Reformation established, indeed, common bonds between
new and old Habsburg lands, but it could do so only at the price of
humiliating and alienating the Czech people for centuries to come. More¬
over a sharply divisive issue in Hungary and the Alpine lands surfaced.
Consequences of all these developments, particularly those in the Bo¬
hemian lands, were apparent until 1918 and, indeed, beyond.
That the western and eastern Habsburg lands ideally complemented
each other economically is frequently considered an axiom. Yet an axiom is
based on impossibility of proof and on self-evidence. Only the first holds at
least partly true for the Habsburg empire. The factor of self-evidence is
entirely lacking. Not until the second half of the eighteenth century did
the industrial economic structure of Bohemia begin to differ markedly
from that of the hereditary lands. About the same time the difference be¬
tween their mixed agricultural-industrial character and Hungarian agri¬
culture became more conspicuous. Then only, and only in a limited way
did the process of economic complementation between the historico-political
units of the Habsburg lands gradually assume significance. Before the
reign of Maria Theresa these structural differences in economic condi¬
tions were not distinctive enough to explain the integration of an empire
on economic grounds. This applies in particular also to the Polish ter¬
ritories acquired by the empress.1
The argument that the Habsburg empire formed a natural geographic
unit seems to be even weaker. The lands of Galicia-Bukovina in the
northeast were almost completely separated from the bulk of the Habs-
1 Oscar Jaszi, The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy (Chicago, 1929), pp.
185-212; Robert A. Kann, Werden und Zerfall des Habsburgerreiches (Graz,
Vienna, Cologne, 1962), pp. 121-135, revised edition of Robert A. Kann, The Habs¬
burg Empire: A Study in Integration and Disintegration (2nd ed. New York, 1973),
pp. 94-106.
Tur\s and Protestants 27
burg domains by the Carpathians. Dalmatia in the southeast, which

covered most of the monarchy’s coastal territories, was separated by the
Karst mountains from Croatia and the Hungarian plains. Of the two prin¬
cipal rivers, the Danube led from the main routes of European traffic into
the practically land-locked Black Sea. Navigation in several places, above
all at the Iron Gate (Orsova) and at the delta was very cumbersome and
demanded unloading of freight. The Elbe, originating in Bohemia, on the
other hand, did indeed flow into a main center of European North Sea
traffic. Yet only a short stretch of its course passed through Habsburg
territory and the main volume of its traffic entered the river only after
it had left Bohemia. The geographic unity between Alpine hereditary
lands, mountain-girded Bohemia, and Hungarian plains was no greater
than of any other major European power.2
All this does not suggest that the four factors cited above as generally
advanced to explain the evolution of the Habsburg power lack entirely
cohesive features. Undoubtedly traits of this kind have furthered integra¬
tion to various degrees at various times. Yet not even combined, let alone
separately, do they suffice to explain the rise of an empire, more diversi¬
fied than any other in existence in modern times, in regard to ethnic,
linguistic, and historic traditions. No comprehensive theory, why an
empire emerged and dissolved is entirely convincing on the strength of
post facto reasoning. But some personal issues help to make us see the
missing links in the disparate factors discussed. To one of them, the
personality of the first true ruler of the newly acquired Habsburg lands,
we are now turning.
The introductory chapter mentioned Emperor Charles V’s brother,
Ferdinand (1503-1564) in regard to his status in the line of succession
and acquisition of new lands. Emperor Maximilian I, as will be remem¬
bered, had envisaged that the Bohemian, Hungarian, and Croation
crowns would accrue to the Habsburgs, by way of the Jagiellonian suc¬
cession. The Jagiellon-Habsburg marriages were concluded, but the un¬
timely death of King Louis II of Hungary in the battle of Mohacs in
1526 turned dynastic speculation to a reality close at hand. It meant, at the
same time, wide enlargement of Habsburg power but also its division.
At the time of the family pact of Worms of 1521 between Charles and
Ferdinand, when the Habsburg succession in the East was not yet de¬
termined, the universality of the rule of Charles, since 1516 king of Castile
and Aragon, and since 1519 emperor, was strictly maintained. According
to that agreement, Ferdinand could have succeeded only to the then five
2 Kann, Werden und Zerjall des Habsburgerreiches, pp. 27-29.
Lower Austrian duchies, Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and
Carniola. He would have remained a major vassal prince of the empire.
The threefold crisis, which evolved in 1521, the beginnings of the Turk¬
ish advance beyond Belgrad into Hungary, the opening of the struggle
between the houses of Habsburg and Bourbon, and the spread of the
political impact of the Reformation, forced the young emperor to lighten
his burden in the east and to make sure that his-position in the west
would be fortified at the same time. The consequence of these considera¬
tions was the treaty of Brussels of the following year, 1522, according to
which Ferdinand succeeded now in all the lands, which later would be
referred to as the Austrian lands, namely, in addition to the five Lower
Austrian duchies, Tirol, the Vorlande, the temporary regency in Wurt-
temberg, and that for lifetime in the Alsace. On the other hand, Fer¬
dinand, from now on his brother’s viceroy in all German lands, had to re¬
nounce his claims to the Spanish-Burgundian inheritance. These partition
treaties, which precede the birth of the male offspring of the two brothers
—the future Philip II of Spain and Maximilian II—constitute the parting
of the way between the Spanish and German Habsburg lines.3 The acts
of 1556 after the abdication of Charles, according to which Philip suc¬
ceeded his father as king of Spain and its appendages and Ferdinand,
his brother, as emperor, provided only the official confirmation.
An independent Habsburg state in Central Europe might conceivably
have evolved under the terms of the pacts of Worms and Brussels, but
such political structure could hardly have risen to great power if it had
not encompassed the pending link of the whole Habsburg German in¬
heritance with the three eastern Bohemian and Hungarian-Croatian
crowns to which Ferdinand succeeded in 1526-1527. It is difficult to see
how that peculiar body, a great power, multinational in its ethnic char¬
acter and German-oriented by its western ties, could have developed
under then existing conditions any other way, namely by the various mar¬
riage, inheritance, and partition treaties, which introduced a basically
peaceful element in the difficult process of integration.
Under the over-all rule of Charles, the emperor king in whose—loosely
knit—realms the sun never set, the center of gravity of Habsburg rule
and Habsburg power was in the west. The same held still true for the
second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century.
Actually only the Peace of the Pyrenees between France and Spain in
3 Adam Wandruszka, Das Haus Habsburg (Vienna, 1956), pp. 115b; Wilhelm
Bauer, Die Anfange Ferdinands I (Vienna, 1907), pp. 64-161; Helmut G. Koenigs-
berger, The Habsburgs and Europe 1515-1660 (Ithaca, 1971), pp. 1-63.
1659 marked the decline of royal Spain so clearly that the German Habs-
burgs with their wide eastern affiliations became now truly equal partners
in the family alliance. Yet a genuine supremacy of the younger German
line was not recognized as long as the older Spanish one existed, that is, to
the death of the last Spanish Habsburg, Charles II, in 1700.
It is important to keep these facts in mind, if one wants to understand
the relationship between Ferdinand and his imperial brother and the re¬
lationship between the two empires in the west and east based on the
family alliance. Ferdinand, superior in intelligence, administrative ability,
and at the same time less prejudiced than his older brother, deferred to
the emperor notwithstanding conflicts on many specific issues in his
over-all policies. So did more than two centuries later another Habsburg,
Leopold of Tuscany to Joseph II, whom he equaled in ability but sur¬
passed in political prudence and common sense. Still a generation fur¬
ther, the able Archduke Charles yielded to his brother, the mediocre
Emperor Francis I. The allegiance to the unity of the dynasty, no matter
who represented it, was one of the foremost premises of the rise of Habs¬
burg power, the subordination of the eastern problems to the western was
another. Ferdinand’s political deference to Charles—a man of strong
character but of little wisdom—meant recognition of the strength of
imperial-dynastic ties. It meant also that the gradually evolving integra¬
tion with the incongruous parts of the eastern empire could take place
off the main roads of European power politics between France and
Spain, above all off the essentially sterile theater of struggle in Italy.
This meant further that the seemingly insoluble conflict between emperor
and Protestant princes in Germany had for some time only a fringe
impact on the association between Alpine hereditary lands and those of
the eastern crowns. Had it been otherwise Ferdinand could hardly have
coped successfully with the enormous problems of his reign, the progress
of the Protestant Reformation in the hereditary lands, the question of
integration of the eastern Habsburg lands, the recognition of the Habs¬
burg succession in Hungary, and the Turkish advance from Belgrad to
the gates of Vienna. Subordination to Emperor Charles, linked at the
same time to the endeavor to separate western and eastern problems, is a
key to the understanding of Ferdinand’s impressive efforts and respect¬
able success.4
It would be impossible to recognize the early results of this cautious
policy if Ferdinand had not given to his realms some internal cohesion
by far-reaching administrative reforms. Outstanding in this respect was
4 Bauer, Die Anfdnge Ferdinands l pp. 189-238.
History of the Habsburg Empire
the establishment of the mentioned Aulic Council (Hofrat) as Court of

Appeal and controlling administrative agency in the hereditary lands and
in the empire where Ferdinand acted as regent for his imperial brother.
In 1558 after he had succeeded as emperor in his own right, this body
was transformed into the imperial Aulic Council (Reichshofrat). The
General Court Chancery (Allgemeine Hofkanzlei) on the other hand
became not merely a deliberative and advisory body, but an executive
body. By implication it could supervise enforcement of the decisions of
the Aulic Council and Secret Council. Under Maximilian I, the chambers
for financial administration in Vienna and Innsbruck were set up partly
according to administrative functions and partly on a territorial basis.
When Ferdinand ruled as emperor in his own right they were divided
and expanded in sections of the imperial and the Austrian hereditary
lands.
Even more significant from the standpoint of integration were those
new institutions which pertained to all of Ferdinand’s realms including
the new ones of the three eastern crowns. The most important one was
the Secret Council (Geheimer Rat) set up in 1527. It became the supreme
body for affairs of state (foreign and military), but also for financial
matters deriving from the income from crown domains and sovereign
prerogatives (regalia). The council exercised also jurisdiction in matters
of domestic policies, either under the presidency of the emperor or, more
often, of Ferdinand or his representative, the supreme chancellor or the
master of the household. The Court Chamber (Hofkammer) was an ad¬
ministrative body with the most clearly established jurisdiction for the
hereditary lands, for common agenda with the Holy Roman Empire, and
in some degree also for the lands of the Bohemian and Hungarian
crowns. This institution combined functions of a treasury and a ministry
of economic administration entrusted with the supervision of the fiscal
agencies in Vienna, Innsbruck, Prague, and Pozsony (Pressburg). Lastly,
the Court War Council (Hofkriegsrat) was created, a collegiate body
which served as a ministry of defense for the German and Austro-Bo-
hemian-Hungarian Habsburg lands. The supervisory control of military
operations, which this agency assumed later, was resented by Austria’s
most eminent generals such as Count Raimond Montecuccoli and Prince
Eugene of Savoy.
These main offices do not represent a clearcut structure of an evolving
Habsburg empire. Judicial and administrative functions, in particular in
regard to the contested jurisdiction of the estates of various lands, were
at least as much in conflict as those between the administrative agencies of
the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-German hereditary lands, and those
of the eastern crowns. The administrative ties between Holy Roman Em¬
pire and Austro-German hereditary lands, which went largely back to
the reforms of Ferdinand’s grandfather Maximilian I, were still stronger
than those with the newly acquired eastern realms. As for the bonds with
the empire, the Aulic Council, and later the Imperial Aulic Council,
represented at least an unequivocal relationship of common interests al¬
though issues of subordination or coordination remained in doubt. Mat¬
ters were even more complex in relationship to the east. Hungarians were
for all practical purposes not represented in the Secret Council. This fact
was explained by the long Turkish occupation of the best part of Hun¬
garian territories. Yet Hungarian objections, and to a somewhat lesser ex¬
tent those of the Bohemian estates, impeded also the complete integration
of the financial administration under the Court Chamber. The same was
true for the relationship to the Court War Council.5
And yet the incongruity of common institutions between empire,
hereditary lands, and the eastern crowns bears witness to the flexibility of
Ferdinand’s skillful statesmanship rather than to lack of efficiency. Loose,
and in the beginnings in some ways almost accidental, as the relationship
between hereditary lands and eastern lands seemed, it might have
been strained if the sovereign had insisted on a greater degree of central¬
ization. On the other hand, the nature of the gradually evolving ties be¬
tween hereditary and eastern lands loosened also the relationship of the
former to the empire. No clear constitutional actions, but the fact that the
hereditary lands in their still indistinctive union with the eastern lands
became too unyieldy to be a manageable part of the empire, explain the
very gradual evolution of the new great power of the future.
It is difficult to say how far Ferdinand had planned all this and to what
extent he followed merely the principle that politics represented the pur¬
suit of the practically feasible. Yet the assumption that his regency and
reign stood for more than government by flair is borne out by several
factors. His well-planned religious and foreign policy, executed cautiously
but determinedly under difficult conditions, rank foremost among them.
5 Alphons Huber and Alphons Dopsch, Osterreichische Reich sgeschichte (Vienna,

1901), pp. 180-232; Ernst C. Hellbling, Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Ver-
waltungsgeschichte (Vienna, 1956), pp. 210-267. Laszlo Makkai, Die Entstehung
der gesellschaftlichen Basis des Absolutismus in den Landern der osterreichischen
Habsburger (Budapest, i960), passim.
B. Sovereignty in the Austro-German and

eastern Habsburg lands
The supreme power of a political entity is vested primarily in its sover¬

eign right to conduct an independent foreign policy. Far-reaching auton¬
omy in regard to domestic administration on the other hand is compatible
with subordination to a superior governmental authority. Such relation¬
ship may be of a federal or quasi-federal character. Unless we deal with a
confederation of independent states with common institutions between
but not above them, such organization falls short off full sovereignty.6
What was the status of the rising new Habsburg power in eastern Cen¬
tral Europe in this respect ?
To recapitulate briefly the legal situation: Ferdinand, according to the
family compact of Brussels in 1522, which amended the pact of Worms of
the preceding year, had become ruler of all hereditary Austro-German
lands. Furthermore, on the basis of the state treaties with the Jagiello
kings, he succeeded in 1526-1527 to the crowns of Hungary-Croatia, and
Bohemia. His succession was confirmed by the Bohemian estates but only
by a part of the Hungarian ones. Yet in spite of this contested election
Ferdinand was crowned in Hungary as in Bohemia.
The Hungarian challenge will be discussed later. At this point, we are
concerned with the relationship of the new union to the empire and reign
of Charles V. Ferdinand, though now a prince of the empire endowed
with wider territories than any other, still owed allegiance to his brother,
as emperor and as head of the Habsburg dynasty. In this respect, but also
in consideration of the obligations of the princes to support the Roman
emperor against foreign foes and domestic insurrection, he was legally
no fully sovereign ruler. Moreover, on the basis of the Golden Bull of
Emperor Charles IV which in 1356 confined the imperial elections to four
temporal and three ecclesiastic princes, he was not even the full equal of
the slate of electors, which did not include a Habsburg.
But in a roundabout way equal status with the electors, demanded al¬
ready by Charles IV’s son-in-law Duke Rudolf IV (the Founder) of
Austria was brought about under Ferdinand, as a result of the peculiar
relationship between the empire and the Bohemian crown. Whether the
king of Bohemia was to be considered a prince of the empire like other
German electoral princes was a controversial question until 1356. His
6 See Robert A. Kann, “Federalism and the Federal State in History,” and the
literature quoted there in Rapports, Comite International des Sciences Historiques,
XII Congres International des Sciences Historiques, IV (Vienna, 1965), 33-48.
status as imperial prince did not follow necessarily from his participation
in imperial elections and from the honor of acting as libationer at the
imperial coronations, but was generally assumed, because both of Charles
IV’s sons, like their father, wore the crown of the empire as well as the
Bohemian. Their Habsburg successor as German ruler, Albrecht II, al¬
most a century before Ferdinand laid at least claim to the Bohemian
crown and to the Bohemian-imperial association.7 These constitutional
developments raised the status of the king of Bohemia as genuine royalty
in relations to the German princes.8 When Ferdinand succeeded to the
Bohemian crown in 1526, the old question of loyalty of a Bohemian ruler
to the emperor was revived. Even though the Habsburg king of Bohemia
did not participate in the imperial elections in any but a mere formal
sense, and even that only by the so-called readmission after 1708,9 a
relationship of subordination of the Bohemian crown bearer to the Roman
emperor had now come into existence. The electoral function which had
been denied thus far to the powerful Habsburgs became accessible to them
by the backdoor. More important, the character of the association between
the emperor and the king of Bohemia was substantially changed when
a ruler of Bohemia owed allegiance to an emperor who was simulta¬
neously head of his house. When Ferdinand succeeded his brother as
emperor in 1556, and the union of imperial and Bohemian crowns was
established in the same person, an important precedent had been set. The
Bohemian crown was now definitely subordinated to the imperial crown.
7 On the relationship of the imperial crown to the Bohemian see James Bryce,
The Holy Roman Empire (London, 1914), pp. 242 f., 265; Ferdinand Seibt, in
Karl Bosl, ed. Handbuch der Geschichte der bohmischen Lander, I, pp. 391-407;
Hellbling, Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte, pp. 156 ff., 225.
S. H. Thomson,, Czechoslovakia in European History (Princeton, 1956), pp. 29 £.,
42 f. See also Frederick G. Heymann, George of Bohemia: King of Heretics
(Princeton, 1965), pp. 554~557-
8 But in the long run this peculiar relationship restricted the freedom of the ruler
of Bohemia since the lands of the Bohemian crown were now more closely tied to
empire and emperor. Until the death of Albrecht II of Habsburg, king of Bohemia
and Hungary and duly elected German king in 1438, the legal issue appeared to be
dominant if not altogether settled. During the time of trouble after Albrecht’s death,
and particularly under the regency and subsequent reign of the Hussite King
George of Podiebrady (1452-1471), the question of the Bohemian electoral status
within the empire became hardly practical. The same held true under the reigns of
his Jagiello successors. Both Jagiello kings, Vladislav II and Louis I (as king of
Hungary the second of his name), were not challenged as sovereign rulers by the
Habsburg emperors.
9 Franz von Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte Osterreichs, 4 vols. and index vol.
(Berlin, 1880-1881), see IV, 79 f. See also Huber and Dopsch, Osterreichische
Reichsgeschichte, pp. 173-175.
This fact establishes a distinction between the relationship of the
lands of the Bohemian and the Hungarian-Croatian crowns to emperor
and empire. Frequently it has been held that only the separation of the lat¬
ter domains from the bulk of the Habsburg lands by the impact of two
centuries of Turkish wars explains their more autonomous development.
But the historical associations between empire and Bohemian lands, which
have no parallel in the Hungarian-Croatian orbit, must be considered
also as a reason for a closer link between empire and Bohemian crown.
More important, they help to understand the bonds between the Austro-
German Alpine hereditary lands as part of the empire and those of the
crown of St. Wenceslav.
Under Charles V these distinctions between German-affiliated and non-
affiliated eastern lands of the Habsburgs were blurred because the regent
of all of them owed allegiance to an emperor as head of the dynasty whose
center of power was far to the west of Germany between Spain, Italy, and
Flanders. This situation changed in mid-century. The separation between
the Spanish-Italian line under Philip II and the German line under
Ferdinand became manifest when Charles V abdicated in 1556.10 As a
symbol of the separation, the imperial title reverted now to the head of
the Austrian Line.
Still the primacy of the western (Spanish) line outlasted the reign of
Charles V. In matters of politics the center of gravity of Habsburg rule
was its relation to the leading power of seventeenth-century Europe,
France. In this relationship, Spain, even in its decline and in a passive
way, was a more important factor than the lands of the German Habs¬
burgs. Only the extinction of the Spanish line in 1700 gave the German
Habsburgs, heretofore the junior partner in the family alliance, their
chance to enter world politics.
C. Principles of foreign policy
The foreign policy of Ferdinand I and his successors to the middle of

the seventeenth century has to be seen in the light of the facts discussed.
For a generation after 1526 the new king was only the chief executive
organ of the policies of his brother. Impressive as his powers were and
independent as he showed himself in the pursuit of policies, their basic
principles represented necessarily the spirit of Madrid and not of Vienna.
After the reign of Charles V the Austrian Habsburgs still were bound to
10 Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte Osterreichs, III, 395-397; Hermann I.

Bidermann, Geschichte der osterreichischen Gesamtstaatsidee 1526-1804 (Innsbruck,
1867), Section I. 1526-1705, pp. 26-36.
support Italian and French policies of Spain, and this at a time when
they were faced by threats from the east. Even after the tide of fortunes
turned against the Turks in 1699 with the peace of Karlowitz (Karlovic)
Austrian policies were still largely dominated by western interests. When
they could not be successfully defended in the War of the Spanish Suc¬
cession, eastern expansion served as mere substitute for the western ambi¬
tions of Charles VI in Spain, Italy, and the vast colonial empire beyond
the sea.
What is true for the wars against the Turks pertains also to the ideolog¬
ical and political power struggle against the Protestants. Ferdinand I was
no less devout Catholic than Charles V. The same can be said for most
of his successors until 1918 in regard to strictly religious attitudes as dis¬
tinguished from state-Church relations. The German Habsburgs may
not always have been obedient to the will of the Church in Rome, but
their devotion to the Catholic faith could seldom be doubted. The Spanish
Habsburgs under Charles V and Philip II tried to undo the Reformation
as far as possible by fire and sword; the Austrian Habsburgs, up to the
reign of Matthias I, attempted to take the wind out of the sails of Protes¬
tantism by compromise. Intolerance on the part of the Austrian Habsburgs
rose only gradually in direct proportion to the decline of the Spanish
power as the foremost fighting champion of the Counter Reformation.
In secular politics, Charles V focused on the fight for supremacy against
the French Bourbons. Their mighty kingdom blocked the amalgamation
of the lands of the Spanish crown with the Holy Roman Empire and the
new eastern domains of the Habsburgs. Inasmuch as Italy became the
forefield of the old power struggle between Habsburgs and Bourbons, the
papacy became involved in it, in the sixteenth century, on the side of the
weaker French. They represented less of the threat to the Church than
Spain supported by the Habsburg power in the east. A ruler not as devout
as Charles under such conditions might have veered from the orthodox
Catholic line to a policy of expediency. He could have followed in the
footsteps of Francis I of France who concluded the first formal alliance
with the infidel Turks and supported the German Protestant princes in
an underhand way as well. In the case of Charles, such actions by the
French king and the shifty and, from the emperor’s viewpoint, opportun¬
istic foreign policy of the popes from Clement VII to Paul IV strength¬
ened only his determination to make the Church a more effective instru¬
ment of imperial power against the Protestant German princes and
Protestantism. The struggle against the French and Protestantism, as a
challenge to imperial power and imperial faith were the basic tenets of
j6 History of the Habshurg Empire
Charles’ policy. To them may be added his resolve to curb a spirit of

moral laxity and independence from imperial influence within the Church
in Rome.
The struggle in the east against the Turkish advance meant to Charles
undoubtedly an external threat to the faith but not perhaps to the same
degree to which he saw an internal threat in Protestantism. The Turks
represented mere diversionary tactics of infidelity which kept him from
a final settling of accounts against heresy. True enough, the struggle
against the Ottoman power meant also a chance to rally the German
princes to a common purpose, but that did not mean reconciliation with
Protestantism—it meant the hope that in the face of the danger abroad
the heretic princes at home would return to the fold of emperor and
Church. The Schmalkaldian religious war against the Protestant princes,
from 1546 essentially to the Religious Peace of Augsburg in 1555, resulted
from the emperor’s recognition that the undoing of Protestantism had
become illusionary. His abdication was the final consequence of this
insight.
Ferdinand perceived the priorities of imperial policies in a different
way. To him the Burgundian, and Flemish interests of his house and the
possessions beyond the sea meant little in themselves, although they were
important from the viewpoint of loyalty to the imperial brother and
from that of the grandeur of the dynasty. The conflict with France ap¬
peared to him as diversionary an attack as the Turkish one to emperor
Charles. The Ottoman Turkish advance, however, meant to him the clear
and present danger of expulsion from his domains not only in Hungary,
but in the hereditary lands as well; besides, if they should be lost to the
infidels, there was little chance for him to establish his rule in Bohemia.
As for the issue of Protestantism, where Charles obviously subordinated
his political strategy largely to his religious convictions, Ferdinand fol¬
lowed on the whole an opposite course. Not less devout but less intolerant
a Catholic than his older brother, he was ready to compromise with the
Protestants even on such dogmatic questions as celibacy for priests or the
cup for the laity. Ferdinand’s resistance to the foremost threat against his
rule, the Ottoman Turks, was to a greater extent based on needs for
domestic tranquility than Charles’ in his fight across western Europe.
In the light of these considerations, Ferdinand stayed out of the em¬
peror’s conflict with France and the Italian states, above all the papal
states. Even in Germany he supported the emperor only as much as the
threefold obligations as member of the Habsburg dynasty to its head,
as prince of the empire to the emperor, and as elected Roman king and
successor to the imperial throne demanded. Accordingly Ferdinand dur¬

ing the Schmalkaldian war exercised a restraining influence on the
emperor. At the time of the treacherous attack of Moritz of Saxony in
1552 against Charles he even acted as intermediary. In the same sense
he worked for the unsatisfactory compromise of the treaty of Passau of
1552 and its confirmation in the Religious Peace of Augsburg in 1555. In¬
deed, Ferdinand’s moderating influence was apparent as early as the first
session of the Council of Trent from 1545 to 1547.11 This does not mean
that the problem of Protestantism did not play an important part in the
reign of Ferdinand and his sons. The following discussion of events in
the hereditary and eastern lands will show that the contrary was true.
Yet Ferdinand’s moderate attitude toward his imperial brother’s counter¬
reformatory activities proves that his foreign policy was not nearly as
much motivated by the Protestant than by the Ottoman Turkish danger.
To its character, course, and consequences we now turn.
D. The Turkish wars
The problem of the Turkish wars in the sixteenth, and to a lesser

degree the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, was that of two
interrelated, but basically separate, issues: the struggle of the Habsburg
and the fight of the Habsburg power against the Turks. The second
dynasty for recognition in Hungary against the claims of native princes
issue was one of international relations; the first was a Hungarian
domestic issue, international only insofar as it helped Turkish conquest.
At this point, however, we are concerned with the international aspects of
the problem.
In November 1526 a royal diet elected John Zapolya, count of Zips and
voiwode of Transylvania, king of Hungary. He was crowned at
Szekesfejervar (StuhlweiBenburg). This anti-Habsburg action of the
nobles—mostly lesser nobles—was not meant as an accommodation with
the threatening Turkish power under Suleiman II, that had been vic¬
torious at Mohacs two months before. More likely, the diet in these
times of troubles wanted to rally around a national king. Such charac¬
terization could not apply to Ferdinand, referred to as the German king
by the Magyars. He was elected on the grounds of the hardly popular
marriage- and succession treaties with the Jagiellons a month later at
Pozsony, and crowned in the following year 1527. Ferdinand, though
11 Karl Brandi, Kaiser Karl V, 2 vols. (Miinchen, 1937-1941), see I, 359-361, 428-
429; II, 184-186, 386-387. Franz von Bucholtz, Geschichte der Regierung Ferdinands
l, 9 vols. (Graz, 1968), originally published 1831-1838, see Vol. VIII.
recognized by the diet of Buda, was in the main only supported by the
western Hungarian comitats (counties). Yet his claims to the Bohemian
and Austrian hereditary lands, but above all the German and Spanish
connections of his house gave him in the end a decisive advantage. As for
the interests of the Turks, accommodation with the national forces of
Hungary in isolation was easier than with those of a Habsburg with his
power connection. The price offered for this kind of accommodation by
the Ottoman Turks was limited autonomy, granted to that part of Hun¬
gary separated most securely from imperialist Habsburg designs. Thus the
Habsburg objective to incorporate the new eastern possessions into an
empire could be thwarted. This explains why the easternmost part of
the Hungarian domains, Transylvania, up to then in substance a geo¬
graphic and social cultural entity, now became a political one under
Turkish auspices.
Still, there was only an indirect connection between the renewed Turk¬
ish advance in 1528, when Suleiman demanded the evacuation of Hungary
by the Habsburgs and the as yet undecisive struggle between Zapolya’s
and Ferdinand’s forces. It was in its beginning of little direct conse¬
quence for the main Turkish threat to the Habsburg lands. This became
evident when Suleiman after the conquest of Buda in 1529—to be under
Turkish control for more than 150 years—laid siege to Vienna in the fall
of the same year. This first siege of Vienna has not caught the imagina¬
tion of Europe to the same extent as the second one of 1683, which in
word and song has been pictured for generations as the salvation of
Christian Europe from the threat of Mohammedan domination. Actually
the delivery of Vienna by a brave garrison under the command of
Count Niklas Salm in 1529 was probably a greater though less spectacular
achievement than the liberation five generations later brought about
primarily by the efforts of a rather large army of combined imperial
and Polish forces. More important, the siege of 1683 represented a last
powerful but isolated offensive at a time, when the tide of Turkish ad¬
vance to the west had come by and large to a standstill. At the time of
Suleiman’s attack, on the other hand, the young and aggressive Ottoman
power which had swept through Hungary operated in a cycle of spectacu¬
lar success. Suleiman terminated the siege, unlike the situation in 1683,
not because he was defeated by a superior relief force, but simply because
losses in battle and casualties due to various plagues did not seem to
be worth the price. Considering the fact that the imperial and Austrian
forces did not follow the retreating and disorganized Turkish army be¬
yond a relatively narrow fringe of northwestern and western Hungary,
there is little reasons to assume that Suleiman could not have renewed the
attack with stronger forces, within the next years. If he did not do so
again after just one unsuccessful attempt in 1532 it was precisely because
he did not deem the conquest of Vienna and a further advance into the
Danube valley worth the effort. At a time when the center of gravity
of Habsburg power was anchored between western Germany and Spain,
Vienna was neither as economic base nor as status symbol a prize of the
first order for a conqueror. Even the Danube valley rated only as mere
glacis of German interests. In this respect the situation had changed sub¬
stantially by 1683 when the German Habsburgs and their capital, and not
the possessions of the Spanish crown, represented the first line of defense
against French imperialism from the west as well as aggression from the
east. In a nutshell: the primary and permanent Turkish designs were
focused on the conquest and control of Hungary. Forrays farther west
under Suleiman were devices of temporary political and military ex¬
pediency. The issue of the Turkish wars was not a fight for the control
of Europe but of Hungary, and interrelated with it the effort to prevent
the rise of a great Habsburg power in the east.
In 1532 the high tide of Suleiman’s offensive power beyond the borders
of Hungary had passed. In 1538 the fortunes in the struggle between
âpolya and Ferdinand for the crown of Hungary began to turn as well:
Zapolya, in the secret pact of Nagyvarad advised by his astute diplomatic
representative Marinuzzi (George Utiesenic), promised to give up his
alliance with the Turks and to recognize the Habsburg succession in
return for the recognition of his rule in Hungary east of the Tisza for his
lifetime. Inasmuch as Ferdinand had little control over events in these
parts of Hungary anyway, this was a small concession. It was presumably
a major reason why Zapolya a year later, strengthened now in his interna¬
tional connections by the marriage to the Polish Jagiello princess Isabella,
went back on the treaty. Yet the fact that it had to be concluded in the
first place and had to be renewed in one form or another repeatedly, in¬
dicated that the Habsburg power in Hungary was on the rise.
For the time being the pact had little effect on the administration of
the parts of Hungary not controlled by Habsburg. Except for the lands
east of the Tisza and particularly Transylvania, endowed with administra¬
tive autonomy under national rulers, and a strong evolution of religious
tolerance, the area was simply converted into a Turkish province with the
center in Buda. Only the mountainous northwest with the Slovak mining
towns and a small western strip partly settled by Germans remained
under Habsburg control. In the region under direct Turkish rule pro-
tracted warfare took its toll among the native Magyar population in the
south. It was gradually and largely replaced by Southern Slav immigrants
from the Balkans. The zone north and northwest of Buda, but still south
of the fringe under Habsburg control, suffered less from the wars. Here
the peasant towns remained primarily populated by Magyars.
The Habsburg power for some time to come was more successful in
negotiations than in frustrating military campaigns-for the. reconquest of
central Hungary. A five-year armistice beginning 1547, although en¬
cumbered by a humiliating annual tribute to the sultan, allowed for con¬
solidation of Ferdinand’s forces, just at the critical time when the emperor
was engaged in the military conflict with the Protestant princes. In 1551
after the Catholic forces in Germany were seemingly, though in the long
run not actually, successful, Ferdinand negotiated a new agreement with
Martinuzzi on behalf of Zapolya’s widow and his infant son at Gyula-
Feharvar (Karlsburg). The pact acknowledged for the first time Fer¬
dinand’s right to rule throughout all of Hungary including Transylvania
without reservations. Again the promises were broken, this time by the
younger Zapolya who moved back to Transylvania. Nevertheless, the
precedent of unrestricted recognition of the Habsburg succession in
Hungary was established. The outlook seemed to be all the more favor¬
able to Ferdinand as the conflict with the Turks shifted now into lower
gear. In 1562 peace was established with the Turks on the basis of the
status quo. It still included preservation of the annual humiliating “hon¬
orary” tribute.12
In 1564 Ferdinand died, and the next year Suleiman followed him to
the grave. The death of both men had a bearing on the Eastern question.
With the passing of the great sultan the main period of sixteenth-century
Turkish imperialist aggression had come to a temporary end. Ferdinand,
although not motivated by the urge of expansion but of defense of what
he considered legitimate rights, was resolved to take possession of all the
lands of the Hungarian crown. A conflict of long duration seemed in¬
evitable. But Ferdinand’s oldest son and successor, Maximilian II, took
an indifferent attitude to the eastern question. Deeply interested in the
reconciliation with Protestantism, and in the hour of his death in 1575
possibly a convert to the new faith himself, this man of peace was not
12 Bucholtz, ibid., vols. IV, V, VII; Eugen Csuday, Die Geschichte Ungarns
(Vienna, 1900), 2nd revised ed., II, 5-49. Mathias Bernath, Habsburg und die
Anfange der rumdnischen Nationsbildung (Leiden, 1972), pp. 3-20. Ladislas
Makkai, Histoire de Transylvanie (Paris, 1946), pp. 131-138. Mihaly Bucsay,
Geschichte des Protestantismus in Ungarn (Stuttgart, 1959), pp. 20 ff., 39 f., 58; on
the situation in Transylvania see also Chapter IV, Section B:b of this study.
interested in the active pursuit of any war. Neither from the viewpoint of
Habsburg succession in the east nor on ideological grounds—the grounds
of a fighting Catholic Church rather than his own concept of a kind of
universal Christianity—did the Turkish war in particular mean much to
him. The peace of Adrianopel of 1568 ended it.
In 1570 Maximilian dropped also claims to Transylvania in favor of the
younger Zapolya, who was followed soon by a far more aggressive succes¬
sor as prince of Transylvania, the able Stephen Bathory. In a royal elec¬
tion contested by the supporters of Emperor Maximilian II he became
king of Poland in 1575. A forced, prestigious marriage with the daughter
of the last surviving Jagiello ruler strengthened Bathory’s hands against
the Habsburgs in Hungary. After his death in 1586 various members of
the Habsburg dynasty vied unsuccessfully for election to the Polish
throne. Yet rule by a member of the powerful foreign dynasty was feared
by the majority of the membership of the Sejm and thus the chance
that the Habsburgs might become rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian realms
passed for good.
Meanwhile the Habsburg position in Hungary which had been fought
for with great efforts and some success by Ferdinand I weakened again.13
Several reasons account for this decline. In 1576 Maximilian was followed
by his oldest son, Rudolf II, politically one of the most ineffectual, though
one of the most cultured Habsburg rulers. Almost immediately he be¬
came involved in the political and religious problems of a fighting Protes¬
tant revolution rather than a mere religious Reformation in Bohemia.
Soon he was also challenged by ambitious members of the dynasty on the
issue of counterreformatory policies. Burdened with difficulties he was
unable to cope with, Rudolf felt he could not budge on the eastern ques¬
tion. When the Turks refused to honor any further the twice-renewed
peace of Adrianople of 1568,14 the emperor felt he had to accept the chal¬
lenge. The new Turkish war from 1593 to 1606 was at least as unsuccess¬
ful for the imperial side as any previous one, largely because of the lack
of ideological appeal of the new war but also because of the military
incompetence of Rudolf’s brother Matthias as commander in chief. Charles
V, with the support of Ferdinand, had succeeded in establishing some
13 Laszlo Makkai, in Ervin Pamlenyi, ed., Die Geschichte Ungarns, (Budapest,

1971), Chapter III, pp. 131-149; Makkai, Histone de Transylvanie, pp. 176-181;
Csuday, Die Geschichte Ungarns, II, 49-61; Eugen Horvath, Geschichte Siehen-
biirgens (Budapest, n.d.), pp. 51-80; Nicolae Iorga, Histoire des Roumains et de
leur Civilisation (Paris, 1920), pp. 164-180; and by the same author Histoire des
Roumains et de la Romanite Orientale (Bucarest, 1937), IV, 435-457.
14 In 1584 and 1592.
measure of solidarity between Catholic and Protestant princes in the
eastern campaigns. Rudolf failed completely in this respect. The Turkish
war during his reign did neither delay nor modify the conflicts with the
Protestant German princes, let alone with the aggressive Protestant estates
in the Bohemian and Austro-German hereditary lands. It merely weak¬
ened the power of the regime further and made its inefficiency and lack
of inner unity even within the ranks of the dynasty more obvious.
Except for the brief and sometimes exaggerated importance of the
events of 1683 the time had passed when the war against the Turks could
become a rallying cry for Christian Europe. Nevertheless, although the
war taken as a whole was a failure, it had some short-range redeeming
aspects. The Bathory princes, and with them the estates, primarily those
from the comitats east of the Tisza, recognized now in principle imperial
rule in Transylvania and the necessity of common action against the
Turks. Yet these agreements arrived at after several crises between 1589
and 1605 were not lasting. In 1605, Stephan Bocskay was elected prince
of Transylvania and a few weeks later was proclaimed prince of Hungary
by a substantial part of the Hungarian estates. This title as well as the
manner of his elevation ran counter to the precedents of Hungarian con¬
stitutional tradition. Yet the political constellation was unprecedented as
well. Bocskay previously had been a champion of cooperation with the
imperial forces. Realizing that a national kingdom would have to take
a stand against the Habsburgs, he now reversed his policy. This, however,
did not mean an outright pro-Turkish position but rather the attempt to
establish a Hungary as a “third force” between Habsburgs and Crescent.
The agreement of Vienna of 1606 between Matthias on behalf of his im¬
perial brother and Bocskay acknowledged the latter’s rule as prince of
Transylvania with the addition of three Hungarian comitats and in ex¬
change for a token of imperial suzerainty rather than sovereignty. Bocs¬
kay’s ultimate aim—not just rule of Transylvania but establishment of a
Hungary independent of both, imperial and Turkish rule—naturally was
not discussed. The subsequent peace of Zsitvatorok with the High Portal
still in the same year was based on the Vienna agreement. Apart from the
recognition of Transylvania as almost independent power, it included the
cession of some further formerly imperial territory to the Turks (Eger,
Esztergom, and Kanisza), but at least the annual tribute was replaced
by a one-time “honorary gift.” Peace with the Turks, but not with the
rebellious Christian anti-Habsburg forces east of the Tisza, was now
established for a half century. Inasmuch as the Transylvanian rulers could
challenge successfully imperial control of Hungary this meant that the
imperial position in Hungary remained as precarious as ever. Yet this
meant also that the one factor in the eastern power game that could have
decisively obstructed Habsburg power in Central and Eastern European
affairs in the coming decades, namely Ottoman power, remained neutral
during the Thirty Years’ War. The importance of this attitude, confirmed
in a treaty of 1627 to be valid for 21 years, can hardly be overrated.15
While thus relations with the High Portal appeared to be fairly
stabilized for many years to come, conditions in Transylvania remained
still in flux, highly unsatisfactory to the interests of Habsburg power. After
the sudden death of the outstanding leader Bocskay in 1607, Gabriel Bathory
was elected prince of Transylvania by the estates and recognized by the
Ottoman power. Archduke Matthias, since 1608 recognized as acting head
of the dynasty, crowned king of Hungary within a few months, king of
Bohemia in 1611, and emperor after the death of his brother in 1612, took
up the war against Bathory. He did so without success. Of Matthias, one
of the poorest of all Habsburg rulers, it may be said that he possessed all
the faults of his brother Rudolf II, but none of his redeeming qualities of
kindness and cultural interests. Not mentally deranged like his brother at
the end of his life, but slow-witted and just as indecisive in his actions,
first an opportunistic friend of Protestantism, and then an ardent but in¬
effective champion of the Counter Reformation, Matthias, an equally
inept and unreliable personality, stumbled from one misfortune to the
other. Saved seemingly by the bell of Bathory’s assassination in 1613 he
had as it turned out to cope with an even more formidable successor,
Bethlen Gabor (Gabriel Bethlen). In the peace of Nagyszombat (Tyrnau)
the emperor recognized him as prince of Transylvania, confirmed the
right of the estates to free election of the prince in exchange for recogni¬
tion of the union between Transylvania and Hungary, and the pledge of
support against the Turks.
Both these concessions were under existing conditions chiefly of nom¬
inal value. The peace of Zsitvatorok of 1606 with the Turks was in the
same year prolonged for twenty years and, all pledges to the contrary
notwithstanding, Gabor had himself elected “prince of Hungary” at the
diet of Pozsony in January 1620. The election as king, though without
subsequent coronation, followed hardly six months later. This event takes
15 Horvath, Geschichte Siebenbiirgens; Constantin Daicoviciu and Miron Con-

stantinescu, Breve Histoire de la Transylvanie (Bucarest, 1965), pp. 112-137;
Robert W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Roumanians (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 50-
116; Bernath, Habsburg und die Anfdnge der rumanischen Nationsbildung, pp. 3-
46.
us into the reign of Emperor Ferdinand II (1619-1637) and the first,
Bohemian, phase of the Thirty Years’ War. Gabor, as national Hungarian
prince and champion of Protestantism, tried to make use of the new em¬
peror’s troubles to his own advantage. In his endeavors to help the be¬
leaguered Czech Protestants he was foiled, however, by the invasion of
Transylvania initiated by the devout Catholic king of Poland, Sigmund
III Vasa, in the fall of 1619. Consequently, after -the victory of the im¬
perial forces in the battle of the White Mountain in November 1620,
Bethlen Gabor was forced to agree to a compromise with the emperor in
the peace of Nikolsburg (Mikulov). It secured him outside of Transyl¬
vania only the rule in several Hungarian comitats. In theory more im¬
portant was the fact that the emperor recognized religious freedom and
the estates’ constitution in Hungary. As it turned out, imperial concessions
in this respect were worth a little more, but not much more in Hungary
than in Bohemia. Subsequently they were considered to have been made
under duress. In a sense this was true, and because of the impact of
Turkish power in Hungary it was duress of a more lasting kind.
On the other hand it is equally true that Bethlen was not more reliable
as contracting partner than the emperor. In alliance with the Protestant
princes and undoubtedly in collusion with the Turks he resumed his
campaign against the imperial forces in northern Hungary in 1623. In
the face of the increasingly critical situation in Germany the emperor was
forced now to confirm the Nikolsburg agreement by the treaty of Vienna
in 1624 and to confirm it again two years later after a new attack on
Ferdinand’s forces. Bethlen Gabor, undoubtedly a distinguished ruler of
Hungary, died in 1629. Had he lived longer he might conceivably have
intervened decisively in the supreme crisis of the war on the side of the
Protestant powers. But his interests were exclusively focused on Hungar¬
ian affairs and his western policy was inconsistent and therefore such turn
of events must be considered speculative. Certainly the decisive force in
the east, the Turks, were as yet not interested in resumption of the war.
Only by the alliance of George I Rakoczy, prince of Transylvania after
1629, with the French in 1643 (treatY of Gyula-Fehervar renewed 1645 at
Munkacs) did the eastern question briefly again become part of the game
of European great-power politics. Peace between the emperor and
Rakoczy was established at Linz in 1645.16
16 Horvath, Geschichte Siebenburgens, pp. 81-100; Dominic C. Kosary, A

History of Hungary (Cleveland, 1941), pp. 92-130. Makkai, Histoire de Transyl-
vanie, pp. 224-237; Seton-Watson, A History of the Roumanians, pp. 116-119;
Bernath, Habsburg und die Anfange der rumanischen Nationsbildung, pp. 21-23.
Up to that point the question of Habsburg rule in Hungary was held

in abeyance and could not be decided before new clashes with the Turks
on a large scale. Only in conjunction with their policies does the Transyl¬
vanian question assume significance in international relations. What was
more important in this respect, the Habsburgs’ claims to all the lands of
the Hungarian crown were still maintained during the worst crisis of
Habsburg rule, namely the Bohemian revolt, to which we now turn.
One of the strongest integrating factors of Habsburg ascendancy in the
domains of the eastern crowns pledged to the dynasty in 1526-1527 was,
indeed, the stubborn resolve to maintain and to defend all allegedly legiti¬
mate claims even under the most adverse conditions.
E. The Thirty Years’ War;

Protestantism and the Habsburg cause
The Bohemian crisis led the Habsburgs straight into the Thirty Years’
War. This means that the major international conflict of the seventeenth
century, and perhaps altogether the major conflict in European history
between the Crusades and the Napoleonic wars, started as a domestic
afiFair within one of the Habsburg domains. There were two main
reasons why a struggle focused on the Habsburg claims to rule in
Bohemia established in 1526 led to an international conflagration. First,
the outcome of the Bohemian revolt was bound to upset the precarious
balance of the Religious Peace of Augsburg of 1555 between Protestant
and Catholic princes and the emperor; his interests were closely related to
those of the Catholic princes, but not identical with them. Secondly,
there was a crisis of confidence between these three forces, which meant
that any of them would take full advantage of the situation if and when
the occasion would present itself. Because the imperial side was vic¬
torious in the first phase of the conflict, the Protestant princes took to arms
to undo the new state of affairs. Yet they would undoubtedly have done
nothing to restore imperial rights if the elector palatine, the new king of
Bohemia, would have managed to keep himself in power in Prague.
In the context of the peculiar relationship between the Bohemian revolt
and a major international conflagration the question has to be raised,
whether the Thirty Years’ War is altogether part of the history of the
Habsburg lands in terms of the union of 1526-1527. In one sense it is.
Apart from its religious and national aspects, the Bohemian crisis, like
the Hungarian one, was an integration crisis. It shook to the core the
evolving new eastern Habsburg empire in the lands of the former Jagiello
crowns as in the ancient hereditary lands. This means a Habsburg empire
crisis. In another sense it is not. Certainly all Habsburg lands from Spain
to Hungary were affected by the war, but the same became true for the
whole of western and central Europe outside of the rule of the Habs-
burgs. Bohemia as foremost cause, main theater, and principal sufferer,
was most deeply involved. As for Hungary, only the Transylvanian ques¬
tion, largely in its denominational ramification, linked the country to the
events of the west, whereas the Turkish domination meant that Hungary
was shielded from the danger of becoming a main theater of war. The
hereditary lands were on the whole spared these horrors, too, but they
suffered from the general misery and from the lowering of living stan¬
dards in the trail of the war. This was felt all the more deeply since there
was a very short respite between the end of the Thirty Years’ War and the
resumption of hostilities with the Turks. But because in the Thirty Years’
War Bohemia was a foremost victim, and in the coming conflicts with
the High Portal the Hungarian lands as well, the economic and social
status of the hereditary lands became relatively speaking more favorable.
This was not a minor consequence of the great war and of its aftermath,
the new Turkish advance in 1663 into western Hungary.
The new Turkish offensive was in part motivated by the weakening of
the Habsburg position brought about by general exhaustion, and one
may therefore conclude that the great war was of long-range consequence
for the emperor’s personal domains. As for the short-range effect of the
war the situation looked different. With the exception of Bohemia for
the short period between the defenestration of the royal governors and
their secretary in 1618 and the battle of the White Mountain in 1620,
the eastern Habsburg lands did not influence the military and political
course of the war to the same extent as the empire, France, Spain, Den¬
mark, Sweden, the United Netherlands, or even Electoral Saxony, Brand¬
enburg, and Bavaria. Except for the so-called Bohemian period of the
war, Ferdinand II and, after his death in 1637, Fis son Ferdinand III
acted primarily not as rulers of the eastern Habsburg realms but as the
heads of the empire to defend, fight for, and reestablish Catholic suprem¬
acy and with it that of their house. Naturally the hereditary power of
the Habsburgs in Austria and subsequently in Bohemia and even Hun¬
gary, gave the emperor badly needed leverage in this conflict. Yet essen¬
tially the Thirty Years’ War as ideological as well as great-power struggle
was above all a conflict about the Holy Roman Empire. It is one of the
major features and consequences of the war that the Habsburgs acted
here primarily as emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, and only in the
second place as rulers of their own hereditary and quasi-elective realms.
i Due to the weakening of Emperor Ferdinand II’s German position and

: the relative strengthening of his status in the hereditary lands and the
eastern kingdoms, his, and even more so his successors’, priorities were
from now on reversed. In this sense the war represented indeed a divid¬
ing line not only in German history but also in that of the Habsburg
lands up to 1648, and after 1648 until the dissolution of the Holy Roman
Empire in 1806.
Just the same, there are numerous connections between the local pre¬
history of the war and its international implications. Concessions by the
pro-Protestant Emperor Maximilian II to the Bohemian Protestants as
early as 1575, particularly the appointment of so-called defen sores, to
represent the Protestants before the emperor strengthened the Reforma¬
tion in Bohemia. Mainly the beginnings of the counterreformatory drive
in the hereditary lands around 1580 laid the ground for the coming con¬
flict. This situation was accentuated by the fact that Archduke Ferdinand
in 1596 became sovereign in Inner Austria (Styria, Carinthia, Carniola,
Istria, and Trieste).17 With this accession the Counter Reformation
secured a leader, nearly as incompetent as the then chief of the house,
Emperor Rudolf II, as narrow-minded as his brother the future emperor
Matthias, but more energetic and stubborn than either. If and when
Ferdinand should succeed to the imperial crown, a decisive and disastrous
showdown with the Reformation appeared inevitable. The possibility of
diversionary activities against the Turks did not offer itself again. The
unstable situation in Transylvania represented merely a political side¬
show.
Even before Ferdinand was elevated to a wider sphere of power, the
ambitious and equally intolerant duke of Bavaria, Maximilian, his cousin,
began to destroy the precarious balance of the Religious Peace of Augs¬
burg in the empire, when he occupied the Protestant free city of Donau-
worth. The alliance between the Protestant estates representatives of
Bohemia, Moravia, and the hereditary lands in conjunction with the
Hungarian estates at Pozsony in February 1608 and confirmed in June
was a response to Maximilian’s action. Of greater importance on an inter¬
national scale was the union of the Protestant German states and free
cities in the same year. It was meant to be a defensive alliance against en¬
croachments of the status quo by the duke of Bavaria.
In 1609 Protestantism continued its counter-offensive. The hard-pressed
Rudolf II was forced to issue the famous Letter of Majesty, which
granted freedom of conscience to all inhabitants of Bohemia, and to
17 As ruler in Inner Austria the third of his name, as emperor the second.
48 History of the Hahsburg Empire
lords, knights, and royal chartered towns free public exercise of religion
and the right to erect places of public worship and denominational
schools.18 This concession meant an extension of Protestant rights of
various denominations far beyond the provisions of the peace of Augs¬
burg. Yet this accomplishment was made against the turn of the political
tide. This tide was represented by the Catholic League of bishops, im¬
perial cities, and estates under the leadership of the duke of Bavaria.
The conflict about the Jiilich-Cleve succession in west Germany saw the
Protestant Union and the Catholic League almost ready for a show¬
down. The uncertain situation created by the assassination of Henry IV of
France, in 1610, who had favored the Protestants on the issue of balance
of power, prompted both sides to abstain from immediate hostilities. Ac¬
cordingly they settled for a temporary compromise. The death of Rudolf
II in 1612, shorn of practically all powers after 1610, and the succession
of Matthias as emperor, distrusted by Catholics and Protestants almost
alike, did not help to mitigate the tense atmosphere.
Neither did the action of general diets which were meant to repre¬
sent all the lands involved in the union of 1526-1527. They were never
fully representative of their constituencies. One held at Budweis (Bude-
jovice) in Bohemia in 1614 refused the emperor help against Bethlen
Gabor. A more comprehensive assembly convoked in Linz in the same
year endorsed this position, largely out of fear to become involved in a
new conflict with the Turks. A further meeting in Prague in 1615 was
dominated by the demands of the Protestant Czech estates for wider
autonomy. Imperial authority appeared to be feeble in all these instances.
The issue that actually led to the defenestration of 1618 in Prague and
therewith to open revolt, was relatively minor, namely the question of
erection or elimination of Protestant churches built by Protestant subjects
on the estates of Catholic lords. The defenestration symbolized only the
surface of a much farther reaching conflict. Two secret treaties of March
and June 1617 between Ferdinand, then already the obvious heir apparent
to the imperial throne, with Philip III of Spain prepared the ground for
open conflict. In the first treaty Philip, in return for concessions in
western central Italy (Finale and Piombino), and for transfer of imperial
18 Issued for Bohemia in July 1609 and extended to Silesia the following month.
See Ernst W. Zeeden, Die Entstehung der Konfessionen: Grundlagen und Formen
der Konjessionsbildung im Zeitalter der Glaubens\dmpfe (Munich, 1965), pp. 161-
164; Count Franz von Liitzow, Bohemia, revised by H. A. Pichler (London, 1939),
pp. 223-237; Karl Brandi, Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation und
Gegenreformation (Munich, i960), pp. 453-458; R. J. W. Evans, Rudolf II and his
World (Oxford, 1973), pp. 43-115.
claims to the Alsace, pledged to be not a candidate for the soon to be

expected imperial election. This left the field free for Ferdinand. The
second treaty, a genuine succession pact, was even more specific. It recog¬
nized the right of Ferdinand as heir to the Habsburg eastern realms, even
though Philip III was more closely related to Matthias than Ferdinand.
This meant in effect the final and permanent separation of the Spanish
from the German branch of the Habsburg dynasty.19 These agreements
became very practical, when Ferdinand elected and crowned king of Bo¬
hemia in 1617 and of Hungary in 1618, succeeded Matthias, who died in
1619, as emperor as well. The ruler, firmly resolved for the final show¬
down with the Reformation, had laid the groundwork for the European
alliances with Spain and the Catholic League. Before his election as king
of Bohemia in 1617 Ferdinand had expressly pledged adherence to the
Letter of Majesty of Rudolf II, and thereby indicated that he was re¬
solved to obtain his aims, if necessary by force.
The open Bohemian revolt which followed the defenestration, the
establishment of an Estates Directory under Count Matthias Thurn as the
government of the land, gave Ferdinand his chance. Undoubtedly, the
Bohemian rebels, who had a good case in their protests against violation
of the Letter of Majesty, lost their lawful standing when they turned to
open revolt against the ruler to whom they had sworn allegiance. The
condemnation of this action was in the beginnings of the conflict not
restricted to Catholic Europe. The excessive imperial response, the con¬
comitant spread of a revolutionary appeal still based in part on an issue
of faith, but, above all, the threatening shift in the balance of power
between Reformation and Counter Reformation changed these feelings
within two years substantially.
The intransigence of Ferdinand’s new course was revealed when he
dismissed and confined Cardinal Khlesl, up to this time Matthias’ and his
own trusted political adviser and himself an ardent champion of counter¬
reformatory activities. Yet Khlesl, far superior in intelligence to Ferdinand
—a modest compliment to be sure—for reasons of expediency had coun¬
seled compromise with Protestants in Bohemia and for this reason was
19 A reservation, that the male lines of either branch would still precede the
female of the other, remained without practical importance up to the extinction of
the older Spanish line in 1700. See Gustav Turba, Die Grundlagen der pragma-
tischen Sanction, Vol. II: Die Hausgesetze (Vienna, 1912), pp. 99-119; Grete
Mecenseffy, “Habsburger im 17. Jahrhundert: Die Beziehungen der Hofe von Wien
und Madrid wahrend des dreiBigjahrigen Krieges,” in Archiv fur osterreichische
Geschichte (Vienna, 1955), Vol. 121:1, 4-10; Koenigsberger, The Habsburgs and
Europe 1515-1660, pp. 219-231.
removed. His dismissal is one of the personal changes which has not
found the attention in historiography it deserves. The cardinal’s fall in 1618
may possibly have changed the course of history profoundly. Whether
Khlesl could have prevented the Thirty Years’ War is, of course, un¬
certain; but that Ferdinand’s new, predominantly ideological policy, now
deprived of any restraint, made a major conflagration inevitable is ob-
• 20
VIOUS.
A discussion of the whole course of the Thirty Years’ War would
divert attention from the history of the new eastern Habsburg empire
that came gradually into being. Its direct interests stood out chiefly in
the earlier phases of the struggle; though they became less conspicuous,
they did not disappear in the later ones either. Major events in this
respect were the invalidation of Ferdinand’s election as king of Bohemia
in August 1619 by the estates, the following choice of the elector palatine
Frederick, the “winter king,” who had the additional support of revolting
estates not only in Silesia but indirectly by the Protestants lords and
knights in Lower- and above all Upper Austria. Ferdinand, certain of the
benevolent attitude of the great Catholic powers—Spain and for the time
being France as well—hoped for outside support if worst should come
to worst. This in addition to his uncontested strong faith were the main
reasons why he did not choose to yield in the face of the advance of
Thurn’s army close to the gates of Vienna and the impetuous demands
of the Upper and Lower Austrian estates for a Letter of Majesty compar¬
able to the one granted by Rudolf II. Ferdinand accordingly stood his
ground in the summer and spring 1619 against the combined but not con¬
certed attacks of the Bohemian forces under Thurn and the Hungarian
forces under Bethlen Gabor. Lack of planning on the part of his enemies,
reliance on the ultimate support of the great powers, and the offensive
spirit of the head of the Catholic League, Maximilian of Bavaria, who in¬
vaded Upper Austria, helped the emperor. Important was also the mili¬
tary prowess of his commander in chief, Count Tilly, which turned the en¬
gagement between the imperial forces and those of the new king of
Bohemia at the White Mountain, a few miles from Prague, into one of
the most decisive victories ever obtained by Habsburg troops against an
enemy.
20 Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte Osterreichs, III, 402-424; Liitzow, Bohemia,

pp. 253-265; Hans Sturmberger, Aufstand in Bohmen: Der Benginn des
dreifiigjahrigen Krieges (Munich, 1959), pp. 7-34. Cecily V. Wedgwood, The
Thirty Years War (London, 1944), pp. 76-82; Ernest Denis, Fin de Vlndependance
Boheme (Paris, 1890), II, 31-560.
Tur\s and Protestants 5/
Yet while the ominous political consequences of the battle were lasting,
the military impact was of short duration. Its implications in this respect
were superseded to a point already by the Danish intervention in the
war in 1623 and certainly by the Swedish one in 1630. What remained
as consequence until the end of the Habsburg empire was the permanent
alienation of the Czechs. It originated with the cruel vengeance of the
imperial authorities, the undoing of the Bohemian Reformation and na¬
tional autonomy by force, and it culminated in the new Bohemian con¬
stitution of 1627 which reduced the country practically to a province.
Long after the direct effects of these acts of repression had ceased and
were, in the course of many generations, in part even righted by law, the
indirect psychological ones remained.
Again it is necessary to distinguish between the direct and indirect im¬
pact of events. Even the spectacular rise of Wallenstein from a simple
colonel in 1617 to commander in chief of all imperial forces (1625), his
great success against the Danes and his indifferent one against the
Swedes, his subsequent dismissal in 1630 and reappointment in 1631, have
only indirect bearings on the foreign relations of the rising eastern
Habsburg power. This pertains also to Wallenstein’s deposition, outlaw¬
ing, and legalized murder in 1634 on acount of his vacillating, and, from
the imperial viewpoint, treasonable policies of secret negotiations with
the Swedes. The motivations and counter-motivations of these doings by
and against the great general are focused on imperial and not on Austrian,
Bohemian, or Hungarian politics. Wallenstein’s thinking and acting, or
calculated nonacting, were in essence counter-moves against the Edict
of Restitution of Ferdinand II in 1629. This act meant to undo the Protes¬
tant ascendancy in the empire after the peace of Augsburg in 1555. It
ordered consequently the return of all the estates of the Church, secu¬
larized in the interim period, and the continued restriction of the pro¬
visions of Augsburg to Lutheran Protestants alone. These conditions were
to be ever more strictly enforced. Yet all this made little difference for the
Habsburg hereditary lands and those of the Bohemian crown where the
Counter Reformation had reached its objectives against Lutherans and
Calvinists alike for several years before the issuing of the Edict of Restitu¬
tion of 1629. It made little difference either for the bulk of Hungarian
territory under Ottoman control and of Transylvanian control under
Bethlen Gabor and George Rakoczy.
The emperor had simply attempted to force German political and re¬
ligious conditions as far as possible into step with those in his own lands.
This meant as seen from a long-range viewpoint to bring them out of
step with western European developments. Yet for a long time Ferdi¬
nand’s repressive policies were as successful in his own realms as they had
failed on the German and European level. This is one of the major
tragedies of the history of the Habsburg lands, particularly in the cul¬
tural field. It is doubly tragic because conformism triumphed by strength
of enforcement and not persuasion. Faith, however genuine but brought
about by external pressures, carried the seeds of future intolerance and
intellectual stagnation in many fields.21
The Edict of Restitution represented the high tide of Ferdinand’s res¬
toration politics. He lived long enough to see the results of the Swedish
intervention of 1630 and the Swedish-French anti-imperial alliance of
1635. When he died in 1637 Catholic counterreformatory policies were
succeessful in his own lands apart from Hungary, yet they had failed be¬
yond his domains. Succeeded by a less stubborn and more peacefully in¬
clined son, Ferdinand III (1637-1657), the personality of the new bearer
of the Holy Roman crown added at least not to the difficulties, which had
to be overcome, before general peace could be established. This peace, the
Westphalian peace treaty of Munster and Osnabriick in 1648 did not
affect the Habsburg lands directly to a greater degree than the war, if
we except the devastations of Bohemia. True, the Habsburgs lost im¬
portant southwest German domains (particularly in the Alsace and the
Sundgau). Yet these domains in the Vorlande were not adjacent to the
main body of the Habsburg lands. The modifications of the Edict of Resti¬
tution of 1629, in reverting to the state of ecclesiastic property in 1624 22
and the long overdue extension of the provisions of the peace of Augsburg
to the Calvinist creed, were insignificant in territories where Protestants
had been expelled and Protestantism had been driven underground alto¬
gether. More important from a political viewpoint was the fact that the
sovereignty of the princes of the empire was extended. The right to con¬
clude alliances among the German princes themselves as well as with
foreign powers had to be recognized—save for covenants directed against
emperor and empire. Numerous alliances, not excluding even the for¬
bidden ones against emperor and empire, were concluded before the war.
Still it meant something, particularly for the smaller princes, to have
them legalized now to a point. Yet it meant nothing for the Habsburgs
in their double capacity as bearers of the crown and mightiest princes of
the empire. How could a Habsburg emperor who conspired against the
21 See also Hans Sturmberger, Kaiser Ferdinand II und das Problem des Ab-
solutismus (Munich, 1957), pp. 32-46.
22 This specific provision did not apply to the hereditary lands.
empire be controlled, if he was by far the most powerful prince of the

empire himself and ruler of wide territories beyond its boundaries? How
could he be curbed as prince if he refused to apply these curbs as em¬
peror? The old problem of Quis custodiet custodem? arose here in full
force again.
We have noted already the obvious, namely that course and outcome
of the war hurt Bohemia far more than the hereditary lands and thus
improved the latter’s relative status. This advantage—a partial advantage
only—was, however, for some time offset by the general economic set¬
back brought about by the war and the retarding cultural influence re¬
sulting from the victory of the Counter Reformation in the Habsburg
lands. Apart from this, one of the most important consequences of the war
for the Habsburg domains was the fact that the power of the ruler of the
eastern Habsburg lands was ever increasingly based on his status as
prince of the empire and not of emperor himself. A trend originating
already after the great interregnum under Rudolf, the patron of Habs¬
burg rule in the hereditary lands in the thirteenth century gained now
renewed strength. This trend diverted the Habsburg power to some
extent from German interests outside its hereditary domains, and there¬
fore meant a strengthening of the bonds between the realms of the eastern
empire in the making since 1526.
CHAPTER III
An Empire Evolves and Asserts Jtself
- (1648-1748) "
A. Common succession and common

INSTITUTIONS
A great Austrian historian, Oswald Redlich, perceived the rise of the

Habsburg empire to a genuine great-power position during the period
from 1700 to 1740.1 This interpretation is justified if power is measured by
results: the position of the Habsburg power as it evolved from the con¬
flagrations in western and Central Europe of the first half of the eigh¬
teenth century and from the spectacular though short-lived successes in
the east throughout the first part of that period. But if we measure the
rise of the Habsburg lands not by success but by determinant conditions
and objectives we may antedate this period to the outcome of the Thirty
Years’ War.
Whether this war had weakened the Catholic cause on the whole may
be controversial; that it had weakened the Holy Roman Empire is un¬
contested. Correspondingly, the power of a Habsburg emperor after 1648
had to rely more on his sovereignty in the Austrian hereditary lands and
the lands of the Bohemian and Hungarian crowns, which he considered
now as hereditary possessions as well. In regard to the Bohemian crown,
Ferdinand II had fully succeeded in 1627: according to the Vernewerte
Landesordnung the right of the estates to elect the king was forfeited and
1 Oswald Redlich, Das Warden einer Grofimacht: Osterreich 1700-1J40 (Baden,

1938). H. I. Bidermann, Geschichte der osterreichischen Gesamtstaatsidee 1526-
1804 (Innsbruck, 1867-1889), II, 8-27.
54
An Empire Evolves 55
could be reestablished only if the royal house, male and female members
alike, should become extinct.
After 1648 every major move of the emperor had to be based exclu¬
sively on the strength resulting from the rule in his hereditary lands and
those of the eastern crowns. The success of this dynastic policy was not
spectacular at least until 1683, but it was still the basic premise for the
attainment of a great-power position. The legal foundations of this de¬
velopment were the provisions of the Westphalian peace treaty which
pertain to the extension of the sovereign rights of the German princes in
foreign relations. The political consequences became apparent in the
first years after the reestablishment of peace. The decreased dependence of
the princes on emperor and empire in international relations strengthened
their position, yet this did not mean that their gain was the emperor’s
loss. Actually the first among the princes, the Habsburg ruler, gained
most, because he became ever more independent from obligations to the
other princes and from their concomitant interference in imperial matters.
However, he secured this position not as emperor but as the most power¬
ful prince in the empire and established thus a precedent for his peers.
Such increase in strength however, held not true in every respect. In
1653-1654 the imperial diet in Regensburg met for the last time as a genuine
assembly of estates which could still be called a decision-making body.
The new body, the permanent imperial diet (Immerwahrende Reichstag),
which opened in 1663 and remained, in theory, in continuous session until
the end of the empire in 1806, was a mere deliberative assembly of repre¬
sentatives of princes, secular and ecclesiastic lords, and imperial cities.
This does not mean that the empire as image in the realms of ideas and
the imperial crown as prestige-forming institution had lost their signifi¬
cance, but does mean that the new diet gave little additional leverage to
Habsburg power in imperial domestic matters.2
Another factor related to the rise of Habsburg power as distinguished
from the dynasty’s imperial position was political. The designs of Louis
XIV of France in conjunction with the decline of Spain involved the
Austrian Habsburgs increasingly in western European politics. The re¬
newed conflict with the Turks represented a struggle for survival, that
with the French one for supremacy in Europe as well. In this sense we
2 Fritz Hartung, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte vom 15. Jahrhundert bis zur

Gegenwart (Stuttgart, 1950), pp. 150-156; Heinrich Brunner and Ernst Heymann,
Grundnss der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (Munich, 1927), pp. 289-291; Adam
Wolf, Durst Wenzel Lob\owitz, (Vienna, 1869), pp. 51-104.
may consider the history of the Habsburg lands after 1648 as incipient
evolution of the great-power position, even though the amalgamation of
administrative institutions from 1648 to 1748 was meager in content and
slow in speed. More important during this era was the gradual establish¬
ment of a common succession in the German and eastern Habsburg
lands. This succession brought about a limited centralization of gov¬
ernment, although as yet imperfectly reflected in common institutions.
The Habsburgs from the time of their succession to the Bohemian and
Hungarian crowns had claimed hereditary rule there as much as in the
hereditary lands themselves. This could be materialized in regard to the
Bohemian crown after the battle of the White Mountain in 1526. In
Hungary the same result was achieved only at the diet of Pozsony
(Pressburg) in 1687 after decisive victories against the Turks were won.
Yet here the rights of the estates for free election of the king had lapsed
only in case the male line of the royal house would become extinct, since
female succession was not recognized. In the hereditary realms of the Habs¬
burg succession had remained uncontested. No election, or even assent of
the estates in the Austro-German lands was necessary; but there were
other weighty impediments to an uncontested succession.
The succession order, as it stood at the end of the reign of Ferdinand I
and for two generations afterward, pertained to the dynasty as a whole
and not to a generally recognized law of primogeniture, that is, succes¬
sion by the closest male descendant. Inasmuch as the succession in the
Bohemian and Hungarian lands approximated politically that in the
hereditary lands we find here a major obstacle to the establishment of
a unified empire, since the lands to be bequeathed did not automatically
revert to individual persons.
When Ferdinand I died in 1564 the lands under the rule of the Ger¬
man (eastern) line of the Habsburgs were divided between his three sons
according to the Hausordnung of 1554. Maximilian II, his eldest son and
successor as emperor (1564-1576), became king in Bohemia and Hungary 3
and sovereign in Upper and Lower Austria. The second son inherited
the rule in Tirol and in the southwest German Vorlande, the third Styria,
Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia, Trieste, and Istria. When the Tirolian line
became extinct in 1595 its possessions were divided between the two others.
Yet this was no final determination of the issue. Only in 1665 were all
3 Recognized as king and future ruler in Bohemia already in 1549 and crowned
as king of Hungary in 1563. Prior to the death of the ruling sovereign such acts of
state, like in the Holy Roman empire, established, of course, only the right to suc¬
cession not as yet the actual succession to the throne.
domains of the dynasty united in the same hand, that of the emperor.
The principle of indivisibility of the Habsburg possessions under the em¬
peror’s hereditary rule and the sole and only succession by primogeniture,
was established in the will of Ferdinand II in 1621.4 Whatever the short¬
comings of the narrow-minded Ferdinand were, he realized that a strictly
regulated succession under the emperor as head of the house was impor¬
tant to give cohesion to his disparate lands. To achieve it by succession
pacts seemed to be easier than by the development of common institutions.
Ferdinand II failed in institutions and succeeded only partly in a unified
succession. One loophole in the latter could be plugged temporarily, when
the Hungarian Reichstag of 1687 was forced to recognize the hereditary
Flabsburg succession in the male line. This meant, however, that the
right of free elections of the king would still resort to the estates in case
the male lines should become extinct. At the end of the seventeenth cen¬
tury this contingency had become a definite possibility for all Habsburg
lands. The situation had become complicated by the death of the last
Spanish Habsburg, King Charles II, in 1700 which led to thirteen years
of major European conflagration and subsequent international crisis di¬
rectly related to it at least until 1748. This international aspect of the suc¬
cession problem will be discussed in the context of international relations.
At this point we are concerned with the impact of the question on the
eastern Habsburg lands. Frequently one cause is singled out as main
reason for the establishment of a unified succession system, namely the
need to secure the succession of the oldest daughter of Emperor Charles
VI, Maria Theresa, born in 1717. Actually, the whole problem except for
its latest stages was unrelated to the issue of Charles VFs male or female
descendancy.
As noted, the succession question became acute between the death of
the last male Habsburg in Spain, King Charles II in 1700 and that of the
last male German Habsburg, Emperor Charles VI in 1740. After it was
decided in Vienna, that the younger son of Emperor Leopold, Archduke
Charles, should claim the whole Spanish inheritance in defiance of the
4 There are several equally valid interpretations of the principle of primogeniture.

In the narrowest sense it would mean succession by the oldest son. Somewhat
farther go the concepts of succession in a sideline. This means that in case there
are no living direct heirs, the surviving oldest brother and his descendants, re¬
spectively, if there are no brothers, male first cousins and their sons etc. would
qualify. This latter, wider concept of primogeniture was the one acknowledged in
the will of Ferdinand. The even broader concept of female succession, if the male
lines should become extinct was not recognized by the emperor. On the whole ques¬
tion see Gustav Turba, Die Grundlagen der pragmatischen Sanction, II, 75-125.
5# History of the Habsburg Empire
will of Charles II of Spain a pactum mutuae successionis between the Ger¬
man line and the new Spanish line was established in some secrecy in
1703. Translated from the legal into the political sphere this meant that in
case the German Habsburg claim to the Spanish inheritance could be
successfully maintained against the French Bourbons, Emperor Leopold
I (1657-1705) was willing to recognize the separation of the Spanish
royal succession from the German (Austrian) -Hungarian-Bohemian im¬
perial line. If, however, either of the two lines—the German now repre¬
sented by Leopold’s older son Joseph, the Spanish by his younger son
Charles—should become extinct, either one was to be succeeded by the
other. In no other case should Spain and the possessions of the German
line be united under one scepter as they were under Charles V after
1518. Provisions concerning a possible new division of the eastern posses¬
sions were added in favor of Leopold’s younger son, in case he should fail
to succeed to the Spanish crown. Also the female succession after the
male in Spain as well as in the Austrian hereditary lands was recognized.
These agreements, however, were conjectural in several respects. The at¬
tempts to establish a new Habsburg line in Spain failed; equally unfore¬
seen, the contingency of compensation of the claimant to the Spanish
crown, Leopold’s younger son Charles by his older brother Joseph, did not
arise. Emperor Joseph died in 1711, which meant that the German eastern
inheritance reverted now to Charles, as Emperor Charles VI (1711-1740).5
In 1713, when Charles VI announced publicly before the chief dig¬
nitaries of his realms his intentions to establish a common order of suc¬
cession for all Habsburg lands, the main issue of the war of the Spanish
succession was practically settled. The rule over a much reduced Span¬
ish empire would revert to Philip of Anjou (Philip V), a grandson of
Louis XIV, and not to the new Habsburg emperor. Charles, largely on
emotional grounds, refused to recognize this fact formally before 1720.
Just the same, the issue was clear. A common order of succession in the
Habsburg lands could no longer pertain to common or mutual succession
pact in Spain and the German eastern orbit.
Charles wanted to establish the precedence of the succession of his own
descendants before those of his deceased older brother Joseph. Charles at
that time had every reason to hope for a male heir, and the question of
the female succession was therefore as yet moot.6 But the decisive question
of the order of common succession for all Habsburg domains remained.
5 Turba, II, 136-157.

6 Actually Charles had a son Leopold, who was born and died in 1716, the
year before Maria Theresa’s birth.
Common institutions were most imperfect and expected to remain so; the
succession question, therefore, was of overriding importance for the evolu¬
tion of an adequately integrated Habsburg empire. In fact this issue re¬
tained its importance to the end of the empire. The great state acts,
such as the proclamation of the Austrian empire of 1804 and the Austro-
Hungarian Compromise of 1867 were anchored in the Pragmatic Sanc¬
tion. Indeed, had the heir apparent, Archduke Francis Ferdinand,
murdered in Sarajevo in June 1914, acceded to the throne, the interpreta¬
tion of the Austrian and Hungarian version of the order of succession
might have led to a new empire crisis.7
The passing of the Pragmatic Sanction had to be channeled through a
cumbersome process of submission to the estates in the various Habs¬
burg lands. The Austrian and Bohemian estates accepted the Sanctio
pragmatica lex perpetua valitura in 1720, the Croatian in the following
year. The latter declared their willingness to submit the act to the king
of Hungary, but not to the kingdom of Hungary, a distinction, which in
the era of revised Slavonic nationalism acquired significance.8 More dif¬
ficult were the negotiations with the Hungarian and Transylvanian estates,
who in substance confirmed the legislation in 1722-1723. The hereditary
succession as established by the diet of Pozsony of 1687 remained in force,
but the requirement of a coronation oath to uphold Hungarian laws and
liberties was further tightened.9 The estates of the Austrian Netherlands
and of Lombardy followed in 1724 and 1725. According to this legislation
the male line was always to precede the female line, but the latter had
now a right to succession in case no male heirs existed. In as much as
the last child of Charles VI, a daughter, was not born until 1725, the
question of female succession was even now far less a motivating factor
for the whole legislation than the wish to establish the precedence of the
7 According to the Hungarian version of the Pragmatic Sanction the offspring of

the morganatic (non equal) marriage between Archduke Francis Ferdinand and
Countess Sophie Chotek (later Duchess of Hohenberg) would have been entitled
to succeed in Hungary, but not in Austria. Even though Francis Ferdinand re¬
nounced the rights to the succession of his descendants for Austria and Hungary—
in both respects undoubtedly in good faith—the issue was not really settled. The
assassination made, of course, any further speculations purely academic. See also
Turba, ibid., I, 44-47, II, 251-257; and by the same author, Die pragmatische
Sanction mit besonderer Beruc\sichtigung der Lander der Stephans\rone (Vienna,
1906), pp. 28-31.
8 The principle was embodied in the Croatian dietal declaration of 1712. See
Stanko Guldescu, The CroatianSlavonian Kingdom i^2&-iyg2 and Turba, Die
Grundlagen, II, 402-403.
9 See Heinrich Marczali, Ungarisches Verjassungsrecht (Tubingen, 1911), pp. 14-
16, 58-63.
6o History of the Habsburg Empire
offspring of the ruling emperor. Yet this aim, too, was not nearly as im¬
portant as the establishment of a common order of succession in all
Habsburg lands as foundation of the new great power’s gradual integra¬
tion.
This, of course, was a long-range objective. The short-range goal,
namely the incessant, but largely vain efforts by Charles VI to obtain
recognition of this legislation by the European powers appeared more
important. This problem dominated the European diplomatic and martial
scene for decades. The dire consequences of the Pragmatic Sanction will
have to be taken up at a later point. Here we note a domestic side effect,
namely the required estates’ cooperation to enact the succession legisla¬
tion. Except for Hungary, Charles might well have been able to dispense
with this cumbersome procedure. He probably could have put it through
simply by imperial decree. If he-did not choose to do so, the motivation
was certainly not one of preference for representative government. The
emperor just wanted to play it safe, and in foreign relations excessively
so, according to most critics. In domestic matters this particular effect
of the succession policy was not necessarily injurious to Austrian interests.
In Bohemia it helped to modify the harsh policies introduced by Ferdi¬
nand II after the battle of the White Mountain. In the other Habsburg
lands—not only in Hungary—the concept of separate historic-political
entities was undoubtedly strengthened. Whether this could be con¬
sidered a development for better or worse depends on the evaluation of
estates’ policies, which will be discussed in the following chapter.
At this point we will consider the process of administrative and legisla¬
tive integration of the Habsburg lands, whose slow and inadequate de¬
velopment was a primary reason for the complexity of Charles’ policy
concerning the succession. It was handicapped by the ties of the hereditary
lands to the empire and by the tradition of independence and the struggle
for the preservation of autonomous institutions in the lands of the
Bohemian and Hungarian crowns. In regard to the Bohemian realm
the events following the battle of the White Mountain produced a
measure of administrative amalgamation brought about by external force.
As for the Croatian-BIungarian-Transylvanian orbit the opposite was true.
The prolonged continuation of direct Turkish occupation or Turkish con¬
trolled autonomy estranged the institutional development of these lands
further from Habsburg rule.
It is difficult to comprise this rule as yet under any other common de¬
nominator than the dynasty itself. Common administrative institutions
changed little from the end of the reign of Ferdinand I to the beginnings
of Maria Theresa’s reforms, roughly at the end of the Austrian succession
war in 1748. The Secret Council, the supreme agency dealing with im¬
portant administrative matters, was considerably enlarged under Ferdi¬
nand II, and further expanded to an assembly of more than 60 coun¬
cillors under Leopold I. This meant a transition from genuinely de¬
liberative to largely honorary functions. The place of the Council was
taken over now by the Secret Conference, which under Joseph I was
narrowed further to an executive committee on foreign and military af¬
fairs, whereas judicial matters were left to the Secret Council, otherwise
now a body of reduced significance
Likewise, the General Court Chancery lost in importance, when
Ferdinand II assigned agenda of the hereditary lands and of the dynasty
to the new Austrian Court Chancery. Altogether the division of the
Austro-German eastern Habsburg realms after the death of Ferdinand I
among his three sons led also to departmentalization of the functions of
the Supreme War Council, and the financial affairs handled by the Court
Chamber. Separate administrative bodies were created and revamped
under Ferdinand II and Leopold I. Not until Joseph I was a measure of
centralization reintroduced. The Austrian Court Chancery became now
the supreme administrative agency under the direction of two court
chancellors. Under Charles VI these changes were formalized. One sec¬
tion of the Chancery dealt now in essence with foreign and military af¬
fairs and those of the imperial house, the other with administrative and
judicial matters. In these latter respects cognizance had to be taken in
varying degrees of the Flungarian demands for separate administrative
and judicial institutions. The Finance Conference had supervisory and
policy-making functions but not directly administrative executive ones.
Progress could be acknowledged here only in the fact, that the Court
Chamber after 1713 was organized according to subject matter and not
only to territorial requirements. Basic issues of taxation and recruiting of
military forces were still handled separately in the individual lands.
The same was true for the bulk of judicial agenda.10
To sum up: Integration of the Habsburg lands was blocked by long
wars in the west and even longer ones in the east. Although the regimes
of Turkish satellite princes or outright occupation by foreign troops were
obstacles, the lack of progress in administrative integration after more
than two centuries of joint Habsburg rule in the hereditary lands and
10 Huber and Dopsch, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte, pp. 181-184, 186-191,

193-205; Hellbling, Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte, pp.
248-282.
those territories of the eastern crowns, not directly exposed to enemy at¬
tacks in east and west, was extraordinary. This can be understood only,
if we realize the different traditions of the lands, and the divisive issues
of reformatory and counterreformatory struggles.
The integration of the Habsburg realms cannot be judged by the
evolution of common administrative institutions alone. Social and in¬
tellectual factors will be discussed in the following chapter. At this
point we are concerned with the impact of common defense needs and
evolving common political interests of the peoples under Habsburg rule.
These needs and interests developed without the rulers paying appropriate
heed to the consent of the governed, which had tragic consequences.
B. Resumption of the Turkish wars
The resumption of the Turkish wars in the third quarter of the seven¬
teenth century cannot be attributed to the same kind of imperialist ag¬
gression that prevailed under Suleiman the Magnificent in the first and
second quarter of the sixteenth century. The differences were of a twofold
nature. First, the Turks remained remarkably quiet during the Thirty
Years’ War, when they would have had the advantage of French, Swed¬
ish, and German Protestant support, and when their advance would have
been particularly dangerous to the imperial cause. This is not to say that
the High Portal did not make use of the critical situation, which the
Habsburg power faced in the west, to enhance the Turkish position in the
Hungarian-Transylvanian orbit, but the Turkish moves are minor if
compared with the Turkish offensives launched between 1526 and 1529.
Turkish policy between 1663 (the beginnings of the first Turkish war of
Leopold I) and 1683 (the turning of the tide in the east, the lifting of
the second siege of Vienna) was not based on long-range Ottoman de¬
signs for further conquest in the west but on endeavours to maintain the
Turkish position in Hungary that had lasted for nearly one and a half
century.
Second, Suleiman II took advantage of the difficult imperial position
brought about by the conflict between emperor and those German princes
who supported the Reformation. Nevertheless this was a war entirely in
its own right, which presumably would have been fought anyway, ir¬
respective of the general European constellation. Only with the Franco-
Turkish alliance of 1536, the first nonideological diplomatic alliance of its
kind between a Christian and non-Christian empire, did the Turkish
wars become part of the game of European power politics. Even then
this was true only to a limited extent. The conflagrations in the east
throughout the century, from the death of Suleiman II in 1566 to the out¬
break of the first Turkish war under Leopold I in 1663, changed intermit¬
tently the structure of Turkish domination in Hungary and the sover¬
eignty in Transylvania. Yet the extent of Turkish control throughout this
period remained stable. The situation in the west during the Huguenot
wars and those of the Fronde in France was too diffuse to allow for a
concerted plan of cooperation between two great continental flanking
powers.
When Louis XIV began to rule in his own right, all this changed even
without the formal conclusion of a new alliance with the Turks. The
struggle for a lineup of European powers under the leadership of France
had begun. From now on, major decisions were bound to occur in the
west. In this context, the Turkish wars represented a mere sideshow,
serious enough for the Habsburg power, but a secondary theatre of opera¬
tion just the same.
Because of the impact of these wars on the evolution of the Habsburg
empire in international and domestic affairs, it is necessary to survey their
conduct and results. They declined in importance only from 1718, after
the peace of Passarowitz (Passarovic), to the end of the last Austro-
Turkish war in 1791. By that time the Ottoman power had practically
ceased to belong to the concert of European great powers. Yet for the two
centuries when the Ottoman empire codetermined European affairs ac¬
tively, the Turkish question has to be discussed on two levels: the rela¬
tions between Ottoman and Habsburg power, and the impact of the
Turkish wars on the eastern Habsburg realms. We will consider first the
relationship between Ottoman and Habsburg power.
The motivations for the resumption of the Turkish wars in 1663—
Turkish or imperial aggressive designs, autonomy of Transylvania,
French threat in the west—may be contested as either individual or col¬
lective causes. Uncontested is the fact that these wars developed at least a
limited feeling of cohesion between the Habsburg realms. This feeling
could not have been brought about speedily in any other way than by
fighting a power which was clearly different from all historical-political
entities of the Habsburg lands. As a result, the Habsburg armed forces
were forged into the strongest centripetal factor in the history of the
evolving empire. In the battles in the Hungarian plains these forces
had become a powerful, well-organized military instrument. It is here
also, where the great Austrian military commanders rose to mastery of
their profession. Yet only few of them were later able to use their eastern
experience in the struggle against the French in the west.
64 History of the Hubs burg Empire
This was hardly accidental. The Habsburg armies were trained to

compete in the wide-open spaces of the plains with a strongly motivated
and disciplined but technologically somewhat backward foe. They were
not in step with military forces modernized by the reforms of Louis XIV
under his great minister of war Louvois and his brilliant chief military
engineer Vauban. Nevertheless, the second half of the seventeenth and
the first two decades of the eighteenth century were the times when an
Austrian generalship evolved, whose performance was never to be sur¬
passed.
Of previous military leaders, Wallenstein in the Thirty Years’ War was
a man of brilliance as military organizer and in a diffuse way also as
political general. Neither his predecessor, Count Johannes Tilly, nor his
lieutenants Octavio, Prince (Count) Piccolomini and Count Matthias
Gallas were more than competent field commanders, who showed neither
the daring nor the ingenuity of Gustavus Adolphus or Conde. The
Turkish war of 1663-1664, fought over the issue whether Transylvania
should remain a Turkish satellite state, gave a new imperial general,
Count Raimund Montecuccoli, a chance to show himself as organizer,
tactician, and strategist. In the battle of St. Gotthard (1664) in western
Hungary, close to the Styrian border, he performed brilliantly and pre¬
vented a Turkish invasion of the hereditary lands. Yet the unpredictable
situation in the west, the unrest in Hungary and Transylvania, and the
economic crisis in the empire and hereditary lands, forced Leopold I to
conclude a rather unfavorable but under existing conditions warranted
negotiated peace at Vasvar (Eisenburg) in 1664. It gave Nagyvarad
(Grosswarclein) and Ersekujvar (Neuhausel) in southeast central Hun¬
gary to the Turks. Above all, Turkish suzerainty in Transylvania was
preserved.
The Habsburg cause had received a setback at a time when foreign re¬
lations were relatively favorable for them. The emperor had the support
of a contingent of imperial troops and even of a small corps of French
troops, and yet the political results were dismal. The conspiracy against
the imperial government in the parts of Hungary under Habsburg con¬
trol in the following years and the change of relations with France from
a pending to an active threat made the prospects of the Habsburg cause
appear more critical than in 1683, when the second Turkish war began
under Leopold I. It could not be foreseen twenty years earlier that it
could be brought to an amazingly successful conclusion in 1699.
Leopold’s position was indeed critical. The Turkish army, assembled
in 1683 in Adrianople, was prepared for a major push against the west.
The alliance of the emperor with King John Sobieski of Poland did not
assure him unequivocally of strong support and the same was true for the
pacts with the western German imperial estates. Reliance on French
nonintervention on the basis of Christian solidarity in a war against the
infidels was questionable. Thus major odds were staked against the
Habsburg emperor, when the war began.11
As noted in the introductory chapter, the Turkish advance to the gates
of Vienna in the critical summer of 1683 posed presumably not the same
decisive threat to Christian Europe, which had existed at the time of
Charles Martel’s victory against the Moslems at Tours in 732 or even
Count Niklas Salm’s defense of Vienna against Suleiman the Magnifi¬
cent’s attack in 1529. Still, the situation was serious enough, when the
Turkish armies swept through Hungary in 1683. Vienna might have
been taken, the emperor’s armies and the incipient Habsburg eastern
power could have been destroyed. The final showdown, not so much be¬
tween Crescent and Cross, but between Near and Middle East and West¬
ern and Central Europe would have depended almost exclusively on the
defensive power of France, to be supported possibly by the rising Russian
empire under Peter the Great. Not the victory of the Cross, but main¬
tenance of a politically viable Central and eastern Central Europe was
the major consequence of this great war.
It is a measure of the emperor’s curious mixture of tenacity, stubborn¬
ness, faith in adversity and, as it turned out, unrealistic harshness in vic¬
tory that Leopold, like his grandfather Ferdinand II, accepted such major
challenge against great odds. The siege of Vienna from July 14 to Septem¬
ber 12, 1683 represents a heroic chapter in Austrian history. Credit should
go to the citizenry under the mayor Andreas von Liebenberg, who did
not live to see victory, the commander Count Rudiger von Starhemberg,
and the charitable but bigoted bishop (later cardinal) Count Kollonitsch.
There is disagreement, whether chief credit for the relief of the city should
go to the colorful and daring Polish King John Sobieski as at least hon¬
orary commander in chief or to the leader of the imperial forces, the em¬
peror’s brother-in-law, Duke Charles of Lorraine. The latter was as cir¬
cumspect a commander as the grand vizier and leader of the Turkish
forces Kara Mustapha was a negligent one.12 Since Sobieski felt slighted
11 Csuday, Die Geschichte Ungarns, II, 126-172; Kosary, A History of Hungary,

pp. 127-132. Bela Kopeczi, La France et la Hongrie au debut du XVIII siecle
(Budapest, 1971).
12 On the siege of Vienna see Thomas M. Barker, Double Eagle and Crescent:
Vienna’s Tur\ish Siege and its Historical Setting (Albany N.Y., 1967) and Rein¬
hold Lorenz, Tur\enjahr 1683 (Vienna, 1933); see also Otto Forst de Battaglia, Jan
by the emperor’s subsequent disregard for his decisive contribution to
victory, he withdrew to his home country in December 1683, and the
architect of the later successful campaign in Hungary was Charles of
Lorraine. Protected by an imperial armistice agreement with France
(1648), the so-called Holy League with Poland and the Republic of Venice
in the same year, and a reinsurance treaty against possible French attack
with Brandenburg (1686), the Habsburg forces advanced successfully
into central Hungary. In September 1686 heavily fortified Buda was taken
by the Duke of Lorraine, and in 1687 a decisive victory was achieved in the
field at Nagy-Harsany, close to the battlefield of Mohacs of unblessed
memories. With these two victories the back of the Turkish power in
central Hungary was permanently broken. In 1688 imperial forces under
the command of the elector of Bavaria, Max Emanuel, Leopold’s son-in-
law, supported by margrave Louis of Baden, took for the first time Bel¬
grade, gate to the core area of the Ottoman empire and symbol of Turkish
threats to the west. Yet the fact that the war was for a brief period
carried into undisputed enemy territory, was of more than symbolic sig¬
nificance. This victory showed that the balance had turned in the east. It
was to serve the emperor in good stead in the ever-threatening situation
in the west.
The change in the Hungarian constitution brought about by the em¬
peror’s insistence at the diet of Pozsony in 1687-1688 and the establish¬
ment of an imperial protectorate in Transylvania some months later will
be discussed in the following section. Yet it is necessary to state at this
point that the great opportunities for genuine integration of the recon¬
quered lands with the bulk of the Habsburg power in Central Europe
were largely offset by Leopold’s ruthless attempts to undo 150 years of
history and to enforce a victory of the Counter Reformation in Hungary
at a time when the intolerance of this movement had otherwise gradually
abated in Central Europe.
During the war of the League of Augsburg (1689-1697), in which the
emperor tried with a limited degree of success to stem the tide of French
imperialist advance, the consequences of the failure to pacify Hungary
became apparent. In 1689, Margrave Louis of Baden, Charles of Lor¬
raine’s successor, vainly advanced far into Serbia. Unrest in Transylvania
commenced again. Belgrade was retaken by the Turks in 1690, but in
1691 Louis of Baden could still achieve a major victory at Szalankamen
Sobies\i: Konig von Polen (Zurich, 1946) pp. 157-255 and Janusz Wolinski,
“Konig Johann Sobieski und die Schlacht bei Wien 1683,” in La Pologne, au XII
Congres International des Sciences Histonques a Vienne (Warsaw, 1965), pp. 49—62.
(Slankamen) where the Tisza flows in the Danube. Yet in regard to the
over-all pacification of Hungary, concessions to the Hungarian Serbs and
; the grant of a limited autonomy to Transylvania were of little avail.
Whether cooperation with the Magyars would have been helpful, is an
< open question since no concessions were offered to them. In 1695 tîe
c perial forces were defeated at Lugos in eastern Hungary. As a consequence
of the military crisis the young French prince, Eugene of Savoy, who had
distinguished himself in imperial service since 1683, obtained now command
in Hungary. In the battle of Zenta, adjacent to the southern Tisza, Eugene
won finally a decisive victory against the Turks. It freed Hungary except
for the Banat of Temesvar, as agreed upon in the peace of Karlowitz
(Karlocza, Karlovici) in 1699. Further Turkish concessions had to be
made to Venice and Poland. Although the Turkish wars had not ended,
and neither the territorial integrity nor the domestic pacification of the
kingdom was assured, a permanent success had been scored. Never again
could the Ottoman power single-handed threaten the existence of Habs-
burg power.13
With the physically unprepossessing French prince of Italian origin,
Eugene of Savoy, a new brilliant figure enters the Austrian and soon the
international scene. The greatest general ever to serve the interests of the
Habsburgs, he also became one of the leading statesmen and patrons of
arts—a personality who splendidly fitted the colorful frame of the
Baroque era. Eugene, who came perhaps closer to the concept of an Habs-
burg empire-wide hero 14 than any other great Austrian, won his Euro¬
pean reputation in the west in the war of the Spanish Succession (1701-
1714). His popularity was based on his victories in the east. The years of
revolutionary risings in Hungary from 1703 to 1711 saw his spectacular
activities in the west. Yet after the termination of the war of the Spanish
Succession with its brilliant victories and indifferent political outcome for
the Habsburg cause, Austrian interests turned again eastward, and in
1716 a new Turkish war began.
The question of who started it is controversial. The High Portal, after
the defeat at Zenta, appeared reluctant to intervene in the great European
war of succession which began in 1701. Despite French prompting the
Turks proceeded only cautiously and indirectly in Transylvania. Even in
13 Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte Osterreichs, III, 628-688; Oswald Redlich,
Weltmacht des BaroclOsterreich in der Zeit Leopolds / (Vienna, 1961), pp. 415-
484; Laszlo Makkai in Ervin Pamlenyi, ed. Die Geschichte Ungarns, Chapter III,
pp. I93-I95-
14 Robert A. Kann, The Habsburg Empire: A Study in Integration and Disinte¬
gration (2nd ed. New York, 1973), pp. 178-180.
1716 they turned only against Austria’s feeble ally Venice in Morea, an area
in which the Habsburg power was not directly interested. Yet the frustrat¬
ing results of the war in the west and the vistas of rich and easy conquests
in the east made the emperor Charles VI decide that the moment for
decisive action—nominally in support of Venice—had come. This last
Turkish war under Prince Eugene’s command has become the most pop¬
ular chapter in the book of his many military victories. In particular the
battle of Peterwardein (Petervarad) in the summer of 1716 and the new
conquest of Belgrade two years later, celebrated by the Prince Eugene
song, rank highest. This war, the most clearly imperialistic one in its ob¬
jectives, though not necessarily in its causes, ever fought by the Habsburg
empire was essentially a sideshow of strength. It displayed the efficiency
of the armed forces and the recently acquired prestige of a new great
power. Yet neither were basic issues of survival at stake nor had the re¬
sults of the war a more than transitory effect. The peace of Passarowitz
of July, 1718, in conjunction with the peace of Rastatt with France in
1714, gave the Habsburg power its greatest extent. The Banat of Temes-
var, Little Walachia (the southwestern part of Walachia) and the north¬
ern part of Bosnia and Serbia were added to the Habsburg realms. Yet,
ironically, Morea, for whose retention by Venice the war was allegedly
fought, remained in Turkish hands. Only small compensations were
given to the republic: the islands of Corfu, Cerigo, and some Albanian
coastal places. Might but not necessarily right had won.15
Might had won an inconclusive victory. Although Hungary’s territorial
identity under the Habsburg scepter had been assured, the great pos¬
sibilities of getting a foothold in the eastern Mediterranean, obtaining
control of the Danube principalities, and possibly gaining access to the
Dardanelles, was lost. Charles VI had a strong sense for the exalted mis¬
sion of the house of Habsburg. He saw this mission still clearly in the
west, in the vain hope to become heir to the Spanish empire, now under
Bourbon rule. As substitute for its loss, Charles concentrated his energies
on the recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction by the European powers.
This was understandable, though not wise. Yet his second aim to hold
at all costs to the crumbs of this Spanish empire in Italy rather than
focusing his attention on Austria’s eastern position was, even from his
limited point of view, neither understandable nor wise. The Emperor
would have liked to hold on to the new territories in the east, but to do
15 Redlich, Das Werden . . . , pp. 218-242; Krones, Handbuch, IV, 112-120.

Max Braubach, Prinx Eugen, 5 vols., Vienna, 1963-1965), see I, 235-271, III, 293-
379 -
An Empire Evolves 6g
so and to conduct at the same time an expansive policy in the west would
have taxed the Habsburg empire’s strength beyond the breaking point.
Faced by this dilemma Charles opted for the western position, but even
here more in the sense of diplomatic than military preparation.
One of the consequences of this eastern foreign policy was the alliance
with Russia in 1726. For the recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction by a
power not primarily interested in the Austrian succession, anyway, the
Habsburg emperor was now forced to pay an exorbitant price, namely his
support of Russian policy of southeast European expansion. Russia was nat¬
urally pleased to accept inordinate concessions for the minor service of
recognizing a state act of no consequence to her interests. Her claims
were cashed in in 1737 wên Austria, according to her treaty obliga¬
tions with Russia, joined the new eastern ally in a war against Turkey.
This war Austria did not want and was unable to fight because her
armaments were neglected by then. The consequences of this most in¬
glorious Austrian oriental war corresponded to this situation.16
Actually the handwriting had been on the wall since the poor Austrian
military showing in the war of the Polish Succession (1733-1735)- Here
the aged Prince Eugene, who died in 1736, was no longer in full com¬
mand of his great faculties. Even if he had been, the poor state of
preparedness brought about by financial disarray and economic ex¬
haustion, would have denied him victory. Thus the stage was set for the
debacle: Little Walachia, northern Bosnia, and Serbia were lost in the
peace of Belgrade in 1739. Besides, the Russian ally, who felt deserted by
Austria, was resentful about this miserable outcome.17
Nevertheless, the result of Charles VPs second Turkish war, which after
all did not infringe on the territorial integrity of Hungary, did not really
touch vital territorial interests of Habsburg power. Yet feebly as the war
was fought, it made it appear likely that Austria would continue to give
priority to minor interests in Italy rather than major eastern potentialities.
Above all, it showed that Austria’s military power, as tested in the hey¬
days of Eugene of Savoy’s military glory, had become a thing of the past.
The peace encouraged the enemies of Habsburg power and made it
likely that a third war of succession 18 would promise rich spoils to all
16 On the foreign policy of Charles VI, see also Max Braubach, Versailles und
Wien von Ludwig XIV. bis Kaunitz (Bonn, 1952), pp. 7-359 passim; Redlich,
Das Werden . . . , pp. 243-297. Kopeczi, La France et la Hongne.
17 Karl A. Roider, The Reluctant Ally '.Austria’s Policy in the Austro-Tur\ish War
I737~I739 (Baton Rouge, 1972); Redlich, Das Werden . . . , pp. 298-319; Krones,
Handbuch, IV, 137-144.
18 The wars of the Spanish, Polish, and subsequently Austrian succession.
yo History of the Hahsburg Empire
those who had recognized the Pragmatic Sanction with politically appro¬
priate mental reservations.
Under Joseph II the Hahsburg armies once more were called into the
field against the Ottoman power, and again at the side of Russia (1788—
1791). Maria Theresa’s chancellor, Prince Kaunitz, by a skillful political
operation, had succeeded to gain peacefully the Bukovina as aftermath of
the Russo-Turkish war of 1771-1774. Joseph II on the other hand, like his
grandfather forced as Russia’s ally into an imperialist war not of his own
choosing, failed to make measurable territorial gains, despite major mili¬
tary efforts.
The Austrians fought with indifferent success. Leopold II terminated
the war after his older brother’s death by the peace of Sistowa in 1791.
Except for the annexation of Old Orsova it had to be concluded on the
basis of the status quo, even though Austrian forces had occupied sizeable
enemy territories. The reasons for this unsatisfactory outcome were
varied: Leopold was faced by a revolutionary situation in Hungary and
in the Austrian Netherlands; diplomatic friction with Prussia had to be
smoothed over in the face of Russian dissatisfaction with an inevitable
Austrian separate peace; the second partition of Poland was in the offing;
above everything else, the great unknown, the development of the revolu¬
tionary situation in France, casts its shadows on the European scene.
Leopold II was indeed prudent to cut losses and to agree to a meager
compromise.
How right he was, was not realized until almost a century later, when
Austrian occupation of Bosnia-Hercegovina in 1878 initiated a new ac¬
tive, and in the long run disastrous, stage of the Habsburg empire’s Bal¬
kan policy. Its consequences for the empire and Europe would become
more serious than the Turkish threats to the west in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, since they contributed directly to the gradual dis¬
integration of the Habsburg empire. The Turkish wars, roughly in the
period between the two sieges of Vienna, 1529-1683, played the converse
and major part in the evolution and preservation of the great-power
position of the empire. This has been indicated in the foregoing in regard
of foreign and military policies. It will subsequently be discussed in re¬
gard to domestic policies.
C. Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and the Habsburg scepter
In a survey of events in the eastern Habsburg lands from mid-seven¬

teenth to mid-eighteenth century, the impact of the Turkish wars is
important even on the second, the civilian, level. In 1645 Prince George I
An Empire Evolves yi
Rakoczi of Transylvania had issued a manifesto, in which he called on
the Hungarian nation to fight the emperor. Yet such a fight would have
: involved the High Portal, too, which was not ready for a major show-
i down with the Habsburgs. Rakoczi could not have dared to initiate an
avowed anti-imperial policy against Turkish advice, if he had not been
promised the support of other powers—in this case by alliance treaties
i with Sweden and France, concluded in 1631. Yet even such understand¬
ing, renewed again in spring 1645, meant little at such a late stage of
the Thirty Years’ War, when Ferdinand III, Cardinal Mazarin (Riche¬
lieu’s more moderate successor), and Chancellor Oxenstjerna of Sweden,
were all heading for the great compromise of Munster and Osnabriick.
It had become clear that French-Swedish assurances at this time repre¬
sented not more than tactical manoeuvres to strengthen their position in
the peace negotiations. Recognition of this state of affairs forced Rakoczi
in the late summer of 1645 to the pacts of Rampersdorf and Linz with
the emperor, according to which he had to give up the Franco-Swedish al¬
liance in return for the recognition of his rule in seven east Hungarian
comitats in addition to Transylvania. Considering the fact that Swedish
and French support would be worth little, as soon as the general peace
was signed, Rakoczi had struck a good bargain. Favorable to his cause
was also the recognition of freedom of religion for the lands under his
rule. It included the peasants and all those who previously had been
forced to change their faith, which meant in practice change under coun¬
terreformatory duress. Only the general tiredness on the imperial side
and the lack of readiness on the Turkish side to take advantage of this
situation explains how the Transylvanian prince and Hungarian national
leader could accomplish as much as he did.
The precarious peace of 1645 lasted for almost twenty years. It was
strained considerably, when Rakoczi supported the Swedes against the
Poles in the so-called first Northern War (1655-1660). In doing so he
challenged the Habsburg-Polish alliance but at the same time the interests
of his Turkish suzerain, who did not yet want to get involved in a war
with the Habsburgs. This concern appeared justified. Rakoczi was de¬
posed by the High Portal to avoid further involvements with the Habs¬
burgs. Prudent Emperor Ferdinand III on his part had not responded in
force to Rakoczi’s repeated forrays into the parts of Hungary in imperial
hands. While thus both powers wanted to avoid a confrontation, the
election of an imperial candidate as prince of Transylvania, John Kemeny,
versus a Turkish appointee, Michael Apafy, led to a predictable clash.
Both sides intervened in Transylvania, and the war began in 1663 under
j2 History of the Hahshurg Empire
the new and inexperienced emperor Leopold, a year after one of the two
contestants, Kemeny, was killed in battle.
The war and the resulting peace of Vasvar, traced in the previous sec¬
tion, displeased the Hungarian nobility. The great nobles felt that their
national leader, Count Nikolas Zrinyi (Zrinski), had not received the
necessary support of the imperial commander Montecuccoli. Feeling was
widespread that the emperor had fought the war to eliminate Hungarian
constitutional government and to replace it by imperial absolutism after
the fashion of the regime in Bohemia following the battle of the White
Mountain. Hungary, as far as it had a voice, was alienated by the action
on both sides, Habsburg and Ottoman power alike. Several additional fac¬
tors, military requisitions, camping of German troops on Hungarian soil,
counterreformatory activities, and the dependency on imperial foreign and
defense policy added to the general dissatisfaction.
In this atmosphere Hungarian postwar conspiracy throve. It was led
by men, who were undoubtedly Hungarian patriots after a fashion, in¬
cluding Zrinyi, the banus of Croatia (one of the rare personalities, who
was acknowledged as national leader there as well as in Hungary),19 his
brother Peter, the Palatin Count Ferencz Wesseleny, and the Judex curiae
Count Ferencz Nadasdy. The weakness of these men was twofold: they
identified Flungarian national interests largely with those of the national
aristocracy and they were not strong enough to pursue a truly inde¬
pendent national policy. Thus they attempted to get Turkish and French
support and thereby laid themselves open to the charge of high treason,
compounded by the extension of the conspiracy to nobles in the heredi¬
tary lands (Count Hans Tattenbach in Styria and Count Karl Thurn
in Goricia). The conspiracy was discovered, some of the leaders executed
(Peter Zrinyi, Nadasdy, and Tattenbach among them); the life of Zrinyi’s
son-in-law, Ferencz Rakoczi I, was spared.
One of the consequences of the exposure of the great cabal was a wave
of persecution of Protestants in Hungary, particularly in the northern
mining towns. Pastors were convicted by special tribunals, in which
Bishop Kollonitsch played an ignoble part. The pastors were not executed,
but the choice of those convicted was between recantation and serving
as galley slaves. Brutal measures of this kind may have been based on the
counterreformatory tendencies at the imperial court under Jesuit influ-
19 Great grandson of the former Banus Count Nikolas Zrinyi (Zrinski) who had
died in the defense of Szigetvar against Suleiman II in 1566. Zrinyi is the Magyar,
Zrinski die Croatian spelling of the name of the family.
ence. Yet they could not cover up the fact that Catholic as well as Protes¬
tant nobles participated about equally in the conspiracy.20
Taking a long-range view—which Leopold and his unenlightened ad¬
visers were least capable to take—the consequences of this policy were as
disastrous for the imperial side as for the national Hungarian cause. The
special interests of the revolutionary Hungarian noble conspirators may
have obscured the fact, that they fought for a national Hungarian idea.
The religious persecutions directed against nobles, free and unfree com¬
moners alike, made this clear to everybody. So did the attempt to amalga¬
mate the Hungarian administration with that in Vienna. The establish¬
ment of a royal gubernatorial office in Pozsony in 1673 was an inmportant
step in this direction. Hungary was treated as conquered territory, and
treated so without the semblance of justification that had existed in Bo¬
hemia after 1620—namely defeat after a general revolt. Yet a general
revolutionary peasant force, the Kurucok,21 emerged from these actions
and remained at least as guerillas in being for a generation.
Their first prominent leader was a noble from Upper Hungary, Count
Imre Thbkoly. He managed to obtain French and Polish support for a
time, but Louis XIV did not consider it to his best interest to continue it
after conclusion of the peace of Nijmwegen with the emperor in 1679.
Thokoly’s manifesto to fight for a free Hungary did not prove entirely
successful, but a detachment of imperial troops was defeated and the em¬
peror, hard pressed in the east, agreed to suspend for the time being his
policy of Hungarian “Gleichschaltung.” At the diet of Sopron (Oden-
burg) the ancient constitutional liberties were acknowledged, the office of
Palatine restored, and religious freedom for the Protestants in the northern
mining towns reestablished. This meant a notable though limited victory
for the Hungarian cause, but Thokoly reversed it to future defeat, when
he openly joined the Turkish side at a time when the disastrous cam¬
paign, which led the Ottoman power to the gates of Vienna, was already
under way. The emperor’s ministers and generals, Lobkowitz, Caraffa,
Montecuccoli foremost among them, who wanted to reduce Hungary to
the status of a mere province, seemingly had proved their case.
The Hungarian nation had to pay the bill after the reconquest. By this
20 Redlich, Weltmacht des Baroc\ . . . , pp. 158-235; Lacko in E. Pamlenyi, ed.,

“Die Geschichte Ungarns,” pp. 190-198; Csuday, Geschichte Ungarns, II, 119-160.
Bucsay, Die Geschichte des Protest antismus in Ungarn, pp. 81-106; Wolf,
Lobhowitz . . . pp. 236-334.
21 The name derives either from the Latin crux (cross), the peasants revolting
in the name of the cross, or from the Turkish khurudsch (the rebel).
J4 History of the Hahshurg Empire
conquest land was redistributed now through imperial commissions.
Former owners, suspected of disloyalty or religious nonconformism,
lost their estates, which were given to foreigners, mostly German nobles.
Worse was in store for many burghers in northern cities, who lost their
property and, after submission to torture, their lives.22
Considering the ruthless brutality of the bloody assizes of Eperjes of
1687, the results of the famous diet of Pozsony (Pressburg) in 1687-1688
have to be considered as relatively moderate. The hereditary succession
of the Habsburgs had to be acknowledged and the right of resistance of
the nobles according to the Bulla Aurea of 1222 was relinquished. Yet the
coronation oath, repeated by the heir to the throne Joseph at his corona¬
tion, acknowledged the ancient liberties of the nation. Transylvania, how¬
ever, remained separated from Hungary, even though religious freedom
was recognized there in 1688 and free election of the prince promised
after the death of Apafy’s son.23
In 1690, the sultan recognized Count Thokoly as Prince of Transyl¬
vania, and the emperor considered this enthronization as open challenge.
In 1691, after the country was reconquered by the imperial forces, the
Diplomum Leopoldinum acknowledged the special status of Transyl¬
vania under the emperor including recognition of the religious liberties
of the three nations, Magyars, Szekels, and Saxons. Those of the under¬
privileged Roumanian Vlachs were added only after a fashion, provided
they conformed under counterreformatory pressure to accommodation
with a Uniate Church under papal jurisdiction by the end of the seven¬
teenth century. After the son of Apafy, who had not yet come of age, was
forced to abdicate and a separate Transylvanian court chancery was
established in Vienna, the country was definitely considered as corpus
separatum directly under the emperor and not as part of the Hungarian
crown lands. These measures as well as the autonomy granted in 1690 to
the Hungarian Serbs in the Voiwodina between Tisza and Danube,
increased anew the dissatisfaction of the Magyar nobility.
Magyar nationalists on both sides of the Tisza waited only for the
opportunity for new risings. They found it in the first critical years of the
War of the Spanish Succession, when the French were ready to support
revolt in Transylvania and the emperor’s Protestant allies, the British
22 Csuday, Die Geschichte Ungarns, II, 160-187; Redlich, Weltmacht des Baroc\
. . . , pp. 414-440.
23 Heinrich Marczali, Ungarische Verfassungsgeschichte (Tubingen, 1910), pp.
88-90; and by the same author and publisher Ungarisches Verfassungsrecht (1911),
pp. 13-14. Bucsay, Geschichte des Protestantismus . . . , pp. 98-119.
and the Dutch, could be expected to be resentful of a brutal imperial

) policy of suppression. Thus the risks seemed to be limited, whichever
' way the dice may fall; still, they had to be taken.
In 1703, Prince Francis II Rakoczi issued a call to the nation to act and
: free the country from foreign oppression. This time the movement could
: count on strong support. Furthermore, not the question of Turkish
i versus Habsburg alignments was at issue but that of an independent,
though as yet only in a rudimentary way democratic Hungary. The
prince received some French aid. In this case he could certainly not be
charged with an attempt to compromise the independence of Hungary,
which could only be threatened directly by Turkish or Habsburg power.
Still, Rakoczi in spite of short-lived military success particularly in Upper
Hungary would have been well advised to seek a compromise with the
enlightened new emperor Joseph (1705-1711). He yielded, however, to
the pressure of the radicals.
The assembly of the Hungarian and Transylvanian insurrectionists at
Onod deposed the emperor as king of Hungary and with him the whole
i house of Habsburg. Joseph to his credit was still ready for a compromise
and invited Rakoczi and his followers to participate in a new diet at
Pozsony in 1708. Rakoczi refused and continued the civil war, though not
for long. Defeated by an imperial army he was forced to flee to France.
When his pleas for support were hardly listened to there, he left for
Turkey, where he died in 1735. Neither Louis XIV nor the sultan had
been willing to invest further in an apparent loser. Ind 1711, shortly after
the death of Emperor Joseph, the leaders of the moderate wing of the
revolutionary movement finally made peace with Charles VI at Szatmar.
Hungarian and Translyvanian liberties within the frame of the agree¬
ments of 1687 and 1691 (diet of Pozsony and Diplomum Leopoldinum)
were restored and a general amnesty issued. The national movement
lacked military support, arms, and supplies for continued resistance, but
the emperor too, after Britain had withdrawn from the War of the
Spanish Succession, could ill afford to handle harshly a festering revolu¬
tionary situation in his backyard. Hence the compromise, which served
the interests of both parties, but, from a long-range viewpoint, more the
Hungarian cause that the imperial. The Rakoczi revolt had wide support
not only of a privilege-conscious nobility, but also of burghers and of
many peasants. Rakoczi took up the cause of religious freedom and that
of the oppressed unfree peasantry, for Magyars and non-Magyars. He
failed in regard to his major objectives, but his movement kept its de¬
mands alive. Its leaders in the next century represented socially still aristo-
cracy and gentry, but they could no longer be associated primarily with
the fight for the privileges of the national nobility, as was true of most
of Rakoczi’s peers. The first major break in this system of identification
of class and national interest goes to Rakoczi’s credit.
Even from a short-range viewpoint the position of the only temporarily
retreating national movement had its advantages. Charles’s desire to have
the Hungarian diet consent to the Pragmatic Sanction made it advisable
not to revert to a policy of renewed suppression, which might lead to
revolution on a still larger scale. Throughout his reign and that of his
daughter, Maria Theresa,—that means, for two generations—Hungarian
national rights in the modest frame established at Szatmar had not been
tampered with. This applied equally to taxation and defense organiza¬
tions, and to a point also to the conduct of foreign affairs. Hungary could
not go it alone but neither could the Habsburg emperors subordinate
Hungary by force in an international situation fraught with dangers.24
The Hungarian autonomist objectives had distinct repercussions in
Croatia-Slavonia. One factor was the common Croatian-Magyar experi¬
ence of having been exposed to the Turkish holocaust. The eastern part of
Croatia and Bosnia had been for most of the period of the Turkish wars
under Ottoman domination. Attempts to seal off further Turkish in¬
vasions in the southwest by establishing a permanently policed military
frontier go back to the early sixteenth century. They were fully mate¬
rialized by 1578 and kept in being for three centuries. The Croatian
military frontier represented a combination of military agricultural com¬
munities, who lived in small groups, the zadrugas, held together by a
combination of family ties and military discipline. Similar defense zones
existed south of the Banat of Temesvar and in southern Transylvania. In
return for the grant of land by the government, the frontiersmen or
granicari (Grenzer), who recognized the head of the family as their
military superior, were called up for service at short order any time a
Turkish attack threatened. These granicari, mostly Croatian or German
in national origin, were thus directly subordinated to the centralized im¬
perial military authority. This fact, accentuated by the provisions of the
24 Csuday, Die Geschichte Ungarns, II, 187-211; Kosary, A History of Hungary,

pp. 131-137; Redlich, Das Werden . . . , pp. 148-217; Marczali, Ungarische
Verfassungsgeschichte, pp. 90-93; Marczali, Ungarisches Verfassungsrecht, pp. 14-
15; Horvath, Geschichte Siebenburgens, pp. 109-113. Laszlo Makkai, in E.
Pamlenyi, ed., Die Geschichte Ungams, Chapter III, IV, pp. 175-206; Seton-
Watson, A History of the Roumanians, pp. 116-125; Kopeczi, La France et la
Hongne; Mathias Bernath, Habsburg und die Anfange der rumanischen Nations-
bildung, Leiden, 1972, pp. 21-46.
peace of Karlowitz of 1699, was resented by the Croatian national nobility

and frequently subject to complaint in the Croatian estates diet, the Sabor,
where subordination under the national authorities was demanded.
With this, Croatian and Magyar opposition to imperial centralism
merged for a time. In fact the Croatian diet as protest against the im¬
perial centralizing policy had agreed as early as 1691 to send delegates
to the Hungarian diet. The banus, the head of the Croatian government,
joined in 1625 the Hungarian house of Magnates. The great defender of
Szigetvar in 1566 against the overpowering armies of Suleiman II, Count
Nikolas Zrinyi (Zrinski) the older, became now a joint Magyar and
Croatian hero. The same, though to a lesser degree, was true for his
great-grandsons, Nikolas and Peter, who both represented also the
Croatian interests in the Hungarian conspiracy of the 1620s.
Yet Magyar and Croatian common interests were based only on the
limited solidarity of the nobles and the common danger from the Turk¬
ish east. As soon as this threat ceased, the nobles’ position became more
precarious also. The Southern Slav problem in Croatia and in the
Serb autonomous districts in Hungary assumed new and wider propor¬
tions.25
D. The STRUGGLE ABOUT THE BALANCE OF POWER
The integration of the Habsburg lands into a moderately centralized

empire was closely connected with the Turkish wars. They were primarily
fought on territories which until 1918 remained part of the Habsburg
monarchy. The simultaneous struggle in the west against France and her
satellites represented a different situation. Few contested territories re¬
mained under the Habsburg scepter for a long time. Yet the primary
reason for the wars in the west, whether this was clear to the leading
statesmen or not, was not the conflict about the possessions of the Spanish
crown but a quite different double objective: establishment of a recog¬
nized great-power position and the fight against the supremacy of France.
This conflict assumed at times strange forms. The latter part of the
seventeenth century and the eighteenth century before the French Revolu¬
tion was the period of the wars of succession. The issues at stake were
seemingly the dynastic interests to increase the power of individual sover-
25 Rudolf Kiszling, Die Kroaten (Graz-Cologne, 1956), pp. 24-38; Gunther E.

Rothenberg, The Austrian Military Border in Croatia, 1722-1747 (Urbana, i960),
pp. 52-100. Nikolaus von Preradovich, Des Kaisers Grenzer (Vienna, 1970), pp. 7-
67; Kurt Wessely, Die K. K. Militargrenze. Beitrage zu ihrer Geschichte (Vienna,
1973), PP- 29-94-
y8 History of the Hahshurg Empire
eigns on the basis of succession claims. To a point, these wars were in¬
deed fought over the narrow interests of individual dynasties, Habsburgs,
French and Spanish Bourbons, Wettins in Saxony and Poland, and
Wittelsbachs in Bavaria. Yet the struggle was one for power, that had
to be rationalized and in part even justified by reference to uncontested
legal claims. Such claims to fight a just war over contested territories
could be established most effectively on grounds of succession claims.
Hence the wars of devolution and succession, which in the coming nine¬
teenth century were to yield to wars over national issues, that is again
largely ideological issues. Again these wars of the future camouflaged im¬
perialist interests, as indeed had been true in part for the seemingly
purely ideological religious wars of the past.
The fact that these European wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries were not primarily ideological did not scale down the ferocity
of warfare. A decline in emotional motivation was offset by the advance
in military technology and improvements in communications. These
advances made the conduct of operations in some respect less hard on the
civilan population but in the effect on the combatant forces more deadly.
Another difference from previous large-scale wars, was the greater flexibil¬
ity of the alliance systems. Alliances between Catholic and Protestant
powers, still rather novel during the Thirty Years’ War, had become
common occurrences, which meant that almost everybody could ally with
anybody else, even with the Turks. Professional diplomacy thus got an
uplift and enjoyed great influence.
In this continued diplomatic struggle Habsburg power was handi¬
capped by almost a century (1657 to 1740) of two long reigns of narrow¬
minded rulers, Leopold I and Charles VI. Both were stubborn, of limited
vision, and unable to decide. Leopold was more of a bigot than Charles;
on the other hand, Leopold’s intelligence and erudition was superior to
that of his younger son. The brief reign of the able Joseph I was thus
sandwiched between those of two incompetent rulers at the height of the
war in the west and the Hungarian revolt in the east. There was little
room for diplomatic manoeuvering as was frequently the case under
Leopold and Charles. The latter’s failings, however, were partly offset by
the activities of the competent diplomats and generals referred to before.
To these military commanders the name of Count Guido Starhemberg
has to be added for the last years of the reign of Leopold and throughout
the War of the Spanish Succession.
As for the diplomats, Count Max Trautmannsdorff, chief adviser and
representative of Ferdinand III at the Westphalian peace negotiations, was
a prudent statesman in foreign affairs and still active in Leopold’s early
reign. More controversial was the policy of Prince Wenzel Lobkowitz,
1 the president of the Court War Council, who advocated the harsh
* course in Hungary, which alienated the Magyars in a critical period. He
and another top adviser in foreign affairs, Prince (Count) Johann
' Weikart Auersperg, pursued a conciliatory policy toward France, which
encouraged the young Louis XIV to further aggression. In the later part
i of the reign of Leopold I, Count Theodor Strattman and Count Dominik
Anton Kaunitz proved to be skillful negotiators.
Truly outstanding were some of Leopold’s ambassadors at a time, when
the deficiency of communications resulted in wide ambassadorial power.
Count Franz Eusebius Potting, ambassador to Poland and Spain, was
also personally close to Leopold; Count Wenzel Wratislaw, the ambas¬
sador to the Court of St. James, kept a difficult alliance system with En-
} gland under Leopold and his two sons as long as possible on an even
I keel; Franz Baron Lisola brilliantly represented the emperor in Poland,
Spain, and above all in the Netherlands. Lisola was one of the chief
architects of the coming great alliance against France. In the later reign of
Charles VI, Count Karl Friedrich Schonborn, the imperial court chan¬
cellor, brought the interests of the Holy Roman Empire and those of the
Habsburg power more into line. Count Ludwig Philip Sinzendorf and
Baron Johann Christoph Bartenstein—the latter not nominally but ac¬
tually—were chief advisers in international relations during the reign
of Charles VI. Both, particularly Bartenstein, the converted son of a
Protestant minister, served also with distinction in the early reign of
Maria Theresa.26
That the tide after 1718 turned against the Habsburgs was more the
fault of the policies of Emperor Charles VI and his neglect of military
reorganization than that of the diplomats. As for the generals, only Prince
Eugene of Savoy exercised some influence in foreign affairs at the court.
Although his military faculties in the last years before his death in 1736
were in decline, his advice not to yield the eastern interests to the
Spanish preferences of the emperor was as sound as his distrust in the in¬
ternational guarantees for Maria Theresa’s succession.
Leopold’s early reign was largely occupied with counterreformatory
activities and increased involvement in Hungarian-Transylvanian affairs,
which threatened a confrontation with the Ottoman empire. Efforts to
26 Redlich, Weltmacht des Baroc\ . . . , pp. 56-71, 82-140, 211-217, 388-400.
8o History of the Hubs burg Empire
undo the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War, linked to a modest pro¬
gram of an elementary kind of mercantilism, played an important role too.
There was little interest and as it seemed little need to worry about
French policies in the west. Austria refrained from participation in the
Franco-Spanish war on the side of Spain as might have been expected.
The treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659 had no direct impact on territorial in¬
terests of the eastern Habsburg line but it weakened the position of the
Habsburg dynasty as a whole since it was still considered as one house,
divided in an older Spanish and a younger closely allied German branch.
In Louis XIV’s first war of Devolution of 1667-1668, Leopold according
to a secret treaty with the French king managed to stay neutral. In this
war, fought over the issue of Louis’s claims to the Spanish Netherlands as
dowry not only Habsburg dynastic, but also German imperial interests
were at stake, because a French victory would have brought the French
power closer to the gates of the Holy Roman Empire. Yet Leopold could
rely on the English, Dutch, Swedish intervention, which forced Louis
XIV in the peace of Aix la Chapelle to a meager compromise. Louis’s
second war (1672-1678), primarily directed against Holland, the core
country of the alliance of 1667, afiected the empire more closely, but
again Leopold by a neutrality treaty with Louis in 1671 did not dis¬
courage aggression. Several facts eventually forced Leopold’s irresolute
hand: Louis’s invasion of an imperial domain, the duchy of Lorraine, in
1670 had aroused some national feelings in the Germanies. The so-called
great elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William I, supported Holland and
urged Leopold to intervene in behalf of the Dutch States General al¬
though he concluded a separate peace with France as soon as imperial
intervention was assured. This time Leopold could not hope that En¬
gland would pull his chestnuts out of the fire. Louis had secured his
position in this respect by the neutrality treaty of Dover (1670) with
Charles II. Leopold however, was probably more influenced by unmis¬
takable proof, that the king of France had his hand in the Hungarian
conspiracy against the emperor. This and Lisola’s advice led to Leopold’s
belated decision to intervene as head of the empire in 1674. Ill prepared
for military action and conscious of the threat in the east, the results
were significant enough to block a full-fledged success by Louis. In the
treaties of Nijmwegen of 1678, Holland, subsequently a main bulwark
against French advance, remained territorially intact. The rapidly de¬
clining Spanish empire, on the other hand, lost the French Comte and
some places in the Spanish Netherlands. The emperor had to cede only
Freiburg. Undistinguished in war and, after Lisola’s untimely death in
\ An Empire Evolves 81
1675, also in the peace negotiations, Leopold as other Habsburgs before
and after him had at least preserved the chance to fight another day
: against France. It was not far in the offing.
Between 1680 and 1683 Louis set up the Chambers of Reunions, the
» courts of claims which were to validate Louis’s demands to towns in the
( Alsace and Luxemburg as legally justified. The French occupation oc-
j curred almost simultaneously with the judgments of the courts. A full-
E fledged French invasion of the Spanish Netherlands and Lorraine fol-
1 lowed in 1683, that of the territory of the archbishop of Treves in 1684.
Yet Leopold in the face of the second great Turkish war of his reign,
which led Kara Mustapha’s armies to the gates of Vienna in view of
a still critical situation in the east, in 1684 concluded the armistice of
1 Regensburg with France. France, in addition to Strassburg and Luxem¬
burg, could keep all the new places occupied on the basis of the con¬
troversial Reunion decisions of French courts for twenty years. This
agreement superseded an alliance with the western German estates of
1682 and another one of the same year with Flolland, Sweden, and
Spain to fight the Reunions and the invasions of the Spanish Nether¬
lands. In exchange for a free hand in Hungary, Leopold had for the time
being sacrificed his western to his eastern interests. This might be con¬
sidered a matter of mere political expediency except for the fact that in
doing so Leopold had violated his sworn obligations as emperor to pro¬
tect the territorial integrity of the Holy Roman Empire.
True, resolute action in the west at this time would not only have inter¬
fered with the defense of the Habsburg eastern position but also with its
potential expansion in the Orient. In this sense Leopold’s decision was a
devious, if unimpressive attempt to preserve the chances to fight at a later
more opportune moment for Habsburg and imperial interests in the west,
while for the time being accounts could be settled undisturbed by French
intervention, in the east.27
Political and ideological orientation may be logically but not necessarily
psychologically contradictory. The implicit imperial-French understand¬
ing was, to a point, motivated also by a feeling of Christian solidarity
against the Mohammedan onslaught. Thus Louis XIV, even without
formal agreement had refrained from attack against the emperor at the
height of the Turkish advance in 1683. Yet the successful Habsburg cam¬
paign into Hungary changed all this. In 1688 Louis XIV started his third
major war (1688-1697), commonly called the War of the League of
Augsburg or the War of the Succession in the Palatinate. The first
27Redlich, ibid., pp. 77-151, 324-375; Braubach, Versailles und Wien, pp. 7-19.
designation refers to the preventive alliance against further French ad¬
vance, formed by the emperor, the kings of Sweden, Spain, and the
electors of Bavaria and Saxony. The term War of the Succession in the
Palatinate pointed to Louis’s questionable claims on behalf of his clever
sister-in-law, Princess Liselotte, sister of the deceased elector Palatine.
In September 1688 Habsburg troops had occupied Belgrade, and in
the following month Louis started the anticipated offensive into the
Palatinate. The aim to check further imperial advances into the east was
only a side effect of the French king’s major design to establish pre¬
dominance not only in western Europe, but in Central Europe, above
all in Germany. Obviously this was a direct challenge to the empire, the
emperor, and Habsburg power as well. Leopold pronounced the Reichs-
krieg, and a new, even grander alliance consisting of the members of the
League of Augsburg, supplemented by England and Holland, came into
being. The soul of this coalition was William III of Orange. His accession
to the English throne, jointly with his wife Mary II (Stuart) after the
Glorious Revolution of 1688 gave British participation a meaning which it
never had had before in continental affairs beyond the French-Spanish
orbit. Largely due to the preoccupation of Habsburg power in the east
the war was on the Allied side fought only with indifferent success. The
discord usually concomitant with the actions of a large coalition out¬
weighed almost the advantage of the greater war potential on the Allied
side.
In the peace of Ryswick (1697) Louis was forced to give up major
portions of his previous conquests. The border fortresses between Span¬
ish Netherlands and the States General, however, were to be manned by
Dutch troops. Yet this concession on Louis’s part was outweighed by
retention of Alsace and Palatinate. Just the same, French aggression was
blocked for the time being. The decline of Spain had become ever more
obvious, far more so than the rise of Britain, which still suffered from
the discord of the civil war and the Restoration period. Dutch power, the
most consistent in its opposition to France, had been preserved, but it was
too limited to be of decisive importance in a major European confronta¬
tion. The forces of the empire represented such conflicting interests that
they were not fully effective. The emperor was far too deeply involved in
the eastern war to act decisively in the west. Still, Leopold preserved his
chance to intervene in the west if he could bring the war against the
Turks to a successful conclusion. This was, indeed, the case when the
peace of Karlowitz, which freed most of Hungary from the Turks, was
signed in 1699.28
28 Heinrich von Srbik, Wein and Versailles, i6g2-i6gy (Munich, 1944).
!■ An Empire Evolves 83
A major reason for Louis XIV’s anti-Habsburg policy and for Leopold’s
attempts to check it was the question of the Spanish succession. It might
ic be compared to an undischarged time bomb, the explosion of which
I: threatened the peace of Europe. This threat lasted throughout the period
tj from the birth of the last Spanish Habsburg, the debilitated Charles II in
1661, to his death in 1700.29
It has been stated previously that the European conflicts about dynastic
succession were primarily rationalizations of the struggles for the balance
: of power or against the supremacy of one continental power. This state¬
ment does not mean, that the European monarchs at a time when the
| divine-rights theory was still widely respected, considered dynastic wars as
pretexts. The legal questions involved were controversial, and both Leo¬
pold and his cousin Louis XIV took their claim to the Spanish succession
after the death of the childless king of Spain seriously, in a political and
in a dynastic sense. Both rulers were married to daughters of Philip IV,
Louis’s consort from the first marriage, Leopold’s from the second. The
French king could claim that the renunciation of his wife to the succes¬
sion was void, because the Spanish crown had never paid her duly
pledged dowry. As older daughter of Philip IV her claims would precede
those of the emperor’s wife. Leopold, with somewhat better reason, could
refer to mutual succession pacts between the Spanish and German Habs¬
burg lines. Since Leopold’s first consort had died in 1673, the only son
of her daughter, married to the elector of Bavaria, would have been the
most obvious successor to the Spanish inheritance as seen from the im¬
perial dynastic viewpoint. Yet, due to the diplomatic cooperation between
Bourbons and Wittelsbachs, French interests might have been accom¬
modated, too. After the sudden death of the infant prince in 1699 the
legal issue could be considered wide open.
Several attempts supported by the good offices of third powers in the
interest of the balance of power in Europe were made to prevent the big
Bourbon-Habsburg confrontation. Both Louis and Leopold proved to be
equally unreasonable in their claims to gain the undivided Spanish in¬
heritance for their houses. The opinion that Louis fought for French
dominance and Leopold for the balance of power is true only insofar as
the former did get his chance to make a stab for political leadership in
Europe and the emperor did not. He certainly did not lack the intent.
29 Charles II (1661-1700) was nominally king since the death of his father Philip IV
in 1665. Until 1675 his mother Maria Anna governed as regent in his name, after¬
wards he was king in his own right and notwithstanding his incapacity he exer¬
cised a certain influence on the course of government. See also Reginald Trevor-
Davies, Spain in Decline 1621-iyoo (London, 1957), pp. 109-140.
Efforts to arrive at partition treaties first in favor of the “kur prince” (son
of the elector) of Bavaria as a third party with minor adjustments in
favor of Austria and France had failed. Yet there was still hope for an
eventual compromise. After the prince’s death endeavors to arrive at an
understanding sponsored by England and France came to naught. It
would have left to Charles, Leopold’s younger son, the bulk of the Span¬
ish inheritance with Naples, Sicily, and Lorraine going to the Bourbon
side. Leopold still refused to consent, because a condition of this agree¬
ment would have been a firm commitment that the Spanish and Austrian
Habsburg lines should never be united. Irrational overbearing, how¬
ever, was not confined to one side. When French diplomacy in Madrid
finally won out it was precisely the same attitude on the part of Louis XIV,
which led to the War of the Spanish Succession. When the dying king of
Spain finally signed a will in favor of Louis’s second grandson, Philip,
Duke of Anjou, Louis refused to make a commitment concerning the
permanent separation of the French and Spanish crowns. In this respect
he followed a precedent set by his imperial cousin, Leopold I, concerning
the relationship of the Austrian and Spanish Habsburg lines. Unlike
Louis, however, Leopold was not confronted with the actual bequest of
the undivided Spanish inheritance. The French king, aware of the fact
that this comprehensive bequest would appeal to the Spanish pride better
than any partition agreement in the interest of the balance of power, de¬
cided to take advantage of the situation. He deemed it no longer neces¬
sary to commit himself to the permanent separation of the French and
Spanish crowns, however remote the contingency of union was. There¬
with he provoked the great war, which the emperor probably would have
brought about already, if his younger son, Charles, had been the sole ben¬
eficiary of the will.
There is, however, a political difference in the situation. The European
powers on the strength of Louis’s record in foreign and domestic policies
had reason to believe that he had the power and ability to establish a
genuine union between France and Spain. It was doubtful that Leopold
had the political strength and administrative capacity to do the same in
regard to two Habsburg empires.30
The great war, in which hostilities were opened in summer of 1701,
was in two ways unique in the history of the Habsburg monarchy. First,
it was the only war, in which not Austria’s survival but her emergence
as one of the leading continental powers was an issue. Even though her
chances to become the predominant power on the continent of Europe
30 Braubach, Versailles und Wien, pp. 7-27; Redlich, Weltmacht des Baroc\ . . . ,
PP- 37^4l4-
may have been more remote than those of France, she was a more active
agent in this great coalition war than ever before and afterward. Second,
1 the War of the Spanish Succession showed Austria’s military proficiency
at its best. The commanders of her armies, Margrave Louis of Baden,
Count Guido Starhemberg, and above all Prince Eugene of Savoy, gained
victories on a general European scale, unrivaled in the Habsburgs’ history.
The lineup of the two armed camps saw England and Holland, the
chief Protestant powers, on the imperial side. It will always remain con¬
jecture whether an earlier and more reasonable peace could have been
achieved, if King William III, the ruler of both countries and chief
architect of the alliance, had not died at the beginning of the war. The
other principal allies of the emperor were the new elector of Hanover,
the elector of Brandenburg, as well as (after 1701) the Holy Roman
Empire as a whole. The participation of Brandenburg had to be bought
by the emperor’s consent to the elector’s Frederick I coronation as king in
Prussia, legally then no longer a Polish fief. Even though this elevation
did not involve imperial territory, it accelerated the rise of Prussia-
Brandenburg to a position where she could challenge Austrian leadership
in Germany. Frederick’s “promotion” was only one and not the decisive
factor in this development.
France was supported by Max Emanuel, the ambitious elector of
Bavaria, the emperor’s son-in-law, whose imperial aspirations were en¬
couraged by Louis XIV. The ecclesiastic elector of Cologne and the
Dukes of Mantua and Savoy (Sardinia) likewise supported Louis, al¬
though Eugene’s victories in Italy had already persuaded the latter to
change sides in 1703. At that time Portugal also joined the alliance.
While the Austro-British led coalition represented the greater war
potential, Spain herself, the chief battle ground of the war, leaned defi¬
nitely to the French claimant and disliked the Austrian archduke
Charles.31 It was widely believed that Louis’s grandson would be better
qualified to preserve the Spanish identity and great-power tradition than
the Habsburg prince. Such beliefs were hardly based on the evaluation of
characters. Both, the later king Philip V of Spain and Emperor Charles
VI (as rival king of Spain Charles III) were mediocre personalities. It
is more suggestive that Spanish public opinion—which could not be
ignored entirely even in a country under autocratic rule—saw the German
Habsburg linked to a variety of extraneous Central and eastern European
interests, whereas the conversion of a French to a Spanish prince seemed
to be simpler.
Until 1712, the military operations of the war, on the side of the grand
81 Except for Catalonia. See also Krones, Handbuch, IV, 83-86.
alliance, were governed by the strategy of the two equally outstanding
soldiers, the British John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and Eugene
of Savoy. The two commanders scored a series of spectacular victories
against an excellent slate of French generals, foremost among them
Villars, Vendome, and the great military engineer, Vauban. It must suffice
here to refer to Eugene’s victories in the northern Italian campaigns,
Luzzara (1702) and Turin (1706). Joint victories by Eugene and Marl¬
borough were fought in southern Germany at Hochstadt and Blenheim
(1704). Chief credit for this later triumph, one of the most brilliant
strategic surprise movements executed in the history of warfare, should
go to Marlborough, who scored also at Ramillies (1706) in the Spanish
Netherlands, and again jointly with Eugene at Oudenarde (1708) and
Malplaquet (1709) in Flanders. In casualties this was the costliest battle
on either side.32
Nevertheless, the peace negotiations which had begun in 1708 ended in
failure. Louis by this time was ready to surrender the whole Spanish in¬
heritance and let the victors divide the spoils with the lion’s share to be
going to Charles. The Allied demand that the French king should, be¬
yond this, make a financial contribution to the Austro-British campaigns
in Spain, and, if necessary, drive his grandson by force of arms from
Spanish soil, has always been considered an example of ruthless arrogance
and political blindness. Yet it must be added that the Allied demand
was made not without reason though perhaps not with good reason. To
dislodge Philip and invest the Austrian prince against the will of the
majority of all strata of Spanish society was something the Allies had
failed to achieve in seven years of warfare and were not likely to ac¬
complish with French help either, which, of course, due to Louis’s re¬
fusal they did not get. Still, they saw in the possibility of such support at
least a chance to achieve their objective. Experience of the future proved
that to fight the Spaniards on their own soil was a hopeless task. It
proveed the futility of the great war altogether convincingly.
The rejection of the French peace offer indicated the turning of the
tide in the fortunes of the warring parties. Several factors accounted for
this. Religious differences strained the alliance. The pope, who frowned
upon the Austro-British-Dutch coalition, gave his moral support to
Philip. The British and Dutch in turn resented the suppression of the
revolutionary movement in Hungary and Transylvania, inasmuch as
counterreformatory tendencies against Protestants were involved there.
°2 Redlich, Das Werden . . . , pp. 1-93; John B. Wolf, The Emergence of the
Great Powers, 1685-17/5 (New York, 1951), pp. 170-181.
! An Empire Evolves 8j
The same issue was involved, when Charles XII of Sweden in the Great
Northern War marched through Silesia to Saxony and supported the
cause of the Silesian Protestants. Joseph I, the new emperor, yielded in the
peace of Altranstadt of 1707 to Charles XII’s intervention and had to
■ relieve the king in his capacity as prince of the empire of all obliga¬
tions to support the imperial war against France. Joseph had acted pru¬
dently, when by these sacrifices he managed to extricate himself from
involvement in the eastern war with Russia and Poland. But he had done
i so largely because he depended on the good will of his Protestant Allies
and this was hardly popular at the Austrian court. In the long run it did
not help much to improve Austro-British relations either. The Whig
party, which supported the war, was in decline in England. In 1710 it
had to yield to a Tory government, which was in favor of peace. Its
cause was strengthened by the fact that support of the Stuart pretender
to the British throne on the part of Louis had now become academic.
Marlborough, by order of the new Tory ministry, was restricted to
defensive action and in 1711 relieved of his command altogether. England
was well on the way to leave the alliance.
The reason usually given for this decision is the unexpected death of
Emperor Joseph in 1711. This left one single Habsburg ruler, Charles, for
both Spain, the empire and the eastern possessions of the house of Austria.
France being weakened already, the resurrection of the empire of Charles
V might at this point have disturbed the European balance of power
even more seriously than a compromise with France. Actually, Leopold’s
pactum mutuae successionis of 1703, discussed at the beginning of this
chapter, was no surprise to the state chancelleries of Europe. Everybody
took it for granted, that the Habsburgs would claim the mutual succes¬
sion, if the male line of either one of Leopold’s sons should become ex¬
tinct. The great coalition supported the Habsburg side, not because the
Habsburgs could be trusted any more than the Bourbons never to attempt
the union of the Spanish inheritance with their own lands. But such a
dreaded union under the auspices of an administratively, economically,
and culturally advanced state like France appeared more likely and
dangerous than under the Habsburg scepter. The Habsburg power
system looked now perhaps not much stronger than in 1702, but France
was relatively weaker. Hence the change in the British-Dutch position
concerning continuation of the great alliance, when Charles, the Habsburg
pretender king of Spain, was elected emperor in 1711 after his brother’s
death. A stubborn man of limited ability had thus taken charge of the
Austrian fortunes during the last phase of the war.
Charles’s decision to continue the struggle single-handed after his major
allies had concluded peace with France compounded the mistakes of his
predecessors. In the treaty of Utrecht (April, 1713), Spain and the
colonies were left to Philip, whose royal line had to give up any further
claims to rule in France, unlikely as such contingency had been even be¬
fore. Except for Minorca and Gibraltar, France and not Spain had to
satisfy the colonial claims of Britain, the chief winner in the struggle.
Holland received the right to garrison the barrier fortifications between
the Spanish Netherlands and her own territories. With this right a major
encumbrance was to be put upon the Habsburg claims to these territories.
Yet it was Charles’s fault alone, when his interests were not adequately
represented in these negotiations.33 The same was true when Sicily was
given to Savoy and Sardinia was reserved for the emperor, even though
the former island was almost contiguous to Naples, whose subsequent
acquisition could be expected, whereas Sardinia was separated from
Habsburg territory. Brandenburg-Prussia gained Neuchatel and Guelders,
in addition to international recognition of the royal title of her ruler;
Portugal obtained frontier rectifications in the colonies. Major additional
Austrian gains were thus foreclosed, while the Habsburgs continued the
struggle. Moreover, Austria’s former allies were now obliged to the sea
powers and not to the emperor for their territorial gains.
The new emperor, Charles VI, carried on until 1714 with indifferent
results, for which none of his generals was to blame. In March, 1714,
France and Austria finally signed a peace treaty at Rastatt. In September,
peace with the Holy Roman Empire was concluded at Baden in Switzer¬
land. This treaty was essentially a mere confirmation of the agreement
of Rastatt. Even though the imperial forces had by this time cleared out
of Spain, Charles did not recognize reality and refused to make peace
with King Philip V.
According to the terms of Rastatt, which could be almost fully en¬
visaged at Utrecht, Austria received the Spanish Netherlands—that is,
most present-day Belgium. The value of this acquisition, however, was
restricted by the barrier treaties concluded with the Dutch (and the back¬
ing of Britain) in 1713, 1715, and 1718. It was humiliating that the Dutch
could garrison the frontier fortifications in southern Belgium against
France at Belgian—this meant practically Austrian—expense. More im¬
portant was the provision that the Scheld river must be closed to ocean
33 Count Philip Sinzendorf served merely as a kind of imperial observer at the

peace conference. See also Max Braubach, Prinz Eugen von Savoyen, 5 vols.
(Vienna, 1963-1965), III, 99-144.
i An Empire Evolves 89
: trade.34 In Italy, the emperor obtained Naples, Milan, Mantua, Sardinia,
: but not Sicily. Some of these scattered new domains were rich acquisi-
\ tions, but also encumbrances, difficult to defend. These consequences of
: the war for Austria must be laid largely at the door of Charles’s personal
! failings, in particular his inordinate dynastic pride. The outcome was
E disappointing.35
The main positive result was that the danger of a French-dominated
Europe had passed. This outcome could have been achieveed at an earlier
stage of the war, if not by a reasonable compromise even before its out¬
break. The reestablishment of a Habsburg monarchy in Spain, even of a
Spain deprived of many of its appendages and colonies might have en¬
hanced the imperial position in the same way as the various French-
Spanish Bourbon family compacts helped to strengthen prestige and
security of France. Since Austria failed to achieve this aim, she lost the
war as issue of political prestige, which counted for much at that time. It
largely obscured the fact that the major objective of blocking the su¬
premacy of France in Europe had been achieved. On the other hand, the
acquisition of the Spanish Netherlands—not contiguous to the bulk of
the Habsburg domains and by treaties curtailed in regard to their future
economic development—was practically indefensible. Belgium could at
most serve as compensatory object for later territorial barter. An attempt
by Joseph II to exchange it for Bavaria, however, was understandably
enough blocked by Frederick II of Prussia in 1785. Disregarding the
merely transitory provisions of the peace of Campo Formio of 1797, in
which the Austrian Netherlands and Lombardy were traded for the
territory of the Republic of Venice, a final deal was made only at the
Congress of Vienna. Austria received now the so-called Lombardo-
Venetian kingdom in exchange for the Spanish Netherlands.
With this exchange Austria became further and more permanently in¬
volved in Italian affairs, a development which had not actually started
but had been activated by the treaty of Rastatt. The kingdoms of Naples
and Sardinia belonged to the poorest regions of Italy and were difficult
to defend without sea power. Milan and Mantua had strategic value, the
former also economic wealth. Yet here Habsburg power was to become
involved in the centuries-old internal and external conflicts of the penin-
34 Actually agreed for the first time in the Westphalian peace negotiations at
Munster in 1648 between the representatives of Philip IV of Spain and those of the
Dutch republic. The later barrier agreement specified the issue further.
35 Redlich, Das Werden . . . pp. 93-147; John B. Wolf, Toward a European
Balance of Power, 1620-IJ15 (Chicago, 1970), pp. 156-196.
go History of the Hahshurg Empire
sula. Here, too, the lack o£ sea power prevented the development of these
possessions to full economic advantage. The geographic position of
Italy and political and economic interests of France, Spain, Britain, and
for the time being Venice and Tuscany, made it impossible for the Habs-
burgs even to think of the unification of Italy under their scepter. All
that could be done was to keep a hold on scattered possessions, which
offered little benefits in the face of foreign competition and were exposed
to attack by other powers. When the possessions in Italy were finally
consolidated in 1814 no gain could be expected either. The rise of nation¬
alism after the great French revolution made new Austrian policies still¬
born from the new start.
Not all this could be foreseen in 1714. Yet the geographic and economic
facts should have been clear. The unfortunate policy helped to create the
notion of the nonhomogeneous unorganic empire almost from the time
the great power was born. And such belief was largely due to Charles Vi’s
unfortunate attempts to hold on to the illusion of a Spanish empire under
Habsburg rule. As he saw it, any control of the shreds of Spanish terri¬
tories in Europe, but particularly in Italy, left the door open to the reali¬
zation of his dreams. They were persistently tied to the west and south¬
west. They largely ignored the east, where the development of a better
integrated empire might still have been feasible.
E. Stalemate and decline

The first decades after 1740-1741 when new rulers ascended the throne
in the Habsburg empire, Russia and Prussia initiated the era usually re¬
ferred to in diplomatic history as that of the reversal of alliances. The
new Austro-French and British-Prussian associations came into being step
by step. In the transitional preceding period (1714-1740) no definite new
lineup was recognizable. But it became clear that the old alliance systems
had outlived their usefulness. For a generation they were replaced by
new combinations based on expediency and devoid of any ideological
foundation, not even that of loyalty to treaty obligations. Only after the
War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) were the new alliances more
stable. The seeds of the earlier instability resulted largely from the out¬
come of the War of the Spanish Succession as unsatisfactory for all conti¬
nental parties. In particular also the power vacuum in continental Europe
created by the gradual decline of France became a factor of international
insecurity.
The ways of the new alliance systems were shifty, but some trends in
Austrian policies are recognizable. In the first place, Charles VI had not
k I An Empire Evolves gi
given up hope to become king of Spain, and neither had King Philip V
of Spain resigned himself to the loss of his Italian possessions; continued
conflict was therefore inevitable. Secondly, the emperor was anxious to
establish a unified order of succession. It became necessary to test its
validity by assuring the succession of a female Plabsburg, Charles Vi’s
oldest daughter, Maria Theresa. The emperor believed this could be as¬
sured only by international guarantee from the European powers—at a
price. As part of the price Austrian eastern policy became now increas¬
ingly obliged to conform to Russian interests. This development put
brakes on the Habsburg empire’s freedom of diplomatic movement.
For almost a century, until 1813-1814, the peace of Passarowitz in 1718,
which terminated Charles Vi’s first Turkish war, was the last unqualified
success of Habsburg arms and political power. In 1717 and 1718 Spain,
with whom the emperor had refused to sign a peace treaty, occupied
Sardinia and Sicily. The feeble response of the signatories of the treaty
system of Utrecht, Rastatt, and Baden was the quadruple alliance of En¬
gland, France, Holland, and Austria to maintain the provisions of the
peace terms. In 1720 a compromise, the treaty of the Hague, terminated
the conflict. Charles finally recognized the Bourbon rule in Spain, and in
return an exchange of Sardina and Sicily took place between Savoy and
Austria, after the islands were evacuated by Spain. With Sicily, Austria
had thus gained another noncontiguous, hardly defensible territory. A
Spanish secundogeniture in Parma, Piacenza, and Tuscany was promised
to the second son of the King of Spain. Yet Spain had not done too well
either. King Philip, intellectually hardly superior to his imperial colleague,
was ready to pay a price for the Habsburg recognition of a loss which the
emperor could not have recovered anyway. Furthermore, in the spring of
1725 a rather meaningless Austro-Spanish alliance in which Austria
pledged to support Spain in her fight for the recovery of Gibraltar in
exchange for the Spanish recognition of the Austrian Ostende Trade
Company, founded between 1719 and 1722 for the trade with the East and
West Indies and the coasts of Africa, did not serve the true interests of
either power. Spain failed to regain Gibraltar, but Austria’s pledge of
help was a major step in the deterioration of relations with Britain. The
British response was an alliance of 1725, for the maintenance of the Euro¬
pean balance of power, with France, Holland, Prussia, Denmark, and
Sweden. This treaty system was directed against the discontent of Spain
and Austria, whose feeble colonial ambitions aroused British concern.
From that time on, Charles’s foreign policy was ever more clearly
directed to obtaining international guarantees for the recognition of his
daughter’s succession, although Prince Eugene advised that rearmament

would be better than paper guarantees. Actually, both guarantees and
armaments combined were entirely justified, but one could not replace
the other. Had this been properly understood, an Austria strong in arms
and guarantees would hardly have been challenged after the death of
Charles VI in 1740.
In the fall of 1725 Charles succeeded in obtaining Spain’s recognition of
the Pragmatic Sanction in return for the emperor’s promise to marry
Maria Theresa and one of her sisters to the sons of Philip V. There
was considerable imperial naivete involved in this deal. Despite assurances,
the Bourbons could have followed Louis XIV’s earlier pattern to make
later claims of devolution resulting from such marriage contracts. This
contingency did not arise, however, since both England and Holland
saw in these marriage projects a threat to the future European balance
of power, which had been so precariously established at Utrecht. The
king of Prussia, Frederick William I, was likewise opposed to this mar¬
riage plan for the Austrian heiress. He wished her to become the consort
of a prince from a German house. Consequently, Charles as partial price
for the British and Prussian recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction (in
1726 and 1731), withdrew his consent to the Spanish marriage of Maria
Theresa. A partial price, indeed! Charles had to promise also to support
the Prussian king’s claim to the succession to the duchy of Berg. The fric¬
tion caused by this pledge put an ominous strain on imperial-Prussian
relations.36
Even more far-reaching were the concessions, which the emperor was
forced to make to England for her consent to the female succession, al¬
though the island power had no primary interest in this question. The
price for the British recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction was the dissolu¬
tion of Charles Vi’s Trade Company. This move followed temporary
suspension conceded in 1727.
To sum up the foregoing: The sweeping concessions laid future
Austrian colonial aspirations to rest for all times. In principle Charles Vi’s
Trade Company project was on of his few constructive ideas. The de¬
sign, however, probably would not have succeeded because the Belgian base
could hardly be defended by Austria. The difficulty of maintaining the
company’s headquarters and naval installations in a port across the
British channel coast would presumably have increased the more the
company would have prospered. To assume, however, that Charles was
motivated by such long-term considerations would credit him with too
36 Braubach, Versailles und Wien, pp. 105-185.
much foresight. His decision to abandon this interesting project was prob¬
ably based primarily on his curious sense of values which rated an un¬
contested succession and the control of the genuine Italian appendages of
the Spanish crown higher than other interests.37
When in 1726 Russia joined the tenuous Austro-Spanish alliance,
Charles, as will be remembered, made another sacrifice in connection
with the succession issue: the reorientation of Habsburg eastern policy
in favor of Russia. Direct consequences of this shift were the disastrous
outcome of the Turkish war of 1737-1739 and indirectly the unsatisfactory
result of the last war against the Ottoman empire 1788-1791. These mat¬
ters have been discussed briefly in the survey on the Turkish wars.
In 1732 other German states recognized the Pragmatic Sanction. Of
significance were in particular the declarations of the electors. One of
them was Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (as king of Poland Augustus
II) whose son Frederick Augustus II was married to the first-born
daughter of Charles Vi’s older brother, Emperor Joseph I. The other elec¬
tor was Charles Albert of Bavaria, married to Joseph’s younger daughter.
Both princesses, who thus came from an older line of the dynasty than
Maria Theresa, had duly renounced their claims to the succession when
they were married. Neither the elector of Saxony, Augustus, who was
in several ways indebted to Austria, nor that of Bavaria respected their
consorts’s disclaimers. In fact, Charles Albert of Bavaria’s father had
signed a secret treaty with France in 1714, according to which the French
king pledged his support to Wittelsbach claims to the imperial title and
lands of the Bohemian crown.38 These Bavarian claims were to become
an unpleasant surprise, to be revealed only after the emperor’s death.
Frederick Augustus of Saxony demanded immediately and obtained a
price for the recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction, though this did not
prevent him to challenge Maria Theresa’s succession in 1740. He asked
for imperial support for his candidacy to the Polish crown when the
throne became vacant in i732.The majority of the Polish nobles supported
Stanislas Lesczinski, the father-in-law of Louis XV, who once before
(1704-1709) had been Polish king, and an undistinguished one at that.
Neither did the candidate of the minority, Frederick Augustus of Saxony,
37 Redlich, Das Werden . . . , pp. 255-271; Krones, Handbuch, IV, 120-137.

38 Technically the Bavarian claims were not based on a refusal to recognize the
Pragmatic Sanction but on a clause in the will of the Emperor Ferdinand I ac¬
cording to which the Wittelsbach dynasty would succeed after the male Habsburg
line had become extinct. Yet this claim was evidently based on a forgery. Ferdinand’s
will referred to the extinction of all legitimate heirs that is those born in wedlock
and not just male heirs. See also Krones, Handbuch, IV, 173-176.
surpass him in abilities as a ruler. Yet Frederick Augustus was Russia’s
candidate and thereby that of her ally Austria. Stanislas was supported by
France. It was against Russian interests to have a king supported by a
great power as well as by the majority of the Polish Sejm. Undoubtedly,
Frederick Augustus, who had little backing in the country would be
more dependent on the mighty Russian neighbor. For that reason Austria
should have favored the French candidate. In that case Poland would not
have become a Russian satellite, and France completely separated from
Poland could have done little to sway the kingdom in the long run. A
Russian predominance in Poland, on the other hand, might create diffi¬
culties at Austria’s eastern borders.
Charles Vi’s reasoning, however, was different. In the first place, in
relation to Russia he could no longer act as a free agent. Secondly, the
Bourbons were still the traditional enemies of the Habsburgs, and im¬
perial support of the elector of Saxony would add another signature to
the parchment collection guaranteeing the Pragmatic Sanction. Thus,
Charles entered the Polish War of Succession (1733-1735) on the Saxon-
Russian side, that is, from the viewpoint of genuine Austrian interests,
on the wrong side.
The results of this war for the Habsburgs were equally disappointing
in a military and diplomatic sense. Neither the army nor its more than
seventy-year-old commander Eugene of Savoy could be compared with
the armed forces and their leadership in the War of the Spanish Succes¬
sion and the first Turkish war fought in Charles’s reign. The Russians
let the Austrians do most of the fighting. The Rhine army under
Eugene’s command barely held its own and could not prevent the con¬
quest of Lorraine by the French under Marshal Villars. Spain and Savoy,
who saw their chance in Italy, gave the emperor a lesson concerning the
reliability of treaty obligations. Worse could be expected after his death
since the poor state of the Austrian military establishment had now been
fully revealed to the world.
The Austrians lost most of their Italian possessions to the French-
Spanish-Savoyan military forces. Villars, Eugene of Savoy’s old counter¬
part, took Milan, and the Spanish occupied Naples and Sicily. The
hostilities ended in 1735, but a formal peace treaty was not signed until
November 1738 in Vienna. According to its terms Frederick Augustus of
Saxony was recognized as King Augustus III of Poland, Stanislas Lesc-
zinski was retired as duke of Lorraine (actually only Upper Lorraine) to
be yielded by the young sovereign of the duchy, Francis Stephan. After
the death of the aged Stanislas, Lorraine, legally still imperial land, was
to become part of France.39 After the expected extinction of the Medici

dynasty in Tuscany, Francis Stephan, now a landless prince, was to suc¬
ceed there as ruler with the seat of residence in Florence. This was con¬
sidered to be a meager substitute for Lorraine, but an added compensa¬
tion of considerable prestige and political significance was the marriage
to the emperor’s heiress, Archduchess Maria Theresa, in 1736. As a pleas¬
ant by product, this diplomatically arranged deal became one of the rare
princely love marriages in history.40
If Francis thus did not fare too badly, Austria did. Naples and Sicily
were ceded to a Spanish secundogeniture in Italy under the second son
of Philip V. Parma and Piacenza were in turn given to Austria. To¬
gether with Tuscany, where Francis and Maria Theresa ruled after 1736,
these principalities would become secundo- and tertio-genitures for their
offspring. The French pledge to recognize the Pragmatic Sanction, sup¬
posedly a major concession, had to be considered as worthless. The estab¬
lishment of the Saxon King in Poland, though brought about largely by
Austrian military efforts and territorial sacrifices, served mainly Russian
interests. Naples and Sicily, although poorly developed, were strategically
and perhaps also economically more promising domains than Parma and
Piacenza. Even now the Austrian possessions in Italy, though closer to
the hereditary lands than Naples and Sicily, did not represent a homogen¬
eous and fully contiguous territory adjacent to the hereditary lands. It
might have been conceivable to establish a new trading company in
southern Italian territory. The only major Tuscanese port, Livorno, faced
the Tyrrhenian sea, whereas Habsburg commercial trade by sea pointed
toward the Levant. This meant that Austrian dreams to become a sea
power beyond the almost landlocked Adriatic Sea had come to an end
within less than twenty years after they were born. They followed thus
the termination of colonial aspirations, brought about by the previous
dissolution of the Trading Company in Ostende.
The Habsburgs had gained no shred of security for all their sacrifices.
On the contrary, the poor showing in the War of the Polish Succession,
compounded by the defeat and ensuing territorial losses in Charles’s sec¬
ond Turkish war (1737-1739)? put Europe on notice that a second em¬
pire might soon be put on the auction block to be parceled out to the
39 Upper Lorraine, in substance the territory around Metz and Nancy, still re¬
tained representation at the imperial Reichstag in Regensburg. This ambiguous status
was a contributory cause to the war of the First Coalition against France in 1792.
40 Braubach, Versailles und Wien, pp. 186-275; Redlich, Das Werden . . . , pp.
277-287; Wladyslaw Konopzynski, The Cambridge History of Poland (Cambridge,
1951), II, chapt. 1, 25-32.
g6 History of the Hahshurg Empire
highest bidders. The rapid accumulation of territories between 1713 and
1718 and the almost equally speedy losses between 1737 and 1739 seemed
to confirm the experience that a soap bubble busts all the more easily the
more rapidly it is blown up.
F. The great-power position is tested
Charles VI died on October 20, 1740, and within less than two months
the great struggle known in history as the War of the Austrian Suc¬
cession (1740-1748) had begun with its first installment: the invasion of
Silesia by the new king of Prussia, Frederick II. Neither the specific con¬
flict between Austria and Prussia nor the character of Maria Theresa’s mo¬
mentous reign, which was initiated by the war, will be discussed in this
section. The War of the Austrian Succession will be perceived as the end
of the era of the evolution of Austria as a great power. The reign of
Maria Theresa belongs to a new one, discussed in Chapter V.
Maria Theresa’s succession was challenged at once by Bavaria, Saxony,
and Spain, whose rulers made claims to the succession in all Habsburg
lands, by the elector of Bavaria on the strength of his marriage to a daughter
of Joseph I and Ferdinand I’s alleged will. This former issue was now
raised also by the elector of Saxony and new king of Poland. The Spanish
crown considered itself heir to the succession treaties between the two
main branches of the Habsburg dynasty. None of these demands had a
legal foundation. Prussia did not challenge the succession, but merely
demanded the cession of Silesia. Frederick II himself did not take the
legal grounds on which this request was made too seriously. Neither
was there much substance to the initial claims of Savoy to all or part of
the duchy of Milan. What counted in the territorial aspects of this war,
one of the most widespread in history before World War I, was not the
comprehensiveness of the individual claims but the total political impact
of the claimants and the seriousness of their purpose to enforce their
dubious demands.
The attempts to bring about the dismemberment of the Habsburg em¬
pire were fully backed and largely initiated by France, which hoped in
the beginning to get rid of her major European rival without direct mili¬
tary intervention. Of the other powers, England, Holland, and Russia
could not be considered openly favoring Austria, yet they had a common
interest in preventing a complete upset of the balance of power in Eu¬
rope. Of general political claims to the succession, those of Bavaria had to
be taken most seriously, not on account of the military strength of the
country, but because France used her demands as the most convenient
handle to bring about Austria’s disintegration. Spain and Saxony hoped

to fish in troubled waters but they never really expected to become heirs
to all Austrian lands. Savoy’s limited and brief intervention depended
on the involvement of others; Prussia’s success directed at limited objec¬
tives was primarily due to the military proficiency of her army.
A major diplomatic event of the war was the alliance of Nymphen-
burg of May, 1741, between France, Spain, and Bavaria, in which France
pledged to support the claims of the two other powers. The fact that
these claims in their comprehensiveness were actually mutually exclusive,
shows convincingly that this phase of European history was more anti¬
thetic to ideological issues than almost any period of the past after the
early Middle Ages. What counted more than anything else in Austria’s
disfavor was the French promise to support the Bavarian elector Charles
Albert as candidate for the crown of the Holy Roman empire. Only a
week after the Nymphenburg agreement France concluded a treaty with
Bavaria and Prussia, according to which Prussia’s conquest of Lower
Silesia, initiated already in December of 1740 and completed by October of
1741, was recognized. In turn, Frederick of Prussia undertook the obli¬
gation to support the imperial claims of the elector of Bavaria. Charles
Albert was to receive also Bohemia and a major part of the hereditary
lands. In August, 1741, another treaty of support was concluded between
France and Saxony, Austria’s former ally. In November, an additional
pact of mutual assistance and guarantee of conquests was concluded be¬
tween Bavaria and Prussia.
The more often the same issues are confirmed by treaty obligations, the
less is observance of each specific agreement to be trusted. In October,
1741, Maria Theresa and Frederick II had concluded the secret pact of
Klein-Schnellendorf, according to which Austria after the unfavorable
outcome of the first campaign was forced to cede Lower Silesia to
Prussia and Prussia in turn promised to desist from further attack. With
this pact Frederick managed to doublecross friend and foe alike. The
ruler of Bavaria, elected emperor in January, 1742, at the time when he
was crowned in February in Frankfurt, was practically a prince without
land. The Austrians had occupied a part of Bavaria including the
capital Munich. By December, 1742, the Bavarians were forced also to
evacuate Bohemia, which they had occupied only a few months before
with French help. In accordance with the changing fortunes of the war
Sardinia-Savoy in return for the promise of the Milanese territory west
of the Ticino reversed her position, and her noble king joined now the
Austrian side. Yet a new setback was in store for Maria Theresa. Fred-
g8 History of the Hubs burg Empire
erick, contrary to the convention of Klein-Schnellendorf, had resumed the

war; Austria after further defeats had to cede not only Lower but also
Upper Silesia to Prussia in June and July, 1742 (preliminary peace of
Breslau and permanent peace of Berlin).41 Against all Austrian expecta¬
tions this turned out to be in the end a permanent cession.
Yet, not everything was lost for Austria. In September, 1743, England,
Sardina, and Austria pledged a concerted effort to drive the Spanish
armies out of central and northern Italy. A firm French-Spanish alliance
followed as response. Saxony, scared now by the unexepected Prussian
military success, reverted to the more predictable Austrian side. To
even up the score, France in May, 1744, officially declared war on Austria
and England. This move formalized merely a state of hostilities which
in camouflaged manner had commenced after the death of Charles VI.
The old British fear of the Bourbon French-Spanish family alliance with
its inherent threat to the balance of power in Europe now worked clearly
in favor of Austria.
Meanwhile Frederick II, worried that Austria might be almost ready
for a recovery of Silesia, concluded a new alliance with France, whose
trust he had violated by the peace of Berlin. In August, 1744, Frederick
marched through Saxony—the Belgium of the second half of the eigh¬
teenth century—into Bohemia. After severe, costly, but largely indecisive
fighting, peace was concluded at Dresden on Christmas day 1745. Fred¬
erick maintained what he had gotten in the first Silesian war, but
dropped plans for further conquests in Bohemia, which were beyond his
reach. He also recognized Francis of Lorraine as emperor, whose election
had taken place in September 1745 after Charles (Albert) VII’s death
had ended his unhappy reign in January of the same year.
The election of Francis, undistinguished as he was as emperor of the
decaying Holy Roman Empire, restored prestige to the house of Austria.
Since Maria Theresa as a woman was legally barred from accession to the
imperial throne of the Holy Roman Empire in her own right, this meant
for all practical, though not legal, purposes that the Habsburg dynasty
under the new heading House of Habsburg-Lorraine would continue to
bear the imperial title. The weakness of the empire notwithstanding,
this meant further that Austria in the future would not be deprived of
the force of nearly a millennium of imperial tradition. The nominal
chief challenger, Bavaria, through the son of Charles Albert, acknowl¬
edged now in the peace of Fiissen April, 1745, the Pragmatic Sanction.
Maria Theresa, heretofore known as queen of Bohemia and Hungary,
41 Austria, however, kept Teschen, Troppau and Jagerndorf.
and now officially empress consort, was from now on referred to as em¬
press or empress-queen, a title which not in law but in practice cor¬
responded to the majesty of her position and personality.
The war continued for a time in full fury, and spread even further.
The French and British battled each other not only in the Austrian
Netherlands, where the French won the spectacular victory at Fontenoy
in May, 1745, but also in North America and India. The final determi¬
nation of most of the colonial issues was not made until the peace of
Paris in 1763. Yet as far as the Austrian War of Succession was con¬
cerned, the main issue could be considered as settled. Maria Theresa’s
succession war hardly any longer in doubt after 1745. Still, the war in
western Italy continued with indifferent results; by 1746 the Spanish-
French troops withdrew, but they managed to stay in the Austrian
Netherlands and made even forays into Holland. But a defensive Aus-
trian-Russian alliance of June, 1746, directed against a potential new
Prussian attack, protected the Habsburgs from their militarily most
formidable foe.
The peace treaty of Aix la Chapelle, in which Count (later Prince)
Anton Wenzel Kaunitz-Rietberg, the future state chancellor, showed
his superb skill as Austria’s chief negotiator, was concluded in October,
1748. In addition to the loss of Silesia, the Habsburgs had to cede Parma,
Piacenza, and Guastalla to the third son of Philip of Spain. Parma was
to return to Austria, in case the Spanish line should become extinct as it
actually occurred after the French Revolution. Savoy’s gain of the
Milanese territories west of the Ticino was confirmed. The Spanish Neth¬
erlands, under existing conditions more an encumbrance than a source
of power, were returned to Austria. The basic issue over which the war,
in a sense the first world war, was fought, Maria Theresa’s succession
according to the Pragmatic Sanction, was accepted by all parties. So was
the Habsburg-Lorraine imperial title in the Holy Roman Empire. Aus¬
tria’s losses in Italy may be considered as negligible, but that of Silesia,
had far-reaching consequences for Austria’s position in Germany and
even for the future development of the national problems in the Habs-
burg monarchy. These issues will be discussed in different contexts in
chapters V and VII. Maria Theresa did not yet write off Silesia. The loss
in political prestige was made up by the fact that the Habsburg empire
had survived concerted attacks and not been reduced like Spain in 1713-
1714 to a secondary power, or like Poland in 1735 to a Russian puppet
state.
The pacification of Hungary secured in 1711 was still effective. When
Maria Theresa appeared in summer, 1741, before the Hungarian estates at
Pozsony they pledged their support and asked only for relatively minor
concessions on the issue of tax exemption. The military assistance of the
Hungarian estates’ forces, the so-called estates insurrection, did not amount
to much help, but the fact that the estates did not exploit the actual situa¬
tion of the courageous young queen to renewed revolutionary advantage,
cemented the stability of her rule. The Bohemian estates however, con¬
scious of their abject reduction in political status after the Battle of the
White Mountain, gave Charles Albert of Bavaria in 1741-1742 consider¬
able support, but they accepted the reestablishment of Habsburg rule with¬
out revolutionary action. Bavarian over lordship seemed just as far, if not
farther, removed from their national aspirations than the Habsburg
scepter.
The defensive success of Habsburg power in the War of the Austrian
Succession was not the result of particular military brilliance. Austria
had great generals under Leopold I, Joseph I, and the earlier part of the
reign of Charles VI, and respectable ones later in the Seven Years’ War.
The supreme commander in the War of the Austrian Succession, Charles
of Lorraine, Maria Theresa’s brother-in-law, on the other hand, was a
man of more than ordinary incompetence, whose poor showing impaired
also the performance of better Austrian generals such as counts Kheven-
hiiller and Traun. No brilliant military feat was connected with the out¬
come of the war.
Yet if looked at in isolation from other events, the survival of Habs-
burg’s power, a far less homogeneous empire than even Spain at the
beginning of the century, could be considered almost a miracle. It was a
tremendous phenomenon which refutes the simplistic notion that this
new empire was an artificial contraption, incapable to withstand the
blowing of a great storm. International and even Austrian historiography
have still not fully acknowledged that the divisive first great test of Aus¬
tria’s cohesive strength as great power was not the victory of the Counter
Reformation, nor the relief of Vienna from the second Turkish siege,
nor the dismemberment of the Spanish empire. It was rather the largely
disconnected and diffuse War of the Austrian Succession. The siege of
Vienna in 1683 could hardly have led at that time to a lasting Turkish
victory, and the other events mentioned here brought about as many dis¬
advantages as assets to the Austrian cause. The defensive victory in the
War of the Austrian Succession, on the other hand, proved to the world
that this new empire despite its shortcomings was bound to survive.42
42 Walter L. Dorn, Competition for Empire, 1J40-1J63 (New York, 1940), pp.
122-177; Braubach, Versailles und Wien, pp. 276-396; Alfred von Arneth,
An Empire Evolves IOI
This amazing outcome of the war was partly due to the fact, that the
envisaged results of dismemberment did not, for any of the historico-
political entities of the empire, hold expectations worth suffering and
fighting for. Prospects such as control of Bohemia by Bavaria, Hungary by
the Turks, or Belgium by France, did not inspire people to national ris¬
ings. Yet with due caution we may suggest here, that the recognition
of more positive values than the mere passive issues of choice between
greater or lesser evils contributed to the successful test of the Habsburg
empire’s staying power. Factors of this kind are to be found in the socio¬
cultural field as much as in legal-political bonds. Some of them will be
discussed in the following chapter.
Geschichte Maria Theresias, io vols. (Vienna, 1863-1879), see I—III; Robert A.

Kann, The Habsburg Empire: A Study in Integration and Disintegration (2nd ed.
New York, 1973), pp. 30-32.
CHAPTER IV
Late Renaissance and Barocjue A§e in the
Tdabsburc) Lands (i526-i74o)
A. Over-all issues
It is impossible to comprise the social and cultural history of the Habs-

burg domains from the second quarter of the sixteenth to the middle of
the eighteenth century under one comprehensive concept. In accordance
with the terminology of European cultural history, late Renaissance, hu¬
manism, possibly mannerism in the fine arts, and certainly Baroque and
Rococo would represent movements of nearly equal significance. So
would be references to the age of the great philosophical systems in
strictly intellectual history, the era of mercantilism or princely absolutism
in the sociopolitical field or Reformation and Counter Reformation in the
religious one. Most of these problems, currents, and conflicts are applicable
to aspects of the history of the rising Habsburg empire as they would be
to that of any other western or Central European power. Yet although
such concepts are not equally relevant to all these powers, the impact of
several of them appears to be more incongruous in the history of the
Habsburg empire than in that of many other countries.
Why so? The Renaissance reached the Habsburg lands only at the end
of the fifteenth century. Before it could spread widely from the centers
of courtly culture to urban bourgeois civilization it was diverted from
its course by the austerity and the radicalism of the incipient Reformation.
In the Habsburg lands it became engaged in a particularly bitter struggle
with the Counter Reformation, which lasted more than a century. The
Turkish wars were followed in the east by a delayed-action counter¬
reformatory period, after Hungary was freed from the Turks as late as the
102
' Late Renaissance and Baroque jq]
c last decades o£ the seventeenth and the first of the eighteenth centuries.
■ In the course of the overall struggle, states rights and the spread of
representative government to burghers and peasants were thoroughly
jfl checked by princely absolutism. Yet while its rise in the political sphere
ir4
.> can be observed equally well in seventeenth-century France, the corre¬
i: sponding change in social structure to a kind of state capitalism played
i a more limited role in the Habsburg lands. Mercantilism did exist but not
[; an age of mercantilism. This was partly due to the differences in social
a and cultural structure between hereditary and Bohemian lands, but
si particularly those of the Hungarian crown.
These realms did not experience an age of great philosophical systems
L and of outstanding scientific discoveries. The ideas of Hobbes, Locke,
<•u
Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz found little repercussions in seventeenth- and
* early-eighteenth-century thinking of the Habsburg domains. The situation
) was somewhat different in the sciences where outstanding achievements
l did exist though rather as isolated feats than as part of continuous trends.
As for the arts, literature was not strongly influenced by the predomi¬
* nant intellectual accomplishments of the west and north. Music in the
seventeenth century, apart from folksongs, was largely under the sway
of the Italian opera. Strong Italian and later also French influence was
experienced also in painting, sculpture, and architecture. Many talents
I were trained and inspired in these fields. The Habsburg empire established
here a commanding position in the seventeenth and early eighteenth
century. In accordance with the dominant ideas of time and place, em¬
phasis on the grandiose and spectacular—particularly in architecture—
were characteristic. These schemes and concepts of the age of the victor¬
ious Counter Reformation could be put to life in the frame of absolute
government, stimulated and colored further by the pattern of courtly
secular and upper ecclesiastic culture.
Such development was impeded by slow economic progress but
strengthened by the urge for ideological conformity, which furthered the
fine arts as much as it fettered the evolution and exchange of secular
ideas in the humanities. All this falls into place under the concept of
the Austrian Baroque. Unlike parallel movements in the west, it did not
extend its desires for comprehensiveness to great deductive systems and
models of thought. It was concerned, though frequently on a high plane,
with impressions of the senses and emotions.
This Baroque era was introduced by a late Renaissance period in
which the rise of the towns and the struggle of the unfree peasants was
crushed in the confrontation of two great, but almost equally intolerant
ideological systems, Reformation and Counter Reformation. It was suc¬
ceeded by a brief and neither in Austrian arts nor literature particularly
significant Rococo period. The real heir of the Austrian Baroque is the
Enlightenment, with a more puritan style of arts. Its consequences are in
reverse proportions to its brief hold in the Habsburg lands.
Thus, if we speak in this chapter broadly of the Baroque age, we have
to make chronological allowance for a last phase of the Renaissance, a
brief transition period of mannerism in its beginnings, and a still tender
rise of rationalism at its end in the Rococo period. Besides, we have to
recognize trends within the Austrian Baroque itself. They are reflected in
difiFerent ways in the three political main units discussed here, the Austro-
German hereditary lands, the lands of the Bohemian crown, and in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the lands of the Hungarian crown.
Conditions in all three units differed from each other, but those in Hun¬
gary were even more at variance with patterns in the Austrian and Bo¬
hemian lands than dissimiliarities between the two latter realms.
Yet there were also common concepts and trends, which made an
impact on all political entities. Disregarding here matters of foreign
policy, discussed in the previous chapter, four of these trends were all
pervasive: the struggle between Reformation and Counter Reformation,
the conflict between estates and princely absolutism, the economic develop¬
ment under the influence of the ideas of an elementary type of mercantil¬
ism, and the influence of Baroque arts in general.
Of these four main trends the first plays an important role in the history
of all three Habsburg domains, though in Hungary, as a result of the
Turkish occupation, at a later time than in the hereditary and the Bo¬
hemian lands. The collision between princely absolutism and estates
power in the sixteenth century was all-pervasive, but in the seventeenth
century and in particular in the later seventeenth century important only
in Hungary where the Counter Reformation in political terms never
succeeded to the same degree as in the west and north. Mercantilism and
industrialization played a more important part in the hereditary and
Bohemian lands than in rural Hungary. Baroque art pertains again to
all Habsburg lands.
B. Reformation and Counter Reformation
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Church in the Habsburg

lands had to face religious and political struggles. The former aspect
resulted from a conflict between two spiritual trends: the late medieval
reform movement within the Church from which Protestantism de-
\ Late Renaissance and Baroque 105
I; veloped, and the response to it which in the second quarter o£ the six-
?• teenth century changed into a Catholic reform movement within the
:! Church. The latter is generally referred to as the Catholic Reformation
and should be considered as truly religious counterpart to Protestantism.
f| Accompanying and following the religious dispute was a conflict between
|i the political and social forces, which backed the Reformation and those
[j which fought it. This long-lasting confrontation between imperial and
princely authorities, Catholic and Protestant nobles, bishops and pastors,
<j towns and occasionally peasants against vested feudal interests on both
> sides, is properly referred to as the fight between Reformation and
u Counter Reformation.1
The following pages will primarily discuss the political aspects of the
j struggle. Yet this conflict, which lasted more than a century, is not the
t! only one which the Church had to face. Less dramatic in early modern
i times but of even longer duration and most difficult to solve was the
r struggle between Church and state power. In the context of this study
I this means conflict between institutions within a Catholic empire, even
j after the religious confrontation had abated. Here we face the remnants
( of the medieval conflict between pope and emperor, as expressed in the
I symbols of the two-swords theory.2
In political terms we have to refer to such issues as the century-old
: struggle concerning the promulgation of papal bulls and diocesan en¬
cyclicals with or without the consent of princely sovereigns; further, all
questions of ecclesiastic investiture and those of privileged clerical juris¬
diction for the priesthood, embargo of money shipments to Rome, and
clerical taxation. Most of these problems represented in changed form
continuous themes from the Middle Ages well into the latter part of the
nineteenth century. Yet they have a specific relationship to the Protestant
Reformation inasmuch as the Church in the late fifteenth and early
1 A clear distinction between the political nature of the Counter Reformation and
the predominantly ideological one of the Catholic Reformation is possible, but the
same semantic distinction between the religious and political aspects of the
Protestant Reformation is difficult to make. The earlier concepts of the Reforma¬
tion comprises both the religious and political aspects of the movement, whereas
that of Protestants and Protestantism—not introduced until the second imperial diet
of Speyer in 1529—refers primarily to the religious issue. Since the concept of
Reformation, which without qualifying adjective always refers to the Protestant
Reformation, comprises religious and political aspects, it is advisable to state always
in what context the term is used.
2 For an over-all discussion of the Austrian situation in political terms, see Robert
A. Kann, The Problem of Restoration (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968), pp. 231-
278.
io6 History of the Hahshurg Empire
sixteenth centuries was in a state of crisis pertaining equally to questions
of ecclesiastic authority and the controversial mores of individual higher
ecclesiastics. This Church, harassed in several ways in all Habsburg lands,
could fight the Reformation only with the support, indeed the direction
of, the crown. Thus the placetum regis for the promulgation of papal
bulls was a continuous unresolved issue of policy in the era under dis¬
cussion from Ferdinand I to Maria Theresa. The supervision of universi¬
ties according to standards of religious conformity, the visitations of
churches and monasteries, indeed the establishment of government-
controlled monastic councils were introduced by Ferdinand I and con¬
tinued by his successors. To strengthen the princely position, the visitations
of monasteries and convents by foreign generals of orders and foreign
provincials were forbidden.
Yet it was neither a particularly harsh nor unyielding ruler, who had
initiated this policy. Ferdinand I had approached Pope Pius IV with the
request to grant the Cup to the Laity in his lands. He had been willing
to accept the marriage of ecclesiastics. Here was a sovereign to whom the
unity of the faith, not unlike the views of Melanchton on the side of the
Protestant Reformation, meant more than the issue of Church regiment,
Church liturgy, and the unflexible interpretation of dogmas. Naturally he
was concerned not only with the unity of faith under the tiara, but even
more with that under the scepter. This concern accounts for the fact that
the sternest measures of suppression and persecution were directed against
the Anabaptists and later Calvinists, of whom the first threatened the
social order and the latter the political order by denying the emperor what
was to be the emperor’s.
This is not to say that Ferdinand either as ruler of the hereditary lands
and those of the eastern crowns ever condoned less radical forms of Protes¬
tantism. Yet his attitude toward the Reformation war primarily mo¬
tivated by the specter of rebellion of the Protestant German princes
against the emperor, whereas his brother Charles V was at least equally
strongly moved by religious considerations.3
The question arises, who should be considered as Protestant in terms
of conditions in the sixteenth-century Habsburg domains. Fully reliable
evaluations are not possible. Apart from differences in liturgy in the main
units of the Habsburg lands, Protestant interpretations emphasize that the
majority of the noble estates, lords, and knights became adherents of
reformatory doctrines and that the same can be said in many instances
3 See Franz von Bucholtz, Geschichte der Regierung Ferdinands I, 9 vols.

(Graz, 1968), VIII.
I Late Renaissance and Baroque
also for town representatives. Catholic interpretations can counter with
some right that deductions drawn from social elites to the population as
a whole are dubious. Besides, in the Habsburg lands, unlike in southern
and central Germany, the nobles, not the towns, were the chief champions
ioy
of Protestantism. These nobles were primarily concerned with the issue of

estates rights against princely absolutism and less directly with questions
: of creed.
Still, the lords, and particularly the lower nobility, were the most vocal,
fairly independent political force in the sixteenth century. The high
clergy matched them in power, but they could not express their opinions
freely. The towns were frequently not strong enough to act independently
from the nobles, and the same was true for the peasants. There religious
revolt and social revolt against the liege lord was even more inextricably
intertwined than was the issue of faith and estates rights within the
Protestant nobility.
The Reformation in the lands under the Habsburg scepter made
enormous progress between the fifteen twenties and fifteen forties. It
was then somewhat curbed as consequence of the Schmalkaldian war in
Germany (1546-1547) and its aftermath. Pcs spread, however, was con¬
solidated again and perhaps even strengthened under the rule of Ferdi¬
nand’s eldest son Maximilian II (1564-1576), who will be remembered as
the Habsburg ruler friendliest to Protestantism and, according to some
interpretations, at his deathbed even converted to Protestantism.4 During
the reign of his son, Rudolf II (1576-1602), the Counter Reformation had
decidedly gained the upper hand, local reformatory successes in Bohemia
notwithstanding. Throughout the last years of Rudolf’s increasingly con¬
tested reign and during that of the first years of his brother, Matthias
(1612-1619), the Protestant estates in the hereditary and Bohemian lands
took advantage of the fratricidal conflict within the dynasty. This led only
to short-range success, brought about by external events. No genuine new
religious transformation reoccurred. At the end of Matthias’ reign and
during that of Ferdinand II (1619-1637) the Counter Reformation won in
a literal sense a smashing victory. Yet before it, for two generations the
4 Maximilian’s loyalty to the faith was questioned by his father Ferdinand I and
his royal cousin Philip II of Spain, but Maximilian himself consistently denied it.
Confirmed seems to be only the fact that he refused Extreme Unction on his death¬
bed. See Karl Brandi, Deutsche Reformation und Gegenreformation, 2 vols. (Leip¬
zig, 1927), II, 60 f. Matthias Koch, Ouellen zur Geschichte des Kaisers Maximilian
(Leipzig, 1857-1861), II, 92-100. Franz von Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte
Osterreichs (Berlin, 1889), III, 266ff. See also Viktor Bibl, Zur Frage der religidsen
Haltung Kaiser Maximilians II (Vienna, 1917), pp. 3-102 passim.
io8 History of the Habsburg Empire
Protestants shared political power and held a monopoly in regard to a
measure of free expression of public opinion. Both these sources of
strength were heavily contested; nevertheless, they exercised considerable
impact for two generations.
Beyond these general considerations for all Habsburg realms, allowance
has to be made for specific conditions in the hereditary lands and those
of the eastern crowns. In every one of them at least one basic element was
different. Protestantism in the hereditary lands was greatly influenced
by the fact, that the sixteenth-century Reformation had started from
Germany and thus no language barrier impeded its early spread. In
Bohemia, on the other hand, the Reformation could claim far longer
antecedents going back to the Hussite movement in the fifteeenth cen¬
tury which in turn was influenced by Wyclif’s ideas and actions in the
fourteenth. In Plungary the main clash between Reformation and
Counter Reformation occurred much later because of one and a half
century of Turkish occupation. When the showdown took place the
outcome was predetermined.
a) THE HEREDITARY LANDS
In the hereditary lands relative moderation on the part of estates and

Church was a distinct factor for two generations.5 This attitude changed
first radically in Inner Austria, when the later emperor Ferdinand II
began his rule as archduke in his hereditary domains in 1596. Similar
changes occurred in Vorderosterreich even in the 1580’s, whereas the
counterreformatory measures in Upper and Lower Austria introduced by
the Emperor Rudolf II met stiffer resistance among nobles, some towns,
6 The introductory chapter referred to the organization of the hereditary lands

under Emperor Maximilian I. At the end of Ferdinand’s I reign in 1564 a division
of the inheritance of long lasting significance took place between his three sons.
According to Ferdinand’s will, his oldest son and successor as emperor Maxi¬
milian II, king of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia secured the archduchies above and
below the Enns, referred until to-day as Upper and Lower Austria. There terms,
however, are neither identical nor even similar to the concept of Lower and
Upper Austria as established in the administrative reforms of Maximilian I. The
second son, Ferdinand, inherited Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and the Habsburg possessions
in south and western Germany (Vorlande). The whole complex of lands was
generally referred to as Vorderosterreich. The third son, Charles, obtained Styria,
Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia, Trieste, and Istria (Inner Austria). Only by 1665 did
all three ruling lines merge permanently in the imperial line. See also Alfons
Huber and Alfons Dopsch, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte (Vienna, 1901), pp.
170-180. Friedrich Walter, Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte
(Vienna-Graz-Cologne, 1972), pp. 54-61.
ij Late Renaissance and Baroque iog
r and, particularly in Upper Austria, the peasants.6 At the time of his ac-
: cession in 1578 the noble estates in Upper and Lower Austria had ob-
i tained the right of free religious exercise according to the Augsburg
r creed in castles, houses, and domains as well as in the churches under
1 their inherited patronage. Within these limits Protestant education was
: at least tolerated. In substance, these rights either expressly granted or at
least not directly interfered with liberties secured in the other two parts
] of the tripartite hereditary lands. They were, however, never formally
r extended to towns, markets, let alone villages. Yet the Protestant peasants
3 benefited indirectly from the extension of the rights of lords and knights
c to their subjects. This extension stood for an adaption of the principle of
: the peace of Augsburg cuius regio eius religio to the feudal order, but
t: did not imply formal recognition of religious freedom of the commoners.
| Relatively best off in this respect seemed to be urban Protestants. They
) could share in the religious services and educational facilities of the
3 schools held in adjacent castles. Since they were financially stronger and
j naturally more concerned with educational problems than the unfree
j peasants they could even in some places establish religious and educational
1 institutions on their own grounds. These, however, never had unchal-
I lenged legal standing.
In fact, the victory of the Counter Reformation in Vorder and Inner
Austria commenced with the move against Protestant establishments in
towns and markets. It shifted from the closing of schools to the eviction
of so-called agitators and step by step to large-scale expulsion of peasants,
who were faced with the choice of forced reconversion or forced emigration.
Protestant nobles, originally the spearheads of the movement, had failed
to give the peasants sufficient support when they rose equally for social
and religious reasons.7 The heroic peasant revolt in Upper Austria be¬
tween 1624 and 1627 is a striking example. Shortly afterward, the Counter
6 The terms Upper and Lower Austria will be used from here on in the
modern sense, that means the archduchies above and below the Enns (Ober- and
Niederosterreich) rather than in terms of the reforms of Maximilian I, that is:
Lower Austria including modern Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola,
Upper Austria including Tyrol,Windisch March, Istria, Trieste, Gorizia, Vorarlberg,
as well as the German Vorlande (Vorderosterreich).
7 gee Grete Mecenseffy, Geschichte des Protestantismus in Osteireich (Graz-
Cologne, 1956), pp. 50-108; Josef Wodka, Kirche in Osterreich (Vienna, 1959)? PP*
195-240; Paul Dedic, “Der Protestantismus in der Steiermark im Zeitalter der Ref¬
ormation und Gegenreformation” (Leipzig, 1930), 48:2, 1-204 passim; and as back¬
ground reading Johann Loserth, Die Reformation und Gegenreformation in den
innerdsterreichischen Landern im XVI. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1898).
IIO History of the Hahshurg Empire
Reformation flushed by transitory military success in the Thirty Years’
War reached its political peak with the Edict of Restitution of 1629,
which was meant to undo the strongholds of the Reformation, gained
after the peace of Augsburg. Ironically, Ferdinand II owed this rashly
exploited victory to the strategy of the commander in chief of his forces,
Wallenstein, who was personally indifferent to the religious aspects of the
struggle.8
Altogether the success of the Counter Reformation in the hereditary
lands was only in small parts due to the helplessness of feeble rulers like
Rudolf II and his brother Matthias, who vacillated between suppression
and appeasement of the estates. Neither could a bigot like Ferdinand II
claim much credit. The fate of the Reformation and the course of the
Counter Reformation were largely determined by the outcome of the
Huguenot wars in France, the predominance of Spain in south and
southwestern Europe, and the isolationist policies of James I in England.
The Habsburgs in the hereditary lands influenced more the content of
the counterreformatory program than its political course. In this respect
the impact of the events in Bohemia, which gradually were to lead to the
foreign intervention of the powers involved in the Thirty Years’ War,
and the events in Hungary, which had been brought about by foreign
(Turkish) intervention, were important.
b) THE LANDS OF THE BOHEMIAN CROWN
The situation in the lands of the Bohemian crown was different be¬
cause of the religious heretic and social revolutionary indoctrination,
which at the time of the triumph of the Counter Reformation had a
history of two centuries behind it. The fires of the Hussite wars had been
extinguished in the 1430’s, but the idea of the national kingdom, which
embraced that of a national Church had been alive as recently as the reign
of George of Podebrady in the late fifteenth century and the first Jagiello
kings in the early sixteenth century. In the Bohemian lands, the notion of
a restriction of religious and religious educational freedom did not exist—
unlike the situation in the hereditary lands.
Three main reformatory trends prevailed under Habsburg rule in Bo¬
hemia up to the catastrophe of the White Mountain in 1620: the Utraquist
movement, representing the moderate turn of the Hussite movement in
the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; the Unity of the Bohemian
8 See Hans Sturmberger, Georg Erasmus Tschernembl: Ein Beitrag zur Ge-
schichte der Gegenrejormation und des Landes ob der Enns (Graz-Cologne, 1953),
pp. 261-365.
Late Renaissance and Baroque m
Brethren, the somewhat mellowed heirs to the radical Taborite ideas; and
the Lutherans. Only the latter can strictly speaking be referred to as
Protestants. Still, the Bohemian Brethren approved, like the Utraquists,
of Communion in both kinds,9 and also of the completely, free lay
ministry without control by higher authority, the renunciation of material
ecclesiastic power, and the affirmation of the rights and duties of Chris¬
tianity to reform society. In the sixteenth century this last demand could
no longer be taken literally, let alone enforced. Yet the moderate Utra¬
quists had also modified the notion of the unrestricted lay ministry. The
austerity of the ways of life of the ministry was still endorsed, but the
social reform idea was dropped. This is the basic difference between the
so-called Articles of Prague of 1420, which represented the creed of the
I Unity of Bohemian Brethern and the Compactata arrived as compromise
solution at the Council of Constance in 1436-1437 to which the Utraquists
adhered henceforward.
Early Lutheranism, because of its Hussite antecedents and Luther’s
) dynamic reformism up to his return to Wittenberg in 1522, appeared to
the Czech Reformation closer to the “Unity” than to the Utraquists.
Luther for a time responded to this interpretation, and in the second
quarter of the sixteenth century Czech-German cooperation was closer
than before or afterward. The battered Hussite reform movement had
received a new impetus, which was to be disappointed later, due to
Czech concern regarding the national issue, ostensibly threatened in the
long run by a German-directed reformatory movement. Therefore Cal¬
vinism appeared more congenial to the Reformation in the Bohemian
lands. Ferdinand I, however, who feared a prospective alliance, if not
merger, between the Utraquist and Lutheran movements tried to con¬
ciliate the Utraquists. He seemed to be willing to recognize the Com¬
pactata, if such move would return moderate Utraquism to the Church.
The Council of Trent and Charles V’s victory in the Schmalkaldian war
prevented the success of this statesmanlike design. Indeed, a new wave of
persecution against the Bohemian Brethren followed, in the course of
9 The term Utraquists refers to the doctrine of Communion in both kinds, which
means the Cup for the Laity, and therefore pertained equally to Bohemian
Brethren and moderates. Yet, particularly in sixteen-century developments Utra¬
quism in regard to the Eucharist had become the core of the doctrine of the
moderates, whereas it stood only for one of the demands of the radicals. This seems
to be the historical, though not logical interpretation, why the term Utraquists is
generally used for the moderates. See also Friedrich G. Heymann, John Ziz\a and
the Hussite Revolution (Princeton, 1955), pp. 602-606. See also Ferdinand Seibt in
K. Bosl, ed., Handbuch der Geschichte der bohmischen Lander, I, 546-558.
which their bishop Johannes Augusta was imprisoned and tortured. The
Jesuits were now called to Bohemia and gained a stronghold in higher
education in the Clementinum in Prague. Bishop Peter Canisius (1521-
1597),10 proved himself here as effective an agent of the Counter Re¬
formation as he had been previously in southern Germany and Austria.
Augusta’s hope to reconcile Bohemian Brethren and Lutheranism failed
as did a more far-reaching compromise plan under the new emperor
Maximilian II to merge both creeds with Utraquism. The new Con-
fessio Bohemica was rejected. Not so much the question of religious creed
but the conservatism of the Utraquist nobles prevented this last chance of
merger. By the institution of Defensores—granted obligingly by the
sympathetic emperor Maximilian II—the nobles in the Bohemian estates
were now to control the religious establishment.11 A new rapprochement
between the Utraquists in the upper strata of the national society and the
Catholic Church seemed to be in the offing. But the Bohemian Brethren,
the remnants of the social revolutionary movement of old, were in¬
creasingly suppressed.
Matters came to a head under the new feeble Emperor Rudolf II. The
purely religious question moved increasingly into the background, that
of Utraquist estates rights versus the imperial administration, rose to the
fore. The new war against the Turks and feuds within the dynasty (above
all between Rudolf and his brother Matthias) weakened the imperial
cause and strengthened the estates party. It benefited also from the in¬
creasingly apparent national rift between Lutheranism and so-called Old-
Utraquism, which leaned toward a reconciliation with the Church. Yet the
more important Neo-Utraquism fully retained its relationship to Lutheran
doctrines. Only against this background is it possible to understand
Emperor Rudolf II’s Letter of Majesty of July, 1609, in which he recog¬
nized the Confessio Bohemica. It pertained mainly to Utraquists, but
also to Lutherans and former Bohemian Brethren. The estates obtained
Church and school control on the highest educational level. The right to
build churches and schools was, indeed, granted to Protestants on the
some footing as to Catholics. The Defensores were now to become a
workable institution. The victory of the estates party over the crown was
far-reaching, though not complete.
In one way the Letter of Majesty was the product of imperial weakness
10 Canonized in 1925.
11 The Defensores were to be public secular officials entrusted with the repre¬
sentation and defense of Protestant-Utraquist Church autonomy. The institution
was, however, not fully put into practice by the emperor and repudiated after his
death by his successor. See also Robert W. Seton-Watson, History of the Czechs
and Slovaks (Hamden, 1965), pp. 96-110.
Late Renaissance and Baroque ji j
and aristocradc overbearing. Yet inasmuch as it granted religious freedom

■ to townspeople and peasants (the latter not just as retainers of the lords
and knights but in their own right), it was also a document of liberty of
: conscience, though one of short duration. It was actually not the Letter
; itself, but the agreement of the same day between the Catholic and
Protestant estates concerning the right to build churches and schools
which led to the break with the government. It culminated in the fateful
defenestration of Prague in 1618. The fact that in this case Protestant
rights were violated by Ferdinand of Styria (soon to be Emperor Ferdi¬
nand II), and the violent response of the Protestant estates are less signifi-
; cant than the showdown between the retreating Reformation, the rising
I demands for national autonomy of an aristocratic republican establishment,
, and the victoriously advancing Counter Reformation. The effect on the
( political organization of the lands of the Bohemian crown after the battle
of the White Mountain will be discussed in Section D of this chapter, in
the context of princely absolutism and estates rights.
Culturally the policy of forced reconversion of heretics or expulsion had
far-reaching effects. Jesuits, jointly with other orders, were now in com¬
plete control of higher education and exclusively of the great University
of Prague. Yet neither the forced emigration of possibly as many as
40,000 families, including many of the high nobility and substantial strata
of the well-educated burghers in the towns, nor the widespread burning
of books and manuscripts had as decisive an impact on the future as
alleged by the new emperor’s courtiers and ecclesiastic advisers.12 Why
this was so can best be seen in a brief comparative analysis of the struggle
between Reformation and Counter Reformation in the three main units
of Habsburg rule. A discussion of the first of them, the lands of the Hun¬
garian crown follows.
c) THE LANDS OF THE HUNGARIAN CROWN
The problem of the Reformation in the Hungarian lands is closely

tied to the Turkish occupation. By and large the Ottoman power was
indifferent to the religious conflict in itself but its interests were affected
by the political angle of the problem. The Catholic position was identified
with the hereditary enemy, the Habsburgs, the Protestant position largely
with that of the Transylvanian satellite principality and, beginning with
the last quarter of the seventeenth century, with underhand support by
the French ally in the west. The High Portal considered the enemies of
its enemies to be friends.
The Reformation struck Hungary chiefly as consequence of Luther’s
12 Hermann Munch, Bohmische Tragodie (Braunschweig, 1949), pp. 77-87, 123.
movement in Germany. Considering the slow speed of communication
this meant that its effect almost coincided with the Habsburg accession
in Hungary in 1526. The spread of Lutheranism created resentment
against German influence, even though the Habsburgs were as firmly
opposed to the Reformation in Hungary as anywhere else. Yet Ferdi¬
nand I and Maximilian II tried at least to diminish opposition in the rel¬
atively small part of Hungary under their control by similar concessions
to those offered in the hereditary lands and in Bohemia. Furthermore,
the cruel cuius regio eius religio principle was applied in Hungary only
by analogy in a limited number of towns.
On the other hand the peace of Vienna of June, 1606, concluded be¬
tween the representatives of Emperor Rudolf II’s brother Matthias and
Prince Stephan Bocskay forced the imperial side to recognition of far-
reaching religious freedom in Hungary for high and low nobility and
free towns and markets; the religious affiliation of the unfree peasants
was still tied to that of the lords. Transylvania, for most of the sixteenth
and seventeenth century under Turkish suzerainty, had become largely
Protestant by the sixteenth century and remained in this respect under
Ottoman overlordship substantially undisturbed. Altogether the Reforma¬
tion east of the Tisza river had great success with a minimum of accom¬
panying violence.
In this respect the Transylvanian situation was particularly instructive
in view of the existence there of three recognized political nations (Mag¬
yars, Szekels,13 and since the middle of the twelfth century Germans,
called Saxons as pars pro to to) and four creeds (Catholicism, Lutheranism,
Calvinism, and after the iô’s Unitarianism). The large Roumanian part
of the unfree peasant population did not share in the political and religious
rights and liberties accrued in the course of time to the “three-nation
state” or, more correctly, the “three-privileged-nations state.” The three
nations, aligned by defensive alliances against the Turks in the fifteenth
century, continued to live peacefully together as long as outside political
interests and eventually the built-in ethnic and social inequalities of the
domestic situation did not interfere.
Flungary before the reconquest of Buda in 1686 was not affected to
the same degree as Bohemia by a victory of the Counter Reformation by
direct military confrontation. The Counter Reformation in Hungary in its
early stages was influenced by the more persuasive cultural endeavors of
13 The Szekels were a Magyar-speaking tribe and later completely identified with
the Magyars. Whether there existed once a basic ethnic difference between Magyars
and Szekels has never been unequivocally established.
. Late Renaissance and Baroque 775
< Peter Pazmany (1570-1637), eminent primas of Hungary, teacher, writer,

i and founder of the University at Nagyszombat (Tyrnau).14 This Jesuit
; father, a convert from Calvinism in his youth, was in a way the counter-
; part of Peter Canisius, the Jesuit missionary in the hereditary and Bo¬
hemian lands, but had a wider and stronger cultural appeal. Partly this
may have been due to his greater moderation. Up to the middle of the
: seventeenth century, religious conditions in Hungary were on a more
1 even keel than in other Habsburg realms. The complete victory of the
Catholic cause in the hereditary and Bohemian lands in general and the
ideological fallout of the Magyar nobles’ revolt under the leadership of
Count Francis Wesselenyi and counts Miklos and Peter Zrinyi between
1666 and 1669 helped to change all this. Counterreformatory activities
1 under the particularly intolerant bishop of Neutra and later cardinal
1 primas of Hungary, Count Leopold Kollonitsch (1631-1707), were instru-
1 mental here. Forced conversions, wholesale confiscation of property of
heretics, and the cruel sentences given to Protestant ministers in the
northern mining towns complement the portrait of the man, who because
of his brave conduct during the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683, was
hailed as great humanitarian in Austria.
Yet even if Kollonitsch had not been a leader in religious intolerance
in the 1670’s, the reconquest of Hungary in the i68o’s culminating in the
capture of Buda in 1686 would have altered the picture. Count Caprara’s
ruthless military administration combined features of a harsh military
occupation, persecution of Protestants, and strongly partisan actions in
favor of German officers and nobles now to be endowed with the estates
of heretics. Protestantism survived, but mainly and publicly in the
eighteenth century in the lands east of the Tisza, in particular in Tran¬
sylvania, whose religious liberties had to be sanctioned after the reconquest
by Leopold I in 1691. The recognition was part of the price to be paid in
installments for the liberation of the bulk of Hungary by the peace of
Karlocza (Karlowitz) in 1699. Another part were the privileges of 1690-
1691 granted to the Greek Orthodox Serbs in reconquered Hungary.
These conversions represented early examples of cultural autonomy in
the religious educational field. Religious tolerance shown to Carpatho-
Ukrainians (Ruthenians), on the other hand, had to be paid for by
recognition of Uniate churches with separate ritual but under the supreme
jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic primate in Esztergom (Gran). Still
complete Gleichschaltung under the Catholic Church, comparable with
the one now prevailing in the Bohemian and hereditary lands, did not
14 Transferred to Budapest as Peter Pazmany University in 1777.
7/6 History of the Habshurg Empire
exist in Hungary. There the ancient constitutional tradition remained
still very much alive.15
Differences in the impact of the Counter Reformation on all three
political units, the hereditary lands, and those of the Bohemian and
Hungarian crowns, were substantial. Similar was, however, the fact, that
there were highly detrimental effects in all three cases, though they were
quite divergent in nature. In the hereditary lands harsh measures were
taken, particularly in Upper Austria and Inner Austria, where forced
emigrations of many thousands took place. Yet neither was the nobility
decimated nor the social structure of town life radically changed. After
all the Counter Reformation in the hereditary lands was victorious by
means of mission, supported by police action but not by large scale vio¬
lence. The autonomous forces of nobles and towns were in substance
pressured to conform; they were not actually crushed. Furthermore,
neither estates autonomy nor urban civilization, which was chiefly af¬
fected by the Counter Reformation had been developed to the same levels
as in Bohemia. The chief and far reaching consequences of reformatory
pressure consisted not so much in the memories of the injuries done but
in those to be avoided by a cultivation of conformism and expediency.
This factor had a long lasting, highly detrimental effect on Austrian
cultural and particularly intellectual life. The attitude of what does not
hurt me is not my business, so prevalent and obvious in the period be¬
tween the Congress of Vienna and the revolution of 1848—to take only
one outstanding example—was indirectly still a consequence of the un¬
wholesome counterreformatory experience. Judged by various incidents in
the hereditary lands in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries it is
true, that a victory of the Protestant Reformation may not have heralded
a more tolerant age. Yet since this victory did not occur, this argument
has to be ruled out.
Apart from immediate sufferings, the terrible consequences of imperial
counterreformatory revenge and action after the battle of the White
Mountain resulted in a delay of at least two centuries in regard to eco¬
nomic, political and cultural developments. Yet delay means neither de¬
struction nor even lesser accomplishments on the part of the counter¬
reformatory Habsburgs if one takes a long-range view. The opposite may
be true. The era of suppression which affected Bohemia, Moravia, and in
16 Denis Sinor, History of Hungary (London, 1959), pp. 184-209; Eugen Csuday,
Die Geschichte Ungarns, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1900), II, 61-71, 187-206; Mihaly Bucsay,
Geschichte des Protestantismus in Ungarn (Stuttgart, 1959), pp. 20-122.
I Late Renaissance and Baroque / jj
ij Part Silesia, strengthened the consciousness of national identity. It helped
: to heal the rift, created and deepened in two centuries of social-religious
lj strife. The glorious achievements of the Slavic Renaissance in Bohemia at
j the beginnings of the nineteenth century were the payoff of the suppres-
j sion in the seventeenth.
True, suppression did not help to reconcile the national struggle in
! Bohemia, which permeated increasingly the nineteenth century and the
j subsequent history of Czech-German relationship. This struggle became
| apparent during the Hussite wars and, though modified under the influ¬
ence of early Lutheranism, became apparent again under the Protestant
estates reign after 1609. The impact of German officials and particularly
* of foreign nobles as heirs to the confiscated estates after 1620 aggravated
1 matters. Yet, again taking a long range view, these issues could hardly
i have been reconciled even under different circumstances. The Counter
* Reformation may have had an exacerbating influence on national strife
in the lands of the Bohemian crown but hardly a decisive one.
In the long run, the lands of the Hungarian crown were least affected
by the impact of the Counter Reformation, introduced by the military
policies of the Habsburg armies in seventeenth-century Hungary. The rise
of Calvinism in eastern Hungary and in particular in Transylvania as a
symbol of inveterate Magyarism, equally free from bonds to the Roman
Church and the previously noted Germanizing influence of Lutheranism,
was witness to this. Protestantism in Hungary did not have a tradition
of revolutionary social and antinational programs behind it. The social
issues of peasants versus lords were not primarily focused on the religious
question. Neither was this true for the living though socially unrepresen¬
tative constitutional tradidon of the country. Less than in Bohemia and
in the hereditary lands was the estates program interrelated to Protes¬
tantism. Here again, largely because of the Turkish wars, overriding
issues of a different nature prevented a deep split along religious lines.
The national issues in Hungary, grave as they were and graver as they
became, are less deeply connected with the religious issue than in other
component parts of the Habsburg empire.
C. Socioeconomic trends
The Habsburg lands in sixteenth-century Europe represented the para¬

digm of a rural feudal economy, somewhat modified by mining of pre¬
cious metals in the western parts of Inner Austria, northwestern and central
Bohemia, and northeastern Hungary. The same territorial qualifications
hold roughly true for industrial development. The evolution of crafts and
trades in early modern Europe was interrelated to an advanced urban
culture. In the Habsburg realms this evolution pertained more to Bohe¬
mia and Silesia than to the hereditary lands and Hungary. These generali¬
zations, however, apply to conditions in the lands of the Bohemian and
Hungarian crowns only as long as they did not become theatres of
drawn-out wars—the Thirty Year’s War here, the Turkish wars there.
The devastations brought about by them and the delay in economic de¬
velopment caused by them, explain, in part, why the impact of the
seventeenth-century mercantilist policies was more strongly felt in the
hereditary lands. Their consequences could become fully conspicuous
only in territories which were spared the direct ravages of the conflagra¬
tions. Yet it would be rash to deduce that the new doctrines and their
application changed the econotnic picture radically even there.
The following discussion will therefore have to concentrate on the
lands not under foreign occupation of long duration. Only there was it
possible gradually to move away from a predominantly feudal economy,
primitive in its technological aspects and unjust in its economic distribu¬
tion. This development pertains above all to the operation of a govern¬
mental financial administration, which could collect taxes and spend
them (however unwisely and unjustly) but not entirely in the service of a
feudal political establishment.
a) FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION
The general structure of the financial administration in the Habsburg

lands was traced briefly in Chapter II in connection with Ferdinand I’s
reforms. The chief income of the crown in the hereditary lands derived
from the regalia such as mint, mining rights, tolls, and custom duties. In
addition, there were the returns from the public domains and town
taxes, all administered by the Court Chambers. Furthermore, the sovereign
summoned the estates of the various lands to approve extraordinary taxes,
particularly in wartime, the so-called contributions (Contributionen). A
land tax, based on the income from estates (Herrengiilten) was collected
from the domains of the lords. As early as under Maximilian I’s reign
however, the incidence of this tax was generally shifted from the lords
to the peasants. This means that some of the most oppressive burdens of
the peasants were imposed still indirectly, but in the course of the six¬
teenth century directly levied obligations became the rule.
Excise taxes on drinks, salt, beef, leather, chalk, bricks, luxury articles
such as laces or tobacco—the latter after the seventeenth century a state
4 Late Renaissance and Baroque ug
monopoly 16—were imposed on everybody. Again, the lords were able to

unload a major part of this obligation on the peasants. Towns and markets
were not given this opportunity.
Taxes collected in the lands of the Bohemian crown were considerably
i. higher than in the hereditary lands. This was, before the Thirty Years’
^ War, primarily due to the greater prosperity of the towns in Bohemia and
I Silesia. Bohemia derived also considerable prosperity from the mining of
(precious ores, particularly silver. After 1620 the severely restricted political
power of the estates in these lands could not redress the imbalance of
taxation to the disadvantage of Bohemia and Moravia.17 The government
in Vienna never admitted the rather obvious punitive intent. Yet the new
foreign noble soldiers of fortune who after the battle of the White Moun¬
tain had dispossessed the national nobility, could afford stiff taxation,
because exploitation of the peasants had become now particularly ruth¬
less and hence profitable under the emperor’s partisans. The lot of the
unfree peasants from the Hussite wars to 1620 had hardly been much
: better than in the hereditary lands, but it now became definitely worse.
It is difficult to compare the situation in the Hungarian lands, even
those free from Turkish occupation, with those in the socially more
closely associated hereditary and Bohemian lands. In Hungary the right
of the parliament (royal diet) to pass on taxation was more firmly rooted
in the coronation diploma and the estates rights, as anchored in the
Hungarian code of public law, the opus triparitum juris consuetudinarii
in cycli regni Hungariae of Istvan Verbbcziy of 1514. In Hungary the
Court Chamber18 was in theory subordinated to Vienna. Yet Hungarian
taxes, apart from the military administration after 1686, and even then
only for a short time, were not used for imperial objectives beyond the
borders of the country. Even within the country, royal attempts in the
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries to bypass the Reichstag by a
selected committee of high dignitaries were curbed by a law of 1715. All
things considered, contributions granted by the Hungarian diets to the
16 In Austrian terms—still in force today—only the state is entitled to raise

tobacco plants, manufacture tobacco, and to sell much manufactured products
processed in governmental plants.
17 For a comparison of tax structure and yield in the hereditary lands and those
of the Bohemian crown in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries see particularly
Huber and Dopsch, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte, pp. 211-213. See also as
background reading Ferdinand Tremel, Der Fruh\apitalismus in Innerdsterreich
(Graz, 1954), pp. 96-147.
18 Henry Marczali, Ungarische Verjassungsgeschichte (Tubingen, 1910), pp. 65-
67. After the fall of Buda to the Turks in 1541 the Court Chamber was transferred
to Pozsony (Pressburg).
iio History of the Habsburg Empire
royal treasury, unlike conditions in the hereditary and Bohemian lands,
did not even in part accrue to common objectives of the over-all Habsburg
power. Tax exemptions of the nobles were actually abolished under King
Matthias Corvinus, although the unloading of taxes levied on the nobles
upon their unfree peasants existed there as in the other Habsburg lands.
Moreover, because of the changing fortunes of the Turkish wars, peasants
were frequently subjected to Turkish and Habsburg tax collections in
rapid succession.
Important for the financial structure of all Habsburg lands was the
mining of ores, primarily silver and copper. The mines of the Erzgebirge
in northwestern Bohemia, in Central and southern Bohemia, in the High
and Low Tatra of Hungary in present-day Slovakia, and at an earlier
time in Tyrol played an important role. Gold-mining, as for instance in
Rauris (Salzburg), was never of major significance. After the middle of
the sixteenth century the returns from the silver mines began to decline
and the financial crisis brought about by the ravages of the Thirty Years’
War led to a general debasing of coins.
Yet the easy-money situation, which enabled the great southern-German
banking houses of the Fuggers and Welsers to finance the administration
and counterreformatory wars of Charles V, had come to an end by the
second half of the sixteenth century, long before the outbreak of the
Thirty Years’ War. Here the colonial policy of the Spanish world empire,
which led to its financial bankruptcy, weakened and partly destroyed also
the financial market for the German Habsburgs in favor of the rising
French economic power.
b) AGRICULTURE
The chief burdens of the spreading economic crisis were carried by the
peasants, even though they still lived largely outside of a money economy.
Throughout the sixteenth century the lords in the hereditary and Bo¬
hemian lands strained to enlarge their personal holdings by buying
peasant lands or expelling the tenant-owners as refractory. Furthermore,
uncultivated lands increasingly accrued to the lords by law. The expul¬
sions or forced emigrations in the wake of the Counter Reformation in
Inner Austria and Salzburg in the last decades before the Thirty Years’
War had likewise an at least indirect effect in the same direction. The
number of peasants obliged to robot in the personal services of the lords
decreased thereby, but the service obligations levied now on smaller
numbers became even harsher. Somewhat better in this respect were con¬
ditions in the western hereditary lands, in Tyrol and Vorarlberg, where
Late Renaissance and Baroque 121
most peasants were personally free or enjoyed unrestricted freedom of

movement. Yet even here the peasants revolted under Michael Gaismair’s
leadership at the end of the first quarter of the sixteenth century. As in
Salzburg, Styria, and Carniola, they were eventually put down by
military force.
In the Bohemian lands living conditions of the peasants under the rule
of the noble estates had deteriorated in the last decades preceding the
great war. The redistribution of the land of the Bohemian nobility among
foreign—German, Italian or even Spanish—nobles, after 1620, changed
not so much institutions as expectations. Chances for reform in regard to
the excesses of personal services, restriction of freedom of movement,
exorbitant charges for the use of the lord’s pastures, and sweeping patri¬
monial jurisdiction had ceased in prostrated Bohemia for a long time to
come.19 The outlook in this respect in the hereditary lands was no better.
Leopold I and his sons, Joseph I and Charles VI, had tried in a stumbling
way to curb at least the most oppressive excesses of the robot system,
because they further impaired the output of an agricultural system which
was backward by western and central European standards. Long lists of
the specific duties of the peasants were drawn up. They were not meant
to lighten the heavy burden directly, but they should at least prevent
exploitation beyond the letter of the law. However, the lords insisted
successfully that saving clauses be inserted into these patents. They were
to allow for unspecified additional duties referred to in the feudal con¬
tract, and pertained to so-called emergency situations to be invoked at the
pleasure of the lord. These clauses, of course, added mockery to injury.20
In the lands of the Hungarian crown, the situation could be con¬
sidered better only in one respect: more reasonable expectations for
change. The peasant risings in the 1510’s, 1520’s, 1570’s, and 1630’s in
German (Styrian), Slovene, and some Croatian areas had accomplished
as little as the serious ones in Bohemia in 1680. They all were cruelly
suppressed. In Hungary the peasant revolts were tied to the objective of
national freedom. The risings of the Kurucoks under the leadership of
19 Josef Macek, Der Tiroler Bauernhjieg und Michael Gaismair (Berlin, 1965),
pp. 128-431; Ferdinand Tremel, Wirtschajts- und Sozialgeschichte Osterreichs
(Vienna, 1969), pp. 132-148; Karl Griinberg, Die Bauernbejreiung in Bohmen,
Mahren und Schlesien (Leipzig, 1894), I, 1-16.
20 Tremel, Wirtschajts- und Sozialgeschichte Osterreichs, pp. 232-245; Franz M.
Mayer, Geschichte Osterreichs mit besonderer Ruc\sicht auf das Kulturleben
(Vienna, 1909, 3rd ed.), pp. 292-303; see also as background reading Otto Brunner,
Land und Herrschaft: Grundjragen der territorialen Verfassungsgeschichte Oster¬
reichs im Mittelalter (Vienna, 1959, 4th revised ed.), pp. 240-356.
Francis Rakoczy II culminating in the revolutionary Hungarian-Transyl-
vanian diet of Onod of 1707 led to defeat in the peace of Szatmar of 1711,
spelling disaster for the cause of unfree peasants in reconquered Hungary
and Transylvania. Yet the belief that the freedom of the Hungarian nation
was anchored in that of the Hungarian peasantry was indelibly tied to
these risings. A free Hungary, in whatever blurred form, meant a free
peasantry.21 The same idea had not taken hold to the same degree in the
Bohemian and hereditary lands.
c) CRAFTS AND INDUSTRY
Until mercantilism began to make its influence felt in the last quarter of
the seventeenth century crafts were controlled by the guild system.
Particularly in Inner Austria counterreformatory screenings tightened
these procedures. The government did not begin until the end of the
seventeenth century to exercise greater influence on guild regulations. Yet
in the era under discussion it did not succeed to do more than to loosen
up slightly the numerus clausus policy of the craft guilds. Under Charles
VI the establishment of new guilds was brought under governmental
control.
The one major and permanently active industrial establishment in the
hereditary lands, hardware manufacturing in Styria and Carinthia, based
primarily on the rich Styrian iron-ore mines, received too little attention
at the time of the silver boom. Wool weaving was practiced purely domes¬
tically on a small scale. The manufactured merchandise of highly skilled
craftsmen such as those of silversmiths, jewelers, producers of leather-
goods and of various textile fabrics developed only slowly, partly be¬
cause the wars of the sixteenth century had blocked the eastern markets
and the wars of the early seventeenth the western as well. Moreover, be¬
fore the impact of mercantilism, court and aristocracy obtained luxury
articles mostly from abroad, first from Italy and Germany, later also from
France.
Bohemian and Silesian textile industries developed in the sixteenth and
at the beginning of the seventeenth centuries on a larger scale than in the
hereditary lands. The same was true for the glass industry. Its products
included, what might be called in modern times, costume jewelry,
that is, manufacturing of semiprecious stones in Bohemia. Lace industry
there and linen industry in Silesia were significant. This remarkable in¬
dustrial development was not greatly impaired during the first half of
21 See Zsigmond P. Pach, Die ungarische Agrarentwic\lung im 16-17. Jahrhun-

dert (Budapest, 1964), pp. 39-93.
; the Thirty Years’ War, as long as Wallenstein was in command. He sup-
: plied his army primarily from Bohemian resources and drew on the Bo¬
hemian luxury industry for his and his retainers’ ambitious designs. After
his fall and under the impact of devastations of the Bohemian and
! Silesian countryside industries declined.
In Hungary the threefold impact of Turkish misadministration in cen¬
tral Hungary, the direct war damages, and the reduction of returns from
the north Hungarian ore mines blocked potentialities for substantial in¬
dustrial developments. Domestic industry on a small scale and the mining
: of precious ores continued during this period relatively undisturbed in
l Transylvania.22
'
d) MERCANTILISM
Economic standstill, if not retrogression, changed to some extent under

the influence of mercantilism, which made its influence felt in the Habs-
burg lands relatively late. It would be far too much to state, that mercan¬
tile influence amounted to a change as comprehensive as that of Prussian
economy under the soldier king Frederick William I—to take a model of
comparison in Central Europe.
The relatively modest achievements of this Austrian type of mercantil¬
ism are generally associated with the activities of three meritorious re¬
formers from southern and western Germany, Johann Joachim Becher,
Wilhelm von Schroeder, and his brother-in-law Philip Wilhelm von
Hornigk.23 Becher, son of a Protestant minister, may be credited with
the establishment of a commercial college in Vienna, a first among com¬
mercial administrative agencies in Central Europe. In the 1660’s and
1670’s, he also introduced silk industry in Lower Austria and the institu¬
tion of a Kunst- und Werkhaus in Vienna for the training in crafts by
foreign masters outside the fetters of guild restrictions. A planned Orien¬
tal company was meant to establish some trade relations with the
Levant, an objective hampered by the critical nature of relations to the
High Portal. The company folded up after a few years. Plans to establish
a wool factory in Linz in Upper Austria proved to be even more dis¬
appointing.24
22Mayer, Geschichte Osterreichs, II, 312-355; Tremel, Wirtschafts- und Sozial-

geschichte, pp. 112-280.
23 Louise Sommer, Die osterreichischen Kameralisten in dogmengeschichtlicher
Darstellung (Vienna, 1920), I, 43-56, 87-95.
24 See Herbert Hassinger, Johann Joachim Becher (Vienna, 1951), pp. 138-204.
Becher’s project concerning the Oriental Trade Company, however, was revised
under Charles VI.
Wilhelm von Schroeder may be considered as Becher’s hardly more
fortunate successor. Because of governmental stumbling blocks, he was
unable to extend Becher’s modest reforms to northeastern Hungary. The
Kunst- und Werkhaus did not succeed under his management any better
than under Becher’s; it folded up in the early 1680’s. Governmental reluc¬
tance to invite foreign teachers of crafts of Protestant affiliation played
a part here. It is true, that the administration during the later part of Leo¬
pold I’s reign and the reigns of his sons frequently tacitly tolerated
limited activities of German Protestant businessmen in Vienna. But im¬
migration of large numbers of skilled foreign Protestant workers and
teachers in crafts was not approved. Nevertheless, at least the theoretical
contributions of Schroeder to the new political sciences of cameralism
with particular emphasis on public finance had some long-range effect.
Literary achievements are 'also associated with the third significant
Austrian mercantilist, Philip Wilhelm von Hornigk, whose economic
treatise Osterreich iiber alles, wenn es nur will of 1684 may be considered
as a first in patriotic Austro-German economic literature. The stirring
title of this book has to this very day been used to foment a kind of
Austrian nationalism, but never met with much success. This catechism
of a comprehensive Austrian mercantilism and reformism in agriculture,
mining, and industry did not recognize existing limitations. Apart from
religious intolerance, strict protectionism hampered the rudimentary pilot
projects. Austrian industry could have benefited indirectly from the im¬
port of foreign goods for a time, which might have stimulated consumer
demand and would have helped to establish the need for large-scale in¬
dustrial enterprises. But the second step, protectionism, was taken before
the first, the raising of standards and with them genuine wants.
In fact, late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth century western Europe
under the influence of incipient physiocratic doctrines began to modify
mercantilism by populationist doctrines. According to them a skilled
domestic labor force was the chief asset of the economic strength of a
country. In this respect the Habsburg lands lagged far behind western
Europe, particularly because of the ill effects of religious intolerance and
foreign wars. They had hurt the most promising industries, glass and
textiles in Bohemia, and because of restrictions on exports also the ore
industry in the hereditary lands.
Added to this must be the government’s failure to establish a stable
banking system, which could be kept under some control of the public
domain. The government in the late sixteenth century had failed in its
cooperation with the great banking houses of the Fuggers and Welsers.
It is a paradox of Austrian public life, that despite the frantic persecution
of the Jews under Leopold’s reign as scapegoats for war and pestilence
(expulsions from Vienna of 1669-1670), Jews were called to finance the
imperial wars of the early eighteenth century, and some accepted. Their
activities ended in bankruptcy as did the stumbling efforts of Charles VI
to establish government-controlled banks. Here not even the popular
scapegoat device worked. It became clear that the Austrian government,
despite efforts of the mercantilist reformers, had not yet grasped the rudi¬
mentary skill of operating within a predetermined budget.25
As noted before, the failure of the reign of Charles VI, the chief mer¬
cantilist among the Habsburg rulers, was tied to the controversial conse¬
quences in the west and southwest of the War of the Spanish Succession.
Neither the northern Belgian nor the southern Italian position could be
fully used and the latter not even be held as base for future colonial and
commercial naval expansion. Yet at least port facilities in Trieste and com¬
munications between the Adriatic ports and the Alpine lands were im¬
proved and foreign trade encouraged to a limited degree. This was at
least modest success. The economic achievements of Maria Theresa’s
reign were based on the recognition of her father’s failures.
D. Estates and princely absolutism
In the sixteenth century the Habsburg lands were to a wide extent

under estates control, and the noble estates in turn were then largely
dominated by Protestantism. The defeat of Protestant Reformation by
the Counter Reformation meant consequently also the defeat of the
Protestant estates and estates power. The victor, who moved into the
vacuum, partly by default and partly by action, was princely absolutism
in the hereditary and Bohemian lands. Hungary and her institutions,
anchored in a different tradition and for more than a century subjected to
warfare and foreign domination, charted a somewhat dissimilar course.
a) ESTATES PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT
Estates government did not stand for democratic government, but it

did stand for some kind of representative government based on narrow
group interests. Taking an over-all profile on conditions in the hereditary
lands as a sample and disregarding variations in individual political do¬
mains, the situation presented itself about as follows: The four basic
estates were first the prelates (ecclesiastic or spiritual lords), secondly
25 Robert A. Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History (2nd ed. New York,
1973) > PP- 26-34.
secular lords, thirdly knights (lower nobility), and lastly princely towns
and markets. In Tyrol, communities of free peasants represented the
fourth estate, whereas lords and lower nobility were joined in the same
curia. In other lands, commoners were only represented in the estate of
towns and markets. This curia usually enjoyed less influence than the
ecclesiastic and noble estates, from whose midst the officers of the diets
were selected. At the time of a new sovereign’s accession, all estates, in
return for their pledge of loyalty, received confirmation and at times ex¬
tensions of their rights and privileges. These consisted in principle in the
approval of taxation, the consent to the quota of soldiers to be recruited
in individual lands, and beyond that a flexible control of the princely
budget. Furthermore the estates had the right to petition the prince (to
present grievances) and to ask for changes, usually brought about by
tedious negotiations. The estates reached the summit of their power dur¬
ing the reign of Ferdinand I, maintained it, intermittent conflicts not¬
withstanding, throughout the reigns of the following rulers, but lost most
of their power under the principal counterreformatory emperor Ferdi¬
nand II. Even before he reached the summit of his power, throughout
this whole century from 1526 to 1620 (the battle of the White Mountain)
estates power was limited in several respects. The prince could collect
regalia and levy excise taxes frequently without estates consent. Of course,
large-scale warfare, such as that against the Turks, could not be fought as
long as the estates controlled—and generally impeded—the raising of sub¬
stantial armed forces. This power of control led to frequent bypassing
of estates consent.26
Throughout the sixteenth century, the power of the estates in the Bo¬
hemian lands was greater than in the hereditary lands, inasmuch as the
first semi-hereditary Habsburg ruler there, Ferdinand I, owed his election
to the Bohemian estates. His successors up to the promulgation of the
oppressive constitution of 1627 likewise had to go through an electoral
procedure before the coronation in St. Vitus Cathedral on Hradcany hill in
Prague. Technically this meant acceptance as king by the estates rather
than formal election. Privileges and rights to be recognized by the kings
before the battle of the White Mountain included the restriction of ap¬
pointment of royal dignitaries to natives, judgment of these officials by
26 Brunner, Land und Herrschaft, pp. 394-440; Henry E. Strakosch, State Ab¬
solutism and the Rule of Law (Sydney, 1967), pp. 19-21; Huber and Dopsch,
Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte, pp. 212-217; see also Francis L. Carsten, Princes
and Parliaments in Germany from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century
(Oxford, 1963), pp. 422-444; Eugen Heischmann, Die Anfange des stehenden
Heeres in Osterreich (Vienna, 1925), pp. 135-181.
their peers, and appointment of a member of the national nobility as
regent in the king’s absence. These rights lapsed according to the Verne-
werte Landesordnung imposed by the conqueror Ferdinand II in 1627,
until such time as the royal Habsburg line—male as well as female—
would become extinct, an occurrence, which, incidentally, has not taken
1 place to this day.
According to the different social stratification, the town representatives
in the Bohemian estates carried more weight than in the hereditary lands.
Their activities, however, as much of the estates’ power altogether, be¬
came practically meaningless after 1627. It was not unlimited previously
either, to be sure. The right to convoke the diet rested traditionally with
the sovereign, as in the hereditary lands, and the way to reject royal
financial demands meant in practice ignoring them for a time rather
than formally rejecting them. Yet when skillfully handled the whole tax¬
ation system before 1627 was still under stricter dietal control in Bohemia
than in the hereditary lands. Afterward these rights were taken away
from the Bohemian and Moravian diets. Yet previously the diets in
Moravia as well as Silesia—the latter only indirectly affected by the
counterreformatory reversal of previous privileges—enjoyed about the
same status as the Bohemian diet in regard to financial matters.
After the victory of the Counter Reformation, general diets of all
Bohemian lands met only rarely, and not often before. The chief estates
power rested in the individual diets of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia (the
last-mentioned composed of several provincial assemblies). The margrav-
ates of Upper and Lower Lusatia, previously part of the Bohemian
realms, were in the course of the Thirty Years War ceded to Saxony. The
general diets of all Bohemian lands had in practice hardly ever more
significance than the three so-called general diets of all Habsburg lands,
1530 in Linz (without participation of the Bohemian estates), 1541 in
Prague (neither the southwestern German Vorlande nor the lands of
the Hungarian crown were represented then), and 1614 again in Linz
(with little Hungarian and no Bohemian participation).27
As for Hungary, princely absolutism did not develop fully before the
end of the seventeenth century, partly because of the constitutional tradi¬
tion of the country, dating back to the Bulla Aurea of 1222 and partly
because of the Turkish wars. Even afterward, except for the era 1849—
i860, absolutism was never as fully in command as subsequently in the
27 Huber and Dopsch, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte, pp. 217-222; Ernst C.

Hellbling, Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte (Vienna, 1956),
pp. 246-249, 262-264.
hereditary and Bohemian lands. Yet the position of the diet versus the
king even before the Counter Reformation was stronger than in the other
Habsburg realms. Moreover, the center of gravity of estates participation
in the legislative process rested here in the lower curia. The Hungarian
diet was composed of only two such curias, those of the magnates and the
so-called estates. The former, under the chairmanship of the palatine, a
kind of viceroy, consisted of the prelates under the leadership of the
primate, the archbishop of Esztergom, the aristocracy, the banus of
Croatia, the other highest dignitaries of the kingdom, and the top officials
of the comitats (counties with considerable local autonomy). Members
of the estates curia were the lower nobility, the representatives of the
chartered royal towns, and some judicial and ecclesiastic officials, the
latter mainly abbots and members of diocesan chapters. The diet, as in
the other Habsburg lands, coultl be convoked only by the king—only in ex¬
ceptional cases by the palatine as his representative. Yet here it was a
tradition that this parliamentary body should meet in general every two
years. At the time of constitutional decline in the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries this custom fell into desuetude, yet even then the
diet remained a significant political factor. It could discuss royal proposi¬
tions as well as estates grievances. Both curias had to agree on motions,
in particular the approval of extraordinary taxation, but the principal leg¬
islation had to originate in the Lower House, a feature unparalleled in
the diets of other lands under Habsburg rule.
Matters changed in 1687 after the reconquest of Buda. As noted be¬
fore, the diet of Pozsony of 1687-1688 had to consent to the relinquish¬
ment of its right of royal election and had to acquiesce in the hereditary
succession of the dynasty. Furthermore, the nobles had to sacrifice their
ancient right of resistance to what they considered unlawful royal legisla¬
tion. This, however, was a more symbolic than actual decline of status.
The powers of the diet remained still substantial. The king was no longer
elected by this body, but he had to uphold the major part of the ancient
liberties in a coronation oath. Election of the palatine, (a highly im¬
portant office in the absence of the king), approval of extraordinary taxa¬
tion, and passage of the quota of recruits, remained prerogatives of the
diet. In fact, all royal bills, citizenship questions, and the granting of the
charters of royal towns still required the sanction of the diet. Royal
attempts to circumvent it by resort to the convocation of smaller royal
councils, were not lacking, particularly in the eighteenth century, but they
never succeeded for any length of time. In the eighteenth century, the
geographical position of Hungary in face of the Turkish danger was still
too precarious to allow the Habsburgs to procede against the country, the
way they had done a century earlier against Bohemia. The reign of
Joseph II provided an object lesson. In the nineteenth century, fear of
Russian intervention took the place of concern about Ottoman power.
Above all, the bitter experience of the Hungarian war of independence
of 1848-1849 still had to be learned.28
E. Administration
Although the estates in the Habsburg lands were legislative or legisla¬

tive consultative bodies of sorts, early modern times did not recognize
a strict division between administrative and judicial institutions of gov¬
ernment. Ferdinand I, however, acknowledged such a division by ap¬
proximation in the hereditary lands. Final decisions were rendered by
officials of both types of agencies jointly. As pointed out in Chapter I,
neither were imperial institutions, those of all Habsburg lands and those
of the hereditary lands alone, strictly separated. Yet, beginnings to that
effect were made during the reign of that great administrator and organ¬
izer among the Habsburg rulers, Ferdinand I. Highest officials in the
individual lands were now the Landeshauptleute, who presided also in
the curia of the secular lords in the diets. Thus they served as connecting
links between princely and estates functions. The high officials included
many nobles, but also some learned lawyers. In the princely towns and
markets commoners played the decisive role. Town councils were elected
by a narrow group of propertied burghers. Members of the inner council
and the mayor were usually elected, subject to confirmation by the gov¬
ernment. The town judges, however, were appointed by the prince. Al¬
together town administration was partly elective and partly appointive,
but generally under princely supervision. A special constitution for Vienna
granted by Ferdinand I provided for the appointment of the mayor by
the sovereign from a slate of elected councillors. An appointed princely
representative participated in the deliberations of the city council.29
Before the Vernwerte Landesordnung of 1627, the chief official in Bo¬
hemia (the Ob erst Burggraf), held wider power than any appointee in
the hereditary lands. The king had to consult the estates before appoint¬
ment. The highest officials held lifetime tenure—they could not be dis¬
missed by the sovereign. They had to take an oath of loyalty to king
28 Marczali, Ungarische Verfassungsgesckichte, pp. 67-104; Marczali, Ungarisches

Verfassungsrecht, pp. 78-84.
29 Huber and Dopsch, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte, pp. 180-184; Hellbling,
Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte, pp. 246-249.
jjo History of the Hahsburg Empire
and estates. The Bohemian administration was more clearly separated
from the imperial one than the government in the hereditary lands.
Moravia and Silesia likewise enjoyed autonomous administrations. In
Moravia conditions changed with the defeat at the White Mountain as in
Bohemia. The autonomous administration in Silesia, however, in which
the governor was at the same time the head of the estates of the great
nobles was only indirectly affected.
An effect of the victory of the counterreformatory upset in Bohemia—
and similarly in Moravia—on the administrative level was the change in
the position of the Oberst Burggraf, who from now on became solely re¬
sponsible to the sovereign. The estates lost their right to share in ap¬
pointive powers altogether and lifetime tenure of offices was abolished.
Major governmental agencies were transferred from Prague to Vienna.
Changes on the administrative level were thus even more oppressive
than in the legislative sphere.30
In Hungary, Ferdinand I established general administration, financial
administration, and a court chancery as separate agencies. He and his
successors tried to avoid the installment of palatines, who in the king’s
absence might usurp too much power. Frequently a kind of palatine
deputy or a prince of the Church served in the palatine’s stead although
with more restricted powers. Yet much of this governmental structure
could not be put into practice during the Turkish wars. Only in 1722-
1723 was a new type of administration by royal appointment set up in
Pozsony, the seat of the diet. The gubernatorial council communicated
with the king through the Court Chancery in Vienna. The lower admin¬
istrative comitat organization remained basically unchanged. The same
held true for the limited autonomy of the royal towns. In Croatia-
Slavonia the banus was head of the government and, in addition to
supreme judicial functions, also in charge of defense matters. His posi¬
tion remained subordinated, however, to the administration in Pozsony
and the Hungarian Court Chancery in Vienna 31
Outside of the banus’ jurisdiction, and in fact of that of the Hun¬
garian government, were the military frontier districts, the Croatian
district to the Adriatic, the Slavonian district between the left bank of
the Sava and the confluence of Tisza and Danube, and farther east, the

Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte, pp. 233-237; Munch,
Bohmische Tragodie, pp. 79-87.
Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte, pp. 237-239.
hate Renaissance and Baroque 13/
Banat of Temesvar. Transylvania, after the Turkish wars, had separate
> royal governors and a financial administration of its own; it was also
> represented by a separate Court Chancery in Vienna.32
F. Judicial system
In the hereditary lands, minor civil and criminal cases were under the
c patrimonial jurisdiction of the lords of the manor. Town courts had
i about the same kind of jurisdiction for the burghers unless they had the
i. legal power to render judgment in major criminal cases as well (the
so-called Blutbann). Landgerichte dealt with such cases in towns which
did not have the Blutbann. They also adjudicated major criminal cases in
the countryside leaving minor offenses to the jurisdiction of the noble
estate owners. Major civil cases among unfree peasants on the estates of
the lords could become hardly practical. The so-called Landrecht, com¬
posed of members of the noble estates, was the court which had jurisdic¬
tion over secular nobles and prelates; the affairs of ordinary priests were
conducted by ecclesiastic courts. Appeals from courts of the first in¬
stance were acted upon by the administration after special permission for
new hearings had been granted. Here the only semi-independent court
system ended in a dead alley. Special commercial courts and even a
(regular) commercial court and an independent court of appeal in com¬
mercial matters were established by Charles VI. These, however, were
still the exceptions to the rule.33
In Bohemia there existed a so-called major Landrecht as court for
the privileged noble estates, which sat in important cases under the
chairmanship of the king, regularly under that of his chief representative,
the Oberst Burggraf. A particularly reprehensible feature of the Bohe¬
mian judicial system was the power of several hundred lords to exercise not
only patrimonial jurisdiction as in the hereditary lands in minor cases,
but to command the Blutbann. The life of the peasants was in practice
and by law at the mercy of the liege lord. This state of affairs lasted until
1765, in the reign of Maria Theresa.34
In Hungary, the Hungarian judicial system was organized best, al¬
though here, too, the two chief evils of justice in early modern times
prevailed: the medieval relic of at least partial symbiosis of justice and
32 Gunther Erich Rothenberg, The Austrian Military Border in Croatia: 1522-
1*747 (Urbana, i960), pp. 27-123; Guldescu, The Croatian-Slavonian Kingdom 1526-
1792, pp. 59-183.
33 Brunner, Land und Herrschaft, pp. 363-387.
34 Hellbling, Osterreichische Verjassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte, pp. 234-
235.
7^2 History of the Habsburg Empire
administration and the class character of the court system with its privi¬
leges for prelates, nobles, and occasionally free burghers. Just the same,
the organization of the Hungarian system was superior to that in the
hereditary lands and in Bohemia. Patrimonial courts of the magnates,
town and market courts, and comitat courts resembled institutions in
other Habsburg lands. Here, too, particularly on the higher level, judges
were at the same time administrative officials. Here, too, nobles had their
own privileged jurisdiction. Hungary had a better developed system of
appeals. The supreme court (the royal curia) consisted of two sections.
The one, the septemviral section, composed of the seven highest digni¬
taries of the country under the chairmanship of the palatine and in his
absence the judex curiae (the supreme judge), was the highest instance in
the country. The other, the royal tablet, composed of professional judges,
magnates, and prelates, decided major cases in first instance, but was
otherwise in general the court of appeal for all cases acted upon in lower
courts. In Croatia, the banus presided in a court of similar composition.
Transylvania had a separate court system.35
G. Defense system
A factor of highest importance in the evolution of the Habsburg power

was, of course, the development of an adequate defense system. The over¬
all administrative organization under the Court War Council (Hof-
kriegsrat) set up in mid-sixteenth century were traced in Chapter I. The
Turkish wars had made it clear that an estates army based on contingents
approved by individual lands in ever varying numbers and for limited
length of service—usually measured by weeks or months—could not
cope with the major tasks confronting Habsburg power. Ferdinand I, at
the end of his reign, laid the keystone to a permanent army, as yet only
a force of 9,000 men. The expansion of the military-frontier system led to
further increases of these forces throughout the seventeenth century. Yet
before sweeping changes could be made, the emperor had to go through
the harrowing experience of a large-scale mercenary system as it worked
for a time successfully under Wallenstein’s command between 1625 an<^
1634 36 The drawbacks, however, became apparent soon enough. The sys¬
tem put the emperor at the mercy of a brilliant condottiere type of gen¬
eral. Other commanders of mercenary forces had been less dangerous but
also less successful. Not until the second half of the century was a stand-
35 Marczali, Ungarisches Verfassungsrecht, pp. 120-122.

36 Heischmann, Die Anfdnge des stehenden Heeres in Osterreich, pp. 181-224;
Oskar Regele, Der osterreichische Hof\riegsrat (Vienna, 1949), pp. 15-20.
mg army established by much trial and error. Montecuccoli and Eugene

of Savoy deserve chief credit for a new system, which established definite
professional standards for officers and noncommissioned officers, whereas
previously regimental commanders had sold commissions to the highest
bidder at their discretion, at least in regard to the lower ranks. To a
limited extent a permanent supply system was established now. This did
not prevent armies to live off the land, but curbed at least the outrages
of individual soldiers and small units.
The estates “contribution” system of passing on quotas of recruits to
be drafted was not abandoned in the hereditary lands before Maria
Theresa’s reign, but it Tost in importance. In Bohemia, however, the
constitution of 1627, as a consequence of the defeat, transferred the estates
power in these matters to the sovereign. In Hungary the diet did not
admit until 1715 that armed forces sponsored by the estates, the so-called
“insurrection,” could not cope with the Ottoman military threat. If the
diet had not submitted long before to the operation of imperial armies
—to the estates foreign ones—on Hungarian soil, the country could never
have been freed from Turkish occupation. Yet the diet did not like to at¬
tach the force of law to an emergency situation. The age-old conflict of
Hungarian statehood, that the country wanted to go it alone and had not
sufficient strength to do it, made itself painfully felt. Furthermore, apart
from the manpower and training problem, the fortification system within
the Military Borders could not be financed by the Hungarian crown.
Here, centralization in theory stole a march on centralization in prac¬
tice. Otherwise Habsburg power could never had risen to the heights it
reached in the eighteenth century.37
H. Church-state relations
Another important field where state power advanced faster in prac¬

tice than in theory was that of relations to the Church. The victory of the
Counter Reformation signified an outright ideological victory of the
Church only in some areas, especially education. In the political sphere
the new situation meant that the ascendancy of the Church over forces
of the Reformation was largely state-sponsored and state-controlled.
Ferdinand I in his efforts to check misconduct within the clergy had
earlier established partly secular and partly ecclesiastic commissions for the
visitation and inspection of monasteries and churches. He ordered further
that monastic property should be sold only with governmental approval.
This system continued under Maximilian II. Even under Rudold II, who
37 See note 32.
^34 History of the Hahshurg Empire
was more obliging to the papal power, the promulgation of papal bulls
was forbidden without princely approval. The visitation commissions
continued their work. Nor did the devout Ferdinand II yield any princely
prerogatives and Ferdinand III even proscribed the visitation of monastic
establishments by foreign generals of orders. Conflicts concerning ecclesi¬
astic property should from now on be decided by secular courts. Leopold I
introduced the important principle of reviewing the judgments of
ecclesiastic courts by secular ones. Fie also prohibited the sale of secular
estates to ecclesiastics. Charles VI then determined that appeals in
ecclesiastic matters in which the secular power took a primary interest,
should go from the consistories to the government and not to the Holy
See.
These measures illustrate that the assertion of princely prerogatives of
sovereignty and state power versus the autonomy of the Church
existed long before the rise of Josephinism in the second half of the
eighteenth century. In many ways this princely attitude was a part of the
heritage of the medieval contest between papal and imperial power.
Personal faith and, indeed, devoutness of individual Habsburg rulers had
nothing to do with their determination to remain masters in what they
considered to be their own house.38
It is difficult to draw a general conclusion at this point concerning
the struggle between estates power and princely absolutism. No doubt the
estates, in particular the powerful secular lords and knights, stood pri¬
marily for their own interests. They fought state power in their defense
and not—save in a limited sense in the religious sphere—in the interest of
wider social contexts, let alone society as a whole. In socioeconomic, in
particular financial matters there was little difference between the in¬
terests of ecclesiastic princes and secular lords and knights, including the
Protestants. The representatives of towns and markets were no more con¬
cerned with the common good than the other estates, and to the extent
that they were, they had less power than the other estates to do much
about it.
The reforms of the enlightened eighteenth century could never have
come to pass, if the estates with their specific interests would have re¬
mained firmly in the saddle. History does not recognize a straight de¬
velopment from estates regimes to democracy. In between interposed are
despotic and enlightened absolutism. There is no rigid line between an
estates system and absolute government. Louis XIV, the Great Elector,
38 Josef Wodka, Kirche in Osterreich (Vienna, 1959), pp. 241-285; Ernst

Tomek, Kirchengeschichte Osterreichs (Innsbruck, 1959), III, 22-1 n.
Late Renaissance and Baroque /
the Soldier King, and Peter the Great, belonged to both; the Habsburgs,
from the time when estates influence came to an end to the early reign
of Maria Theresa, belonged rather to the first group as so-called absolute
—though not ruthless—despots.
No streak of cruelty promoted the actions even of Ferdinand II, but
there was still little concern for the public welfare evident, even in the
feeble mercantilistic experiences under his grandson and great grandson
Leopold I and Charles VI. On the other hand, the estates regime con¬
tributed little to a more prosperous and socially more balanced society.
Princely absolutism did not replace an effective system; it merely filled a
vacuum, but did not fill it well. It is difficult to see absolutism in Austria
as a connecting link to the Enlightenment.
Perhaps the one genuine merit of the estates establishment in the
Habsburg lands rested in the fact that it represented modest beginnings
of a more pluralistic society. In this sense the Habsburg regime of the
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries may be credited for not wip¬
ing out this system entirely, although it had the power to do so in
Bohemia and to some extent in the hereditary lands and Hungary after
1686. The preservation of the estates institution—lame-duck estates orders
though they became outside of Hungary—did not represent even a small
step toward democratic society but meant, in some way, the image of a
pluralistic society.39
I. Cultural evolution
The discussion of two basic points has to precede the survey presented
in this section on culture and those of a similar nature in following chap¬
ters. “Culture” is a practically all-inclusive term. It penetrates all activities
of society. It is inherent as much in the conduct of foreign and domestic
policies as in the arts and sciences. If one confines a survey of cultural
trends primarily to them it is not because cultural developments are
more striking there than in the realms of government, but because gov¬
ernment is traditionally perceived within a closely definable sphere
whereas other pursuits within a society which transcend the course of
concerted actions in the public domain are left in a vacuum. They are
then conveniently summarized under “cultural developments.” This
study follows established patterns in this respect, not because culture is
what is left if one separates it from governmental actions or economic-
social movements, but because literature, music, the fine arts, and scholarly
39 See also Carsten, Princes and Parliaments in Germany, pp. 13-24, 60-68 and
Fritz Hartung, Deutsche V erassungsgeschichte (Stuttgart, 1950), pp. 84-94.
disciplines of all kinds represent, indeed, specific aspects of the over-all
culture of a society. These are the pursuits of activities, trends which
emerge largely as the products of individual motion and not of collective
action, whether directed by orders from above or by consent of the gov¬
erned. Here only the will and consent of the individual are the issue.
Education, which in parts is an arm of the governmental structure, offers
the means to develop these individual endeavours. While it might well be
discussed in the context of the governmental structure—and will be re¬
ferred to as such in regard to later stages of history, when public educa¬
tion became prevalent—its relationship to the creative contributions of
the individual is considered here particularly important. Hence the brief
survey of education in this section, even though its impact on the strength¬
ening of individual endeavors had a rather unwitting stimulating effect
for most of the era under discussion.
There is a second point to be considered concerning culture. It has
been touched upon in the introduction to this study and is repeated here,
namely that a single volume dealing with the history of a far-flung empire
and its diverse peoples in four centuries offers no opportunity to list even
by name the most important cultural contributions. If one were to try it,
the reader would be presented by a directory of names with little mean¬
ing. On the other hand, the smaller the number of names presented, the
more arbitrary and controversial would be the selection. To be caught in
this bind seems almost inevitable.
The purpose of this study is different from presenting a wider or
narrower selection of outstanding cultural contributions. Our principal
purpose is briefly to discuss trends, and only in the second place the works
of individuals. Names of outstanding men and their achievements will
be adduced only to illustrate these trends. This means that in specific
cases our selection will have to be focussed primarily on characteristic
features and only in the second place on the greatness of achievement.
The number of specific references will be limited further by the resolve to
list none whose significance will not be discussed, however briefly. Thus
a comprehensiveness of names will have to yield to an attempt of selec¬
tiveness in depth. Even here the limitations of space should be obvious.
a) LOWER AND ADVANCED EDUCATION
The Reformation furthered to some degree general elementary educa¬

tion. A substantial number of schools in the hereditary lands offered in¬
struction in the three R’s. In many places, among others in Vienna, these
schools were sponsored by the Protestant estates, but in some crownlands
Late Renaissance and Baroque iqy
elementary education in the vernacular language of instruction was
partly sponsored by the sovereign. In the Bohemian lands the estates ex¬
ercised greater influence on education than in the hereditary lands. In
Hungary elementary schooling was under the control of either the Church
(parish schools) or of town councils. Protestant schools were particularly
concerned with more advanced education. Yet in none of the Habsburg
lands can one speak of a broad sixteenth-century trend toward general
education. The mighty impetus toward broadening and deepening of in¬
struction was associated in one way with the upgrading of the vernacular
language and in another with the desire for better training of the middle
classes apart from the strictly professional requirements of Church, law,
and academic teaching. This points to reforms at the intermediate level,
and here the Reformation and, as consequence and response to it, the
Counter Reformation were quite successful.
The distinction between intermediate and elementary education is rela¬
tively clear. Admission to the latter was reserved for the propertied
classes. The chief subject, generally also the language of instruction, was
Latin as was the vernacular in the elementary schools. The Protestant
estates, nobles and burghers alike, deserved credit for the establishment of
estates schools in Lower Austria, and particularly in Upper Austria, but
also in Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. Limitations were obvious: instruc¬
tion in history was meager, the sciences were still practically ignored,
and the vernacular language not sufficiently cultivated; but at least gram¬
mar and Latin were emphasized. Thorough religious instruction was
stressed. In Bohemia and Moravia such Latin schools were more numer¬
ous and existed even in small towns and markets, which means that
they transmitted education to the sons of the middle class, irrespective
of a specific professional training. In Hungary a similar type of schools
existed in western and northwestern Hungary, particularly in the mining
towns. Most of these schools developed in the course of the second half of
Ferdinand I’s and Maximilian IPs reign.40
The Counter Reformation changed the situation. At the end of Fer¬
dinand I’s reign the Jesuits under the leadership of the eminent mission¬
ary and court preacher (Saint) Peter Canisius gained a foothold at the
University of Vienna. By the end of the century Jesuit gymnasiums or
colleges existed in the major cities of the hereditary lands, above all in
Graz, but also in Innsbruck, Linz, Salzburg, and other cities. Similar was
the situation in Bohemia, particularly in Prague, where the outstanding
40 Eduard Winter, Fruhauf\larung (Berlin, 1966), pp. 107-117; Mayer, Ge-

schichte Osterreichs, II, 355-359.
i^8 History of the Habshurg Empire
Jesuit gymnasium, the Clementinum, became already under Ferdinand

I’s sponsorship the competitor of the Carolinum, the university established
in 1347 by Charles IV as the first in Central Europe. Numerous other
Jesuit colleges were established throughout Bohemia and Moravia, usually
subdivided in two sections with separate dormitories for nobles and com¬
moners. In Hungary Nagyszombat (Tyrnau, Trnava) in Slovakian terri¬
tory, the birthplace of the first permanent university, became the center of
Jesuit higher education.41 Jesuit instruction at the beginnings of the
Counter Reformation was not superior to the earlier estates schools. In
fact, the Jesuit institutions neglected instruction in the vernacular
languages even more than the Protestant estates schools had done. Their
teaching of Latin, to them not a means of understanding the classics but
mainly the teachings of the medieval Church, was on a lower level, too.
The feeble traces of a somewhat more diverse Renaissance spirit were
eradicated by these schools. At the height of seventeenth-century Baroque
culture, the form, though not the spirit, of Jesuit education became more
secular. Cultivation of dramatics and more interest in the classics on
aesthetic grounds developed, Greek was now frequently taught, and of
modern languages Italian was introduced. As far as the teaching of skills
was concerned, it would be difficult to place one type of schools above
the other. The Protestant schools contained, however, the seeds of a
general liberal education as did later the Catholic Benedictine and
Piarist gymnasiums. In some disciplines, the Jesuit schools, which in
numbers and impact exceeded other higher Catholic educational establish¬
ments, were supreme. Yet these institutions were run primarily in the
service of the ecclesia militans and this held just as much true for the
education of secular nobles as for that of the clergy.
It is not easy to separate gymnasiums or colleges distinctly from uni¬
versity education in the modern sense. Graz in Inner Austria became a
regular Jesuit university in the 1580’s and remained for the next decades
an intellectual center of the Counter Reformation in the hereditary lands.
The fourteenth-century university of Vienna (founded 1365) came under
full Jesuit control only a generation after the university of Graz. The
university of Salzburg was founded as a Jesuit institution in the 1620’s
and the university of Innsbruck in the 1670’s. After the battle of the
White Mountain, the Carolinum in Prague was forced to merge with
the Jesuit Clementinum. Since the university of Olomuc (Olmiitz) in
41A university was actually established as early as 1367 in Pecs (Fiinfkirchen),

but it did not survive the Turkish wars. See also Johann Andritsch ed., Un-
garische Geisteswelt (Baden-Baden, i960), pp. 90-99.
Late Renaissance and Baroque iqg
Moravia had become a Jesuit institution half a century before, higher
education in the hereditary lands and Bohemia came fully under Jesuit
control in the seventeenth century. Nagyszombat, founded by Peter
Pazmany, the thoroughly cultured leader of the Catholic Reformation
and Counter Reformation in Hungary, became the corresponding Jesuit
university in Hungary in 1637. Several Jesuit gymnasiums were estab¬
lished also in Transylvania.
It would be an oversimplification to say that education under Jesuit
counterreformatory direction meant in itself a deterioration of higher
learning. Neither the record of scholarly achievements in sixteenth-century
universides before the Jesuit ascendancy nor that in estates-sponsored
schools could be considered outstanding or free from prejudices. In gen¬
erally inadequate systems of education, differences as to specifics may not
be decisive. Still, sixteenth-century education up to the victory of the
Counter Reformation had moved haltingly and perhaps even largely un¬
intentionally in the direction of a pluralistic culture. This trend was now
radically reversed.42
b) THE SCIENCES
Beyond the fact of this reversal it is difficult to assess scholarship in in¬

stitutions of higher learning in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centu¬
ries. The connection between scholarly achievements and universities was
tenuous. Universities were centers of professional training, but only to a
limited degree, if any, also of research. Often outstanding scholars of
lasting fame had either no or only a transitory university connection. The
point can be illustrated best in regard to the sciences. Largely neglected
in the sixteenth and even the seventeenth centuries, they were represented
nevertheless by some men of genius whose achievements surpassed with
few exceptions those in what would be referred to today as the social
sciences and humanities. The strange genius of Paracelsus (Theophrastus
Hohenheim; 1494-1541), largely by speculation but partly also by prac¬
tical experience, arrived at deductions which stimulated medical thought
in several respects, including psychosomatic notions, but he had no uni¬
versity connection. The great Danish court astronomer of Rudolf II in
Prague, Tycho de Brahe (1546-1601) likewise had no association with
any institution of higher learning. His assistant and successor as court
astronomer in Prague, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), was probably the
greatest scientific genius in Central Europe between Copernicus and
42 Mayer, Geschichte Osterreichs, II, 359-386; Richard Meister, Entwic\lung und

Reform des osterreichischen Studienwesens (Vienna, 1963), I, 11-19.
iô History of the Habshurg Empire
Leibniz. The lifework of the founder of the laws of planetary movement,
as far as it pertains to the hereditary and Bohemian lands, is indicative
of the influence of the Counter Reformation on higher learning and of
the social status of the scholar in general. In the i59o’s Kepler taught for
a few years at a secondary school, the gymnasium in Graz. Rising Jesuit
influence and insinuations of heretic tendencies raised against him made
it highly advisable to leave Styria for Prague, where he was protected not
so much by a more liberal spirit as by Rudolf IPs personal interest in
astrology. Thus the successor of Tycho de Brahe had to move again after
the emperor’s death, this time to Linz in Upper Austria, where for a
time he taught at the estates school. By then it was no longer under Prot¬
estant influence. The Counter Reformation was on the rise. Thus, Kepler
at the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War, terrified by inquisitory pro¬
ceedings against his old mother in Wiirttemberg, moved again to
Bohemia and from there to Silesia off the mainroads of the theater of
military and counterreformatory operations. Here he enjoyed the patron¬
age of Wallenstein. After he had declined a professorship at the Uni¬
versity of Rostock, he moved to Regensburg (Ratisbone). There he in¬
tended to complain to the imperial diet about various wrongs done to
him. Before he could do so, his tormented life came to an end in 1630.
Kepler and his family were undoubtedly harrassed by the Counter Ref¬
ormation in the hereditary lands as well as in Bohemia. However, Em¬
peror Rudolf II, who was interested not only in astrology but also in
astronomy, and his successor Matthias in regard to calendar reform
availed themselves of Kepler’s counsel. Even the zealot Ferdinand II,
despite Kepler’s dubious religious loyalty, did not repudiate his services
entirely. Rudolf II and Wallenstein, his main protectors, were both con¬
cerned with astorology as was, indeed, Kepler, himself. Yet he was not
only consulted as astrologer, but also as astronomer and mathematician.
Both services were in demand. Kepler could be protected even as scientist
by the counterreformatory emperors as long as he stayed within his place
in the service of the court and not of the estates, and as long as his
scholarly activities were confined to astronomy and mathematics, and not
to their philosophical implications. Yet the tragedy in Kepler’s life did
not directly evolve from difficulties he had encountered as teacher, but as
citizen suspected of heretic proclivities in a world of intolerance. Of the
hardships and humiliations he had to endure, the restrictions of his
teachings were easiest to bear. In fact he himself turned down a teaching
position in the Protestant north, which might have offered him protec¬
tion from counterreformatory zeal but only a very meagre income,
manifold tedious teaching obligations and no social prestige. Kepler’s
fate within the scientific life of his time is neither that of the hero nor
quite that of the martyr, but of the genius, for whom the social and in¬
tellectual conditions of his time and place proved to be intolerable.43
c) SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
Conditions that applied to the great scientists were applicable to usually

far lesser lights in the social sciences and humanities. After the brief era
of the courtly Renaissance around Maximilian I, briefly referred to in
Chapter I, the scholarly discipline most productive in returns was a kind
of sociography or descriptive ethnic-political historiography. Among
the scholars in the field were the Tyrolean seventeenth-century geographer,
Georg Vischer, a proficient cartographer, and his fellow-countryman Mat¬
thias Burglechner who was interested also in statistics. The most outstand¬
ing of the sociographers was Johann Weigand von Valvasor, who in the
second half of the seventeenth century published several weighty, quite ac¬
curate and readable works on the history of Carniola, the duchy situated at
the southern fringe of the hereditary lands. His writings were sponsored by
the estates of Carniola. These works are more important as specimens of
the interest opened up by this approach than as sources of information.
Neither Valvasor nor the court historian of Ferdinand I, Wolfgang
Lazius, or of Joseph I, Hans Jakob Wagner von Wagenfels (the author
of the Ehrenruff Teutschlands, der Teutschen und ihres Reiches) had an
academic connection. Their works were anchored in the interest and en¬
dorsement of the public authorities, whether representative in the estates
meaning of the term or princely authoritarian. Favored by the latter were
also the distinguished cameralists Becher, Schroder, Hornigk mentioned
in Section C of this chapter. A place between cameralism,44 sociography,
and belles lettres was held by the seventeenth-century Upper Austrian
Protestant nobleman, Wolf Helmhard von Hohberg, who settled in
Lower Austria and wrote there his famous Georgica curiosa or Adeliges
43 Mayer, Geschichte Osterreichs, II, 377—378; Carl J. Friedrich, The Age of the
Baroque: 1610-1660 (New York, 1952), pp. 107-m. Herbert Butterfield, The
Origins of Modern Science: iqoo-iSoi (New York, 1962), pp. 69-78. Eduard
Winter, Baroc\, Absolutismus und Auf\larung in der Donaumonarchie (Vienna,
1971), pp. 26 f., 144 ff. R. J. W. Evans, Rudolf II and his World: A Study in
Intellectual History (New York, 1972).
44 Cameralism can best be described rather than defined as a synthesis of eco¬
nomic policy under mercantilist and later physiocratic auspices with doctrines of
public law, particularly public finance and comparative government. See Sommer,
Die osterreichischen Kameralisten, pp. 1-19.
Land und Feldleben, an original and charming work on the conditions
and attractions of country life on a noble estate.45
In general conditions concerning scholarly production were similar in
the Bohemian lands, although here the severe setback resulting from the
defeat at the beginnings of the Thirty Years’ War, helps to explain the
cultural lag better than that in the hereditary lands. A Catholic priest,
Vaclav Hajek of Libocan, another court historian of Ferdinand I, wrote
a Bohemian chronicle up to the accession of the emperor as king of
Bohemia, at points quite colorful, in other respects an undistinguished
piece of pseudo-historical writing. No more can be said for the work of
his contemporary, the bishop of Olomuc Joannes Dubravius, author of a
Bohemian history which covers also the beginnings of the Turkish war
under Suleiman the Magnificent. More distinguished were the works of
the previously mentioned seventeenth-century Jesuit Bohuslav Balbin,
written after the battle of the White Mountain. We are indebted to
Balbin for a brief, in essence political history of Bohemia and—more im¬
portant—a literary history of the country. These works were written in
the darkest days of the country until Hitler’s infamous assault and were
subject to the conformism of the Counter Reformation. They stand in
lieu of many valuable writings destroyed by the fury of contemporary
witchhunts and they attest to the continuation of intellectual activities
under trying external conditions. The merits of Balbin were significant,
indeed.
Naturally they pale in significance in comparison to those of Jan Amos
Komensky (Comenius), born 1592 in Nivnice Moravia, died 1671 in
Amsterdam. Comenius, preacher and later bishop of the Bohemian
Brethren, studied in Germany in his youth and later gained experiences in
exile in Poland and western Europe, particularly in England and in the
country, noblest in its hospitality to victims of intolerance, Holland. Yet
the substance of his lifework was deeply anchored in his Moravian home
grounds. His often underrated theological writings, particularly the
Emendatio rerum humanorum, is markedly devoid of the intolerance of
his time. The Magna didactica, the great work of educational theory and
practice, published in exile, is based on empiricism. Comenius heralds
the victory of the coming Enlightenment over the pedagogy of scholas-
45 Otto Brunner, Adeliges Landleben und europaischer Geist: Leben und Wer\
Helmhards von Hokberg, 1612-1688 (Salzburg, 1959); Kann, A Study in Austrian
Intellectual History, pp. 34-47; Anna Coreth, Osterreichische Geschichtsschreibung
in der Barockzeit (1620-1740) (Vienna, 1957), passim; Winter, Baroc\, Abso-
lutismus und Auf\larung in der Donaumonarchie, pp. 21-32.
ticism. He was undoubtedly the greatest of the political emigres from the
impact of the Counter Reformation in Central Europe, one of the great¬
est men of all times who ever fled oppression. Other distinguished refu¬
gees were Pavel Skala ze Zhore from Plzen, the author of a compre¬
hensive Bohemian Church history and Pavel Stransky, who wrote a kind
of Bohemian sociography, the res publica Bojema, not unlike in character
from the works of Valvasor. The former found asylum in Saxony, the
latter in Poland.46
More closely focused on political history is the voluminous Historiarum
de rebus Hungaricis libri, written in the later sixteenth and early seven¬
teenth centuries by the Magyar Nicolas Istuanffy (1538-1615). The work
begins with the death of Corvinus and ends with the resumption of the
Turkish wars under Rudolf II and Matthias; it was continued, after his
death, in Magyar. Istuanffy, like Lazius and Wagner, was for a time
court historian. The able man of strong counterreformatory tendencies
also held high public office in Hungary. This type of official was only
rarely interested in academic affiliations which offered in general a rather
inferior social status.47 Emigres and dissenters were barred even from
such modest positions.
Conditions for the rise of creative scholarship in the Habsburg lands
were usually unfavorable. Some achievements were respectable and some
were original and creative, but the affiliation of creative thinkers with
institutions of higher learning was tenuous. The intellectual bonds to the
west and north, to the Hobbes and Locke, Bodin and Descartes, Althusius
and Pufendorf or Spinoza were practically nonexistent. Not before the
heights of the Enlightenment did the Habsburgs establish a scholarly
“Anschluss” to the western world.
46 Hanus Jelinek, Histoire de la Literature Tcheque: Des Origines a 1850 (Paris,

I933) h 163-218. A. N. Pypin and V. D. Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Liter-
aturen (Leipzig, 1884), 11:2, 160-171; Seton-Watson, History of the Czechs and
Slovaks, pp. 125-129. Jan Machal in P. Hinneberg, ed., Die osteuropaischen Litera-
turen (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 184-89. Winter, Baroc\, Absolutismus und Aujkldrung
in der Donaumonarchie, pp. 33-56.
47 The mentioned Wolfgang Lazius—one of the few exceptions to the rule—held,
however, simultaneously positions as court historian of Emperor Ferdinand I and
professor at the University of Vienna. Istuanffy, although strongly associated with
counterreformatory tendencies, was court historian under Maximilian II, the most
tolerant among the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Habsburg rulers. See also
Johann H. Schwicker, Geschichte der ungarischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1888), pp.
78-85, 113-130, 178-186; Winter, Baroc\, Absolutismus und Auffylarung in der
Donaumonarchie, pp. 57-77.
d) LITERATURE
There is no rigid line of demarcation between the social sciences, hu¬

manities, and general literature. A major part of literature (apart from
folklore) was didactic. Didactics in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
terms meant—dependent on the political setting—promotion of the ideas
of Reformation, Catholic Reformation, and Counter Reformation. It is
not intended here to discuss theological writings in general. What
should be emphasized, however, is the not sufficiently recognized fact,
that the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular languages was
of decisive significance in the further literary development of German,
the Slavic languages, Magyar, and Roumanian. Luther’s fundamental
work of translating the Testaments into German was paralleled in this
respect by that of Jan Rlahoslav among Czechs, of Primoz Trubar and
Jurij Dalmatin among the forgotten of the forgotten Slavic people, the
Slovenes, of Gaspar Heltai among the Magyars, and of Michael Tordassi,
who translated Heltai’s version into Roumanian. These significant literary
efforts were undertaken within about half a century after Luther’s pioneer
work in the Central European orbit. Luther’s literary accomplishments
have found fully adequate recognition, but other translations may have
meant something even more basic for Slovenes or Roumanians than for
Germans, Czechs, or Magyars. To Slovenes and Roumanians the transla¬
tions represented in large measure the creation of new literary languages.
To the Germans they meant the transformation of an existing one. The
issue with Czechs and Magyars was primarily the elevation of language
to a higher plane of semantics. This need for literary upgrading was at
the time greatly in demand among the nations with a political history of
their own.
As for the German orbit, this impact of the purification of language
was more pronounced in the north and west than in the hereditary lands.
There literature was far removed from the golden age, which it did not
reach until the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Few out¬
standing individuals in the Austro-German sphere set their marks on
the literature of the period; this does not mean that their contributions
were insignificant. Much of the community spirit of the late medieval
art prevailed, where the artist fades behind the work. This pertains to
many of the ecclesiastic folksongs, the cooperative enterprise of the
Meistersinger in the guilds, and to the plays performed in Jesuit institu¬
tions of higher learning—dramas, comedies, operas, and even ballet,
frequently all rolled into one dramatic performance. Topics were taken
from the Bible, the lives of the saints and martyrs, from mythology, and
occasionally from Roman and medieval history. Objective of this educa¬
tion in dramatics was primarily to give self-confidence and poise to those
students who should make their way in the world. Naturally entertain¬
ment was one purpose too.
The latter was undoubtedly the chief objective of the popular comedy,
the Hanswurst or harlequine shows, which at the end of the seventeenth
century followed patterns of the Italian comedia dell’arte, but developed
soon a style of its own. Within less than a century the wit and charm of
these late flowers of the Baroque and Rococo spirit had to yield to the
rationalism of humorless enlightened reformers. The plays of the out¬
standing comedians in the early eighteenth century, such as Gottfried
Prehauser and Joseph Stranitzky, were only sketched in regard to plot,
whereas the text was largely improvised, hence much of this literature is
lost to us. It contained some mild social criticism tolerated by the gov¬
ernment—possibly as a subconscious outlet for a spirit of opposition. By
the end of the Baroque period the counterreformatory spirit had relaxed
to a point where popular entertainment became legitimate. Furthermore
it became obvious and has been obvious in Austria even since, that satire
and social criticism without humor, sometimes even slapstick, could not
be effective.48
This factor is the key to the understanding of the most prominent and
most original literary figure of the Baroque era in the hereditary lands,
the Augustinian father and later court preacher in Vienna, Abraham a
Sancta Clara, who was born as Ulrich Megerle in Kreheinstetten, Swabia,
1644 and died in Vienna, 1709. The preacher’s tracts, sermons, exhorta¬
tions, fables, anecdotes, sometimes incorporated in a novel-like frame, fill
many volumes. They follow the satirical patterns of the counterreforma¬
tory preachers in late seventeenth-century Austria. Abraham a Sancta
Clara surpasses them, however, in his colorful and witty criticism of the
fabric of society and in his unparalleled command of a language of puns,
alliterations, similes, and sometimes compulsive loquaciousness. Frighten¬
ing in contrast are his vehement diatribes against Protestants, Turks,
Jews, and conceivable dissenters of all kinds. No superstition or prejudice
is read out of court by the intolerant zeal of the brilliant preacher. His
48 See Johann W. Nagl, Jakob Zeidler, Eduard Casde, Deutsch-dsterreichische

Literaturgeschichte (Vienna, various editions), 2 vols. See I, section 2, II, section 1;
Josef Nadler, Osterreichische Literaturgeschichte (Linz, 1943), pp. 94-168.
History of the Habshurg Empire
wit is a deadly weapon in the service of the militant Church, but also—
despite his criticism of ridiculous customs and menial sins—in defense of
established society.
Abraham also established the tradition, characteristic for a long time
to come, to place intellectual gifts in the service of a passionate anti-
intellectualism, which helped to separate Austria further from the west.
Even if one makes the necessary allowance for the spirit of time and
place, and in particular Abraham’s intention to plead a great cause, the
consequences of this glorification of bias and unreason are deplorable.
The literary gourmet of today may enjoy Abraham’s works, but the
reader, including the one to whom Abraham’s cause means much, will
regret his unwholesome, powerful, and lasting influence on Austrian in¬
tellectual life.49
Unlike conditions in the hereditary lands, the century from the ac¬
cession of Ferdinand I to the battle of the White Mountain is frequently
referred to as a golden age of Czech literature. Such characterization per¬
tains less to individual contributions but to the symbiosis between the
spirit of the community of the Bohemian Brethren and that of late hu¬
manism. The mentioned Jan Blahoslav and Comenius represent both
these trends—Blahoslav primarily the spirit of the Brethren, Comenius
that of a reformed humanism. Daniel Adam of Valeslavin (1546-1599)
furthered historical and literary endeavors as sociographer, translator, and
compiler of dictionaries of the Czech language. This court historian of
Rudolf II was affiliated also with the University of Prague, a rare com¬
bination. Balbin’s efforts to repair the damages done to Czech culture
and its further development after 1620 have been mentioned. He was
supported by the Moravian bishop and historiographer Thomas Pesina of
Cechorod (1629-1680).50
Among the ethnically and linguistically closely related Slovaks in north¬
ern Hungary and Moravia, were some authors of Protestant church hym¬
nals, impressive in their melancholic sentiments. Jan Silvan in the late
sixteenth century and the preacher George Tranoscus (Tranovsky) in the
early seventeenth century distinguished themselves in the development of
ecclesiastic Protestant lyrics. Linguistics which played such an important
part in the Slavic renaissance in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
49 Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History, pp. 50-115.
50 Pypin and Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Literaturen, 11:2, 144-177;
Frantisek Chudola, A Short Survey of Czech Literature (New York, 1969), pp.
30-67. Dmitry Cizevsky, Outline of Comparative Slavic Literatures: Survey of
Slavic Civilization (Boston, 1952), pp. 56-69. Paul Diels, Geschichte der slawischen
Literaturen (Wiesbaden, 1963), pp. 212-214.
Late Renaissance and Baroque iqy
century had been important among the Slovaks in the early eighteenth
century. Matthias Bel (1684-1741) was a notable historian-geographer and
linguist; he revised the Bible translation of the Bohemian Brethren. Paul
Dolezal was also a prominent linguist at about the same time, whose
contributions were equally significant for the development of the Slovak
and the Czech languages.51
As for the Magyars, the Turkish advance and the long occupation im¬
peded literary development even more than the Counter Reformation did
in the Bohemian lands. The latter diverted intellectual life in Bohemia
and Moravia, the Turkish occupation destroyed it physically to a large
extent, in Hungary. On the other hand, although the Turkish wars pre¬
vented the growth and spread of literary achievements, they exercised no
influence on the intellectual trends behind them. At the end of the seven¬
teenth century, when the Counter Reformation triumphed in Hungary, the
first currents of the Enlightenment were felt. Of the Hungarian human¬
ists who in the unoccupied territories were only indirectly affected by the
Ottoman advance, Peter Bornemisza (1535-1585) was the most important
social critic and linguist of his time. Gaspar Karoli translated the Bible
into Magyar; it was published in 1590. Distinguished poets at that time
were Sebestyen Tinodi Lantos (about 1505-1556), famous through his
ballads and the lyric Balint Balassi. He fell in the Turkish wars.
Two seventeenth-century personalities, a Protestant and a Catholic, dis¬
tinguished themselves in the further advancement of the Magyar literary
language and its cultural relationship to the west. Albert Scenczi Molnar
(1574-1634) was a translator of English and French literature into Mag¬
yar. This widely traveled Calvinist composed also a Latin-Magyar dic¬
tionary and a Magyar grammar in Latin. Cardinal Peter Pazmany (1570-
1637) has been mentioned as religious leader of the Hungarian Catholic
Reformation and Counter Reformation and founder of the University in
Nagyszombat (Trnava); equal is his significance as linguist. His sermons,
theological writings, and the translation of Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation
of Christ were unparalleled masterpieces of prose. The epic poet of chiv¬
alry from the Zrinyi family of legendary heroic fame, Count Miklos
Zrinyi (1620-1664) glorified the deeds of the nation under the leadership
of his ancestor, the defender of Szigetvar, against Suleiman the Magnifi¬
cent. At about the same time, Janos Cseri von Apacza, a Calvinist in
Transylvania (1625-1659) compiled a Hungarian encyclopedia which took
51 Pypin and Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Literaturen, pp. 307-314; see
also Ludwig von Gogolak, Beitrdge zur Geschichte des slowakischen Vol\es
(Munich, 1963), I, 55-179.
1^8 History of the Hahsburg Empire
full cognizance of western philosophic and scientific developments. This

was a feature unparalleled in the contemporary literature of any other
people under Habsburg rule, save for the works of the exiles. Just as
original was this young Cartesian’s pioneer struggle for the replacement
of Latin by Magyar as language of instruction in higher education. Hun¬
garian theatrical culture, very much alive in the High Renaissance, was
also cultivated in autonomous Transylvania at a time when the Turkish
advance brought these activities to a halt in Hungary proper. In the
later seventeenth century, the Jesuit drama was introduced in the wake
of the reconquering Habsburg armies.52
Concerning the Southern Slavs, Serbs and Serbian literature in the
strict sense of the term played only a minor part within the confines of the
empire in the late seventeenth'and early eighteenth century. This situa¬
tion began to change in mid-eighteenth century in the course of the
swiftly evolving Enlightenment and the following Slavic renaissance. The
educational and ecclesiastic autonomy granted by Leopold I in 1690-1691
facilitated this development.
Instruction in German as well as Latin was offered, particularly in
the secondary education under ecclesiastic control.53 Croatian literature in
Dalmatia was enriched by incentives deriving from Italian and Latin
writings, but in another sense it was impeded because development of
writings in Croatian idioms was delayed by the interest of the intelli¬
gentsia in Latin and the literary works of the Italian Renaissance. Still,
progress was substantial, and in the sixteenth century perhaps more so
than in the seventeenth, the century of continuous warfare. Lyrical poetry
was widely cultivated in the sixteenth century and flourished under
Petar Hektorovic from Hvar. From the same Dalmatian island came the
writer of secular plays, Hanibal Lucic, whose work represented a signifi¬
cant change from the ecclesiastic dramatics of other sixteenth-century
writers. The best-known literary figure of the seventeenth century was per¬
haps Ivan Gundulic (1589-1638), the creator of national epical literature
whose main topics were the wars of Christianity against the infidels. Gun¬
dulic was also a lyrical poet of distinction. Count F. C. Frankopan was one
of the as yet rare literary representatives from northern Croatia. He partic¬
ipated in the aristocratic conspiracy against the emperor in 1671 like his
brother-in-law and fellow political martyr, Peter Zrinyi. Like Zrinyi,
62 Schwicker, Geschichte der ungarischen Literatur, pp. 121-186; Andritsch, ed.,

Ungarische Geisteswelt, pp. 99-108.
53 Wendel, Der Kampf der Sudslawen um Freiheit und Einheit, pp. 65—67;
Emile Picot, Les Serbes de la Hongrie (Prague, 1873), pp. 76-98.
Late Renaissance and Baroque iqg
Frankopan was also a lyric of great emotional power. The same was true
of Nikola Dordic, a generation later.54
As for the Slovenes, the great influence of the Reformation and its
ecclesiastic literature on the development of the Slovene literary language
has been noted. The literary development rested on a promising but still
weak foundation, hence the Counter Reformation caused a particularly
severe setback. Missionary and other didactic literature, not comparable
to the linguistic pioneer work of Primoz Turbar (1508-1586) and his
student Jurij Dalmatin (1517-1589) in the Protestant phase of Slovene
literature, did exist, but more widely recognized writings, such as those
by Valvasor, were written largely in German. Slovene literary evolution
had to wait for the day of the Slavic renaissance 55
Among the Roumanians in Transylvania, Archbishop Nicolas Olachus
of Roumanian stock (1493-1568) was a distinguished humanist and friend
of Erasmus of Rotterdam. In the 1540’s, a catechism in Roumanian was
published. In the first half of the seventeenth century a translation of the
New Testament and some other writings came out in Transylvania. Ap¬
parently the Rakocsy regent of Transylvania, Prince George II, tolerated
such enterprises because they served as means to shield the Vlachs from
Slavic-Orthodox influences. Nevertheless, considering the extent to which
the Vlachs were discriminated against Germans and Magyars, this was a
remarkable achievement. Until well into the eighteenth century the
language of the educated remained primarily Latin, German, and in¬
creasingly French. The establishment of a Magyar Calvinist university at
Clui (Kolozsvar, Klausenburg), which might have become a genuine
Roumanian national university, folded in 1603 after two decades.66
e) music
For two centuries, from Ferdinand I to Charles VI, music enjoyed the
support of the Habsburg rulers to a greater degree than literature. They
54 Franjo Trograncic, “Literature 1400-1835,” in Francis FI. Eterovich and

Christopher Spalatin, eds., Croatia: Land, People, Culture (Toronto, 1964-1970), II,
180-214; Pypin and Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Literaturen, I, 217-267; see
also Nicola Andric, “Erganzung zur croatischen Literaturgeschichte,” in [Crown-
prince Rudolf], Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, Vol. Croatia-Slavonia, pp.
128-134.
65 Anton Slodnjak, Geschichte der slowenischen Literatur (Berlin, 1958), pp. 49-
80; Pypin and Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Literaturen, I, 374-380.
56 Constantin Daicoviciu and Miron Constantinescu, Breve Histoire de la
Transylvanie (Bucarest, 1965), pp. m-112, 133-137. Matthias Bernath, Habsburg
und die Anjange der rumanischen Nationsbildung (Leiden, 1972), pp. 63-143.
Ladislas Makkai, Histoire de Transylvanie (Paris, 1946), pp. 166-175.
cultivated particularly ecclesiastic choral music, and since Leopold I also
the grand Baroque opera in Italian style. Leopold, the most musical of
the Habsburg rulers, spent vast sums of money in its support, despite the
chronic economic crisis of his regime. In an artistic sense, more important
than the pompous Italian operas performed under Leopold were the operas
composed by Charles VFs court composer, Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782),
who distinguished himself also as writer of oratorios and cantatas, well
into the reign of Maria Theresa. Highly significant in Charles VTs time
was the work of the Styrian Johann Joseph Fux, a musical theorist.
Performances of Baroque music depended more on princely patronage
than publication of literature. This patronage was forthcoming, though
applied frequently to the ostentatious rather than the profound.
In the Bohemian lands as ip. the hereditary lands folk music was of
great originality and appeal. Yet the Counter Reformation did not offer
to orchestral music and operas in the defeated lands the same princely
patronage as in Austria. Furthermore many excellent musicians emigrated
after 1620. The patronage of the great Bohemian aristocratic families did
not make itself felt strongly before the eighteenth century.
In Hungary, the national aristocracy, more deeply rooted in the soil
than the new knights of fortune in Bohemia, were willing and able to
sponsor art even in the stormy seventeenth century. The collection of
Hungarian tunes, the Cantus Catholici, could be published in 1651. Prince
Pal Esterhazy, the editor of the Harmonia caelestis, was a sponsor, col¬
lector, a composer, and theorist of notable skill and erudition.57
f) FINE ARTS
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the development of the

fine arts in the Habsburg lands was colorful, diverse, and in several ways
highly original. Some dominant principles stand out. The peoples in
these lands had and still have great innate artistic abilities and inclina¬
tions. The possibility of expressing them freely in literature was hampered
during the age of ideological warfare and at the height of the Counter
Reformation almost completely strangled. But in architecture, painting,
and sculpture the issue of freedom of expression was only indirectly af¬
fected by strictures imposed by the Counter Reformation. Fine arts ap¬
parently served as outlets for artists and their public, when expressions of
thought in spoken and written word were controlled or suppressed.
67See for instance Paul Lang, Music in Western Civilization (New York, 1941),
PP- 387-4°8> 456-459, 553-567, 955-956; Ottokar Hostinsky, “Musik in Bohmen,” in
[Crownprince Rudolf], Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, Vol. Bohmen, II,
8-20; Andras Pernye, in IJngarn (Budapest, 1966), pp. 386-389; Fedor Kabalin,
“Music,” in F. Eterovich, C. Spalatin, eds., Croatia, I, 280-282.
hate Renaissance and Baroque 75/
Yet architecture, painting, and sculpture were also affected by the

social conditions of the age. They required to the greatest extent the
patronage of sovereigns, government, Church, and aristocracy—the “es¬
tablishment.” The formative artists, above all the architects, also de¬
pended on the maintenance of law and order, but only in conjunction
with the absence of oppressive police supervision and punitive taxation.
In both respects the hereditary lands were in a relatively more advanta¬
geous position than the Bohemian lands. Worst off were the lands of
the Hungarian crown during the Turkish occupation and the following
wars. Not until the eighteenth century did Hungary as a whole have
opportunities for an evolution of the fine arts, which in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries could develop only in areas not subject to direct
Turkish occupation.
g) RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE
The two great styles of arts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
were Renaissance and Baroque.58 Renaissance style lends itself well to the
sentiments of all strata of society including the aristocracy. Above all it is the
expression of the prestige of the postmedieval urban patriciate and middle
class, as it arose in Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and in
Germany in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In Germany and in
the Habsburg lands Renaissance represented primarily estates and city
power, the antithesis of political feudalism and princely absolutism. These
forces, as discussed previously, shared in the hereditary lands power only
for a relatively brief and strongly contested period. Consequently the im¬
pact of this style is less marked there than that of Baroque, the grandiose
expression of the twofold triumph of Counter Reformation and princely
absolutism. The Baroque signifies the rise and expansion of a secular
power, able to reinstall and at the same time to control the revival of the
Catholic Church. In that sense the Baroque is more a secular than an
ecclesiastic style, or rather a style that reveals the impact of secularism on
the ecclesia militans. Nevertheless, in the hereditary lands most of the
proudest ecclesiastic buildings were created in the Baroque style. It is not
a style that expresses the dignified austerity of an independent puritan
citizenry in the towns, as represented primarily by the guilds; these had
to take a back seat throughout the long era of Baroque artistic triumph.
Yet, though in the background, the artistic expressions of an urban
bourgeois style, as evidenced for instance in the market squares of many
58 In a brief study of this kind, “mannerism” will not be considered as a separate

style, but rather as a mere transitional phase between late Renaissance and early
Baroque, but closer to the latter.
/52 History of the Habsburg Empire
smaller towns, were not lost to posterity and offered great potentialities
for the future.
The Renaissance reached the hereditary lands relatively late, that is,
not much before the middle of the sixteenth century. The estate structure
was less developed there than in the Bohemian or Hungarian domains,
hence its monuments were primarily palaces and renovated Gothic castles,
and only a few town halls or patrician urban houses. The Italian influ¬
ence is prevalent in the sixteenth-century Schallaburg castle north of the
Danube in Lower Austria. The Habsburg castle of Ambras in Tyrol
stands for the Renaissance transformation of the original Gothic style.
The imposing palace of the princely house of Porcia in Spital in Carin-
thia by Scamozzi is another outstanding example of the aristocratic variant
of the Renaissance in Austria. Notable also is the tomb of Emperor Maxi¬
milian I in the Court Church in Innsbruck. Estates’ strength, on the other
hand, is represented in the diet building in Graz, Styria. Vienna has
comparatively few Renaissance buildings. No ambitious building program
could develop under the duress of the Turkish wars raging at times close
to the walls of the city. In the intervals the pressures of the struggle be¬
tween burghers and sovereign, Reformation and Counter Reformation,
contributed further to the loss of the modest prosperity and relative secur¬
ity which the city had enjoyed during the late Gothic era, which gave
Vienna and Austria some of its greatest works of art. But only the
Baroque style offered the city the opportunity to display the splendor due
to the center of a rising great power.
The Austrian Baroque era began in the early seventeenth century and
reached its summit at the beginning of the eighteenth. Yet it outlasted
the reign of Charles VI, followed by a very brief Rococo epilogue.
Baroque in the hereditary lands was distinctly a style of imperial, aristo¬
cratic, and monastic ecclesiastic grandeur. The influence of Italian archi¬
tecture on the Austrian Renaissance was strong, on the Baroque even
stronger. Baroque’s first heralds were Santino Solari, architect of the noble
cathedral in Salzburg, and Carlo Carlone, designer of several churches in
Vienna. Because of the narrowness of an essentially still medieval city
such churches sometimes have a modest facade incongruously contrasting
with the splendor of interior decoration. Two generations later Domenico
Martinelli was an outstanding architect of palaces of the aristocracy of the
realm. In their garden palaces outside the city walls, space limitations did
not have to be considered. The facades of the new palaces were now no
less striking than the interiors. Later native Austrian architects, though
still trained in Italy, became the most celebrated creators of Baroque art.
Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach the elder (Graz 1656-Vienna 1723)
and Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt (Genova 1660-Vienna 1750) became

the unrivaled standard bearers of the new style. The former designed the
church of St. Charles Borromaus (the most monumental Baroque church
in Vienna), the central parts of the rebuilt Hofburg, and the new Schon-
brunn palace (compleated by Nicolas Pacassi). Graz and particularly
Prague are some of the cities which show other monuments of his genius.
Hildebrandt was more graceful though less monumental in his designs.
He became the architect of elegant Baroque palaces, including Eugene of
Savoy’s garden residence, the Belvedere, one of the most beautiful speci¬
mens of the new style in the German orbit.
Hildebrandt designed also the monastery of Gottweig. It ranks with
Jakob Prandtauer’s sublime Melk and St. Florian, and Mungenast’s Seiten-
stetten and Zwettl among the proudest monuments of the Austrian ec¬
clesiastic Baroque. Here a curious phenomenon strikes the observer. Ref¬
erence has sometimes been made to the “building craze” (Bauwut) of
the great ecclesiastic and secular noble sponsors of Baroque architecture,
who favored huge designs for incongruously more modest needs. The
phenomenon repeats similar though less ostentatious discrepancies in the
Italian Renaissance. Rising prosperity after a long war period, the unre¬
stricted power of princely absolutism, symbolism for the victory of the
Counter Reformation, the desire to copy the splendor of Louis XIV, and
a new feeling of self-assertive pride, played their part. Nevertheless, it is
still hard to explain why and how a score of huge monasteries, particu¬
larly in Lower and Upper Austria were built in thinly populated wooded
areas. Some of these beautiful structures with facades of several hundred
yards length are separated from each other by a distance of less than ten
miles and few by as much as fifty. Rivalry between various orders, espe¬
cially Benedictines, Premonstratensians, Augustinians, and Cistercensians,
do not explain sufficiently the missionary political and economic pressures
at work to establish these tremendous structures. Were the efforts, which
made these constructions possible, meant to be also signs of penance for
feelings of guilt, perhaps as counterweight for an exhibitionism of pride?
Did they signify a gravitation of the Church to the orders, at a time when
the bishops had to withstand governmental pressure? Every answer raises
• KQ
new questions.
In the Bohemian lands, the perhaps greatest work of the Renaissance
was another Belvedere palace built in Prague by the Italian architect
Paolo della Stella for Ferdinand I’s consort in mid-sixteenth century.
59 See Ludwig Baldass, Rupert Feuchtmiiller, Wilhelm Mrazek, Renaissance in

Osterreich (Vienna, 1966); Bruno Grimschitz, Wiener Barochjpalaste (Vienna,
1944); Alfred Schnerich, Wiens Kirchen und Kapellen (Vienna, 1921).
Italian influence was just as strong in Bohemian Renaissance architecture
as in the hereditary lands. A counterpart to the castle of Ambras in Ty¬
rol with its Gothic core and Renaissance renovation is the Schwarzenberg
palace of Krumlov (Krumau) in southwestern Bohemia. Otherwise, cor¬
responding to the greater influence of a prosperous urban burgher class
in sixteenth-century Bohemia and in part of Moravia, there was also
greater influence of Renaissance architecture on this urban culture as
exemplified by the town halls in Plzen, Olomuc and other places. Al¬
together, corresponding to the different social-political structure Renais¬
sance art was richer in Bohemia than in the hereditary lands.
Baroque architecture in Bohemia and again to some extent in Moravia
was as splendid as in Austria. In view of the long history of revolution
and war in the country this iq. itself was a major accomplishment. The
early influence of Italian masters, such as Carlo Loragho and Martin
Antonio da Porta was later equaled by that of the Germans Christoph
Dientzenhofer and his son Kilian Ignaz. Prague abounds in sublime
Baroque churches and in great palaces of the aristocracy that had risen
in power after 1620, the families of Silva Tarouca, Clam-Gallas, Schon-
born, Lobkowitz, Thun, and others. The architecture of the palaces of the
aristocracy is as characteristic for Bohemia and Moravia as the monastic
architecture in the hereditary lands. The association of the rise of the
Baroque with the destruction of the old nobility and the influx of the
alien new one helps to explain also why the new style in the Bohemian
lands was more strongly related to foreign influence than in the hereditary
lands. Yet genuine national artists such as the late Baroque sculptor
Ferdinand Prokop (Brockhoff) made a great contribution as did his
Lower Austrian contemporary, Raphael Donner. Nevertheless, although
Baroque paintings and sculptures are colorful, decorative, and impressive,
they are in general not on a par with architecture. There is truth in the
saying saxa loquntur, the stones bear witness for an inventive and in¬
genious spirit, where counterreformatory absolutism had blocked the free
exchange of ideas.60
Mentioned should be also the great art collections of Ferdinand of Ty¬
rol in Ambras, Rudolf II in Prague, and the distinguished connoisseur
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, brother of Ferdinand III in Brussels.61 They
60 Oskar Schiirer, Prag: Kultur, Kunst, Geschichte (Munich, 1935, 5th ed.);
Jaromir Neumann, Das bohmische Baroc\ (Vienna, 1971); on the sponsor of
Baroque architecture in Bohemia, Count Sporck, see Heinrich Benedikt, Franz
Anton Graf von Sporc\ (Vienna, 1923).
61 This collection represents the nucleus of the art gallery in the Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna.
pertain to arms, sculpture, jewelry, and Renaissance and Baroque paint¬

ings. Such collections required more genuine feelings for art than exper¬
tise does today.
Art collections played a significant part also in the Hungarian Renais¬
sance, which had reached its summit at the court of King Matthias
Corvinus (1443-90). The great treasures of Italian paintings and sculpture
and the priceless library of the king with its precious manuscripts were
scattered and destroyed during the Turkish wars. Some monuments of
ecclesiastic architecture, particularly in Esztergom (Gran), Pecs (Fiinf-
kirchen), and Gyulafehervar (Alba Julia) were preserved as was the
Rakoczy castle in Sarospatak.
The rise of Baroque architecture was impeded primarily by the Turkish
wars, but the slow development of urbanization was also a factor. In the
northwestern Slovak section of Hungary, which was spared the Turkish
occupation, the Jesuit college and Baroque cathedral of Nagyszombat
(Trnava) designed by Pietro Spasso, rose in the early seventeenth cen¬
tury. Yet the building of this grand church as well as the rebuilding of
the cathedral of Gyor (Raab) were at that time rather exceptions. Hun¬
garian Baroque could develop more freely only after the reconquest of
the country between 1683 and 1699. Even then it was hampered by the
burdens of military occupation. Some Baroque palaces, such as that of
the Esterhazys in Eisentadt (Kismarton) and Buda, were built and the
royal palace in Buda was in fact reconstructed in the new style, some¬
what earlier than those in Vienna and Prague. Yet at the time when
Hungary was completely freed from the Turks, the monuments of the
great Hungarian Renaissance period were largely destroyed and the
Baroque style in the west had nearly passed its peak. Despite notable ex¬
ceptions, particularly in Buda, Baroque achitecture in Hungary was not
on a par with that in the hereditary and Bohemian lands.62
Still, all things considered, Baroque art, as shiny facet of the counter¬
reformatory experience, forges an impressive bond between the three
main units of the lands under Habsburg rule. In every one of them the
new style expresses the experience of the senses as substitute for those of
the intellect. In every one of them the new style expresses the political
and religious triumphs of the era.
62 Lajos Nemeth, in Ungarn (Budapest, 1966), pp. 361-367; Gustav Keleti,

“Malerei und Plastik,” in [Crownprince Rudolf], Die osterreichisch-ungarische
Monarchic, Vol. Ungarn, III, 413-418. See also Ruza Bajurin, “Architecture, Sculp¬
ture, and Painting,” in Francis H. Eterovich and Christopher Spalatin, eds., Croatia,
I, 322 f., 329 f., 336 f.
CHAPTER V
An Empire Reasserts Jtself (mo-ms)
A. Foreign policy (1740-1792)
The account of Austrian foreign policy in Chapter III led to the end
of the War of the Austrian Succession, the peace treaty of Aix la Chapelle
in 1748. The outcome proved that the new Habsburg power could with¬
stand the concerted attack of a major European coalition, which would
either have partitioned Austria or reduced it to a secondary state. Austria
was faced by the same threats to which Spain succumbed a generation
before and Poland half a century afterward. The new empire could
avoid either fate and remained a major force within the concert of Eu¬
rope for more than a century. For another two generations, until 1918,
it could not quite continue to maintain the rank of a first-rate power in
fact, but did so in name and with it retained much of the prestige and
the paraphernalia of a great power with considerable area and population.
Within two generations after the War of the Austrian Succession, the
Habsburg empire had to face another crisis in the revolutionary and
Napoleonic eras, which threatened her with reduction to a satellite state
of the Napoleonic empire. Again Austria weathered a serious crisis.
One reason why Austria survived was the personality of her rulers. For
thirty of the hectic seventy-five years from 1740 to 1815, Austria was in¬
volved in wars, most of them of decisive importance for Habsburg power.
Yet it was not her military leadership, which proved to be of particular
benefit during this period. Only two generals, Laudon during the Third
Silesian War and the archduke Charles during the first part of the
Napoleonic war period, could be considered outstanding soldiers. But
Laudon was never commander-in-chief, and the archduke, hemmed in by
156
An Empire Reasserts Itself 757
the superior genius of Napoleon and the inferior jealousy of his petty
imperial brother Francis, lacked the good fortune without which no great
commander can succeed. If the asset of masters of strategy was thus not
on the side of Austria, she could still claim a major advantage. During
the first part of the period (1740-1815) under discussion here, the rulers
of Austria were three personalities of above-average qualifications: Maria
Theresa (1740-1780), her son Joseph II (1780-1790), and his brother
Leopold II (1790-1792). Of these three, the mother, from an intellectual
viewpoint, was more limited than the sons, which has to be understood,
however, in a relative sense. Born and raised in the late Baroque and
early Rococo eras, the empress never felt at home in the intellectual sphere
of the Enlightenment; she could overcome inherited prejudices only
slowly and partly. Yet she had a practical mind, sound perception, a warm
heart, and resolution. What is perhaps most important for a ruler, she
was ready to acknowledge the mental superiority of some of her advisers
and knew how to yield gracefully to a superior mind.
Her oldest son, Joseph II, whose relations to the mother were not with¬
out warmth but always difficult, failed in this respect, although and per¬
haps because he was intellectually superior to Maria Theresa. This most
controversial of all Habsburg rulers has generally been charged with
precipitate, all-too-sweeping reforms, derived from lack of respect for
traditions and the psychological resistance of people and an administrative
apparatus in a still semifeudal and in many ways nonhomogeneous em¬
pire. Such oversimplifications are usually based on a short-range outlook
and a conservative philosophy. Whichever way one evaluates Joseph II’s
hectic reign, there is certainly room for abundant criticism. A ruler whose
philosophy of government and corresponding actions anticipated much
of the reforms undertaken in Central and western Europe in the two
generations after his death cannot be dismissed as a failure although he
cannot be extolled as an unqualified success. Quite a few conflicts result¬
ing from his precipitate actions and the frequently irrational response to
them could be straightened out in the all-too-short reign of his brother
Leopold. It was the latter’s personal tragedy that, although he could adjust
some old problems, he died too soon to solve the new overpowering one,
namely to keep Austria and perhaps with her Europe out of more than
two decades of almost continuous warfare.
Of these three distinguished rulers Maria Theresa had the gift to pro¬
ject her personality well across the domestic and international scene. She
enjoyed the support of advisers whose philosophy of government differed
from her own. Joseph II, on the other hand, as noted above, could not
establish rapport with the same advisers, although most of them were in
spirit closer to him than to the empress. More important, he could not
gain, in his lifetime the support of the broad strata of the people, the
prospective beneficiaries of his reforms. Yet if one judges him not by the
response to his actions by his contemporaries but by his image in later
generations, he made a stronger impact on Austrian history than any of
his successors and most of his predecessors. Retrospectively he appeared
not even devoid of charismatic leadership. Leopold II, more pragmatic
in intelligence and stronger in administrative abilities than Joseph, lacked
this dramatic quality. He could lead but not inspire, yet he exceeded in
ability and performance any Habsburg ruler from Ferdinand I to Charles
the last (1916-1918) almost four centuries later.
The three rulers will have to he referred to frequently in the, following
pages. At this point in the discussion of Austrian foreign policy its en¬
gineers and executors should be introduced. Throughout the whole cen¬
tury from the peace of Aix la Chapelle in 1748 to the revolution of 1848
Austria had the strange fortune of having only two men in charge of her
external affairs for more than three-quarters of that time, each for 39
years. Prince Wenzel Anton Kaunitz-Rietberg (1711-1794) was court
and state chancellor from 1753-1792 and Prince Clemens Lothar Metter-
nich (1773-1859) was in charge of foreign affairs from 1809 to 1848 and
state chancellor from 1821 to 1848. Disregarding Metternich’s frequently
alleged evil influence on domestic affairs, which is usually overrated, the
long tenure of these two men in foreign affairs turned out to be a good
fortune for the Habsburg empire. It gave to its conduct in international
relations the benefits of continuity, experience, consistency, tempered by
pragmatism, and accentuated sometimes by brilliance. All these factors
combined outweighed undisputed serious shortcomings as to breadth and
depth of social outlook.
Kaunitz, unlike Metternich, was almost exclusively concerned with the
conduct of foreign affairs. He had accumulated a rich diplomatic experi¬
ence at the imperial diet in Regensburg, in diplomatic missions in Rome,
Florence, Turin, Brussels, as delegate at the peace conference of Aix la
Chapelle, and as ambassador to France (1750-1753)? when Maria Theresa
appointed him court and state chancellor. Kaunitz is generally considered
the chief architect of the reversal of alliances in eighteenth-century Europe.
France, the traditional enemy of Austria, became her ally, England her
traditional friend the partner of Prussia, and Russia, previously a benevo¬
lent associate of English and Austrian policy, became the fighting ally
of the Habsburgs. The reasons for the regroupment between 1753 and
I757 were manifold. French-English colonial rivalries in North America,
English concern with Prussia’s potential threat to Hanover as well as that
of Russia to East Prussia, played a part, as did English-Russian com¬
mercial conflicts. Besides, the continental conservative powers feared the
ambitious Prussian upstart King Frederick II; and personal considera¬
tions of the religious bond between the sovereigns of the two foremost
Catholic powers and hatred of the established rulers against the cynical
and unreliable Prussian king were also significant.
Among all these collisions of interests, the Austrian-Prussian conflict
was probably not even the most important one. With the benefit of hind¬
sight it is easy to see now that the outcome of the British-French strug¬
gle in North America settled by the peace of Paris of February of 1763
was of more lasting importance in world history than the war in Central
Europe. What made the Austro-Prussian Seven Years’ War the core is¬
sue of a conflict that involved five major powers, the Holy Roman Em¬
pire, and two continents as theatres of war, was something else than just
the fight about a province, however rich. Consistency and seriousness of
purpose on the Habsburg side were greater than those of any other of her
allies or opponents. To Maria Theresa, Frederick II of Prussia was not
just an adversary but the enemy, who had wronged her twice between
1740 and 1745 and had betrayed his obligations as prince of the empire
to the memory of her father and to the future imperial mantle of her
husband. In the succession war, other German princes, such as the elec¬
tors of Bavaria and Saxony, had taken hostile stands against her but these
were relatively minor conflicts and family quarrels, which could be
patched up. But the fight against the ambitions of the great atheist and
heretic shook all that was sacred in Europe, in Maria Theresa’s eyes. She
never forgave England the conclusion of the treaty of Westminister with
Frederick in May of 1756, although this was actually no more than a
nonaggression pact. England too had been a heretic power to Maria
Theresa. Though the empress-queen was aware of the contingencies of
Austria’s great-power position, the war appeared to her, as the only one
among European rulers of the time, as primarily an ideological conflict.
Nothing was further from Kaunitz’s interpretation. The connoisseur
and admirer of the French Enlightenment brought about a reconciliation
of the conservative European powers according to terms highly favorable
to the Habsburgs. A cession of Belgium territory to the French sphere of
interests should take place but only after the reconquest of Silesia and
after, if possible, the partition of Prussia was secured.1 This would have
given to Habsburg power the primacy in continehtal Europe, which she
had not possessed after the reign of Charles V.
Habsburg’s armed forces in this struggle, in contrast to the conditions
at the time of the War of the Austrian Succession, had undergone compre¬
hensive reforms. In the intervening years regular manoeuvres were held
and the officers’ training was improved by the establishment of military
schools, especially the Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt and the
Engineering Academy in Vienna. The Military Frontiers from which
many of Austria’s finest soldiers came, were reorganized. The artillery
was made more formidable under the direction of Prince Wenzel Liech¬
tenstein. The inadequate system of enlistments on the basis of estates
approval of manpower quota by individual lands was now changed to a
system of regular conscription by order of the central authorities accord¬
ing to needs. Basically the Austrian military system, as it continued to
exist for more than one and a half centuries, was created under Maria
Theresa, and it stood its test in critical times to come.
Yet Habsburg’s forces fought most of the time with indifferent suc¬
cess. Frederick II had started the war—from a military viewpoint one of
the few genuinely preventive ones in history—in August, 1756, by the
invasion of Saxony, before the Grand Alliance was quite ready. Austrian
victories, such as Hochkirch (1757) and Kolin (1758) under Count
Daun and Kunersdorf (1759) under Laudon, in between Frederick’s
triumphs, were not of lasting strategic significance. Even the brief occu¬
pation of Berlin by Austrian cavalry forces in October, 1757, amounted
to nothing more than a fleeting prestige success.
In comparison, Frederick’s victories, though frequently likewise transi¬
tory, resounded as triumphs through a world, which sympathized with the
underdog. His victories at Lobositz (1756) on Saxon territory, Prague
and Gross Jagerndorf (1757) in Silesia, and above all Rossbach (then on
Saxon territory, also 1757) rated higher than the Austrian achievements.
It did not matter that this success was scored against inferior French mili¬
tary forces and the feeble army of the Holy Roman Empire raised against
the Prussian king as declared aggressor.2 Europe became excited by the
1 On the complex negotiations concerning the planned cession of the Austrian
Netherlands, in part to the French satellite Prince Conti and in part outright to
France, see Alfred von Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias, 10 vols. (Vienna,
1870-1879), IV, 390-397, V, 24-38.
2 The Reichstag of Regensburg at the behest of Francis von Lorraine, the emperor
and husband of Maria Theresa, branded Frederick as aggressor primarily on ac-
sensational war news; startling indeed, were the later Prussian victories at
Zorndorf (1758) against the Russians, and Leuthen (1757), Liegnitz and
Torgau (1760) against the Austrians.
Frederick had the advantage of the inner line of defense, and of the
habitual jealousies within the coalition formed against him. Finally, his
military genius was a major asset.
It is a commonplace conclusion that Frederick still would have lost
had it not been for the windfall of the death of the Tsarina Elizabeth in
January, 1762. It led almost immediately to the truce with Russia under the
new tsar and admirer of Frederick, Peter III. In May of the same year, a
few weeks before the new tsar’s overthrow by his consort (Catherine II),
he concluded a separate peace with Frederick II on the basis of the status
quo. Russia’s insufficient interest in the pursuit of the struggle had in
fact been a weak link in the coalition from its start. Even weaker was
the alliance with France in which military unpreparedness and incompe¬
tence of leadership played a major part. As for the expected French in¬
terests in the stakes Kaunitz had indeed overplayed his hand, which be¬
came apparent, when the Austrians failed to dislodge Frederick from
Silesia. Accordingly, they did not cede their Belgian possessions. There¬
upon in October 1762 the French withdrew from the war, to whose pur¬
suit they had contributed little before. The French and Russian govern¬
ments had participated in a large-scale, long-drawn-out war that ran so
much counter to public opinion that it seemed in the long run hardly
bearable even in the prerevolutionary eighteenth century. The age of
reason, even under absolutism, apparently could not stand unlimited
losses for problematical and limited benefits.
In an era where armies rarely exceeded 100,000 men because neither
communication nor supply systems could handle much larger numbers,
the higher population figures of the Habsburg empire as compared to
Prussia were not decisive. As for territory, the smallness of Prussia was
actually an asset in view of Frederick’s strategy, which was offensive only
in a military but defensive in a political sense. It had a single objective—
to hold its own. Yet, after all this is said, the question still remains why a
Flabsburg empire superior in every kind of resource could not single-
handed bring the war against Prussia to a successful conclusion. The
suggested answer is threefold. First, the Habsburg monarchy still suffered
from the economic mismanagement under Maria Theresa’s predecessors,
count of his invasion of Saxony and declared on behalf of the empire war against
him (Reichskrieg).
whereas Frederick II had inherited a well organized economy. Second, the
Maria Theresan administrative reforms had not been completed and cer¬
tainly not succeeded to a degree that would bid well for a concerted war
effort for years to come. Third, international relations had changed:
Since the war had failed to strengthen the position of Russia, France,
Sweden, or for that matter of any of the German princes, who feebly
supported the alliance, an Austrian victory would have offset the balance
of power. There was little reason to assume that Europe would have al¬
lowed Habsburg power to weaken Prussia seriously—let alone to destroy
her—provided she would have been able to do so. The peace of Hubertus-
burg of February 15, 1763, concluded just five days after the more im¬
portant peace of Paris between France and England, comprised these
main provisions. Prussia would keep Silesia with the exception of the
small southern part, that is precisely within the confines established at
the peace of Dresden in December, 1745. Saxony was restored, and Fred¬
erick agreed to have the vote of Brandenburg in a future imperial elec¬
tion cast for Joseph. Consequently the following month he was elected
in Frankfurt as Roman king and heir to his father as emperor. Emperor
Francis, Maria Theresa’s consort, died unexpectedly in August 1765, hence
Joseph succeeded him sooner than expected. Unlike his father he became
also coregent in the Habsburg domains. Had it not been for the Prussian
approval, Joseph’s succession as Holy Roman emperor would probably
have had to be secured with some further concessions to Prussia. In this
respect Frederick’s consent to Joseph’s election in the peace treaty had
meaning.
Yet in substance Prussia’s retention of Silesia represented, of course, a
defensive victory of major proportions. It impressed contemporary Europe
as much as posterity ever since. Though the extent of Frederick’s spec¬
tacular success should not be minimized, in German and Austrian his¬
toriography it is frequently seen in distorted proportions. It is widely held
that the struggle for the supremacy in Germany, to use Heinrich Fried-
jung’s terms, began there and then and continued until it was resolved by
the Prussian victory at Koniggratz in 1866. To a point this opinion is
correct, but only to a point. By 1763 an all-out victory of Austria ending
with the partition of Prussia had become impossible. Even if Austria had
regained Silesia it would not have meant the end of Prussia and the end
of the struggle for the supremacy in Germany. The conflict presumably
would have continued in different form and at a different speed, but con¬
tinued it would have.
More controversial is another viewpoint frequently argued, namely that
the outcome of the Seven Years’ War—taking a long-range view—had
doomed the leadership of the Germans as the dominant national group in
the Habsburg empire. Since reduction of the number and the economic
strength of Germans in relative terms—so the argument goes—impaired
Austria’s position, Maria Theresa was forced to look for compensation in
Polish, Ruthenian, and Roumanian territories. With this policy the possi¬
bility of Germanizing the non-German peoples within the Habsburg mon¬
archy was lost. Austria was to become permanently a multinational em¬
pire, which eventually led to its dissolution.
This is an argument post hoc propter hoc. The loss of the fertile Silesian
principalities, endowed with rich mineral resources and advanced indus¬
trial establishments, undoubtedly weakened the Habsburg empire, apart
from the serious decline in political prestige. Yet the loss of Silesia by it¬
self did not represent a major shift in the national composition of Habs¬
burg power, which comprised at the beginnings of the Seven Years’ War,
exclusive of Belgium and Milan, fifteen million people. Fewer than one
and a half million of them were inhabitants of Silesia and a sizable pro¬
portion of them was of Polish nationality. The acquisition of Galicia in
the first partition of Poland in 1772 changed the ethnic composition of the
Habsburg monarchy, but it would be an oversimplification to assume that
Austria’s participation in the partition was primarily dependent on the
outcome of the Silesian wars.
These are the facts. When Joseph became emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire and coregent of the Habsburg lands in 1765, the foreign policy of
the monarchy became undoubtedly more dynamic and ambitious, though
the empress and Kaunitz still controlled the brakes. Austria’s and Prussia’s
interests as shown in the first meeting between Frederick II and Joseph in
Neisse in Silesia in 1770 were focused on Russia’s expansion in eastern
Europe in general, and the Black Sea region and her sway over Poland
in particular. Actually the Habsburg empire did not play a very restrained
part at that time. A few weeks before the entrevue at Neisse Austrian
troops had occupied the Zips district3 as prelude of more sweeping terri¬
torial changes to come. This move preceded the Russo-Polish understand¬
ing concerning the first partition of Poland and in particular the Prussian
occupation of northwestern Polish territories (West Prussia) by about
three years. The occupation of the Zips had morally weakened the Aus-
3 Legally, the Zips comitat, on the northern fringe of Slovak territory belonged
to Hungary, but at the time of the Austrian occupation it was, according to the
terms of the treaty of Lublin of 1412, for an undetermined period mortgaged to the
Polish crown.
trian position, the Russo-Polish agreement did so politically. Now it had
become impossible for Austria to hold back. The alternative would have
been up to that point either an undivided Poland as Russian satellite or a
partition between Russia and Prussia only. Either solution would have
meant a considerable shift of the balance of power to the disadvantage of
the Habsburg empire. Predictably, Maria Theresa yielded to the entreaties
of Kaunitz and Joseph. Since Austria could not change the course of
events, Frederick’s prediction that the empress would pray and weep but
eventually take, thus came fully true. All things considered the Habsburg
empire complied with the standard course of prerevolutionary eighteenth-
century power politics. The consequences, however, were far reaching.
There was, first, the over-all effect of undermining international relations
by an act of concerted piracy by three major powers while Europe watched
passively. This first Munich helped much, in an ideological sense, to ease
the way for later conquests by threat rather than use of violence.
Second, the domestic aspects of the partition were important. They must
be seen in context with the acquisition of the Bukovina from Turkey in
3:775, which connected Transylvania with Galicia. The cession of this land
of mixed Ruthenian and Roumanian population was extorted from Turkey
as price of Austrian mediation in the peace of Kuchuk-Kainarji between
Russia and the High Portal in 1774. By taking Turkey’s side cautiously
and preventing a Russian annexation of the Danube principalities, Austria
had actually defended her interests more successfully than some eighty
years later during the Crimean war. The Habsburg monarchy, further¬
more, could cash in on her diplomatic intervention and be paid by Turkey
for an action which was as much in her own interest as in that of the de¬
clining Ottoman empire. This was perhaps the most successful single
move in Kaunitz’s foreign policy.
Third, the acquisition of Galicia, roughly within the confines reestab¬
lished at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, substantially changed the ethnic
composition of the Habsburg monarchy. Austria was presented with the
problems of territories north and northeast of the Carpathian mountain
ranges, which in geographical terms were separated from the bulk of the
empire. More important, however, were the social aspects of the problem.
A population of inferior economic status was incorporated in the mon¬
archy. Although the potentialities of its development were great, they
were never made fully used, to the end of the empire in 1918. The an¬
nexation of Galicia, seen again in conjunction with the acquisition of
Bukovina, added also formidable national problems to those gradually
developing in the monarchy. Apart from the fact that now the German
position was really weakened, the Galician Poles were part of a great na¬
tion with a powerful tradition of cultural-political independence. The en¬
suing problems could be adjusted to a degree but never solved within the
confines of the Habsburg monarchy. There were other issues as well. With
the acquisition of Galicia, the Habsburg monarchy inherited the national
struggle between Poles and the Ruthenian branch of the Ukrainian people
in the eastern part of the new crownland.4 The social position of the
Ruthenians was and remained poorer than even that of the poor Polish
peasants. This inferiority extended also to political status. Unlike the Gali¬
cian Poles, the Ruthenians were devoid of a class of aristocratic and minor
noble landowners. Some strength, it is true, was added to the unsatisfac¬
tory Ruthenian situation in Galicia through the acquisition of Bukovina
with a population of more than two-fifths Ruthenians. They had lived
within the Hungarian southern ranges of the Carpathians (after 1918
called Carpato-Ukraine) ever after the thirteenth century. They had not
represented a significant national problem. This came into existence only
with the incorporation of substantial Ruthenian minorities in Galicia and
Bukovina.
What was true concerning the emergence of a Ruthenian-Ukrainian
problem applied to a lesser degree to a Roumanian. The position of the
Transylvanian Vlachs was strengthened by the incorporation of the more
than one-third Roumanian population in Bukovina. This in turn was
bound to have an effect on relations between the national groups in Tran¬
sylvania. The specter of a formidable national problem in conjunction
with a social one—the absorption of peoples of different socioeconomic
levels—was on the rise.
The ensuing German policy of Joseph II, reluctantly tolerated by Maria
Theresa but supported by Kaunitz, has to be seen in the context of these
events. As noted before, the outcome of the Silesian wars had not yet sub¬
stantially affected Austria’s German position. The acquisitions of Zips
(1769), Galicia (1772), and Bukovina (1775) undoubtedly did. Yet the
war of the Bavarian Succession (1778-1779) did not result directly from
Austria’s defeat in the Seven Years’ War nor for that matter from any
clear recognition of the national problems created by the acquisition of
Slavic territory in the east in conjunction with the loss of predominantly
German Silesia. Joseph II and Kaunitz followed rather a more sweeping
and consistent but unwise Habsburg policy, namely that annexations in
4 The Ruthenians (the name is a latinization of Russians) are understood here

as the most western branch of the Ukrainian people, vsettled in the main in eastern
Galicia but in part also in northeastern Hungary.
the east were all right but that they counted less than any territorial gains
in the west. To Leopold I the French invasion of the Alsace was more
important than the Turkish one of Hungary, to Charles VI the status of
Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla as crumbs of the desired and lost Spanish
inheritance counted more than the possibilities of sweeping conquests in
the Balkans. Joseph II, more sophisticated but also more ambitious than
his grandfather and great-grandfather, did not underrate the significance
of Austria’s position in the east but believed, in accordance with the Euro¬
pean value system of the time, that the Habsburg German position
counted more. Yet Joseph did not wish to make a mere compensatory
choice; he wanted to expand in east and west as well.
When the ruling main line of the house of Wittelsbach in Bavaria ex¬
pired, Joseph on the strength of an agreement with the head of the sec¬
ondary Palatine line claimed Bavaria for his house and sent troops across
the Austrian borders. As to be expected, Frederick II opposed this expedi¬
tion. It was not quite in the cards though, that Maria Theresa would re¬
strict the Austrian action as much as she could. After some indifferent
fighting in Bohemia, where dysentery and cholera took a greater toll than
bullets, the war, much against Joseph’s wishes, was ended by the compro¬
mise of the peace of Teschen in May 1779. It gave Austria the Innviertel
between Inn and Salzach and enlarged thus western Upper Austria, but
the major objective, the acquisition of Bavaria was not achieved. Joseph
believed that Maria Theresa, by agreeing to this meager compromise, had
abandoned him in the face of the enemy. Actually it is doubtful whether
the young emperor and coregent could have secured a military victory
over Frederick even in his decline. It is practically certain that he would
never have been put in the position to take advantage of such a victory.
The fact that peace was achieved through the “good” offices of France and
Russia meant they would never have agreed to a clear-cut Austrian pre¬
dominance in Germany.
Such change in the balance of power in favor of Austria is indeed, what
the Austrian succession in Bavaria would have meant. The stakes were
high and for that reason Joseph made another attempt to reach his goal
five years after the death of the empress. This time he acted in a more
circumspect way. He proposed not an outright Austrian aggrandizement
but the exchange of the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria. It would have
meant the barter of an indefensible strategic position and in some re¬
spects also an economic liability for a great territorial and political gain,
adjacent to the monarchy. Naturally Prussia opposed Joseph’s policy
again. This time Frederick’s countermove was based on stronger founda-
An Empire Reasserts Itself i6j
tions than power politics. A league of princes (Fiirstenbund) was
sponsored by Prussia and joined by Saxony, Hanover, and later by
Mayence, Baden, Hesse-Cassel, and Thuringian, and other smaller German
states. This association stood indeed on justifiable grounds wdien it op¬
posed the domination of Germany by one power.
It is difficult to find many examples in history, how the foreign
policy of a brilliant ruler, not a ruthless dictator, but a humane and ra¬
tional man failed not just in some instances, but in almost all respects.
This example is provided by the events in the decade 1780-1790, when
Joseph governed in his own right. In international reladons he still made
clumsy use of the old devices of power politics, which alienated friend
and foe alike. If his foreign policy had succeeded he would undoubtedly
have been an enlightened ruler in the conquered territories; but foreign
policy is not judged by ifs.
The offer to trade the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria was in part
promoted by Joseph II’s resentment concerning the fetters imposed by
the treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt of 1713—1714; namely the closing of
the Scheldt river and hence of the port of Antwerp by the Dutch, and
the Dutch right to man the Flemish barrier fortresses against France at
Austrian expenses. Between 1781 and 1784 Joseph unilaterally revoked
these politically humiliating and economically detrimental restrictions.
Yet by 1785 he was forced to draw back in the face of vigorous Dutch
protests supported by France. To a large extent this failure of an ill-
prepared and ill-executed policy was at the bottom of the Belgian revolt
in 1789.
As pointed out in Chapter III, Joseph was even more unfortunate in
his Balkan policy. In the Turkish war of 1788-1791, into which Austria
was drawn as Russia’s ally, she had much to lose and little to gain as
noted earlier. Much in prestige, resources, and manpower she did indeed
lose until Leopold II, Joseph’s successor, by the separate peace of Sistowa
in August 1791 extricated Austria by a meager compromise. This peace
caused Catherine II’s misgivings. She felt to be let down by her ally, a re¬
sentment which in part caused the Habsburg empire’s exclusion from
the second partition of Poland in 1793.
The new emperor, Leopold II, could not have acted differently in the
east. Within the Habsburg borders he found Hungary and Belgium in
open uproar. The war against Turkey was going badly, the German
princes distrusted Joseph and Kaunitz, and the French revolutionary
crisis loomed as rapidly increasing danger on the horizon. Leopold’s
domestic policy is easier to judge than his foreign policy. In the former
i68 History of the Habshurg Empire
sphere his intention to preserve and gradually to extend the enlightened
reforms is clear. In foreign politics most of his designs failed to material¬
ize. This failure can largely be explained by the emperor’s sudden death
in March 1792. But there is also the added problem of his complex and
introvert character, which makes evaluations of some of his designs
difficult.
This much seems clear: the emperor wanted to have his political fences
in Central and eastern Europe mended in the face of an expanding
crisis in the west. This policy meant peace with Turkey in the southeast,
an understanding with Prussia and Russia concerning Poland and, in¬
creasingly important, one with Prussia in regard to the French danger.
As for Poland, the emperor’s primary aim was to preserve Austria’s gain
by preventing an alliance of'the two other partitioning powers against
the third. He also wanted genuinely to support reform in Poland and
thereby strengthen the country. This wish tied in with his enlightened
domestic philosophy, but it would also serve its purpose in foreign affairs.
In the face of the expanding crisis in the west, Russia and possibly also
Prussia would be the chief—and as it turned out indeed to be the only—
beneficiaries of a further partition of Poland brought about under the
pretext of domestic unrest in the kingdom. This the emperor tried, un¬
successfully, to prevent.
Leopold’s major concern was the French crisis. Like other enlightened
rationalists he had observed developments in France in 1789 on the
whole with sympathy. His feelings in that respect were not primarily in¬
fluenced by the fact that his youngest sister, Marie Antoinette, was the
consort of Louis XVI. He approved of Louis XVI’s acceptance of the
radically revised French constitution in September 1791 and considered
still at this late point peaceful relations with France desirable and feasi¬
ble. He did so because he basically believed in the philosophy and
stability of the constitutional monarchy. Yet he did not dismiss from his
calculation the possibility of dangerous developments. He had cleared the
deck of most contested issues, suppression of the Belgian revolution,
termination of the Turkish war, and mutual guarantee of the Austro-
Prussian gains in the first partition of Poland by the agreement of
Reichenbach in July, 1790* While all these weighty problems were in the
foreground, the basic idea behind was to remove friction between the
Central European powers to make a joint policy in regard to France
possible. For Leopold this meant, if at all feasible, a peaceful policy.
Pressures mounted, however. The French Constituent Assembly seized
the estates of great nobles in the Alsace, who had claims to imperial
An Empire Reasserts Itself i6g
jurisdiction and protection. Treves and Koblenz became centers of French
emigre activities under the leadership of Louis XVI’s youngest brother,
the Count of Artois, the proverbial political Kiebitzer, for whom stakes
were never too high. Leopold kept these emigre activities under strict
control and counseled his sister in Paris in their secret correspondence,
that the king should take his new constitutional obligations seriously. Yet
although the emperor looked with concern at the radicalization of con¬
ditions in France, he was resolved that if it should come to a conflict of
unpredictable consequences, Austria must not go it alone. He considered
the possibility of a joint warning of the European powers to France and
came to an understanding with Frederick William II of Prussia at Pillnitz
in Saxony in August, 1791, according to which the French crisis was de¬
clared to be a European concern. Yet only with British and Russian
support would Austria and Prussia intervene. This qualification was well
founded. It was clear that Britain wanted to stay out of a continental
war and that Russia preferred to fish in the troubled waters of Poland,
while her western neighbors were engaged in the struggle with France.
This constellation served as additional reason for the emperor to preserve
peace as long as possible. Even the alliance concluded with Prussia in
February of 1792 was of an only slightly camouflaged defensive nature;
it was meant to be a measured response to what the new French Legisla¬
tive Assembly saw as provocation. According to its demands the emperor
was to recognize the alliance of 1756 as still valid, even though conditions
had changed radically. That Leopold wished for peace is certain. To what
length he would have gone to preserve it, we will never know. He died
on March 1, 1792, and within six weeks the French Assembly forced
Louis XVI to declare war on the emperor’s son and successor, Francis II
(Francis I as Austrian emperor). Two months later, Prussia joined the
war as Austria’s ally. Again, it is uncertain whether Francis could have
avoided this war; that he did not try as hard as his father to avoid it is a
fact. More than twenty years of warfare followed, in which Austria fought
not only the revolution but the remaining traces of the Enlightenment as
well.
In August, 1792, the old state chancellor Kaunitz resigned in the face
of the breakdown of his western policy. His concept of association with
France had indeed never been fortunate, though he could, of course, not
predict in 1756 the revolutionary course after 1788. What he could have
foreseen, however, was that Austrian fortunes were tied to that of a de¬
clining power. Neither she nor France had much to gain from an as¬
sociation, which involved either party in problems alien to her main in-
ijo History of the Habshurg Empire
terests. The French Enlightenment, with which Kaunitz, Joseph, and
Leopold sympathized, did not extend its influence in the political sphere,
where Habsburg power had become tied to a brittle French absolutism.
In the east, Austria had made admittedly remarkable though morally
dubious gains in the second half of Maria Theresa’s reign. Success in pre¬
revolutionary eighteenth-century terms turned out, however, to become
liabilities in the nineteenth. On the other hand, Austria’s position in
Germany was as yet by no means desperate although it remained con¬
tested. All in all, the Flabsburg empire had retained its great-power po¬
sition, which had been so severely tried between 1740 and 1748. Because
of the unpredictable course of events it appeared as secure now as half a
century earlier.5
B. The Reform era
Enlightened reforms in Austria stretch from the beginnings of Maria

Theresa’s to the end of Leopold II’s reign (1740-1792). Under Leopold’s
successor Francis the reforms came soon to an end, primarily because a
new period of armed conflagrations on a large scale had started. As the
war of the first coalition against France in 1792 assumed from the start
on the part of Austria and Prussia an ideological character hostile to the
French Revolution, this meant also the rapid transition to a conservative
and, indeed, soon a reactionary era.
Frequently the reform period is divided into two distinct periods. First,
the Maria Theresan era, strictly pragmatic in character and adverse to the
principles of a radical enlightened “superstructure.” Then the era of
Joseph II, a period of doctrinaire zeal, which, though not revolutionary,
led to a countermovement in opposition to previous imperial actions.
Leopold’s subsequent brief reign of two years is frequently understood as
an appendix to that of Joseph. According to such view its chief purpose
was an effort to undo the damage brought about by Joseph’s unwise
haste.6 Actually, Leopold’s administration represented a sincere effort
to save the substance of the reform legislation by modification on specific
5 Good presentations of foreign policy are: Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias, in
particular vols. I-VI, VIII, X; Hugo Hantsch, Die Geschichte Osterreichs (Graz,
various editions), Vol. II. In the context of general European policies, see Walter
L. Dorn, Competition for Empire, 1J40-1J63 (New York, 1963), Leo Gershoy,
From Despotism to Revolution, 1J63-1J89 (New York, 1944), and Albert Sorel,
The Eastern Question in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1898), translated from
the French, which covers the period from 1756 to 1776.
6 See for instance Hantsch, Die Geschichte Osterreichs, II, 256 f. Adam Wolf and
Hans Zwiedinek-Siidenhorst, Osterreich unter Maria Theresia, Joseph II, und
Leopold II (Berlin, 1884) PP- 326-329. Both authors argue their case well.
An Empire Reasserts Itself iji
points. Retreat from an advanced position was to serve only as temporary
means to prevent outright repeal. Resumption of reforms under more
favorable conditions was indeed hoped for.
Such an interpretation is somewhat simplistic. In the first place it is
difficult to see a clear distinction between the reigns of Maria Theresa
and Joseph. During the war period from 1756 to 1763, reforms which
were actively pursued during the brief spell of peace after the War of the
Austrian Succession had come to a halt. When they were resumed Joseph
had become coregent (in 1765) and while the empress still reserved final
decisions for herself, he exercised considerable influence in foreign affairs,
defense, legal matters, and to some extent also state-church relations. Yet
beyond this Joseph was the chief counsellor of the empress on all political
matters and his influence on the administration was unmistakable. After
1780 it became, of course, decisive. Yet, in questions of reforms Maria
Theresa had not only listened to the often peremptory advice of Joseph,
but also to the more diplomatic but equally enlightened counsel of her
second son, Leopold, grandduke of Tuscany. It is often assumed, that
Leopold, after he succeeded his brother, did nothing but withdraw
cautiously from Joseph’s extreme positions. This does not seem to be the
full truth. Leopold did not merely intend to check the dangers of
domestic revolution. After this was done, various plans of his indicate
that he wanted to continue the reforms, an objective stopped only by his
sudden death. Thus neither can Joseph’s and Leopold’s reigns be separated
from each other nor Joseph’s from Maria Theresa’s. Therefore the whole
reform era from Maria Theresa to Leopold is treated here as a whole.
The anti-ideological pragmatism of the Maria Theresan era was not
only due to the conservative character and the religious devoutness of the
empress. Austria’s isolation from the intellectual evolution in the west
played an important part. Maria Theresa probably could not have taken
a position more in line with the political theories of the Enlightenment
if she had wanted to; that she did not even want to is another matter.
Pragmatic reforms seemed to be the order of the day in most major
western and northern countries. It was a course favored also by domestic
developments. After the peace of Szatmar of 1711 between king (em¬
peror) Joseph I and the insurrectionist forces under Prince Francis
Rakoczy II, the revolts in Hungary had come to an end for a time, al¬
though the wounds reopened so cruelly in the lands of the Bohemian
crown in 1620 had never healed. Still, more than a century after the era
of violent suppression, time had done much to take out the sting of the
painful recollections of the past. Furthermore, despite Maria Theresa’s
i j2 History of the Habsburg Empire
intolerance, the era of the Counter Reformation had definitely passed
and the time was ripe for reforms in the antiquated Habsburg empire.
Besides, several factors which up to Maria Theresa’s reign had impeded
them had declined in significance. This meant greater possibilities for
more centralization and integration than at any time after the ad¬
ministrative reforms of Ferdinand I in the sixteenth century. An efficient
but basically conservative ruler like Maria Theresa could be expected to
take a measured advantage of these possibilities.
a) THE PERSONALITIES
At this point a brief survey of the chief administrators and advisors

of the three enlightened rulers is appropriate. Maria Theresa, some poor
appointments notwithstanding, came out better here than her sons. Irre¬
spective of her personal preferences she selected competent men, even
though their political philosophy was on major issues opposed to that of
the empress. It is evidence of her personal eminence, that she listened to
the advice of men which differed frequently from her own convicdons.
This attitude applied equally to administrative and ideological matters.
Joseph II, on the other hand, took far less well to advice, but where he
did it was still that of the prominent advisers of his mother. It was one
of his personal limitations to be neither a patient nor particularly tolerant
recipient of counsel that might conflict with his own views. Consequently
his administration attracted fewer outstanding men than that of the
empress, partly in spite but also partly because of the fact, that he was
undoubtedly a highly controversial leader himself. Leopold II, on the
other hand, was like the imperial mother, more tolerant of the views of
others. His reign was too brief to enable him to select a competent ad¬
ministrative staff and braintrust of his own. Yet Leopold like Joseph
benefited from the slate of Maria Theresa’s advisers.
It has been mentioned earlier that Maria Theresa’s armies were never
commanded by brilliant military men. One of her generals, her brother-in-
law Charles of Lorraine, in the first and second Silesian war proved to be a
disaster. Count Leopold Daun (1705-1766) commander in chief during
the Seven Years’ War,—a cunctator, but not a great one—was at best
competent. There were some able generals of secondary rank in the field,
such as Counts Otto Traun and Ludwig Andreas Khevenhiiller during
the first war period of the empress’ reign, and the ablest of them Baron
Ernst Gideon Laudon, during the second. He still served, though without
any fault of his own unsuccessfully, in Joseph’s Turkish war.
While Austria did not have the benefit of outstanding commanders in
An Empire Reasserts Itself 1J3
chief, she had able military organizers, such as Prince Wenzel Liechtenstein
who improved the Austrian artillery and Count Moritz Lacy, who drew
his lessons from the experiences of the Seven Years’ War.
In the domestic field the score of administrators was better. Four su¬
preme chancellors of the United Court Chancery of the hereditary lands,
and after 1760 of the Bohemian lands, Count Friedrich Wilhelm Haug-
witz (1700-1765), Count Rudolf Chotek (1707-1771), Count Friedrich
Hatzfeld (1718-1793) and Count Heinrich Bliimegen (1715-1788), were
consecutively from 1753 to 1782 in charge of supreme administrative-
financial, and in part also military and judicial matters. Before their ap¬
pointment to the Court Chancery they had served in various adminis¬
trative fields. Haugwitz deserves probably chief credit for the conversion
of Austrian government from an estates-type structure to one partly
based on a civil service system. This change applies almost equally to
general administration, tax reform, and the underlying principles of the
new recruiting system. Chotek was an experienced financial adminis¬
trator. Hatzfeld a conservative bureaucrat, little affected by the aura of
the Enlightenment, furthered, however, the centralization of the admin¬
istration. Bliimegen was a cautious enlightened reformer, particularly in
the judicial sphere.
In education, the minister of state Count Anton Pergen and the Silesian
canon Johann Ignaz Felbiger, the creator of the elementary educational
reforms, distinguished themselves in the second half of the empress’
reign.
Many gifted personalities from various walks of life and antecedents
served officially only in secondary positions but were actually the brain-
trust behind the reform movement. Gerhard van Swieten (1700-1772)
from the Netherlands, Maria Theresa’s personal physician, was a cir¬
cumspect, indeed brilliant advisor on higher education, censorship, state-
church relations, particularly in regard to the sensitive problems relating
to the expulsion of the Jesuits. Like Kaunitz, van Swieten represented the
influence of the Enlightenment, in its moderate reform aspects. The same
held true for the state councillor Tobias Philip von Gebler (1726-1786) a
Protestant convert involved as much in cultural agenda as in the reforms
of lord-peasant relations. Three professors of law played a major part in
initiating judicial reforms, Paul Josef Riegger in regulating state-church
relations, Karl Anton von Martini in reforming the civil law, and most
important Joseph von Sonnenfels (1737-1817). Sonnenfels, descendant of
a rabbinical family and converted in his childhood, was the gadfly and
promoter of various major and minor reforms from the training of gov-
ij4 History of the Hahshurg Empire
ernment officials, new economic populationist policies, revision of the
police organization, humanization of criminal law and procedure, to the
purification and supposed elevation of dramatic literature from the
popular to the classical style. Sometimes excessive, often dogmatic,
querulous, and vain, his comprehensive lifework was that of a great
man. As much as Maria Theresa disagreed at times with his proposals
and those of other reformers, she listened, learned, rarely rejected out¬
right, and usually compromised. The results were uneven but often re¬
spectable and in regard to several issues admirable. Much of what has
been transmitted to posterity as the Josephin reforms goes back to the
initial efforts during the reign of the empress.7
C. Feudalism versus centralism in the Reform era
a) ADMINISTRATION
The overriding issue and impact of the Maria Theresan reform period
was the gradual ascendancy of the centralized government over the
basically still feudal estates institutions. It was not a complete victory,
particularly not in Hungary, yet it was lasting. The fact that the central¬
ization process destroyed largely the power of the estates but by deliberate
caution on the part of the government left the superstructure itself intact,
may be one reason that major reforms survived in substance the reaction
that followed the reign of Leopold II.
To be sure, curtailment of estates power increased in principle the
strength of absolutism, and a despotic absolutism could benefit from this
change as much as an enlightened one. In early nineteenth-century prac¬
tice, however, things looked differently. The estates stood for specific
group interests of the upper structure of society. Centralized absolutism,
even of the most narrow-minded kind, such as that prevailing during the
reign of Francis I (1792-1835),8 was forced to establish at least a common
denominator of these interests in the diverse Habsburg lands. Thereby
the social outlook of the regime widened, particularly under pressure of
external conditions, although it widened by necessity rather than by
7 See also Friedrich Walter, Manner um Maria Theresia (Vienna, 1951); Frank
D. Brechka, Gerhard van Swieten and his World (The Hague, 1970); on Joseph
von Sonnenfels, see Karl Heinz Osterloh, Joseph von Sonnenfels und die oster-
reichische Rejormhewegung im Zeitalter des aufgejldrten Absolutismus (Hamburg,
1970). Robert A. Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History (2nd ed. New
York, 1973), pp. 146-258.
8 Francis, as Holy Roman emperor, the second of his name, (1792-1806) and as
Austrian emperor the first (1804-1835), will be consistently referred to from here
on as Francis I.
virtue. Throughout the half century of the government of enlightened

absolutism in Austria one might go further and admit that its political
i philosophy did not merely represent the common denominator of upper-
class claims. It was bound to widen concern with the social strata whose
interests had to be considered to some extent.
The rise of centralization during the reform era makes separate discus¬
sion of the lands of the Bohemian crown in the social administrative field
hardly practical. Even the discussion of those of the Hungarian crown as
1 separate entity is no longer justified in several major respects. It is char¬
acteristic for the era of the Austrian Enlightenment and the following
conservative period under Francis I that the significance of the concepts
of the separate historico-political entities of the Habsburg lands was in
decline and the new one of ethnic-national political units not yet dis¬
tinctly on the rise. Historiography has to accommodate itself to these
facts, however, only in domestic policies in the widest sense. In that of
cultural-intellectual achievements, specific national endeavors will be dis¬
cussed in Chapter VII.
The basic reason why the estates system was drastically restricted under
Maria Theresa’s reign, was the defense needs in expectation of and
throughout the long war periods. It became intolerable for the establish¬
ment, that the conduct of wars which threatened the existence of the
monarchy would be dependent on the drafting of limited quotas of re¬
cruits at the mercy of the good will of the individual estates in various
crownlands. The narrow self-interest of the noble estates controlled also
the pursestrings in regard to military equipment and supplies. In most of
the hereditary and in the Bohemian lands the empress, strongly supported
by Haugwitz, succeeded after 1748 without difficulty to obtain estates ap¬
proval for the raising of recruit quotas for a ten-year period (decennial
recess). Within this period the ceiling of manpower needed and the ap¬
propriations necessary for their equipment were to be determined by the
central government and not by the estates.9
Equally important as the political-military aspects of the innovations
were the financial ones. The government was forced to tax the noble
estates without exemptions and to charge those of the Church correspond¬
ingly. While burghers in towns and peasants still paid a relatively higher
9 In some crownlands such as Styria, Carniola, Gorizia, the estates refused, how¬
ever, to grant these rights to the administration for a longer period than for
three years at a time. Yet the government obtained without much difficulty renewals
of these so-called recesses from the estates in the individual lands. Only in one,
Carinthia, was it necessary to introduce the new order by decree without estates
endorsement.
ij6 History of the Habshurg Empire
land or ground tax than the nobles, a complete unloading o£ these taxes
on the impoverished lower classes would naturally have yielded lesser re¬
sults. These levies did not meet the governmental needs in any case and
had to be supplemented by a kind of personal income tax, whose inci¬
dence was slightly more equitable than the old head taxes had been.
Excise taxes on consumer goods and inheritance taxes (in lieu of which
the Church had to pay an equivalent) likewise changed the social picture
slightly in favor of the peasants and urban burghers.
These radical innovations outside of Hungary broke the back of
estates power, and Maria Theresa saw no reason to alienate the first two
estates further by doing away with the frame of the estates structure as
well. In fact, in 1775 she established a new estates diet in Galicia, though
by this time the bow to tradition represented no more than an empty
shell of former power. In this respect, even Joseph II pushed the re¬
forms in the hereditary and Bohemian lands further in form rather than
in content. Whereas previously the highest officials were frequently mem¬
bers of the noble estates as well as of the evolving civil-service system,
they represented now only the latter. The estates rights concerning ap¬
proval of taxation were now eliminated by law, while they previously had
been suspended by recesses. Under Leopold II the status of the diets, as
it had existed under the empress’ reign in the 1760’s, was restored after
cumbersome negotiations.
The centralization of the administration proceeded by trial and error.
In the early stages of the reform the financial administration was
separated from the general one, but after 1748 merged with it more
solidly than before. On the other hand, the judicial administration was
only in the supreme instance, not on the intermediate level, set clearly
apart from the general administration. Definite progress can be seen in
the division of the Court Chancery in 1742 in a Court and State Chancery
concerned primarily with the conduct of foreign afTairs and an Austrian
Court Chancery entrusted with the domestic administration on the high¬
est level. Only the council of state consisting of three aristocrats, three
members of the lower nobility, and three professional expects (under
Joseph four), stood above all these agencies inasmuch as the State Council
represented all Habsburg lands including Hungary. On the other hand,
the council served only as advisory body, although an influential one.
Otherwise only the Commerce Directory, newly established in 1753,
acted as agency for all Habsburg lands. Originally it was associated with
the directory in publicis et cameralibus, in which the administration of
the Austrian hereditary and Bohemian lands and also most of the finan-
!fc An Empire Reasserts Itself iyy
i cial agenda o£ the Court Chamber established by Ferdinand I were
:r merged. They were separated again from the political administration
with the establishment of the Bohemian-Austrian Court Chancery, an
it administrative body which served for almost a century until 1848. Under
Joseph II, the supreme—and excessive—centralizer, a new merger of po¬
litical and financial administration took place. Yet it hardly outlasted his
reign. Under the following regimes the previous separation was restored.
The general administration in the crownlands was improved also. The
{ so-called Representations and Chambers, after 1762 referred to as
l gubernia, were in control of political, financial, and military agenda un-
) der the direction of the Court Chancery in Vienna. Commercial affairs
/ were directly subordinated to the Commerce Directory in the capital. The
5 administration of justice on this intermediate crownland level was still
perceived as branch, though a distinct one, of the over-all political ad¬
ministration. Again, top officials of the estates were at the same time
officials of the administration. By way of this double capacity the gulf
between central administration and estates government was smoothed
over, though not basically changed. Under Joseph several gubernia were
merged but this amalgamation, which ran counter to tradition, was
rescinded after his death.
Chief motivation for all these reforms was greater efficiency of gov¬
ernment. The humanitarian factor, so important in the evaluation of en¬
lightened government, was secondary. But in the administrative reforms
on the town and village level, the strengthening and protection of the
rights of the underprivileged became a direct issue. Limitations of previ¬
ous town economy meant here in the first place curtailment of the powers
of the noble estates, the narrow self-interests of the guilds, and in the
villages curbing of the arbitrary and ruthless patrimonial jurisdiction of
the lords. The gubernia were to supervise town administration. Elected
syndici and town clerks in chartered princely towns now required gov¬
ernmental approval, dependent on qualifications. The powers of the
guilds to control economic expansion were curbed and the anachronistic
prerogatives of the towns to take care of their own defense needs were
abolished. Urban judicial autonomy was restricted. All these urban
agenda came now under the control of the district offices (Kreisamter)
which in turn were subordinated to the gubernia. These important and
salutary innovations were strengthened and expanded under Joseph II,
when practically the whole administration on the level of local govern¬
ment came under the control of the district offices. The emperor supple¬
mented the reforms in an important way by ordering that the elected
ij8 History of the Habshurg Empire
mayors, vice mayors, and town counsellors needed government approval
in regard to their qualification and that magistrates and syndici had to
come from the civil service rank.
Conspicuously absent under existing conditions was the democratic
element in this new order. Elective office at that time meant election on
the basis of a cast system. Only the municipality legislation introduced by
Count Franz Stadion in 1849, but not permanently enforced until 1862,
added at least in part the missing and decisive democratic element.10
b) Judicial sphere
Less conspicuous were the efforts and consequently the success of the
Maria Theresan regime in the judicial sphere. On the highest level of the
Oberste fustizstelle in Vienna; the bench was divided into several regional
panels, whose composition took cognizance of regional selection of
judges. Otherwise the chief merit of the modest reforms was the drastic
restriction of the patrimonial courts of the liege lords. Also hundreds of
town courts, which exercized the Blutbann (the right to judge capital
cases, in which a death sentence could be passed), lost this sinister privi-
ledge. The reform intended to staff fewer courts with better qualified
judges, who could curb the arbitrariness and harshness excercised pre¬
viously by many courts of the first instance. The over-all objective of
improvement of justice was only partly reached under Maria Theresa.
But the specific aim of checking the judicial power of the liege lords
within the over-all revision of lord-peasant relations, came close to reali¬
zation under Joseph’s reign.
Even though the emperor as champion of streamlined reforms was not
sold o;i the idea of separation of administration and justice, he reluctantly
yielded to the advice of prominent lawyers on this point. In general,
progress under his regime in this area was superior to that of Maria
Theresa. This characterization of progress pertained equally to the ap¬
pointment of qualified judges, to the regular system of appeal in civil
litigation from magistrate courts to the Landrecht (appellate level), and
to the oberste Justizstelle as supreme court in Vienna. The number of
10Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias, Vols. IV, VII, IX, X; Eugen Guglia,
Maria Theresia: Ihr Leben und ihre Regierung, 2 vols. (Munich, 1917), see I, pt.
II, 313-340, II, pt. Ill, 1-59; Paul von Mitrofanov, Joseph 11, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1910),
I, 235-346; Adam Wandruszka, Leopold 11, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1963-1965), II, 312-
342; Huber and Dopsch, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte, pp. 246-259, 267-272,
386-388; Hellbling, Osterreichische Verjassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte, pp.
287-294, 302-308, 318-323; Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History, pp. 136-
r45'
\ An Empire Reasserts Itself lyg
:> courts in criminal jurisdiction was further reduced to one in each ad-
rt ministrative district and one court of appeal in each crownland. This last
wholesome part of the reform was partly undone after the emperor’s
death.
The chief difference between government in the judicial sphere under
Maria Theresa and her sons pertains primarily not to judicial adminis¬
tration but to legislative codification. Maria Theresa did not take much
interest in legal matters in general, which she considered beyond her full
understanding. As for criminal law where the spirit of the Enlighten¬
ment in many countries came clearly into the open, she was opposed to
changes not based on pragmatic expediency but on ideology. Conse¬
quently the legislative record of the Maria Theresan era in this sphere
was deficient. Legislative commissions for the reform of civil law, crimi¬
nal law, and procedure were set up in the middle period of the empress’
reign. Yet the first, over-lengthy, but piecemeal drafts of a code of civil
law were rejected by the ruler and the completion of new ones not
strongly encouraged. Only in commercial law and the registry of transfer
of lands was some progress made. Orders of criminal procedure in the
Bohemian lands were amalgamated but the legislative main work of the
empress’ reign, the Constitutio Criminalis Maria Theresiana of 1769,
despite the efforts of competent advisers, still closely resembled the spirit
of the Carolina of Emperor Charles V in the sixteenth century.11 In its
time the Carolina was a progressive code; a new one based on similar
principles after two centuries appeared anachronistic from the start. True,
the system of government prosecution in matters of public interest was
enlarged, but the inquisitory principle, in which prosecutor, counsel for
the defense, and judge were all merged into one, was still basically pre¬
served. All the barbarities of various kinds of capital and other physical
punishment, based on torture as means of obtaining confessions, were
preserved, contrary to the pleas of the reformers. Maria Theresa’s ob¬
jections to the abolition of torture were supported by the archbishop of
Vienna, Cardinal Count Christoph Anton Migazzi. Finally, Court Chan¬
cellor Count Johann Chotek and Vice Chancellor Count Leopold
Kolowrat-Krakowsky yielded to the chief advocate of the movement for
elimination of torture and limitation of capital punishment, Joseph von
Sonnenfels, who had the backing of the coregent Emperor Joseph and the
qualified one of the supreme chancellor Count Heinrich Cajetan
Bliimegen. They did not win out against a reluctantly yielding empress
11 Both codifications were meant to pertain to procedure, yet they both com¬
prised a great deal of substantive law.
until 1776. The fact that Maria Theresa only slowly followed humani¬
tarian reforms introduced already in Denmark and several German states
including Prussia, was not due to any innate cruelty of her character but
to her inability to comprehend the new thought that proof would be
more convincing if based on a combination of testimony by witnesses and
circumstantial evidence than primarily on extorted confessions.
This modern notion was, of course, fully within the intellectual grasp
of Joseph who introduced a new order of criminal procedure in 1788, in
line with the reforms wrested from the empress in 1776. Yet if Joseph
was a humanitarian, he was one of a strictly utilitarian nature and his
Code of Substantive Criminal Law of 1787, which did away with capital
punishment substituted for it life sentences of hard labor of the most cruel
kind like pulling ships or treading mills to give the government the
benefit of a wretched criminal’s toil. On the other hand, the egalitarian
character of the new code with emphasis on humiliating punishment for
crimes committed by nobles did much to break the class character of
Austrian justice. An order of civil procedure, initiated under Maria
Theresa, which left more initiative to the litigants than before, was in¬
troduced between 1782 and 1784; an order on procedure in cases of bank¬
ruptcy followed.
Joseph did not live long enough to see the enactment of the drafts of
the planned Austrian code of civil law. This comprehensive codification,
considered to this day the crowning masterpiece of Austrian judicial
legislation, was not promulgated until 1811. Yet a marriage law, which
reverted jurisdiction from ecclesiastic to civil courts and a new inheritance
law were introduced in Joseph’s time. So was in 1786 at least the first
part of the Austrian civil code dealing with the personal status of the
individual. None of these legislative works pertained to Hungary. Joseph’s
legislative reform for the hereditary and Bohemian lands and Galicia repre¬
sented, despite some shortcomings, a proud and enduring achievement.12
c) REFORM IN THE NEW PROVINCES
Another undeniable achievement of Maria Theresa’s and Joseph’s reigns

pertained to Galicia and Bukovina, whose administrations were merged
Fucr
with the Austrian-Bohemian court chancery in 1787 after a short-lived

Galician court chancery had been dissolved. Not until 1849 was a separate
32 Henry E. Strakosch, State Absolutism and the Rule of Law: The struggle for
Codification of Civil Law in Austria iyy^-1811 (Sydney, 1967), pp. 1-163;
Osterloh, Joseph von Sonnenfels, pp. 165-199; Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellec¬
tual History, pp. 181-189.
\ An Empire Reasserts Itself 181
:) crownland administration permanently established in the Bukovina.
Both, Maria Theresa and Joseph, but particularly the latter, tried to raise
the Galician economy to the modest level of the neighboring Habsburg
lands. Protection against the excesses of robot (personal labor for the
lords) was granted to all peasants; immigrants were exempted. Immigra¬
tion of peasants, particularly from south Germany was encouraged. They
were granted tax exemption for a number of years and freedom from
military service for their sons, received building material, and were
allowed premiums for agricultural improvements. The settlement of
craftsmen from other lands was also encouraged, and the internal cus¬
toms duties for imports of (usually inferior) agricultural products from
Galicia to the neighboring Bohemian lands abolished. Similar measures
were provided for the peasantry in Bukovina, though here, unlike
in Galicia, the great latifundia owners were not Polish nobles. The
Uniate Church with her orthodox liturgy but Roman Catholic affiliation
held most of the land. The Habsburg policy in Galicia and Bukovina to
support the Uniate Church and her educational institutions and to a
lesser degree the Greek Orthodox Church for the benefit of the
Ruthenian Ukrainian population in the new eastern territories cannot be
classified simply as divide et impera policy between Poles and Ruthen-
ians. But undoubtedly the Austrian administration was aware that the
Poles in the period between first and second partition presented a serious
national and political problem, an issue that could not be found as yet
in the relations to the Ruthenians.13
D. ECONOMIC POLICIES
The regime under the direction of the empire-wide Commerce Direc¬

tory, established as early as 1741, pursued a mercantilist commercial and
industrial policy, revised and somewhat refined by the doctrines of popu-
lationism. According to these theories, the wealth of the state rested
primarily in its skilled labor force. It would be instrumental in achieving
the old mercantilist aim of a big export surplus balance of trade, though
in a more sophisticated sense than had previously been the case. Skilled
labor was now considered a value in itself like previously bullion. Under
Maria Theresa these objectives were pursued, partly by a system of high
protective tariffs, partly by the prohibition of the import of luxury goods
and an embargo on the export of various raw materials. A number of
internal custom lines were abolished, but those between Hungary and
13 Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias, X, 76-101; Mitrofanov, Joseph II, I, 252-

268.
the hereditary lands, the Bohemian and the hereditary lands, and the
Bohemian lands and Galicia 14 remained in force. The plans of the state
council to put a completely unified empire-wide customs system into
operation were never enacted. But after 1774 the crude embargo policies
in regard to foreign manufactured goods were modified. They had killed
domestic initiative and could do little to support an as yet still insig¬
nificant manufacturing output.
A sliding and more sophisticated system of customs replaced the pre¬
vious regulations. Private and public tolls and internal customs lines,
except those between Hungary and the hereditary lands, were now
gradually abolished. Improvements of roads and of navigation on major
water ways and expansion of the port of Trieste helped to further do¬
mestic trade. Under Joseph’s harsh regime the government fell back on
the straight prohibition of imports of many manufactured goods, not
only luxury goods. Export premiums were now given to domestic manu¬
facturers. Maria Theresa as well as Joseph believed in the validity of
populationist theories, advocated in Austria above all by Sonnenfels.15
Yet here the progress from theory to practice in a domestic economy
with limited industrial output, a restricted interior market and a power¬
ful tradition of crafts guilds, was limited. True, Maria Theresa modified
the compulsory character of the guild system with its numerus clausus
on apprentices and journeymen and Joseph lifted it in regard to some
crafts such as textile weaving and metal works. Printing became now a
free trade. Yet “free” under the Josephin system meant basically only
the lifting of the numerus clausus, not of labor regulations (Hand-
wer\sarti\eT), which in their way were as restrictive as the compulsory
regulations of the old guild system. In one respect, however, Joseph’s atti¬
tude proved to be amazingly liberal in the classical economic sense of
the term. Although a champion of state control in all branches of ad¬
ministration, he believed in private industrial enterprise as superior to
government-operated plants. In practice, however, governmental controls
were strong.
The results of all these changes were notable but not sweeping. The
14 With the exception of the import of agricultural goods from Galicia to the
Bohemian and Moravian lands noted in Section C: c.
15 See particularly his Grundsatze der Polizei- Handlungs- und Finanzwissenschaft
(Vienna, 1765). See further, “XXXX Satze uber die Bevolkerung” (first published
Vienna, 1764), “Von dem Zusammenflusse” and “Von der Theuerung in grossen
Stadten.” These three essays are published in Joseph von Sonnenfels, Gesammelte
W er\e (Vienna, 1787), Vol. X. Osterloh, Joseph von Sonnenfels, pp. 29-123; see
also Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History, pp. 174-181.
I An Empire Reasserts Itself 183
> loss of Silesia included that of a blooming textile industry. It was to
some extent compensated by the expansion of textile industry in Bo-
i hernia, Lower and Upper Austria. A new and prospering branch of
the manufacture of fabrics was introduced into the western-most Alpine
crownland, Vorarlberg. Glass industry continued to prosper in Bohemia,
iron mining in Styria, lead mining in Carinthia, and mercury mining in
Carniola. Laces, leather articles, and jewelry were produced in Vienna; in
quality they rated high, in output they affected the national economy
relatively little.
In the east industrial production was even more limited. Hungary had
not recovered from the economic consequences of the long Turkish occu¬
pation. Here industrial output, apart from the mining industry in the
north, was without practical significance in volume, though in regard
to some textile and metal work respectable in quality. Basically Hungary
was not a full-fledged economic partner of the hereditary and Bohemian
lands but a source of raw materials imported at low cost. This achieve¬
ment was brought about by the use of labor, cheaper even than that toiling
in the west.16
E. JoSEPHINISM
The three fields of reforms discussed in this and the following sections—
ecclesiastic issues, serf-peasant relations, and education—are ideologically
more significant for the evaluation of the reform era than the administra¬
tive, judicial, or economic reforms. This statement pertains as much to
the Maria Theresan as to the Josephin reforms because in all these fields
important changes were initiated under the empress often supported,
but more often prompted and rushed by the coregent. For this reason they
are generally perceived as the core of the political program of Joseph II
and, beyond that, as the political concept of Josephinism, which has
played a major part in the history of the Habsburg empire ever since. At
the outset of this survey of reforms in three fields, the concept is therefore
briefly discussed, with emphasis on the problem rather than its initiator.
Josephinism in its beginnings represented the genuine reform spirit, in
regard to content as sweeping as possible and brought about at the greatest
16 Gustav Otruba, Die Wirtschaftspoliti\ Maria Theresias (Vienna, 1963);

Tremel, Wirtschajts- und Sozialgeschichte, pp. 230-318; Herbert Hassinger, Der
Aufienhandel der Habsburgermonarchie in der zweiten Haljte des 18. Jahrhunderts
and by the same author Der Stand der Manujahturen in den dentschen Erblandern
der Habsburgermonarchie am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 61-98, 110-176, both
in Friedrich Liitge, §d., Die wirtschajtliche Situation in Deutschland und Osterreich
um die Wende vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1964).
political speed regardless of opposition, in particular from conservative-
traditional quarters. Both these aspects, scope and impetuosity, rooted in
the tragic zeal of a man conscious of the precious little time at his disposal,
got lost in the later evolution of the Josephin ideology. Josephinism froze
into a political philosophy of rigid principles, lacking dynamic change
and momentum. At the center of the original philosophy was the system
of the enlightened police state: everything for the people nothing by the
people. This principle, however, requires elaboration and qualification.
First, it is to be understood in utilitarian-social terms. Second, it put a
burden of enforceable cooperation on the people. The system required
hard work, dedication, and the development of all skills which the in¬
dividual potentially could acquire. This does not mean that this individual
should forego initiative in the social-economic sphere. The emperor was
opposed to a state industrial establishment and, though more in principle
than in practice, favored private economy. This feature of Josephinism
has survived though it is not generally associated with the emperor’s ideas.
The eagerness of Josephinism to study, experiment with, and apply
new ideas must not lead to the fallacious conclusion, that the political
frame of such readiness was flexible. It was rigid and uncompromising.
The notion that Joseph, had he lived to observe the French Revolution in
full swing, might have endorsed democratic ideas, would be naive. The
core of the Josephin philosophy is the notion that only one man can
rule and govern and that all those entrusted with the manifold tasks of
government should receive their authority from him. This conviction
was based probably more on personal experience with the narrow estates
interests, the conservatism of his mother, and the court party than on
abstract principles. Just the same, this concept of integral absolutism is
also at the core of Joseph’s fight for supremacy of the state against
Church power. It had nothing to do with anticlericalism in the estab¬
lished sense. Recent research by Ferdinand Maass revealed that Joseph
seriously entertained the idea of establishing an Austrian state church,17
but this plan did not mean to the emperor a playing down of religion
but rather the contrary: that its profound ideological importance required
close association with and supervision by the state. Centralism was a
means to that effect in this as in all other fields.
Posterity has preserved the concept of Josephinism in this respect in a
somewhat modified form but has changed it in regard to Church-state
relations. With the introduction of representative government in the
17 See Ferdinand Maass, “Das Werk des Hofrat Heinke, 1768-1790,” Vol. Ill of
the author’s Der Josephinismus (Vienna, 1956), pp. 3-I37 passim.
Habsburg empire, which in its first phase was brought about primarily
by liberal endeavors, it came inevitably to a confrontation between a
Church opposed to liberalism, and liberal forces hostile to the ideological
impact of the Church. Since Josephinism had also been opposed to
Church power, a strange quid hoc propter hoc occurred. As F. Valjavec
points out, “Vulgar Josephinismus” identified Josephinism with liberalism
and anti-clericalism.18 Liberalism needed an ally, popular in the Austrian
tradition. The emperor, controversial in his lifetime but extolled as the
champion of the people in the era of an absolutism without social and
intellectual interests after his death, served this purpose. This historical
error occurred probably in good faith, but it was an error of monumental
proportions nevertheless and it has distorted the picture of Josephinism
ever since.
More complex than the identification of Josephinism with liberal anti¬
clericalism was its association with liberalism in another field: nationalism.
Between the 1840’$ and 1870’s, the liberalism which exercised great—
though for some time merely underground—influence in Austria was
primarily German-directed. The German liberals perceived Joseph as a
liberal of German national tendencies. This may be characterized as over¬
simplification but not necessarily as distortion. The Maria Theresan ad¬
ministration used German as the internal language of government outside
of Hungary, where it remained Latin. No nationalist significance can be
attached to this practice, which was only meant to be an adaptation of
various customs. Italian and French had been widely used in the top
circles of government of previous reigns well beyond the conduct of
diplomatic affairs. In Maria Theresa’s government, no purpose beyond
that of expediency existed in the handling of the language question. This
applied equally to the hereditary, the Bohemian lands, and Galicia and
Bukovina.
When Joseph issued the notorious language decree of 1784, according
to which officials in the lands of the Hungarian crown had to officiate in
German instead of Latin he was in part motivated by expediency. The
emperor was deeply convinced that the German language of administra¬
tion and instruction served the best interests of all of his subjects irrespec-
18 Fritz Valjavec, Der Josephinismus: Zur geistigen Entwichjung Osterreichs im

achtzehnten und neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Vienna, 1945? 2nd revised ed.), pp.
141-144. See also Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History, pp. 136-145, 249-
250. Eduard Winter, Der Josephinismus und seine Geschichte (Briinn, 1943), a
left wing interpretation; and Ferdinand Maass, Der Friihjosephinismus (Vienna,
1969), a conservative one. See further, Paul Bernard, Jesuits and Jacobins: En¬
lightenment and Enlightened Despotism in Austria (Urbana, 1971).
i86 History of the Hahshurg Empire
tive o£ their nationality. Yet he held to that view not only because the
knowledge of German among the educated classes was more widespread
than any other save possibly Latin,19 he believed also that German culture
was superior to any other. As much as Joseph strove to learn about it and
to further this culture in history, the social and the applied sciences, in
education, and on the stage, as little did he know about the incipient
Slavic renaissance and the Magyar literature of the Enlightenment. Joseph,
in this sense, was at least a moderate nationalist and the ancestor not
only of the German-directed centralistic administration of the era of
Francis Joseph (1848-1916), but also of German claims for cultural
predominance.
The primary factor in the evaluation of Josephinism is the state concept
itself. The tradition of the Austrian bureaucratic state was Josephin in
its demand for complete loyalty to an empire rooted in a German founda¬
tion. Josephin was also the tradition of tolerance toward minorities of
religious or national affiliations. And yet the emperor’s original intention
was misunderstood here. When he issued the famous Edict of Tolerance
(Toleranzpatent) of 1781 which abolished most of the discrimination
against Protestants and the lesser ones against the Greek Orthodox, he
had a different objective. To him the measures taken against discrimina¬
tion meant the first step toward complete equality. For that reason he
wanted minorities to be protected, whether he respected them as he did
the Protestants or disdained them as he did the Jews. Nevertheless, he
wanted to raise their standards after his fashion by legislation similar to
the Tolerance Edict. To him, equality under the law to be decreed and
enforced by an absolute government was not a matter of sentiment but of
utilitarian rationalism. To the extent that this rationalism ran in many
respects counter to the feelings of the majority of his subjects, the absolute
character of government had to be strengthened. This applies equally to
the egalitarian trend in his emancipation legislation for the peasants,
where he had to face not the opposition of the majority of the people
but the sentiments of the powerful upper-class structure of society. This
19 No reliable statistics are available on this point. Yet it can be assumed that
knowledge of German, as the language of communication among the better edu¬
cated classes in the hereditary and Bohemian lands and in part of Galicia was
wider than Latin. The knowledge of Latin, the language of the Church, of
science, and in part of law, exceeded undoubtedly that of French, the language of
diplomacy. Otherwise French was rather the language of high society than that
of the broader group of well-educated people in the non-German Habsburg lands.
These two strata overlapped only to some extent. Requirements to use German
were to some degree prescribed also in Italian possessions of the Habsburgs.
An Empire Reasserts Itself i8j
striving for equality as a broad bnse of a rigid absolutism constitutes the
basic difference between Joseph’s and Maria Theresa’s philosophy of
government. The latter in the field of social relations was concerned only
with gradualism, that is, a strengthening of the relative position of the
lower classes. This ideology was opposed to the egalitarian character of
Josephinism. It stood for equal and equally limited rights, both to be
subordinated to supreme power. Egalitarianism and absolutism may have
been a strange mixture even in the eighteenth century; in the nineteenth
century, in the era of constitutional government, it appeared paradox. Just
the same, it is the decisive factor, which differentiates the idea of Jo¬
sephinism from that of mere adherence to the German-directed, cen¬
tralized bureaucratic state.
F. Church-state relations
If we now return to the problems of Church-state relations throughout the

reform era from 1740 to 1792 we have to remind ourselves that the issue
in relation to the Catholic Church was primarily one of state control,
secondly of centralism. Concerning the other denominations we are con¬
fronted by a different aspect of Josephinism, not yet found in Maria
Theresan government: equality of men under absolute enlightened
government.
If one keeps these guiding principles in mind it is easy to see that the
main reforms concerning strictly ecclesiastic matters of the Catholic
Church were initiated under the devout empress Maria Theresa. This
means of course, that an antireligious motivation can be ruled out during
her reign. The Josephin reforms were focused primarily on the status of
nonCatholics, and on the monastic institutions. The first issue was only
indirectly related to the position of the Catholic Church; as for monastic
problems, new policies had already been initiated under the empress.
Only in the relatively minor but sensitive area of liturgy did the emperor
open up a new approach for a brief period.
The ecclesiastic policies of Maria Theresa like those of other devout
Habsburgs, such as Ferdinand II, Leopold I, and her father, Charles VI,
were based on the primacy of government control in Church-state rela¬
tions, though not of Church organization. Added to this, under the em¬
press, were economic considerations of the mercantilist era, further
strengthened by populationist ideas. This meant prohibition of the export
of bullion to Rome and prevention of such exports by state control of
financial transactions of the Church. Measures of this kind had been
decreed and at times enforced in the century-old struggle between
medieval papacy and Christian rulers; new was now the government’s
concern, based on the neomercantilist populationist doctrines, not to divert
skills from the production process by which the state was to profit. This
meant specifically manpower that might be absorbed by religious orders
and monastic establishments.
As for state control of the Church, the empress prohibited visitations of
regular dioceses by apostolic delegates. Specifically also the inspection of
monasteries by foreign generals of orders or their representatives was
in disfavor. Under Joseph, bonds to the main establishment of orders
abroad were severed. The approval of the sovereign for promulgation of
papal encyclicals or diocesan exhortatory pronouncements pertaining to
other than religious matters was/equired. Regulations demanding approval
of the investiture of bishops and of the grant of prebends to canons in
diocesan chapters by the sovereign were enforced. Clerical jurisdiction
over priests in nonecclesiastic matters and of laymen altogether, was
abolished. Civic consequences of excommunimations were no longer con¬
sidered to be automatic but required now governmental approval. Much
of this legislation had historic precedents, new was the vigorous enforce¬
ment. Reform consisted thus largely in methods, not in principles.
On the other hand, the dissolution of the Jesuit order, which followed
that in Catholic countries such as France, Spain, Portugal, and Naples
and above all the decree of dissolution by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, can
hardly be considered part of the reform legislation. Here the empress ig¬
nored Kaunitz’s warnings concerning the unwholesome political influence
of the Jesuits as long as she could, that is until Pope Clement’s decision
had left her no choice. Part of the property of the order was now to serve
the needs of secular education, part of it had to be spent for the wants of
the former members of the order and the clergy in general. Many func¬
tions of the Jesuits in higher education were now taken over by Piarists,
Benedictines, and other orders.
The empress yielded somewhat in lifting of censorship for enlightened
literature on ecclesiastic matters. But she continued to reject the so-called
Febronian doctrines (promoted by the auxiliary bishop of Treves, Nikolaus
Hontheim),20 which advocated a Catholic State Church independent
from Rome. In doctrinal matters and those of Church organization,
Maria Theresa followed the advise of the conservative archbishop of
Vienna, Cardinal Count Migazzi, but she overruled him often when
20 He wrote under the pseudonym Justinus Febronius: hence Febronianism. On

Febronianism in Austria see Ernst Tomek, Kirchengeschichte Osterreichs (Inns¬
bruck, 1959). Ill, 356-362.
An Empire Reasserts Itself jSq
economic interests of the state were affected.21 In this respect the weaken¬
ing of Church power resulted from the tax reforms after 1748, which
abolished the tax exemptions of the Church like those of nobility. Un¬
doubtedly fiscal needs, unrelated to anticlerical intents, were decisive.
Consequently the government in the early i75o’s assumed the control,
though not the administration of the property of the Church, above all
of her vast land holdings. Under the influence of Joseph as coregent two
decades later, the acquisition of land by the Church was made altogether
dependent on governmental approval. Again in line with neomercantilist-
populadonist doctrines, the number of religious holidays, in which pro¬
duction ceased, was restricted. The taking of permanent monastic vows
before the age of twenty-four was forbidden. The joining of monastic
orders and convents was discouraged to prevent inroads into the labor
force.
The empress reluctantly approved of these policies. The area where she
was most stubborn and where her record was really dismal, was not
strictly religious or ecclesiastic matters but the treatment of Protestants
and Jews. In this respect Maria Theresa’s position was more backward
than that of her father and similar to that of her grandfather, the music-
loving Leopold I, who yielding to popular superstitions and pressures had
expelled the Jews from Vienna in 1670, an operation which did not keep
him from continued efforts to do business with Jewish bankers.
Maria Theresa, more than a century after the Counter Reformation
had run its course, did neither shrink from missionary activities among
Protestants in remote Alpine valleys, deportation of several hundreds of
them as late as the 1770’s, and denial of graduation to Protestants at the
University of Vienna until the last years of her reign. If she gave in,
unwillingly and piecemeal, in these respects it was only due to a limited
recognition that oppressive measures had proved to be totally ineffective.22
As for the Jews, the empress had inherited all existing prejudices and
acquired some additional ones. Main rationalization for actions against
the Jews was the charge of disloyal attitude at the time of the Bavarian-
French occupation of Prague during the War of the Austrian Succession,
a conduct that in essence did not differ from that of the nobility, burghers,
and peasants. The response of the Bohemian population to the foreign
occupation had proved that the counterreformatory suppression was not
21 See Colestin Wolfsgruber, Christoph Anton Cardinal Migazzi (Ravensburg,

1897, 2nd ed.), pp. 254-336.
22 Grete MecensefTy, Geschichte des Protestantismus in Osterreich (Graz-Cologne,
1956), PP- 190-207.
igo History of the Habsburg Empire
yet forgotten; that of the Jews showed the reaction to a particular harsh
kind of discrimination. Moving in the direction of least resistance, the
empress ordered the expulsion of the Jewish population of 20,000 from
Prague. Then, in an irate response to the protests of the magistracy of
Prague and of the Bohemian estates, she ordered the expulsion of the
Jews from all of Bohemia and of the major cities in Moravia. A camou¬
flaged sabotage of the empress’ orders on the part of the local authorities,
based less on humanitarian than on economic considerations, forced
Maria Theresa finally to backtrack on the expulsions except for those
carried out in Prague already. But heavy indemnities were imposed on
all Bohemian Jews. Their designation as “voluntary donations” added
insult to injury.23 It would be an oversimplification of the character
portrait of the empress to say -that this course of action betrayed cruelty
and backwardness in an otherwise humane ruler, yet it would be just as
erroneous to excuse such action by simple reference to the spirit of the
times. Maria Theresa’s treatment of religious minorities was not only
contrary to the spirit of incipient enlightened reformists, but here the em¬
press lacked the minimum of understanding, which some of her predeces¬
sors had shown even at the height of the Counter Reformation. This holds
true for the attitude of Ferdinand I, Maximilian II, and even Rudolf II
toward the Protestants, and of Ferdinand II and Ferdinand III toward the
Jews. Maria Theresa’s extreme bigotry was, indeed, a highly personal
feature, somewhat out of step with the mores of the times, a trait which
mars an otherwise attractive character in history. This conclusion must be
reached, although she discriminated little against the Greek Orthodox
Ruthenians in Galicia and Bukovina, and the Serbs in Hungary, who
enjoyed religious freedom and for a long time also a measure of church
autonomy granted by Leopold I.24
23 Numerous Bohemian nobles who had paid homage to the elector of Bavaria
were only censured by a brief banishment from the court in Prague and only a
few outright rebels were punished. On the other hand some villages were destroyed,
whose peasants had taken the proclamation of the new sovereign (Charles Albert
of Bavaria, as king of Bohemia Charles V, as emperor Charles VII) seriously, that
servitude would be abolished, if they would rise against their Habsburg queen. See
in particular Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias, II, 220-249, 5II-5I55 IV, 42-54,
510-511.
24 Between 1786 and 1849 the Bukovina was administered as part of Galicia and
not as separate crownland. Inasmuch as the Orthodox Ruthenians in Galicia and
Bukovina and the Orthodox Vlachs (Roumanians) in Transylvania, were in their
overwhelming majority unfree peasants, the question of religious discrimination for
political reasons became hardly practical. As for the Serbs in Hungary the political
motive to curb a Magyar insurrectionist spirit, played probably a major part.
An Empire Reasserts Itself jgi
Joseph’s continuation of that specific policy was in line with his general
attitude toward religious dissenters, identified for all times with the
Edict of Tolerance of 1781. It secured near-equality to the Protestants and
allowed even the conversion of individuals (though not of communities)
from Catholicism to Protestantism. Such permission did not pertain to
the Jews. However, by special legislation, not included in the Tolerance
Patent, they were allowed now to settle in communities previously out of
bounds for them. Numerous trades were opened to them and they were
even admitted to university studies. On the other hand, they were forced
to abandon various traditional customs and had to undergo a superficial
Germanization process. This strange mixture of despotism and humani-
tarianism was characteristic for the Josephin administration. It did not
discredit the emperor that he initiated these reforms, not because he
respected the Jews as he did the Protestants, but because he considered
their previous ways of life damaging to society.25
As for state control of the Church, Joseph’s administration followed,
accelerated, and strengthened the Maria Theresan reforms. In 1782, a gov¬
ernmental so-called spiritual court commission was charged with ecclesi¬
astic matters, save purely religious ones. Joseph’s attempt to simplify the
liturgy following the pattern of Protestant Puritan austerity might well
be interpreted as interference in matters of faith. These changes in a ven¬
erable ceremonial created more resentment than more far-reaching sub¬
stantive innovations. Ecclesiastic legislation was now restricted to mem¬
bers of the clergy. Jurisdiction in marriage questions was fully transferred
to the state. Likewise diocesan seminaries became now state institutions
and parish districts were equated with administrative ones.
Joseph’s reform considered generally as the most radical in Church
matters was the elimination of monasteries, whose members spent a merely
contemplative religious life. This meant the dissolution of some seven
hundred monasteries and convents in the Habsburg lands, roughly one-
third of all such institutions. The remaining ones were those engaged in
education, caring for the sick, agriculture, and various trades. The in¬
come of the sequestered monasteries and convents was administered by
the so-called Religious Fund (Religionsfond) and used to maintain and
enlarge the number of parishes. For two centuries this fund, enlarged by
other contributions, remained the keystone in the governmental system
25 See Charles H. O’Brien, Ideas of Religious Toleration at the Time of foseph

II: A Study of the Enlightenment among Catholics in Austria (Philadelphia, 1969),
passim. Paul von Mitrofanov, foseph IT. Seine politische und \ulturelle Tatigheit
(Vienna, 1910), Part II, 711-727; Bernard, fesuits and Jacobins, pp. 52-73.
jg2 History of the Habshurg Empire
of state-directed Church support. Again, Joseph’s monastic legislation

which helped also to put the remaining institutions on firmer economic
foundations was primarily based on populationist theories.26
Although the emperor contemplated the establishment of an indepen¬
dent Austrian State Church, such long-range considerations hardly mo¬
tivated his immediate actions. The independence of the Austrian Church
was assured without a formal break with Rome, which might have
had unpredictable consequences. Whatever Joseph’s motivations, they
strengthened the prestige of the Church in the coming European revolu¬
tionary period. They helped later to prevent complete popular identifica¬
tion of the Church with the coming era of reaction. In essence, the
Josephin Church reforms were bound to stay, and when Leopold II,
Joseph’s prudent successor, retr'acted the changes in the liturgy and the
governmental control of seminaries, he managed by these relatively small
concessions to save the bulk of the reforms for the stormy times to come.27
G. Education
As for educational reforms, Maria Theresa deserves more credit than

the more learned emperor. Both the empress and her son had reservations
concerning the value of higher education, though not for the same
reasons. Maria Theresa was opposed to the revolutionary influence of
enlightened ideas; Joseph, in an empire of relatively low social tech¬
nological standards, was like Peter the Great of Russia two generations
before him, opposed to educational developments which in pursuit of
uncontrolled free research would deviate from utilitarian vocational goals
for the training of administrators and professional men. Even in regard
to elementary schools for the children of soldiers in the military camps,
Joseph objected to institutions which might undermine military discipline.
He supported general education only to the extent that the material bene¬
fits for society were demonstrable.
In this respect the empress was less rigid as long as educational reforms
would not affect the traditional sense of values of her subjects. This danger
appeared remote in regard to elementary and intermediate education
for the masses, more likely in secondary education for the higher classes,
and quite risky in university education. Consequently Maria Theresa’s
educational reforms were effective on the lower level, of mixed signifi-
26Mitrofanov, Joseph II, Part II, 666-799 passim; Maass, Der Josephinismus, Vol.
II, “Entfaltung und Krise des Josephinismus 1770-1790,” pp. 63-126; Tomek,
Kirchengcschichte Osterreichs, II, 388-410.
27 Mitrofanov, Joseph II, Part II, 799-801; Maass, Der Josephinismus, Vol. IV,
“Der Spatjosephinismus, 1790-1820,” pp. 3-26; O’Brien, Ideas of Religious Tolera¬
tion, pp. 38-50.
A n Empire Reasserts Itself igj
cance on the intermediate one, and rather insignificant on the university

plane.
Chief credit for the reforms of elementary and general intermediate
schools deserves the prelate from Prussian Silesia, Johann Andreas Felbiger,
who was called into Austrian governmental service in 1774. In a few
years he accomplished much against considerable odds. Felbiger’s reforms
pertained to the hereditary and feohemian lands, generally for schools
with German language of instruction. They introduced three types of
institutions, the one-year “trivial” (elementary) schools, at the parish seats
in the country, which practically meant in all small towns, markets, and
larger villages. Instruction was provided in the “trivium,” reading, writ¬
ing, and arithmetic. Attendance in general, was compulsory. Unlike in
Prussia, the teaching staffs were not retired noncommissioned officers, but
teachers trained in state institutions. A main school (Hauptschule) was
established in every district at the seat of the district office. Here history,
geometry, drawing, some more advanced instruction in German, and
some vocational training was added. In the capitals of the individual
crownlands “Normal Schools,” which served as terminal schools for the
urban middle-class children and also teachers’ training institutions for
elementary education were added. In no sense, however, could they be
called institutions of higher learning. Education even to this limited
extent was not free. It was financed only in part by the income of the
sequestered Jesuit estates, liege lords, parish districts, and communities.
But a small tuition was charged, and textbooks had to be paid for by the
parents. These costs did not add to the popularity of the new school
system, whose relative merits were not generally recognized.
As for higher education, the dissolution of the Jesuit order would have
offered the government the opportunity to take over monastic institutions
of higher learning and to introduce a modernized secular curriculum.
These were, indeed, the plans of Maria Theresa’s able minister of state in
charge of educational reforms, Count Anton Pergen. Yet such ideas ran
counter to the empress’s philosophy. The monastic gymnasiums were
merely transferred from Jesuit control to that of other, though generally
more tolerant orders. The curriculum with its emphasis on the classical
languages and religious instruction was somewhat expanded in favor of
ancient and medieval history, geography, some mathematics, and German
literature, but hardly any science.28
In university education, definite progress was primarily made in the
28 See Eugen Guglia, Maria Theresia: Ihr Leben und ihre Regierung (Munich,
1917), II, 74-91; Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias, IX, 225-260; Brechka,
Gerhard van Swieten and his World, pp. 111-146.
faculty of medicine in Vienna under the influence of van Swieten. Some
distinguished appointments were made to the law school in Vienna, from
which the earlier discussed judicial reforms reaped considerable benefits.
Some scientists in astronomy, botany, and chemistry were appointed to
newly established chairs. Improvements by occasional appointments here
and there were still spotty and uncoordinated. Moreover, even limited
progress was stopped, if not reversed, in the coming Franciscan era of
• 9ft
reaction.
Exceptions to Maria Theresa’s policy of limiting the advancement of
higher education were some special schools of higher professional training.
The Maria Theresan Academy in Vienna, the famous Theresianum,
established in 1749 for the training of young nobles for higher administra¬
tive positions in government has been mentioned. Other institutions were
the Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt (1752) for the training of
officers, the Oriental Academy in Vienna (1754) for the cultivation of
political and commercial interrelations to the Near and Middle East, and
the Commercial Academy in Vienna in 1770. Their purpose was to in¬
crease the efficiency of government, not to broaden and deepen its edu¬
cational base. If anything the contrary was true: the ruling class should be
better equipped to govern and command. Wider participation of lower
social strata in the affairs of the state was not desired.
The same was by and large true for early Josephinism. Although Joseph
increased the number of elementary schools and converted some gym¬
nasiums into state schools, these benefits were offset by his dissolution of a
greater number of such schools, because he could see little value in the
old curricula and only a limited need for the training of future university
students. In fact he reduced the universities of Graz and Innsbruck in
status, because governmental needs could be met by those in Prague and
Vienna. Like the empress, he opposed the appointment of distinguished
scholars from Germany, not because their ideas were revolutionary as
the empress feared, but because their maintenance would have cost too
much. Strictly professional training within the country—studies abroad
were forbidden by the empress for political and by the emperor for
economic reasons—were conducted with prescribed text books and with
no encouragement for nonapplied research.30
Censorship under Joseph was substantially modified as far as it per¬
tained to cricitism of the government. The exaggerated campaign against
29 Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias, IX, 156-224.

30 Mitrofanov, Joseph II, Part II, 802-826; Bernard, Jesuits and Jacobins, pp. 168—
178.
k An Empire Reasserts Itself ig$
o indecency hotly pursued by Maria Theresan censorship in belles lettres
>: ceased as did the suppression o£ criticism of some religious institutions.
Gottfried van Swieten, the son of Maria Theresa’s enlightened adviser
( became the chief official instrumental in this respect. Now, however,
[ though no longer under the label of censorship but of various other
administrative licensing devices, the printing and therefore dissemination
of doctrines not essential to governmental objectives was made difficult,
if not impossible. Neither was there any progress in this respect during the
: brief reign of Leopold. While government control of educational institu¬
tions was somewhat loosened, censorship was tightened again and in¬
creasingly so under the following long reign of Francis I. Yet even before
that time—and this is indeed a dark spot in the Josephin philosophy—
utilitarianism had proved almost as stiff an impediment to intellectual
freedom as conservative traditionalism.31
H. The PEASANT QUESTION
Maria Theresa’s and Joseph’s agricultural reforms were complex. Maria

Theresa’s policies were introduced step by step at different times in dif¬
ferent territories. Depending on the greater or lesser opposition of the
lords they differend also in content. Equally important, clear-cut legal
concepts which would serve as precedent did not exist in this most im¬
portant field of legislation. No doubt, obfuscation on the part of the
noble estates was intended, yet the same was only in part true for the
government. The failure to grapple successfully with the problem by the
empress’ three predecessors was more due to incompetence of their legal
advisers than to ill intent. At the time of Maria Theresa’s accession it was
generally recognized that an empire with a predominantly rural popula¬
tion could not prosper, if social conditions of the peasants were miserable.
The path from recognition of this simple fact to reform, however, was
extremely difficult, because the main pillars of the throne, such as the
landed aristocracy and to a substantial part the Church, were vehemently
opposed to reforms at their expense.32
Basically, the peasants fall into two groups: tenants or dominicalists,
who had a contractual relationship with the lord, which did not exclude,
however, personal services; and rusticalists, a larger group, consisting of
the hereditary unfree peasants settled on the lords’ estates. Again broadly
31 Mitrofanov, Joseph II, Part II, 826-832; Oskar Sashegy, Zensur und Geistes-
jreiheit unter Joseph II (Budapest, 1958), pp. 15-52, 153-176; see further, Hermann
Gnau, Die Zensur unter Joseph II (Strassburg, 1910) and Kurt Strasser, Die Wiener
Presse in der josephinischen Zeit (Wien, 1962).
32 Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias, IX, 339-381.
ig6 History of the Hahsburg Empire
speaking, the distinction in the status of these two groups was that between
mere Unterthanig\eit and Leibeigenschaft. The distinction in English
terms, approximating that between lord-subject relationship and lord-serf
relationship is easy to comprehend in theory but before the Josephin
abolition of Leibeigenschaft in 1781 in the Bohemian-hereditary lands
and Galicia, and in 1786 in Hungary it was rather blurred in practice.33
Before this legislation the situation was highly complex. The lord, even in
his relationship to the “free” tenant represented the full authority of local
government as he did indeed in a restricted sense even under Joseph and
afterward until the revolution of 1848-1849. From this dependency followed
the subordination of the tenants to the lords in administrative and judicial
matters. In both respects this power was greatly restricted under the
empress and even more so under her older son. Personal services of the
tenant to the lord were an indirect consequence of the lord-tenant rela¬
tionship. This obligation derived mainly from the fact that the lord had
the whip hand because the manorial contract with the tenant could be
terminated at the lord’s pleasure. This particular oppressive device could
not be used against the serf, whose relationship to the lord was permanent
and hereditary. Here, however, other social and administrative pressures,
such as special service obligations and exorbitant dues for facilities pro¬
vided by the manorial estate, could be used at the discretion of the lords.
Although the tenant was thus more insecure than the serf, he was in other
respects in a better position, because, on the basis of a mere subject rela¬
tionship (in distinction to serfdom) he had the freedom of movement and
the freedom of marriage for himself and his children outside of the estate
without consent of the lord. Finally, he and his son had the right to learn
a craft without the lord’s consent. Yet although the so-called free tenant
had these rights in principle, he did not always have them in practice.
They did not include even in theory, as was noted before, general exemp¬
tion from personal services to the lord. Yet tenant rights implied at least
that personal services were limited.
By and large Maria Theresa was prepared to grant to all her peasant
subjects by approximation the status of the free tenant, endowed with
freedom of movement, freedom of marriage without the lord’s consent,
freedom of occupation, but definitely not freedom from personal service
for the lord as long as the peasant held manorial land. Were it otherwise,
the empress held, the difference between lord and subject would disappear
and anarchy would result. How much she was in earnest about this is
33 By this time serfdom had practically ceased to exist in the Austrian hereditary
lands.
An Empire Reasserts Itself igy
shown by her response to the actions of those peasants in Bohemia who in
return for a promise of abolition of serfdom in 1742 had paid homage to
Charles Albert of Bavaria. Their villages were destroyed and one of the
leaders of the movement was executed.34
Yet the empress wanted sincerely to restrict or modify serfdom, and,
where she could (as in the crown domains), to change to mere Unter-
thanigkeit. She persisted in the struggle for these objectives all through
her reign. Immediately after the end of the War of the Austrian Succes¬
sion and in line with the tax reforms, a clear determination of the extent
of peasant and manorial land was made for the first time. This in itself
helped to check further arbitrary seizures of land by the lords. Patrimonial
jurisdiction was restricted and gradually was brought under the control
of the new district offices. The arbitrary fees imposed by the lords, as
noted above, were not abolished but at least standardized. A so-called
governmental, urbarial commission (that is, one dealing with lord-peasant
relations) was set up to control excesses of the robot system. Between
1766 and 1775 restrictions had been enacted in Austrian Silesia, Moravia,
Styria, and Carniola. Opposition of the lords was strong, but nowhere as
obstructionist and vehement as in Bohemia, where the aristocracy, fore¬
most among them the descendants of the counterreformatory soldiers of
fortune endowed with the land of the old national nobility, exercised a
reign of gross and often bloody abuse. Peasant revolts were suppressed
and the leaders severely punished. It speaks for Maria Theresa that these
riots did not spur her to further suppression but to action against the
Bohemian lords. The Robot Patent of 1775 elaborated by further legisla¬
tion of 1777 and 1778 restricted robot to a period of between one and
three days weekly, usually the latter. Even this maximum of half of the
peasants’ working time, which allowed them hardly to till their own land,
represented a considerable improvement over the previous situation. Ac¬
tually the empress and the coregent found it difficult to enforce even the
three days outer limit.85
In 1766 Maria Theresa succeeded in Hungary by a decree to have
feudal dues determined. A regular system of appeal from patrimonial
jurisdiction to the comitats courts was introduced and freedom of move¬
ment for the unfree peasants established. The large-scale government-
34 See also note 23.

85 Guglia, Maria Theresia, TT, 347-337; William E. Wright, Serf, Seigneur and
Sovereign: Agrarian Reform in Eighteenth Century Bohemia (Minneapolis, 1966),
pp. 38-70; Edith M. Link, The Emancipation of the Austrian Peasant 1740-1748
(New York, 1949), passim.
ig8 History of the Hahsburg Empire
sponsored immigration of South Germans was helpful here; they were
mostly Suebian peasants, who moved into the southeastern areas of Hun¬
gary, which appeared largely deserted after the Turkish wars. The con¬
cessions granted to these immigrants in terms of free land, cattle, building
material, and tax exemption for ten years, made it necessary to alleviate
the lot of the whole Hungarian peasantry at least to some extent. Com¬
pensatory concessions to the nobility were by implication the incorporation
of the Banat of Temesvar (previously part of the Military Frontier) and
of Fiume (Rijeka) as a free city into the constitutional frame of Hun¬
gary.36
The first phase of Joseph’s agricultural policy represented a badly
needed continuation of the Maria Theresa’s reforms. The Unterthanen-
patent of September, 1781, and legislation in November of the same year,
had abolished serfdom formally in the Bohemian lands. Inasmuch as the
decree referred to conversion of the status of the peasants in the hereditary
lands and Galicia, this implied also the formal not merely the practical
elimination of serfdom there. Formal abolition of serfdom in Hungary
followed in 1785.37 The patent of 1781 introduced also a constructive
system of arbitration, first by the district office as administrative agency
and, if its efforts failed, by regular judicial litigation between lords and
peasants. In such proceeding, the peasants were represented by a govern¬
mental lawyer. Patrimonial jurisdiction in criminal affairs was now per¬
manently restricted to petty crime.
Other aspects of the Josephin legislation were more controversial. In
the first place, the land tax imposed on the peasants to the amount of
about 30 per cent of their meager earnings—if community taxes were
added even more—was still far too high. Secondly, the personal services
for the lord were not abolished, though the restrictions on them were
strictly enforced. Conversion of robot into monetary payments was en¬
couraged by the government. The last step in this direction was the tax
and urbarial regulation of 1789, according to which all personal services
were to be converted to monetary payments of 17 per cent of over-all
revenue to the lord, about 13 to the government, both together roughly
amounting to the compensation for two working days. This last reform
measure was rejected with almost equal fervor by lords and by peasants—
for whose benefit it was intended. The peasants’ violent resistance in
36 Bela K. Kiraly, Hungary in the late Eighteenth Century (New York, 1969),
pp. 13-65; Henry Marczali, Hungary in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1910),
pp. 204-211.
37 Wright, Serf, Seigneur and Sovereign, pp. 71-150; Mitrofanov, Joseph II,
Part II, 621-623; Marczali, Hungary in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 170-195.
An Empire Reasserts Itself igg
Hungary is easily understood, if one considers that a rural economy, largely

dependent on barter could not at the command of government be im¬
mediately converted into a money economy. The precipitate action drove
many peasants into bankruptcy and desperadon.38
No blame is to be attached to the emperor’s intentions but his policies,
based on an erroneous appraisal of the peasants’ economic potentialities,
lacked rational foresight. This criticism is not to be confounded with the
cliche that Joseph should have acted more slowly. He knew that after
his death there was not much chance that the reforms would be com¬
pleted, and perhaps not even continued. In fact even the well-meaning
and intelligent Leopold II was forced to restore the Maria Theresan tax
system of the peasants and the regulations of her robot patent of 1775.
Thus it is questionable whether Joheph should have acted at a more de¬
liberate speed, but he might have abolished the personal service obliga¬
tions altogether and replaced them by an installment plan of annual pay¬
ments partly carried by the peasants and partly by the government. Thus
the lords would have been indemnified for the use of the land, and the
economic freedom of the peasants could have been established without
ruinous obligations in cash payments at short order. It took the experience
of half a century and a major revolution before these principles were
enacted in 1848-1849. They were fully materialized only by additional
legislation in 1853 and 1862. As it was, a good part of the Josephin agri¬
cultural policy went to shambles with other efforts of his tragic and noble
reign. Yet success for the agricultural reforms even half a century later,
at the time of the revolution of 1848, would have been inconceivable
without his earlier endeavors.
I. Hungary and the end of the first reform era
Some facts about conditions in Hungary have to be added. In conjunc¬

tion with other points they should explain more clearly why the reform
period ended. The Hungarian estates system, confirmed solemnly by the
empress in the War of the Austrian Succession, survived her reign in
substance unchanged. All the more passionate was the national reaction—
not confined to the upper classes—to the Josephin reforms after 1780. So¬
cial change and administrative reforms were substantial but appeared
tolerable because they did not touch on the main interests of the estab¬
lishment and on the traditions of the whole country. An important
factor, relevant to all political and social innovation, were the conse-
38 Mitrofanov, Joseph II, Part II, 586-621; Wright, Serf, Seigneur and Sovereign,
pp. 112-164; Link, The Emancipation of the Austrian Peasant, pp. 139-151.
quences of the Turkish wars. Decline in the native Magyar population
in southern Hungary by more or less forced emigration during the
almost two-century dong period of the Turkish wars had been made up
to a good part by immigration of Southern Slavs into southern Hungary;
the same was true for Roumanian immigrations into Transylvania. The
new settlements were welcome to the Habsburg administration, which
considered the Magyar nobility as the primary source of political dissatis¬
faction in the Hungarian realms. Correspondingly Magyar immigration
from western Hungary into the newly liberated lands was not encouraged.
Instead, the government in Vienna, in particular after the establishment of
a colonization committee in Vienna in 1766, urged immigration of peas¬
ants from southwestern Germany to whom land, livestock, and tax
exemptions were offered. Besides, many estates, vacated during the Turk¬
ish wars by their former owners, were awarded to foreign, mostly Ger¬
man officers and nobles. The agricultural structure, therefore, in which
the lower nobility had previously played a dominant part, changed now
in favor of the big aristocratic landowners. More important for future
political developments in Hungary proper, Croatia, and Transylvania, the
numbers and weight of the non-Magyar population rose.
The change in the social structure is one reason why tax reforms like
those in the hereditary and Bohemian lands could not be carried out in
Hungary. The tax exemptions of the nobility, in which the big estates
owners played a more prominent part now, remained untouched. This
tax structure in turn hampered Hungarian industrial development. The
Hungarian budget was separated from that of the other Habsburg
lands, hence the government in Vienna had a good excuse to consider
Hungary chiefly as cheap source of raw materials and agricultural labor.
The Hungarian textile, silk, metal, and ore-mining industries, did not
receive support comparable to that in Austria and the Bohemian lands.
The Hungarian education situation, however, was not very different
from that in other Habsburg domains. Higher and intermediate educa¬
tion for the privileged classes (gymnasiums) was primarily under Jesuit
control. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order and under the influence
of the Hungarian Enlightenment, particularly strong in the east among
the Protestants, reforms were initiated in the last years of the empress’
reign. Elementary education was placed under government control.
This meant that schools and public health care were improved on the
village level. In intermediate schools instruction in French began to gain
against Latin. In state-Church relations the empress pursued the same
course in Hungary as in her other lands. She upheld the autonomy of
the Orthodox and Uniate churches in contrast to her anti-Protestant
policies. Yet the educational autonomy of the Serb settlements under the
direction of the Orthodox clergy (as distinguished from religious auton¬
omy) had to yield to state control.
In 1765-1767 Maria Theresa made an effort to improve the lot of the
Hungarian peasants by decrees specifying the duties of the peasants to
the lords. The freedom of movement and the choice of occupation for
the peasants’ children were introduced, provided the peasant had met his
obligations to the lord. Considering the established interests of the Hun¬
garian noble landowners, Maria Theresa could not hope for approval of
such measures by the Reichstag—if she had called it into session. She
refused to do so after 1764.39
She managed nevertheless to avoid a major collision with the ecclesi¬
astic dignitaries and secular nobles represented in the Reichstag. She dis¬
solved the administrative agency in Vienna, which controlled the Serb
territories in Hungary. Moreover, as noted before, in 1777-1778 the Banat
of Temesvar and the free city of Fiume (Rijeka) were incorporated into
Hungary. Also the court commission concerning agenda of Transylvania,
the Banat, and Illyria—the archaic and vague Roman terminology for
the territory between Adriatic and northwestern Greece—was abolished
in 1777. Its authority had been limited, but the elimination complied with
the wishes of Magyar nobles.
Such measures, pleasing to the Magyar establishment, enabled Maria
Theresa to put through others of a more controversial nature. The terri¬
torial autonomy of Transylvania was strengthened by full supreme gov¬
ernmental control of the grand principality under a Transylvanian court
chancery in Vienna. Furthermore, the Military Frontiers—with the excep¬
tion of the Banat of Temesvar—remained exempt from Hungarian estates
control. The empress’ policy to move into Hungary with her reforms,
but not to move faster than in the hereditary and Bohemian lands, had
thus proved successful.40
Maria Theresa’s limited success, but still success, was achieved be¬
cause she had confined her reform program. Joseph’s limited but substan¬
tial failure in Hungary, was due to the attempt to disregard such re-
39 Kiraly, Hungary in the late Eighteenth Century, pp. 51-73 passim; Marczali,
Hungary in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 170-195; Franz Krones, Ungarn unter
Maria Theresia und Joseph II, iy40-ijgo (Graz, 1871), pp. 71-90; Laszlo Makkai in
Ervin Pamlenyi, ed., Die Geschichte Ungarns (Budapest, 1971), Chapter IV, pp.
218-235.
40Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias, X, 122-158; Makkai in Ervin Pamlenyi,
ed., Die Geschichte Ungarns, Chapter IV, pp. 227-235.
strictions. The emperor who refused to be crowned king of Hungary, be¬
cause such historic ceremony would run counter to the desired goal of
a unitary centralized empire, also did away with the ancient medieval
comitat organization of the country. He replaced it by a division in ten
adminstration districts under royal commissioners. This tragic Josephin
reform curtailed the power of the local nobility and destroyed the poten¬
tialities of developing the comitat autonomy in a democratic sense. Less
controversial were his reforms of the judicial organization. A regular se¬
quence of appeals from the district courts to the courts of appeal and the
supreme court—the Septemviral table—was organized. Buda became the
permanent center of the judicial as well as the administrative system.
Croatia and Transylvania retained a separate court system under the
jurisdiction of the supreme court in Buda. The emperor also initiated two
other salutary measures: the retention of the comitat courts below the
district courts and the elimination of patrimonial jurisdiction in criminal
affairs. The former measure preserved an important branch of local
government close to the people, the latter abolished one of the most
flagrant sources of class justice. Yet neither of these reforms survived
Joseph’s reign.
Of momentous significance, because of lasting importance at least in a
technical sense, was the abolition of serfdom in Transylvania and Hun¬
gary between 1783 and 1785 and its conversion into a mere lord-subject
relationship. These regulations abolished the restrictions on marriage,
movement, and choice of occupation, but retained the obligation to per¬
sonal service as in the other Habsburg lands. Conversion of these services
into cash payments proved even more difficult in Hungary with its al¬
most exclusively agricultural economy than in the hereditary and Bo¬
hemian lands. Indeed, the whole reform legislation was misunderstood.
Opposition of the noble landowners could be fully expected, but that of
the peasantry, particularly in Transylvania, caught the emperor unpre¬
pared. Seen from a long-range point of view it should not have come as a
surprise. Restrictions on long-standing abuses kindle demands for their
complete abolition. The Hungarian, and particularly the “Vlachs,” the
Roumanian peasants in Transylvania, could hardly be expected to under¬
stand the fine distinction between personal services resulting from serf¬
dom and those from a tenant status as yet unknown to them.41
This lack of understanding was one reason for the revolutionary peas-
41 Kiraly, Hungary in the late Eighteenth Century, pp. 217-218; Daicoviciu and
Constantinescu, Breve Histoire de la Transylvanie, pp. 141-166; Ladislas Makkai,
Histoire de la Transylvanie (Paris, 1946), pp. 270-280.
ant risings which spread from Transylvania to Hungary proper. Another
was the large-scale military conscription in preparation of the Russo-
Austrian war against the Ottoman empire. The government ignored
the traditional dietal and local patrimontial rights to pass upon the mili¬
tary quota. Besides, a greater number of Hungarians were recruited than
during the Silesian wars of the previous reign. The new system of mili¬
tary conscription which in part was meant to protect the peasants against
the arbitrary recruiting system of the diet hurt them in its first appli¬
cation more than the traditional order. Rumors spread that military
service meant also abolition of personal services. Although the rumors
were without substance, peasants generally believed them, which added
fuel to fire or discontent.
Emperor Joseph had no time to bring his ecclesiastic policy in Hungary
as thoroughly in line with his reforms in the hereditary and the Bo¬
hemian lands, as he might have wished. The dissolution of the Jesuit
order had a direct influence, and the Edict of Tolerance and the monastic
legislation in Austria, a strong and lasting indirect influence on condi¬
tions in Hungary. The visit of Pope Pius VI to the emperor in Vienna
in 1782 thus pertained nearly as much to Hungarian as to Austrian and
Bohemian conditions. Yet the papal intervention in favor of the status
quo was of as little avail here as there.42 As for education, the language
decree of 1784 which required Hungarian public officials to officiate in
German within three years would have less affected—if it had been put
through—government on the intermediate and higher levels than the
administrative institutions on the comitat level. There bureaucratic con¬
trol was new, and this control exercised in German in the administrative
as well as the judicial sphere appeared truly revolutionary. Directly this
decree of fateful importance did not mean a restriction of Magyar but of
Latin as language of governmental communication.43 Indirectly, and
in its long-range effect this act opened the pandora box of multinational
discontent in Hungary. The psychological blunder of ordering the trans¬
fer of the Holy Hungarian crown to Vienna at about the same time need¬
lessly incensed public opinion further.
Joseph undoubtedly intended his language legislation primarily as an
expediency for a centralistic system. Secondarily, however, he believed by
42 Marczali, Hungary in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 269-300; Krones, Ungarn

unter Maria Theresia und Joseph II, pp. 107-110.
43 Confidential communication on the highest level of government between
Vienna, Buda, and Pressburg (Pozsony) had been transacted throughout the whole
reform period in either German or French and without opposition.
implication in the superiority of German social and cultural institutions
and assumed their entrenchment by law would work to the benefit of
all his subjects. Such a philosophy was in line with the rationalistic
premises of enlightened absolutism. It is also true that the emperor’s
language legislation, if we consider the mere linguistic, so to speak tech¬
nical, problem, might have been workable. But this was hardly the de¬
cisive factor. Joseph was aware of the potential opposition not only of
Magyars, but also of Croats and Vlachs, but he underestimated its sig¬
nificance. He did not realize that the language issue on psychological
grounds was a spark in a powder keg. Naturally the emperor did not
realize that his language policy was bound to fail in a political sense.
In fact, with the benefit of hindsight one can assume that the national
conflict would have come into the open in any case, in the near future.
Joseph may have accelerated its outbreak by a few years. But the Magyars
who represented after all some'what more than half of the population of
the kingdom as a whole would hardly have permanently accepted the
Latin language of administration of the privileged nobility. It is equally
improbable that gentler tactics on Joseph’s part could have led to the
gradual replacement of Latin by German. National questions in the multi¬
national state can be compromised by expediency with greater or lesser
skill for some time, but to assume that by some ingenious device they
can be solved is an illusion.
The language decree created a wave of public indignation in Hun¬
gary against German customs and institutions in general and correspond¬
ingly an upsurge in national sentiments. These began to express them¬
selves among the educated in Magyar, rather than in German, French,
or Latin. Centers of resistance were the towns, yet the rural population
became increasingly concerned, too. Here the opposition to the conversion
of personal services into cash payments when no cash was available, the
new methods of recruiting, and the seizure of grain for the armed
forces in the following years fed the opposition. It abated only when the
language decree was rescinded, shortly before the emperor’s death and
before it had been put fully into effect.44
Thus the main impact of the language decree was not the short-range
opposition to a transitory measure but the lasting influence on the rise
of nationalism, in particular in regard to the Croats and Vlachs. The
44 Francois Fejto, Un Habsbourg Revolutionnaire: Joseph II, Portrait d’un Despote

Eclaire (Paris, 1953), pp. 262-267; Krones, Ungarn unter Maria Theresia und
Joseph II, pp. 23-45; Laszlo Makkai and Istvan Barta in Ervin Pamlenyi, ed., Die
Geschichte Ungarns, Chapters IV, V, pp. 235-245.
language issue came to the fore here as a twofold movement, which

merged soon in the same stream of resistance against the government.
The support of Latin by the Croatian estates was directed less against
German than against Magyar nationalism. With keen insight, they ex¬
pected Magyarization to follow Joseph’s Germanization. Opposition
against Protestantism, primarily that of the Suabians in the Banat and
that of Suabians and Saxons in Transylvania and in the Military Frontier
districts, was only partly based on religious grounds and largely directed
against German penetration in the South Slav territories. South Slav
nationalism was not yet strong enough to represent its own case. It had
to fight on the forefield of related issues, Catholicism versus Protestantism,
Latin versus German, which meant actually Croatian versus Magyar
nationalism. The general objectives of nationalism had become fairly
clear by this time, though its specific targets had not yet been crystalized
with equal precision.
In Transylvania, on the other hand, the century-old tradition of the
three-nation state had led to more direct confrontations between the im¬
perial government and the national forces. Throughout the reform era
we observe here a steady increase of the Roumanian (Vlach) population,
particularly because of immigration from the Danube principalities and
a corresponding relative decline of Magyars and “Saxons” (Germans).
Joseph had granted citizenship to the Vlach serfs, yet recognition as a
fourth nation of equal legal standing with Magyars, Saxons,45 and
Szekels was still denied. The fact that limited concessions often are more
irritating than none, referred to in the context of the peasant riots of 1784,
is born out by events in Transylvania. The merger of the Transylvanian
court chancery with the Hungarian and the de facto abolition of the
three-nation state did not diminish dissatisfaction among the Magyars,
and ignited resentment among the Saxons. The emperor saw’ in the
Saxons an anachronistic national group, whose public funds were now
sequestered.46
The last phase of the Josephin reform regime in Hungary and its brief
aftermath under Leopold II has to be perceived in conjunction with the
crisis in Belgium. Joseph’s anticlerical legislation in Belgium, similar to
45 As noted before, the term Saxons in Transylvania in modern history stands

for Germans in general and no longer specifically for Saxons.
46 Henry Marczali, Ungarische Verjassungsgeschichte (Tubingen, 1910), pp. 113-
116; Eugen Horvath, Die Geschichte Siebenbiirgens (Budapest, n.d.), pp. 109-130;
Daicoviciu and Constantinescu, Breve Histoire de la Transylvanie, pp. 156-161;
Makkai, Histoire de la Transylvanie, pp. 280 f.
his legislation in Austria, had alienated a powerful clergy, though the
imperial policy in this respect had apparently the tacit support of the
urban middle class. Yet Joseph’s further attempts to centralize in viola¬
tion of the established rights of the provincial estates in Belgium caused
general resentment among opponents and adherents of an enlightened
policy. The emperor’s readiness to barter the Austrian Netherlands for
Bavaria was well remembered and did not endear him to either party.
That he was forced to yield to the Dutch in the question of the encum¬
brances imposed by the peace of Utrecht concerning the barrier fortresses
and the shipping on the Scheldt river, did not increase respect for him
either. An open revolt supported more or less openly by the Dutch and
underhand by Prussia was the popular reaction. An imperial offer to
withdraw the offensive legislation came too late. In November, 1789,
the estates of Flanders declared that the emperor had forfeited his claim
to rule in Belgium. The imperial governor, Duke Albert of Saxony-
Teschen, the emperor’s brother-in-law, and the limited armed forces at
his disposal were forced to leave the country. Reconquest, while the
Austrian army was engaged in a sterile war against the Turks, was out
of the question. Only after an armistice with the Ottoman empire was
signed, and a general understanding with Prussia had been reached, could
Leopold II restore the Austrian regime in Belgium on the basis of the
status before Joseph’s accession. The price for this understanding and a
general termination of clandestine Prussian support of insurrectionist
movements in the Habsburg empire, particularly in Hungary, was the
renunciation of conquests in the east.
The Belgian crisis had glaringly revealed the weakness of the im¬
perial power structure. The language decrees in Hungary had a long-
range demoralizing effect on the country, and conscription and requisi¬
tion of grain for the army fighting an unpopular war against Turkey
had an immediately explosive effect.
The authorities could not cope with the violent response to these
measures. By the end of January, 1790, Joseph then a dying man had to
withdraw most of the reforms, save for the abolition of serfdom, the
Tolerance Edict, and the monastic legislation. Even now he refused to
convoke the Hungarian royal diet. He took his retrogressive measures
only because of the danger of a Prussian-supported general insurrection in
Hungary. The possibility of an overthrow of the dynasty and the establish¬
ment of a German prince as king of Hungary and satellite of the Prus¬
sian ruler seemed real. Joseph was equally loyal to the traditions of his
house and to his commitment to the welfare of his peoples. He wanted to
see the succession of his brother Leopold, grand duke of Tuscany,

secured, in whom he saw a faithful and able executor of his ideas.
Desperately sick, he called Leopold to his bedside to transmit to him the
inheritance. But when Leopold arrived in Vienna on March 12, 1790,
Joseph’s tragic and noble reign had already come to its end. The great
emperor'had died, in deep desperation, on February 20.
The brief reign of his successor was no less tragic though not quite so
dramatic. He was fully, indeed in some ways better, equipped than Joseph
to expand and entrench the reform policies. Leopold was widely ex¬
perienced as ruler in Tuscany, highly knowledgeable, with a judicial
temper, although he lacked the older brother’s dynamic energy accentu¬
ated in his image. This appeal strengthened Joseph’s position in poster¬
ity, but it was no help in the specific crises which an enlightened
sovereign of his rare kind had to face. Leopold’s first task was to check
open revolt at the price of some retreat on the domestic front. Considering
his record as regent and the advice frequently rendered to mother and
brother, there is no doubt that after he had successfully accomplished his
immediate aim, he would have liked to continue the reform policy pur¬
sued by him so ably during his twenty-five-year reign in Tuscany. Before
he could start with this second and to him presumably more important
task, he died suddenly on March 1, 1792, to leave the execution of his
plans to an unequal successor.
Leopold’s first objective was to restore peace and order in Hungary. To
that effect he called the diet into session and after long and tedious
negotiations reached a compromise in 1791. Hungary was recognized
again as separate country, though—with minor differences—subject to
the same order of succession as the other Habsburg lands. Legislation was
to be enacted jointly by king and parliament. Government by royal decree
was made unlawful. In particular, the program of taxation had to be
approved by the Reichstag, which was to be called into session at least
every third year. Legal equality of Protestantism was recognized, and
Latin was restored as the official language of communication. In response
to Joseph’s Germanization policy, Magyar was now to be taught in all
schools. Serfdom was not restored but the conversion of personal services
into monetary payments, withdrawn already by Joseph in extremis, lapsed
until 1848. By and large, the status of the peasant in all Habsburg lands
corresponded now to Maria Theresa’s legislation of 1767.47
Leopold’s success in his negotiations with parliament was partly based
on a divide et impera policy between Magyars and the other Hungarian
47 Wandruszka, Leopold II, see II, 273-290.
2o8 History of the Habshurg Empire
nationalities. In this sense he restored the Transylvanian three-nation state
and the Transylvanian court chancery. An Illyrian court chancery pri¬
marily for the benefit of the Hungarian Serbs was established in 1791, but
dissolved by Leopold’s successor the following year.48
Leopold’s concessions did not go far enough to initiate a reorganization
of Hungary on a multinational basis but they sufficed to warn the diet
that the new emperor was not entirely at the mercy of Magyarism. All
this was done with circumspection and frequently in a roundabout way
as fitted Leopold’s temperament. The same attitude is shown also in his
ambiguous attitude toward the radical republican aspects of the late
Hungarian enlightenment, which frightened king and nobility alike. In
fighting it Leopold saw nothing wrong in using an agent-provocateur
system.49 Although he was less than frank in his methods of government
and not always choosy in his means, there is no reason to doubt the
idealistic objectives of his reign.
In all major respects his merits were great. He established external—
though highly precarious—peace and secured internal law and order. In
the domestic field he came to an understanding with the establishment
without abandoning Maria Theresa’s reform legislation. Under prevail¬
ing conditions, this was an outstanding achievement. In fact he had
preserved a substantial part of the Josephin reforms as well, in particular
in state-church relations, administrative and judicial organization, and
protection of the right of the peasant in litigations. Certainly the princi¬
ples of the reforms were kept alive. Thus, the reform era ended in retreat
but not in defeat. It was beyond Leopold’s control that this “temporary”
retreat continued after his death for two generations.
J. Foreign policy (1792-1815)
Throughout the war period which had begun with the war of the
First Coalition against France in April, 1792, and ended with Napoleon’s
debacle at Waterloo in June, 1815, the Habsburg empire was the most
consistent and, throughout much of the period, also the most persistent
continental opponent of France. In this respect it hardly ever had out¬
standing military leadership and only after the war of 1809 competent
diplomacy. Until the end of the war of the Second Coalition in 1801,
48 An Illyrian court deputation, basically with the same functions, had been es¬
tablished by Maria Theresa, but abolished by Joseph.
49 Wandruszka, Leopold II, II, 279-280; Denis Silagi, Ja\obiner in der Habs-
burger Monarchic (Vienna, 1962), pp. 65-117; Ernst Wangermann, From Joseph
II to the Ja\obin Trials (Oxford, 1959), pp. 61-65; Kiraly, Hungary in the late
Eighteenth Century, pp. 196-197; Bernard, Jesuits and Jacobins, pp. 155-167.
Habsburg policy reflected Austria’s determined stand against what

appeared to the government still as revolutionary development in France.
As result of the peace of Utrecht and the position of the Habsburg ruler
as Holy Roman emperor, Austria during this whole period in its out¬
lying possessions and appendages in southwestern Germany, in northern
and central Italy and Belgium was more directly involved in a confronta¬
tion with French territorial interests than either Prussia or Russia. After
this period and particularly after Napoleon’s proclamation as French
emperor in 1804, when the revolutionary scare had been laid to rest, the
territorial aspects of the conflict became more strongly apparent. Now
the issue was mainly a struggle for the balance of power in which
Austria in the midst of the continent had high stakes, namely either
survival as a great power or further existence as a middle-sized French
satellite state.
The direction of the foreign relations of the Habsburg monarchy was
at all times under the supreme authority of the new emperor Francis I
(1767-1835), as Holy Roman emperor during the first part of his reign
Francis II.50 In moral and intellectual stature he was very different from
his father and uncle. This did not immediately indicate a completely dif¬
ferent philosophy. Francis had been raised in Tuscany in the atmosphere
of the enlightened government of the then grand duke Leopold. He spent
the latter part of Joseph’s reign either at the seat of the emperor’s govern¬
ment or as observer in the eastern theater of war. His hard taskmaster
thoroughly indoctrinated him with the principles and practice of Josephin
reformism. During the first years of his long reign of forty-three years he
apparently seemed resolved to follow its patterns. But he was too small in
intellectual attainment to comprehend the French Revolution in any other
way than as a regime of terror and anarchy, whose traces must be wiped
off the earth.
The regime of the Convention in France and the execution of king
and queen in 1793, which he perceived exclusively in personal terms of
regicide of a fellow sovereign and his consort (his aunt Queen Marie
Antoinette), shocked him deeply. Another experience, the discovery of
so-called Jacobine conspiracies in Budapest, with ramifications extending
to Vienna and Graz, strengthened him in the belief that only a stern
conservative and in many respects reactionary absolutism could prevent
a regime of revolutionary terror in his empire. Actually the Jacobine
conspiracy headed by the Hungarian Abbe Martinovic was a small-scale
enterprise of relatively few intellectuals, suppressed with harsh measures
60 See note 7 in this chapter.
in 1794-1795. A system of police spies and agents provocateurs, an un¬
fortunate inheritance of Emperor Leopold, had led to the discovery of the
plot. Francis took its lessons as he understood them to heart.51 This
meant that his personality from now on increasingly reflected the nega¬
tive features of his two predecessors’ absolutism but few of their out¬
standing qualities. Francis was as secretive and in some ways as insincere
as his father and as authoritarian as his uncle. He lacked the genius, the
basic humanitarian motivation of the uncle, the sophisticated expert
knowledge and the skill of the father. Mediocre in ability but not stupid,
he was, like most small men, suspicious of new ideas, that is, suspicious of
advisers with original thoughts. Incapable to grasp complex ideas, venge¬
ful against opponents, and petty in dealing with counsellors in particular
those of great ability, he did not lack charm and superficial cordiality in
personal contacts with his subjects. Neither did he lack shrewdness nor
at times bureaucratic industry. Of the Josephin philosophy he retained
the full belief in absolute government, in particular in regard to state-
church relations and in his negative attitude toward the estates system.
However, he dropped the last shreds of enlightened sentiments within a
few years. Although this ruler had no respect for brilliance, he did not
interfere with the work of competent civil servants, as long as he could
be sure of their conservative leaning and bureaucratic habits. Brilliance of
any kind, even of a highly conservative character was suspect to him,
since it might turn into unpredictable directions. He asked for quiet
conformism and not for public articulate approval.
This assessment is not contradicted by the fact that Francis drew on
the support of brilliant men such as counts Johann Philip Stadion and
Metternich, Friedrich von Gentz and Adam Muller. Stadion fell out of
grace within a few years; Gentz and Muller were tolerated as sub¬
ordinates of Francis’ chief adviser Metternich; Metternich himself at¬
tracted Francis by strength of his devious and successful methods rather
than by the brilliance of his concepts, whose pursuit was frequently mis¬
understood by the sovereign.
As for the conduct of foreign affairs, the young emperor parted with
Kaunitz as early as the summer of 1792. The octagenarian was not yet
convinced that an attempt at reconciliation with France was beyond
51Silagi, Jahobiner in der Habsburger Monarchic, pp. 128-131; Wangermann,
From Joseph II to the Jacobin Trials, pp. 133-167; Bernard, Jesuits and Jacobins,
PP- 155-167. On the relationship of Francis to Joseph II and Leopold II see
Walter C. Langsam, Francis the Good: The Education of an Emperor, iy68-iyg2
(New York, 1949), pp. 55-107. On the education of Francis see also Walther
Tritsch, Franz von Osterreich (Mahrisch Ostrau, 1937), pp. 21-112.
An Empire Reasserts Itself 2II
reach, whereas he looked at the alliance with Prussia, the traditional

enemy for half a century, with misgivings. Kaunitz’ successor, Baron
Johann Thugut, born as a commoner and never elevated to Kaunitz’
high position in a formal sense, had rich diplomatic experience in
eastern affairs. He shared Kaunitz’ suspicions of Russia and Prussia, yet
these feelings were overshadowed by his passionate anti-French senti¬
ments. A champion of all-out antirevolutionary war, he had to quit in
1800 to make a more flexible policy possible. Formally Thugut was
subordinated to Count Johann Cobenzl, who resigned, however, in 1793
because Austria’s exclusion from the second partition of Poland displeased
the emperor. He served later as ambassador to France. His abler cousin,
Count Johann Ludwig Cobenzl, became his and Thugut’s successor and
was in charge of foreign affairs between 1801 and 1805. He had to share
the responsibilities of office with the emperor’s old “Ajo” (that is, chief
tutor and master of his household as crownprince) Count Franz Col-
loredo, a man of little experience in foreign affairs. After Austria’s
defeat in the war of the Third Coalition, both he and Cobenzl resigned,
yet during their tenure the switch from primarily antirevolutionary war
to primarily pro-balance-of-power conflict had taken place. Count Johann
Ludwig Cobenzl’s successor as foreign minister from 1805 to 1809 was
Count Johann Philip Stadion. Previously ambassador to the court in
St. Petersburg Stadion was a man of outstanding gifts, perhaps the fore¬
most diplomat in imperial Austrian history; he wanted to conduct a
foreign policy, in this case a German-oriented foreign policy, in line
with public opinion. However, he proved to be not in line with it but
ahead of public opinion.52 After Austria’s defeat in the war of 1809 he
was forced to leave his position to then Count Clemens Wenzel Metter-
nich (1773-1859), former minister to Dresden and from 1806 to 1808 am¬
bassador to Napoleon’s court. In 1821 Metternich, prince since 1813,
became court and state chancellor and was not only in charge of foreign
affairs, but at least nominally of the whole administration until his forced
resignation on the eve of the March revolution of 1848. Metternich’s
merits in foreign affairs and his deficiencies in domestic policies will be
considered later. He put his mark on European history during a tenure
of office of nearly forty years more clearly and in some ways more
lastingly than any other Austrian statesman either before or after him.
As for military problems, modernization and reorganization of the
armed forces had been an objective high on Joseph II’s list of priorities,
but short of fulfillment. Leopold, a ruler less interested in military affairs
52 Hellmuth Rossler, Graf Johann Philipp Stadion (Vienna, 1966), I, 225-255.
2/2 History of the Habshurg Empire
than his brother had neither the chance nor the wish for sweeping
changes in this respect. A few weeks after the accession of Francis the
empire was plunged into war and now it was too late for orderly peace¬
time military reorganization. The troops lacked modern equipment,
unity of command, and frequently proper motivation. The leadership up
to the war of 1809 was with one exception poor and afterward mediocre.
This exception was represented by one of the younger brothers of the
emperor, Archduke Charles (1771-1847), a popular member of the
imperial house and a knowledgeable and dedicated soldier. Even this true
leader and strategist was no match for Napoleon’s military genius. He could
have accomplished more than he did, but the emperor, jealous of a close
relative superior in ability and popularity, gave him only incomplete
authority. This hampered all his campaigns beginning in December
1795 and including his tenure as commander in chief from 1806 to 1809.
The war of that year terminated for all practical purposes his military
career.53 Although fortune denied Charles conspicuous success he im¬
proved the tactical training of the troops, and the education of the officers
corps. His successor as commander in chief in the wars from 1813 to
1815, Prince Karl Schwarzenberg, a better military diplomat than soldier
and his abler chief of staff, Count Joseph Radetzky, destined to a future
spectacular military career in Italy, reaped the benefit of the archduke’s
reforms.
When the French Constituent Assembly forced the unhappy King
Louis XVI on April 20, 1792, to declare war on Austria, this action sealed
only a foregone conclusion on both sides by this time. It is certain that
revolutionary France wanted to forestall armed intervention by a counter¬
revolutionary alliance. It is not so certain that Emperor Leopold, who
concluded the military alliance with Prussia three weeks before his death,
could have prevented the showdown. Yet when the French government
demanded voiding of the Austro-Prussian alliance and Austrian de¬
mobilization, and the new emperor Francis asked for restoration of the
sequestered estates of Alsatian aristocrats and for the return of Avignon
to the pope, war became inevitable. Prussia joined the war only in June,
1792. Its conduct on the side of the Allies was hampered from the begin¬
nings by poor motivation of the armies against the revolutionary elan
of the French. The better French leadership played also its part against
63 He held only nominal command as governor of the fortress of Mainz in 1815.

See also Viktor Bibl, Erzherzog Karl (Vienna, 1962), pp. 226-242. On the re¬
lationship between the emperor and his brother, see Manfred Rauchensteiner,
Kaiser Franz und Erzherzog Carl (Munich, 1972).
the indifferent Austro-Prussian command, headed by the duke of Bruns¬
wick. His manifesto of July, 1793, threatened the French people with
destruction of the capital and terrible retribution against leading revolu¬
tionaries, if the life of the royal couple should be threatened. The duke
with this act of political lunacy sealed not only the fate of the king, but
made the counterrevolutionary character of the war obvious to every last
doubter in France.
Yet if the duke’s action revealed misguided zeal on the Allied side, a
reverse spirit of ideological indifference was shown by the Russian-Prussian
understanding concerning the Polish question. Emperor Leopold would
have been willing to preserve the territorial integrity of Poland rapidly
striving for enlightened reform within the restricted boundaries of 1772.
Prussia, in violation of her treaty with Poland, wished to gain the area
around the mouth of the Vistula with Danzig as well as Poznan. Prussia
prepared herself for a possible confrontation in the east by stalling her
war efforts in the west. Thereby she blocked Catherina IPs aims of
taking over Poland while the Central European powers were engaged in
the west. Prussia’s direct betrayal of Poland—supposedly her ally—and
indirectly of the Austrian military alliance spiked such designs. Russia
and Prussia proceded with the second partition, while Austria had to
stand on the sideline. Under Emperor Leopold II such abstention might
have been intentional because the Habsburg empire would have wanted
to become the friend of a reformed Poland. Under Francis, Austria’s
isolated stand was simply due to the fact that she had missed the boat in
the new landgrab. Cobenzl, held responsible for this diplomatic defeat,
was replaced by Thugut. Neither did France, the former traditional ally
of a conservative Poland, and the hoped-for ally of a liberalized one,
distinguish herself under the regime of the Convention in this sordid
affair. The French government hoped by nonintervention in the Polish
cause to appease Russia, a restraint understandable under political duress,
but regrettable. Actually the sacrifice of Poland merely delayed Russian
intervention, but as the war of the Second Coalition and, indeed, any
kind of appeasement show, did not permanently prevent it.54
The Austrians with only limited Prussian support fought between 1793
and 1795 in Holland, Belgium, and on the right bank of the Rhine. In
the fall of 1794 they had to withdraw to the left bank. The declaration
of war on the part of the Holy Roman Empire and of Spain against
France (March and April, 1793) changed matters little. Even the British
54 William F. Reddaway in Cambridge History of Poland (Cambridge, 1951), II,

I37-I53i Sorel, The Eastern Question, pp. 264-266.
entry into the war in February, 1793, had only relatively little immediate
effect. The British engaged some French troops in Holland and although
the country could not be held by the Allies, this intervention gave them a
breathing spell. When Archduke Charles assumed command in Decem¬
ber, 1795, he forced a French withdrawal across the Rhine.
At this point two major new factors turned the fortunes of war
decisively against Austria: the Prussian withdrawal .from the war, closely
related to the third and final partition of Poland, and the appearance of
the young general Bonaparte in northern Italy. This strategy changed a
secondary theater of war to the decisive battle ground. The revolutionary
rising in Poland in 1794 under Kosziuszko’s leadership was crushed by
Russian and Prussian military forces. With this victory the conservative
powers considered truncated but potentially revolutionary Poland to be
doomed.
Doubt existed, however, concerning the question of who would get the
lion’s share in the final partition. Prussia, as the still smallest of the
three powers felt again that she had to keep her hands free for the final
barter in the east. With the fall of Robespierre in July, 1794, the revolu¬
tionary tide in France seemed to have turned anyway and thus Frederick
William II, a cynical but shrewd politician, was ready for peace in the
west. In April, 1795, the separate peace of Basel between Prussia and
France was concluded. Saxony, Hanover, and Hesse-Cassel also dropped
out. France pledged to evacuate the right bank of the Rhine and, ac¬
cording to a secret clause, Prussia would receive compensations by seizure
of ecclesiastic principalities, in case the left bank should be subsequently
annexed by France. Both sides considered the annexation a foregone con¬
clusion, and in view of the peculiar political morale of the German
princes in their complete separation from the spirit of German nationalism
they were not disappointed. A speculation banking at the same time on
French military prowess and land-grabbing greed of the German princes
could indeed not fail. Frederick William II had also correctly foreseen the
course of the Polish partition question. By a treaty of January, 1795,
Austria had come to an understanding with Russia with the objective of
excluding Prussia from participation in the planned third partition as
Austria had been excluded in 1793. The peace of Basel foiled this plan.
Prussia’s armed strength was ready to force participation in the new parti¬
tion, if necessary. In fact she gained the center of Poland including the
capital Warsaw. Russia obtained Lithuania and part of Volynia, Austria
an extension of western Galicia far to the north almost to the onates of
An Empire Reasserts Itself 2/5
Warsaw.55 She had little chance o£ developing these territories, which she
lost again permanently in the peace of Schonbrunn in 1809. Her political
prestige was certainly not enhanced by this transaction, but, more im¬
portant, even limited Prussian support in the war against France—blocked
by the Polish deal—might have prevented the catastrophe in the south.
The Austrian government perhaps wrongly believed that France was
still in the throes of a domestic revoludon but it was right insofar as the
revolutionary designs in international relations had not yet ceased. The
war was continued in the west with varying but not catastrophic results.
Yet within a year, from March, 1796, to March, 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte
unrolled the whole Austrian front in the south and his army, after
spectacular successes (Arcole, November, 1796, and Rivoli, January, 1797),
crossed the Austrian Alps and in western Styria came within 100 miles
of Vienna in April, 1797. It was impossible to continue the war in the
west and there was little chance now to defend even the capital. An
armistice was concluded in Leoben in April, 1797, followed by the formal
peace of Campo Formio of October 17, 1797.
Austria had to cede Belgium and Lombardy to France; the Austrian
tertiogeniture, the duchy of Modena, had to be merged with the French
satellite Cisalpine republic; the Habsburg duke of Modena was to be
indemnified with the Austrian possessions in the Breisgau. Thus this
part of the treaty could be considered a family affair. A more important,
more cynical, though not exactly voluntary, deal on the part of Francis
as Holy Roman emperor, was the secret agreement to the cession of the
left bank of the Rhine in return for not yet clearly defined indemnifica¬
tions of Austria. The openly agreed compensation for the immediate
Austrian losses (mainly Belgium and Lombardy) was the cession of the
eastern part of the Venetian republic, up to the Adige, including Venice,
Istria, and Dalmatia.
The results of the peace treaty from the point of view of power politics
could have been worse for Austria. Belgium, particularly after the insur¬
rection of 1789, had little value for Austria and could not be defended
under existing conditions. The same was true for Lombardy, though its
strategic value was greater. With the territory of Venice east of the Adige
(including Dalmatia) the Habsburg empire gained a wide area contigu¬
ous to its meager maritime possessions and as such, as it seemed then,
doubly valuable. On the other hand, partition of the ancient republic be-
55 Marian Kukiel in Cambridge History of Poland (Cambridge, 1951), II, 154—

176.
2/6 History of the Hahshurg Empire
tween Austria and the Cisleithanian republic, a French satellite, was as
cynical as the partition of Poland. This deal and the soon to be revealed
arrangement about the Rhineland lowered Austria’s political prestige
even more than the military setback during the Italian campaign. This
evaluation does not take into account the future serious implications in
regard to the national question, which were to evolve in this politically
sensitive area.
Emperor Francis, within five years, had contributed greatly to the
weakening of the empire and had compromised the prestige of the house
of Habsburg which in several ways had been strengthened by his three
predecessors.
The peace of Campo Formio had settled nothing except confirmed that
France was still a growing and dynamic power, whose nationalistic
fervor continued to exercise considerable drawing power beyond her
frontiers. This was shown by the establishment of the Roman and
Helvetian satellite republics in March, 1798. In particular the abolition of
the secular power of the pope created considerable resentment in Austria.
Practically more important than the reduction of the status of the papacy
were the results of the negotiations of the Congress of Rastatt (December,
1797, to April, 1799) in which France cashed in on the secret Austrian
and Prussian agreements concerning her annexation of the left bank of
the Rhine, which became now a reality. The subsequent wrangling be¬
tween German states concerning the compensation resulting from the
secularization of the ecclesiastic principalities weakened the empire fur¬
ther. The French drive and the fear on the part of the European powers
of its by now more alleged than true revolutionary character made a
further showdown in the near future inevitable.
The war of the Second Coalition against France was popular among
the Austro-Germans as manifested by a demonstration against the French
embassy in Vienna in the spring of 1798. Of the two leading powers in
the new grand coalition, Great Britain was primarily concerned with the
French expansion into the Netherlands, Russia later with France’s threat
in the Mediterranean focused on Malta; Naples, Portugal, and the Otto¬
man empire joined the alliance. The war began in December, 1798, but
Austria did not get directly involved until March, 1799, when France, as
preventive move in a clearly predictable conflict, declared war on her. Its
first phase coincided roughly with Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian cam¬
paign. The second began practically with his coup d’etat after the return
from Egypt in November of 1799, and his subsequent invasion of Italy,
after his army had crossed the Great St. Bernhard pass in May of 1800.
A n Empire Reasserts Itself 2/7
The campaigns up to that point had been fought with varying success in
the northern Rhineland, Switzerland, and Italy. Beside the archduke
Charles another commander, the colorful and experienced Russian field
marshal Alexander Suvorov distinguished himself. Yet the unpredictable
tsar Paul I recalled the Russian troops in December, 1799, because of
Russian worries about British objectives, Austrian inefficiency, and the
hope for a profitable understanding with France in the east. Russia’s
defection helped Bonaparte’s further military success. His great victories
in Italy, culminating in the battle of Marengo in June of 1800 led also
to the collapse of the south German front, where General Jean Victor
Moreau commanded, perhaps the ablest of Napoleon’s lieutenants. Austria
had to ask for an armistice. Peace was concluded at Luneville in France
in February, 1801. It was agreed to by the Holy Roman empire or rather
by now its remnants the following month. Actually the treaty affected
the dying empire more directly than Austria. The revisions of the peace
of Campo Formio, agreed at the Congress of Rastatt, concerning the
territories left of the Rhine and in a general way the compensations of
the German princes on the right bank of the river were determined and
confirmed. Prussia, this time a tertius gaudens, benefited from these ar¬
rangements. Habsburg power was weakened in this treaty by the sur¬
render of the emperor’s position as guardian of the integrity of the Holy
Roman Empire.
Austria herself had to recognize the French conquests in the Nether¬
lands, Switzerland, and Italy. Tuscany, heretofore ruled by a Habsburg
grand duke, was in substance converted into the French satellite kingdom
of Etruria. In 1803, the former grand duke obtained Salzburg and parts
of several south German bishoprics as compensations. Considering the
extent of Austria’s military defeat she had been treated rather leniently
again, a fact to be explained by Bonaparte’s chief concern with England
and Russia. Austria’s estimate of Napoleon as her chief enemy was never
recriprocated by him.
A direct consequence of the defeat was Thugut’s dismissal, which
preceded even the conclusion of the peace treaty. He was blamed for his
intransigent policy against France and replaced by the somewhat more
flexible counts Johann Ludwig Cobenzl and Franz Colloredo. Archduke
Charles as president of the antiquated Court War Council was now
entrusted with the introduction of military reforms, whose beneficial
effects however, could hardly have been felt in the war of the Third Coali¬
tion of 1805. In fact, aware that organizational shortcomings could not be
corrected within a few years, and worried about the precipitate outbreak
2 iS History of the Habshurg Empire
of a new war crisis, the archduke resigned in 1804. His warnings re¬
mained unheeded, when the following year Austria plunged ill-prepared
into a new conflagration. Preceding these events were the protracted and
unedifying negotiations of the Reichshauptdeputation of 1802-1803, the
conference of the representatives of the princes of the Holy Roman Em¬
pire whose agreement, the notorious Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of
February, 1803, determined the new territorial organization of the empire,
after the left bank of the Rhine had been surrendered to France. The
compensatory settlement of the claims of deprived princes was supposed
to be an internal affair of the Holy Roman Empire. Actually it was
regulated by Napoleon and his foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talley¬
rand. Since Salzburg, the Breisgau, and part of the bishopric of Passau
had been awarded to the grand duke of Tuscany and the duke of
Modena, who had lost their principalities in Italy, Austria’s sphere of
influence was reduced by this deal, although she was in part compensated
by the acquisition of the ecclesiastic principalities of Brixen and Trento
south of the Brenner pass.
Over-all, the empire, and therewith Austria, were not hurt so much by
the enlargement of Prussia, Bavaria, Wiirttemberg, Baden, Hanover, and
other German states, but by the fact that these transactions had taken
place by French intervention rather than by imperial decision. The elimi¬
nation of the ecclesiatic principalities and the reduction of the number of
free imperial cities, which in principle, though not necessarily in practice,
might have stood for progressive reform thus represented in the eyes of
public opinion a national humiliation endorsed by a powerless emperor.
On December 2, 1804, when Napoleon, under papal auspices, crowned
himself emperor of the French, the signs were clearly on the wall: The
dissoludon of the Holy Roman Empire was fast approaching and Habs-
burg power would be reduced again to an association of diverse princi¬
palities—a kingdom of Bohemia, deprived of its proud historic tradition,
an obstreperous Hungarian kingdom, and Italian possessions brought
only recently and by barter under the rule of the dynasty. The cohesive
and in part constructive efforts of three centuries might be lost in the face
of the threat from the West. In this situation, more critical than the one
in 1526, when the precarious new union of the Austro-German-Bohemian-
Hungarian lands was backed by the vigor and wealth of a rising Spanish
empire, Francis decided to forestall the danger of pending disintegration.
If he could not restore the cohesion of Habsburg power by military
force he hoped to save it by political devices. On August 14, 1804, he
proclaimed himself emperor of a newly established Austrian empire. The
charters, rights, and privileges of his lands, in the first place Hungary,
should not be impaired by this declaration made to a conference of
Austrian dignitaries. A unilateral act of this kind had neither the au¬
thority of genuine constitutional government nor the tradition of the
thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire behind it. Moreover it was
legally doubtful whether the emperor could on his own initiative join
imperial territory—the hereditary and Bohemian lands—to a new empire.
Yet considering French pressure and the egoistic policies of the German
princes, the imperial action had as much justification as the Pragmatic
Sanction promoted by Francis’ great-grandfather Charles VI. The procla¬
mation of 1804 could no more prevent further collisions with France and
German princes than the Pragmatic Sanction could prevent the War of
the Austrian Succession, but at least it did not have to be paid for in
political concessions to other countries. Thus, to a limited degree, it served
the purpose of preserving the image of Habsburg power.56
Austria’s participation in the war of the Third Coalition against France
did not. True, she had concluded an alliance with Russia in November,
1804, and had gained some further protection by joining a Russo-British
alliance system in August, 1805. Furthermore, open conflict could prob¬
ably not have been avoided after Napoleon at about the same time had
demanded the withdrawal of Austrian troops from Venetian and Tyrolian
territories. Yet there may have been a possibility, that the war for which
Austria was not yet ready could have been put ofi until Prussia would
join the alliance. The course of action taken ruled out the practicability
of Prussian participation, which would have been essential for military
success.
In early September hostilities began. This time the archduke Charles,
whose criticism had dismayed the emperor, was given only a minor
command in Italy, commander in chief in Germany was General Karl
Mack von Feiberich. One of the poorest military leaders in Austrian
history, he was court-martialed after the war for lack of fighting spirit,
when he capitulated at Ulm in Wiirttemberg.57 Considering the formid¬
able coalition of French, southern, and western German states under
Napoleon’s leadership and the cautious strategy of the Russian com¬
mander Prince Kutuzov, even a better man would not have succeeded
56 See Robert A. Kann, Das Nationalitatenproblem der Habsburgermonarchie
(Graz-Cologne, 1964) and the literature cited there, I, 25-30, 346-349; Josef
Redlich, Das osterreichische Staats- und Reichsproblem (Leipzig, 1920), I, 42-45.
57 Mack was reprieved later and in 1819 restored to his former rank. The em¬
peror, always harsh in questions of too independent a judgment by subordinates,
showed much understanding for incompetence.
in the long run where Mack had failed. The allied armies in Germany
were soon in steady retreat. Northern Italy had to be evacuated, but the
troops withdrawn there to defend Vienna came too late. The French
entered the capital on November 13 after a campaign of barely three
months. Napoleon, received by the Viennese population more as a
celebrity than as an enemy, established his headquarters at Schonbrunn
palace. His spectacular triumph did not yet mean the end of the war.
In the three emperors’ battle of Austerlitz in Moravia, fought December 2,
on the first anniversary of Napoleon’s coronation, he routed in one
morning the joint Austrian and Russian armies. The defeat seems to have
been more due to the precipitate action of Tsar Alexander than to the
hesitation of Emperor Francis. The Russians under Kutuzov’s leader¬
ship managed a retreat to their home base in fairly good order, but the
Austrians were completely routed and had to sue for an immediate armis¬
tice. Three weeks later they had to accept the peace terms dictated by
Napoleon at Pressburg (Pozsony). This time the peace was harsh.
Austria had to cede the Venetian territories gained at the peace of Campo
Formio, which made her practically a landlocked country. Napoleon was
recognized as king of Italy. Yet more humiliating and painful were the
terms which at the French emperor’s command had to be conceded to his
German satellites. Bavaria and Wurttemberg were raised to kingdoms.
Together with the grand duchy of Baden they were to share the spoils of
the Austrian Vorlande in southwestern Germany. Bavaria, furthermore,
secured Tyrol, Vorarlberg, the territories of the rich western bishoprics
Burgau, Eichstadt, Lindau, Passau, and the southern part of Brixen and
Trento. The acquisition of Salzburg and Berchtesgaden by Austria repre¬
sented only a pitiable compensation for her formidable losses in the
German-speaking southwest. Austria had ceased to be a great power but,
unlike Prussia after her downfall less than a year later, she retained at
least her independence in domestic affairs. Compared with Britain and
Russia, Habsburg’s European power position had become critical.68
Nevertheless, some changes in domestic policies signified possibilities
of change for the better. Archduke Charles and the emperor’s youngest
brother, the relatively progressive John, were entrusted now with the
continuation of military reform. Count Johann Philip Stadion, previously
ambassador to St. Petersburg, was appointed minister of foreign affairs.
Whether Stadion’s policy served the best interest of Austria is doubtful,
but he and the emperor’s two brothers now in important positions intro¬
duced a broader outlook than the outstanding Austrian civil servants
58 See Rudolfine von Oer, Der Friede von Pressburg (Munster, 1965).
under Maria Theresa. All three looked for the support of “public opin¬
ion,” which, considering the tradition of the Habsburg monarchy, its
affiliation with the Holy Roman Empire, and the elimination of Prussia
as active factor in Central European politics, meant to them German
public opinion. They believed it was Austria’s mission to rally the Ger¬
man nation in the struggle against Napoleon, to them the dictatorial
apostle of violence in external affairs, but no longer as previously pictured
the threat and herald of revolution. A somewhat more liberal spirit,
though one tinged distinctly with German nationalist overtones, governed
Austria for the next four years.59
To a point this spirit was a reaction to the consequences of the peace of
Pressburg, which gradually revealed themselves in their full seriousness.
In July, 1806, Napoleon established the Confederation of the Rhine, com¬
prising the major states in western and southern Germany, not including
of course Austria and Prussia. Other princes in central Germany joined
the confederation subsequently. The proclamation of the princes de¬
nounced the Holy Roman Empire and requested Francis to abdicate as
Roman emperor. On August 6, 1806, he was forced to oblige. It is a moot
point to discuss, whether the abdication of the emperor meant legally
also the dissolution of the empire, because no statute or tradition existed
that governed the process of dissolution.60 The empire had come to an
end permanently because the German Confederation of 1815, the so-called
Second Empire of 1871, and Hitler’s shameful Third Reich, represented
no revival but very different concepts. The end of the empire also meant
that irrespective of future developments the Habsburgs were deprived of
an ancient and proud association which linked them to the core of
western political and religious tradition. Of ever greater psychological
impact than the establishment of the French-dominated satellite Con¬
federation of the Rhine was the crushing defeat of Prussia in October,
1806, in less than a month and against only feeble resistance. The pride
of German nationalism was deeply wounded, the demand for domestic
reform was now openly raised, and the desire for termination of appease¬
ment of the foreign conqueror expressed more secretly but even more
passionately. Inevitable submission to Napoleon’s demand of 1808 that
Austria join in the Continental Blockade of England strengthened this
desire.
59 Rossler, Graf fohann Philipp Stadion, II, 13-73.

60 Ernst R. Huber, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit ij8g (Stuttgart, 1957),
I, 62-74; Fritz Hartung, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (Stuttgart, 1950), pp. 162-
169.
An indirect but clear Austrian response to the situation was the
establishment of a national militia in 1808-1809 which expanded Maria
Theresa’s military system to a limited general conscription. The direct
appeal to Austrian patriotism on which the new institution was based,
met an encouraging response. Yet neither Stadion nor the archdukes had
learned their lesson in full. They believed that a people’s army would do
as well as the French one in and after 1792, but they did not understand
that the French success was due not only to military reforms but to the
influence of a broad social revolution.
Illusions, however, are understandable in a severe political crisis. Austria
was now undoubtedly the last hope of German patriots, though hardly
that of non-Germanic national groups within the Habsburg empire. The
English counteractions against the Continental Blockade and the Spanish
guerrilla warfare encouraged underhand resistance against the French
throughout Europe. Still, the understanding between Napoleon and Tsar
Alexander, and the Russian advice in Berlin against precipitate action
were unmistakable warning signs. They remained unheeded. Habsburg
power took the big jump, too soon and again not adequately prepared.
The Austrian war manifesto of March 25, 1809, written by Stadion’s
brilliant public-relations officer Friedrich von Gentz, appealed to the
German nation as to the Austrian people. The manifesto urged their rise
against the French emperor. Under existing conditions of centuries-old
absolutism throughout the Germanies these invocations were bound to
fail. Although they had some effect on German intellectuals, particu¬
larly on the academic youth, these groups did not represent the compre¬
hensive concept of a German political nation. Yet even if such a concept
had existed under the rule of the princes of the Confederation of the
Rhine, it would hardly have meant political reality. In Austria the appeal
to the German nation undoubtedly had a deep effect on the people in
the hereditary lands, who felt they were fighting this time a war not in
the rearguard but in the forefront of continental interests. No such im¬
mediate effects were visible in the other Habsburg lands, and the war
did not last long enough to test their reaction.
The war began with a prearranged rising of gallant Tyrolian peasants
against the hateful Bavarian satellite regime on the very day of the
Austrian declaration of war on April 9, 1809. A southern army under
Archduke John, an enlightened prince sympathetic to popular causes,
but not an experienced general, fought the French first with some success
in Italy. Yet within a few weeks this army was called back to relieve the
critical situation of the main forces. A second Austrian army made a
successful foray against Warsaw in the north. The main purpose of this
offensive, to encourage Prussia to join the Austrian cause, failed. When
Russia as Napoleon’s nominal ally sent an army to Galicia, the Austrians
were forced to retreat. Archduke Charles, as commander in chief and
commander of the main army, lost his first engagements in southern Ger¬
many. No successful resistance could be offered in Upper Austria either,
and within five weeks after the opening of hostilities Napoleon entered
Vienna. In view of the bitter Austrian resistance, the new occupation was
much harsher than that in 1805.
The Austrians fought on. On May 21, 1809, the archduke attacked the
French army at Aspern on the left bank of the Danube opposite Vienna.
After a savage battle Napoleon was forced to retreat to the Lobau, an
island between the Danube and one of its arms. Whether lack of daring
on the part of the archduke or exhaustion of his troops and the terrible
losses inflicted by the enemy prevented him from following and routing
the defeated army in its precarious camping position between the waters
is uncertain. A great opportunity may have been lost. Even so, the victory
of Aspern electrified Germany and stands throughout the centuries as
a lasting testimony of Austrian military prowess under adverse condi¬
tions. In a sense it was Austria’s “finest hour.”
Its immediate military effect was lost like that of the efforts of the Tyro-
lian insurrectionists under Andreas Hofer’s gallant leadership. On July
5 and 6 another hard, but this time decisive, battle was fought at Wagram
less than twenty miles from Aspern. Archduke John’s army did not
arrive in time and Archduke Charles ordered the retreat of his forces
prematurely. The Austrian government, formerly anxious to start the
war, now acted with undue haste in the conclusion of an armistice at
Znaim (Znoijmo) on July 12. The Austrians might possibly have re¬
ceived better terms if they had not done so, though victory was now
definitely beyond their grasp. The peace imposed upon the Habsburg
empire was very severe, though again in view of Napoleon’s ulterior de¬
sign not as cruel as the treatment of Prussia at Tilsit.
Austria had to cede Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, part of Upper Austria,
and Vorarlberg to Bavaria, but “revolutionary” Tyrol seemed not to be
safe under undivided control. The eastern part came now under
French-Illyrian, the southern under French-Italian jurisdiction. The
Tyrolian peasants were abandoned completely by the Austrian govern¬
ment, and their leader, Andreas Flofer, was court-martialed by the
French and shot as insurrectionist in February, 1810. He has remained a
Tyrolian national hero to this day. Cracow and western Galicia had to
22^ History of the Hahsburg Empire
be ceded nominally to the grand duchy of Warsaw, with the king of
Saxony as grand duke. Actually this meant cession to France, because
Saxony never got into possession. Part of eastern Galicia was given to
the tsar, with the intention of driving a wedge between Austria and
Russia. This intention, however, failed; fear of French imperialism over¬
shadowed the issue.
Extremely painful was the loss of the Austrian “Illyrian” Southern
Slav territories to French rule, as it happened under an able and skillful
administration by Marshall Auguste Frederic Louis Marmont as vice¬
roy. This cession pertained to the southern parts of Carinthia, Carniola,
the eastern Tyrolian Puster valley, Friuli, Trieste, Istria, Dalmatia, as
well as Fiume (Rijeka) and western Croatia as Hungarian contributions
to the surrender. The Habsburg empire was now completely landlocked.
Yet these humiliating losses including a heavy indemnity, still left the
bulk of the hereditary lands, and fully the Bohemian and most of the
Hungarian realms intact. Austria, though no longer a great power con¬
tinued to be a viable state, and the potentialities for future rise were still
open. It was clear that these potentialities could no be exercised now in
pursuit of a German course in Austria. Archduke Charles resigned as
commander in chief and so did Count Stadion as minister of foreign
afTairs. On October 8, less than a week before the signing of the peace
treaty of Schbnbrunn, Count Metternich was appointed minister of
foreign affairs, and a new chapter in the history of Austrian foreign and
soon also domestic relations began.
This brilliant, skillful, and personally attractive diplomat came from
the Rhineland, where his father had belonged to the sovereign (reichs-
unmittelbar) Rhenish aristocracy whose domains were expropriated
during the French Revolution. Raised in hatred and fear of revolutionary
government of any kind Metternich was not anti-French on national
grounds, nor did he see the situation in 1809 as comparable to that in
1792. To him Napoleon represented the overwhelming power that
threatened the foundations of the old order. Yet if Napoleon’s ambitious
designs could be curbed Metternich did not see him necessarily as an
enemy but, on the contrary, as the bulwark against new revolutions, as
the man who had succeeded to restore order in France.
There is another point which in view of Metternich’s controversial do¬
mestic policies after 1815 has frequently been overlooked. Metternich was
in his youth indoctrinated with the spirit of the French enlightenment
as distinguished from its Josephin utilitarian Austrian brand. He was
not adverse to all French domestic reforms, in particular not in regard to
state-church relations. Above all, the puritan spirit of Josephinism was
completely alien to him.
Metternich was concerned that Austria needed a breathing spell to re¬
cover from the losses of four grievous wars, to be ready to fight another
day, if the situation should present itself. It was clear to him that this re¬
covery could never be brought about in open opposition to France but
only by devious ways of limited cooperation. If then the opportunity for
a new grand alliance should arise Austria should not jump into the fray
as in previous wars bearing the brunt of the attack. She should rather
wait until a favorable bid was made to her. In that way her great power
position could be secured by the pen even before it was assured by the
sword. Metternich was essentially a pragmatist, although he liked to con¬
sider himself the creator of a political system. Yet although his plans were
clear in principle he was ready to adjust them to the situation as it would
present itself.61
He did not have to wait long. Napoleon, anxious to have an heir, whom
he could not expect from Josephine Beauharnais, divorced the empress.
The new consort should be the daughter of one of the great European dy¬
nasties to strengthen the hold of the Bonapartes on the throne of France
by the bonds of an artificial legitimacy. After having been repudiated in
a roundabout way by the tsar who was unwilling to agree to Napoleon’s
marriage with Alexander’s youngest sister, Napoleon turned to Em¬
peror Francis and asked for the hand of his oldest daughter Maria Louise.
The decision between acceptance or rejection represented a difficult
political problem quite apart from the issue of dynastic pride. The mar¬
riage might put a heavy strain on Austrian public opinion. Could the
people be asked to welcome or even to tolerate such an association just
a year after they had been exhorted to fight a holy national war against
the foreign conqueror? Metternich, the cool rationalist and profound
sceptic concerning any expression of public opinion, thought the op¬
portunity to reconcile Napoleon was well worth the risk of alienating
public opinion. As it turned out, he had no reason to worry. The marriage
amused the Viennese greatly and met little opposition in the crownlands.
Accordingly, Maria Louise a princess who lacked charm, brains, and char¬
acter, was married to Napoleon in April, 1810. A year later the unfor¬
tunate heir, dubbed solemnly king of Rome, was born.62
61 Heinrich von Srbik, Metternich: Der Staatsmann und Mensch (Munich,

1925), I, 1-128; Enno Kraehe, Metternich’s German Policy: The Contest with
Napoleon, iygg-1814 (Princeton, 1963), I, 58-118.
62 Srbik, Metternich, I, 129-141; Kraehe, Metternich’s German Policy, I, 128-130.
It was high time to be prepared for a new crisis. Austria had hardly
gone through the state bankruptcy of 1811 when the threatening French-
Russian showdown cast its shadow. Austria was even forced to con¬
tribute an auxiliary corps of 30,000 men to Napoleon’s Russian campaign
of 1812. These troops under Prince Karl Schwarzenberg followed secret
directions from Vienna and managed to stay out of major engagements
with the nominal enemy and potential ally. After the French breakdown,
an armistice with Russia was secured in January, 1813. Nobody doubted
that the real foe was Napoleonic France and that Austria had to prepare
for “the day.” According to Metternich’s designs it had not yet come.
When a hesitating Frederick William III of Prussia had to yield to
public opinion and to declare war on France in March, 1813, Austria
stood on the sidelines and offered only “armed mediation,” on behalf of
the warring parties, which meant on behalf of the anti-French coalition.
Napoleon was asked to evacuate the right bank of the Rhine, to abolish
the grand duchy of Warsaw, and to return the conquests imposed by the
peace of Schonnbrunn in 1809. Metternich, who played for time, certainly
did not expect that the French emperor, after he had won several vic¬
tories over the combined Prusso-Russian forces and before Austria had
fired a single shot, would agree to such demands. Yet Napoleon, severely
shaken by the frightful losses of the Russian campaign, agreed to an
armistice, which he later characterized as the greatest mistake of his
career. Meanwhile Austria, on June 27, 1813, concluded the agreement of
Reichenbach with Russia, Prussia, and Sweden. According to it she
would join the grand alliance with these powers and Britain if Napoleon
would reject the mediation offer by the end of the armistice (July 20, but
due to Metternich’s efforts prolonged until August 10).
On June 26 Napoleon and Metternich met in Dresden. In this con¬
ference the Austrian offer was rejected, though this rejection was not
confirmed until the termination of the armistice in August. Napoleon,
consistently from his point of view, declared that he as the son of fortune
could not accept defeat like the legitimate rulers—and the Austrian offer
meant, indeed, acceptance of defeat. Metternich knew this, of course, as
well as Napoleon. Austria’s entry into the war was then a foregone con¬
clusion, though, according to Metternich’s designs Napoleon’s complete
downfall was presumably not considered inevitable at that time.63
On August 12, 1813, Austria joined the allied cause. The commander
63 For Metternich’s account of this conversation see Prince Richard Metternich

Winneburg, ed., Aus Metternichs nachgelassenen Papieren (Vienna, 1880), II, 461-
463.
of the Austrian army, Prince Charles Schwarzenberg, operating from

Bohemian headquarters, was at the same time commander in chief of all
allied forces. His competent chief of staff was Count Radetzky. It was
a measure of Metternich’s skill that he had maneuvered Austria into this
leading position, though her contribution of manpower was considerably
below that of Prussia and Russia (Prussia 162,000 men, Russia 184,000
Austria 128,000). Schwarzenberg, a tactful coordinator of the military
coalition was not an outstanding general and several setbacks occurred
within the next two months. Yet at the decisive battle of Leipzig (the
so-called Battle of Nations) from October 16 to 19, the allied superiority
in numbers combined with the reversal of allegiance of Napoleon’s allies,
the princes of the Confederation of the Rhine, was overpowering. Na¬
poleon whose armies had suffered irretrievable losses was forced to re¬
treat across the Rhine into France.
Now the diplomats went into action, and Metternich played a domi¬
nant role. On December 1 Napoleon was offered the natural boundaries
of France (Rhine, Alps, Pyrenees). He rejected, and the war continued.
We do not know whether the propositions were meant seriously or
whether Metternich, the originator of the proposal, wanted to expose
Napoleon as unrepentent aggressor so that the continuation of the war in
France appeared fully justified in the eyes of the public. Metternich, a
facile and somedmes loquacious writer, did not express himself on this
important point in his voluminous memoirs. Yet there is good reason to
assume that he would not have put up the plan against stiff Russian and
particularly Prussian opposion, had he discounted its acceptance from
the start. It is more likely that he played it both ways. Should Napoleon
reject the plan, continuation of the war in French territory would appear
justified in the eyes of the public. Should he accept, however, a Napo¬
leonic regime would guarantee the necessary strength and efficiency to
curb the possibilities of future revolutions in France. A Bourbon restora¬
tion would of course readily offer such guarantee. The big question
was whether a Bourbon king would be strong enough to honor a com¬
mitment of this kind. Much in Metternich’s rationalist philosophy seems
to support the notion that at that time he put more trust in Napoleonic
ruthless strength than in the staying power of the restored ancient regime.
On the other hand, Napoleon’s position as son-in-law of Emperor Francis
hardly played a role in Metternich’s or even Francis’ considerations.
Dynastic solidarity did not extend to an upstart, who was now clearly
out of luck.64
64 Srbik, Metternich, I, 163-182; Kraehe, Metternich’s German Policy, I, 313-326.
22# History of the Hahsburg Empire
Following Napoleon’s rejection, the war was carried into France after
Christmas 1813. Now the Austrian forces were superior in numbers but
not in leadership. Strategists consider the spring campaign of 1814, when
Napoleon was outnumbered four to one, as one of his most brilliant
campaigns. Schwarzenberg, a slow and undecisive general, was no match
for Napoleon’s lightening attacks; the Russians and Prussians did not do
very much better. The final victory was simply due to the exhaustion of
the French army and a change in strategy directed toward engagements
with Napoleon’s subleaders and a march on the capital rather than
battles with the main army under his command. The Allies entered
Paris on May 31, 1814, which meant the end of the Napoleonic empire.
Irrespective of allied military ineptitude, Napoleon’s end had been a
foregone conclusion for a long time. The treaty of Chaumont signed
March 9, 1814, by Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia had estab¬
lished that the Allies would conclude peace not separately but only
jointly. The French meanwhile had lost control of Italy, Holland, and
—by summer, 1814—of all Austrian Southern Slav territories.
There is no question that in Paris Talleyrand influenced the tsar con¬
cerning the restoration of the Bourbons, which as seen from the French
viewpoint would assure the frontiers of 1792. There is much reason to
speculate that Metternich for a time still considered the continued asso¬
ciation with the Bonapartic system as a better guarantee of law and
order than the Bourbon restoration. The conflict about the selection of an
appropriate French government, however, came never into the open.
The tsar accepted Talleyrand’s advice and the French Senate yielded to
the counsel of prudence but certainly not to popular enthusiasm. Accord¬
ingly, on April 6, the count of Provence was proclaimed king of France,
two days after Napoleon’s forced abdication at Fontainebleau. His hon¬
orable banishment to Elba, as whose sovereign he was recognized, fol¬
lowed. The Allies, on May 30, concluded a peace with France (first treaty
of Paris). Metternich played a decisive part in the conclusion of this
covenant, which for all times will have to be considered as model of
restraint in victory. The new French frontiers in the east were in fact
somewhat more favorable than those of 1792, before the beginning of
the war period.
On September 18, 1814, the great peace congress, whose task it was to
settle international and particularly territorial relations between all
participants of the wars of the revolutionary and Napoleonic period,
convened in Vienna. The final agreements were signed on June 9, 1815,
even before the adventure of Napoleon’s comeback attempt—the Hundred

Days regime—had ended in the disaster of Waterloo (June 18, 1815).
The end of the Napoleonic regime could be considered as permanent
by spring, 1814; the events between the return from Elba and the banish¬
ment to St. Helena were no more than a gripping historic episode,
significant only because it restored allied unity at a critical moment. As
far as Austria’s position was concerned, the return of her territories ceded
to Bavaria in 1805 had been agreed upon earlier by a special convention
in June, 1814. In July, the Southern Slav territories were also reoccupied
by Austrian troops. This preceded the opening of the Congress of Vienna.
Nevertheless, the Congress whose diplomatic conferences were presided
over by Metternich was significant for the Habsburgs. Even the choice of
the place added to their newly regained prestige. Yet except for the Ger¬
man question Austria at the Congress was primarily concerned with the
general European balance of power, rather than with specific boundary
questions, which Metternich could frequently settle in bilateral negotia¬
tions.
A discussion of the general settlement would go beyond the objective
of this study. An evaluation of the position of such eminent statesmen as
Castlereagh and Wellington for Britain, Talleyrand for France, Harden-
berg and Wilhelm von Humboldt for Prussia, Nesselrode and Capo
D’Istria for Russia to mention only a few outstanding names, is only
indirectly relevant. This applies also to the sovereigns present at the
Congress, of whom the obtuse Frederick William III of Prussia and in
particular the bright but volatile tsar disturbed rather than helped nego¬
tiations. The emperor Francis on the other hand left Metternich and his
right hand man Gentz, the secretary of the Congress, much discretionary
power.
An understanding of the Austrian position within the general European
situation but without specific discussions of the over-all European terri¬
torial problems, requires a recognition of the principles that guided the
peace-making. Metternich pursued them within possible limits with dip¬
lomatic flexibility but without dogmatism. As generally known, these
principles were legitimacy, restoration of the prerevolutionary status if pos¬
sible, adequate compensation if necessary, and balance of power between
the great European states as imperative. Austrian policies can be de¬
veloped from these tenets.65
65 Sir Charles Webster, The Congress of Vienna, (New York, 1963), pp. 164-167.
See Guglielmo Ferrero, The Principles of Power (New York, 1942), pp. 21-28, and
2 jo History of the Hubs burg Empire
Thus, it was a foregone conclusion that the Habsburgs had a claim to
get the territories back that they had lost after 1791. The claim was to
be modified, however, by the experience gained since the War of the
Spanish Succession that noncontiguous areas, however valuable otherwise,
would be difficult to defend and thus might become sources of interna¬
tional friction. Recognition of this fact meant the renunciation of the
claim to Belgium. Repossession and defense of the Vorlande in south¬
western Germany did not seem to be advisable either. Approval of the
partition of these lands between the three major southern German states,
Bavaria, Wiirttemberg, and Baden, however, bade well for cordial rela¬
tions with all of them and the possibility of Austrian leadership in the
German south. In the northeast, eastern Galicia was returned to Aus¬
tria, but the parts of Poland received in the third partition became part
of so-called Congress Poland, the trunkated Polish satellite kingdom
under the rule of the tsar. Cracow was recognized as a city republic
under the protection of the three partitioning powers of 1772 and 1796.
Austria, then, lost poorly developed territories, which had been under her
rule for only a few years. They would have been difficult to defend
against Russia, that appeared on the rapid rise to become the foremost
continental power, whose cooperation Austria needed in many ways.
Recuperation of the spoils of 1796 thus did not prove practical and was
superseded by the principle of adequate compensation. Unfortunately it
was exercised according to the views of seventeenth- and eighteenth-
century statecraft, that territorial acquisitions in the west accounted for
more than many times larger ones in the east.
Yet while renunciation of former Austrian territories appeared sen¬
sible under existing conditions, acquisition of compensatory territories
raised formidable long-range problems. Austria’s fully restored great-
power position was now to rest largely in her regained as well as her
new Italian possessions. A Lombardo-Venetian kingdom including the
Swiss Veltlin Valley, Tuscany, and Modena as appendages under Habs-
burg archdukes were involved in this deal. Such appendages came into
play in the disposition of the three north-central Italian duchies
Piacenza, Parma, and Guastalla, which were given to the emperor’s
daughter (Napoleon’s consort) Maria Louise, who had left her husband
by the same author The Reconstruction of Europe (New York, 1941), pp. 47-61,
195-216. Sir Harold Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna (New York, 1946), pp. 257-
264. Karl Griewank, Der Wiener Kongress und die Neuordnung Europas (Leipzig,
1942), pp. 111-146.
as soon as his fall appeared inevitable.00 Napoleon’s son, the former
“King of Rome,” now reduced to a modest duke of Reichsstadt (an im¬
perial domain in Bohemia), was barred from the succession and lived
from now on as a semiprisoner in the gilded cage of Schonbrunn, where
he died in 1832. Both, the emperor and Metternich, had hoped to quash
the revival of Bonapartism. Metternich lived long enough to see this
illusion shattered after the revolution of 1848. In regard to the over-all
pacification of Italy the failure of Metternich’s policy became apparent
with the return of Napoleon from Elba, when his brother-in-law Murat,
the satellite king of Naples, revolted against the new Italian order, even
before the Congress act was signed. The insurrection was quelled by
Austrian armed forces, the gallant Murat shot, and the kingdom of the
two Sicilies handed over to the hated Italian Bourbons, despised by
everybody except the staunch adherents of feudal pre-1789 Europe. Ac¬
tually Metternich himself belonged to those who were soon to hold the
regime in contempt, which reentered now the Italian scene with in¬
creased inefficiency and feebleness but compensatory cruelty. Unmistakable
warnings were on the wall in the Murat revolt, which was more national¬
ist than Bonapartist.
The moral foundations of Metternich’s Italian policy have to be under¬
stood if not defended by his concern for the balance of power. He saw no
other ways of maintaining it than by bringing Lombardy with feeble,
Venice with hardly any, and the north-central Italian duchies with brittle
dynastic bonds under the Austrian roof. Here at least almost territorial
contiguity and the possibility of military defense existed, if as Metternich
saw it, the Habsburg empire continued to be a great power. In view of
the concessions he was willing to make in the German question he felt
he had to insist on the Italian acquisitions and restitutions of former
status in the face of national resentment.
Metternich believed he could appease it in the German theater, if he
maintained the over-all Austrian power position by insisting on the con¬
trol of north-central and northeastern Italy regardless of popular opposi¬
tion. In doing so the ultimately and inevitably played in the hands of
nationalism and national liberalism. Whether this policy was erroneous
66 Parma and Guastalla were to revert after Maria Louise’s death (in 1847) to a
sideline of the Bourbons, whereas Piacenza was to remain within the Austro-Italian
political system.
Concerning the nationalist issue, see Hannah A. Strauss, The Attitude of the
Congress of Vienna towards Nationalism in Germany, Italy and Poland (New
York, 1949), pp. 85-122.
2J2 History of the Hahshurg Empire
also from a short-range viewpoint depends on the opinion whether de¬
laying actions in an indefensible position make sense or not. Metternich
may indeed have treated Italy as a merely geographic concept, a fact for
which he was justly criticized especially because he understood that
Italy meant something else.07
The core of Metternich’s policy was the German question. When he
agreed to the admission of France into the inner councils of the de¬
liberations of the Congress, he did so to counteract the threat of a Rus¬
sian-backed Prussian hegemony in Germany. When in January, 1815, he
signed a secret alliance with Britain and France against Russia and
Prussia he did not do so to block a Russian solution of the Polish ques¬
tion and a Prussian solution of the Saxon question. This would have
meant in the case of Poland the affiliation of the whole country with
Russia and in that of Saxony its complete incorporation into Prussia.
Metternich was not even predominantly concerned with the balance of
power in these instances. His attention was focused again on the over¬
all German question. This meant to him that the Germanies must be
protected from the control by one power, Prussia backed by Russia.
When he stood for German unity rather than union he took this issue
more seriously than his stand against German liberalism and constitu¬
tional government.
To achieve unity Metternich and the emperor made important con¬
cessions, including the provisions of the second peace of Paris in Novem¬
ber, 1815. Despite the agreed upon occupation of northern France by
allied troops for five years—as it turned out actually only three—and
despite the imposition of a war indemnity and the change from the
frontiers of 1792 to those of 1790, the terms were still moderate. Austria
might have done better in southwest Germany, if she had concurred in
Prussia’s demands for a harsh peace. Yet the price would have been agree¬
ment to a further Prussian aggrandizement and a further step toward
her threatening hegemony in Germany.
The Flabsburg empire could also have sabotaged the tsar’s personal fa¬
vorite project, the conclusion of the Holy Alliance of September 1815,
whose ideological and political significance is often underrated. It pledged
the adherence of the signatory sovereigns to the principles of Christian
patriarchic government in international as well as domestic affairs. The
implied endorsement of intervention by the conservative powers in the
67 Sir Charles Webster, The Congress of Vienna, pp. 142-147; Sir Harold
Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna, pp. 182-195; Griewank, Der Wiener Kongress,
pp. 236-240.
affairs of other countries kept England from participating. The more
subtly injected anti-Catholic character and the great weight carried by
Russia made the pope withhold his support. Austria might have done
likewise and would have secured for herself greater freedom of action.
Yet again in view of the further course of Austro-Prussian rivalry in re¬
gard to the German question, Metternich acquiesced.68
Proof of this policy was the charter of the German Confederation69
signed on June 8, 1815, the day before the Congress adjourned and
supplemented by the Viennese terminal act of May 15, 1820. The new as¬
sociation of thirty-nine sovereign states (four of them free cities) repre¬
sented in its greatly reduced number of members as compared with
those in the Ploly Roman Empire an adaption to more modern condi¬
tions. Basically an alliance against foreign foes, the Confederation became
an instrument of mutual defense against revolutionary activities within
member states. Indirectly this provided also for the possibility of interven¬
tion of major states in the affairs of smaller ones. Constitutional guaran¬
tees were reduced to the establishment of the ancient feudal estates diets,
travesties of genuine representative government and greater impediments
to social reforms than the government of enlightened absolutism. The
confederal diet, in permanent session in Frankfurt am Main, was to
consist of two houses: (1) the ordinary assembly, in which most states,
including the two great powers Austria and Prussia, had only one vote
each (only some of the smaller ones had to cast a joint vote); and (2) the
plenary assembly, in which the number of votes were weighted slightly
in favor of the larger states. Inasmuch as the change of the basic laws of
the Confederation required unanimity, this kind of organization meant
little more than a courteous deference to the principle of sovereignty of
the small states. Essentially also a prestige matter was the politically mean¬
ingless permanent presidency of Austria in the proceedings of the Con¬
federation. This provision hurt Prussian sensibilities but added nothing
to Austria’s power. Austria and Prussia combined were the controlling
forces in the Confederation, a fact strengthened further by the terminal
act of 1820. Apart from the right of confederal intervention in a domes¬
tic crisis of member states, the indissolubility of the association, which
68 Henry A. Kissinger, A World Restored (Boston, 1957), pp. 175-190.
69 Literature in English refers usually to the association as German or Germanic
federation and to its assembly as federal diet. Actually the organization was an
example of a confederation, that is, a union of sovereign states, where common in¬
stitutions—above all the confederal assembly and the confederate council—repre¬
sented interstate relations and agencies. They did not form a federal government, to
which the individual states were subordinated.
prohibited voluntary withdrawal, guaranteed the firm hold of the great
powers. The membership of foreign states with their German possessions
(Holland in regard to Luxemburg, Denmark to Holstein, England to
Hanover) complicated the external relations of the Confederation.
In regard to Austria, two factors were significant, which disturbed the
internal order of the association. The first was, that the Habsburg em¬
pire belonged only with those of her territories to the organization
that had been part of the Holy Roman Empire. This included the
hereditary lands, the Bohemian lands, Goricia, Trieste, parts of Istria, and
a small part of western Galicia. In other words for the Austrian domains
the membership in the German Confederation was based on historic and
not on ethnic affiliation. The second disturbing factor, which derived
from the first one, was that the alliance function of the Confederation
did not extend to Hungary, the major part of the Polish-Ruthenian terri¬
tories, and the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. Austria might thus become
involved in a war with Russia over Polish-Ruthenian territories, and with
France over Italian areas without guarantee of support from the Con¬
federation. In such a war, part of a national group—Italians or Poles—
might have to fight in the service of the Confederation and part against
it, a factor inherent in the structure of the multinational empire.
Disadvantages, in fact contradictory disadvantages, of Austria’s mem¬
bership in the Confederation were thus obvious. Yet the Habsburgs,
largely for the sake not only of heading off the national and potentially
democratic revolutionary movements, but also of an understanding with
Prussia, dropped any claims for restoration of the ancient Holy Roman
Empire. The proud heritage of the traditional Habsburg association with
its crown was neither renounced for selfless reasons nor purely in the in¬
terests of power politics. The relationship to Prussia, to the Confedera¬
tion as a whole, and to the tradition of the Holy Roman Empire, repre¬
sented the ambiguous character of a power exposed to Germanic, Slavic,
Magyar, and Italian crosscurrents. Considering the complexity of this
relationship no solution could serve as anything better than an expedient.
That of the German Confederation, which helped to assure peace in
Central Europe for a generation, was far from ideal but considering the
many possibilities of armed conflict not the worst either. The unromantic,
reactionary and—an unusual combination—at the same time antitradi-
tional character of the new organization tempts students of its history to
overlook these facts.70
70Ferrero, The Reconstruction of Europe, pp. 217-241; Griewank, Der Wiener

Kongress, pp. 207-233; Robert A. Kann, The Problem of Restoration (Berkeley,
1968), pp. 362-370; Huber, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit iy8g, I, 475-563.
Concerning Austria’s over-all situation Metternich had made far-reach¬

ing concessions in 1815 to the principles of legitimacy and restoration in
the German and Italian sphere. On the other hand, by a limited applica¬
tion of the device of adequate compensations and adjustments he had
even aggravated the situation by creating an essentially unhistoric
Lombardo-Venetian kingdom and an equally unhistoric, though some¬
what less controversial, German Confederation. He had thus created a
system of neoconservatism, that could not appeal to the power of tradi¬
tion. In this sense he was the scion of the Enlightenment. But he had
in an admittedly imperfect way secured in this manner the preserva¬
tion of peace for some time, that is peace at a price of suppression of
popular liberties and delay of essential social reforms. Yet Metternich had
to some extent modernized the new association of German states and he
had made Austria a territorially contiguous power at the price of some
justifiable territorial losses. To accomplish these ends he had to ignore
nationalism rather than fight it. Had a man of his standards tried to cope
with it, such undertaking might have brought about disaster in its be¬
ginnings as it did in the end. It cannot be held against Metternich that he
failed to jump over his own shadow—either from the viewpoint of his
character or of his rationalism in terms of time and place.
As for the last principle of Metternich’s foreign policy, establishment
and maintenance of the balance of power, his success was far-reaching
and doubly impressive, considering that he began his operations in 1809
from the position of a defeated state. By competing with England, sparing
France, curbing Prussia, and subtly blocking Russia, Metternich under
trying conditions had, indeed, in substance worked successfully for peace.
He continued to do so for a generation to come.
K. Domestic administration of Francis I (1792-1815)
The reign of Francis I can be divided into the war period from 1792
to 1815 71 and the subsequent twenty years of peace. The latter led un-
distinguishably, except for the change from a mediocre to a mentally dis¬
abled ruler (Ferdinand, the Benign, 1835-1848), to the revolution of 1848.
Permanent economic and social changes took place during the peace
period and will be covered in the following chapter. Since intellectual
trends during the Franciscan era will be treated separately, the discussion
in this section can be brief.
As noted before, the domestic reign of Francis did not begin with a
renunciation of the aims of Josephinism but rather as a continuation of
its objectives of further centralization, true to form but entirely lacking
71 Only in 1812 technically against Russia and not against France.
2]6 History of the Habsburg Empire
the spirit of the reform era. We mentioned the shock effect of the radical
executions in France and the discovery of the so-called Jacobin con¬
spiracies in Budapest, Vienna, and Graz, leading to numerous arrests
in 1794 and several executions and barbarous jail sentences the following
year. The political activities of those participating in the plot were
limited, but the scare raised by the social composition of these groups was
considerable. The involvement of respectable government officials of
fairly high rank, professors, burghers of means, let alone the subversive
priest Martinovic, filled the emperor’s narrow mind with fear. The fact
that most conspirators happened to be freemasons, which had nothing to
do with their Jacobin affiliations, made him feel that anything not in the
limelight of public inspection was suspicious. Public discussion of con¬
troversial questions was not acceptable to the regime. Emperor Francis
neither requested nor even welcomed support of his policies. Its accep¬
tance would have implied recognition of the importance of public opin¬
ion. This in turn might eventually have led to recognition of public
criticism. The sovereign asked for quiet obedience, the motto of his sys¬
tem of government. Added to this attitude was his fear that because
difficult problems went over his head, his advisers might disregard his
orders. This fear forced him to decide frequently important matters with¬
out proper consultation with his advisers, because he felt unable to cope
with their arguments. Thus we face a strangely contradictory system
of sometimes precipitate but usually vacillating and often inconsistent
decisions.
As noted, Francis’ regime moved in the beginning in the direction of
strict centralization including Hungarian, Belgian, and Italian affairs.
Yet in 1793 the financial agenda and the government of the Belgian and
Italian domains were again separated from the over-all administration.
In 1801 political, financial, and even judicial agenda were merged anew
on the highest level. Maria Theresa’s State Council was dissolved and
replaced by a so-called Conference Ministry in three departments (foreign
affairs, armed forces, interior). In 1808 the emperor reversed himself
once more—the Conference Ministry was dissolved and the State Coun¬
cil restored.
More permanent were changes introduced in 1802. The United Court
Chancery was now entrusted with German, Bohemian, Galician, and
Italian affairs. The judicial administration was separated again from
the political administration and the financial and commercial affairs were
given over to an empire-wide court chamber. The State Council operated
now in four sections (general administration, judicial affairs, military,
and financial agenda). At least one member of every one of these four
sections was to be a Hungarian. Above the State Council was the Con¬
ference Council entrusted with agenda that could not be disposed of by
the State Council. Yet none of these collegiate bodies could be blamed
for imperfect operation. The emperor consulted frequently with in¬
dividual members rather than with the whole body. Often he failed to
inform an adviser, that he had asked somebody else to deal with one of
the adviser’s affairs.72
In 1813 a separate minister of finance was appointed. After the
emperor’s death a state conference under the chairmanship of the
emperor’s brother, Archduke Louis, two other archdukes, Metternich,
and the minister of state, Count Anton Kolowrat, was established to
handle affairs on behalf of the mentally retarded successor, Ferdinand.
The estates structure as it had been restored under Emperor Leopold II
remained in substance unchanged, which meant a policy of ignoring the
estates rather than fighting them. Even the bow to the estates constitu¬
tions embedded in the Charter of the German Confederation did not
change this. In this respect the centralist trend initiated by Maria Theresa
was continued, except for Hungary. Here the diet, a body somewhat more
representative than a mere estates assembly, was regularly summoned to
pass on governmental requests for taxation and conscription. A conflict
with the diet in 1811-1812, however, concerning the demand for recogni¬
tion of the state bankruptcy and its devaluation of money led to con¬
tinued prorogations until 1825, when efforts to have the coronation of
Ferdinand secured made reconciliation with the diet necessary. From
now on the Hungarian diet was convened regularly again, not so the
Translylvanian, which met only twice during Francis’ reign.73 Abso¬
lutism, dominant throughout his regime, was even more firmly in the
saddle during the years of peace after 1815 when the impact of public
dissatisfaction seemed less dangerous. This trend pertained also to the
administration on the local level in Austria, where the remaining urban
elective offices were gradually changed to appointive ones.
More positive should be the evaluation of the judicial administration,
where the separation of justice from administration was now generally
recognized, in the lower courts as well as in the two instances of the
72 Huber and Dopsch, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte pp. 302-323; Ernst C

Hellbling, Osterreichische Verfassungs- und V' erwaltungsgeschichte (Vienna, 1956),
pp. 323-330; Friedrich Walter, Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschi¬
chte (Vienna-Cologne-Graz, 1972), pp. 118-138.
73 Marczali, Ungarische V erf assungsgeschichte, pp. 125-129.
courts of appeal. Patrimonial jurisdiction was further restricted, not so
much for humanitarian reasons but to uphold the principles of absolute
central government.
The few outstanding achievements of Franciscan government are two
of three major legislative works, new codes of civil procedure, criminal
law, and civil law. Between 1796 and 1816 the code on civil procedure
had been introduced in several crownlands and the Lombardo-Venetian
kingdom, but it was never recognized in all Habsburg lands outside of
Hungary.74 With its cumbersome written procedure this code did not
represent a marked improvement over that of 1781. The Code of Crim¬
inal Law of 1803 initiated by Emperor Leopold II, but strongly influenced
by earlier Josephin legislation, has frequently been unfairly criticized.
Changed by several piecemeal revisions and one major one in 1852, it is
in essence still in force, though about to be replaced while these lines are
written. No code of criminal law can do justice to social changes brought
about in the course of five generations. Imperative as the needs for a new
code are today as indeed they have been for almost a century, the old one
was a remarkable, sophisticated legislative achievement in its theoretical
aspects concerning the responsibility of the individual. It was surpassed,
however, by the general civil code of 1811, drafted by a commission under
the chairmanship of Franz von Zeiller and tested first in Galicia. Here
the Josephin legislative drafts were of primary importance. The revisions
of the Code of Criminal Law never succeeded in bringing it up to date
but those of the Code of Civil Law have accomplished just that. This
code has thus become the crowning achievement of Austrian legislative
efforts. With only one major revision some fifty years ago it has stood the
test of time to this day and is still recognized as the greatest legislative
work in the judicial sphere in the German language orbit. At the same
time it is a monument of Austrian culture, not fully recognized outside
the legal sphere. Emperor Francis deserves at least the negative credit
that he did not wreck this work. More deserving of praise are Joseph II
and the members of the codification commissions whose efforts succeeded
in bringing about a synthesis between principles of natural law, en¬
lightened etatism, and legal tradition. The high standards of this code
and that of criminal law are illustrated by the clear language of these
instruments. In this respect they surpassed previous as well as future codi¬
fications. The correlation with the evolution of classicism in German liter¬
ature is noteworthy.75
74 None of these codifications in the judicial sphere pertained to Hungary.

75 See Strakosch, State Absolutism and the Rule of Law, pp. 152-217; Ernst
Swoboda, Franz von Zeiller (Graz, 1931).
Military reforms under the influence of Archduke Charles and Count

Stadion have been referred to. The chief problem, even more important
than the badly needed reorganization of the army itself, was that of
raising military forces sufficient in numbers for the major engagements
ahead. Two seemingly conflicting trends in the administration which,
however, were meant to serve this purpose became apparent. Beginning
with the year 1795, service exemptions were gradually restricted though
by 1827 they still applied for instance to nobles, government officials,
physicians, students, peasants who had to cultivate larger farms, and sons
who supported their parents. At the same time, to make the service less
intolerable, life-term obligations were reduced in 1802 in the hereditary
lands to commitments ranging from 10 to 14 years, and by 1845 in the
ITabsburg lands outside of Hungary altogether to 8 years, in Hungary in
1839-1840 to 10 years.
In the course of the reforms inititated in 1802, military justice was
improved and the cruel military discipline somewhat modified. These
reforms, though on a smaller scale than those introduced by Scharnhorst,
Gneisenau, and Boyen in Prussia, actually preceded them. One complicat¬
ing factor different from Prussia was the lack of popular appeal of mili¬
tary service after 1813; but the establishment of a national militia in the
wars of 1809 and 1813, joined by volunteers, offset the impact of the man¬
power crisis during a most critical period of Austrian history. On the
other hand, the success of the militia system at that time obscured the
seriousness of the manpower problem for many years.76
The peasant population in Austria did not only bear the hardship of
long-time military service. The conversion of personal services to the
lords into monetary dues initiated so unsuccessfully by Joseph, was after
1797 left entirely to “free” agreements between lord and subject. In
Hungary similar legislation was introduced during the last years of
Francis’ reign. In conjunction with the decrees issued by Leopold II this
meant for all practical purposes a full retreat to conditions during the sec¬
ond half of Maria Theresa’s reign, rather than an effort to improve on
the Josephin legislation.
In one sphere, state-church relations, Emperor Francis seemed to be
pleased with Joseph’s legislation: complete state control, though in con¬
trast to its administration under the great emperor one lacking all social
considerations. Changes within the Church in a more conservative direc¬
tion were encouraged under governmental control. Marriage legislation
remained under jurisdiction of the state, but the state incorporated the
principles of ecclesiastic law into state legislation—the one inevitable,
76 Rossler, Graf fohann Philipp Stadion, I, 233-235, 263-267.
glaring weakness of the Civil Code of 1811. Thus divorce of Catholic
marriages was prohibited—a Catholic to be defined as somebody who,
irrespective of his later persuasion, was born into the faith. Influence of
the Church on elementary and intermediate education—again under state
supervision—was strengthened. The monastic legislation of the Josephin
era was somewhat loosened.77 Young men and women were allowed now
to join orders at the age of twenty-one. The papal decision to restore the
Jesuit Order led to its readmission in Austria and although its influence
became substantial again, the order never regained the powers there it
had held before its dissolution. The establishment of the Redemptorist
congregation (Liguorian Order in Austria) under the influence of its out¬
standing member Clemens Maria Hofbauer (later sainted) did not suc¬
ceed fully in strengthening social-welfare interests within the Church in
his lifetime.78
The narrow approach of the official Church in Austria to educational
and social problems (see Chapter VI. E) did not mean impoverishment
of the faith. Outside of the sphere of state-church relations contemporary
Catholic intellectual life injected interesting and frequently constructive
new ideas into society at large.
The same cannot be said wherever state and Church intervened offi¬
cially. There was some improvement in the purely administrative aspects
of elementary education, but this was ofifset by the fact, that parish priests
and ecclesiastic deans were now entrusted by the state with the full super¬
vision of education in their districts. The number of advanced institu¬
tions in secondary education increased somewhat. But here again clerical
control was on the rise and censorship was tightened. Moderate progress
could be seen, however, in the establishment of technical colleges of
university rank in Prague (1812) and Vienna (1815), none in the uni¬
versities themselves. This does not exclude, of course, outstanding scholarly
achievements of specific individuals.79
Technological progress in industry during the protracted war period of
the first half of Francis’ regime was slow, even though the best-developed
Austrian industry, textile manufacture, in the Bohemian lands and in
Lower Austria benefited from the Continental Blockade, when English
competition was eliminated for a time. The initial development of sugar
77 Josef Wodka, Kirche in Osterreich (Vienna, 1959), pp. 312-320; Anton Weiss,
Geschichte der osterreichischen V ol\sschule iyg2-i848 (Graz, 1964), Vol. II.
78 Rudolf Till, Hofbauer und sein Kreis (Vienna, 1951), pp. 59-77.
79 Richard Meister, Entwickjung und Reform des osterreichischen Studienwesens
(Vienna, 1963), I, 44-53.
refineries benefited also from the restriction of imports, and the Bohemian
glass industry, a true quality industry, progressed. Yet the chief impedi¬
ment of large-scale industrial progress was the lack of governmental and
private capital, brought about by the prolonged financial crisis of the
war period and the first years afterward. Apart from the exorbitant costs
of the war, mismanagement played a part. Austrian high dignitaries in¬
volved in domestic administration, such as Archduke Charles and Count
Stadion had only a limited understanding of financial affairs and of the
relationship of a sound economy to the war effort. The ablest administra¬
tor in this domain, Count Franz Saurau, the president of the Lower
Austrian gubernium, had only a territorially restricted jurisdiction, and
Emperor Francis’ top financial adviser after 1809, and technically speak¬
ing his first minister of finance, Count Joseph Wallis, proved to be a
poor administrator and an even worse consultant. Inflation had existed in
Austria throughout the reign of Joseph II. Great military expenditures
could not be covered by the disappointing results of agricultural and in¬
dustrial reforms. The public debt at the beginning of the reign of Leopold
II amounted to 375 million guilders in government bonds. Only after
1796 did they have to be accepted, however, as payment in lieu of cash. At
that time paper money was introduced officially as legal tender.
The situation soon worsened. By 1809 coins were hoarded. Even copper
coins disappeared from circulation. The public debt had risen to nearly
700 million guilders and was to rise further. Private credit was unobtain¬
able. In March, 1811, a decree signed by the emperor a month before it
was published, declared in effect state bankruptcy. The value of the paper
guilder, officially the full equivalent of the silver coin, amounted in effect
(that is, in private trade) only to one-twelfth. But the decree reduced
the banknotes merely to one-fifth of their nominal value. Moreover,
the secret of the governmental transaction was badly kept, and specula¬
tion profited widely before the official announcement. A governmental
promise that henceforth no more paper money would be printed could
not be kept.80 In fact, the wars of 1813-1814 were fully financed by re¬
course to inflationary measures, which increased the public debt further.
Only the establishment of an Austrian National Bank in 1816, which
coincided roughly with the end of the war and the termination of the
concomitant expenditures gradually stabilized the situation. The influx
80 Johanna Kraft, Die Finanzreform des Grafen Wallis und der Staatsban\erott
von 1811 (Graz, 1927); Anton Springer, Geschichte Osterreichs seit dem Wiener
Frieden i8og (Leipzig, 1863), I, 139-278; Viktor Bibl, Der Zerjall Osterreichs
(Vienna, 1922), Vol. I, Kaiser Franz und sein Erbe, 194-202.
o£ the French war indemnity imposed in 1815 helped to ease condi¬
tions.81 Chief sufferers from the devaluation and the continued price rise
during the wars were, of course, employees with fixed incomes. But in¬
dependent craftsmen and small merchants were also hurt by the increase
of food prices as were peasants by that of manufactured goods. In other
words, the lower middle class and daily wage earners suffered most.
The state bankruptcy in itself may have been necessary, but the way
it was initiated by insufficient measures and defended by false promises
turned it into a failure also in a psychological sense. A wide credibility
gap was created between the Austrian people and their government, which
did not make for ready acceptance of the sacrifices.
The first part of the Franciscan reign had ended with a limited but
impressive success in the arena of international relations. In the domestic-
economic field it had proved to be a failure, camouflaged by continued
stress on the hardships of war. The second part of the reign, though
under less external strain, revealed also gradually that the insufficiency of
government could be explained but not excused by reference to events
beyond its control.
81 Rossler, Graf Johann Philipp Stadion, II, 149-220.

CHAPTER VI
Standstill, Decline and Stabilization
(i815-1879)
The span of two generations from the Congress of Vienna to the con¬
clusion of the Austro-German alliance covers a fairly homogeneous
period but its beginnings and end mark considerable change. In 1814-1815
the Habsburg empire was reestablished as a great European power, al¬
though its restored influence was more due to its central position in the
balance between east and west than to a great military potential. Second
in strength only to Russia and Britain at the beginning of the new era,
at its end Austria had to yield also to the second German empire, and in
global respects to France. Her great-power status after the conclusion of
the alliance of 1879, according to which she had to operate under the
umbrella of Germany’s strength, was more nominal than real. In domestic
policies these sixty-odd years present the transition from absolutism to
constitutional government, a transition with several ups and downs, but on
the whole leading to remarkable results. Fairly clear were also the char¬
acteristics of the era in intellectual history. It comprised romanticism,
the Slavic renaissance, the rise and decline of a new liberalism, and the
dawn of an integral nationalism. These and other intellectual trends,
however, did not occur among all Habsburg peoples at the same time
and under the same social conditions. Therefore, these complex problems
of ideological change are discussed separately in Chapter VII.
A. FOREIGN POLICY (1815-1879)
It is easier to trace a continuous course of Austrian history in inter¬

national relations than in any other field. Without losing sight of the
243
decisive impact of domestic developments on foreign affairs, it is still
possible to survey them in their entirety and discuss concomitant internal
politics later.
The loss of Austria’s Italian and German position is a dominant theme.
Both were influenced by the break with Russia, brought about by the
Crimean War. This rift was never healed and was still a cause of the
unfortunate position in which Austria found herself when World War I
broke out in 1914. Yet it is true also, that all these reversals, which be¬
came fully manifest only with the outcome of the Crimean War, could
not have had such an adverse impact on the Habsburg monarchy, if the
congressional system of 1815, so ingeniously designed by Metternich and
Castlereagh, would not have shown serious cracks within less than a
decade and almost complete paralysis by 1830.
It might be said that Metternich, advanced to the position of state
chancellor in 1821, was as controlling agent though never as “coachman
of Europe,” as the shallow phrase goes, in command of the machinery of
the Concert of Europe until 1822. This means during the brief period,
when one can speak of a system of government by international con¬
ferences. In 1818 at the conference of Aix la Chapelle, the occupation of
northern France by the four allied powers was terminated in substance
and France as fifth great power was readmitted to the Concert of Europe,
irrespective of the continuation of the wartime quadruple alliance be¬
tween Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia. Under the Bourbons the
readmission of France strengthened undoubtedly the conservative system.
What seemed even more important, the weaker and less aggressive
western flank of Europe was braced against Russia and Prussia.
The second and third conferences at Troppau in 1819 and at Laibach
(Ljubljana) in 1820 proved how necessary the strengthening of the
system was from the standpoint of Metternich’s policy. At Troppau
the great powers agreed in principle to check the revolutionary move¬
ments in Spain, Portugal, and the kingdom of the two Sicilies. At
Laibach, in January, 1821, the Austrian armed intervention against
the popular insurrection in Naples was actually decided upon against
the counsel but not against the open dissent of the British and French
governments. Austrian troops restored order in Naples as well as in
Piedmont, where Torino was occupied. Neither of these interventions
had to cope with significant armed resistance, yet by openly aligning
Austrian interests with the shameful despotism of the Italian Bourbons,
repugnant even to Metternich, Habsburg power began to present itself
to moderately enlightened and liberal Europe as the jailer of Italian na~
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 245
tional liberties. The Austrian government could probably in the long run
not have avoided the confrontation with the Italian national movement if
it wanted to hold on to the territories secured in 1814-1815, but Austria
might conceivably have defended her Italian position in a spirit of con¬
ciliation and concession. Such an attitude would not have solved the
problem but it might have blunted the fierce hatred of progressive forces,
not only in Italy but all throughout Europe. This factor made its influence
felt in all aspects of Austrian international relations in the coming
decades.
Not lack of skill on Metternich’s part, but the impossibility to restore
Austria’s great-power rank without strengthening the untenable Italian
position at the Congress of Vienna were responsible for this turn of
events. The Congress of Verona in 1822, which agreed upon the French
intervendon in support of the Spanish Bourbon regime in France, a
hardly less disgraceful one than that in Naples, did not concern Austrian
interests as directly as the Italian national movement. Yet in as much as
this decision led to the British breakaway from the congressional system
of foreign intervention in the domestic affairs of other states, the long-
range effect of the French massive military action in Spain proved to be
even more unfavorable to Austrian conservative interests than the inter¬
vention in Italy. The withdrawal of Britain meant that the congressional
system had proved to be unworkable by now. British isolationism became
now, if not a fact, a probability. Consequently, Russia’s rising inordinate
strength among the continental powers made a mockery of the balance-
of-power idea. This fact was put to the test in the Greek revolution and
war of independence from 1821 to 1830. Metternich, to whom legitimacy
meant more than alleged Christian principles of government, had pre¬
vailed with difficulty on Tsar Alexander I not to intervene openly on be¬
half of the Greek independence movement against the Ottoman empire. He
might even have succeeded in this respect also with Alexander’s harsher
successor Nicholas I, if he had had to deal with the impact of Russian
imperialism alone which hoped to establish an orthodox satellite regime
in the Balkans. Metternich’s failure to curb Russian designs was pri¬
marily due to the Russian-British agreement of 1826 which made it clear
that the two great flanking powers of Europe had resolved in part to
share and in part to divide an eastern Mediterranean sphere of influence.
In any case, the preservation of the status quo of 1814-1815 meant no
longer anything to them and was discarded. Thus the renunciation of the
congressional system by the mightiest conservative empire, unimpeded by
the leading naval power, preceded the proclamation of full Greek inde-
pendence. Yet this was not the only event of the year 1830 which unhinged
the Metternich system.1
The July revolution of that dramatic year in France which replaced the
pseudo-constitutional Bourbon monarchy with the pseudo-parliamentary
Orleans monarchy represented another patent defeat for Metternich’s
policy. As it turned out, the Orleans regime of Louis Philippe proved to
be less liberal than Metternich had feared originally and the tricolor under
the Orleans was hardly more revolutionary than the lily banner under
the Bourbons. And yet Metternich, and again from his point of view
rightly, was afraid of the precedent generating impact of the situation.2
This was indeed manifested by the separation of Belgium from Holland
just a month later, by the Polish revolution suppressed only the following
year, and by new risings in central Italy which required Austrian military
intervention.
To Metternich the revolutionary impact of Carbonari underground
activities and a much publicized Mazzinian Young Italy movement, par¬
alleled by a wave of liberal pro-Hellenic and pro-Polish sentiments
throughout Europe, would have seemed less dangerous if he still could
have dared to cooperate fully with Russia. Yet in the critical July days of
1830, confronted with the prospect of allowing Russian military interven¬
tion in France, which would have entailed the marching through and
perhaps even stationing of Russian troops in the territories of the German
Confederation, he submitted to the lesser evil of the recognition of the
Orleans monarchy. A system, afraid more of the protection by its own
guardians than by the activities of its enemies, had defeated itself.
Yet it had not defeated itself completely. The German question per¬
mitted still and required a measure of cooperation by the eastern powers.
“Das Hemd ist naher als der Rock.” In other words cooperation in the
German orbit, as a center of the Habsburg power position, was more
important for Austria and Prussia, than the struggle for the economic
and political supremacy in the Germanies. The same applied to Russia.
At the stage of political conditions between 1815 and 1848 the ruling
system in the Habsburg empire could be damaged and weakened by
revolts in Italy and the east. It could be destroyed, however, by revolu¬
tionary movements in Germany. The same was true for Prussia. Both
tsars, Alexander I and Nicholas I, acted accordingly.
1 Nicholas C. Irby, European Pentarchy and the Congress of Vienna (Ithaca,

1971), passim. John A. R. Marriot, The Eastern Question (Oxford, 1951), pp. 193-
224; Heinrich von Srbik, Metternich: Der Staatsmann und Mensch (Munich,
1925), I, 629-655.
2 Ibid., I, 645-682. George H. F. Berkeley, Italy in the Maying, 3 vols. (Cam¬
bridge, 1932-1940), see Vol. I.
The Metternich regime, in particular under the influence of the state

chancellor’s most influential counsellor in German affairs, Gentz, had
viewed with concern the radical national and, to a point, liberal demon¬
stration of German youth at the Wartburg festivities of 1817. The assas¬
sination of the playwright August von Kotzebue—allegedly, but not in
the real meaning of the term, a police spy in the service of the Russian
government—by a romantic nationalist student, Karl Sand, in March,
1819, seemed to confirm these fears. Considering the limited extent and as
yet limited appeal of the Burschenschajten, the short-range impact of this
movement was not great, its long-range effect, particularly on the events
of 1848, is arguable, but the inordinately severe response of the Metternich
system against transgression of German intellectual life was certain.
Metternich took the initiative in the proceedings of the Carlsbad Con¬
gress (August 6-31, 1819) which concerned itself largely with the police
supervision of intellectual, particularly academic activities. Actually
Austria with her only modestly developed university system and public
cultural activities, was in this respect far less directly affected than several
other member states of the German Confederation represented at the con¬
ference such as Prussia, Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony, Wurttemberg, Baden,
Nassau, and Saxony-Weimar. Moreover, Metternich himself insisted on
cooperation with the tsar, even though Russia had only an ideological-
political and no legal stake in the situation. The Carlsbad Decrees, ap¬
proved under Austro-Prussian pressure by the Bundestag in Frankfurt the
following month by unanimous vote, provided in substance for strict gov¬
ernmental university control, prohibition of all student associations, in
particular the Burschenschaften, strict censorship of publications, above
all of brochures and pamphlets, and the establishment of a confederal
central investigation commission of subversive activities in Mayence, en¬
trusted also with the task of blacklisting politically suspicious persons.
Valid originally for only five years, the Carlsbad Decrees, at the behest of
Austria and Prussia, were obligingly renewed for an indefinite period in
1824 and voided only under pressure during the March revolution of 1848.
These joint efforts to defend the German Confederation and indirectly
also the Habsburg territories to the east against a coming revolution, were
in some degree instrumental in fermenting internal unrest among intel¬
lectuals, though this unrest stirred up Prussia and central Germany north
of the Main more than the relative quietism in the Catholic south and
particularly in the Austro-German hereditary lands.
The necessity for political cooperation of the ruling regimes explains
also why the Prussian efforts for a German customs union, excluding
Austria, were so successful and the failure of the Habsburg policies to
check them so spectacular. Prussian economic policy was in part
prompted and in part helped by the fact that the industrial revolution had
made greater progress in Germany than in Austria. The advantages of a
customs union, initiated by Prussia as early as 1819, appeared more con¬
spicuous to the German member states of the Confederation than to the
Austrian statesmen. Metternich’s feeble efforts to delay a German eco¬
nomic union, which easily might become a political one to the detriment
of Austria, were unsuccessful, in part also because he wanted to avoid a
political showdown with Prussia as long as the political philosophy of
the Prussian government was agreeable to him. Political considerations
preceded economic ones. Accordingly his means of checking the Prussian
designs were ineffective. A South German customs union, consisting of
Baden and Wurttemberg and a large Central German union of Saxony,
Planover, Kurhessen, and the Thuringian states, both concluded in 1828,
were favored by Austria. Just the same, most members joined the
Deutsche Zollverein, which became a reality on January 1, 1834. It com¬
prised most states of the Confederation except for Austria, Baden, the
Hansa cities, Nassau, and Mecklenburg. Altogether, this union comprised
23,000,000 people and in part territories with high cultural and economic
standards. It is not too much to say, that the materialization of the Zoll¬
verein stood for a preliminary decision, that the coming political struggle
for the supremacy in Germany would result in the victory of Prussia. No
matter how reactionary the Prussian regime under Frederick William III
and Frederick William IV was, no matter how brutal—indeed more brutal
than in Austria—the persecutions of the “demagogues” were, the German
nation associated the idea of German unification with a reformed and
liberalized Prussia and not with a predominantly agricultural and
predominantly non-Germanic Habsburg empire.3
The question arises whether the death of Emperor Francis in 1835
changed matters for better or worse. The replacement of a petty tyrant by
a feeble-minded successor, the new emperor Ferdinand, dubbed “the
Benign,” changed little. The absurdly excessive application of the principle
of legitimacy adhered to by Francis and Metternich, namely the succession
of an incapacitated man because he was the next heir to the throne,
damaged the system itself. On the other hand, the intellectual equipment
of the second prince in the line of succession, Archduke Francis Charles,
the father of the future emperor Francis Joseph, was not impressive
3 Theodore J. Hamerow, Restoration, Revolution, Reaction: Economics and

Politics in Germany, 1815-18J1 (Princeton, 1966), pp. 10-16; Heinrich von Srbik,
Deutsche Einheit: Idee und Wir\lich\eit vom heiligen Reich bis Koniggratz
(Munich, 1963), I, 257-283.
either. In this sense the State Conference established in 1836, nominally to

assist but actually to replace the emperor, could hardly do worse and in
some respect might have done better than a Ferdinand or Francis Charles
who would have had free reign. The conference was presided over by
Emperor Francis’ most undistinguished brother, Archduke Louis. Francis
Charles added little lustre to it, while the only gifted and by character
strongest scions of the imperial house, archdukes Charles and John, were
excluded by the will of the late emperor. Decisive influence in council
was held by Metternich and by Count Anton Kolowrat, since 1826 con¬
ference minister and in charge of financial and of over-all domestic
policies. Thus in internal policies it is perhaps more correct to speak for
the last two decades of the restoration period of a Kolowrat regime
rather than a Metternich regime. Yet the philosophy of the restoration
system in external and the police system in internal affairs was associated
with Metternich all over Europe. In any case, two statesmen of stature
were the leading members of the state conference. Metternich, though he
had passed the peak of his success, was still considered a man of foremost
experience in foreign affairs. Kolowrat, a more capable administrator,
had at least a limited understanding for the problems of nationalism in
its conservative and traditional historical-political pattern.4 5
In 1833, at the entrevue of Miinchengratz in Bohemia the old emperor
Francis had received the solemn promise of the tsar, that he would sup¬
port the antirevolutionary policies conducted in the name of the de¬
bilitated heir. Considering Nicholas’ sentiments of conservative chivalry
there was no reason to doubt the seriousness of this pledge. There was
complete cooperation in the settlement of the Turkish-Egyptian crisis of
1840 and in the conclusion of the Dardanelles treaty the following year,
which closed the Straits in peacetime to the men of war of all nations. Yet
these were matters of no immediate concern to the Habsburgs. A better
test of still harmonious relations with Russia was the incorporation of the
Free City State of Cracow in 1846 into Austrian territory, which, following
the Polish insurrection in Galicia, took place with the full endorsement of
the two other partitioning powers of old. The Polish Piedmont seemed
to be destroyed. Equally important for Austria, the incorporation, com¬
bined with the conspicuous factor of Russian and Prussian intolerance
against their Polish subjects, helped to give a relatively moderate Habs-
burg Polish policy the chance of smooth sailing for a long time.6
4 Eduard Winter, Romantismus, Restauration und Fruhliberalismus im oster-

reichischen Vormdrz (Vienna, 1968), pp. 206-211; Srbik, Metternich, II, 8-24.
5 Hanns Schlitter, Aus Osterreichs Vormdrz (Vienna, 1920), I, Galizien und
Krakau, 19-34.
The revolution of 1848-1849, as far as domestic policies are concerned,
was of supreme importance for the Habsburg empire. The same is not
fully true for foreign affairs, which changed the anticipated course of
international relations only in regard to the German question and only
intermittently for some years. Yet the German question was as much and
perhaps even more an issue of domestic as of foreign policy and has to
be viewed from both angles. Only the latter will be reviewed at this point.
•Ôn March 13, 1848, unrest in Vienna was fermented by students, young
professional men, mostly representatives of the better-educated citizenry.
These liberal forces found support from the workers in the suburbs. Their
initial success might have remained illusory had it not been for the tran¬
sitory backing by moderate, even conservative reformers, whose influence
reached at least briefly members of the imperial house such as the arch¬
duchess Sophie, mother of the 'heir presumptive Francis Joseph and the
archduke John, youngest brother of Emperor Francis. These conservative
circles, more influential than the unorganized liberals, forced the resigna¬
tion of Metternich. They and particularly the intriguing archduchess did
not do so because they disagreed with the principles of his foreign policy
and even less so because they sympathized with revolutionary activities.
,They simply believed that evolutionary moderate reforms of the estates
system, as proposed by the able and sincere former Tyrolian estates
member, Victor von Andrian-Werburg, and his ideological friend, the
artillery captain (later general) Karl Moering, might help to contain a
potentially dangerous revolutionary situation. Above all, they concurred
that the name of Metternich served as European cliche symbol of reaction
and hostility to reforms, even though the conduct of foreign policy had
only an indirect and not immediately apparent connection with the
revolutionary events. This is the principal reason why Metternich had to
go, and it serves also as explanation of the fact that his downfall could
unbalance foreign relations for a time but not basically change them.
Metternich’s enemies at the court who were in principle enemies of the
revolution as well, would probably have reconsidered their attack against
the chancellor’s shaky position, had they foreseen the course of revolu¬
tionary events just for a week.
Actually Austria’s foreign relations were not primarily determined by
the conservative or liberal domestic regime of individual powers but by
the change or threat of change of the European equilibrium in general.
As seen from the vantage point of foreign policy, this is the explanation
why the turmoil of the events of the liberal revolution returned relations
to the revolutionary Germanies and Italy to the status quo, whereas those
to an ideological ally like tsarist Russia permanently changed the Euro¬

pean picture of international relations.
The revolutionary period in Austrian domestic policies ended in a
larger sense neither with the dissolution of the Austrian Reichstag of
Kremsier in March 1849 nor even with the surrender of the Hungarian
insurrectionists in August, 1849, at Vilagos, but with the official reestab¬
lishment of absolutism throughout the empire by decree (New Year’s
Eve Patent of 1851). This event almost coincides with the termination of
the crisis in foreign policy, the so-called Prussian Capitulation of Olmutz
(Olomuc) to Austria’s ultimatum in November, 1850.
During the revolutionary period we have to focus our attention in re¬
gard to foreign policy on three main theaters. First the revolution in Italy
and the invasion of Lombardy by the Sardinian army; second the revolu¬
tion (later the war of independence) in Hungary, although this extreme
crisis concerns us at this point only so far as it forced the Austrian govern¬
ment in May, 1849, to make the humiliating demand for Russian military
support; third the struggle about and around the German issue. Events
in all three theaters were, of course, to some extent interrelated. Even
though R.ussian military help was requested at a time when the inter¬
vention of Piedmont-Sardinia had been repulsed already, the Habsburg
armies save for the Italian crisis would probaly have been able to put
down the Hungarian insurrection so speedily and decisively that Russian
intervention would not have become necessary.6 The conflict about and
around the German issue, which goes back as far as the Silesian wars
between Frederick II and Maria Theresa, would have come about re¬
gardless of the Italian and Hungarian confrontations, yet here too Austria
could have acted sooner and more energetically against Prussian claims, if
it had not been for the divisionary events in other theaters of action.
Finally, the Austrian dependency on Russian support in the Hungarian
crisis foreclosed the possibilities of a more flexible course in German
affairs, which might have been frowned upon by the last despotic ruler in
the old style European sense, Tsar Nicholas I.
We begin with the revolutionary events in Italy. Disorders and public
demonstrations against the hated Austrian regime in Brescia, Milan, and
Padua had preceded the outbreak of the revolution in Vienna by several
months. Following the signal of Metternich’s downfall, the revolution
started in earnest on March 17 in Venice, where Daniel Manin, an in¬
veterate liberal foe of Austrian rule and early champion of Italian unifica-
6 On the background history of the Russian intervention see Elisabeth Andies,

Das Bundnis Habsburg-Romanow (Budapest, 1963), pp. 7-105.
tion, proclaimed a republican government. The following day the revolu¬
tion spread to Milan, the center of Austrian administration and economic
and cultural activities in the Italian territories. On March 25 the army of
King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia invaded Lombardy. He had
himself proclaimed king of Upper Italy in June. The Sardinian invasion
would not have posed a major military threat, except for the fact that the
Habsburg empire had to be prepared for other risings in its far-flung
realms. Just as serious was the fact that the Italian national movement
found active support throughout the peninsula and strong sympathies in
France. On the other hand the Italians were the one enemy whom the
Austrian forces fought consistently with military success. The Austrians
were well experienced in this arena, and strong fortifications, particularly
the so-called quadrilateral fortresses to the south of Lake Garda, served
their purpose well. The aged commander in chief, Count Joseph Ra-
detzky, chief of staff of Prince Charles Schwarzenberg in the battle of Leip¬
zig in 1813, was an experienced soldier. His quarter master general and
chief of staff, Baron Heinrich Hess, was likewise a capable officer. The
military efficiency of the Sardinian-Piedmontese troops was not on a par
with their strong motivation and individual bravery in many instances.
The same observation was true for the Italian performance in 1859, 1866,
and 1915-1918. In August, 1848, the Sardinians were defeated, after the
Austrians had scored a decisive victory at Custozza on July 25. The
duchies Modena and Parma were freed too as seen from the Austrian
viewpoint or submitted to renewed oppression as seen from the Italian.
On August 9, 1848, Charles Albert was forced to evacuate the territories
under direct Austrian rule or protectorate and an armistice was signed.
Yet in January, 1849, a new revolt began in Tuscany. It followed the out¬
break of the revolution in Hungary on a large scale by a few weeks.
When the conflagration spread there further, Charles Albert made another
try and invaded Lombardy in March, 1849 again. A week later, defeated
by Radetzky at Novara, he abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emman¬
uel II, who immediately concluded an armistice with Austria.7 Peace was
signed with the assistance of British mediation on August 6, 1849.
Piedmont-Sardinia was obliged to pay an indemnity of 75 million francs,
but she could at least maintain the territorial status quo. Two weeks
later the republican regime in Venice came to an end. Manin fled to
France, and the Austrians repossessed the city and province.
One consequence of the Italian risings was the ineffectiveness of the
7 Oskar Regele, Feldmarschall Radetzky (Vienna, 1957), pp. 233-320; Berkeley,

see III, 97-394-
Austrian campaign in Hungary which eventually made Russian assistance

and the concomitant dependence on the tsar inevitable. The incompetence
of the Austrian commander in Hungary, Prince Alfred Windischgratz,
played its part.
As for long-range effects of the Italian campaigns, northern Italy and
the duchies would hardly ever have acquiesced to Austrian rule. The war
escalated Italian rejection of foreign domination to passionate nationalism,
although Austria had fought a defensive war against Sardinia and had
only answered force with measured force. Harder to defend were internal
measures of suppression in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. General
Alexander von Haynau, “the butcher of Brescia,” who besmirched the
reputation of a centuries-old military tradition, a champion of hangings
and floggings of male and female Italian patriots, was longer remembered
than an often heavy-handed but on the whole remarkably clean Austrian
administration in Italy.8
An issue more central to the Habsburg empire was its position in the
German Confederation. The Italian question touched upon the Habsburgs’
continued existence as great power, mainly as affected by access to the
eastern shores of the Adriatic sea and not yet by other territorial issues.
The German question, on the other hand, was interlocked with Austria’s
survival up to the dark days of her dissolution in 1918.
Seen at this point only from the angle of international relations, the
situation presented itself as follows: The so-called Vorparlament, the
preliminary assembly of the representatives of the German peoples, a
self-appointed body of German estates members, met in Frankfurt after
previous discussions in Heidelberg. The objective was arrangement for the
establishment of a constituent German national assembly to be elected by
a democratic franchise. This assembly was joined after a few days by a
handful of Austrian delegates, who like most of the five-hundred mem¬
bers, were either enlightened conservatives, such as Victor v. Andrian-
Werburg, or moderate liberals like Franz Schuselka and the poet Count
Anton Alexander Auersperg (as writer Anastasius Grun). While at the
beginning of the revolution the fate of the old order in Vienna and Berlin
hung in the balance, this semiofficial body could exercise sufficient pressure
on the confederal diet to repeal the Carlsbad Decrees and to do away
with concomitant police machinery of enforcement in Mainz (Mayence).
It was a feature of tragic irony that the subsequently elected National As-
8 See Friedrich Walter, “Von Windischgratz iiber Welden zu Haynau” in

F. Walter and H. Steinacker, Die Nationalitdtenfrage im alten Ungarn und die
Siidostpolitil\ Wiens (Munich, 1959), pp. 115-161.
sembly never managed to acquire the same influence as its predecessor,9
which, consdtutionally, was entirely unrepresentative.
As in the dramatic overture to a grand opera, some leitmotifs of Aus¬
tria’s relations to the Germanies were heard already in these preliminary
proceedings. The great Czech historian Francis Palacky (1798-1876), in an
open letter of April 11, 1848, declined Czech participation in the Vor-
parlament and by inference in that of the coming National Assembly as
well. In an official sense Palacky was not a representative of the Czech
people, yet in a spiritual sense he was, indeed, the spokesman for the
Slavic peoples who had settled in territories within the confines of the
German Confederation, above all the Czechs in the Bohemian lands, but
also the Slovenes in Carniola, southern Styria, and the northern part of the
Austrian Littoral. In a wider sense Palacky could be considered as a voice,
not only of a revived Austrian'Slavism, but of all non-Germanic peoples
of an actually existing but not recognized multinational empire, tied to
the superstructure of a German political framework. Palacky denied
legal bonds of the lands of the Bohemian crown to the Holy Roman
Empire and subsequently the German Confederation. With this argument
he stood on strong moral and national but questionable legal and his¬
torical grounds. Even less convincing was the argumentation of the con¬
servative Czech leader that an association of German-directed principali¬
ties would not work and that a republican system in its place would lead
to the disintegration of the Habsburg empire. Whether such deductions
held some truth or not, they were based on conjecture. Decisive, however,
was Palacky’s third argument, that a viable Habsburg empire must be¬
come a true multinational association of peoples of equal rights. Freed
from the pressures of German nationalism within its borders as well as
from outside it would become a bulwark against Russian expansionism
toward the west. Neither accommodation with the other member states
of the German Confederation nor a peaceful and friendly relationship
with Russia, however, was outruled in this powerful appeal.10
Coming from the representative of a people that had been politically
disarmed for more than two centuries, the Palacky letter could not have
had profound repercussions if it had not fitted in with some of the burn¬
ing issues raised in the freely elected Frankfurt Constituent Assembly. It
met for the first time in St. Paul’s Church on May 18, 1848, with 115
Austrians in a membership of about 560 representatives.
9 Robert A. Kann, Das Nationalitatenproblem der Habsbur germ on archie (Graz-

Cologne, 1964), I, 72-87, 369-372.
10 Ibid., I, 171-174, 412.
The issues, which the Frankfurt parliament had to face, were in many
ways overlapping with those of the Austrian revolution. Yet endeavors to
establish a federal democratic organization, the question of a hereditary
or elective imperial head or possibly even republican presidential constitu¬
tional pattern were of concern to the entire membership of the German
Confederation. The same held true for the basic question of procedure
namely to solve any of these crucial problems through a legislature that
had no executive arm at its service. The sovereign states, even though in
the throes of the revolution, held out against subordination under a
fictitious central government for all German entities. This meant further
that with the eventual victory of the old establishment in the individual
states after the revolution, the dream that a democratic German legislature
could be cemented by an over-all democratic executive force across a
hoped-for German empire would come to an end. This, indeed, was the
case hardly a year after the revolution had begun.
These were the main issues which concerned the Habsburg empire
specifically while the struggle continued: First, the basic question of
democratization of government; inasmuch as German intellectual life,
particularly in the German west exercised its influence on Austria in this
direction, this was undoubtedly a major factor which strengthened the
revolutionary forces in the Habsburg monarchy for a time.
Second, there was the struggle for the supremacy in Germany between
Austria and Prussia, revived in a period of political instability and only
transitory establishment of a genuine constitutional pattern. This con¬
stitutional aspect of the German question had considerable influence on
public opinion but little direct impact on the course of action throughout
the revolution. Negotiations in this respect were conducted primarily on
the Austrian and Prussian cabinet levels. They threatened for a brief
time to escalate into military confrontation, but this collision (actually as
it turned out not more than a political episode) was primarily not the
direct consequence of the revolution but due to the ruthless and daring
policy of one man. This was the Austrian prime minister from Novem¬
ber 1848 to his death in 1852, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg. He was
officer and diplomat by training, by accomplishment rather a political
gambler and in any case a statesman of spectacular but only transitory
success. Seen from the long-range point of view he was a brilliant failure.
His predecessors in charge of foreign affairs from March, 1848 (the fall of
Metternich), to November, 1849, General Count Karl Ficquelmont,
Baron Franz Pillersdorf, an able administrator in domestic affairs, and
barons Anton Doblhofif and Johann Wessenberg, had done little to
2 y6 History of the Habshurg Empire
force the issue of the Austrian-Prussian showdown. Deeply involved in
the internal crisis, in addition to the war against Italy and the revolution
in Hungary, they played a temporizing game. As it turned out this was a
wiser policy than Schwarzenberg’s vabanque policy.11
This, however, was not possible in regard to the third and main issue,
which involved not just the cabinets but appealed to the emotions of the
educated strata in Germany and Austria and, as Palacky’s letter indicated,
was to arouse Slavic interests as well. The question of the relationship of
the Austrian empire to the Germanies, be it in the frame of a revised
confederation or of a new federation of one kind or another, was the first
issue of genuine popular appeal in Austrian foreign policy between the
war of 1809 and the war against Serbia more than a century later. This
powerful impact was primarily due to the fact, that this question, though
in its technicalities primarily one of international relations, was in its
cultural and emotional sense very much an issue of home-grown national
interests.12
In terms of the stillborn Frankfurt Constitution of May 28, 1849
(Articles 2 and 3), this meant that the non-German parts of the Habsburg
empire were required to have separate constitutions and administrations.
Otherwise Austria could not join the new German empire even with the
Austro-German hereditary lands alone. In other words, and with specific
regard to the Habsburg monarchy, this meant, that the government of the
German lands under Habsburg rule could be associated with the non-
German Habsburg lands by way of a mere personal union only. The
fact alone that the bearer of the crown in the hereditary lands would
happen to be the same person as the ruler of all other Habsburg domains
would tie entirely separate governments to each other. By clear intention
of the Frankfurt Assembly this would imply the end of the Habsburg
empire in its traditional sense.
It meant also in substance that a basic issue, dormant since 1815, had
come to life now and was to remain so for a century: the grossdeutsch idea
of a German empire with the inclusion of German Austria versus a \lein-
deutsch program, which barred its incorporation and would thus preempt
German leadership for Prussia.13 The grossdeutsch idea presented the
11 Srbik, Deutsche Einheit, II, 123-142; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, II, 70-72,

321-322; Rudolf Kissling, Fiirst Felix zu Schwarzenberg (Graz-Cologne, 1952), pp.
206-227.
12 Srbik, Deutsche Einheit, I, 315-365.
13 The terms grossdeutsch and \leindeutsch are not translated here, since the
translation into English would attach to grossdeutsch an inaccurate nationalist
wishes, indeed aspirations, of the Austrian liberals and moderate conserva¬

tives, deputies such as Eugen Megerle von Muhlfeld, Anton von Schmer-
ling, Karl Giskra, Franz von Sommaruga, and somewhat to the left
Moritz Hartmann. Only a few other Austrians in Frankfurt, like Victor
von Andrian-Werburg and Karl Moering would have been ready, if neces¬
sary, to sacrifice the German affiliation in favor of a strong fully inde¬
pendent Austria. Yet the liberals believed that the German association and
Austria’s independence as great power were compatible. The adherents of
the bjeindeutsch program found little support among the Austrian delega¬
tion. Outside of Austria proponents of this concept were about equally
divided between adherents of a Prussian supremacy as objective per se and
those who believed that affiliation with Austria stood for reaction, sym¬
bolized by the bygone Metternich system. Although German intellectuals
across the border were much larger in number and often more radical
than their Austrian compatriots, it is difficult to see in practical terms a
basic ideological distinction between Metternich’s and Francis’ conserva¬
tism and that of Frederick William III and the false neoromanticism of
his mentally unbalanced son and successor, Frederick William IV. Yet
the existence of such distinction belongs to the mythology of the revo¬
lution and has been nurtured ever since, in particular by Heinrich von
Treitschke’s influence on German historiography. Actually only the radi¬
cal democratic Left which stood for the homogeneous German national
state and a liberalism equally opposed to Austrian and Prussian reaction,
can be credited with full consistency in this respect. On the other hand,
the liberal Left at Frankfurt cannot be exonerated from a spirit of in¬
tegral nationalism in regard to the Germans in Schleswig-Holstein under
Danish rule. The other side of the coin of German national sensitivity
was the oppressive treatment of the Poles in the Prussian east.14
Highlight of the struggle in Frankfurt was the election of the enlight¬
ened conservative Archduke John on June 29, 1848, as regent of the hope¬
fully but not actually emerging new Germany. After Emperor Ferdinand
and his entourage had left Vienna, the hotbed of revolution, for the safer
Innsbruck, this prince of noble intention had been for a few weeks regent
in Austria. His election to the more conspicuous but actually less im¬
portant honor of regent of the new Germany after the assembly had
slant and to \leindeutsch a touch of diminution not generally associated with the
way the term is understood in German.
14 Srhik, Deutsche Einheit, I, 366-403; Sir Lewis B. Namier, The Revolution of
the Intellectuals (London, 1944), pp. 43-65.
2y8 History of the Habsburg Empire
declared the confederal diet dissolved (June, 1848) was to herald the per¬
manence of Austro-German affiliations and German and Austro-German
constitutional development.
The seeming victory of the National Assembly over the confederal
forces of old proved empty. The archduke’s position was untenable from
the start; he had no executive forces at his disposal to bring about the
progress of German democratization. Yet even if this situation could have
been remedied, progress was not likely under his auspices. John was
neither a German, Austro-German, or simply Austrian liberal, but simply
an enlightened Austrian conservative prince. Moreover, he was not en¬
dowed with political skill. His unquestioned sympathies for German uni¬
fication could hardly serve as substitute. Accordingly the archduke’s re¬
gency proved to be a failure, though more due to the force of circum¬
stances than to his own inefficiency. For this reason the Reich ministry
appointed by the new regent exercised hardly more power than a cabinet
of puppets although its members were distinguished men. One of the
abler Austrian statesmen, Anton von Schmerling, for a few weeks speaker
of the Assembly, served in it first as minister of the interior and of foreign
affairs, and from September to December, 1848, as prime minister. Then,
disillusioned by the forced political impotence of his position, he resigned
and returned to Vienna.15
Yet, though Schmerling had little power, his appointment proved that
the Austrian government, despite its difficulties in Italy and Hungary,
was not ready to withdraw from its German position and was not willing
to yield to Prussia. Thus Schmerling and his like-minded Austrian col¬
leagues could at least claim credit that the draft of the new German con¬
stitution, whose discussion began in October moved in the direction of a
grossdeutsch compromise, acceptable to Austria.
But the decisive move even in this respect had little to do with the
speeches and interventions of the Austrian parliamentary delegation in
Frankfurt. More important was the appointment of the new Austrian
prime minister, Schwarzenberg, on November 21, 1848, in Olmiitz (Olo-
muc), the temporary refuge and residence of Emperor Ferdinand.
The domestic activities of Schwarzenberg will be discussed in the fol¬
lowing section. Here we are concerned with his foreign policy, which was
only the reverse of the same coin; namely the resolve to make Austria the
leading Central European power, indeed super power, and to do this by
15 ViktorTheiss, Erzherzog Johann (Graz, 1950), pp. 80-88; Anton von Arneth,
Anton Ritter von Schmerling (Vienna, 1895), pp. 160-183.
transforming her semifeudal conservative tradition into a more efficient,

centralized, revamped neoconservatism. The Austro-Prussian struggle for
supremacy in Germany offered Schwarzenberg a convenient handle to
camouflage his imperialism behind a false front of an alleged grossdeutsch
ideology.16
The neoconservatives around Schwarzenberg scored a success within a
few days, which greatly enhanced the influence of the prime minister. On
December 2, 1848, Emperor Ferdinand was induced to abdicate in favor
of his hardly eighteen-year-old nephew Francis Joseph, the head of the
Habsburg monarchy for the next sixty-eight years, almost to its end. His
accession was an important event. Brought about chiefly by the endeavors
of his mother, Archduchess Sophie, who induced her intellectually me¬
diocre husband Francis Charles, the emperor’s brother, to renounce his
own claims to the throne, the transition meant that the old forces of tra¬
ditional feudalism represented by the incompetent commander in chief
in Hungary, Fieldmarshal Prince Alfred Windischgratz, lost much of
their power to the more energetic and daring neoconservatives around
Schwarzenberg. The youth of eighteen faced by a bewildering and com¬
plex new situation yielded in the beginnings of his reign to Schwarzen-
berg’s overpowering personality. After Schwarzenberg’s death, no man
was in the position to exercise a similar influence on the emperor.17
Confronted by the war of independence in Hungary,18 Schwarzenberg
played for time in regard to the threatening confrontation with Prussia.
First he wanted to bring his own house in order—in his ruthless fashion.
In March, 1849, he dissolved the Austrian Reichstag of Kremsier, proving
to the world and in particular to the Germanies that the period of revolu¬
tionary advance had come to a definite halt. By implication this meant also
a future tougher stand not only in relation to Prussia but also in regard
16 See also Henry C. Meyer, Mitteleuropa (The Hague, 1955), pp. 8-11; Jacques
Droz, L’Europe Centrale (Paris, i960), pp. 77-92; Kissling, Fiirst Felix zu Schwar¬
zenberg, pp. 119-166.
17 Josef Redlich, Kaiser Franz Joseph von Osterreich (Berlin, 1928), pp. 37-50;
Egon Cesare Conte Corti, Vom Kind zum Kaiser (Salzburg, 1950), pp. 313-344.
18 It is appropriate to comprehend the events in Hungary beginning widi the
royal sanctioning of the revised Hungarian constitution of April 11, 1848, as
Hungarian revolution until the surrender at Vilagos on August 13, 1849. Yet
within this revolution the phase beginning with the proclamation of the Hungarian
republic in Debreczin April 14, 1849, is properly understood as the Hungarian
war of independence. A distinction, on the other hand, according to which the
war of independence followed the revolution is in line with Hungarian political
views but not with the constitutional doctrine of the Habsburg empire, which
could not recognize unilateral secession.
to Austria’s further participation in the Frankfurt Assembly and indeed

to representative government in any German state.
After the Frankfurt Assembly had elected Friedrich Wilhelm IV of
Prussia German emperor, and before he had rejected the crown, Schwar-
zenberg accordingly recalled the Austrian delegation from Frankfurt.
This move was designed to wreck the National Assembly rather than to
prevent acceptance of the election by the romantic Prussian king, who was
ready to yield to his imperial nephew Francis Joseph, in whom he saw
the heir of the Holy Roman emperors. Schwarzenberg’s tactics were suc¬
cessful: the Assembly never recovered from this recall. In June, 1849, after
the Prussian deputies were likewise withdrawn by their government, the
rump assembly moved to Stuttgart where it hoped against hope to have a
better chance of withstanding the pressure of the rising forces of the
counterrevolution. Here a glorious enterprise found an unglorious end by
simple police action of the Wiirttemberg government. By mid-June the
dream of a democratic German empire was laid to rest. The noble con¬
stitution of March 28, 1849, remained its monument—on paper.
Schwarzenberg had successfully scuttled the Assembly, but in another
respect he was only seemingly successful. On May 1, 1849, Francis Joseph
met Tsar Nicholas in Warsaw. The tsar, the representative of the feudal
imperialism of old and therefore a strong champion of monarchical soli¬
darity, was much taken by the zeal and seriousness of the youthful Francis
Joseph. He granted the latter’s request for armed support in Hungary,
issued on Schwarzenberg’s behest. Nicholas had good political reasons to
accommodate Francis Joseph, above all fear of the spread of the Hungar¬
ian uprisings to Congress Poland. Yet as he himself saw it, this armed
intervention was primarily an act of political generosity, and Francis
Joseph, as we know from his correspondence with the tsar, considered it
as such. The emperor felt humiliated by the necessity to accept such favor.
To be sure, Francis Joseph’s anti-Russian position during the Crimean
war was not primarily a response to this resentment, but undoubtedly he
felt it to be necessary to prove that Austria could conduct an independent
foreign policy even against Russia. There is little doubt either that Nicho¬
las would have felt less enraged by Francis Joseph’s political strategy then,
if the despotic tsar could not have perceived it as ingratitude. Austria’s
call for intervention had made her lose face in the eyes of the world and
Francis Joseph’s belated response had the same effect in the eyes of the
tsar and his successors.19
Thus the request for the Russian intervention was a fateful, though
19 Andies, Das Bundnis Habsburg-Rotnanow, pp. 160-191.
from the emperor’s and Schwarzenberg’s conservative point of view, in¬
evitable step. The fact that the military alliance with Russia was directed
against a liberal revolution in Francis Joseph’s own realms alienated Ger¬
man liberalism deeply and perhaps irrevocably from the Austrian estab¬
lishment. It meant in turn that Austria became increasingly dependent on
the good graces of the tsar in the German question too. This was bound
to strengthen Schwarzenberg’s resolve to veer increasingly to the absolut¬
ist Right, to which even the conservatism of the Prussian government
appeared suspect of constitutional democratic proclivities.
From here on the Austrian-Prussian rivalry moves into the sphere of
competing imperialist interests directed and controlled exclusively on the
cabinet level. As long as Austria was involved in the Hungarian war of
independence and during the following months of pacification Prussia had
the upper hand. In September, 1849, Schwarzenberg had to agree to an
“interim” German central power in which Austria and Prussia were to be
equally represented. Archduke John, who could possibly be rated as trump
card on the Austrian side, relinquished his shallow powers as regent. With
Saxony and Hanover leaning to the Prussian side, and the southern king¬
doms charting a more independent course, the advantage was Prussia’s. In
the Prussian union scheme culminating in the Erfurt parliament, planned
since fall, 1849, and convoked in March, 1850, Prussia pressed these ad¬
vantages. A so-called inner union under Prussian leadership was to be
formed. Austria was to remain outside of this federation, but to be af¬
filiated with it loosely by a special alliance resembling the frame of the old
Confederation. The Habsburgs, however, with the backing of the tsar
pressured the four German kingdoms apart from Prussia, namely Bavaria,
Hanover, Saxony, and Wiirttemberg, to abandon the union scheme and
to join Austria’s efforts to reestablish the Confederation in Frankfurt.
Since the Erfurt union scheme would have been based on St. Paul’s con¬
stitution of March, 1849, whereas the Confederation represented simply
the revival of the institutions of 1815, this meant, indeed, return to un¬
restricted reaction. By September, 1849, Schwarzenberg, over Prussia’s
protest, succeeded in reopening the Confederal Assembly in Frankfurt. In
October he and the emperor assured themselves of the backing of the
southern kingdoms, and in November, in a new entrevue in Warsaw, of
the support of the tsar. Nicholas I put more faith in Austrian absolutism
than in the limited constitutionalism of his Prussian brother-in-law.20
The Austrian prime minister was now ready for the showdown with
Prussia. The issue itself, confederal armed intervention on behalf of the
20 Srbik, Deutsche Einheit, I, 404-436; II, 17-55.
reactionary elector of Hessen-Kassel against his subjects who were injured

in their constitutional rights, was of secondary importance. Yet Schwar-
zenberg had picked his ground for the contest well. The Austrian-
Bavarian confederal forces represented the spirit and the program of the
restoration era, the opposing Prussian forces certainly not those of lib¬
eralism, but at least of limited constitutionalism. Schwarzenberg in an
ultimatum demanded the withdrawal of Prussian troops from northern
Hesse and the Prussian government, anxious to avoid a showdown with
an Austria supported behind the scenes by Russia, acceded. In the so-
called punctation of Olmiitz (Olomuc) of November 29, 1850, the Prus¬
sian government yielded. Moreover, after protracted negotiations it con¬
ceded the reestablishment of the Confederation according to the terms of
1815, supplemented in 1820. By May, 1850, the old Confederate Assembly
was in operation again.21 The'complex Schleswig-Holstein question was
settled, though not permanently, by the London Protocol of May, 1852,
signed by the five great powers of Europe. At issue was that the duchies
of Schleswig and Holstein, both largely German in character and the
latter also a part of the German Confederation, might continue to be
ruled by the king of Denmark but must in no way be integrated into
Denmark. It was one of the few questions where the nationalism of the
grossdeutsch German Left in the Frankfurt National Assembly of 1848-
1849, Prussian expansionism, and Austrian neoconservatism could see eye
to eye on common policies—as long as direct interests were not immedi¬
ately involved. The agreement of the powers, led by Russia and Great
Britain, was that the separation of the duchies from Denmark was put off
for the time being. As it turned out, the opening of the issue hardly a
decade later was used by Prussia first by appeal to national sentiments to
wrest the duchies from the Danish crown, in cooperation with Austria.
The second step was then to use the ensuing conflict over their adminis¬
tration not only as a means to get control over the whole area but also in
a formal showdown with the Habsburg empire to establish Prussian su¬
premacy in Germany. Here indeed one could speak of small causes lead¬
ing to great effects.22
The decisions of the London Conference were taken after a change of
personnel in the Austrian foreign office had taken place. On April 5, 1852,
Prince Schwarzenberg had died suddenly. As foreign minister he was
21 Ibid.; Heinrich Friedjung, Osterreich von 1848-1860 (Stuttgart, 1912, 2nd ed.),
II:i, 1-51, 66-91.
22 Veit Valentin, Geschichte der deutschen Revolution von 1848-184(4 (Berlin,
1931), II, 337-347*
replaced by Count Carl Ferdinand Buol-Schauenstein (1852-1859), an
experienced diplomat, less inclined than Schwarzenberg to take an ag¬
gressive stance. Schwarzenberg’s death was an important event in Austrian
history. Yet except for the fact that he was the last minister whose direc¬
tives Francis Joseph followed without hesitation, his impact on foreign
policies represented only a dramatic historical episode. He was, indeed,
within more than a century, the first statesman, who had forced Prussia to
yield, but with little benefit to Austria. The capitulation of Olmutz
(Olomuc), the term used by Prussian historiography, proved to be an
empty prestige success, which rankled the nationalist leaders of the Prus¬
sian establishment. The desire to avenge Olmutz drove Wilhelm I, Bis¬
marck, Moltke, and Roon to the battlefields of Koniggratz. In his larger
objectives, the entry of the entire Habsburg empire into the Confedera¬
tion or at least into a German-Austrian customs union, Schwarzenberg
had failed. His oppressive domestic policies had earned Austria the ill
will of the west and, as it turned out after his death, they had not gained
her the permanent support of the east either. True enough, Schwarzen¬
berg had restored Austria’s power position as it had existed before 1848,
but it began to crumble only seven years after his death. He could hardly
have prevented the loss of the Austrian position in Italy and Germany,
though he might conceivably have delayed it.
The reason why he presumably would have failed like his successors
rests in his domestic policies, to be discussed in Section D of this chapter.
Suffice it here to say that by introducing a new absolutism after 1848
Austria fell more out of step with European developments west of Russia
than at any time after 1815. A regime whose course ran contrary to the
currents of European public opinion, could not continue to hold the posi¬
tion it had held before 1848.
Unfavorable events began to cast their shadow in 1852 and 1853. In
December, 1851, Louis Bonaparte had transformed his presidency into a
dictatorship, and a year later he proclaimed himself French emperor. Now
a new element of instability had come into play in European power poli¬
tics. One of the devices of restored Bonapartism was the encouragement
of Italian nationalism and irredentist activities against Habsburg rule in
Italy. Napoleon III failed to appease the French liberals with these oppor¬
tunistic policies, but he could stir up trouble for the Austrian government.
A revolt in Milan in February, 1853, had t0 he Put down by force.
The immediate crisis, however, began in the east. Tsar Nicholas’ true
foreign policy concerning the control of the Straits, which led to the
Crimean war, is not fully clear to this day. There is no question though,
that the demand to exercise a protectorate over the Orthodox churches in
the Ottoman empire would have been a means of reducing Turkey to a
Russian vassal state. This was unacceptable to Britain, and also for France.
—more for prestige reasons than on account of political interests. More di¬
rectly involved were the interests of the Habshurg monarchy, when Rus¬
sian troops moved into the Danube principalities in July, 1853, allegedly to
hold them as pawn for further negotiations. Actually this step represented
the threat of a permanent occupation which would have doubled the
length of the common frontier between Austria and Russia. Austrian ef¬
forts to check this danger by an offer to mediate between Russia and the
other European powers, of whom only Prussia played a cautious waiting
game, failed because of Russian intransigence. Furthermore, the tsar went
back on a promise given to the Austrian and Prussian sovereigns to refrain
from crossing the Danube in Exchange for their declarations of neutrality.
A new Russo-Turkish war began in October, 1853; in March of the fol¬
lowing year the Russians crossed the Danube. The French and British
declarations of war against Russia followed a few days later. Austria and
Prussia had meanwhile come to a secret understanding that they would
resist by force if Russia would attempt to annex the Danube principalities.
However, Russia could easily circumvent a formal annexation by an in¬
terminable occupation similar to the Austrian occupation of Bosnia in
1878. Accordingly, in June 1854, Austria demanded the evacuation of the
principalities by Russian troops. At the same time her minister of foreign
affairs, Count Buol, secured from the Turkish government permission for
Austrian forces to occupy the principalities after the Russian withdrawal
for the duration of the crisis. The tsar now wanted to make the best of a
bad bargain and tried to obtain an Austrian guarantee for the termina¬
tion of hostilities on the part of Russia’s enemies in exchange for the re¬
call of Russian forces from the principalities.
The Austrian government could never have exercised sufficient pressure
on the western powers to make such a guarantee workable, even if it had
wanted to. That it did, however, is doubtful. Events took now their
course. Confronted by the large-scale Allied preparations for Black Sea
naval operations, the tsar had to evacuate the principalities, which were
occupied by Austrian troops after Russia rejected the so-called Vienna
four-point terms. They amounted to an abandonment of the Russian de¬
signs against Turkey (including control of the Dardanelles) and an im¬
plied guarantee for the Turkish sovereign rights in Serbia and the Danube
principalities.
The escalation of the conflict between major European powers followed.
In September, 1854, British and French troups began the siege of Sebasto¬
pol. In soldiers killed it was to become one of the costliest military
operations of the nineteenth century. The Russian casualties alone ex¬
ceeded 100,000. After the occupation of the principalities, which had
irreparably damaged Austro-Russian relations, it was only logical that
the Habsburg monarchy joined the western alliance in December, 1854.
According to its terms Austria was to defend the principalities and
agree to territorial changes requested there by the western Allies in
subsequent peace negotiations. In return, the Allies pledged support
against a Russian attack on Austria and guaranted further the inviola¬
bility of the Habsburg possessions in Italy for the duration of the war.
Strange as the need of such assurance of legally uncontestable rights may
appear, its reasons became apparent when Sardinia-Piedmont in January,
1:855, joined the anti-Russian alliance and contributed 15,000 men to the
expeditionary forces fighting on the Crimean peninsula. Sardinia had no
dispute with Russia; her motivation of the unprecedented action of
sacrificing Italian troops on foreign battlefields was to force the western
Allies at least morally to support future claims of Italian nationalism
against the Austrian rule in the kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.
With the fall of Sebastopol in mid-December, 1855, the war was
practically over. Nicholas I had died a month before this crowning injury
to his pride. His son and heir, Alexander II, attributed the death of his
father to his anguish about Austria’s attitude which had made this
humiliation possible. In the peace negotiations of Paris, February-March,
1855, Sardinia was admitted to the conference over Austria’s protests.
Great as the differences were between victorious and defeated powers, it
seemed that both sides were united in strong feelings against the Habsburg
monarchy; on the part of the western Allies, as oppressor of Italians and
Magyars, on the part of Russia as traitor to the cause of European con¬
servatism. Here resentment against the Austrian ingratitude for the
supposedly selfless tsarist help in 1849 accentuated national feelings
beyond the establishment.
The terms of the treaty of Paris, however, gave the Habsburg mon¬
archy some satisfaction by barring Russian control of the Danube princi¬
palities. They were placed under the guarantee of the great powers. The
mouth of the Danube and a strip of Bessarabia were ceded to Turkey.
Other provisions, such as the neutralization of the Black Sea, the main¬
tenance of the Strait Convention of 1841, and the denial of the fraudulent
Russian claim for protection of adherents of the Orthodox faith in the
Ottoman empire involved Austrian interests to a lesser extent. Neverthe-
2 66 History of the Habsburg Empire
less the consequences of the Crimean crisis for Habsburg interests were
long lasting and, as it turned out, irrevocably unfavorable. Austria had
prevented her encirclement by Russia in the southeast, yet at the price of
permanent enmity. England became morally bound not to intervene on
Austria’s behalf in case of a new war of liberation in Italy. France, be¬
yond such moral commitment, became soon obliged to come to the sup¬
port of Sardinia in case of an Austrian attack. Prussia skillfully had
stayed out of the conflict and could be sure that in a new Austro-Prussian
conflict about supremacy in Germany, Russia would to the very last no
longer support the Habsburg empire.
Could Austria have avoided these consequences? Diplomatic historians
have frequently made the point that she fell between two chairs because
she could not decide whether to go all out in armed support of the
western powers or become an* ally or at least a friendly neutral on the
Russian side. However, the calamitous outcome of the crisis was not due
to any particular blunder of Austrian diplomacy, but to the insoluble
dilemma which the multinational empire under absolutist rule had to
face. Undoubtedly Slavic Russia, in which Panslav tendencies and Pan-
slav lures across the border had begun to stir, was potentially the most
dangerous enemy of a power, half of whose population were Slavs. From
this point of view Austria should have thrown her lot more energetically
to the western side. Yet this side was at the same time, despite Bona-
partist Caesarism in domestic matters, the champion of representative
government and of national unification. Above all, the west was in
several ways heir to the traditions of 1789. Russia stood for the principles
of the Austrian police state of Metternich, Schwarzenberg, and his suc¬
cessor Bach. An Austria permanently allied to the western powers could
never have maintained her system of absolutism. Yet if she wanted to
change it, the loss of the Italian provinces was a foregone conclusion,
and a new national revolution of much larger scale might be in the
offing. An alliance with Russia, on the other hand, would have made the
Habsburg empire the junior partner of a despotism that could always
control Austria by the whiphand of Panslavist agitation. This did not
exclude the possiblity that this greatly feared force might at an opportune
time make common cause with the policies of western national liberalism.
Habsburg Austria had indeed to face an insoluble dilemma. She could
not coordinate her long-range interests as a great power with those of a
gigantic and imperialist eastern police state. Yet at the same time she
felt that western liberalism threatened the durability of her domestic
structure. This dilemma between equally contradictory internal and
foreign policy interests in an empire ill adapted to the political and social
changes of the second half of the nineteenth century was at the core of
the crisis, which was heightened with the Crimean war.23
The first spectacular consequence of the Crimean crisis was the heating
up of the situation in Italy. Several factors strained the situation further.
The Sardinian government obtained with the appointment of Count
Camillo Cavour as prime minister a far-sighted, resolute, and yet cautious
leader, who was able without much fanfare to prepare his country for war
and to gain the confidence of the western powers. At the same time the
more intemperate nationalist agitation in the south by the followers of
Giuseppe Garibaldi put pressure on the more moderate nationalists in the
north. Napoleon III became more anxious to regain the favor of the liberals.
The attempt of the misguided nationalist Italian youth Felice Orsini to
assassinate Napoleon in January, 1858, strengthened his resolve. At the
secret meeting of the French emperor with Cavour in Plombieres in
July, 1858, Napoleon agreed to support Sardinia-Piedmont in a war to
gain Lombardy-Venetia. Other designs to create an Italian federation of
four component units: in addition to the Upper Italian (Sardinian) king¬
dom, a central Italian kingdom, the Papal States, and the kingdom of
Naples and Sicily, did affect Austria at least indirectly. The alliance was
formalized in December, 1858, after Russia’s benevolent attitude had been
assured. Its operation, however, as a safety measure demanded by Napoleon
III, was made contingent on an overt act of aggression by Austria against
Sardinia.
While these proceedings were secret, Austria had ample reason to move
cautiously. At the diplomatic New Year’s reception of 1859 in Paris, the
French emperor had issued a hardly veiled warning concerning the coming
crisis to the Austrian ambassador Hiibner. A few days later the king of
Sardinia, Victor Emanuel II, in an address from the throne to the
Piedmontese chamber declared that the cries of anguish of the oppressed
provinces would not remain unheeded. Passionate nationalist propaganda
was unloosened and open military preparations of troops by Sardinia
were followed by Austrian countermeasures. At the same time Napoleon
III, vacillating as usual, assured the Austrian government that he sup-
23 Heinrich Friedjung, Der Krim\rieg und die osterreichische Politi\ (Stuttgart,

1907), pp. 3-194 passim; Josef Redlich, Kaiser Franz Joseph (Berlin, 1928), pp.
119-171; Paul W. Schroeder, “Austria and the Danubian Principalities” in Central
European History, IP3 (1969), 216-236; and by the same author, Austria, Great
Britain and the Crimean War (Ithaca, 1972), pp. 41-284; Bernhard Unckel,
Osterreich und der Krimhrieg (Liibeck, 1969), pp. 15-32, 190-217, 239-295; and
Winfrid Baumgart, Der Frieden von Paris 1856 (Munich, 1972), passim.
2 68 History of the Habshurg Empire
ported only a defensive action on the part of Sardinia. Since the situation
called for diplomatic circumspection on Austria’s part, it was a blunder
of her foreign minister, Count Buol, to present the Sardinian government
on April 23 with a formal ultimatum to disarm within three days. When
Sardinia declined, the Austrian forces crossed the Ticino into Piedmont
and the casus foederis with France, which Cavour had tried to bring
about by underhand provocations of the Austrian government, was now
thrown into his lap by an obliging enemy. On the very day of the
Austrian invasion the French declaration of war followed. Buol’s pre¬
cipitate action—worse than his performance during the Crimean war—
was fully backed by the emperor, who was to follow up this first
ultimatum close to the beginnings of his reign with an even more
disastrous one at its end. The self-deception brought about by a system of
absolutism can explain the first action, the temporary elimination of
parliament, in part, the second.
Austria’s military preparations for this war and the conduct of opera¬
tions were not better than her diplomatic activities. Count Francis
Gyulay, a procrastinator, who delayed action against the relatively weak
Sardinian army until the French forces appeared on the scene, was one
of the most incapable commanders in Austria’s long military history. He
could not even claim that he had to fight a better led or equipped foe.
The French and Sardinian forces benefited from the Austrian blunders.
Gyulay did not accept battle until after the French had joined the
Sardinians. He preferred to fight the combined armed forces on his own
grounds. After a brief advance, he withdrew behind the Ticino and was
defeated at Magenta on June 4. A week later the eighty-six-year-old
Metternich died in desperation about Austria’s political future. Whatever
may be said about his policies, he would not have fallen into the French-
Sardinian trap as his successor Count Buol.
In May, Francis Joseph had replaced the unlucky Buol by Count
Johann Bernhard Rechberg, an experienced diplomat in German affairs.
Now the emperor discharged also Gyulay and assumed the functions of
commander in chief himself, apparently with the idea that imperial
prestige could compensate for the lack of military experience. However, at
the battle of Solferino on June 24, with terrible losses on both sides, the
Austrians were defeated, although they could withdraw in good order.
Only one general had fulfilled all expectations, the subcommander of the
right wing of the Austrian forces, Ludwig von Benedek. He stood his
ground well against the Sardinian attacks. In tragic irony, this per-
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization . 269
formance was one reason why in 1866 he was entrusted with the com¬
mand against the Prussian armies, in which he failed.
Francis Joseph, shocked by the catastrophe, to which he had been an
eyewitness, might have been able to continue the war with German
confederal (that is, mainly Prussian) support, if he had been ready to
recognize Prince Regent Wilhelm of Prussia as commander in chief of
the confederal forces. As the emperor saw it, such concession would have
been tantamount to a surrender of the supremacy in Germany to Prussia.
Rather than accepting this political “humiliation” Francis Joseph was
ready to come to terms with Napoleon in the entrevue of Villafranca on
July 11, 1859. The French emperor, not anxious to risk Prussian inter¬
vention, offered moderate terms. Austria was to cede the best part of
Lombardy, but not Venetia to Napoleon III, who in turn was to hand
over the province to the Sardinians. This transaction was to cater to the
French emperor’s pride and soften Austrian humiliation, but it infuri¬
ated Italian nationalists who felt betrayed already because Napoleon had
gone back on half of his promise, the liberation of Venetia. To have to
accept Lombardy, for which Italian blood had been shed, as handout
from Napoleon III exacerbated these feelings further. Yet at the peace
of Zurich of November 10, 1859, the preliminary terms were sanctioned
and Sardinia could feel comforted because the Austrian appendage states,
Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, which had driven out their princes, con¬
firmed this action by plebiscites. Accordingly, their territories as well as
that of Romagna were merged with Sardinia. Only now, by the treaty of
Torino of March, i860, could Napoleon III collect his own reward from
Piedmont-Sardinia, namely Nice and Savoy.24
The Austrian hold in Italy had become untenable, as even Francis
Joseph was to realize within a few years. It might have been wise to cede
Venetia jointly with Lombardy, a decision which could have helped to
forestall the more critical situation of 1866. The most spectacular proof of
the bankruptcy of a system of absolute government is indeed military
defeat. It was possible to camouflage the diplomatic setback in the
Crimean crisis, not so the military debacle of 1859. Austria’s prestige was
deeply hurt by the outcome of the war. Yet her great-power position,
though weakened, remained still uncontested. The features of oppression,
inefficiency, and some corruption which the defeat revealed to the public,
led almost immediately to the restriction and gradually to the abolition
24 Bolton King, A History of Italian Unification from 1814-1867, 2 vols. (New

York, 1967), see II, 45-81.
2 jo History of the Habshurg Empire
of absolute government in favor of constitutionalism. If these long over¬
due changes had been delayed further, the consequences might have been
even worse for Austria than those of the showdown on the German
question in 1866. In this sense the outcome of the war of 1859 offset to
some degree the losses. It led to defeat but it helped to save the monarchy
from unmitigated disaster a few years later.25
After the termination of another phase of the Italian crisis, the German
question moved into the center of the political stage. The accession of
Wilhelm I, in 1858 as regent and in 1861 as king in his own right in
place of his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV who had suffered a stroke,
changed the political picture. Wilhelm was quite narrow-minded and
intellectually inferior to his idle and garrulous older brother. Yet he was
a well-disciplined soldier. Like Maria Theresa and unlike Francis Joseph,
he knew how to accept advice of those of superior qualifications, of counts
Helmuth Moltke and Albrecht Roon in the military field and in the
political of Otto von Bismarck, who became his prime minister in 1862.
Bismarck’s appointment made it clear, that the struggle for German
supremacy would have to be solved in favor of Prussia, perhaps not
necessarily as he put it in a speech to a committee of the Chamber of
Deputies in September, 1862, by “blood and iron” but, if necessary, by
force. Bismarck’s first move to block continuation and enhancement of
the Austrian position in Germany by a limited revision of the Con¬
federal charter led to the refusal of the king of Prussia to attend the
Furstentag at Frankfurt in August, 1863. According to Francis Joseph’s
invitation this convention of princes was to introduce some very moderate
reforms under Austrian sponsorship, namely a Confederal directory under
Austrian chairmanship and the convocation of a new Confederal legisla¬
tive assembly elected by the individual diets. Such as assembly meant
mostly estates diets, hence the concession to the liberals was minor and
due to Bismarck’s sabotage of the proceedings abortive in any case. It
was easy for Bismarck to top the Austrian proposals in 1866 by more
sweeping but more meaningless proposals for Confederal reforms based
on general franchise, whose rejection by Austria was a foregone conclu¬
sion.
The Schleswig-Holstein question, from the Austrian viewpoint, was
25 Charles W. Hallberg, Franz Joseph and Napoleon 111, 1852-1864: A Study of
Austro-French Relations (New York, 1955), pp. 138-229; Carl J. Burckhardt, Briefe
des Staatsjanzlers Fursten Metternich-Winnehurg an den dsterreichischen Minister
des allerhochsten Hauses und des Aussern, Grafen Buol-Schauenstein (Munich,
1934), pp. 225-233; William R. Thayer, The Life and Times of Cavour (Boston,
1914), II, 1-117.
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 27/
the overture to the decision in the struggle for supremacy in Germany.

It was to delay rather than to prevent the showdown and was meant not
to upset the existing precarious balance of power. Prussia used the ques¬
tion of the separation of the duchies from Denmark as a means of
getting into a favorable position for the coming conflict with the Habs-
burg empire; besides, she had a direct interest to get control of the
duchies herself. The Austrian objective, on the other hand, was merely
to prevent a Prussian predominance in Germany.
War was declared when Denmark, in January, 1864, rejected the
joint Austro-Prussian ultimatum demanding that the kingdom rescind
a new constitution which for all practical purposes would incorporate
Schleswig into Denmark. Confederal troops—in fact only Austro-Prussian
troops—entered Holstein. Although the legal issue was doubtful on
either side and protracted diplomatic negotiations had preceded the
invasion, Europe saw the military operation as an action of two big con¬
servative powers suspected of imperialistic designs against a small, more
liberal country. The fact that Austrian interests were less involved than
those of Prussia made Austria look worse, because the German national-
liberal sentiments that supported the Prussian cause, did not extend to
Austria. Little Denmark was bound to be defeated. The king of Denmark
was forced to cede his rights to Schleswig-Holstein and to the smaller
duchy of Lauenburg to the two great German powers (peace of Vienna
of October 30, 1864), which administered them first by provisional joint
administration. Recognition of the fact that the Austrian policy had
played into Bismarck’s hands to obtain eventually exclusive Prussian
control of the duchies persuaded Emperor Francis Joseph to replace
Count Rechberg by Count Alexander Mensdorff-Pouilly, a general with
only limited diplomatic experience. Actually from the death of Schwarzen-
berg to the end of the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 Francis Joseph acted
more or less as his own foreign minister, and only when the disastrous
results of his policies in the conflict with Prussia became fully obvious
to him, did he give his future ministers of foreign affairs a somewhat
freer rein.
The immediate conflict was papered over by the Gastein Convention
of August 14, 1865, according to which Lauenburg was sold to Prussia,
whereas Schleswig-Holstein remained in principle a joint Austro-Prussian
condominium. The northern duchy, Schleswig, was to be administered by
Prussia, the southern, Holstein, which was contiguous to Prussia, by
Austria under General Ludwig von Gablenz.
Soon a renewed crisis loomed on the political horizon. Napoleon III,
who as a prophet of yesterday, was convinced that Austria would be the
winner in a conflict with Prussia, in October, 1865, promised Bismarck at
Biarritz French neutrality in case of war. Bismarck meanwhile used
alleged Austrian interference with Prussian interests in the duchies to
protest to the government in Vienna, which, as expected, rejected these
complaints as mere pretexts for more serious Prussian aggressive designs.
In early 1866 Prussia concluded an alliance with the new kingdom of
Italy, proclaimed in 1861. The objective was a common war against
Austria within three months, which should secure the Venetian province
for Italy. The terminal date for the outbreak of the conflict was set.26
The issue of Venetia, though a mere sideshow, represented one of the
strangest episodes of diplomatic history, in which the trends of modern
nationalism mingled with medieval concepts of chivalry. In spring, 1866,
the Austrian governmnet was' convinced that the position in Venetia was
as untenable as it previously had been in Lombardy. Nevertheless, an
Italian offer made before the conclusion of the alliance with Prussia, to
pay an indemnity for the cession of the province, was rejected as insult¬
ing. Just the same, within a few days before the outbreak of the war,
Austria and France signed a notable neutrality agreement. Both powers
concurred that the temporal jurisdiction of the pope in Rome must be
preserved and protected against the threat of Italian nationalism. In¬
demnities for the deposed Habsburg rulers in the appendages (Modena,
Tuscany, Parma) were assented to by France. Above all, Austria gave an
assurance that French agreement would be secured in case a victorious
Habsburg power wanted to make territorial changes in Germany which
would upset the European balance of power. In the light of coming
events this last point certainly looks strange, but there was a more startling
one concerning the contested Venetian territory. Austria, win or lose,
would oblige herself to cede Venetia to Napoleon III, who in turn would
hand the province over to Italy. This willingness was in part due to an
understandable wish to avoid a two-front war, against Prussia in the
north and Italy in the south; but in part it was also due to the belated
recognition that the retention of the province against the united will
of the population and the upcoming Italian neighbor represented in
the long run a hopeless proposition. To use Napoleon as the perhaps
none too honest broker in this deal was meant to strengthen his position
in the Italian sphere and at the same time to influence him in favor of Aus-
26 King, A History of Italian Unification, II, 281-290; Heinrich Friedjung, Der

Kampf um die Vorherrschajt in Deutschland, 1859—r$66 (Stuttgart, 1897-1898), I,
67-128; Srbik, Deutsche Einheit, IV, 118-291.
tria in the crisis with Prussia. Italy felt, however, that this proposal hurt her
national pride as much as outright cession to Italy would have injured
the feudal mentality of the Austrian establishment. Accordingly negotia¬
tions were broken off and Italy declared war on Austria less than a week
after the beginning of Austro-Prussian hostilities. The Italian military
showing was even poorer than the Sardinian in the wars of 1848 and 1859.
Although the main Austrian forces were engaged against Prussia in the
north, an army under Archduke Albrecht won easily at Custozza on June
24, the place of a previous Austrian victory in 1848. Hardly a month later
the small Austrian navy under Tegethoff’s command in a brilliant en¬
gagement near Lissa off the Dalmatian coast routed an Italian naval
force, whose fighting spirit was not equal to its superiority in tonnage
and firing power. Further feeble Italian efforts to gain territory to the
north and northeast of the Venetian province in the Trentino and the
Littoral failed. Peace was concluded in Vienna on October 3. Venice,
ceded to Napoleon III immediately after the defeat at Koniggratz, now
had to be yielded to Italy directly and the Italian kingdom was de jure
recognized by Austria. Thus the victory which the Italians had failed to
win on the battlefield was secured at the conference table.27
Several conclusions can be drawn from these proceedings. First, the
decision on both sides to fight a war over a matter of national prestige,
although Austria and Italy in substance agreed on the outcome beforehand,
represented a moral low in international relations. Thousands were killed
for the sake of “chivalry” of two military establishments. Second, the
Italians resented Napoleon’s attempt to intervene as cheap benefactor
without risk, yet they were dissatisfied also that the Prussian ally had
not helped them to gain the Trentino to the north of Venice. According
to the terms of the alliance treaty Prussia was indeed not obliged to
contribute to this objective. Bismarck did not feel it was to be to her
interest that Austria should be weakened further.
The question may be asked, whether a far-seeing Austrian policy might
not have done better to relinquish the Trentino and the northwestern
strip of the Littoral voluntarily. At this particular time after a spectacular
military showing in the south such concession might have been in¬
terpreted as evidence of wisdom rather than weakness. In that case Italy
might have become a dependable neutral rather than a second permanent
and major foe, who—a later meaningless alliance notwithstanding—at
the critical time was almost bound to become an outright enemy. Such
27 Richard Blaas, Tentativi di approccio per la cessione del Veneto (Venice, 1967),
passim. Friedjung, Der Kampf um die Vorherrschajt, I, 212-251.
2J4 History of the Habshurg Empire
a concession to Italy in time could have changed the course o£ history in
and after 1914. On the other hand, it was the tragedy of the multinational
empire that one wisely executed conciliatory step in regard to one na¬
tional group would have prompted demands by others.
As for the conflict between Austria and Prussia, Bismarck, in April of
1866 had already introduced a motion for reform of the Confederal diet
which included election of members of the Assembly by general male
franchise. The plan was designed to be rejected by Austria. Bismarck,
had he not been sure of this, would not have introduced the motion
which intended to win the support of genuine German liberalism on the
side of the false one put forward by him. Meanwhile the conflict about
the administration of the duchies continued, and when the Austrian
governor of Holstein, General Gablenz, summoned the provincial diet,
Bismarck declared this to be a breach of the Gastein convention and
ordered Prussian troops into Holstein. Austria now convoked the Con¬
federal diet in Frankfurt, charged Prussia with violation of the charter
of the Confederation and demanded Confederal execution against Prussia.
The diet approved the Austrian motion, whereupon Prussia declared the
Confederation to be dissolved. Against strong Prussian pressure all major
states of the Confederation stood by Austria motivated undoubtedly by
fear of Prussian imperialism rather than the trappings of Bismarck’s sham
liberalism. The hostilities began with the Prussian invasion of Hanover,
Saxony, and Kurhesse, all then Austria’s allies.
Could it therefore be said then that Austria had Germany on her side
in the coming showdown? Hardly. Military support of the Austrian
cause by the German states was meager, except for the contributions by
Saxony and the initial ones by Hanover. Moreover the southern and
central German states acted not out of sympathy with Austrian policies
and even less so with her philosophy of government, but out of fear of
Prussian military expansionism. The Prussian strategy, brilliantly de¬
signed by the chief of staff, Moltke, and well prepared by Minister of
War Roon’s reorganization of the army, called for a three-pronged attack
on Bohemia. After the invading armies had converged in central Bohemia,
the Austrian forces should be forced to accept a decisive battle. This was
the way it was planned and so it happened.
The Austrian commander in chief, Ludwig von Benedek, was one of
those mediocre strategists, who could be forced to follow the ruts drawn
by a superior foe. Much ink has been spilled about the appointment and
tragic fate of this man, who was pressed to accept a difficult assignment,
to which he was not qualified by experience or strategic ability. Evi-
dently the emperor felt that a conceivable military disaster in the north
would reflect on the crown, if Archduke Albrecht, Benedek’s senior in
rank, would be given the command in the north.
However, Benedek’s insufficiency was only one cause for the military
catastrophe. The Austrian general staff, and particularly Benedek’s
personal staff, failed completely, and the Prussian army was better or¬
ganized, better led, and better equipped. Its use of the needle gun with
its superior and faster firing power was a major item in the balance sheet.
Before the battle of Koniggratz, Benedek, after his subcommanders had
been defeated, repeatedly urged the emperor to conclude preace rather
than risk a major confrontation. Francis Joseph appealing to military
chivalry used indirect but strong pressure on Benedek to accept battle in
unfavorable terrain. Another commander would hardly have done much
better. Even if Benedek had been ordered to retreat rather than having
been pushed into battle, it is difficult to see, how the Austrians could
have blocked a Prussian victory.28
In this sense the frequently voiced assertion that the bloody battle of
Koniggratz, fought on July 4, 1866, was a decisive battle in world history, is
correct only to the extent that Austria’s rout smashed the backbone of
her military resistance and led within weeks to what amounted to capitu¬
lation—a defeat of far-reaching consequences. Yet this defeat was not
brought about so much by a military turn of events at Koniggratz, where
the Austrians fought as well as the Prussians. Koniggratz merely con¬
firmed a course of history, inevitably brought about by the accumulated
effects of the national revolutions of 1848-1849: Schwarzenberg’s provoc¬
ative policy against Prussia, the Crimean and Austro-Sardinian crisis, the
oppressive policies in Italy, and the insensitivity of neoabsolutism and
pseudo-constitutionalism to public opinion.
The shaken and disorganized Austrian troops retreated to the vicinity
of Vienna. The replacement of Benedek by Archduke Albrecht and
transfer of major contingents of his southern army to the north changed
little. Moreover, a Prussian-equipped Hungarian legion of insurgents
under the revolutionary General Klapka had entered Slovakian territory
in Hungary. Although unsuccessful in non-Magyar regions, this force
posed a threat in terms of potential national disintegration.
Undoubtedly the victorious Prussians had to face some risks. Napoleon
28 Gordon A. Craig, The Battle of Koniggratz (Philadelphia, 1964); Wilhelm

Schiissler, Koniggratz, 1866 (Munich, 1958), pp. 15-24; Heinrich Friedjung, ed.,
Benede\s nachgelassene Papiere (Dresden, 1904), pp. 352-404; Friedjung, Der
Kampf um die Vorherrschaft, II, 179-263.
III had been intimidated by the Austrian disaster. The possibility of
French intervention on behalf of Austria remained a potential threat to
Prussia, despite Bismarck’s skillful diplomatic maneuverings. Only speedy
conclusion of an armistice with Austria could check it. There were also
the typical dangers for armies in the field—cholera and dysentery.
Finally, a last stand of the Austrian troops reenforced by the southern
army presented at least some uncertainty. Bismarck had reason to
conclude an armistice and a preliminary peace treaty with Austria. The
terms of this agreement, signed on July 26 at Nikolsburg in southern
Moravia, were confirmed by the peace of Prague, less than a month
later.
Bismarck had to overcome considerable resistance of his king, whose
intellectual horizon did not transcend much that of a drill sergeant. Con¬
sequently he wished for substantial annexations of Austrian territory,
whereas the prime minister intended to offer rather generous terms.
The king yielded and Bismarck had his way. Fram all we know, he did
not as yet have a future alliance in mind but wanted to keep all possibili¬
ties open.
These were the results: Austria recognized the dissolution of the Ger¬
man Confederation and approved in advance the new organization of
Germany. This included the establishment of a North German federation
under Prussian leadership and the annexation by Prussia of Kurhesse,
Hanover, Nassau, Frankfurt and the controversial duchies Schleswig
and Holstein. A minor though humiliating indemnity of 20,000,000 Talers
was to be paid by Austria. On the other hand she was able to secure the
territorial integrity of her most faithful ally, Saxony.
The outcome of the war was of lasting and in several respects decisive
significance. As for domestic policies, it was widely felt that the new de¬
bacle was still the consequence of the neoabsolutist mismanagement and
its too slow transformation after 1859. Here the defeat of Austria pro¬
moted the establishment of genuine constitutional government. Even
greater were the consequences in foreign affairs. The two defeats in
1859 and 1866 had reduced Austria from a genuine great power to a nomi¬
nal one. Never again was she to rise in status. More important, the com¬
ing defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, the perma¬
nent strained relations with Russia and in a sense also with Italy, made
it clear that Germany was the only genuine potential ally of Austria. Yet
an alliance with Germany meant that she would be the senior partner, to
whose basic policies Austria would have to agree. The most basic of
these was the notion that Germans and Magyars must be the dominant
national groups in the Habsburg empire, as the only reliable bulwark

against Slav advances toward the west. This ruled out the possibility of
sweeping national reforms.29
These facts dawned only gradually on Emperor Francis Joseph and the
leading Austrian statesmen. Their first reaction in the years following
the defeat of 1866 was to look for the possibility of revenge against Prus¬
sia, and when that possibility vanished on the battlefield of Sedan, to seek
compensation of the losses in the east. This meant expansion in the Bal¬
kans, involvement in conflicts with Turkey, and most important, a new
source of friction with Russia, which finally led to the crisis of the first
World War. Here, too, the connection with the fatal war of 1866 is ap¬
parent because an aggressive, militaristic state like Prussia might obtain
the leadership of Germany, but never, in the age of nationalism, of a
multinational empire. Recognition of this simple fact lies at the root of
the Austrian decline.
In October, 1866, Francis Joseph accepted the resignation of Count
Mensdorff-Pouilly and entrusted foreign affairs to the former Saxon prime
minister, Baron ( later Count) Ferdinand Beust, a shrewd but unequal
opponent of Bismarck’s policy. His assignment was, if possible, to initiate
a new anti-Prussian combination, if not alliance, which should undo what
never could be undone. One of the major means to that effect was seen in
domestic reorganization. This meant full reconciliation with Hungary, em¬
bodied in the Compromise of 1867, henceforth the constitutional frame of
the empire, to be discussed in Section E. In foreign policy the first aim
was to arrive at an understanding with Napoleon III. The Salzburg
entrevue of August, 1867, between Francis Joseph and the French em¬
peror was officially a visit of condolence on the occasion of the execution
of Francis Joseph’s brother Maximilian of Mexico in Queretaro. He had
been prompted by Napoleon to engage in the trans-Atlantic adventure
but had been abandoned by him later. French fears of involvement in a
conflict with the United States were understandable in political terms.
Just the same, Napoleon’s attitude looked cynical as seen from a dynastic
angle. —
Napoleon’s past Mexican policy, however, was not the reason for the
failure of the two emperors to come to terms. Francis Joseph, never too
fond of his brother, certainly could overcome feelings of resentment
29 Srbik, Deutsche Einheit, IV, 366-466; Friedjung, Der Kampf um die Vorherr-
schaft, II, 470-518; Adam Wandruszka, Schic\salsjahr, 1866 (Graz, 1966), pp. 175—
203. F. R. Bridge, From Sadowa to Sarajevo: The Foreign Policy of Austria-
Hungary 1866-1914 (London, 1972), pp. 11-29.
2j8 History of the Habshurg Empire
against the upstart Bonaparte, but neither he nor Napoleon dared to take
the big anti-Prussian jump. Later attempts to bring Italy into negotiations
for an Austro-French-Italian alliance against Prussia never reached a
stage of serious discussions. The cautious preliminary Austrian decision
in favor of neutrality taken by a crown council on the eve of the outbreak
of the war of 1870-1871 became permanent when the Bonapartist empire
fell within six weeks under the shattering blows of the German attack.
Whatever happened from now on in the war, a republican France was,
for reasons of domestic policy, hardly a feasible ally for the Habsburg em¬
pire. Francis Joseph changed his course accordingly and dismissed Beust
in November, 1871. His place was taken by Count Julius Andrassy,
Magyar rebel in 1848-1849, subsequently proscribed emigre, sentenced in
absentia to be hanged, but rehabilitated and appointed Hungarian prime
minister in 1867. Andrassy, one of the architects of the Austro-Hungarian
Compromise, was committed to the principle of German-Magyar pre¬
dominance in the Habsburg monarchy. Consequently he was a supporter
of amicable relations with Germany. He wanted to bring Austria into
such combination as equal partner, and this was the main reason for
the unfortunate Oriental policy of this attractive, courageous, and in
many ways capable man.30
First, however, an attempt by Bismarck was made to establish a
European order directed by the three eastern empires on the basis of the
principle of monarchic solidarity. In 1894, with the conclusion of the
Franco-Russian alliance directed against both central powers, these efforts
ended in definite failure. But long before, in fact within a few years after
1871, the failure of Bismarck’s endeavors became apparent. The so-called
Three Emperors’ League of 1873 consisted in a military convention be¬
tween Russia and the new German empire of 1871 to which mere consul¬
tation and vague cooperation pacts between Russia and Austria were
added. Germany gained the advantage of at least benevolent Austro-
Russian neutrality in the event of a French attack—unlikely as it might
have been for some time. For Austria and Russia only a common front
against international revolutionary activities on the extreme Left were
easily feasible. Yet common actions against such true or alleged danger
did hardly require a formal pact.
The real test of the agreement would have been Austro-Russian co¬
operation in case of a crisis in the east—as it were in the Balkans. In 1875
30 For an over-all evaluation of Andrassy with emphasis on his services as

diplomat see Eduard von Wertheimer, Graf Julius Andrassy und seine Zeit, 3 vols.
(Stuttgart, 1910-1913), see III, 340-368.
revolts against the oppressive Turkish regime started in Bosnia-Herce-

govina. The Serbs supported the insurrections and Russia gave at least in¬
direct support to risings in the eastern Balkans. A new Russian advance
in this area appeared to be in the offing. Negotiations between the leading
Austrian and Russian statesmen (Andrassy and Gorchakov) and subse¬
quently between the sovereigns Francis Joseph and Alexander II in the
summer of 1876 led to the so-called Reichstadt agreement, formalized by
the second treaty of Budapest (January, 1877): Austria pledged her
neutrality in a Russo-Turkish conflict and Russia waived objection to an
Austrian occupation of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The ensuing new Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 alarmed Europe,
particularly Great Britain and Austria. The Ottoman empire’s resistance
was stronger than expected but its eventual defeat inevitable. In the pre¬
liminary peace of St. Stefano of March, 1878, Serbia, Montenegro, and
Roumania were to sever their tenuous bonds to Turkey. The High Portal
was also to agree to the creation of a Greater Bulgaria extending from the
Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, to be occupied for several years by Russian
troops. Even thereafter the new Bulgaria was to be a Russian vassal state.
By this arrangement Russia would gain free passage for her naval forces
through the Dardanelles and military predominance in the Balkans. The
first objective was intolerable for Britain, the second for Austria. Their
joint protests led to the convocation of the Congress of Berlin under
Bismarck’s chairmanship in June, 1878. When the Congress adjourned in
mid-July Russian advances were restricted on all fronts. In particular a
territorially considerably reduced Bulgaria was confined now to a northern
principality tributary to Turkey, whereas the southeastern part (East
Roumelia) was given merely separate administration as a Turkish prov¬
ince. Thus a potential Russian satellite state was cut down to size. As for
Austria, the signatories of the Congress act (that is, the great powers and
Turkey), granted Austria the right to occupy and fully administer
Bosnia and Hercegovina for an undetermined period. Furthermore
the powers conceded military occupation of the Sanjak of Novibazar,
a small wooded strip of territory between Serbia and Montenegro. In
a secret agreement between Austria and the Ottoman empire, the Turks
were assured that the occupation was meant to be provisional in character
but indefinite in time. The sovereignty of the sultan should continue in
principle though not in practice. This meant sweeping occupational rights
but not formal annexation, which would have required the approval of
the signatory powers of the Congress act.
This outcome of the congressional decisions was of mixed value for
the Habsburg monarchy. Russia’s dissatisfaction continued, though it was
extended now from Austria to Germany. The fact that Andrassy re¬
signed himself to mere occupation and did not insist on annexation,
which might have been achieved with the approval of the great powers
(though not with that of Turkey) was to create difficulties in the future.
The garrisoning of the Sanjak, probably indefensible in case of war, was
to be a further mortgage on relations with Serbia and Montenegro, while
the conceivable benefits were truly minor.
Yet annexation or occupation of Bosnia-Hercegovina or mere military
garrisoning in the Sanjak were secondary questions. The basic issue was
the justification of Austrian military and political expansion in the Bal¬
kans. Three arguments could be advanced for the Austrian Balkan policy.
One, never openly admitted but clear from further actions was that of
economic penetration of southeastern Europe; this was difficult to achieve,
dangerous to put through, but from the point of the Habsburg mon¬
archy’s interests, not unreasonable. Two, prestige, although the involve¬
ment in a hornets nest of conflicting Balkan interests was hardly likely to
improve the Austrian position. Finally (and this was officially said), the
danger of having the hinterland of Dalmatia controlled by a hostile
country. This meant potentially Serbia rather than Turkey. However, the
Habsburg monarchy was strong enough to take care of her interests in
Dalmatia without acquisition of new territories.
Whatever the case in favor of occupation or annexation might have
been, disadvantages and dangers outweighed the problematical advan¬
tages. Clearly the Southern Slav problem would become more serious
with the acquisition of additional Southern Slav, largely Serb, territory.
The precarious balance of national alignments established by the Austro-
Hungarian Compromise would be upset and the unfortunate device of
actually permanent but legally provisional occupation was to challenge
the demands of rising Southern Slav and later to some degree also Turk¬
ish nationalism. It could be expected that the occupation would strain
Austro-Russian relations further, meaning, in turn, greater dependency on
German protection. This last point was indeed the first major direct
international consequence of the occupation.31
31 William L. Langer, European Alliances and Alignments i8yi-i8go (New

York, 1938), pp. 121-170; Allan J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe
1848-1gi8 (Oxford, 1957), pp. 228-254; L. von Siidland, Die sudslawische Frage
und der Welt\rieg (Vienna, 1918), pp. 484-514; Bridge, From Sadowa to
Sarajevo, pp. 81-102.
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 2 8l
There were others. The occupation proved to be not a pushover. The
costly military campaign put a strain on relations with the High Portal
and Serbia at the same time. This was partly obscured by the fact that the
Serbian king Milan was sustained by Austrian subsidies. Furthermore,
Magyar nationalists but particularly German liberals saw in the occupation
a dangerous upsetting of the balance of Slavic peoples against Germans
and Magyars. It was primarily this fact which led to the downfall of the
German liberal regime in Cisleithanian Austria and its replacement by a
Slavic dominated conservative coalition. This meant not only the end of
the problematical rule of German liberalism in the Habsburg empire
but of political liberalism in general in the western half of the monarchy
until the end.
In foreign relations, the Bosnian affair, as well as the German mediator
role at the Congress of Berlin, strained German-Russian relations, as
noted above, and led thus indirectly to the Austro-German alliance of
October, 1879. Bismarck at this time was isolated. Consequently the terms
of the alliance, which pledged the contracting parties to come to each
other’s support, if attacked by Russia single-handed, but by France only,
if that power was supported by Russia, seemed to be favorable to Austria.
On paper, her obligations were more limited than those of Germany.
Actually a single-handed attack by France on Germany was a purely
academic contingency. Bismarck was interested in preventing a dissolu¬
tion of the Habsburg monarchy, from which Russia would have benefited
more than Germany. From that point of view the alliance had indeed ad¬
vantages for Austria. On the other hand, it should have become clear that
the Habsburg monarchy as ally of Germany would become involved in a
future Franco-Russian two-front war against Germany, whose outbreak
Bismarck’s genius could delay but not prevent. In addition, the reliance
on a superior German ally barred forever the possibility for a compre¬
hensive settlement of the nationality questions in the Habsburg monarchy,
if such a chance still existed. Premise for the alliance was Austro-German
and Magyar predominance in the empire. The alliance meant further
that as long as Germany had the upper hand Austria would have to play
the second role to German interests as “brilliant second” as William II
put it at the time of the first Morocco crisis. On the other hand, if Austria
should be given a freer rein in international relations then the danger of
involvement in a major war with Russia and her potential allies resulting
from a Balkan crisis might become ever more likely.
It could be held, against this line of reasoning, that the continuation of
2&z History of the Habsburg Empire
the alliance secured for the Danube peoples limited freedom for half a
century, which they would not have enjoyed under the tsarist boot. Yet
the freedom was limited, the dependency on Germany great and the dan¬
ger of a major war even greater. Thus the alliance resulting in part from
the Bosnian occupation represented a mixed blessing. Whether it could
help to preserve constitutional government under peaceful conditions or
whether it would involve the Danube monarchy in major wars would
largely depend on the complexities of the national question in conjunc¬
tion with the level of statesmanship of the future architects of Austrian
foreign policy.32
B. Domestic affairs from 1815 to the revolution of 1848-1849
The twenty years of peace of the Franciscan administration after the

end of the Napoleonic wars a;id their continuation during the reign of
Ferdinand the Benign until 1848 may still be considered as apolitical in
character. No parties, no pressure groups substantially influenced the
course of government. It is true that after the revolution, from 1849 to
i860, we face a restoration of absolutist government. But a restored system
is always different from the original system. The lesson of the revolution
of 1848-1849 may never have been learned by the ruling forces of Aus¬
trian society but neither were they forgotten.
If we say that absolutism between 1815 and 1848 was still in full control,
we have to qualify this statement in two respects. First, the changes
brought about by the reform period in Hungary from 1825 t0 I^48, al¬
though not representing popular sovereignty in an organized manner, are
in some respects a transition to a more modern social order. Second, the
rumbling of nationalism among all the empire’s national groups heralded
new problems, new constellations of powers, and new conflicts. And yet
momentous as nationalism was to become before 1848 it was expressed
primarily in the ideological sphere, less so politically and socially. Thus
the Restoration period and pre-March era were still becalmed in the
political sphere.33
32 Langer, European Alliances, pp. 171-216; Sidney B. Fay, The Origins of the
World War (New York, 1928), 2 vols., I, pp. 59-70; Taylor, The Struggle for
Mastery in Europe, pp. 255-264; Robert A. Kann, in Ludovit Holotik and Anton
Vantuch, eds., Der osterreichisch-ungarische Ausgleich i86y (Bratislava, 1971), pp.
24—44*
33 In this study we perceive the Restoration period as die era from 1815 to the
death of Francis I in 1835, and the pre-March era from here on to the outbreak
of the revolution in 1848. See also Robert A. Kann, The Problem of Restoration
(Berkeley, 1968), pp. 94-103.
a) ADMINISTRATIVE-JUDICIAL SPHERE
The second half of the Franciscan reign in domestic affairs was more
stable than the first with its many, but unprincipled attempts to reshuffle
the organization of government. After 1815 the police played an in¬
creasingly pervasive part, which rightly gave the new system the trade¬
mark “police state.” Actually it was not entirely new. The police system
had been introduced under Joseph II by Count Johann Anton Pergen to
control actions initiated by the Josephin bureaucracy. The police certainly
also reported the political attitude of individuals to the regime. Yet by
and large it was still a security force and one of its main tasks was to en¬
force the reform legislation. In other words, in a devious way the police
were to support a progressive philosophy of government. Under Francis,
and particularly after 1815, the chief objective and task of the police,
under its new chief, Count Joseph Sedlnitzky (as president of the police
and censorship agency from 1817 to 1848) was to check the spread of
even faintly liberal ideas, that meant, potentially revolutionary ideas. This
task required a strict system of censorship. Loyalty stood for complete
submission to political and social repression. Some Franciscan bureaucrats,
like Count Franz Anton Kolowrat, a friend of the estates system in its
restricted Maria Theresan sense, particularly in the Bohemian lands, was
mildly opposed to this, yet Sedlnitzky’s policies, backed by Metternich,
prevailed until the revolution of 1848.34
The estates rights remained extremely limited; new estates constitutions
for Tyrol, Carniola, and Galicia restricted estates powers to the right of
petition and some very limited participation in the collection and alloca¬
tion of tax money. Financial administration was separated from over-all
political administration, and the General Court Chamber was restored as
main financial agency. Karl Friedrich von Kiibeck (1780-1855), one of
the ablest bureaucrats under three emperors, established this new organ¬
ization. The Franciscan government never fully overcame the conse¬
quences of the great financial crisis of 1811, which in turn was mainly the
natural result of the war period. The establishment of the Austrian Na-
tionalbank in 1816 and the government’s reliance on support of private
financiers (such as Rothschild, Arnstein, Eskeles) helped, however, to
prevent new economic disasters. A modernization of the land tax on a
broader basis introduced for the first time truly comprehensive records of
all cultivated lands in the country and of all leases in town houses. An
™ Julius Marx, Die osterreichische Zensur im Vormiirz (Vienna, 1959), pp. 11-
24, 36-64.
indirect tax imposed in 1829 on the transportation of foodstuff beyond
town and provincial limits was unfair and unpopular.
As for provincial organization, the separate administration of Lorn-
bardy-Venetia was to be divided into two gubernia in Milan and Venice.
The Illyrian provinces, ceded to France in 1809, were reincorporated into
Austria as two gubernia, one with the center of administration in Ljubl¬
jana and one in Trieste. The latter included the small part of Croatia
on the right bank of the Sava and Fiume (Rijeka). Both, however, after
some years were returned to Flungarian administration.
With the rising reaction after 1815, the influence of the ecclesiastic spirit
of the strictest conservative observance became increasingly strong. Un¬
doubtedly it conflicted with the lively intellectual contributions and in¬
terchange among the Catholic Romantics around Adam Muller, Josef von
Pilat, Friedrich Schlegel, and Emanuel Veith. The social-oriented Chris¬
tian doctrines of the previously mentioned Clemens Maria Hofbauer
(1751-1820, sainted in 1909), who represented the Redemptorist (Liguo-
rian) congregation in the early Restoration period in Austria had little
immediate but considerable long-range influence on the charitable as¬
pects of Church policy. On the other hand, the readmission of the Jesuit
Order in 1814, restored to good graces by the Holy See, stood for the
spirit of the ecclesia militans. All things considered a strange conversion,
though not yet elimination, of Josephinism in state-Church relations, had
taken place. The government never again relinquished its control of
ecclesiastic matters but it used the Church as an arm of government to
promote and enforce its policies. This practice pertained in particular to
the supervision of secondary education for the intellectual and social elite.
Here the state with the authoritative advice of the higher clergy reserved
for itself the right to prescribe textbooks and academic curricula not only
in the secular schools but also in the diocesan seminaries, even though
they had been formally restored to episcopal control. The establishment of
an Austrian Academy in 1847 was onty an isolated instance of intellectual
activities outside clerical control.35
A slight tendency toward liberalization in the governmental process
could be seen only in two areas. In the judicial sphere patrimonial juris¬
diction was further restricted, partly because it had become impossible to
reintroduce it in the German Alpine and Southern Slav territories, which
between 1805 and 1813 had been under Bavarian and French administra-
35 Rudolf Till, Hofbauer und sein Kreis (Vienna, 1951), pp. 9-94; Winter,
Romantismus, pp. 27-55, 125-143; Edward Hosp, Kirche in Osterreich im Vormarz,
1815-1850 (Vienna, 1971), pp. 15-21, 249-359.
tions; but partly also, because the safeguards of individual rights intro¬
duced by the Josephin legislation for the peasants, made continuation of
this jurisdiction cumbersome and expensive for the lords.
In the military sphere the needs of the war period had led to a gradual
extension of service obligations and corresponding reduction of exemp¬
tions from service. As discussed (Chapt. V/K), this policy was carried
over into the era of peace after 1815. To make service obligations less hate¬
ful general modifications took place, however, in the 1840s. Conditions
remained severe enough and yet these modifications, linked to gradual
mitigations of the harsh and degrading military discipline, proved again
that even an absolute government could not entirely ignore public
opinion.36
b) ECONOMICS
Gradual economic development in Austria during this period was

characterized more by changing technological conditions than by planned
policies. It was neither rapid nor comprehensive enough to be regarded as
industrial or agrarian revolution in western European terms. The tariff
policy of the government remained unsuccessful and unimaginative.
Barred from participation in the German Zollverein of 1833, the regime
failed to establish an effective countersystem in Germany or even a
comprehensive customs union of the Habsburg lands. Hungarian op¬
position represented the chief impediment. Thus a protective tariff system
in regard to foreign countries continued, alongside one of lower so-called
preferential internal customs. A cumbersome order of trade organization
in the non-Hungarian lands hampered industrial progress. It consisted in
a largely arbitrary division between so-called commercial trades controlled
by the Court Chamber and police trades supervised by the Court Chan¬
cery. The former trades were meant to satisfy needs beyond the local
demands and included manufacturing in industrial plants; the latter
were primarily to serve local needs. To compound the complexity, an¬
other division existed between establishments controlled by guild regula¬
tions and “free crafts,” a misleading term because they were subject to
cumbersome government regulations.
Some industrial progress was made just the same. The textile industry
in the German-Austrian and particularly in the Bohemian lands, the silk
36 Henry A. Strakosch, State Absolutism and the Rule of Law: The Struggle for
Codification of Civil Law in Austria 1753-1811 (Sydney, 1967), pp. 181-194; Huber
and Dopsch, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte, pp. 310-321; Herbert Matis, Oster-
reichs Wirtschaft 1848-1918 (Berlin, 1972), pp. 22-30.
2 86 History of the Habshurg Empire
industry in Lombardy, and some modest industrial establishments in
Hungary (textiles, sugar refineries, distilleries) expanded. The iron and
steel mining and processing industry in Witkowitz in Moravia and in
northern Styria made substantial progress. Dye manufacturing was in¬
troduced in Lower Austria. Renowned for its quality was the glass in¬
dustry in Bohemia and the manufacturing of leather goods in Lower
Austria, particularly in Vienna.
Working conditions in the crafts were dismal. Teenage apprentices
were delivered to the mercies of often cruel, greedy, but also impoverished
masters. In the industrial plants a fourteen-hour working day was the
rule, reduced to twelve hours in 1839 for children under twelve. In these
respects Austria did neither worse nor better than industrially more ad¬
vanced countries.
As to communications, the government supported the establishment of
the Austrian Danube Steamship Company in 1829, and in 1836 the Austrian
Lloyd, the main steamship company on the high seas, with headquarters
in Trieste. Austria also pioneered on the Continent the introduction of
railroads. Between 1825 and 1827 a railroad, though not yet steam-oper¬
ated, was opened between Budweis (Budejovice) in Bohemia and Linz
in Upper Austria; after 1836 a very short stretch of the future Northern
Railway route (Floridsdorf to Deutsch-Wagram) was operated by steam
locomotives. The canal waterway system of communications in the
Austro-German-Bohemian orbit was improved. In all, there was some
moderate progress but the fact that it was not accompanied by social
legislation led to serious disturbances in Vienna, Prague, Plzen (Pilsen),
and other places during the economic crisis between 1845 and 1848. They
heralded worse troubles to come.37
c) THE SITUATION IN HUNGARY
During this period of artificial centralization Hungary requires a

separate discussion—not so much on constitutional grounds, but because
of independent intellectual and social currents, and in the pre-March pe¬
riod already distinct political actions. In 1848 Hungary including Croatia
37 See Mayer-Kaindl-Pirchegger, Geschichte und Kulturleben Osterreichs, 5th

revised edition by A. Klein (Vienna, 1965), pp. 36-42, 78-97. Kristina M. Fink, Die
osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchie als Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft (Munich, 1968),
pp. 9-19; Julius Marx, Die wirtschajtlichen Ursachen der Revolution von 1848 in
Ostrreich (Graz-Cologne, 1965), pp. 9-167 passim; Nachum T. Gross, “Die Stel-
lung der Habsburgermonarchie in der Weltwirtschaft” in Adam Wandruszka and
Peter Urbanitsch eds.. Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848-1(418 (Wien, 1973- ), vol.
I, Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, pp. 1-28.
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 28y
had a population of nearly 12 million, a figure almost doubled in 1918.
The future capital, Pest, had 50,000 inhabitants in 1848, and 2 million a
century later.38 In this agricultural society the migrations of Serbs from the
south, Slovaks from Bohemia and Moravia in the west, Jews and Ruthe-
nians in substantial numbers from Galicia and Bukovina, and hundreds of
thousands of Roumanians from Walachia into Transylvania, created a
social structure, which first endangered and then overturned the Magyar
majority in the country. Taking a long-range view, Magyar nationalism
could, however, haltingly drop prejudices and privileges deriving from the
specific ethnic distinction between the Ugro-Finnish Magyars, the Slavic,
German, and the partly Mediterranean Roumanian peoples. It could never
bow to the gradual reversal of nationality statistics and its social con¬
sequences to the disadvantage of the master race.
For the time being social pressures were equal to the national ones. The
tax exemption of the nobility, not abolished until the revolution of 1848,
meant that some 700,000 landowners, mostly in the middle-income
brackets were tax exempted. This, rather than the privileged status of
the aristocratic landowners which until the Maria Theresan period paral¬
leled those in Bohemia, was the most characteristic feature of the Hun¬
garian social system. The freedom of the peasants to own lands and
purchase their full unrestricted personal freedom was not established
until the diet of 1840. Peasant rebellions were bound to occur frequently,
particularly during and after the great plague (cholera) of 1831-1832.39
National tension was piled on the social stresses and here the non-
Magyar nationalities were second-class citizens even compared with the
underprivileged Magyar peasants. Slovaks, Roumanians, and Ruthenians
had no political or territorial organization. The Roumanians in Transyl¬
vania did not have equal status with the Magyars, Szekels, and Germans,
in Hungary proper only the Serbs enjoyed a limited autonomy. Thus by
a process of elimination the language conflict, never fully put to rest
again after the reign of Joseph II, evolved first between Magyars and
38 Pressburg (Pozsony) was the city where until 1848 the Hungarian diet usually
convened and where the kings were crowned. It was, however, not the official
capital. Beginning with the thirteenth century, Buda (Ofen) could be considered
the major royal residence. Pest, on the left bank of the Danube, across from Buda,
became the seat of government in 1848. In 1872, Buda and Pest merged and the
new Budapest became the official capital of Hungary. The last two coronations took
place there.
39 Kann, Das Nationalitatenproblem, I, 117-122 and the literature quoted ibid.
389-392; Dominic C. Kosary, A History of Hungary (Cleveland, 1941), pp. 138-
184; Istvan Barta in Ervin Pamlenyi, ed., Die Geschichte Ungarns (Budapest,
1971), V, 241-298, see in particular VII, 287-291.
2 88 History of the Hahsburg Empire
Croatians, of whom a large part in the south and east lived within the
Military Frontier organization. Only “Civil” or “Banal Croatia” (the
territory under the jurisdiction of the banus) in the northwest formed a
distinct social structure of political significance. Even though subor¬
dinated to the Hungarian crown and limited within its geographical
confines, the political importance of Civil Croatia was strengthened by
the neighboring Military Frontier of the same ethnic composition and
tradition.
The Hungarian diet of 1830 had passed legislation according to which
government officials and lawyers must be able to officiate in Hungarian,
which up to then was only taught as second language in schools. Higher
education was based almost exclusively on Latin and secondly on Ger¬
man—a policy in the interest of the Vienna government. Latin or
Croatian was ruled out even as secondary official language by the Magyar
nationalists, who at the diet of 1844 managed to put through a law that
required the teaching of Magyar in secondary Croatian schools. More
important were new laws which made immigration into Hungary in¬
cluding Croatia dependent on the knowledge of Magyar and made the
Magyar language instead of Latin the official language of communica¬
tion between Hungary proper and Croatia. This meant in substance that
the ancient kingdom should be considered as partes adnexae, that is,
mere provinces of Hungary with a very limited degree of autonomy
rather than as regna socia, allied kingdoms, the terms according to which
Croatia-Slavonia had entered the union of 1527 with its separate sabor
(diet) and banus (governor), appointed by the Hungarian king.40
The ideological repercussions of such problems will be discussed in
the following section in regard to all national groups. At this point we
are only concerned with the political struggle in Hungary, which can be
understood as the conflict between the enlightened conservative reformers
represented by Count Stephan Szechenyi (1791-1860) and the radical,
socially progressive nationalists by Louis Kossuth (1802-1894).
Szechenyi, even by his opponent Kossuth referred to as the greatest
Hungarian, stood for evolutionary changes, first economically and then
perhaps, but only in agreement within the Austrian government, polit¬
ically according to the principles of English constitutional government.
40 Jules Szekfii, 2s tat et Nation (Paris, 1945), pp. n-103; Rudolf Kissling, Die
Kroaten (Graz-Cologne, 1956), pp. 57-61; Stanko Guldescu, “Croatian Political
History 1526-1918,” in Francis H. Eterovich and Christopher Spalatin, eds.,
Croatia: Land, People, Culture (Toronto, 1964-1970), II, 38-40; Kann, Nation-
alitatenproblem, I, 246-259, 439-441.
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 28g
H is efforts to achieve reforms were only to a small part successful. Yet the
foundation of the Hungarian Academy, the establishment of the Na¬
tional Casino as a kind of debating society primarily for the national
aristocracy, the beginning of the regulation of the Danube and Tisza
rivers, and Szechenyi’s fight against the law of entail of landed property
were impressive achievements under existing conditions. Such endeavors
were supported by enlightened nobles like Baron Nicholas de Wesselenyi,
counts Aurel Dessewffy and Antony Szecsen and by leading members of
the gentry such as Joseph von Eotvos and Francis Deak. Eotvos, the
champion of Hungarian administrative reorganization, became later one
of the most original promoters of empire reform. Francis Deak, an
outstanding constitutional lawyer and moderate parliamentarian of wide
popularity, was in later years to become the great old man of Hungarian
politics.
Kossuth, on the other hand, the young, fiery provincial lawyer from the
Slovakian region wanted to force several issues at the same time: the full
emancipation of the Hungarian peasants, the recognition of Magyar as
the national language throughout greater Hungary including Croatia and
Transylvania, the transformation of the relationship to Austria to a kind
of confederal association, and the establishment of a separate Hungarian
customs territory. Szechenyi either refrained from demands which could
not be put through in an evolutionary manner, that is, could not be put
through at all, or he compromised, as in the Hungarian tariff question, in
favor of the customs union with Austria.41 Kossuth’s brilliant dialectics
and powerful, to some extent demagogic mass appeal, which was dis¬
played in the dietal deliberations of 1832-1836, 1837-1840, and 1847-1848,42
further alerted Magyar nationalism.
Although Szechenyi’s success was more passive and less conspicuous, it
was effective because his cautious reform policy prevented the break with
Austria. If he had had his way, the liberal members of the diet of 1847
would have settled peacefully for a compromise on such demands as a
lower house of parliament elected by general male franchise, govern-
41 George Barany, Stephen Szecheny and the Awakening of Hungarian National¬

ism, iygi-1841 (Princeton, 1968), pp. 135-317; Johann Weber, Eotvos und die
ungarische Ndtionalitatenfrage (Munich, 1966), pp. 104-154; Bela Kiraly, “The
Young Ferenc Deak and the Problem of the Serfs,” Sudostforschungen, XIX
(1970), 91-127; Kann, N ationalitdtenproblem, I, 117-122, 389-392.
42 The king called no diets into session between 1812 and 1825 and this ex lex
situation would have been continued had Francis not been anxious to secure
recognition of the succession of his incapacitated son Ferdinand as crowned king
of Hungary.
ment responsible to parliament, free press, and abolition of all tax exemp¬
tions. This was indeed a relatively enlightened approach on the part of
the gentry majority of the diet, whereas the claim for unqualified in¬
corporation of Transylvania into Hungary could be considered con¬
troversial from the viewpoint of liberal principles. However, this pro¬
gram, until March, 1848, the maximum of the obtainable, was soon super¬
seded by the revolutionary events.
d) RISE OF THE PROBLEM OF NATIONALISM
In this section we are concerned with a brief analysis of a transitional

stage of nationalist development. The new and important cultural con¬
tributions of the champions of the Slavic renaissance and changes in the
nationalist ideologies within other groups will be discussed in Chapter
VII. Here we start from the assumption that what frequently is referred
to as “the emergence of the national (or nationalist) problem” or “the
awakening of nationalism” goes back further in history than to the sem¬
inal ideas of Rousseau, Herder, or Schlozer in the transition period from
late Enlightenment to early romanticism. What occurred in those decades
is the crystallization of concepts while the phenomena of nationalism them¬
selves can be traced back to the beginnings of modern times and in some
cases to the Middle Ages. True enough, the so-called Slavic renaissance
—roughly from the last quarter of the eighteenth century to the second
quarter of the nineteenth—strengthened a sense of national consciousness
among several national groups, but this era did not create these feelings.
Here an important distinction is suggestive. There were first national
groups with a political history based on the tradition of medieval social
stratification within the confines of the Habsburg empire (Croats, Czechs,
Italians, Germans, Magyars, and Poles). They possessed a strong sense of
national identity and consciousness. Secondly, such consciousness cannot
be denied to the so-called national groups without history either, which
for centuries were deprived by foreign overlords of autonomous political
development. Consequently they could not take advantage of the mixed
blessings of a nationally conscious nobility, gentry, and urban burgher
class. The fact that such national groups as the Roumanians, Ruthenians,
Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, had no independent political history and tradi¬
tion of a separate social feudal structure within the borders of the Habs¬
burg realms does not mean that they lacked history. Independent political
national history of a national group—in terms of this study within the
Habsburg empire—and national consciousness of such a group refer to
separate concepts. If the first is present, the second is also, but if the first is
lacking there is still a probability that national consciousness exists.43
What does this mean in terms of the transitional era under discussion
here? Nationalism up to the beginning of the restoration period had at
some time played an important role among some national groups within
their domestic order as well as in their relationship to the empire. Now
largely under the influence of the Slavic cultural renaissance and, con¬
comitant with it, with the recognition of the ethnic factor, nationalism
began to become a polidcal problem for all national groups whereas pre¬
viously it had been one only for some. It changed to a, if not the empire¬
wide chief problem. This became fully apparent in the political confronta¬
tions of the revolution of 1848-1849. Yet much occurred or began to occur
in the preceding Restoration and pre-March period which heralded the
metamorphosis of the national problem to the most pervasive of all
problems of the multinational empire.
To begin with, the grossdeutsch-hleindeutsch issue was discussed
briefly in Section A of this chapter in the context of foreign, especially
Austrian-Prussian, relations. Of more immediate impact within Austria
between 1815 and 1848 were the efforts to modernize the estates system
as counterweight against the centralism of an oppressive absolutism. The
former member of the Tyrolean estates, Victor von Andrian-Werburg
(1813-1858) and the artillery captain Karl Moering (1810-1870), both
mentioned in the discussion of St. Paul’s Assembly in Frankfurt, played
an important part. They were distinguished writers, who promoted the
idea of an Austrian estates central assembly to be convened in Vienna.
They also wanted to bring the peasants of the crownlands into this estates
structure, and they further advocated communal autonomy. All this
should have modified both absolutism and centralism in a rather limited
43 The author, in line with his previous discussions of the problem, confines the
validity of the concept of nations or national groups with independent political
history to the area of the Habsburg empire. No nation in a wider sense lacks
history altogether and all five national groups referred to here as lacking an inde¬
pendent political history within the confines of the Danube monarchy identified them¬
selves throughout various phases of the Middle Ages with national political asso¬
ciations, though frequently of a mere tribal character. None of them, however, had
a political center in the Habsburg empire prior to the 19th century as understood
in the terms of this study. This modification separates the concept, as used here,
from the Marxian interpretation of the concept of nations with and without history.
See Kann, N ationalitdtenproblem, I, 44-56, 359-362. For a contrary Marxian opin¬
ion see Franz Zwitter, “Die nationalen Fragen in der osterreichisch-ungarischen
Monarchic (1900-1914),” in Fritz Klein and Peter Hanak, eds., Die nationale Frage
in der osterreichischungarischen Monarchic (Budapest, 1966), pp. 11-28.
political and social sense. In effect such proposals in national terms meant
a continuation of a qualified system of German-directed centralism. It
was hoped that relatively minor changes of political institutions would
meet the demands of other national groups halfway and in time and
thus keep the ruling system viable with modest adjustments. Francis
Schuselka (1811-1886), another St. Paul’s deputy, more volatile in his
views than either Andrian-Werburg or Moering but an equally versa¬
tile writer, had a better insight in the seriousness of the national problems,
though he proposed no better solutions. A determined opponent of na¬
tional and political oppression, he believed in the ideological superiority
of German liberalism. Like many German political writers from the radi¬
cal Left to the extreme Right he also feared the impact of substantial
Slavic opposition. The assumption that the administrative separation of
Galicia from the bulk of the empire, in conjunction with a more liberal
domestic regime, would help matters in general seemed to be more
reasonable than the ideas of the champions of the estates’ reforms.44
The ideological rift among the Magyars between the enlightened con¬
servatives or moderate liberals around Szechenyi and the spokesmen for a
young Hungary in the Mazzinian national pattern behind Kossuth has
been surveyed in the preceding section. Equally important and politically
equally advanced, though subject to more stringent government controls,
were propositions among the Czechs in the Bohemian lands. Here several
basic concepts at cross purposes with each other were meant to check
generally recognized grievances. Public opinion found the continued rule
of German-directed centralism increasingly oppressive and unendur¬
able. A widely supported device to check this situation was the cautiously
camouflaged demand for Czech political dominance according to the
medieval concepts of the Bohemian Staatsrecht with a view to eventual
outright Czech-German separation. This program, however, was per¬
ceived as a terminal goal. As understood by the enlightened conserva¬
tives, represented later by the old Czech party, the program stood for
the prevalent political view from the pre-March period roughly to the
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. It was reflected in several ways,
first as that of the territorial aristocracy in the crownlands in juxtaposition
to the court aristocracy in Vienna, secondly as that of a large sector of the
educated upper middle class. But primarily it stood for the views and
interests of the houses of Colloredo, Liechtenstein, Clam Gallas, Clam
Martinic, Silva-Tarouca, Liitzow, Thun, and Schwarzenberg among other
aristocratic families who had settled in the Bohemia lands after 1620. In
44 Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 63-72, 365-368.
substance, they had never become Czech nationalists, but they were and
remained in favor of strengthened estates rights in the lands of the Bo¬
hemian crown. Count Joseph M. Thun and the historian Palacky could
be considered in the pre-March period spokesmen for these views,
though Palacky outgrew such narrow constitutional philosophy. It is true,
however, that he never accepted a more comprehensive social plan.
The political philosophy of the moderate Bohemian reformers over¬
lapped at some point with Panslav ideas. Insofar as they expressed the de¬
sire for a political union of all Slavic nations as equal partners—as pro¬
posed during the revolution by Bakunin—they were hardly more practical
than the somewhat mystic concept of a cultural Panslav association under
Russian leadership advocated by the romantic Slovak writer Jan Kollar.
More feasible though not more popular appeared the notion of a Russian-
directed and dominated Panslavism, against which Palacky took a stand
in his famous letter to the Frankfurt Assembly to be discussed below.
Politically more farsighted than either the Panslavs or the adherents of
the Bohemian Staatsrecht was a young Czech liberal writer and journalist,
Karel Havlicek (1821-1856) and an enlightened conservative, capable
Bohemian aristocrat, Count Leo Thun (1811-1888). Havlicek, the first
great Czech journalist, who fought under pre-March absolutism for his
cause in the thinly disguised role of a reporter of conditions in Ireland
and China, came closest to the idea of a separate democratic Czech polit¬
ical nation, freed from Habsburg absolutism, but protected also from
tsarist-dominated Panslavism. Thun, governor of Bohemia in 1848 and an
outstanding Austrian minister of education for the following eleven years,
saw the best solution for the Czech demands in the gradual achievement
of equality with the Germans by bilingualism in mixed territories. This
measure, as it turned out, would have indeed greatly benefited the Czechs
against German intransigence and arrogant refusal to learn the language
of a small Slavic nation. Thun’s further-reaching notions that Austria
would have to develop multinational parties, based on common political-
social interests, which might take precedence over the national ones, were
advocated shortly after the revolution. They came too late but at the same
time also too early. At any rate, they were not heeded.45
45 Hermann Munch, Bohmische Tragodie (Braunschweig, 1949), pp. 88-189;

Richard Plaschka, “Das bohmische Staatrecht in tschechischer Sicht,” in Ernst
Birke and Kurt Oberdorffer, eds., Das bohmische Staatsrecht in den deutsch-tsche-
chischen Auseinandersetzungen des ig. und 20. Jahrhunderts (Marburg, i960), pp.
i—14; Hans Raupach, Der tschechische Fruhnationalismus (Darmstadt, 1967), pp.
90-137; Barbara Kohak Kimmel, “Karel Havlicek and the Czech Press before
1848,” in Peter Brock and H. Gordon Skilling, eds.. The Czech Renaissance of the
Regarding the Poles, the concept of a restoration in terms of the ro¬
mantic Polish emigres in the west, the resurrection of a free, indepen¬
dent, and liberal Poland remained very much alive. It was promoted in
particular in the free city state of Cracow, established at the borders of
western Galicia in 1815. From then until the incorporation of the city into
Austria in 1846, Cracow was to serve as a kind of temporary Piedmont, a
center from which endeavors for the restoration of a free undivided
Poland radiated. In the pre-March period, the Poles under Prussian ad¬
ministration and, until the end of the reign of Tsar Alexander I, those
under Russian rule were treated somewhat better than those under the
Metternich system in Austria.46 The frustrated revolution of 1830-1831 in
Congress Poland, however, changed conditions in the Russian sphere for
the worse. This lead to a shift of the revolutionary activities to Austrian
soil, where police suppressiomwas not quite as brutal as under the tyran¬
nical Tsar Nicholas. “Young Poland” in Austria, among whose leaders a
subsequently moderate Austrian speaker of parliament, Francis Smolka,
and a future imperial Austrian minister, Florian Ziemialkowski, were to
be found, was active, though not very successful. For once the Polish aristoc¬
racy in Galicia and its gentry clientele, the Szlachta, belonged to the
most oppressive landlords in the Habsburg domains, second to none in
Bohemia and Hungary. Furthermore the Austrian government, particu¬
larly under the enlightened governor of Galicia and later minister of
interior Count Francis Stadion, had introduced at least some beneficial
agricultural and administrative reforms and curtailment of patrimonial
jurisdiction. The Galician peasants—Polish and Ruthenians alike—con¬
sidered their own lords as worse enemies than the government in Vienna
and the provincial administration in Lemberg (Lwow, L’viv). The Polish
peasant revolt in 1846 in central and west Galicia-—the Ruthenians in the
east remained relatively quiet—represented thus primarily a social rather
than a national rising against the lords, who happened to be Poles. Strictly
nationalist revolutionary activities at that time were almost negligible,
though they gave the Austrian government the pretext to annex Cracow.
Belated Austrian military intervention indicated clearly that Vienna was
willing to play the Ruthenians against the Poles. This devious and belated
Nineteenth Century (Toronto, 1970), pp. 113-130; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem,

I, 149-166, 405-410. On the Palacky letter to the Frankfurt Assembly see ibid., I,
171-174, 412.
46 Alexander was the close friend of Prince Adam Georg Czartoryski, the en¬
lightened Polish patriot and reformer. See also Marian Kukiel, Czartoryski and
European Unity, iyyo-1861 (Princeton, 1955), pp. 102-139.
military intervention taught the Polish landlords a lesson. They realized

gradually that the solution of the Polish question could be inidated only
among the Poles of all three partitioning powers at the same time. Be¬
fore this hour of All-Polish liberation would strike, the interests of the
Polish lords and their clientele called for accommodation with, not
revolution against, the Austrian government. This would give the Polish
people in Galicia a measure of national rights and at the same time keep
the social privileges of the lords untouched. Such was the situation in
Galicia at the beginning of the revolution of 1848.47
As for the Croats, the conflict with the Magyars, but not some of its
consequences, has been noted in the previous section. The conflict stimu¬
lated two opposing trends: the assertion of Croatian estates autonomy,
based on the social interests of aristocracy and gentry, and a sudden rise
of a comprehensive Southern Slav nationalism and cultural if not politi¬
cal unionism. Undoubtedly the concept of ancient Illyrism of the western
Southern Slav peoples, advanced under the liberal French administration,
helped this development. It was furthered also underhand by the Metter-
nich-Kolowrat administration, who saw here the possibility to establish
a counterweight to Magyar nationalism. The journalist and writer Ljude-
vit Gaj (1809-1871), unimpeded by the government in Vienna, was
active to advance these ideas. He promoted the notion of a common
Southern Slav “Illyrian” literary language, which for the sake of South¬
ern Slav union should be assimilated to the patterns of the rather
obscure south Dalmatian Stokavian idiom rather than to Gaj’s native
Croatian. In many ways Gaj’s endeavors could be compared with those of
Havlicek’s political journalism among the Czechs. Yet unlike Havlicek,
Gaj, despite his cultural merits, always appeared in a political twilight
through his cooperation with the pre-March government in Vienna. The
interest of the government to balance an at that time still moderate cul¬
tural Southern Slav nationalism against the Magyar radicals was obvious.
The regime in Vienna apparently saw little danger in Southern Slav
union activities. But Kossuth, who was alert to potentially radical ideas,
particularly those he considered hostile to Magyar national interests, saw
farther. To him Illyrism,48 the cultural national movement of the western
Catholic Southern Slavs under Croatian leadership, presented a more
47 Schlitter, Aus Osterreichs Vormarz: Galizien und Kra\au, pp. 54-71; Wilhelm
Feldman, Geschichte der politischen Ideen in Polen seit dessen 1 eilungen (Osna-
briick, 1964), pp. 123-140; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 214-224, 427-432.
48 Illyricum was the Roman province adjacent to the eastern shores of the
Adriatic sea. Illyrians were the native people there, presumably of Celtic origin
settled throughout the northwestern Balkans.
serious threat to Magyar nationalism than Croatian demands for estates
autonomy. One reason why Vienna did not take this Illyrism seriously
may have been the fact that the greatest Slavic contemporary linguist,
the Slovene Bartholomaus Kopitar (1780-1844), advocated another south¬
ern Slav union idea, namely the concept of the Catholic Southern Slavs
under the Habshurg scepter as balance against Russian-directed Pan¬
slavism. Under the dynamic bishop of Djakovo, Josip J. Strossmayer
(1815-1905), these notions changed in time into a more radical, less
Habsburg-oriented, direction.49
Concerning the Italians, the history of Italian nineteenth-century na¬
tionalism and the clear-cut language frontier between Italians and
Germans at Salurn in Tyrol help to explain why accommodations, such
as the administrative division of Tyrol into a German and Italian part
amounted to merely temporary arrangements. No ideological scheme
which promoted a permanent solution of the Italian problem within the
Habsburg empire was ever taken seriously. This held true even for the
Austrian Littoral where the Italians never held an absolute majority in a
nationally homogeneous area as in the Trentino but only a relative one
followed closely by Croatian and Slovene minorities. Here, too, plans for
multinational reorganization were only temporary, although the autonomy
of the port city of Trieste was recognized in practice since the times of
Charles VI. The autonomous political administration was anchored also
in special legislation of 1818, 1849, and finally of 1867 (semi-crownland
status).
Such concessions did not change public opinion or ideological concepts,
holding that, like the Polish quesdon in a restored Poland, Italian na¬
tionalism could only be settled in a united Italy. The time for such grand
solutions was uncertain in either case, but the European power constella¬
tion seemed to favor the Italians.50
More complex was the situation for some national groups without in¬
dependent political history in the Habsburg empire. As for the Slovaks,
the Reformation in Bohemia, particularly in its later stages under the
49 On Illyrism see: Hermann Wendel, Der Kampf der Sudslawen um Freiheit
und Einheit (Frankfurt, 1925), pp. 113-140, 189-227; Alfred von Fischel, Der
Fanslawismus bis zum Welt\rieg (Stuttgart, 1919), pp. 130-148; Kann, Nation-
alitdtenproblem, I, 246-258, 439-442; K. B. K. (initials only), “Literature from the
Illyrian Movement to Realism, 1835-1895,” in Francis H. Eterovich and Christopher
Spalatin, eds., Croatia, I, 242-251 and Guldescu, ibid., II, 38-40. Kopitar as loyal
citizen could even become director of the National Library (Hofbibliothek) in
Vienna, then an unheard-of distinction for a Slovene.
50 Hans Kramer, Osterreich und das Risorgimento (Vienna, 1963), pp. 9-52;
Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, I, 265-267, 443-445.
influence of Lutheranism, was identified in Slovak territory with the

concept of a Czecho-Slovak political, cultural, and particularly linguistic
union. The dissatisfaction, which this estrangement from the idea of
straight Slovak national identity created, was used by the Counter
Reformation, especially the Jesuits, to recreate the concept of a separate
Slovak cultural and linguistic character. In the eighteenth century Father
Bernolak on the Catholic side and in the early nineteenth century the
cultural reformers Joseph Hurban, Michael Hodza, and L’udovit Stur on
the Protestant side, made each in their own way, new efforts to establish
such Slovak national image. They were supported by the Catholic roman¬
tic poet Jan Holly. We also find at that time endeavors by Slovaks of
strong pro-Czech tendencies, Jan Kollar and Pavel J. Safarik, to reestablish
the old Czecho-Slovak union idea. However, in the Restoration period their
attempts were unsuccessful. The major Slovak cultural trends moved in
the direction of a separate national concept and here the Protestant in¬
fluence was stronger than the Catholic. The political progress of the
Slovaks toward autonomy was hampered by the fact that the nobility and
part of the upper middle class had become magyarized, but cultural
progress indicated that a political program was developing as well.51
The Serbs in Hungary were granted cultural and religious autonomy
in the late seventeenth century, as discussed in Chapter IV:B. In the
course of time Magyarism succeeded in restricting the autonomy to the
religious sphere. Somewhat better was the situation in the Military Fron¬
tiers area to the south, and this discrepancy was one reason for the violent
confrontations between Serbs and Magyars during the revolution.
Another was that the Serb cultural renaissance during the pre-March
period had its center in the Habsburg empire. The great Serbian poet and
linguist Vuk Karadzic (1787-1864), widely celebrated also in the German-
language orbit, serves as example. Cultural activities strengthened the
Serb national pride and political consciousness.52
The Austrian Slovenes, the smallest of the Slavic national groups in
the Habsburg empire and the one farthest removed from a potential po-
J51 Ludwig von Gogolak, Beitrdge zur Geschichte des slowa\ischen Vollpes. II:
Die slowa\ische nationale Frage in der Reformepoche Ungarns (ijgo-1848)
(Munich, 1969), pp. 11-240; Theodor G. Locher, Die nationale Differenzierung
und Jntegrierung der Slowa\en and Tschechen in ihrem geschichtlichen Verlauf
bis 1848 (Haarlem, 1931), pp. 139-187. Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, I, 274-280,
447-449.
62Wende], Der Kampf der Siidslawen, pp. 141-188; Fischel, Der Panslawismus,
pp. 148-155; Emile Picot, Les Serbes de Hongrie (Paris, 1873), PP- 172-217;
Duncan Wilson, The Life and Times of Vn\ S. Karadzic (Oxford, 1970), pp.
294-313; Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, I, 286-289, 451-454.
2 g8 History of the Hubs burg Empire
litical autonomy, encountered little difficulties in their cultural life during
the Restoration period. Politically they were not taken seriously; cul¬
turally as the example of Kopitar shows, they even found some sup¬
port in Vienna, because the concept of a Catholic Austro-Slavism
suited the interests of the government. But also outspoken German liberals
such as Count Anton Alexander Auersperg (as poet Anastasius Grim) 53
strongly supported Slovene cultural activities, particularly in the language
field. These peaceful conditions were to change when the Slovenes for¬
mulated a political program of their own in 1848.54
Peculiar was the situation among the Ruthenians. The conversion of
many of them to the Uniate church under papal jurisdiction in Galicia and
northern Hungary, established by the union of Brest Litowsk of 1596,
separated them from their brethren in the Bukovina (until 1775 under
Turkish rule) and from the Russian Ukrainians. In the cultural sense
the Ruthenians could be considered as a separate branch of the Ukrainian
people. The religious difference among them was of paramount importance
in the development of national consciousness, as religion is important to
many oppressed people where it is the only outlet for the creation of
cultural programs. A Polish drive to convert the Ruthenian peasants to
the Roman-Catholic Church, the Church of their oppressors, was under¬
standably not very successful. Only the Ruthenian noble landlords merged
almost imperceptibly with their Polish fellow aristocrats.
The program for a definite Ruthenian cultural identity based on lan-
gauge was promoted primarily within the Uniate Church and to a point
supported by the Austrian government, which considered the Ruthenian
peasants as loyal and the Polish nobility, gentry, and intellectuals as poten¬
tial revolutionaries. Within the Uniate Church two trends were in conflict
with each other, one which stressed the common bonds with the Orthodox
Ukrainians in Russia and another western-oriented, which favored the
development of a modernized Ruthenian literary language. No clear
victory of either trend (Old and Young Ruthenians), both directed by
Church organizations, was as yet discernible in 1848. But both stressed the
necessity for the recognition of the Ruthenian language in the administra¬
tion of eastern Galicia and for an educational system of their own.55
53 The Auerspergs owned large estates in Carniola, particularly in the then

German-language island of Gottschee.
54Bogumil Vosnjak, A Bulwark against Germany (London, 1917), pp. 66-82;
Fischel, Der Panslawismus, pp. 125-130; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 299-303,
457-458.
65 Boris Krupnyckyj, Geschichte der Ukraine von den Anfdngen bis zum Jahre
igiy (Wiesbaden, 1963), pp. 246-252; Schlitter, Aus Osterreichs Vormarz, pp.
In the development of Roumanian nationalism, the establishment of a

Uniate Church in Transylvania by the end of the seventeenth century and
the example of the three-nation state of Magyars, Szekels, and Saxons
(Germans) which gave their groups on the same territory a wide degree
of political and cultural autonomy were important factors. The Rou¬
manians (Vlachs) had secured a very limited recognition of their national
rights under Joseph II. Francis I tried to appease the Magyars in the face
of a strong Roumanian immigration from the Danube principalities. The
national program called for full equality with the status of the other
three nationalities in Transylvania, in other words the conversion from
the three- to four-nation state. Further claims, though not yet fully crystal¬
lized, were for political union with their conationals in the Bukovina and
the Banat of Temesvar. In this latter region the Roumanian national
status was inferior even that in Transylvania.66
By 1848 political activism and political programs among the eleven
national groups of the empire had not developed and could not develop
to the same cultural, let alone political level. Yet national consciousness
among these groups had evolved to a degree that sufficed to be converted
into political action if and when a revolutionary situation would offer the
opportunity.
C. The revolution of 1848-1849
The revolution in the Flabsburg empire took place in several theaters

and on several levels. All were interrelated. This factor can never be fully
shown in a historical presentation, which cannot tell all at the same time.
There was a liberal constitutional revolution, a social (mainly agrarian)
revolution, and—most significant for the Habsburg realms—a number of
national revolutions.
Besides, the impact of foreign relations on the domestic situation opened
up new revolutionary situations. Thus the Austro-Prussian rivalry was
closely related to the German revolution and particularly to the events at
58-71; Ivan 2eguc, Die nationalpolitischen Bestrebungen der Karpato-Ruthenen

(Wiesbaden, 1965), pp. 11-19; Fischel, Der Panslawismus, pp. 155-160; Kann,
Nationalitatenproblem, I, 322-327, 466-468.
56 Constantin Daicoviciu and Miron Constantinescu, Breve Histoire de la
Transylvanie (Bucharest, 1965), pp. 179-193; Cornelia Bodea, The Romanians’
Struggle for Unification 1834-1849 (Bucarest, 1970); Vasile Maciu, Mouvements
Nationaux et Sociaux Roumains au XIXe Steele (Bucarest, 1971), PP- 40-101;
Eugen Horvath, Die Geschichte Siebenburgens (Budapest, n.d.), pp. 57-69, 77-80,
i3°~i35; Carl Gollner, Die Siebenbiirger Sachsen in den Revolutionsjahren 1848-
1849 (Bucharest, 1967), passim; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 309-314; 460-464.
joo History of the Habshurg Empire
St. Paul’s Assembly in Frankfurt, while the war against Piedmont-
Sardinia cannot be separated from the revolution in the Lombardo-
Venetian kingdom. Finally, the Russian intervention in the war of inde¬
pendence in Hungary tied this passionate struggle to the realm of foreign
relations.
The revolution in the Habsburg empire flared up in some places, then
quieted down to move to other scenes, to break out again in the old place.
There is no center nor continuity in the revolutionary events, even faintly
similar to those of the French Revolution of 1789. Thus the Habsburg
revolutions had no unity of action and no unity of problems and at¬
tempted solutions.
^ Many events led to the tense atmosphere in the early March days of
1848 in Vienna. The impact of the French February revolution, the unrest
in Lombardy-Venetia, the radical liberal agitation at the Hungarian
Reichstag in Pozsony and the preparations for the elections of a German
National Assembly in Frankfurt, all tied to a prolonged economic urban
crisis, served as background of the situation. Petitions of a liberal charac¬
ter, promoted primarily by professional men and students, were circulated
between March 6 and 12. Demands for freedom of the press, jury trials,
j civil rights, abolition of religious discrimination, academic freedom, full
1 emancipation of the peasants, and above all constitutional representative
, government were revolutionary by Austrian standards of the pre-March
J period. Most of these requests expressed the interests of the urban edu-
1 cated middle class. On March 13, their representatives were the first who
I clashed with military forces in front of the Lower Austrian diet. Students
were the first victims of the confrontation. Yet more casualties, altogether
about fifty, occurred, when the workers in the suburbs became involved
and the armed forces under the command of Archduke Albrecht acted
with increasing force and decreasing restraint against the underprivileged
masses. The same evening Metternich was forced to resign. More or less
enlightened conservatives hoped that his fall, not unwelcome to a court
party centered on the archduchess Sophie, would put an end to the com¬
motion. As events turned out, it was only the signal for its spread.
The crown permitted the establishment of a national guard of the
citizenry. A more dynamic legion of academic youth supplemented it
and spurred the guard to action. Freedom of the press was granted also
and a liberal constitution promised for the near future. A new cabinet
under the chairmanship of Count Franz Anton Kolowrat, with General
Count Karl Ficquelmont (Foreign Affairs), Count Theodor Latour (De¬
fense), Baron Karl Kiibeck (Finances), and Baron Franz Pillersdorf (In-
terior) was to make arrangements for the transition to constitutional
government. Everyone of these five men represented to some degree the
old regime, though Kolowrat, as seen from a historic-traditional view¬
point, had shown more understanding for national aspirations than
Metternich. Kiibeck was a moderately enlightened bureaucrat, and only
Pillersdorf, though by no means a liberal, seemed to welcome his assigned
task to prepare constitutional reforms. Kolowrat, who seemed too closely
associated with the Metternich regime, was forced to resign within a few
weeks and Ficquelmont, his successor, closely linked to Metternich’s
pro-Russian policy, had to follow him soon. Pillersdorf now became prime
minister in early May, and this meant that the crown began to take the
revolution more seriously, though still not seriously enough.
A preliminary constitution was decreed at the end of April. It estab¬
lished a bicameral system, which was to share legislative powers with the
emperor. Yet the franchise was severely restricted and daily and weekly
wage earners, that meant practically all laborers were excluded. Further¬
more the characterization of the constitution as “octroy”—that is, as pri¬
vilege granted by the crown rather than as the accomplishment of a
constituent assembly—created widespread resentment. As it occurred so
often in the history of the Habsburg monarchy, a seemingly far-reaching
concession had become largely meaningless, because it offered too little
and came too late. And yet, Pillersdorf would not have been permitted
to issue even this imperfect constitution, if events on many fronts had
not carried bewilderment and fear into the highest ranks of government
and the court, that is, primarily the feeble-minded emperor’s uncles, his
brother, and the most resolute personality in the imperial house, Ferdi¬
nand’s sister-in-law, the Archduchess Sophie, mother of the future em¬
peror Francis Joseph.67
Three days after Metternich’s fall the opposition of the Hungarian diet,
backed by a genuine majority, had demanded the establishment of a na¬
tional government, responsible to a parliament to be elected by general
male franchise. Legislation in the future was to require countersignature
of the ministry. Tax exemptions for the noble landowners were to be
abolished, freedom of the press to be granted, and—a blow to minority
rights—Transylvania to be fully reincorporated into Hungary. Neverthe¬
less the liberal provisions, particularly those that eliminated discrimination
against the peasants in regard to taxation, outweighed the oppressive na-
57 Joseph A. von Helfert, Geschichte der osterreichischen Revolution (Freiburg,

1907), I, 237-477 passim; Rudolf Kissling, Die Revolution im Kaisertum Osterreich
(Vienna, 1948), pp. 39-62.
J02 History of the Habsburg Empire
nationalistic measures. The crown denied two demands: one for the estab¬
lishment of a national army subordinated to the national Hungarian
^government, the other for the initiation of a national budget, entirely sep¬
arated from the imperial financial administration and tax policy. On
March 22 the national ministry under the chairmanship of an enlightened,
by no means radical aristocrat, Count Louis Batthiany, took office. Other
members of the cabinet were Kossuth (Finances), Szechenyi (Public
Works), Deak (Justice), and Eotvos (Public Instruction). To reconcile
Croatian feelings of resentment against the far-reaching concessions to
the Magyars, the emperor appointed a nationalist Croatian officer, Josef
Jelacic de Buzim, as banus of Croatia. Meanwhile the Sardinian invasion
of Lombardy had begun, the provisional National Assembly in Frankfurt
had met, and Palacky had denounced Czech participation in the proceed¬
ings of the German Confederation. Czech nationalism in Prague, at the
beginning of the revolution interested mainly in constitutional govern¬
ment and recognition of equality with the Germans, had renewed its old
demand: the reestablishment of the union of the three lands of the Bo¬
hemian crown, in which the Czech people could claim a predominant
role. The previous demands had been raised mainly by a vociferous, liberal
minority but the newly revived ones also had the full support of a re¬
spected middle and upper middle urban burgher class, above all that
of the powerful Bohemian aristocracy. Spring riots in Cracow and Lwow
organized by Polish liberals complicated the situation further. Yet as it
turned out, but could not easily be predicted at the time, the memories of
the frustrated revolution of 1846 capped soon the revolutionary Polish
• • • KQ
activities.
| To return to events in Vienna: National guards (chiefly middle-class
burghers), workers, and students demanded now stormily the withdrawal
of the octroyed constitution and convocation of a constitutional national
assembly. The establishment of a revolutionary security committee under
the leadership of a young physician, Dr. Adolf Fischhof, a brave man and
great political talent, followed. Even before this happened, the imperial
•court, mindful of the fate of Louis XVI, who in the beginning of the
58 Hclfert, Geschichte der osterreichischen Revolution see in particular I, pp. 231-

2.86, 431-449 for events in Hungary, 286-291 in Galicia. As for the situation in
Prague and Vienna see Friedrich Prinz, Prag und Wien 1848: Probleme der na-
tionalen und sozialen Revolution im Spiegel der Ministerratsproto\olle (Munich,
1968) , pp. 76-105; Stanley Z. Pech, The Czech Revolution of 1848 (Chapel Hill,
1969) , pp. 47-78; Ivan D. Udalzow, Aufzeichnungen uber die Geschichte des
nationalen und politischen Kampfes in Bohmen im fahre 1848 (Berlin, 1953),
pp. 43-86.
French revolution had practically become a prisoner in his own capital,
left Vienna for Innsbruck. In July the radicals within the security commit¬
tee forced the resignation of Pillersdorf. A ministry under Wessenberg, a
moderate diplomat under the Metternich regime, followed after an in¬
terim regime of a few days. Dignitaries in the restoration era had often
served for more years than the new men for days. The new cabinet was
undistinguished, except for the minister of justice, Dr. Alexander Bach,
a young lawyer, who had been a liberal at the beginning of the revolution,
but with remarkable flair foresaw the turning of the tide and moved
gradually into safer, moderate, and later conservative waters. He was to
become the Fouche of the revolution, although one without the cruelty of
his more formidable predecessor.
Meanwhile the Constituent Assembly had been duly elected and was
convoked by the temporary regent, the emperor’s uncle, Archduke John.
As to be expected, due to the narrow franchise and therefore limited in¬
terest of the population in the elections, the political persuasion of the
Austrian Reichstag of 383 deputies, of which the peasants represented
more than one quarter, ranged in substance from moderate conservative
to moderate liberal, with few radicals to the right and left. Experience in
an entirely new political situation is often of far less value than under
ordinary conditions. Just like the French Constituent Assembly of 1789,
this new body confronted by entirely new problems turned out to be far
more capable than one might have had reason to expect. Only days after
the convocation of the Reichstag in mid-July 1848, legislation to abolish the
personal service obligation of the peasants was introduced by the young
Silesian deputy Hans Kudlich. An aggravated agrarian crisis, largely due
to continued poor harvests, had been in existence since 1845. Its impact
helped to have the Kudlich proposals passed in early September. The
enactment of these laws which required determination of an indemnity for
the lords, had to wait for the postrevolutionary era. Yet the impact of
what has passed into history as the Austrian peasant emancipation by the
revolutionary Reichstag was so great that even the coming neo-absolutist
regime could not evade the duty to put it, with some changes, into effect.
Meanwhile the Reichstag busied itself with the drafting of a permanent
constitution which should take care of the manifold national problems of
the empire.59
69 Helfert, Geschichte der osterreichischen Revolution, II, 244-269; R. John
Rath, The Viennese Revolution of 1848 (Austin, 1957), pp. 179-316; Max Bach,
Geschichte der Wiener Revolution im fahre 1848 (Vienna, 1898), pp. 575-677;
Friedrich Prinz, Hans Kudlich (Munich, 1962), pp. 86-107; Marx, Die wirtschaft-
lichen Ursachen der Revolution von 1848, pp. 123-162.
The events of spring and summer proved that they required indeed
highest priority. Non-Magyar national groups in Hungary, Croats and
Serbs in the Banat, Roumanians in Transylvania, rose against the intransi¬
gence and in some instances the blind zeal of Magyar nationalism. It was
largely inspired by Kossuth who only in exile began to understand that
the national discrimination which the non-Magyar peasant in Hungary had
to face aggravated the social discrimination, which he shared with his
Magyar countrymen. Particularly violent were the clashes with the Serbs,
who saw their old and to-be-hoped-for enlarged autonomy trampled un¬
der. In May, the Transylvanian Roumanians protested at Blay against the
incorporation of Transylvania into Hungary and asked at the same time
for the conversion of the principality into a four-nation state. In Septem¬
ber, they demanded the outright separation from Hungary and direct
subordination under the administration in Vienna. The Slovaks, on the
other hand, in an improvised popular assembly at Liptovsky Svaty Mi-
kulas appeared satisfied with autonomy within Hungary, provided it
would secure them the use of their language in administration and educa¬
tion. Similar demands were raised by the Ruthenians in Galicia, who re¬
quested the administrative separation of east and west Galicia. Pillersdorf
promised to meet these claims, but nothing was done. The demands of
the Carpatho-Ruthenians in Hungary for autonomy were ignored by Mag¬
yar nationalism. They were the most forgotten of the forgotten people.
Interesting were the requests of the small Slovene national group spread
over six Austrian crownlands. As the first national group they asked for
autonomy within a territory whose boundaries should be drawn along
ethnic and not historic-political lines. This latter alternative would not
make sense in a nation whose status as historical-political entity had
never existed in Austria. Recognition as ethnic group, more in practice
than by law, became now the order of the day.60
Although the government could accomplish little in these matters as
long as the revolutionary situation was in flux, even efforts towards re¬
form were made only by the new legislative branch of government and
not by the executive. Promptings to act were not lacking. On June 2
the international Slav Congress convened in Prague under the chairman¬
ship of Palacky. Most of the outstanding leaders of the Slavic national
groups in the Habsburg empire but few from abroad were present. Con¬
gress Poland could send only emigre delegates, mostly from Paris, which
impaired the representative character of the Congress. Besides, the Poles
60Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 72-87, 122-124, 166-174, 224-225, 245-254,

279-280, 289-290, 303-305, 3x3-315, 326-329; II, 13-15.
il Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 305
and others could offer no solution on Austrian territory that would have
ji challenged the territorial integrity of the Habsburg monarchy. The mere
fej discussion of such questions would have invited the charge of treason.
Still, the results of the Prague proceedings were impressive. If they
e had not been ignored by a narrow-minded and unimaginative govern-
ix ment they could have been constructive. Thus the possibility of a Polish-
r. Ruthenian compromise in Galicia which would have created a bilingual
1 province with adequate representation of the Ruthenian minority (actually
a majority in eastern Galicia) was seriously entertained. The possibility of
a merger with the Hungarian Carpatho-Ukrainians was left open. Ru-
t thenians and Slovenes, both widely scattered national groups without
) political history in the Habsburg empire, asked thus for ethnic solutions,
ii whereas Slovaks and Serbs who lived in more homogeneous territories
» would have been satisfied with local autonomy within Hungary. Of the
jj national groups with political history the Croatians demanded the recogni-
i tion of the Triune kingdom, including Austrian-administered Dalmatia,
; as a separate political entity within the empire as a whole rather than
within Hungary. Liberal and conservative Czechs agreed on the demands
for the union of the lands of the Bohemian crown under a representative
constitution. The national groups represented at the Congress professed in
general terms the spiritual union of all Slavic peoples and in more speci¬
fic ones in the Habsburg empire the right to full equality with Germans
and Magyars. The federalization of the empire, by and large still along
historic-political lines, was recommended.
Relatively minor clashes between Czech nationalists and imperial troops
gave the commanding general, Prince Alfred Windischgratz no more
adept as a statesman than as a military commander, the pretext to dis¬
solve the Congress by military force.61 A great hope went down with this
dissolution. The next Slav Congress, now dubbed Panslav Congress, was
to meet in Moscow in 1867 m an atmosphere far less favorable for the
preservation of the Habsburg monarchy.62
Meanwhile the crisis in Hungary heightened. On July 2 the Palatine
Archduke Stephan opened the newly elected Reichstag. It was the first and
only one in a century to be elected by a truly democratic franchise. Its first
61 The tragic death of Windischgraetz’s consort by a stray bullet during a rela¬

tively minor revolutionary riot in Prague at that time exacerbated the situation
further.
62 Hans Kohn, Pan-Slavism (New York, i960), pp. 69-101; Fischel, Der Pan-
slawismus, pp. 261-295; Pech, The Czech Revolution of 1848, pp. 123-166; Udalzow,
Aufzeichnungen, pp. 86-122, 223-226; Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, II, 15-20, 308-
310-
legislative actions were taken in defiance of the imperial administration.

The establishment of a separate Hungarian (Honved) army, a separate
budget, and separate currency bills were voted in. The imperial govern¬
ment accepted the challenge and sent armed forces under Jelacic across
the Sava river into Hungary. The violent struggle between Magyars and
Serbs embittered the Croatian commander. General civil war appeared
imminent. Prime minister Count Batthyany neither could nor wished to
. deal with such a situation and resigned. The hero of the radicals, Louis
Kossuth, took over now. Since the Palatine resigned also a few days later
and was not replaced, Kossuth’s position became a semi-dictorship. The
Reichstag did not dare to oppose him, the more the crisis sharpened. Un¬
fortunate incidents, typical of a tense situation, were not lacking. Thus
Magyar fury against the armed invasion led to the lynching of the im¬
perial commander in Budapest, Count Lamberg, by a mob.
The imperial government responded by invalidating the Reichstag legis-
j lation, which had not been sanctioned by the emperor. A state of siege was
declared in Hungary. General Jelacic was given wider powers including
the takeover of the civil administration in Hungary. The Reichstag de-
j dared itself in permanent session, the imperial manifesto as void; Jelacic
was branded a traitor. With these actions on both sides the revolution in
Hungary had moved to a stage beyond peaceful reconciliation; but the
legitimacy of the crown was as yet not directly challenged.63
The revolutionary events in Hungary had an impact on the neighbor¬
ing hereditary lands; conversely, unrest there encouraged the leaders of
the Magyar revolution. In Vienna, dissatisfaction increased with the seem¬
ingly, but not actually slow progress of the Austrian Reichstag legislation,
the continuing economic crisis, and various underhand efforts by the gov¬
ernment to regain control for the reactionary forces of old. The minister
of defense, Count Latour, was assailed for oppressive activities of the old
establishment.
In early October a grenadier battalion of the Viennese garrison, ordered
to march into Hungary, mutinied. Clashes followed between regular and
insurrectionist troops, supported by students and workers. A mob entered
the Ministry of War, attacked and lynched the old Count Latour, and
strung up the mutilated body on a lamppost in the street. The authorities
used this atrocity as symbol of revolutionary barbarism and as justification
for acts of cruelty on the imperial side. Emperor Ferdinand and the court,
who had returned to Vienna in the relatively quiet days of August, now
left Vienna again, this time for Olmiitz (Olomuc), a small town in east-
63Kissling, Die Revolution, I, 161-173.
tern Moravia, as the temporary seat of government. Ferdinand was not

destined to return as emperor.
Within a matter of days a regular insurrection developed in Vienna
against the military forces of Windischgratz who moved from the north
toward the rebellious city and against Jelacic whose Croatian troops ap¬
proached the city from the east. Inside Vienna the revolutionaries gained
the upper hand. They were commanded by the Polish emigre rebel Gen¬
eral Joseph Bern who had participated in the risings of 1830-1831 against
the tzarist government. The October revolution was characterized by the
fact that the driving forces behind it were not middle-class intellectuals,
professors at St. Paul’s Assembly in Frankfurt, or enlightened political
journalists but the industrial workers. Until the rising of the Paris Com¬
mune in 1871 it was the most clear-cut workers’ revolution, and had an
enormous, though short-lived impact on the sagging revolution in Ger¬
many. Nobody, whether he sympathizes with the ill-planned and largely
irrational rising or not, can read the poem “Wien” (Vienna) written in
the hectic days by the German revolutionary poet Ferdinand Freiligrath
without being moved by its tragic revolutionary fervor.
Wenn wir noch knien konnten, wir lagen auf den Knien;
Wenn wir noch beten konnten, wir beteten fur Wien!
. . . Wozu noch betend winseln? Ihr Manner ins Gewehr,
Heut ballt man nur die Hande, man faltet sie nicht mehr!
. . . Ein riesig Schilderheben, ein Ringen wild und kiihn—
Das ist zur Weltgeschichte das rechte Flehn fur Wien.64
Freiligrath’s plea that the Germans should rise in support of the Aus¬
trian revolution fell on deaf ears and the seemingly more justified hope
that Magyar revolutionary forces could succeed in lifting the siege of
Vienna by imperial troops failed likewise. On October 30 the troops en¬
tered the city to hoist the banner of a military dictatorship. Bern managed
to flee but Messenhauser, an artillery officer of the Viennese garrison who
had refused to turn his guns against the people, was executed like some
radicals, among them Robert Blum, a deputy of the Frankfurt Assembly
64 From Ferdinand Freiligrath’s poem “Wien,” written in early November, 1848.

In translation approximately:
If we could still be kneeling, we would be on our knees;
if we could still be praying, for Vienna were our pleas.
Don’t whimper now in prayer! Men, grab your guns, resist!
Don’t fold hands any longer and clench an angry fist.
Raise in this giant struggle your shields defiantly:
This is the Vienna prayer in world history.
(Translated by Max Knight)
jo8 History of the Habsburg Empire
and therefore legally immune from court-martial proceedings. A long

dark night settled over Vienna, which, as in 1805 at the time of the first
French occupation, adjusted all too readily to the changed conditions.65
The capture of Vienna by imperial troops meant in effect the end of
revolutionary action outside of Hungary, though not yet the full victory
of the counterrevolution, which in Austria was not to come in full force
until early spring in 1849. Yet important steps to that effect were already
taken in the fall of 1848. At the height of the Vienna October risings, the
Reichstag, following the counsels of the government, decided to move to
Kremsier (Kromenz), the summer residence of the archbishop of Olmiitz.
While deliberations in Vienna at the height of the Viennese revolutionary
risings were difficult, this action, as it became apparent within a few
months, amounted to an abdication of the legislature as an independent
branch of government. The Reichstag reopened the session at Kremier on
November 22, 1848, and continued there its legislative work, in particular
on the draft of a permanent constitution. It was not openly threatened as
yet, but it became clear that the Kremsier Assembly had become quite
isolated from the turn of revolutionary events, which was determined
henceforward exclusively by the Austrian and Prussian executive forces.
It was a genuine Austrian tragedy, that the Kremsier parliament, at the
time when it was engaged in its most constructive work, did not realize
that its legislation would be condemned to futility by an authoritarian
government. The responsibility for this rested in the first place with the
crown and the imperial administration, yet the Reichstag cannot be
absolved entirely for its naivete or studied blindness, by which it sur¬
rendered its freedom of action to a determined, only thinly camouflaged
counterrevolutionary government. Certainly the lesson of the first revolu¬
tionary phase of the events of 1789 was not learned.
On November 21, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, diplomat and general,
and by his antecedents an adventurer and political gambler, was appointed
prime minister and the distinguished Count Franz Stadion minister of
the interior. The following summer the sick Stadion was replaced by the
former radical liberal and by now ultraconservative Alexander Bach, who
in the meantime had held the less important office of minister of justice.
With his new position he yielded the old one to Anton von Schmerling.
Other members of the cabinet were Karl Friedrich von Bruck, minister
of commerce, and in later years minister of finance, an imaginative person
of grossdeutsch tendencies, who like most of Schwarzenberg’s ministers
65 Bach, Geschichte der Wiener Revolution, pp. 725-855; Rath, The Viennese
Revolution, pp. 317-346.
took constitutional-legal “niceties” not too seriously. Krauss and Thinnfeld,
the new ministers of finance and agriculture, were experienced bureaucrats
and Count Leo Thun, who became the following summer minister of
public instruction, was an outstanding talent. Nevertheless, the often-
quoted remark by the British ambassador that this was a cabinet of
prime ministers seems exaggerated praise. Schwarzenberg was an in¬
genious and resolute man but a dilettante; Stadion was an eminent ad¬
ministrator but had passed the high tide of his usefulness; Bach was a
capable man whose defects of character were commensurate with his
talents; Thun was the best man.06
The new prime minister did not show his hand immediately. He pre¬
varicated in his dealings with the Reichstag with the excuse that definite
steps concerning the new constitution could be taken only if and when the
situation in Germany had been clarified. His first major decision was
taken in conjunction with the Archduchess Sophie, namely to induce
Emperor Ferdinand to abdicate in favor of his eighteen-year-old nephew
Archduke Francis. The transfer of the crown took place on December 2.
The new emperor added to the name Francis, under which he was known
in his family circle, Joseph, as a bow to enlightened Josephinism. This was
meant to please the liberals. Yet the symbolic significance rested not so
so much in the double name but in the fact that Francis, the name of the
arch-reactionary dull grandfather came first and that of the enlightened
brilliant great-great uncle second. This mixture and this rank of values
was characteristic for Francis Joseph’s sixty-eight-year reign.67
Of the young emperor’s long line of prime ministers and leading states¬
men, Schwarzenberg was probably the most daring and, taking a short-
range view, the most successful. No wonder that Francis Joseph trusted
him as hardly any other adviser afterward, a trust to be rewarded with
mixed blessings. The first advice which Schwarzenberg gave his teen¬
age sovereign, who was in danger to be influenced from many quarters,
was rather suggestive. He counseled Francis Joseph never to discuss with
his ministers any matter that did not strictly belong to their jurisdiction.
This practice would protect the emperor from intrigues, hearsay, and any
undue kind of influence. Francis Joseph’s unimaginative personality did
66 For a brief account on Schwarzenberg see Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, II,

72-75, on Bach, 86-89, on Bruck, 76-80, on Stadion, 63-69, on Thun, I, 159-162; II,
70-72. See further, Rudolf Kissling and Adolf Schwarzenberg Prince Felix zu
Schwarzenberg (New York, 1946); Richard Charmatz, Minister Freiherr von
Bruc\ (Leipzig, 1916); Christoph Thienen-Adlerflycht, Graf Leo Thun im Vormdrz
(Graz-Cologne, 1957); on Stadion see also note 67.
67Friedjung, Osterreich von 1848-1860, I, 92-118.
j/o History of the Hahshurg Empire
not take this advice with a grain of salt but literally. Throughout his long
reign he protected himself not only from undue and malicious underhand
influences but also from any counsels by men whose vision and knowl¬
edge transcended the powers entrusted to them by their office. Sincere,
dedicated, and always conscious of his duties, but lacking ideas of his own
and unwilling to accept nonprofessional advice by others, sure of his
values, but vacillating in his course of action, Francis Joseph’s talents and
achievements were never more than mediocre. This was perhaps more
than could be said for the emperor’s grandfather. On the other hand, un¬
like Francis, luck was never on his side. The one redeeming value of
Francis Joseph’s reign, a value which became ever more clear in his old
age, was the impact of the combination of a colorless personality with great
merits of industry, sense of duty, and integrity. This synthesis served better
as a unifying symbol of imperial rule than the greater talents of a more
colorful man could ever have.
Schwarzenberg showed his hand ever more clearly and brutally. His in¬
transigent and imperialist stand on the German question, which repre¬
sented in essence the compromise between a grossdeutsch and a Great
Austrian solution, either one under Austrian-centralistic and conservative
leadership, has been discussed in the previous section as far as it pertained
to Germany. Concerning the domestic situation, Schwarzenberg sprung a
surprise on the Reichstag of Kremsier and, indeed, anybody concerned
with Austrian constitutional government. On March 4, 1849, the inexpe¬
rienced young emperor sanctioned on his advice a new constitution drafted
by Stadion and decreed (octroyed) on March 7. The same day the Reichstag
was dissolved, and a number of deputies who had not taken care of their
personal safety in time were arrested and imprisoned under various pre¬
texts. None of the excuses could camouflage the flagrant violation of con¬
stitutional rights. Francis Joseph who lent his name unwittingly to this ac¬
tion by Schwarzenberg, could not be expected to see through Machiavel¬
lian tactics whose long-range effects, apart from the moral implications,
proved to be unfortunate for the future of the empire. In any case Francis
Joseph appeared in a dubious light. His eminent, though arch-conservative
teachers Metternich and Rauscher (the later cardinal-archbishop of
Vienna), undoubtedly would never have exposed his prestige the way the
cynical Schwarzenberg did. The arrests put also an undeserved black
mark beside the name of Stadion, who, when he drafted the so-called
March constitution, believed that it would eventually become the law of
the land; it did not. On the other hand neither he nor the emperor could
have any doubt about Schwarzenberg’s intentions to delay its operation for
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 3/1
some time, when the octroyed constitution—frequently referred to as the

Stadion constitution—received imperial sanction.
Before we survey this document, it is necessary to discuss the basic fea¬
tures of the draft of the Kremsier constitution by outstanding members of
the freely elected parliament of the Austrian peoples. This draft was
unanimously approved by the constitutional committee of the Reichstag. It
would without doubt within days have been accepted as the constitution
of the Habsburg empire had Schwarzenberg not dissolved the Reichstag.
In fact it was dissolved at this time to deprive the document of the supreme
authority to be conveyed by the sanction of an overwhelming majority of
the representatives of the Austrian peoples. The deficiency of this charter
of liberties, the noblest in Austrian history, represented also an act of wis¬
dom on the part of the Reichstag. It refused to draw up constitutional pro¬
visions for Hungary, while the war of independence raged across the
Leitha river. The justified conclusion of the deputies was that settlement
of this conflagration by compromise would also make a constitutional com¬
promise with Hungary possible. It could be incorporated then into the
Kremsier constitution. If on the other hand radical Kossuthism should
win, Hungary would be separated permanently from the empire or if—a
more likely contingency—Schwarzenberg and Windischgratz should crush
the Magyar revolution by force of arms, it would be precipitate to draw up
constitutional provisions in advance for the national groups in Hungary.
Chief credit for the Kremsier draft belongs to two committees, the gen¬
eral on the constitutional chart and the specific on civil rights. Conspicu¬
ously distinguished were the contributions of the Czech enlightened con¬
servatives Palacky and Rieger, the Czech liberal Pinkas, the Polish liberals
Smolka (later the speaker of the Reichstag), the German liberals Fischhof,
Lbhner, and Schuselka, the German moderates Cajetan Mayer, Brestel,
Lasser, the German conservative Helfert, the Slovene Kavcic, the Italian
Gobbi, and others. The final draft represented a compromise between cen¬
tralism as proposed by most of the Germans and federalism (either along
ethnic or historic-traditional lines) as favored by most of the Slavic repre¬
sentatives. Some capable deputies represented originally the ethnic position
(Kavcic, Palacky, Fischhof), moved then to the historic traditional one
(Rieger, Pinkas), and agreed finally on a semi-centralistic compromise
(Mayer, Brestel, Hein, and eventually Palacky). This was the outcome: A
bicameral legislation was to be elected by a relatively liberal, though not
yet general male franchise. The upper chamber should represent the
crownlands, whose boundaries were to be left unchanged. An ingenious
compromise between federalism and centralism provided that the na-
j/2 History of the Hahshurg Empire
tionally mixed crownlands should be subdivided into homogeneous dis¬
tricts, whose representatives were added to the crownland delegations in
the upper chamber. Thus the traditional political entities were preserved
and yet a national organization on the lower administrative level was pro¬
vided. It was to serve the interest of the national minorities in the multi¬
national crownlands. Courts of national arbitration were to supplement
this organization. On the lowest administrative leyel, a far-reaching au¬
tonomy was to be granted to the communities; on the highest level, parlia¬
ment was to decide legislative matters. The crown was to have only a
suspensive veto.
The Kremsier constitution carried all the positive and negative features
of a compromise between federalism and centralism. Some problems,
such as those of the scattered minorities, which did not fit into the ter¬
ritorial district organization, were left unsolved. More sophisticated solu¬
tions might have been feasible. Yet the basic achievement of Kremsier was
not the legal quality of the constitution, but the fact, that it represented the
will of the people. The representatives’ work was not done for eternity and
new attempts of solutions would probably have been necessary in the fu¬
ture. In any case, a multilateral agreement once achieved by an Austrian
parliament would have represented a powerful constructive precedent for
future democratic solutions. This precedent was never established, and the
solutions which might have been based on it, did not occur. Reaction had
destroyed a great opportunity.68
This defeat for constitutional government is only seemingly obscured by
the fact that Stadion’s constitution, though more conservative than the
mildly liberal Kremsier draft, was a well-drawn document, in some respects
more consistent than the Kremsier charter, since it did not have to be
based on a compromise. It therefore could be comprehensive in a territorial
sense and could include Hungarian affairs within its scope. This was
hardly an asset, however, because Stadion in regard to Hungary had to
move in a political vacuum, a dilemma which the Kremsier men had pru¬
dently avoided.
The property census of the franchise system in the new constitution was
68 JosefRedlich, Das osterreichische Staats- und Reichsproblem (Leipzig, 1920-

1926), I, 220-323; Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, II, 19-45, 310-316; Paula Geist-
Lanyi, Das Nationalitdtenproblem auf dem Reichstag zu Kremsier 1848-1849
(Munich, 1920), pp. 55-203; Peter Burian, Die Ndtionalitaten in Cisleithanien und
das Wahlrecht der Mdrzrevolution 1848/49 (Graz-Cologne, 1962), pp. 175-214. See
further Anton Springer, ed., Proto\olle des Verfassungsausschusses im osterreichi-
schen Reichstage 1848-1849 (Leipzig, 1885) and Alfred Fischel, ed., Die Rroto\olle
des Verfassungsausschusses uber die Grundrechte (Vienna, 1912).
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 3*3
stiffer, the tenure of the legislation longer, the imperial veto absolute. The
national district organization was left intact, but the crownland autonomy
reduced as was the federal element in the organization of the upper cham¬
ber. Regarding Hungary, the unity of the kingdom was preserved in prin¬
ciple, but balanced by autonomy for Croatia-Slavonia including Fiume
and a separate status for Transylvania, which should bring equality to all
national groups. Autonomous rights were also to be secured to the Serbs
in the Vojvodina. A supplement to the constitution was a communal law,
decreed ten days after the octroy of the constitution. It promised com¬
munal autonomy after the Kremsier fashion “the free municipality in the
free state” in this case in the unfree one. This was the only part of the
March legislation which was enacted, though on a permanent basis not
before i860. Altogether constitutional life under the Stadion constitu¬
tion might have been as feasible as under the Kremsier draft, if it had not
been “octroyed” from above and if Hungarian agreement rather than en¬
forcement after military defeat could have been secured. But the Hun¬
garian question was not solved. Yet an agreement under the Kremsier
constitution would have stood a better chance than under the Stadion
octroy. The Stadion constitution did not lack limited democratic features,
though the concessions to the nationalities in Hungary were hardly issued
for the sake of national justice but as punishment for the Magyars. In any
case, Schwarzenberg, though not Stadion himself, considered this constitu¬
tion as a meaningless scrap of paper, at the time it received imperial sanc¬
tion.69
Meanwhile the Magyars by mid-December, 1848, refused to recognize
the new emperor as their king, because he was not crowned with the crown
of St. Stephen and obviously could not be crowned in Hungary any longer.
This defiance against the regime and the crown itself is usually con¬
sidered as the beginning of the decisive phase of the revolution or of the
war of independence. Kossuth had worked for this break with Austria
from the beginning of the revolution.
In early January, 1849, Windischgratz’s army took Budapest while
Kossuth with the government moved to the east to Debreczen. Fighting
continued with increased fury but with fluctuating success. Windischgratz
was an indifferent commander and the Magyar revolutionary generals,
above all Gorgey and Klapka skillfully took advantage of this fact. They
69 Friedjung, Osterreich von 1848-1860, pp. 255-291; Redlich, Das osterreichische

Staats- und Reichsproblem, I, 323-382; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, II, 63-69,
320-321. See also Jiri Klabouch, Die Gemeindeselbstverwaltung in Osterreich 1848-
1968 (Vienna, 1968), pp. 36-63.
-$ia History of the Habshurg Empire
were helped also by the renewed outbreak of hostilities between Austria
and Sardinia in March, 1849. On the other hand the Magyar cause was not
only in a military but also in a psychological sense hurt by the infighting
against the Serbs in the Banat and the Saxons and Roumanians in Transyl¬
vania. Magyar victories in these struggles were dearly paid for by immedi¬
ate consequences of internal discord as well as by the hatred evoked and
continued until 1918 by the oppressed national groups. By April, however,
the fortunes of war against the Austrian main forces had turned decidely
in favor of the Magyars. On April 14 the assembly at Debreczen declared
the dynasty of Habsburg-Lorraine deposed. Hungary was proclaimed a
republic under Kossuth as governor with semidictatorial powers. The
same day the emperor relieved Windischgratz of his command.
Again, the action taken by the Hungarian Reichstag at the initiative of
Kossuth had become in evitable, because the situation had developed in a
way that made compromise impossible. Yet if this was so then it should
have been clear to the revolutionary Hungarian government, that mo¬
narchical Europe would not stand idly by and see the Habsburg monarchy
fall prey to revolution at a time of booming counterrevolutionary success
in France and Germany. Russian intervention, agreed upon in May, 1849,
had indeed become inevitable, if the Austrian government could not
handle the situation alone. This contingency had now arisen. It does not
take hindsight to come to these conclusions and the fact that Kossuth
failed to draw them, belies his qualities as statesman.70 A great orator and
journalist, a man of brilliant ideas and qualities of charismatic leadership,
this fierce patriot lacked the abilities required by a head of state in critical
times. If he had had them he would have removed himself from the
scene at an earlier time, possibly in the fall of 1848, to give a new leader¬
ship the chance for a compromise. That he failed to do so was the result
of the strength and weakness inherent in singleness of purpose—in Kos¬
suth’s case charismatic leadership linked with inability to put himself in
his opponents’ position.71
70 The anticipated Russian intervention was before the formal agreement widely
demanded and discussed in Austrian conservative circles. Neither could Russian
military preparations be kept secret. See Andies, Das Biindnis Habsburg-Romanow,
pp. 160-191; Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen, The Political Evolution of the
Hungarian Nation (London, 1908), II, 80-81, 124-127; Barta in Ervin Pamlenyi,
ed., Die Geschichte Ungarns, V, 311-334.
71 See Kosary, A History of Hungary, pp. 219-249; Eugen Csuday, Geschichte der
Ungarn, 2nd revised edition (Budapest, 1900), II, 429-467; Knatchbull-Hugessen,
The Political Evolution, II, 121-190; Friedjung, Osterreich von 1848 bis i860, I,
201-235; see further Andritsch, ed., Ungarische Geisteswelt, 170-190.
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 3/5
The Russian intervention sealed the fate of the Hungarian revolution

and in a wider sense that of Hungary. Fighting continued, however, until
August, 1849. Discord between the Magyar leaders, particularly Kossuth
and Gorgey, accelerated disintegration. On August 13, Gorgey surrendered
his army to a Russian general at Vilagos, while Kossuth’s fled to Turkey.
Magyar nationalism has always and rightly approved of Kossuth’s action
to escape the Austrian gallows, while it has unjustly donounced Gorgey for
his justified decision to end useless slaughter. If Gorgey can possibly be
criticized, it is just for the fact, that as a nationalist he preferred to surrender
to the Russians rather than to what he considered to be the Austrian op¬
pressors. This action hardened Vienna’s resolve to mete out terrible retri¬
bution for the revolution, although it is by no means certain that a more
diplomatic action on the part of Gorgey could have avoided it.
To the enduring shame of the Schwarzenberg government even the
intervention of the tsar for the brave Hungarian commanders was re¬
jected except for Gorgey. He was confined to Klagenfurt, but nine Hun¬
garian high officers were hanged, four others were shot.72 Even the
formerly moderate prime minister, Count Batthiany, was shot. The execu¬
tions of the thirteen generals took place by explicit order of Schwarzen¬
berg, but imprisonment of 2,000 officers and civilian patriots was ordered
by General Haynau, Austrian commander during the final stages of the
campaign in Hungary and later military governor of the prostrate coun¬
try. As noted before, he had recommended himself for this assignment by
his actions during the risings in Brescia in summer of 1848, when he had
revolutionaries hanged and women flogged. The name “Hyena of Brescia”
introduced him to revolutionary Hungary.
The action of the Schwarzenberg government and its henchmen stands
in contrast to Grant’s generous attitude toward the officers of the South
after the surrender at Appomattox in the American Civil War. Schwar¬
zenberg managed to unite English, French, German, and even Russian
feelings in common revulsion against him and Haynau, who was publicly
insulted during his subsequent “good will” visits to Brussels and Lon¬
don.73 Strangely even modern historiography sometimes extols Haynau
as a brilliant statesman.
The surrender at Vilagos means the end of the revolution in the
Habsburg empire, which had run its course in Germany several weeks
72 The officers who surrendered to the Russians were hung, the others shot.
Altogether more than a hundred further executions took place within the next
weeks.
73 Andies, Das Bundnis Habsburg-Romanow, pp. 177-183.
before. The events that happened later should properly be considered as
part of the neoabsolutistic period.
i
What were the permanent positive effects of the revolution? As for the
national question they were few. Since the neoabsolutist regime represented
a course of enforced German-directed centralism, the Germans were un¬
justly blamed by the other nationalities for the oppressive character of the
government, from which the German liberals suffered as much as anybody
else. The frustrated hatred of the defeated Magyar people was obvious.
As for the Czechs, the revolution had done nothing to meet their consti¬
tutional demands; but the regime did not want to hurt the feelings of
the powerful Bohemian aristocracy, hence moderate concessions were
made to Czech national rights, particularly in education under the guid¬
ance of the able new minister of instruction, Count Leo Thun. The out¬
come of the revolution had given an opening to the moderate and con¬
servative Czech nationalists, later organized in the Old Czech party. The
Poles were not worse off than before, since they realized that cooperation
with the Austrian government was preferable to isolated revolutionary
action before the day of resurrection of Poland had struck. Its coming
would depend on a change of world not just Austrian politics. This
line of thought suited the Polish conservatives, who were closest to power.
Few promises of the Austrian government to the Croats were kept, and
a Croatian allegedly said to a Magyar: We received as reward what
you got as punishment. The position of Croatian conservatism had
been strengthened for a time, that of Southern Slav unionism, seen at
short range, had weakened. Modest beneficiaries of the revolution were
the Serbs, whose autonomy in the Vojvodina beyond the religious sphere,
jointly with that of Roumanian and German minorities, was recognized
for a time. Yet the governmental purpose was not to help the Serbs for
their own sake but to hurt the Magyars. The autonomy of the Vojvodina
was rescinded after i860 when the negotiations with the Magyars got
under way. Slovaks and Slovenes had to return to the status quo ante
revolution, but an imperial patent of 1850 promised the Ruthenians in
Galicia equality with the Poles. Some improvement on the administra¬
tive level took place and the same held true for the Carpatho-Ruthenian
comitats in northern Hungary. But the concessions to the Hungarian
Ruthenians fell victim to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and
those to the Ruthenians in Galicia to the limited administrative autonomy
granted to the crownland in 1868—and that meant a Polish-dominated
Galicia. The Roumanians obtained actually nothing; the desired direct
subordination of Transylvania under the imperial administration in
Vienna now meant in effect subordination under the absolutist regime—
not with equal rights but with an equal lack of rights with other Transyl¬
vanian groups. In 1863 the Roumanians were officially recognized as fourth
Translyvanian national group of equal standing, but the Compromise
with Hungary and the reincorporation of the country under Magyar
rule soon ended this transitory success. Less than a decade after 1867
the last remainders of the three-nation state in Translyvania were elim¬
inated by the Magyar administration.
Thus the national achievements of the revolution were extremely
meager, and if balanced against the degree of illusions destroyed and re¬
sentment created far more negative than positive. Yet the impetus given
to the development of national political life, even through so short a
period as the revolutionary one, was not in vain. It left its indelible traces.
The political developments after 1867 would have been inconceivable
without the vivid memories of 1848.
In the social sphere the revolution scored a success with the emancipa¬
tion of the peasants in Austria and the roughly corresponding legislation
in Hungary. As noted before, the fact that the neoabsolutist regime was
forced to be the executor of the revolutionary agricultural legislation
proved how widely these long overdue reforms were supported by public
opinion. The revolution, on the other hand, did not leave any legislative
traces in industrial organization and labor relations. Still, here too, the
fact that industrial labor in Austria had for the first time played an
active role was not entirely forgotten.
In the constitutional field absolutism after 1848 was even more stringent
and for a time more effective than before the revolution. The main residue
of the revolutionary era was equality before the law—though more in
principle than in practice, and in regard to the Jews for some years not even
in principle. Even Stadion’s communal legislation did not become the law
of the land until after the termination of the neoabsolutist period. Some
rudiments of the Kremsier constitution, especially Article 21 dealing with
national rights, were revived in slightly changed form in the Austrian
Constitutional Law 142 of December, 1867, in the famous Article 19. Yet it
could be said also with the same right that legislation by emergency
decree on the part of the crown was passed on by the Stadion constitu¬
tion to the December constitutional laws of 1867.74
The impact of the revolution on Austrian constitutional life after 1866
did not depend on such odds and ends. The political forces of an era,
which forge its laws may use the pattern and traditions of a previous
74 Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, II, 137-139.
one, but they do not necessarily need them. The meaning of the revolu¬
tion as a whole is something more important. Political, social, and na¬
tional changes which have once reached a higher stage may be temporarily
stopped and even reversed for a time, but they cannot be wiped out from
memory. When the opportunity strikes for new dynamic changes, a
permanent return to the prerevolutionary situation becomes impossible. At
least new changes have to include and advance the revolutionary experi¬
ence of the past. This, for better or worse, is the significance of the Aus¬
trian revolution of 1848-1849.
D. Neoabsolutism
Neoabsolutism began in Austria with the dissolution of the Reichstag

of Kremsier in the early March days of 1849, in Hungary with the
capitulation of Vilagos in August of the same year.76 The termination
of the era is usually associated with the convocation of the enlarged
Reichsrat in July, i860. It did not represent as yet the return to constitu¬
tional government, but at least the realization that some, however halting
steps in that direction were necessary. The complete failure of the regime
in international relations, which became increasingly obvious after
Schwarzenberg’s death on April 5, 1852, but could hardly have been pre¬
vented by him in the long run, has been discussed. In domestic affairs the
verdict is not quite so negative. The evaluation heard at the time, that the
administration was run by a standing army of soldiers, a kneeling one of
those praying in church to be acceptable to the government, and a crawl¬
ing one of informers, seems unduly harsh. Yet this bitter joke illustrates
the gross unpopularity of the regime, which was not modified by the fact
that Schwarzenberg’s successor in fact though not in name, Alexander
Bach, was as administrator superior to Schwarzenberg. At the same time,
because of his brief revolutionary past, he was generally rated an oppor¬
tunist and turncoat and was hated more than Schwarzenberg. An aristo¬
crat could be forgiven his conservative views and even his cruel actions to
a point, as long as he was favored by political success. It was different
with a commoner of liberal antecedents, even though Schwarzenberg’s
reckless daring, ruthlessness, and cavalier lack of concern regarding the
consequences of his actions, were more responsible for the bankruptcy of
the regime than Bach’s opportunism. Opportunism is generally rated a
75 The last Magyar resistance, however, ended only with the surrender of the
garrison of the fortress of Komorn under the command of General Klapka on
September 27, 1849.
more contemptible quality than recklessness and some believe it is even
more reprehensible than cruelty. The notion that Bach may have changed
his views out of conviction was dismissed by public opinion because his
conversion to conservatism was of great benefit to his career. But in any
case, Schwarzenberg was dead and Bach alive and thus it is clear that irre¬
spective of his merits as administrator and promoter of economic reforms
he became the chief target of criticism and hatred. As for the over-all
evaluation of the period, a philosophy restored after a revolution, however
brief, is different from the prerevolutionary order. Progress and setbacks
will have to be considered not just in comparison with the achievements
and setbacks of the old regime. In this respect neoabsolutism came out
quite well, but in comparison with the revolution the situation appeared
different, though not necessarily all bad.
The most influential personalities of the period, apart from Bach and
Schwarzenberg, were in the emperor’s entourage: his mother, the domi¬
neering archduchess Sophie, and his older cousin, the conservative archduke
Albrecht, since i860 governor of Hungary. The incapable and scheming
chief aide de camp of the emperor, Count Ludwig Griinne, who sat with
the cabinet, carried weight in military affairs. The minister of police, the
widely feared Baron Johann Kempen-Fichtenstamm, had much authority.
Francis Joseph’s former teacher and ecclesiastic adviser, Joseph Othmar
von Rauscher, became archbishop of Vienna in 1853, cardinal in 1855.
This priest of the strictest observance understood well how to extend the in¬
fluence of the Church even beyond the powerful position it had regained
under Emperor Francis.76 Of the cabinet members, Schmerling, though
increasingly conservative himself, became disappointed with the reac¬
tionary course and resigned as minister of justice in 1851. Thun, who
joined the cabinet in 1849, stayed throughout the whole period until
i860.77 Bruck was minister of commerce until 1851 and minister of fi¬
nance from 1855 to i860, when he committed suicide because he was
unjustly suspected of malfeasance in office.78 These three men were un¬
doubtedly the ablest of Schwarzenberg’s and Bach’s collaborators.
After Schwarzenberg’s death Bach became leading minister but was
never appointed prime minister. This may have been due in part to
Francis Joseph’s loyalty to Schwarzenberg’s memory and in part to the
personality of Bach, to whose past the emperor never became quite re¬
conciled.
76 See Friedjung, Osterreich von 1848-1860, II, 473-480.

77 Ibid, II, 48(^503.
78 Charmatz, Bruc\, pp. 109-153.
A word about the emperor’s family might at this point be in order. His
relationship to his more liberal and more gifted brother Maximilian, the
future emperor of Mexico, was always strained. Maximilian’s position as
commander of the Austrian navy did not satisfy him and his subsequent
assignment as governor general of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom from
1857 to 1859 did not please the emperor, who considered his brother too
liberal. In 1854, the rather lonely Francis Joseph married his first cousin
Elizabeth of Bavaria, from a dynasty many times related to the Habs-
burgs by marriage. The beautiful and romantic empress, a fascinating and
unorthodox personality, was not interested in politics, but was to play a
notable part in the reconciliation with Hungary.
The Schwarzenberg-Bach administrations, but particularly the latter,
established the pattern of the over-all political organization of the Habs¬
burg empire. The administration of the crownlands was in the hands of
the provincial governors, who received their instructions from the minister
of interior. The Kreis (county) organization of the by now faint mem¬
ories of Kremsier and of Stadion’s March constitution was for a time
preserved in a limited sense, though later restricted to the judicial sphere.
As for Hungary, Croatia-Slavonia with Fiume, Translyvania (includ¬
ing a part of the southeastern Military Frontiers), the Vojvodina, and the
Banat of Temesvar, were administratively separated from the country.
The remaining trunk was divided into five districts under the over-all
direction of the governor general in Budapest.
The judicial organization corresponded by and large to that in effiect
until 1918. Several modifications, however, are necessary. The revolu¬
tionary achievement of jury trials was abolished at the end of 1851 and
with this went, consistently from the standpoint of the regime, the
publicity of trials altogether. Furthermore the separation of justice and
administration was eliminated on the lowest level of district office and
magistrate courts. Patrimonial jurisdiction was not compatible with a
system of not feudal but bureaucratic centralistic absolutism, which gov¬
erned now the Habsburg lands. Yet this achievement of Josephinism did
not mean protection for the rights of the individual under now existing
conditions. An infamous aspect of the merger of administration and
justice on the lowest level was the introduction of corporal punishment
by police authority in the Austrian lands in 1854. This was not only a
method to enforce obedience but also a device to coordinate Austrian
bureaucracy with traditional Hungarian feudal institutions. The pseudo-
legal foundation of measures of this kind was the Sylvester Patent (New
Year’s Eve) of 1851, which formally invalidated the never-enacted March
constitution of Stadion. Absolutism had now become official. Even though
the issuance of the Patent implied a flagrant breach of an imperial assur¬
ance of constitutional government, it was perhaps preferable to the hypo¬
critical references to a paper constitution. The only part of the Stadion
legislation in terms of constitutional government that had been enacted,
the communal autonomy, was voided. It was revised only in the constitu¬
tional era.
An improved organization of the register of real estate and a revision
of the Code of Criminal Law of 1803, introduced in 1852, represented
technical improvements. The enactment of a code of craft guild regula¬
tions with some protection of the workers followed the fall of Bach by
four months. Yet his administration undoubtedlvj deserves the credit for
its partly successful attempt to organize the conflicting Austrian policies
in this respect. The problem was not entirely solved until 1973.
The true spirit of the regime was embodied in the reorganization of
church-state relations, which represented an expansion of the Franciscan
distortion of Josephinism, the operation of the Church as powerful arm
of the state. Substantially as a result of the Concordat of 1855 the Church
assumed also functions of its own, which went beyond those under her
control after the reigns of Leopold I and his sons. All this was largely
Rauscher’s work. Bach cooperated with him primarily because a politi¬
cal system so flagrantly out of step with the spirit of the times needed at
least one strong ideological ally; this ally by a process of elimination could
only be the Church. The jurisdiction of the bishops was considerably
extended by legislation of 1850. Their control of the clergy including
canonical trials became now almost unlimited, and their administration
of the seminaries was no longer under state control. Elimination of pre¬
vious restrictions in regard to liturgical questions and ecclesiastic com¬
munications with Rome was, however, legitimate.
Otherwise the spirit of intolerance paralyzed intellectual life. New
restrictions were placed on the civic status of the Jews in regard to the
acquisition of landed property. This was the bill presented by the state to
the Jews for their allegedly inordinate participation in the revolutionary
activities. The legal status of the Protestants was not directly affected, but
the ban on employment of non-Catholics as teachers in Catholic schools
hurt them more than the Jews.
The Concordat of 1855, primarily Rauscher’s work, went beyond the
previous concessions to the Church. The Catholic Church as administra¬
tor of the state religion now secured autonomy to a degree no longer
compatible with even the most flexible interpretation of Josephinism. The
j22 History of the Hahsburg Empire
Church did not only strengthen her position in previously contested areas
o£ relations to the state, but gained control of additional areas. Marriage
legislation for Catholics, which meant anybody baptized as Catholic ir¬
respective of later changes in denominational status, had always been
based on the principles of Canon law. Now something new was added.
Jurisdiction in matrimonial questions was transferred from secular to
ecclesiastic courts. The papacy regained also a barely restricted right to
establish new bishoprics and parishes, which helped to enforce the ex¬
panded clerical jurisdiction. Above all, the new ecclesiastic rights per¬
tained to education. The Church was now not only in control of religious
instruction but was empowered to see to it, that teaching in any secular
discipline (languages, history, science), must not be in conflict with the
tenets of religious instruction. The Church also assumed the right of cen¬
sorship of literature potentially dangerous to youth and the faithful alto¬
gether. Austria was thus thrown back into the era of the Counter Refor¬
mation in its most intransigent form. The difference was, however, that
the religious policies of the Counter Reformation, though divisive in char¬
acter, had powerful, possibly majority support of the population. The new
policy was backed largely by police informers—to the detriment of the
state and the truly faithful, that is, in the last analysis to the Church
herself.79
It is remarkable that this spirit of intolerance did not hurt higher edu¬
cation as seriously as might have been expected. In fact, important re¬
forms were put through in this era. Chief credit was due to the outstanding
personality of the minister of education Count Leo Thun and his able
collaborators Hermann Bonitz and Franz Exner. Thun, though a rigid
conservative, managed to steer an independent course. Thus he succeeded
not only in preserving previous modest standards but in improving them
in several respects. He must be credited with the basic reorganization
of higher secondary education, the curriculum of the Austrian classical
Gymnasium and the new Realschule (higher secondary school with
emphasis on modern languages, mathematics, and sciences).80 Thun
managed also—under existing prejudices a notable achievement—to pro-
79 Erika Weinzierl-Fischer, Die osterreichischen Kon\ordate von 1855 und ig33

(Vienna, i960), pp. 26-81; Winter, Revolution, Neoabsolutismus und Liberalismus,
pp. 86'-ior.
80 Gymnasiums and Realschulen, though most of them public schools, offered
instruction only to those who had passed an entrance examination. They also
charged tuition. Only graduates of these schools were admitted to universities.
The tuition-free general secondary schools (Burgerschulen), who admitted all
graduates of grade schools, did not offer this privilege.
tect academic freedom in die universities to some extent and to appoint

also some objective scholars of high reputation. Neither the university
organization nor particularly that of the gymnasiums—fine schools, but
with an overemphasis on the cultivation of classical languages—have fully
stood the test of time. In some respect they have stood it too well since
what appeared progressive in Thun’s times would have required con¬
siderable adjustments in the following decades. These revisions were not
forthcoming. His reforms were primarily focused on higher and inter¬
mediate higher education, not on general compulsory instruction, but this
emphasis could be understood as counterweight against prevailing in¬
tolerance on the higher cultural level. By administrative actions and
informally Thun also secured the right of various nationalities to have at
least elementary instruction taught in the language of the majority of
the population of individual communities.81
Improved were also the military regulations including the service obli¬
gations. The ancient institution of the Court War Council had to yield
finally to the Ministry of War which in turn was merged with the High
Command of the Army. The general service obligation of the citizenry
was further extended and the method of selection for actual induction—
from now on by lot—was made more equitable than before. The service
obligation itself, harsh as it continued to be, was limited to eight years
with two additional years in the army reserve. In equipment, moderniza¬
tion of training (especially of staff officers), emphasis on the outmoded
cavalry rather than infantry, the army had fallen back behind those of
other powers. These deficencies played an important role in the outcome
of the wars of 1859 and 1866; the Austrian main armies in both wars were
led by generals not fully up to the requirements of their task. Whether the
results of both campaigns were not also due to the unpopularity or
political weakness of the Austrian position is difficult to determine.
The regime did relatively best in the socioeconomic field; here ab¬
solutism had possibilities of imposing its will rather than balancing oppos¬
ing interests, which a less autocratic regime would have lacked. Obviously
this must not be understood as defense of a system, whose outlook never
transcended beyond the barriers of narrow class interests.
81 Hans Lentze, Die Universitatsreform des Ministers Graf Leo Thun-Hohenstein

(Vienna, 1962), pp. 28-294 passim; Richard Meister, Entwic\lung und Reform des
osterreichischen Schulwesens (Vienna, 1963), I, 77-255 passim. On Thun’s back¬
ground see Christoph Thienen-Adlerflycht, Graf Leo Thun im Vormdrz (Graz-
Vienna-Cologne, 1967). See also Robert A. Kann, “Hochschule und Politik im
osterreichischen Verfassungsstaat” in E. Botz, H. Hautmann, H. Konrad eds.,
Festschrift fur Karl Stadler (Wien, 1974), pp. 507 ff.
Frequently die regime is credited with the exemplary manner in which
the emancipation of the peasants was enacted. This is true with qualifi¬
cations. The Austrian as well as the Hungarian emancipatory peasant
legislation had provided that indemnities be paid to the previous owners
of the land. But only the Hungarian legislation stated that the govern¬
ment should pay for it and the Bach administration did not accept this
position in full. It burdened the peasant with one-third of the indemnities
to be paid for the abolishment of personal services, payments in kind servi¬
tudes, tithes, etc. One-third was to be paid by the government (in Austria
the crownland administrations) and one-third, indirectly, by the former
owners of the land. The indemnities to the lords were to be rendered in
twenty annual installments with 5 percent interest. This settlement did
not correspond to the more liberal intentions of the emancipatory legisla¬
tion of the Reichstag in September of 1848. On the other hand, the Bach
administration acted at least with efficiency and deliberate speed. Unlike
the peasants in Prussia and Russia the peasants in Austria did not have
to pay for their obligation with parts of their meager landholdings. By
the mid-i850’s the complex legislation had been enacted with efficiency.82
In 1850-1851 the Austro-Hungarian interstate customs lines were
abolished and the Habsburg monarchy for the first time, became a uni¬
fied customs territory. Credit for this was due largely to the minister of
commerce von Bruck, who actually had farther-reaching designs. He
promoted the idea of a great Austro-German and possibly also Italian
customs union, an association that Schwarzenberg had desired in political
terms. Reality fell short off these plans, but tariffs between Austria and
the member states of the German customs union could be reduced and
a favorable customs treaty with Prussia was concluded in 1853.83 For the
first time Austria could deviate from her narrow protective tariff policy
because after 1848 some beneficial effects of the industrial revolution had
penetrated at least the western part of the monarchy. Austrian metallurgi¬
cal and textile industries, to mention only two main industries, had be-
82 Friedjung, Osterreich von 1848-1860, I, 333-367; Tremel, Wirtschafts- und

Sozialgeschichte Osterreichs, pp. 321-324; Christoph Stolzl, Die Ara Bach in
Bohmen (Munich, 1972), passim; Friedrich Walter, “Kaiser Franz Josephs Un-
garnpolitik in der Zeit seines Neoabsolutismus,” in Theodor Mayer, ed., Der
osterreichisch-ungarische Ausgleich von i86j (Munich, 1968), pp. 125-135.
83 Charmatz, Bruc\, pp. 107-124; Droz, L’Europe Centrale, pp. 92-99; Fink,
Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic als Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft, pp. 19-25;
Herbert Matis, “Leitlinien der osterreichischen Wirtschaftspolitik” in A. Wand-
ruszka and P. Urbanitsch eds.. Die Habsburgermonarchie, I., pp. 29-67, and ibid.
Eduard Marz and Karl Socher, “Wahrung und Banken in Cisleithanien”, pp. 323-
337*
come competitive on the European markets, and the same was true for
various manufactured luxury goods. The protectionist policy deemed vital
to Maria Theresa, Joseph II, and Francis was no longer necessary in the
same sense, if it ever was before. Communications had also been im¬
proved. Much admired was the Semmering railway route opened in
1854, the first main railway in Europe that passed through mountainous
territory. Hardly practical in its design as seen from the viewpoint of an
observer today, this route with its beautiful views was a symbol of newly
won Austrian engineering skill.
Unified and improved was also the taxation system. A general land
tax, a rent tax on urban premises, and, a true first, a general income tax
were initiated. Indirect taxes were reduced. The regulation of the tax
system was followed by that of the currency. In 1858 a unified silver
currency, the guilder (florin) containing sixty Kreutzers, was introduced.84
Most economic reforms meant greater efficiency rather than social
concern focused on economic inequality. In the relationship between
management and industrial labor, difficulties were in fact on the increase.
The industrial sector moved more into the foreground of Austrian eco¬
nomic problems, and a still poorly industrialized country was ill-equipped
to deal with the expanding problem of management-labor-relations and
working conditions. Besides, Austrian economic progress was considerable
only if compared with the situation of the pre-March era. In relation to
western Europe and Germany it was very modest. Nevertheless, cen¬
tralized bureaucratic absolutism, despite its class character, in an economic
sense had proved superior to the semifeudal system of the prerevolu¬
tionary era.
At the same time this absolutism acted more recklessly in foreign
affairs. We discussed the way in which it fell into the trap of accepting
a studied Piedmontese provocation in the spring of 1859. The war proved
to be the system’s undoing. Actually Bach could not be blamed at all
for the poor military leadership, and only to a limited degree for the
inadequacy of military preparations. Yet in a wider sense the unpopularity
of Austrian absolutism throughout Europe was largely responsible for the
defeat. In August, 1859, Bach was dimissed and Griinne and Kempen,
the most hated symbols of the oppressive regime, followed him into re¬
tirement. Neither Count Johann Rechberg, the new chairman of the
84Friedjung, Osterreich von 1848-1860, I, 292-322; Heinrich Benedikt, Die

wirtschajtliche Entwic\lung in der Franz Joseph Zeit (Vienna, 1958), pp. 11-55;
Eduard Marz, Osterreichische Industrie und Ban\enpoliti\ in der Zeit Franz
Joseph /. (Vienna, 1965), pp. 48-94.
ministerial council and successor of Buol as minister of foreign affairs,
nor Bach’s direct replacement as minister of the interior, the Polish count
Agenor Goluchowski, the experienced governor of Galicia, had the
same influence that Bach had held for almost a decade.
On March 5, i860, the emperor announced that the Reichsrat, an ad¬
visory council of six Austrian and two Hungarian dignitaries, established
in 1851, should be considerably enlarged. New members should be arch¬
dukes, high secular and ecclesiastic office holders. Large landed property
was strongly represented by these men. They were to hold lifetime ap¬
pointments. There was also to be a second group of thirty-eight members,
the representatives of the lands, most of whom also represented large
landed property, appointed for six-year terms and selected by the emperor
from a list of candidates submitted by the estates diets. They included
six Magyars, two Croats, and two Serbs. The whole body was to serve in
an advisory capacity, primarily in regard to financial agenda, but it should
also deliberate—at the emperor’s pleasure—on further and possibly more
far-reaching constitutional changes. This and the as yet merely academic
resolve to restore the administrative unity of Hungary and the appoint¬
ment of some Magyar and Slavic advisers were mere straws in the wind.
The enlarged Reichsrat presided by the fairly liberal Archduke Rainer
was in fact a mere mockery of a constitutional body. And yet its convoca¬
tion made it clear that absolutism had come to the end of the road and
was forced to adjust to the ever more clearly perceptible underground
rumblings pressing for change. To be sure, in terms of the regime’s
interests it should be as small as possible. On the basis of the experience
of 1848 it became soon clear that such change could not be held within
the confines of a modified absolutism. The events of 1859-1860 did not
establish a constitutional system, yet they made the bankruptcy of the
existing regime obvious. A system committed to the principle of equality
before the law for everybody had proved that it stood for inequality—
though not equal inequality—for the overwhelming majority of the
peoples of the Habsburg empire.
E. Transition to constitutional government (1860-1867)
The enlarged Reichsrat in session from May to September, i860, proved

to the government that the token moves in to the direction of constitu¬
tional government had not met liberal expectations; even moderate con¬
servatives were disappointed. Archduke Rainer, the president of the
enlarged Reichsrat, supported limited liberal reforms within a centralistic
system, and the emperor’s former teacher, Cardinal Rauscher, just backed
centralism without any liberal trimmings. Yet centralistic absolutism and
liberalism had that much in common that they both worked for institu¬
tions pertinent to the empire as a whole. The tide was running now in
favor of constitutional government and hence centralistic tendencies
favored moderately liberal government, irrespective of the government’s
reluctance.
The more strongly entrenched conservative supporters of historic-tradi-
donal federalism, on the other hand, requested wider autonomy for the
historic political entities or, more correctly, for the aristocratic leadership
within these entities. The principal spokesman for these views in the
cabinet was the Polish minister of interior, Count Goluchowski; the
leading minister, Count Rechberg, exercised little influence beyond the
sphere of foreign affairs. Since the feudal conservatives could still mute
the voices of Czech and Magyar liberalism—though with declining effi¬
ciency—the resulting constitutional compromise, the octroyed constitution
of October 20, i860 (commonly referred to as October Diploma), leaned
heavily in the direction of conservative federalism.
The October Diploma conceded to the Reichsrat, basically still the
sham body of March of the same year, participation in legislation as
enumerated in the charter. Such participation pertained to economic and
financial matters and, apart from the required consent to taxation, only
in an advisory capacity. Moreover, legislation had to be shared with diets
in which the influence of the usually aristocratic owners of large estates,
bishops, and chambers of trade and commerce in the urban sphere were
meant to be predominant. The hundred members of the Reichsrat were
largely dietal representatives who represented primarily the social groups
referred to above. Illustrative is the Styrian diet, one example of several:
It consisted of two bishops, four other clerics, twelve big estates owners,
ten town representatives, two representatives of chambers of trade and com¬
merce, and twelve of rural communities.85 This was not all. The crown,
which had the prerogative to appoint the members of the Reichsrat, re¬
served for itself the right to screen the dietal nominations before selection.
Significant in this strange kind of constitution was also the built-in plan
for a smaller assembly—the narrower Reichsrat—for the aflfairs of the
western part of the empire. This arrangement pointed indeed toward
a new approach to the Hungarian problem. |
In Hungary opposition against the absolutist regime and the suppression
of the historic rights of the divided country united Magyars more than
the centralists and federalists in Austria. Moderate conservative aristo
85 See on the composition of the diets Richard Charmatz, Osterreichs innerlj?

Geschichte von 1848-igoy, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1911), second edition II, 46 ff.; Kann,
N ationalitatenproblem, II, iio-m.
crats like counts Anton Szecsen, Emil Dessewffy, and Paul Somssich,
with whom the crown hoped to cooperate, could not bring about recon¬
ciliation. The following of Francis Deak, the only statesman of the
generation of 1848, increased. Without compromising himself he had not
fallen entirely from the graces of the government. Major concessions
seemed to be in order. The hated archduke Albrecht was recalled from
Buda as governor general and replaced by the Magyar General Benedek,
equally faithful to the crown as the archduke, but not tainted with the
oppressive measures of military occupation. The separate Hungarian-
Transylvanian court chancery was to be restored and a supreme court
for Hungary was to be reestablished together with the old pre-1848
comitat constitution. Above all the Reichstag was to be reconvened on the
basis of a membership equal before the law. This over-all principle of
civil equality, as it existed now at least in theory in the Austrian statute
n.
books, was (together with the emancipation of the peasants) the main,
though still largely academic, achievement of the revolution. It could no
longer be fully ignored in Hungary either. Magyar conservatives were
displeased and liberals dissatisfied. Still these were important promises for
the future.
In Austria one could not even speak of promises at that time, save for
the enforcement of Stadion’s communal legislation, which led to elections
on the communal level in November i860. The feudal federalist spirit
of the October Diploma was as backward as the centralistic spirit of the
Bach regime and less efficient. With the still existing censorship, opposi¬
tion could be expressed only by passive rejection. Goluchowski’s schemes
had failed and in December, i860, he was replaced by Schmerling, whose
prominent position at St. Paul’s Assembly in 1848 was gratefully remem¬
bered by the liberals; the conservative centralists respected him as an
only moderately liberal member in the Schwarzenberg cabinet. He had
the reputation as man of integrity, able bureaucrat, and strongly profiled
representative of the concept of German-directed, though not German-
national, centralism. On February 4 the emperor appointed his cousin,
Archduke Rainer, prime minister. Whereas Schmerling was to be spokes¬
man and chief executive officer of the government, the association with
an imperial prince meant that the crown hoped to reap popularity from
this unusual combination never to be repeated in imperial Austrian
history.86
86 Redlich, Das osterreichische Staats- und Reich sproblem, I, 460-671; Josef

Ulbrich, Das osterreichische Staatsrecht (Tubingen, 1909), pp. 46-49; Henry
Marczali, Ungarische Verfassungsgeschichte (Tubingen, 1910), pp. 155-157; Kann,
N ationalitatenproblem, II, 107-114, 323-331.
Schmerling is generally credited with the draft of the February Patent

promulgated on February 26, 1861, which was meant to supplement the
October Diploma but actually changed it fundamentally. The real in¬
tellectual father of the Patent, however, was a relatively minor govern¬
ment official, Hans von Perthaler, an even more pronounced conservative
and traditionalist than his chief Schmerling.
The new constitution established a bicameral system. The Reichsrat
was to be divided into a House of Lords, consisting of two groups, heredi¬
tary aristocratic members and members with life-time tenure, to be
appointed by the crown. Some of the latter were to be high ecclesiastic
and secular dignitaries who would serve ex officio. Most life-time mem¬
bers were to be personalities of particular distinction in politics and
various cultural activities—as the crown judged these distinctions. The
House of Representatives was to consist of about 300 members, elected
by the estates diets of the individual crownlands. That meant that they
were to represent still the old curias of great landowners, urban and
rural communities, and chambers of trade and commerce. Actually the
interests of commerce and industry, that is, of the urban middle and
upper middle classes were to be somewhat better represented than in
the October Diploma. Governmental gerrymandering favored the great
landowners and the Germans—in line with Schmerling’s and Perthaler’s
political philosophy. To bring these desired objectives about, the franchise
was narrowly restricted by property qualifications. Individual votes in
some districts weighed five times as much as in others. The Patent
recognized originally neither the principle of ministerial responsibility nor
parliamentary immunity. An emergency paragraph empowered the
government to issue laws while the parliament was not in session, without
any requirement for subsequent approval. Yet this parliament, unlike the
chamber of the October Diploma, had at least the power of legislative
initiative and the right to pass the annual budget. It was significant that
a merely academic plenum should deal with the affairs of the empire as
a whole, while a narrower and more workable Reichsrat would be
concerned with those exclusive of Hungary, Croatia, Transylvania, and
Venetia. This arrangement pointed in the direction of the future dualis-
tic compromise, the permanent and final constitutional frame of the
empire.
The February Patent was a poor representative constitution in which,
to quote Orwell, everybody was equal but some more equal than others,
but unlike the October Diploma it was a representative constitution of
sorts nevertheless. Elections took actually place and the Reichsrat con¬
vened in May, 1861, in Vienna, though it was boycotted by Magyars,
jjo History of the Hahshurg Empire
Croatians, and Italians from the start and opposed generally as too
centralistic and partly as too liberal by Czechs, Poles, Serbs, and Slovenes.
With few exceptions, these Slavic members of parliament were conserva¬
tives who for national and social reasons were opposed to the traditional
centralism of the German liberals. This discrepancy in German and Slavic
political ideologies represented partly also differences in degrees of ur¬
banization, partly it was due to manipulations of conflicting interests
by the government, which worked more smoothly in rural than in urban
districts. It favored centralism but was unwilling to buy its frequent
corollary, liberalism. The still unsettled problem of Hungary’s constitu¬
tional status prevented adequate operation of the new system in any case.87
The Hungarian parliament, not yet on equal footing with the Reichsrat
in Vienna, convened in Pest, in April, 1861. Deak demanded recognition
of the Hungarian constitution of April, 1848. As will be remembered,
provisions in this document for a separate Hungarian budget, and the
use of Hungarian forces only with the approval of the Hungarian govern¬
ment and legislature, had never been approved by the administration in
Vienna. Yet the crown, apart from these particularly controversial issues,
still adhered to the convenient reactionary philosophy that rebellious
Magyar Hungary had forfeited its constitution. A new one would have
to be based on imperial pleasure and not on historic rights. Consequently
the Hungarian diet was dissolved in August, 1861. And while the Croats
demanded complete separation from Hungary in a somewhat contro¬
versial law passed by the Sabor in November, 1861, this did not mean as
in previous times that they endorsed the imperial policy in Vienna. They
were opposed to a government that refused to grant the union of Dalma¬
tia with the triune kingdom.88
Frustrated by the chronic Slavic dissatisfaction, the German liberal
87 Redlich, Das osterreichische Staats- und Reichsproblem, I, 715-814; Ulbrich,
Das osterreichische Staatsrecht, pp. 49-52; Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, II, 123-
132; Josef A. Tzobl, “Vorgeschichte des osterreichisch-ungarischen Ausgleichs 1713-
1867,” in Peter Berger, ed., Der osterreichisch-ungarische Ausgleich von i86y: Vor¬
geschichte und Wir\ungen (Vienna, 1967), pp. 9-32; Otto Brunner, “Der oster¬
reichisch-ungarische Ausgleich von 1867 und seine geschichtlichen Grundlagen,” in
Theodor Mayer, ed., Der osterreichisch-ungarische Ausgleich von i86j (Munich,
1968), pp. 15-24.
88 Marczali, Ungarische Verfassungsgeschichte, pp. 157-162; [Francis Deak]
Ded\s Adress-Entwurj und das Staatsrecht Osterreichs (Vienna, 1861), pp. 1-80
passim. Wenzel Lustkandl, Abhandlungen aus dem osterreichischen Staatsrecht
ilber das Manifest . . . vom 20. September 1861 und die beiden Adressen des
haiserlichen ungarischen Landtages von 1861 (Vienna, 1866); Guldescu in F. H.
Eterovich and C. Spalatin, eds., Croatia, II, 40-47; Gustav Steinbach Franz Dea\
(Vienna, 1888), pp. 34-37.
disappointment with the lack of legislative action, and the even more
serious Magyar discontent, the cabinet Rainer-Schmerling resigned. In
July, 1865, it was replaced by a cabinet under Count Richard Belcredi,
who attempted to establish a modified conservative federal system. Such
course was acceptable to the Czech and Polish feudals, a handful of
Magyar aristocrats represented by Count Moritz Esterhazy in the cabinet,
and some German conservatives. But these groups had become increas¬
ingly unrepresentative themselves. Belcredi’s task was bound to end in
failure even sooner than that of Schmerling; the accentuation of the
crisis in relations with Prussia after 1684 played its part.
The highlight of Belcredi’s government was the suspension of the
unworkable constitution in September, 1865. This did not mean a pre¬
meditated return to absolutism. In some respects the Belcredi regime was
more liberal than that of the nominal German liberal Schmerling, for
instance in regard to the operation of censorship. The suppression of the
constitution meant primarily that the speedy reconciliation with Hungary
—badly required in the face of the threatening war with Prussia—could
not be brought about in terms of the February Patent. The crown might
have welcomed a long-term perpetuation of the suspension of the consti¬
tution, but that was another question. It was not to be. Francis Joseph as
a goodwill gesture had visited Budapest earlier, in the summer of 1865,
and had consented to the reincorporation of Transylvania into Hungary.
This was a major, and from the point of national justice unfair conces¬
sion, but it opened the way for new negotiations with the Magyar leaders.
In December, 1865, the king-emperor reopened the Hungarian diet and
now negotiations with a select committee of the diet got seriously under
way after validity of the Hungarian constitution of 1848 was recognized
by the crown, as far as it could be sanctioned at that time. The theory of
forfeiture of constitutional rights as punishment for rebellion was thus
finally laid to rest.
Deak and Count Gyula Andrassy were to be the chief Hungarian
negotiators. However, before the solution of the Austro-Prussian conflict
a settlement appeared unlikely. The crown, which believed in victory
over Prussia, hoped for a better bargaining position after the end of
hostilities, and the Hungarian negotiators, though loyal to the monarchy,
expected an improvement of theirs from a reverse outcome of the war.
History proved them to be right.
The consequences of the war proved several other things as well. The
crown could at best hope for a settlement on the terms demanded by
Hungary before the outbreak of the war. This meant primarily recogni-
tion of a Hungarian state of at least equal constitutional standing with
the other Habsburg lands. It had become clear, also, that genuine con¬
stitutional government was now an equally pressing necessity in the
western part of the empire. The disastrous defeat by Prussia in 1866 was
still linked to the failure of the absolutist Bach regime. Belcredi was not
the man to bring the difficult changes about, which required above all an
accommodation between Germans and Slavs in Austria, Magyars, Slavs,
and Roumanians in Hungary, and Magyars and Germans in an empire¬
wide conflict. He resigned in February, 1867. His concept of an Austrian
federation of five historic political entities, a German-Alpine, Magyar-
Hungarian, Bohemian-Moravian, Polish-Ruthenian, and Southern Slav
(Belcredi’s so-called pentarchy), was not taken seriously as feasible politi¬
cal objective.89
\~Tik successor was Baron (later Count) Beust, formerly prime minister
of Saxony and since October, 1866, minister of foreign affairs. In June,
1867, the title Reichskanzler was conferred on him, which was meant to
preserve the appearance rather than the reality of a joint Austro-Hungarian
chief executive. The title had become meaningless by agreement on the
Austro-Hungarian Compromise in March, 1867. The Compromise, ac¬
cordingly, was passed by the Hungarian parliament and was sanctioned by
the emperor as king of Hungary in June of the same year. Chiefly instru¬
mental in the agreement were next to Deak and Beust, Count Andrassy.
Appointed Hungarian prime minister in February, 1867, he was destined
also to become Beust’s successor as minister of foreign affairs in Novem¬
ber, 1871. Beust himself lacked Andrassy’s appeal. He was appointed
minister of foreign affairs on account of Saxony’s loyalty to Austria in
1866 and in the unjustified belief that his somewhat devious shrewdness
could match Bismarck’s abilities, in case a still-hoped-for Austro-French
alliance could be brought about. As for his more immediate task in the
negotiations leading to the Compromise and subsequently the Austrian
constitutional settlement, it was hoped that a foreigner would encounter
less opposition and a Protestant courtier might possibly be more amenable
to the Catholic viewpoint than an enlightened conservative Catholic
aristocrat.90
These assumptions were believed in and transmitted to the emperor by
the new minister of the interior, Count Taaffe, a confidant of long
standing. But they were just too intricate to be workable. What counted
more than Beust’s diplomatic skill, even more than the popular appeal
89 Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, II, 132-139, 335-336.

90 Andritsch ed., TJngarische Geisteuswelt, pp. 203-211;on Deak see Redlich, Das
osterreichische Staats- und Reichsproblem, II, 503-508; on Beust ibid., pp. 521-523.
which he lacked, was credibility and sincerity, both absent in the char¬
acter of this complex man. These shortcomings counted more in Hungary
than in Austria, where Beust’s support of the Austro-German centralistic
position could be taken for granted within the limits of the practically
obtainable objectives. In Hungary, however, neither Deak’s integrity,
Andrassy’s dexterity, the popularity of both men, nor the good will of
the king-emperor Francis Joseph might have sufficed, if it had not been
for the mediation of the queen-empress Elizabeth, who struck a chord in
the chivalrous hearts of the Magyar gentry.
These were the main terms of the Compromise, henceforward the basic
constitutional frame of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy up to the time of
its dissolution.91 The premise of the Compromise was the association of
two independent states of equal rights, which shared a common ruler,
as emperor in Austria, as king in Hungary. These dual states—hence the
term Dualism used in the Compromise—had also other common features.
The Compromise, therefore, represented not merely a personal union but
a real union (a Realunion). What in practice amounted to a constitution
for the Habsburg empire was strictly speaking a treaty between two in
major respects sovereign states—but by no means in all. Nevertheless, in
view of the restrictions of the sovereignty of each state, the Compromise
was not an international treaty. It was not a federation or confederation
either. There was no state above the two member states as in a federation
nor were they fully sovereign as in a confederation. Neither were the
Austrian and Hungarian versions of the Compromise embedded in the
constitutional laws of both states completely alike. In other words, the
Compromise represented a political structure sui generis. Not in a strictly
legal but in a figurative way it is thus still permissible to speak of a
Habsburg empire.
Agenda common to both states were foreign affairs, defense, and
common finances. Concerning defense, however, the determination of
the quota of recruits in each state, operation of general conscription,
civil legislation connected with it, and organization of national militias
were left to the two states. The language of command in the armed
forces was to be German, an issue which, as the Magyars saw it, impaired
their status of equality. Common finances were to be considered those
that pertained to joint institutions, that is, primarily foreign affairs and
91 The official term Austro-Hungarian monarchy was introduced in 1868, but in

later years, when the interpretation and operation of the Compromise moved in¬
creasingly in the direction of Hungarian semiseparatist tendencies, the term Austria-
Hungary was used. This implied clearly that there was no federal structure above
the dual states.
History of the Hahsburg Empire
defense matters. These joint expenditures were to be determined by
agreement between the parliaments of both states every ten years.
Also the determination of the share in common expenditures was left
to this settlement every ten years. The quota agreed upon by the dual
governments in 1867 required Hungary to pay 30 percent of these costs.
Throughout the history of the Compromise it never rose above 36.4
percent, that is, far less than would have been appropriate on the basis
of Hungary’s economic resources and potential.
Subject to regulation every ten years were some matters administered
separately by Austria and Hungary, but according to common principles.
These included customs—in practice the continuation of the customs
union—currency regulations, and problems of railway communications
passing through both states. Whereas the cabinets of each state had to
submit legislation and in particular the budget to their respective parlia¬
ments, the three joint ministers, of foreign affairs, defense, and joint
finances, had to deal with two executive committees of both parliaments,
the so-called Delegations, which met once a year alternately in Vienna
and Budapest, but communicated with each other only in writing. The
Magyars requested this cumbersome operation to dispell any doubt that
no parliament existed above the Hungarian and Austrian legislatures.
Finally, the three joint ministers and the Austrian and Hungarian prime
ministers under the chairmanship of the minister of foreign affairs,
formed the joint ministerial council. This institution gave the two govern¬
ments indirectly a share in the conduct of foreign and other joint affairs.
Among the divergencies between the Hungarian and Austrian versions
of the Compromise and its interpretation, most important was the fact
that the Hungarian was rooted in the Pragmatic Sanction and the
assurances that the validity of the Compromise was dependent on consti¬
tutional government in Austria. The former provision pointed to a
difference in the question of common succession, which might have arisen
if the heir apparent Francis Ferdinand, assassinated in 1914 at Sarajevo,
would have succeeded Francis Joseph. In that case his offspring from an
unequal marriage would not have been eligible to rule in Austria but
would have qualified in Hungary.92 More serious was the issue concern¬
ing the preservation of constitutional government in Austria. It could be
easily understood that the Hungarian constitution would have been
threatened if absolutism would have been reintroduced in Austria. Yet
according to Magyar constitutional interpretation this did not mean just
existence of representative constitutional government in Austria but
92 The oath of renunciation for his offspring in both states taken by the arch¬
duke in 1900 was to prevent such contingency.
existence of the specific constitutional laws introduced shortly afterward
in December, 1867, in Austria. According to them, Austria, like Hungary,
should be a unitary state and not a federal structure, which was to grant
all national groups as political entities and not merely as individuals equal
rights. Any change in that direction in Austria would impair also the
Magyar predominance in Hungary. An imperial manifesto of mid-
October, 1918, which promised the conversion of the western part of the
empire into a multinational federation, gave the Hungarian parliament
the legally and politically equally unjustified pretext to declare the Com¬
promise beyond the further existence of the personal union as terminated.
At the stage of the game of pending dissolution of the empire this made
little difference, yet it was of great importance that this arbitrary Magyar
interpretation of the Compromise was one of the chief reasons, that
blocked a comprehensive solution of the national problem in the Habs-
burg monarchy after 1867, that means possibly still in good time.
Another problem was that five national groups, Croatians, Germans,
Roumanians, Ruthenians, and Serbs lived in both parts of the dual mon¬
archy and only a sweeping solution introduced for the whole empire
could have regulated their national affairs. This, however, was barred by
the Compromise.93 There were other weak points. The ten-year com¬
promise within the Compromise tested anew the coherence, indeed, the
viability of the monarchy every decade. Usually these periodical agree¬
ments had to be made possible by new Austrian concessions to Hungarian
demands for expansion of sovereign rights. Besides Austrian conribu-
tions to the common expenditures, roughly almost in a proportion of
two to one, were inordinate. In an economic sense it has sometimes been
said that the Austro-Hungarian protective customs system for industrial
goods served the interests of Austrian industry and big business as did
subsequently the protective customs on agricultural products serve the
Hungarian aristocratic big landowners. Yet these were merely the indirect
consequences of the Austro-Hungarian association rather than the direct
results of the Compromise legislation. Hungarian industrialization pro-
ceded just the same. Although the necessity of the ten-year compromise
created economic and political difficulties, none were critical. They were
after all overcome, though not without difficulties,94 the last time in 1917,
in the midst of the World War crisis.
93 There were also Italians in Hungarian Fiume, Magyars in the Austrian

Bukovina, and Slovaks in Moravia. However, these groups were small.
94 Between 1897 and 1907 it was necessary to resort in specific instances to
emergency legislation by decree. This was anchored in the Compromise and the
Austrian constitutional law, but not in the Hungarian constitution. See also
The Compromise did not terminate German predominance over other
nationalities in the western part of the monarchy. It merely yielded in
Hungary to a pronounced Magyar overlordship over the non-Magyar
national groups, which could not be shaken except by revolution. The
privileged position of two national groups, Germans and Magyars, over
nine others represented a greater problem than the division of the empire
in two states as such. Of these two states Hungary, the lands under the Holy
Crown of St. Stephen, stood for national disequilibrium and indeed
national injustice, particularly in regard to Roumanians, Ruthenians, Serbs,
Slovaks, but also Germans and Croats. On the other hand, in a political
sense the country represented a homogeneous historical entity with a
constitutional tradition reaching far back into the beginning of medieval
times. The same cannot be said for the western part of the Danube mon¬
archy, which was composed of several historical units, but did not merge
them to a larger one. This larger unit, associated with the concept of
Austria in public opinion, was the Habsburg empire as a whole. Apart
from this, the Alpine hereditary lands, the small core lands of the Habs-
burgs and the preceding dynasty, the Babenbergs, are still understood as
“Austria” in a narrower sense. The notion of the western part of the
Habsburg empire plus Galicia and Bukovina in the east, on the other
hand, did not strike a chord in anybody’s mind. The common bond be¬
tween these lands as distinguished from the historical entities of which
Austria in the terms of the Compromise was composed, such as hereditary
lands, lands of the Bohemian crown, and so on, was the mere fact that
these were the Habsburg lands outside of Hungary. Of these seventeen
crownlands Galicia and Tyrol for instance were historically no closer to
each other than Hungary to Bohemia or Transylvania to Carniola. The
official name now given to this area—grotesque in its lack of historical
appeal and tradition—was “the kingdoms and lands represented in the
Reichsrat.” No wonder that a somewhat greater tolerance in the handling
of the national question in the west could not make up for this lack of
historical cohesion. The venerable historic concept of Austria was applied
for convenience’s sake, to this unhistorical political conglomerate.95
But although the political and economic bonds worked not too smoothly
August Gmeiner, Grundzuge der Verfassung Ungarns (Nagyszeben-Hermannstadt,

1909), pp. 138-152.
95 Redlich, Das osterreichische Staats- und Reichsproblem, II, 523-680; Ivan
Zolger, Der staatsrechtliche Ausgleich zwischen Osterreich und Ungarn (Leipzig,
1912), passim. Ulbrich, Das osterreichische Staatsrecht, pp. 101-137; Marczali,
Ungarisches Verjassungsrecht, pp. 173-229; Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, I, 30-39,
345 354
- *
in the Compromise, they worked after all because the western and eastern
parts of the monarchy complemented each other to a limited extent.96 By
no means was Austria primarily an industrial and Hungary a purely
agricultural country. Both dual states were predominantly rural in char¬
acter, though Hungary more so than Austria. Industrial progress in
Hungary after 1867 could well compare with that in Austria. Thus
economic complementation existed only to a point.
More important were the common interests in foreign relations. Had it
not been for the Compromise, the empire would probably have disinte¬
grated sooner because of the attraction of Panslavism for the Slavic
peoples; they represented nearly half of the Habsburg monarchy’s popu¬
lation, and after the annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina more than half.
Panslavism was primarily directed by authoritarian, if not despotic, ideolo¬
gies in tsarist Russia. A showdown between Austria and Russia would
probably have led to the empire’s dismemberment, from which Russia
would have benefited more than Germany, which presumably would
have gained only the Alpine lands. The Slavic peoples, and possibly also
the Magyars, would have come under the tsarist heel. The fact that the
German and Magyars were the privileged peoples in the dual monarchy,
although inequitable, made the Austro-German alliance of 1879 possible
that blocked the threat of Russian tsarism and gave the empire the chance
for further peaceful development and possibly evolutionary adaptation to
more modern national and social conditions. Although this chance was
partly missed by 1914, nevertheless between 1867 and 1914 Austria-
Hungary had profited from nearly a half century of peaceful evolution.
Pan-Germanism, though in some ways even more aggressive than Pan¬
slavism, could not rule in Austria because its numerical base was too
small. Nor did it have to. Germany became the leading partner in the
alliance, largely because of the German-Magyar predominance in the
Habsburg monarchy, but, equally important, because the sovereignty of
the Habsburg monarchy and its representative institutions had to be
respected, since German annexation of Habsburg territories was out of
the question. Had Bismarck acted otherwise, had he tried to rule Austria-
Hungary rather than to have it ruled by the German-Magyar coalition
within the monarchy, the Habsburg empire would have disintegrated
sooner and to the chief benefit of tsarist Russia. On the other hand, the
preservation of the monarchy and its territorial integrity for a half century
96 See also Chapter II, Section A. Further, Robert A. Kann, The Habsburg Em¬
pire: A Study in Integration and Disintegration (2nd ed. New York, 1973), pp.
13 f., 102 f.
j38 History of the Habshurg Empire
to come implied respect for its constitutional institutions, limited national
rights for the Slavs in Austria, and at least the chance of securing them
in Hungary. All these factors helped to maintain the Compromise.
It was not a perfect solution. German imperialism and militarism
threatened. Yet Austria was shielded from them, partly by the nature
of the Compromise and partly by the hope that reasonable men would
remain at the steering wheel of Austro-German foreign relations. Eventu¬
ally, the hope proved to be illusionary because of the tensions and finally
conflagrations in the age of imperialism. Yet the final crisis was still a
long way off and, allowing for appropriate reforms, not necessarily in¬
evitable. The Compromise gave the Danube peoples the chance to live
for nearly two generations peacefully and work hopefully for a longer
lasting accommodation. That this hope failed eventually was not primarily
because of deficiencies of the Compromise.97
The Compromise agreed upon in Hungary in March, 1867, had yet to
be passed upon by an Austrian parliament. Approval was a foregone
conclusion after the crown had surmounted the more difficult Hungarian
barrier. Still, it was not an easy matter. The Czechs, feudals and liberals
alike, felt they had been sold down the river, and the Poles likewise re¬
sented the new development. The great old man of heretofore loyal
Czech nationalism, Francis Palacky, participated now in the Panslav
Congress, assembled in Moscow in May, 1867, a gathering more hostile
to Austrian interests than the Slav congress in Prague nineteen years
before. It was clear that the crown could bring about the passage of the
Compromise legislation only with full German support, but this support
was to be had only for a price: constitutional laws which conformed to
the wishes of the German liberals in regard to civil liberties as well as
the preservation of the German privileged position in Austria.
The new Austrian parliament which convened in May, 1867, had a
two-third German liberal majority versus federalist-clerical opposition,
largely consisting of Slav deputies. Only the manipulating of dietal
elections, still based on the unjust provisions of the February Patent,
brought the result desired and expected by the crown. The first of the
97 Robert A. Kann, “The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in Retrospect,

Causes and Effects,” in Ludovit Holotik, ed., Der osterreichisch-ungarische Aus-
gleich i86y (Bratislava, 1971), pp. 24-44. (Proceedings of the International Con¬
ference in Bratislava, 1967.) See also Peter Hanak, “Die biirgerliche Umgestaltung
der Habsburger Monarchic und der Ausgleich von 1867,” in Ervin Pamlenyli, ed.,
Social Economic Research in the History of East Central Europe (Budapest,
1970), pp. 191-231.
five constitutional laws of December, 186798 on the jurisdiction of the
legislation (Statute 141 of 1867) provided for a bicameral legislation,
House of Lords and House of Deputies, the latter until 1873 still
selected from the diets. The legislative powers of parliament were wider
than in the narrow enumeration in the February Patent. Parliamentary
immunity was fully granted. The big catch in this law, however, was
embodied in Article 14, which gave cabinet and crown the power of tempo¬
rary emergency legislation when the Reichsrat was not assembled. This
legislation had to be submitted subsequently to parliament for approval,
but since the crown in case of adjournment or dissolution of parliament
could bring about the opportunity for the issuance of emegency decrees,
this proviso meant a serious impairment of the legislative process. It was
used frequently by subsequent ministries.
The second law, which offered a catalogue of the basic rights of the
citizens was liberal except for the article pertaining to national rights.
Yet it was impaired by the provision that the most important civil rights
could be temporarily and locally suspended.
The most important provision in this law (Statute 142 of 1867), article
19 dealing with the national problem, was taken with some changes from
the Kremsier draft (article 21). There, however, it was part of a more
comprehensive approach to the problem.
Art. 19
All ethnic groups (Vol\sstamme) in the state have equal rights and
every ethnic group has the inviolable right to preserve and cultivate its
nationality and language.
The equality of all languages customary in the crownlands (lan-
desubliche Sprachen) are recognized in schools, government agencies, and
public life.
In the lands inhabited by several ethnic groups, the public schools
shall be organized in a way that every ethnic group receives the necessary
funds for training in its own language without being compelled to learn
the second language of any land.
The liberalism of this famous article was more seeming than real.
According to the letter of the law the ethnic groups were not recognized
as corporate bodies with a right to representation. Only the interpretation
of the supreme Austrian courts later made halting steps in that direction.
98 These five constitutional laws comprised jointly what may be called the
Austrian Cisleithanian constitution, though the word “constitution” was not used.
This strange omission represented a kind of inofficial compromise of its own with
the crown.
National rights accrued only to the individual citizen, who had great
difficulties to assert them in public life. Furthermore, the equality of all
national languages, guaranteed in the second paragraph, was indirectly in¬
validated in the third. Only if every child would have been required to
learn two languages could real equality in this respect have been achieved.
As it were the Germans were neither required nor in general willing to
learn the languages of a smaller Slavic national group. The non-German
peoples, on the other hand, had no chance to get ahead in public life, un¬
less they learned German. Thus this article helped to enhance the
German position.
A third bill established an imperial court (Reichsgericht) to safe¬
guard the rights of the individual. Although this was a beneficial institu¬
tion, it could not acknowledge what would have required an express
statement by law: recognition of national groups as corporate bodies of
public law. The fourth bill, on judicial power, recognized the separation
of powers in the classical sense in a clear and satisfactory manner. But the
fifth bill, on executive power, revealed another important limitation of the
constitution. It provided for impeachment proceedings against the minis¬
ters of state in case of unconstitutional conduct in office. Yet the law did
not introduce the more important principle, that the cabinet as well as
individual ministers needed the confidence of the majority of parliament.
In other words the executive could be recalled only in the event of unlaw¬
ful conduct, but otherwise only the emperor’s confidence was required.
Ministers were appointed and requested to resign at his pleasure. They
could enter office and continue to hold it in the face of an expression of
nonconfidence by the majority of parliament. Since a legislative program
could not be put through without the support of the majority of parlia¬
ment, a cabinet would frequently resign if it did not enjoy the confidence
of parliament, even though it was not legally forced to do so. On the
other hand, by use of the emergency article 14 (law 141) in the bill on the
jurisdiction of the legislature, a cabinet could for some time govern
without the support of parliament and defy its will. The combination of
an article which allowed for emergency legislation if parliament was not
in session, and the absence of a requirement to resign if the cabinet did
not enjoy the confidence of parliament, was, apart from the insufficient
recognition of national rights, the most severe weakness of the new
Austrian constitution."
"There was a sixth constitutional law too which pertained to the common
Austrian-Hungarian institutions according to the compromise legislation. A similar,
though, as stated, not identical bill, was part of the Hungarian constitutional
Standstill, Declme, Stabilization 341
Yet with all their shortcomings, compounded by the undemocratic
franchise legislation referred to before, the December laws of 1867 stood
for a representative constitution superior to the sham legislation of 1860-
1861.100 In conjunction with the constitution of Hungary, not unlike the
English one a complex body of diverse laws and traditions from the Bulla
Aurea of 1222 to the constitutional laws of 1848 and 1867, representative
government through bicameral legislation, separation of powers, and an
independent judiciary were assured there too. An unsatisfactory franchise
legislation, worse in Hungary and remedied in Austria only in the course
of the years, existed in both countries as did other insufficiencies in regard
to the limitations of parliamentary power.101 Hungarian constitutional
life nevertheless rested on stronger foundations than the Austrian since
it could look back on a centuries-old historic tradition. Perhaps for that
same reason Austrian constitutional conditions, less strictly welded to the
past, might have been more amenable to evolutionary change. Yet in
neither state was the letter of constitutional law as important as its inter¬
pretation in political practice throughout half a century. Incongruity
between the laws on the statute books and their application in administra¬
tive practice existed in both states, though more flagrantly in Hungary.
In spite of all shortcomings, possibilities for peaceful evolution in the
direction of democratic government existed in both states. Francis Joseph
was crowned king of Hungary in the nineteenth year of his reign (June,
1867) as symbol of reconciliation with the Magyar nation. The first
joint ministers, headed by Beust as nominal imperial chancellor in charge
of foreign affairs, were appointed in December, 1867. This occurred
only days after the passage of the Austrian constitutional laws by the
support of a large German liberal majority. The Habsburg empire had
legislation. (Hungarian const, law XII.) See Gmeiner, Grundzuge der Verfassung
Ungarns, pp. 59-66; Gerald Stourzh, “Die Gleichberechtigung der Nationalitaten
und die osterreichische Dezemberverfassung,” in Peter Berger, ed., Der osterreich-
isch-ungarische Ausgleich von i86y: Vorgeschichte und Wir\ungen (Vienna,
1967), pp. 186-218.
100 Ulbrich, Das osterreichische Staatsrecht, pp. 138-233; Kann, Ndtionalitaten-
problem, II, 132-149. 334-339-
101 The Hungarian electoral law of 1848 was revised in 1879 and 1881 but re¬
mained, with particular regard to administrative practice, unsatisfactory from the
point of view of national and social justice. For a survey of the Hungarian con¬
stitutional status as of 1867, see Marczali, Ungarisches Verfassungsrecht, pp. 50-172
and Gmeiner, Grundzuge der Verfassung Ungarns, passim. See also Steinbach,
Franz Dea\, pp. 67-78; Laszlo Katus, “La Couche Dirigeante de la Politique
Hongroise et la Question de Nationalites a l’Lpoque du Compromis Austro-Hongrois
de 1867,” in Ludovit Holotik and Anton Valtuch, eds., Der osterreichisch-ungarische
Ausgleich (Bratislava, 1971), pp. 670-682.
entered the last phase of an uneasy existence. The outlook for its future
was sober, but there was no reason to abandon hope entirely.
F. Domestic affairs (1860-1879)
a) ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The political reconciliation with Hungary more than the terms of the
Compromise legislation itself accentuated the discrepancy of economic
interests between the dual states. In the 1850’$ Austrian policy, largely
under the influence of the grossdeutsch ideology of the minister von
Bruck,102 favored accommodation of tariffs with the German customs
union. This policy, based on the Austro-Prussian commercial treaty of
1853, worked well because Austrian industry could compete with Prussian
manufacture in some fields, particularly textiles, and several of the
major German states needed imports of Austrian textile products. In 1862,
however, Prussia granted France the most-favored-nation clause which
weakened the Austrian position. The improvement of the Prussian posi¬
tion in regard to the manufacturing of textiles and in the metallurgical,
chemical, and arms industry in the 1860’s made further arrangements
difficult. The political conflict sharpened between 1862 and 1867 and
abated gradually in the following years. It was aggravated in several
respects by the economic fallout of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of
1867. The Hungarian economic interests in the 1860’s and 1870’s, or more
correctly those of the big landowners, who represented them primarily,
were not much different from those of the neoabsolutist era, but now
demands of the Magyar establishment carried much greater weight than
previously. They strongly favored free trade, because the relatively modest
Hungarian industrial interests did not get tariff protection. This policy
was to change to some extent after the 1870’s. In the era under discussion
demands of industry had to yield to agrarian interests. A free-trade
policy facilitated the possibilities of Hungarian grain and cattle exports
abroad, in particular to Germany. Austrian industry, on the other hand,
in the face of strong German competition, felt to be in need of pro¬
tective traiffs, whereas Austrian agriculture which had to play second
string in their export policy, was not strong enough to balance industrial-
commercial requirements and to counterbalance Hungarian demands.
The Austro-Hungarian customs policy in the late 1860’s and the 1870’s
102 Minister of Commerce, November, 1848 to May, 1851; Minister of Finance,

March, 1855 to April, i860, when Bruck committed suicide because he was un¬
justly suspected of corruption. See also Richard Charmatz, Minister Freiherr von
Bruc\ (Leipzig, 1916), pp. 107-153.
therefore accommodated primarily the interests of the aristocratic owners
of big estates in Hungary, even though they collided to some degree with
Austrian industrial-commercial objectives. Not until the late 1870’s when
Germany and Russia moved in the direction of protective tariffs did
Austria-Hungary initiate a modest protective tariff policy in regard to
industrial goods: the so-called autonomous Austro-Hungarian customs
tariff of 1878, was enacted on January 1, 1879. Hungarian agrarian in¬
terests remained still prevalent but in consideration of Hungarian rather
than Austrian industrial progress not as markedly as before.
Austrian grain exports declined in the late 1860’s and 1870’s largely
because of powerful Hungarian competition but also because of the heavy
debts of the small- and middle-seized peasants incurred by Bach’s rural
emancipation policy. Owners of large estates were on the whole better
equipped to benefit from an agricultural amelioration policy. Of particu¬
lar significance was the strong advance in the sugar-beet industry, from
which raising of beef cattle benefited as well. The foundation of the
Austrian agricultural university in Vienna in 1872 and the elevation of
the veterinary academy in Vienna to university rank were likewise in¬
strumental to this effect. Nevertheless, Austrian agriculture, which still
employed about three-fifths of the working population, had not improved
its standing in comparison with Hungary and Germany.
The chief advancement took place in industry, commerce, communica¬
tions, and private banking. This rise in the face of a heavy public debt
of two and a half billion guilders was so rapid that it led to the great
stock market crash of May, 1873. This boom-and-bust cycle was also embar¬
rassing because it followed so soon the opening of the great Viennese
world exhibition in April, 1873. The corruption which the crash revealed,
compromised the minister of commerce Anton von Banhans, the director
general of the new Galician railway Viktor Ofenheim von Ponteuxin, and
the prominent German liberal parliamentary leader and former minister of
the interior Dr. Karl Giskra. The crash was not so much the consequence
of the action of individuals, as of overconfidence, resulting from blind
faith in the blessings of a free-trade policy and corresponding widespread
financial overcommitments and speculations. The crisis of industrial and
financial overexpansion in 1873 resulted in higher interest rates and
underemployment throughout the decade.103
Industrial progress during the period could compete with western
European and German developments in regard to standards, but not to
103 Oscar Jaszi, The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy (Chicago, 1929),
pp. 194-239.
volume. Within Austria, the lands of the Bohemian crown strengthened
their leading position in textile, machine and glass industries, and in
breweries. Metallurgical and chemical industries and mining expanded.
Textile, shoe, metallurgical industries and beet-sugar productions in
Moravia, mining and iron foundries in Silesia were significant. Two main
industrial areas were situated in the Alpine lands. One expanded in
Styria and Carinthia where iron foundries, lead mining, and metallurgi¬
cal industries went back to late medieval times. The others were in
Lower Austria including Vienna. Here too, as in Bohemia, chemical,
textile, and machine industries were important. In Vienna the well-estab¬
lished manufacturing of articles of high-class craftsmanship in leather-
goods, furniture, and china prospered. All these industries and crafts had
been in existence in the mercantilist era but now they were decidedly on
the upswing. Of considerable importance was also the operation of oil
wells in Galicia.
The railway net was expanded. The railroad across the Brenner pass
was opened in 1868. The Danube steamship company could increase its
activities and the Austrian Lloyd became a state-supported major com¬
pany in commercial navigation overseas. Remarkable as this development
was in absolute terms, it fell still somewhat behind industrial progress in
western countries. One chief reason for this were the limitations of the
domestic markets, especially the lower standards of living of the peasants
and the sometimes even lower ones of the industrial workers; the latter
did not gain a (restricted) right to establish trade unions and to strike
until 1869 and 1870.104
Hungary, where more than two-thirds of the population were engaged
in agricultural work, found an open market for its big grain surplus in
Austria, as noted above. Grain could also be imported to Germany before
the new protective tariff system came into force there. The beneficiaries
however, were mainly the owners of big and middle-sized estates. The
standards of the agricultural workers were even lower than those of their
counterparts in Austria.
Considering the poor state of industry in the era of suppression during
the neoabsolutist era, there was relatively more progress in Hungary than
104 Benedikt, Die wirtschaftliche Entwic\lung, pp. 34-121; Marz, Osterreichische

Industrie, pp. 95-212; Adolf Beer, Der Staatshaushalt Osterreich-Ungarns seit 1868
(Prague, 1881), pp. 64-398; Tremel, Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte Osterreichs,
pp. 319-372; Matis, Osterreichs Wirtschaft 1848-1918, pp. 128-341; Mayer-Kaindl-
Pirchegger, Geschichte und Kulturleben Osterreichs, III, 270-288; Robert A. Kann,
Werden und Zerjall des Habshurgerreiches (Graz-Cologne, i960), pp. 80-83, I2I_
124.
in Austria. Cotton and woolen goods, beet-sugar industry, breweries,

agricultural machinery, and above all flour milling by steam mills ad¬
vanced. Mining and iron foundries expanded further. The previously
poor railway net developed fast, though it was hampered by strategic
considerations and national rivalries with Austria. Railway routes were
traced as far as possible from the Austrian borders. In view of the joint
defense system this made little sense; the Hungarian veto against the
construction of a badly needed railway from Austrian Dalmatia105 to
Zagreb (Agram), and Budapest was even more absurd. The Croatians
in both states of the dual monarchy were thus equally unjustly punished.
Yet the blow aimed at the economic development of an Austrian crown-
land with predominantly Croatian population, in a wider sense hurt also
Austro-Hungarian economic development as a whole, particularly com¬
mercial shipping. Despite such vagaries of a nationalist economy, Hun¬
garian industrial production increased and the balance of trade in the
period under discussion became active.
In relative terms, economic progress in Hungary, freed from the chains
of neoabsolutism, was greater than in Austria. From the point of view of
distribution of the national wealth, conditions remained even more un¬
satisfactory than in the western half of the empire.106
b) EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL PARTY LIFE AND AGGRAVATION OF THE
PROBLEM OF NATIONALISM
The introduction of representative constitutional government in both

states, deficient though it was, brought about the evolution of a political
party life, which despite much ensuing conflict injected a wholesome
pluralistic feature into public life. To be sure the beneficial aspects of
these innovations were partly offset by the fact that Austrian political
institutions never quite succeeded in establishing permanent party struc¬
tures across common social and cultural interests of the Austrian peoples
rather than by national affiliation. This national affiliation remained the
rallying force around which national organizations developed. Even the
105 Claimed by Hungary as historically a part of the triune kingdom of Croatia-
Slavonia-Dalmatia.
106 Laszlo Katus, “Economic Growth in Hungary during the Age of Dualism,” in
Ervin Pamlenyi, ed., Social Economic Research in the History of East Central
Europe (Budapest, 1970), pp. 35-127; Alexander von Matlekovits, Das Konigreich
Ungarn vol\swirtschaftlich und statistisch dargestellt, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1910), see
I, 186-206, II, 1-340, 455-498; Kann, Wcrden und Zerfall des Habsburgerreiches,
pp. 83-88, 124-135; Peter Hanak, “Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy:
Preponderance or Dependency?” in Austrian History Yearbook, III: 1 (1969), 266-
284. Guillaume Vautier, La Hongrie Economique (Paris, 1893), pp. 55-483 passim.
Social Democrats, by definition fully international, succumbed in the end
to the pressure of national separatism. If this problem did not seem to
exist in Hungary, the reason was only that as late as 1914 the Magyars
who (exclusive of Croatia) represented 54 percent of the population, held
405 parliamentary seats, all other national groups combined only 8 seats.107
A discussion of the development of parliamentary life in Austria is also
made difficult because names and composition of parliamentary clubs
changed repeatedly and these clubs frequently represented not adherents
of a common political philosophy but rather diverse groups bound to¬
gether by a mere solidarity of tactical interests. Only radical fringe groups
remained outside of these combinations. Moreover, only the electoral
reform of 1873 introduced direct elections of parliament; therefore, mem¬
bers up to that time were merely representatives of the anachronistic
estates diets which represented chiefly the interests of the big landowners,
the propertied upper middle and middle class, the Church, and a sprin¬
kling of the rural communities. Accordingly the parliamentary elections of
1870—actually still dietal elections—changed little. Even the electoral re¬
form of 1873, a progressive one under existing conditions, meant only
the extension of the franchise to a mere 6 percent of the adult male popu¬
lation, the overwhelming majority being still barred by stiff property
qualifications.
In these first direct elections, held in 1873 shortly after the great crash,
the Liberals—mostly Germans—retained their majority. This liberal so-
called Left comprising the German Liberals, the somewhat less moderate
Progressive Club, and some splinter groups, held about 160 seats, the big
estates owners, including a considerable number of Czechs, some 50 seats,
as did the Polish opposition on the Right. The German Clericals, Southern
Slavs, and Moravian Czechs controlled about 40 seats. Thus from a national
point of view most Slavs—with exception of the Ruthenian anti-Polish op¬
position—were on the Right. This coloration, however, indicated in no
way basic Slavic conservative preferences but merely the inequitable pecu¬
liarities of the franchise system. The electoral districts were drawn in a
107 This statement does not include the Croatian deputies in the Hungarian
parliament, who according to the terms of the Croatian autonomy participated as
delegates of the Croatian Sabor in the deliberations of the Hungarian parliament,
but only on matters of joint Hungarian-Croatian interests, as spelled out by law
(the Hungarian-Croatian Compromise of 1868). See also Branko M. Peselj, “Der
ungarisch-kroatische Ausgleich vom Jahre 1868,” in Peter Berger, ed., Der osterreich-
isch-ungarische Ausgleich von i86y (Vienna, 1967), pp. 169-185; Guldescu, in
Francis H. Eterovich and Christopher Spalatin, eds., Croatia, II, 47-50. Kann, Na-
tionalitatenproblem I, 131-132, 398.
Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 34.J
way that gave liberal majorities a chance only in predominantly urban
districts, whereas in the rural ones the big landowners were sure to gain
safe parliamentary seats. Only to the extent that the rural population was
in general more conservative than the urban one and the Slavs were more
strongly represented in the rural constituencies, can one perceive an ide¬
ological difference in the Slavic and German vote.
The elections of 1879 were held under the still noticeable long-range ef¬
fect of the crash of 1873 and the greater political involvement of the mid¬
dle and underprivileged classes of the Slavis peoples. They reduced the
German liberal majority to an association of parliamentary groups which
was about evenly balanced against the Slavic groups and the German
conservatives, altogether some 140 German Liberals and Progressives
against about 55 German Conservatives, roughly the same number of
Czech and Polish deputies, and some 40 members of parliament without
definite political affiliation. Most of them however, supported, the Slavic
deputies. They became now the core of a new majority. It was not to the
same degree conservative as their predecessors in the parliament of 1873.
In reviewing the whole period of parliamentary life from 1867 to 1879
the German Liberals (in 1881 organized as the so-called United Left) were
the real state party of Austria. The term Left as applied to them appears to
many interpreters as anachronistic, even absurd because the German Lib¬
erals represented largely industry, the chambers of commerce, and high
finance; their record on economic issues came often close to a laissez-faire
spirit, blind to many social problems of the time. However, these Liberals
represented also professional people, the well-educated urban middle and
upper middle class, largely the bureaucracy, and altogether the strata of
society that wanted to confine the Church to the religious sphere and im¬
proved Austrian education. A number of excellent men, including Rudolf
Brestel as minister of finance and Johann Nepomuk Berger, a lawyer and
likewise member of liberal cabinets, had begun their parliamentary career
in the Reichstag of Kremsier. Leopold v.Hasner, professor of economics
and subsequently prime minister, Julius v.Glaser, professor of criminal
law, and Joseph Unger, professor of civil law and a truly creative jurist, all
for some time cabinet members, were scholars as well as political advisers.
Eduard Suess the famous geologist became also parliamentary leader. In¬
deed, these intellectuals could give every parliamentary regime distinction,
although not all were fully representative of public opinion. Some of them,
particularly Eduard Herbst, the chief spokesman of the United Left,108
were also unduly doctrinaire, adherents of a rigid centralism where it
108 Professor of law and in the beginning of the liberal era minister of justice.
agreed with their German liberal political philosophy, and opposed to it
where national separatism suited the interests that elected them.
In this sense these Liberals advocated for instance the administrative
partition of Bohemia, where the Germans represented only a substantial
minority, into a Czech and German part while they were opposed to the
administrative division of Styria and Tyrol with their Slovene and Italian
majorities in the south of both crownlands. In these crownlands taken as a
whole the Germans held a majority and therefore looked at the problem
from a different angle. These German men of politics differed from the
men of St. Paul’s Assembly not in their convictions, but in the fact that
they were not confined to the empty role of orators but had the oppor-
tinuity to act as legislators and some as administrators. Altough their
outlook in national and social questions was limited, most German
Liberals in public life were men of integrity, who believed to act for the
common good, even where they acted just for the middle and upper mid¬
dle classes. Nevertheless their achievements must not be compared with
those of a more egalitarian future whose problems they did not under¬
stand, but with the conditions and failures of a past whose policies were
rejected except by those representing unwittingly narrow class interests.109
The gravest charge that could be made against the Liberals was that
they did not adequately represent the urban petty bourgeoisie, the peas¬
ants, or labor. Agriculture was to some extent represented by the conser¬
vative, clerical groups, although the interests of the big estates owners re¬
ceived first consideration. The urban petty bourgeoisie had some support
of national and so-called democratic splinter groups on the left wing of
the Liberals. It carried little political weight and secured appropriate po¬
litical representation only in the two following decades. Labor had no
parliamentary representation whatever. Parties, which stood for these in¬
terests did not rise until the 1880’s. A number of cultural organizations
and associations for the support of the sick and unemployed workers in
the large cities evolved, which were allowed to represent the completely
forgotten man, the blue-collar worker, but only in a strictly nonpolitical
manner. Police supervision of what was feared to become a revolutionary
movement was tight, and even in terms of the time after 1868 lawful
trade-union activities were harrassed. Furthermore the incipient labor
movement was in general still of a sectarian character and split between
109 Gustav Kolmer, Parlament und Verfassung in Osterreich, 8 vols. (Vienna,
1903-1914), see I, 253-403, II, passim; Georg Franz, Liberalismus (Munich, 1955),
PP- 13 1-220; Eduard Suess, Erinnerungen (Leipzig, 1916), pp. 164-310; Ernst von
Plener, Erinnerungen (Stuttgart, 1921), II, 1—143; Max Kulisch, Beitrdge zum
osterreichischen Parlamentsrecht (Leipzig, 1900), pp. 84-136.
demands for economic cooperatives, unionism, and somedmes rather paro¬
chial interests. All stressed primarily the needs for national organization
according to Lassalle’s ideas, whereas the supporters of international pro¬
grams were clearly in the minority. They were to win out in the not dis¬
tant future.110
Some labor organizations existed also among the Czechs, who next to
the Germans had the most stabilized political life among the Austrian
national groups. Here the Old Czechs, led by Palacky’s son-in-law Francis
Rieger, had stood for the Bohemian Staatsrecht, that is, the indivisibility
of the Bohemian lands as separate historical body under the Austrian
crown. These endeavors received a setback through the Compromise of
1867 and a new attempt for recognition in 1871 favored by the conserva¬
tive Hohenwart cabinet—to be discussed below—failed likewise. Thus the
Czechs were increasingly driven into opposition, and a new party move¬
ment, the Young Czechs, in a loose way in existence since the 1860’s gained
grounds gradually. These Young Czechs were not opposed to the Bohe¬
mian Staatsrecht. Like the Old Czechs they rejected an administrative par¬
tition of Bohemia, demanded by an arrogant German minority. Yet ac¬
cording to the Young Czechs the Old Czechs represented a party that
leaned too heavily on the support of the big landowners, mainly the Bohe¬
mian aristocracy and the princes of the Church. The Young Czechs
wanted a Czech national movement controlled by the interests of com¬
merce and industry, that is, mainly the urban middle class; support of the
peasantry should follow. By a policy of intermittent boycott of parliament
or diet and a national propaganda in towns but also rural communities
they contested the Old Czech leadership. The fact that Palacky himself,
the venerable leader of the Old Czechs, attended the Panslav Congress in
Moscow in 1867 and endorsed its program already indicated a gradual
shift to the idea of ethnic nationalism.111
The Poles gained more by cooperation with the imperial government
than the Czechs by opposition because imperial control in the distant
Carpathian provinces was more difficult to establish than in Bohemia and
Moravia; besides the interests of an economically feeble Ruthenian minor¬
ity could be surrendered to those of the Polish upper classes, whereas the
Liberals would never have agreed to a similar treatment of the German
minorities in Bohemia and Moravia. Futhermore, it was felt that a dis-
110 Herbert Steiner, Die Arbeiterbewegung Osterreichs 1867-1889 (Vienna, 1964),
pp. 19-144.
111 Kann, N'ationalitatenproblem, I, 174-187, 412-417; Joseph F. Zacek, “Palacky
and the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867,” in L. Holotik and A. Vantuch,
eds., Der osterreichisch-ungarische Ausgleich 1867 (Bratislava, 1967), pp. 555-573.
satisfied Polish population at the borders of Russia would endanger the
security of the empire. Hence the administration of Galicia was handed
over, by administrative decrees between 1867 and 1869 and also parlia¬
mentary legislation of 1868, to the three-fifths Polish majority. The
Ruthenians fared somewhat better only in the Bukovina with her relative
Ruthenian majority. Yet in Galicia the Polish language ruled supreme in
courts and schools, from grade level to universities; Government officials
from the lowest to the highest rank were mostly Poles, and only in com¬
munications with the ministries was German used. The Poles later sup¬
ported the conservative government in Vienna and were rewarded with
high positions in the central administration, even though the government
would have been justified to ask for the unconditional support of the
Polish big landowners and a gentry whose interests they represented con¬
cerning major issues. Yet the Poles, from the aristocratic governor Count
Goluchowski112 to the more moderate and in the days of Kremsier liberal
parliamentarians Francis Smolka (later speaker of parliament) and Flor-
ian Ziemialkowski (Polish minister without portfolio in various cabinets)
enjoyed strategic, geographic, and ethnic advantages, from which the
Czechs could not benefit.113 Even so, it was implicitly understood that the
Polish reconciliation with the empire would last only as long as no real
chance for the rebirth of a united Poland existed. Obviously the Polish
policy of the government did not please the Ruthenians. Their political
groups were represented by the formerly liberal national Young Ruthen¬
ians and the conservative Old Ruthenians. At the time of the revolution
both groups endorsed the Austrian empire idea and were frequently
referred to as the Tyrolians of the east, meaning the most faithful of the
faithful. Now the Young Ruthenians only thinly camouflaged the associa¬
tion of their interests with those of the Russian Ukrainians, while the
Old Ruthenians sympathized more openly with conservative Russians.114
The status of the Slovenes remained unsatisfactory. As long as their na¬
tionalism was primarily of a cultural nature they had enjoyed the patron¬
age of German liberalism. Now, when they demanded adequate political
112 For seventeen years governor of Galicia (1849-1859, 1866-1868, 1871-1875). See
also Stanislaw Estreicher in Cambridge History of Poland (Cambridge, 1951), II,
435 447
- *
113 Czechs, and particularly Poles, were frequently represented by the so-called
Landsmannschaftsminister (cabinet ministers without portfolio), whose sole assign¬
ment was to represent the specific interests of their respective national groups.
114 Kann, N ationalitatenproblem, I, 228-231, 329-330, 433-434, 470-471. See also
Krupnickyj, Geschichte der JJ\raine, pp. 254-261.
representation in Styria, and particularly in Carniola where they com¬

prised more than 90 percent of the population but held only one-third of
the seats in the diet, they found deaf ears. They continued to follow some
of their conservative clerical leaders but at the same time they began to
become increasingly interested in the idea of a Southern Slav political
union with Croats and Serbs in Austria and especially Hungary.115
The Croats, Serbs, and Roumanians in Austria were even more con¬
cerned with the fate of their conationals in Hungary than were the
Slovenes with the problem of Southern Slav unionism across the whole
Habsburg empire. The status of Austrian Southern Slavs and Rouman¬
ians left something to be desired, but it was superior to that of their
conationals in Hungary who were grossly discriminated against.
But since the majority of these nationalities within the Habsburg mon¬
archy lived in Hungary, satisfactory solutions could not be achieved within
the straitjacket of the Compromise. They had to be initiated in Hungary
and would subsequently have to affect conditions in Austria.116
The situation of the Italians resembled in some ways that of the Poles.
In the Trentino in south Tyrol, as well as in the Littoral it was fairly fav¬
orable. Even though the administrative separation of Italian and German
Tyrol was not achieved, language rights in the diet, courts, and schools
were liberal. In Trieste where the Italians had an absolute majority they
enjoyed far-reaching autonomy. In Istria, where they were outnumbered
by Croats as in Gorizia by Slovenes, they received preferential treatment.
The fear of Italian irredentism played a decisive part in the policies of the
Austrian government. Whereas the emperor could rely on the loyalty of
the Poles as long as the empire lasted, he could not rely on the Italians
despite Italy’s joining the Austro-German alliance in 1882. The Poles had
conationals in Russia and Prussia, but no Polish allied power existed. The
Austrian Italians, on the other hand, could be sure of the support of Italy.
This meant that Italian irredentism in its activities did not feel necessarily
bound to wait for the day of the Habsburg empire’s disintegration.117
In Hungary, Magyar Hungary that is, liberal predominance was even

more marked than in Austria, but even more than in Austria was it
115 Fran Zwitter, “The Slovenes and the Habsburg Monarchy,” in Austrian
History Yearbook, III:2 (1967), 170-175; see also Toussaint Hocevar, The Structure
of the Slovenian Economic Development 1848-1963 (New York, 1963), pp. 15-117
and Bogumil Vosnjak, A Bulwar\ against Germany (London, 1917), pp. 83-112.
116 Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, I, 254-257, 290-295, 303-305, 441, 455, 458.
117 Ibid., I, 268-270, 445-446.
focused on political objectives rather than on social issues. Actually the re¬
lationship to Austria was perceived as the foremost political problem. The
Andrassy cabinet in office from 1867 to 1871, when Prime Minister Count
Gyula Andrassy became joint Austro-Hungarian minister of foreign af¬
fairs, was backed by the immense authority of Francis Deak, even though
he was not a member of the cabinet. Deak and Joseph von Eotvos, the
minister of public instruction, could rightly be called genuine liberals in
more than in name. The Hungarian Nationality Law and the Hungar-
ian-Croatian Law of Compromise both of 1868, as intended, though not as
subsequently administered, show the influence of these men. One might
have wished that they had exercised it also in favor or urgently needed
agricultural reforms, but most liberals ignored agricultural problems. Re¬
luctant to deal with social problems, their attention was focused on the
legal interpretation of the relationship to Austria. Kossuth, then in exile in
Torino, denounced the Compromise as betrayal of the nation and stood
by the demands for the reestablishment of the Hungarian republic of 1849.
The emotional impact of his views was still powerful. The left-wing
liberals, later organized in the Independence Party (also called Party of
1848) 118 could not openly endorse the claims for reestablishment of the
revolutionary republic. They had to satisfy themselves with demands for
the termination of the Compromise; while they publicly accepted the mere
Personal Union, that is, recognition of the same ruler as emperor in Aus¬
tria and king in Hungary, they rejected any other constitutional bonds
between the two states. The Independence Party stood at least for one es¬
sential progressive measure; introduction of the secret vote in an electoral
system which by strict property qualifications and police supervision in
favor of the ruling Magyar classes was inferior even to the Austrian
franchise laws. But when in 1878 an aristocratic fronde under the leader¬
ship of Count Albert Apponyi accepted the separation program and
merged later with the Independence Party, the movement for franchise
reform lost its potentially socially progressive character. Heirs to political
leadership in Hungary became the so-called Resolution Party of 1861, in¬
fluenced by the ideas of enlightened conservatives of the reform era, like
Baron Siegmund Kemeny and Count Paul Somssich. A Calvinist noble¬
man, Kalman Tisza, assumed the leadership of this group, and in 1868 pre¬
sented a program that did not ask for outright abolition but for revision of
the Compromise, namely the establishment of a separate Hungarian army,
118 More correct would have been the name Party of 1849, but reference to 1849,
when the Hungarian republic was proclaimed, would have implied a renewed en¬
dorsement of treason against the monarchy.
an entirely separate budget, and separate currency and tariff systems. In
the elections of 1872 this party secured 116 parliamentary seats against 245
for the government party and 38 for the Party of 1848 on the Left. At this
time also the so-called Catholic People’s Party, a primarily antiliberal and
only nominally populist group, organized itself to the Right of the Deak
liberals. The position of the government became increasingly difficult be¬
tween a right wing that endorsed the Compromise fully and various
stronger liberal trends, which disapproved of it in one way or another.
The withdrawal of the aged Deak from politics made it clear that the
future belonged to the followers of Kalman Tisza, who were not saddled
with the Magyar concessions made in 1867, although they claimed full
credit for those granted by the crown at that time. In consequence of this
policy the merger of the government party with the Resolution Party took
place in 1875. This was actually the birth year of the Magyar-Hungarian
“liberal” machine system as it ruled supreme with short intervals until 1918.
Its leader and prime minister from 1875 to 1890 was Kalman Tisza, fre¬
quently referred to as the older Tisza to distinguish him from his more
eminent son Istvan. The Tisza regime stood for the prerogatives of Mag¬
yar nationalism and national intolerance, conservatism in agricultural
questions, industrial expansion, and liberalism in cultural affairs—as far as
it pertained to the Magyars. This socially and nationally equally inequita¬
ble but in its peculiar way successful regime was maintained by a re¬
stricted franchise system, backed by government-directed police power.119
The Hungarian-Croatian Compromise of 1868, which granted to the
Hungarian Croats a limited autonomy will be discussed under “govern¬
ment in Hungary.” At this point we will have to go back to the older
concept of a Southern Slav union under Catholic leadership, as it was
promoted by Kopitar in the pre-March era. This idea had little appeal to
the Serbs, and it could be revived only in a changed form under the
auspices of the commanding personality of Josip J. Strossmayer (1815-
1905) bishop of Djakovo, a maverick in politics as well as in ecclesiastic
questions as his protests against the papal infallibility dogma accepted at
the Vatican Council of 1870 proved. Strossmayer believed that at least a
cultural union of the Southern Slav peoples was feasible. In pursuit of this
objective he promoted, as noted, the establishment of a Southern Slav
academy (1868) and a university (1874), both in Zagreb (Agram). Stross¬
mayer supported also the idea that concessions in liturgical questions (pri¬
marily the wide recognition of the Old Slavonic Church language in Catho-
11{* Kosary, History of Hungary, pp. 282-298; Carlile A. Macartney, A Short

History of Hungary (Edinburg, 1961), pp. 171-184.
lie liturgy), could bring the Serbs at least closer to the Southern Slav union.
A third device was to work for linguistic assimilation, particularly be¬
tween Croats and Slovenes. Strossmayer’s endeavors corresponded to some
degree to those of the Croatian Liberal National Party, whereas the Croa¬
tian Rights Party under Ante Starcevic’s leadership stood for Croatian
separatism rather than Southern Slav unionism.
Politically Strossmayer was not successful. The time for linguistic union
had passed, neither could accommodation to the rites of the Greek Ortho¬
dox Church in the question of Church liturgy exercise great influence on
the course of nationalism in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Furthermore, the bishop stood for Croatian leadership in Southern Slav
affairs, though less directly than Starcevic. But since the Serbs, heretofore
still loosely affiliated with the Ottoman empire, did not gain their full in¬
dependence from the Turks until 1878, Croat-Serb rivalry was not yet a
major issue. In an ideological-cultural sense, however, Strossmayer fur¬
thered the union idea of the Southern Slav peoples substantly, though it
finally came about in a way different from that imagined by the colorful
bishop. Within the Habsburg empire this union idea was promoted first in
the form of trialism, a union of the Austrian and Hungarian Southern
Slavs as third major political entity within the Habsburg monarchy. This
union would have required an abrogation of the Compromise, but this
impractical scheme at least did not collide with the Habsburg empire idea.
Since it was not feasible Southern Slav nationalism deviated gradually
from the patterns of a Croatian-led trialistic idea within the empire to a
unionism under the leadership of those Southern Slav people whose major¬
ity lived outside the empire, the Serbs. Trends in that direction became
stronger after the Congress of Berlin of 1878.120
Before the Serb war of independence against the Turks, the Serbs played
only a minor role in the Habsburg empire. Their modest political weight
was one reason why Leopold I in the seventeenth century granted them
limited autonomous rights in Hungary. Still their political status remained
inferior to that of the Croats. That held true for Austrian-administered
Dalmatia as well as for Hungary. Even more important, the reincorpora¬
tion of the Vojvodina into Hungary in i860 was followed in 1872 by the
incorporation of the Military Frontier in Syrmia (Serbian Banat). In 1881
the last part of the Croatian Military Frontier was merged with Croatia.
Substantial Serb communities existed in all these terriories. Thus to some
12° Wendel, Der Kampf der Sudslawen, pp. 340-396; Guldescu in Eterovich and
Spalatin, eds., Croatia, II, 40-60. Kissling, Die Kroaten, pp. 62-71; Kann, Nation-
alitatenproblem, I, 254-260, 441-443.
extent the Serbs had to foot the bill of the Austro-Hungarian and of the
Hungarian-Croatian compromises. The new kingdom of Serbia would
probably eventually have become the leader of the Southern Slav national
movement in any case, but the governmental surrender of Serb national
rights to Magyars and Croats made this development practically a cer¬
tainty.121
In regard to the Hungarian Carpatho-Ruthenians, they lost the limited
national autonomy that they had enjoyed under the neoabsolutist regime
more as punishment of the Magyars than a rightful concession due to
them. Adolf Dobrjanskyi, a Carpatho-Ukrainian himself, was then ap¬
pointed governor of the four predominently Ruthenian Hungarian comi-
tats and advanced the cultural and to some extent political autonomy of
his people. The pending reconciliation of the crown with Hungary de¬
prived Dobrjanskyi in the early 1860’s of his position, and his people of
the further protection of their national rights. Almost equally unfortunate
were the Slovaks. But here, despite Magyar oppression and efforts to
bring about complete Magyarization, an outright program for national
autonomy within Hungary, more detailed than the demands of 1848, could
i be raised openly at a national congress in Turc Sv. Martin in 1861. This
helped to strengthen Slovak national consciousness in the face of continu-
i< ous pressure for Magyarization.122
Most striking was the sellout of Roumanian national rights. As corollary
to the October Diploma, the Vienna government promised restoration of
: the old Transylvanian constitution. In 1863, a new diet declared the union
with Hungary as void, and the Roumanians were at the same time finally
1 admitted as fourth Transylvanian nation of equal rights with Magyars,
Szekels, and Saxons. A separate Roumanian Orthodox Church was recog¬
nized also. In 1867, however, the diet was dissolved and a new one elected
with a flagrantly manufactured Magyar majority. It voted, as required, for
£ union with Hungary and thus voted itself out of existence. By 1868 the
reincorporation was in substance an accomplished fact. In 1876 the last
remainders of autonomy for the four nations weer rescinded. No Rou¬
manian deputy was represented in the Hungarian parliament before the
!121 Wayne S. Vucinic, “The Serbs in Austria-Hungary,” in Austrian History

Yearboo\, 111:2 (1967), 17-20, 24-25; Picot, Les Serbes de la Hongrie, pp. 218-342;
3 Ernest Denis, La Grande Serbie (Paris, 1915), pp. 138-160.
122 Ivan 2eguc, Die nationalpolitischen Bestrebungen der Karpatho-Ruthenen
\ 1848-1914 (Wiesbaden, 1965), pp. 74-81; Vaclav L. Benes, “The Slovaks in the
1 Habsburg Empire,” in Austrian History Yearboo\, III:2 (1967), 357-364; Rene
h Martel, La Ruthenie Subcarpathique (Paris, 1935); Kann, Nationalitatenproblem,
1 I, 281-283, 449-450.
J56 History of the Hubs burg Empire
1880’s and even afterward one Magyar vote in Transylvania weighed as
much as about twelve Roumanian votes. A society for Roumanian language
and literature led a harrassed existence. While the neighboring kingdom
of Roumania could do little to check the excesses of Magyar nationalism in
Transylvania, its existence helped to keep the Roumanian national spirit
alive.123
c) GOVERNMENT IN AUSTRIA
A survey of the legislative work during the first, on the whole liberal,
phase of Austrian constitutional government is impressive. After the resig¬
nation of Beust as Austrian prime minister in June, 1867, two brothers,
the princes Karl and Adolf Auersperg, the first prime minister from 1867
to 1868, the second from 1871 to 1879 guided Austrian parliament toward
considerable accomplishments. -The fact, that two enlightened high aristo¬
crats stood at the helm of the Austrian government during the main part
of that dramatic period, made it easier for crown and conservatives to
cooperate with the Auerspergs. This cooperation was not always forth¬
coming, however, and the liberal era of the so-called citizens’ ministries
was interrupted by two attempts to install federalist conservative regimes,
the first under the Polish Count Alfred Potocki from April, 1870, to Feb¬
ruary, 1871, the second under his successor, the Austro-German aristocrat
Count Siegmund Hohenwart until October, 1871. Mention should also be
made that during this whole period the man of the emperor’s pronounced
personal confidence, Count Edward Taaffe, a conservative, was twice
(1867 and 1869-1870) provisional prime minister, as were two able liberal
parliamentarians, Professor Leopold von Hasner in 1870 and Dr. Karl von
Stremayr in 1879. Fluctuating majorities, Slav federalist opposition, some¬
times even boycott of parliamentary proceedings, and finally dissension
among the German liberals themselves, were responsible for the political
wearing out of administrative-parliamentary leaders. The chief merit for
the liberal legislation belonged not so much to the prime ministers, as the
ministers in charge of individual departments, such as Josef von Lasser
for the interior, Professor Julius von Glaser (minister of justice), Ignaz
von Plener (commerce),124 Brestel (finances), and Hasner and Stremayr,
who were more efficient as ministers of public instruction and religious
affairs than as prime ministers.
123 Miron Constantinescu, Etudes d’Histoire Transylvaine (Bucarest, 1970), pp.

9-37; Carlile H. Macartney, Hungary and her Successors (London, 1937), pp. 251-
275.
124 From i860 to 1865 minister of finance.
Matters of education and the separation of education from Church con¬

trol stood in the foreground of interest for a liberal cabinet. The so-called
three May laws in 1868, passed against strong clerical-conservative opposi¬
tion, established secular jurisdiction in marriage questions and the prin¬
ciple of secular control of education. This doctrine was specified in the
general law on elementary and general public education of May, 1869
(Reichsvol\sschulgesetz). It spelled out the secular structure of the educa¬
tional system on the grade and public high-school level (Burgerschule).
The law guaranteed in most crownlands state-controlled compulsory edu¬
cation; the influence of the clergy was restricted to religious instruction.
Hardly any law passed by an Austrian parliament has been so heavily
contested through the years, hardly another one was as beneficial for all
strata of the population, not excluding the clergy, whose previously con¬
troversial position in public life appeared now somewhat eased.
The third of the three May laws dealt in principle with the legal equal¬
ity of all denominations and the permissible—but still restricted—possi¬
bilities of interdenominational marriage. The Concordat of 1855 was
severely undermined by this legislation and in August, 1870, it was termi¬
nated. The proclamation of papal infallibility at the Vatican Council, only
weeks before the Austrian legislative action, had strengthened the forces
opposed to the Concordat.
Finally a set of new May laws, passed in 1874, recognized limited gov¬
ernment control of the judicial status of the Church, and some supervision
of Church income and monastic administration. Absolute legal, let alone
social, equality of all denominations still did not exist: the Catholic Church
had access to income from governmental funds, not open to other de¬
nominations. Nevertheless the position of the Church in her external re¬
lations was weakened in comparison with her status before 1868, and there
were probably more citizens, who believed that liberalism had gone too far
than those who held that it had not gone far enough.125
Less controversial was the law on general conscription of December
1868, revised in 1889, which required three years of active military service
and nine further years in the reserve (Landwehr). The liberals passed
this unpopular bill with some hesitation.
The electoral reform of 1873, which established direct parliamentary
elections in lieu of what had amounted to dietal delegations, has been
mentioned. It clearly did not go far enough. Deputies were still elected
according to the curia system—big estates owners, chambers of trade and
126 Weinzierl-Fischer, Die osterreichischen Kon\ordate, pp. 99—111; Winter,

Revolution, Neoabsolutismus und Liberalismus, pp. 158-169.
35# History of the Habsburg Empire
commerce, towns and rural communities. In some respect the reform
simply meant actually the transfer of the curias from the diets into central
parliament. It was symptomatic for the inherent lack of social under¬
standing on the part of the liberals, that only few of them offered opposi¬
tion to these continued restrictions.126
In 1862 the parliament, elected on the basis of the February Patent, had
approved the promulgation of an Austrian commercial code, the only nota¬
ble joint Austrian-German judicial legislation, sponsored by the Con¬
federal Assembly in Frankfurt. In 1873 a new code of criminal procedure,
drafted by Glaser, the minister of justice, was introduced, which, like the
commercial code, is in essence still in force today. Only in comparison
with previous conditions could the new code be considered liberal. Inno¬
vations like jury trials, equality of status of defense and prosecuting at¬
torney in investigations, and so on were introduced but restricted by quali¬
fying clauses. The introduction in 1875 a court °f administration (Ver-
waltungsgerichtshof\ however, was without qualifications beneficial.
Although the accomplishments of the liberal administration were lim¬
ited by the narrow social outlook of the regime, they were superior to the
course of the conservative federalists, who were in power in 1870-1871.
Whereas the liberals tried to take care at least of the interests of the urban
middle class as they saw them, the federalists considered mainly agricul¬
tural demands from the point of view of the big estates owners. The cab¬
inet Potocky had vainly tried to make its peace with the Old Czechs, who
resented the Compromise which had left them in the cold. They either
vehemently opposed the liberal legislation or boycotted parliament alto¬
gether. On many issues they were supported by the Polish parliamentary
club and the German clerical conservatives in the provinces.
Count Hohenwart, appointed prime minister in February, 1871, made
an effort, to come to terms with the Czechs and thereby with Slav and
even German conservatism altogether. After cumbersome and protracted
negotiations with the Old Czech leaders the cabinet introduced several
bills, drafted in cooperation with the Bohemian diet. The so-called Funda¬
mental Articles were to establish a general diet of the three lands of the
Bohemian crown (Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia). Bohemian deputies
would no longer be regular members of an Austrian parliament, but
merely participate in a Congress of dietal delegates. This arrangement
would have approximated the institution of the Austro-Hungarian Delega¬
tions. In economic questions far-reaching autonomy was to be granted to
126Kolmer, Parlament und Verjassung, II, 244-284; Kulisch, Beitrage zum

osterreichischen Parlamentsrecht, pp. 70-136.,
Z Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 359
i the Bohemian administration, to be put now under the jurisdiction of the

Bohemian Court Chancery of old rather than under the Ministry of the
Interior, as the other crownlands. The validity of the Compromise was
nominally recognized, although the special status of the Bohemian lands
contradicted the spirit of the Compromise legislation as well as that of the
professed equality of status of the Austrian Cisleithanian peoples as stated
in the December legislation in 1867.
The Fundamental Articles were accompanied by the draft of a notable
nationality law for Bohemia and Moravia. Without agreeing to the Ger¬
man demand for the administrative partition of Bohemia, it provided for
the establishment of nationally homogeneous administrative districts. It
put the Czech language almost fully on a par with German, each language
to be recognized as official in any district where it was the native language
of at least a fifth of the population. The draft met also a Czech demand
for the command of both languages, Czech and German, as requirement
for the appointment of government officials. Separate cultural budgets for
both national groups were provided and the diet was to consist of two na¬
tional curias. The nationality law was controversial in some respects, but
provided a reasonable compromise between the Czech and German view¬
point, at least concerning the partition issue. The proposed language re¬
forms were constructive. The fact that this bill was heavily criticized by
leaders of both national groups does not speak against its reasonableness.
Neither was bilateral opposition the main cause why Hohenwart’s pro¬
gram went down to defeat, Fundamental Articles and all.
Chief cause for this failure was the opposition by the Hungarian prime
minister, Count Andrassy, who saw acceptance of the Fundamental Arti¬
cles as a first step toward the federalization of the empire. This might have
eventually led to the scrapping of the dualistic system under Magyar and
German leadership. Equally important were perhaps reasons of foreign
policy—a gentle warning by the German emperor that he would not like
to be put in a position where he had to listen to the complaints of a Ger¬
man irredenta in Austria, whose predominance seemed to be threatened
by acceptance of the Fundamental Articles. This hint was clear enough,
and after the experience of 1866 also painful. The Czechs saw no reason to
accept the Nationality Law without the Fundamental Articles and thus
the crown was forced to withdraw the whole legislation.
The emperor, after this brief play with the concepts of historic tradi¬
tional federalism, slightly anachronistic as it was already, returned to the
spirit of the Compromise, with its built-in German-Magyar condominium.
Beust, the adamant opponent of the Fundamental Articles, was thrown to
g6o History of the Hahsburg Empire
the wolves, but the Czechs had little opportunity to rejoice. His successor
became Andrassy himself who unlike Beust was not encumbered with
reminiscences of an anti-Prussian policy as Saxon prime minister in 1866.
Yet understanding with Germany after the victories in the war of 1870-
1871 was doubly necessary. A distinguished Magyar like Count Andrassy,
who subscribed to a pro-German policy, was the man to bring full
reconciliation about. The sacrificial lambs were the Czechs; they had been
promised favorable consideration of their demands, which were now re¬
pudiated. This experience was one of the main reasons why the leadership
of Czech policy shifted gradually from the conservative Old Czechs to the
radical Young Czechs. The national conflict, not only in the Bohemian
lands, had moved again to a higher level.127
The fall of the unlucky Hohenwart after a brief intermediate regime of
a few weeks was followed by appointment of the cabinet of Prince
Adolf Auersperg, which put much constructive legislation on the statute
books. At least in one respect the demise of the Hohenwart cabinet was to
be regretted. With the prime minister went also his minister of commerce,
the Suabian professor of economics, Albert Schaffle, who was also the
prime minister’s adviser on problems of nationalism. Schaffle had the repu¬
tation of being antiliberal, and this supposed quality undoubtedly en¬
deared him to the archconservative Count Hohenwart. Yet he was anti¬
liberal only in the sense of an outdated Manchester liberalism. He pro¬
posed the transformation of the socially unrepresentative estates diets into
corporate bodies which should give adequate representation to peasants,
small business, crafts, and labor at the expense of the aristocratic land-
owners and big business. Schaffle may be criticized for perceiving these
changes only in the frame of corporate ideas. Nevertheless he had more
social understanding than his liberal adversaries. He had a better grasp
of the problems of nationalism too and hoped for a genuine compro¬
mise between all national groups in the Western part of the empire. If
that could be accomplished he had little doubt, Hungary would even¬
tually be forced to follow suit. For that reason he had to quit with
Hohenwart; he returned to Germany where he rounded out a distin¬
guished scholarly career.128
127 Munch, Bohmische Tragodie, pp. 345-363; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I,

177-185, 414-416.
128 Albert E. Schaffle, Aus meinem Leben, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1905), see I, 172-256,
II, i-iii. On the outcome of the crisis see also Friedrich Ferdinand Count Beust,
Aus drei viertel Jahrhunderten, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1887), I, 465-540. Friedrich
Prinz, “Die bohmischen Lander von 1848 bis 1914,” in Karl Bosl, ed., Handbuch der
Geschichte der bohmischen Lander (Stuttgart, 1967), III, 135-154.
Schaffle thus became a victim of the multi-national conflict, and the same
was true for the Auersperg cabinet. Despite the merits of Prince Adolf
Auersperg and some members of his cabinet the ministry was largely
responsible for its eventual downfall of long-lasting consequences. The
Auersperg cabinet had natural enemies in conservative clericals and con¬
servative aristocratic landowners, largely of Slavic nationality. It lost also
the decisive support of the crown in 1878, when it opposed the occupation
of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Such attitude would have been farsighted if it
had been based on the idea, that an expansion into the Balkans would
lead in the long run to a confrontation with Russia. The main argument
of the liberals, however, was different, namely that the occupation with
the acquisition of territories with Slavic population would endanger the
precarious leadership of the Germans in Austria. The over-all motivation
was only to a small part one of caution in foreign policy but above all
one of national arrogance. One would see too much wisdom in Emperor
Francis Joseph as ruler, in assuming that this was the reason why he ac¬
cepted Auersperg’s resignation. The emperor perceived in the German
liberal policy, which he did not favor anyway on conservative ideological
grounds, a stab-in-the-back attitude, in the face of what he believed to be
a chance of enhancing the empire’s shaken power position. He never
forgave the liberals for this. When the elections, held under the provi¬
sional cabinet Stremayr in summer of 1879, turned against the liberals—
some 140 liberals and progressives against about 160 German-Czech-
Polish conservatives—the emperor gladly turned over the government to
the conservative friend of his youth, Count Taaffe. His regime of four¬
teen years’ duration, the longest in Austrian history from the fall of
Metternich to 1918, was mainly based on German clerical conservative
and Czech and Polish conservative support. None of these groups opposed
the occupation. The Czechs and Poles endorsed it, because it would
strengthen the position of the Slavs in the empire. Furthermore, they as
well as the German conservative-clerical opposition now saw a chance to
terminate the rule of the hated liberal regime. There were still occa¬
sionally liberal members in Austrian cabinets, not even excluding that of
Taaffe himself; yet not only German liberalism but liberalism altogether,
seen as powerful ideology, had permanently disappeared from the Aus¬
trian political scene. This was the fault of the German liberals themselves,
but also it was a symptom of the times, whose new political trends moved
in the direction of political intolerance and prejudice. The liberal regime,
which had governed in Austria with short intermissions or almost twelve
years with fair success, became thus more the victim of the intolerance
of others than of its own limitations in regard to nationalist and social

issues. This was the tragedy of Austrian liberalism well beyond the
German orbit.129
d) GOVERNMENT IN HUNGARY
The liberal regime in Hungary, though even more unrepresentative

than its counterpart in Austria, introduced some valuable legislation un¬
der the leadership of the prime minister, Count Andrassy, and the pa¬
tronage of Francis Deak. In regard to the Hungarian nationality law of
1868, credit belongs chiefly to the minister of public instruction, Joseph
von Eotvos, one of the foremost students of the nationality problems of the
Habsburg monarchy, Eotvos believed that its solution rested in a federa¬
tion of the traditional historic entities on the top and an ethnic adminis¬
trative organization on the county and community levels. These ideas de¬
veloped in the writings of this enlightened man in the 1850’s could not be
materialized in the new Nationality law of 1868 in the face of rising
Magyar nationalism (Statute XLIV). The law recognized the right of
individuals to their own national language in Church, elementary and
intermediate schools, and intercourse with government agencies. It was
tied to the status of the individual and did not acknowledge the existence
of national groups as political bodies anchored in public law. Nevertheless
this statute should not be dismissed in comparison with Article 19 of the
Austrian constitutional law 142 of 1867. There the reference to Stdmme—
absent in the Hungarian legislation—implied recognition of national
groups only in a very superficial manner. The main difference between
the Austrian and Hungarian nationality legislation was rooted in admin¬
istrative and judicial practice, not in the letter of the law. The Austrian
practice, particularly the interpretation by the Reichsgericht and adminis¬
trative court was admittedly far more liberal than the methods used by the
Hungarian administration, enforced lamely by Hungarian courts. Had
Eotvos’ and Deak’s spirit prevailed, the Hungarian treatment of na¬
tional groups might not have been inferior to that administered by the
Austrian authorities. As it were, the lesser successors of these two men
interpreted the concept of equality of all members of the Hungarian
nation as meaning that the non-Magyar national groups in Hungary
129 On the liberal legislative record see Kolmer, Parlament und Verfassung, I,
253-403, II passim; Richard Charmatz, Osterreichs innere Geschichte von 1848-
iqoy, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1909-1911), see I, 84-140, II, 1-10; on the liberal policy con¬
cerning the occupation of Bosnia-Hercegovina see Plener, Erinnerungen, I, pp. 90-
r43*
it Standstill, Decline, Stabilization 363
would be treated as equal only if they assimilated, indeed merged, with
Magyarism. Magyar national policy was free from racism in so far as it
i did not base the unequal treatment of minorities on ethnic ancestry but
(T< on the demand to give up national identification and accept uncondi¬
•
tional conversion to Magyarism. Within these terms the system was

V willing to recognize equality of all Hungarian citizens, without further
C>: consideration of ethnic-racial origin. That this principle, too, violated the
IF right of individuals to preserve their national character, particularly if
enforced by discrimination and police chicanery, was neither understood
by the great Kossuth nor by his small pseudo-liberal successors.130
The second major national law passed in this era was the Hungarian-
Croatian Compromise (Statute XXX) of the same year. Like the Austro-
Hungarian Compromise, it represented the union between two states,
who had the ruler and some institutions in common. Unlike the Com¬
promise of 1867 it was not a real union between equals but officially be¬
tween unequal states. As for affairs common to Austria and Hungary,
Croatia was represented in the Hungarian delegation. As for common
Hungarian-Croatian agenda originally,131 after the incorporation of the
Military Frontier, forty Croatian deputies represented the historic land
in the deliberations and the voting of the Hungarian parliament when¬
ever joint agenda were at issue. In either case they could be outvoted by
the Magyar majority. Common Hungarian-Croatian affairs—in effect,
affairs, where the influence of the Magyar majority proved decisive—in¬
i cluded taxation, general conscription, defense, commercial treaties, and
> communications. The autonomy of Croatia was restricted to general in¬
ternal administration, education, and judicial affairs. Even here the status
» of the Croatian chief executive, the banus in Zagreb, amounted to a
major restriction of Croatia’s autonomy. Although he was responsible to
the Croatian Sabor, his appointment by the king required approval of
the Hungarian parliament. Usually, therefore, the banus was a Magyar,
sometimes of nationalistic tendencies. Frequently he played the divide-
and-conquer game between Croats and Serbs in Croatia-Slavonia. Thus
the Croatian autonomy was limited.132 Still, the extension of such
130 Guldescu in Eterovich and Spalatin, eds., Crotia, II, 47-60; Macartney, A
Short History of Hungary, pp. 171-187; Kann, N ationalitatenproblem, I, 128-135,
396-400. On Eotvos see ibid, II, 101-107, 327-329; Johann Weber, Eotvos und die
ungarische Nationalitatenfrage (Munich, 1966), pp. 135-149. On Deak see Stein-
bach, Franz Dea\, pp. 29-34.
131 Croatia was also represented by several members in the Upper House.
132 Bogdan Krizman, “The Croatians in the Habsburg Monarchy in the 19th
Century,” in Austrian History Yearbook^, 111:2 (1967), 128-133; Kosary, History of
autonomy to the other non-Magyar groups would have gone a long way
to calm the national conflict in Hungary.
Other legislation passed during the Andrassy-Deak era was less con¬
troversial. A Hungarian educational law of 1868 was in many ways
similar to the Austrian Reichsvolksschulgesetz of 1869. The same simi¬
larities are reflected in the Austrian Wehrgesetz (defense law) of 1868
(revised 1889) and the Hungarian defense legislation of the same year
including the establishment of a Hungarian national militia (the
Honveds). In 1869 administration and justice were finally separated in
Hungary.
With the replacement of Andrassy as prime minister by Count Melchior
Lonyai in 1871, the liberal regime in Hungary became more shady in
character. Neither Lonyai nor his successors up to the appointment of
Kalman Tisza had the authority of Andrassy, the revered revolutionary
of 1848. Nor did they have the backing of the great old man of Hun¬
garian politics, Francis Deak. He gradually withdrew from the political
scene and died in 1876. The boom-and-bust spirit with its inevitable by¬
product of corruption, which ended in Austria with the great crash of
1873, existed also in Hungary. The liberals lost in prestige. Except for the
enactment of the new code of criminal law in 1878 not much construc¬
tive legislation was passed between the resignation of Andrassy as
Hungarian prime minister and the year 1879. Tisza, however, managed
to steer a middle course between Independents to the left who repudiated
the Compromise, revisionists in the center, who wanted to change it, and
clerical conservatives to the right, who fully endorsed it.
After the death of Deak and Eotvos in the 1870’$ all these groups were
implicitly agreed on a policy of intransigent Magyar nationalism in a
semiliberal dressing. Unlike conditions in Austria there existed, however,
no political groups on the Right strong enough to replace the liberal
regime. Tisza’s economic and social policy had taken the wind out of the
sails of Hungarian conservatism. As for the Left, the Independence party
of 1848-1849 represented only a relatively small minority. Yet Tisza by
making skillful use of the loud but insignificant opposition to the right
and left, could pretend that his policy represented a concession to the
king-emperor and the Austrian government. In reality, however, the
Compromise in military, financial, and above all foreign affairs fully pro-
Hungary, pp. 288-290; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 131-132, 398; Peselj, “Der

ungarisch-kroatische Ausgleich vom Jahre 1868,” in P. Berger, ed., pp. 169-185. On
the Hungarian-Croatian Compromise see also note 107 of this chapter.
tected the political and economic interests of the peculiar brand of Magyar
national liberalism.133
G. THE END OF AN ERA
In Austria, the year 1879 marked the fall of the liberals from power.
No similar change occurred in Hungary, although by this time the false
front of Magyar liberalism was fully exposed. Notwithstanding its grave
shortcomings it had to be taken seriously under Andrassy, Deak, and
Eotvos. The same was no longer true under Kalman Tisza. Mass move¬
ments comparable with those of Christian Socials, the Socialists, to a
point even the Pan-Germans, almong the Austro-Germans, and the
Young Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia did not yet exist in Hungary.
On a more limited scale, however, Croatian national parties had begun to
develop. Furthermore, an active nationalism in the lands of the Bohemian
crown, in Serbia, and Roumania made it clear that Slovak nationalism in
upper Hungary, Roumanian nationalism in Transylvania, and Serb na¬
tionalism in the Banat, the Vojvodina, and Croatia could not be ignored.
I Concerning foreign affairs the conclusion of the Dual Alliance of 1879

between Austria and Germany made it clear that the built-in German-
Magyar privileged status established by the Compromise of 1867 was now
protected in international relations as well. The Austro-German alliance
was dependent on German-Magyar leadership in the Habsburg mon¬
archy. At the same time the alliance meant that Austria-Hungary was
shielded from the threat of Panslavism under tsarist police auspices.
If not checked by the Dual Alliance it might have led, as noted before, to
the early dissolution of the empire, from which tsarist Russia presumably
would have profited most. Germany in a Pan-German and Prussian
militaristic spirit could have taken the rest.
This danger appeared to be removed now. Germany could rely on
Austro-German-Magyar leadership in the Habsburg empire. It did not
have to rule in Austria, it could guide the empire by way of the more or
less camouflaged predominance of these two national groups. This meant
further that constitutional government in the dual monarchy would be
secured after a fashion, though, from the point of national and social
justice, a highly imperfect fashion. As it were, Austria-Hungary had the
chance of peaceful constitutional and social development provided that
fairly adequate national and above all social reforms would be introduced.
These chances were largely missed.
133 Kosary, History of Hungary, pp. 182-304; Hanak in E. Pamlenyi, ed., VII,
379-390-
Finally, as will be discussed in Chapter VII, the end of the eighteen
seventies also brought the decline of pseudoclassic epigone styles in
literature, architecture, painting, sculpture, and music. The first traces of
naturalism, realism, and functionalism had begun to evolve. An era came
to its end, a new one had not yet taken its place, but it began to take
shape.
CHAPTER VII
Cultural trends from Late Enlightenment
to Liberalism (From mid-eighteenth

century to the i86o’s)
Basic cultural trends are all-pervasive in time and place and therefore
more or less simultaneous. They penetrate any country, any nation from
various directions. The degree of intensity with which new ideas strike
various national groups depends on the political and social status of such
groups within a country. Exposure to new ideas may leave clearer traces
within better-educated strata than within underprivileged ones. This does
not mean that greater opportunities offered to one group will necessarily
lead to greater or more lasting results. Many factors such as the spread of
new ideas into a broader or narrower hinterland, the association with
other cultural orbits, degrees of affinity to new mores and old traditions,
problems of communications, above all the degree of linguistic develop¬
ment, determine the results. One factor cannot be overstated, namely the
difference, and that means the different value judgments, in regard to
various cultures. We cannot measure the quality of cultural achievements.
We can only judge the intensity of their impact within an environment.
The first main trend in Austrian intellectual history during the period
under discussion was pragmatic enlightened reformism under Maria
Theresa. After her death under Joseph II it changed into more rigid
concepts. The turn of Josephinism to the right under Emperor Francis
makes a distinction from genuine conservatism in theory rather difficult.
In practice the gradual reversal of the reform policy is easier to see. Cen-
tralistic endeavors in the Josephin sense continued but they were in-
367
creasingly to serve reactionary designs. In other words conservatism in
Austria was largely pragmatic in nature. It changed its character in
Austrian intellectual history under the influence of romanticism into a
movement of far greater philosophical depth. Romanticism in Austria
became a highly original movement in its own right. Intellectual endea¬
vors in the Habsburg realms after the shortlived Renaissance era had,
apart from the philosophy of the Church, existed mainly on the aesthetic
side of general cultural developments in music and the fine arts. The
purely intellectual contribution of the Austrian Enlightenment was
limited. German classicism in literature and philosophy was a powerful
stimulating force but its impact headed almost exclusively from outside.
Romanticism, on the other hand, in particular in its historical proclivities,
in a country deeply conscious of its traditions, developed there into a
more original movement with wider social and political implications.
One factor strengthened its influence further: the renaissance of the
Slavic languages and literatures. The word “renaissance” is correct here
because a rebirth or reconstruction of past values had occurred. It was, of
course, not a revival of attainment in ancient history but of medieval
history. Hence we face the cultivation of folklore, sagas, fairy tales, history
of the Middle Ages, in other words everything that is dear to the romantic
spirit. This was a genuine movement not only among the Slavs but also
the Germans, Magyars, and the Latin peoples, who all returned to the
dreams of the past, disillusioned by a partly true and partly seeming
failure of enlightened rationalism and frustrated reforms.
Still the core of the new tendencies was centered in the Slavic peoples
and here these trends changed first their character. Romanticism repre¬
sented an important aspect of the movement and as such supplied the
frame of the Slavic renaissance. But another tendency was the core of this
renaissance: the national revolution of the Slavic peoples to come into
their own rights. This was in essence a liberal revolution which strove
for nationhood, inspired by the achievements of the French Revolution.
Again it blended with a stream of similar endeavors among Germans,
Magyars, and Latins. Neither the disappointments nor the stimuli of the
Enlightenment were forgotten. The political-social demands were on the
rise, the traditional historic, largely conservative ones merged with them,
but their impact in the new combinations was on the decline. Liberalism
was the product of the unequal mixture. It was clear-cut as far as the
rights and duties of individual man were concerned. It was contradictory,
as was romanticism, in its social aspects. With the advance of urbanization
From Late Enlightenment to Liberalism 369
and technology these contradictions were more markedly felt. In literature

and philosophy a new realism came in its own, but one which saw the
objectives of and limits to the desired expansion of the rights of political
man in the maintenance of a social order by means of minor, corrective
but not basic changes.
We have thus far referred to changes in intellectual history, which
means in our context primarily literature and philosophy. To some extent
these observations hold true also for music, theatre, the fine arts, and
other cultural activities. However, their development is to a much higher
degree dependent on external conditions than purely literary efforts. Con¬
sequently they are more strongly bound by tradition than intellectual
changes. Major exceptions in regard to the greatest achievements not¬
withstanding, these disciplines were still strongly penetrated by the spirit
of the Baroque and Rococo, at a time when in general in literature and
philosophy the Enlightenment had become dominant. Subsequently when
Biedermeier, the Austrian bourgeois form of classicism, prevailed in the
formative arts, Romanticism became prevalent in the humanities. In fact,
the fine arts never developed an original romantic style, but turned to
eclectic patterns of historic styles. Only by the end of the nineteenth
century, after the liberal era had passed, did the fine arts create again
original patterns of their own. In music, such original patterns had
existed during the romantic era and continued to exist thereafter.
These observations are not based on value judgments. Cultural activities
are responsive to intellectual changes but they do not develop at the
speed of abstract mental processes. Out of this incongruity evolves the
pluralistic character of a colorful civilization with many facets. Yet with
whatever branch of cultural activities we deal in this survey, we are con¬
cerned with trends illustrated by the endeavors of men and not with a roll
call of the great men and their achievements in Austrian cultural history.
Within the very limited range of personalities which can be referred to
here a more illustrious name may have to yield to a lesser one if the latter
characterizes better prevailing trends.
We will consider the relationship of individuals to the Habsburg em¬
pire and within the empire to individual national groups. Personalities
born within the empire will be discussed, as well as immigrants from other
countries if their residence in Habsburg lands made a cultural contribu¬
tion. In both cases, self-identification of an individual with a national
orbit rather than the language used by him will be the chief determining
factor for inclusion.
A. The Austro-German orbit
a) HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES, NATURAL SCIENCES
It is not so much the privileged position which the Germans enjoyed

exclusively until 1867 and in a more limited sense until 1918 but the
extent of the German-language territory which secured them a leading
position in so many cultural fields. Furthermore the principles of im¬
perial, aristocratic, and ecclesiastic patronage favored the Germans in the
fine arts and music. To the extent to which scholarship was concentrated
in the universities, learned societies, and ecclesiastic institutions of higher
learning, those close to the capital, Vienna, were favored by greater gov¬
ernmental support than educational establishments in other areas. This
was also true for support of scholarly activities in the less formal setting
of grants given to individuals by the sovereign or by wealthy aristocrats.
The universities did not assume undisputed leadership in higher educa¬
tion until the second half of the nineteenth century. Before that they had
been frequently, though meagerly, supported by various kinds of patron¬
age outside the academic domain.
With the rise of the non-German national groups to a more widely
recognized cultural life in all spheres of the public domain in the nine¬
teenth century, the German advantage diminished. The field, where
German predominance was least obvious, is that of belles lettres, in
which the greatness of national achievements was largely independent of
a patronage system. The same could not be said for the humanities in a
more restrictive sense.
To take a few examples. The humanities in the late eighteenth century
made little progress because of censorship in the Maria Theresan era and
the utilititarian philosophy of the Josephin regime.1 In the postwar period
of the Franciscan reign three unorthodox theologians, Bernhard Bolzano,
Anton Gunther, and M. J. Fesl had only a limited influence on the edu¬
cation of academic youth. Bolzano, an enlightened rationalist, was dis¬
missed from his chair at the University of Prague. Of his students,
M. }. Fesl, who taught at the seminary in Leitmeritz in northern Bo¬
hemia, was likewise a professed rationalist, however, with an affinity to
Leibniz’s not entirely rationalistic theory of the monads. The Church
placed his writings on the index and he himself was confined to a
monastery. Gunther, the most original of this trio of priestly philosophers,
1 Robert A. Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History (2nd ed. New York,
1973) > PP- i46~258.
From Late Enlightenment to Liberalism gyi
never obtained a teaching position. His philosophy, a strange combination
of scholasticism with Cartesianism, was likewise ostracized by the Church,
although Gunther escaped Fesl’s fate through revocation of his doctrines.2
He had been influenced by the Romantic Catholic intellectuals from Ger¬
many, such as Zacharias Werner, the former playwright, and Johann
Emanuel Veith. Both had become ecclesiastic converts, the one from
Protestantism, the other from Judaism. Both were much esteemed as
preachers by a somewhat decadent society, attracted by their unusual
background. The literary historian, aesthetic philosopher, and literary
critic, Friedrich v. Schlegel, married to the daughter of Moses Mendels¬
sohn, was for a time employed in the state chancery like Metternich’s
aides Friedrich von Gentz and Adam Muller. The Protestant Gentz and
the circle of Catholic intellectuals, mostly converts, roughly between 1810
and 1830 added lustre to the sober atmosphere of Franciscan government.
Yet several of these eminent men, who came from Germany and were
attracted by the charming way of life of the Austrian capital, returned,
disillusioned by its dreary intellectual climate.3
The situation looked better in the nonpolitical sphere. Ernst von
Feuchtersleben, professor of medicine, but actually a student of the philos¬
ophical aspects of psychosomatic problems, taught unimpeded at the Uni¬
versity of Vienna. The Slavists, Batholomaus Kopitar, director of the
Court (National) Library in Vienna and Franz von Miklosic, both of
Slovene origin, made eminent contributions to comparative philology.
The latter remained active well into the second half of Francis Joseph’s
reign. Two great institutions of learning were established in the pre-
March era and under Neoabsolutism. In 1847 the Academy of Sciences
was organized, with a philosophic-historical section and a second one
dedicated to research in the natural sciences—belatedly in comparison
with similar institutions in other countries. In 1854 the Institute of Aus¬
trian Historical Research was founded; next to the Fcole des Chartes in
Paris it became the foremost school for training in the auxiliary historical
sciences. Its first director, Albert Jager, and Franz von Krones, an out¬
standing historiographer of Austrian history at the University of Graz,
should be mentioned here. In the 1820’s, Graz, like Innsbruck, was re-
2 See particularly Winter, Romantismus, Restauration und Fruhliberalismus im

dsterreichischen Vormarz, pp. 108-118, 139-144. See also Eduard and Maria Winter,
Domprediger Johann Emanuel Veith und Kardinal Friedrich Schwarzenberg: Der
Gunther Prozess in unveroflentlichten Briefen und A\ten (Vienna-Cologne, 1972),
passim and Eduard Winter ed., Der Bolzano Prozess (Berlin, 1944).
3 Winter, Romantismus, Restauration und Fruhliberalismus im dsterreichischen
Vormarz, pp. 132-138.
stored to full university rank, which both institutions had lost under
Joseph’s II policy of radical bugetary trimming.
Jager, Krones, and the conservative historian of the Austrian revolution
of 1848, Joseph A. von Helfert, properly belong in the Francisco-Josephin
era. Helfert was not a scholar but a high official in the Ministry of Educa¬
tion. One of Jager’s eminent successors as director of the Austrian His¬
torical Institute at the University of Vienna, Theodor von Sickel, spent
many years as director of the Austrian Historical Institute in Rome.4
In the social sciences the previously mentioned jurists and political
scientists, Joseph von Sonnenfels, Karl von Martini (eminent also as
philosopher of natural law), and Franz von Zeiller, the most creative of
the Austrian codifiers of civil law, divided their lifework between
academic duties and governmental consulting services. They were also
entrusted with the specific training of an elite civil service class in the
Theresianum. Zeiller’s as well as Gentz’s and Adam Muller’s main con¬
tributions were made in the Franciscan era. Gentz, apart from his role
as diplomat, was a pioneer theorist in international relations; he was a
sophisticated, though somewhat devious enlightened conservative. Adam
Muller was an original social philosopher, whose conservatism influenced
totalitarian theories of the future. The economist and social historian of
revolutionary and postrevolutionary French history, Lorenz von Stein,
professor at the University of Vienna in the early Francisco-Josephin era,
on the other hand, held a more moderate position with much under¬
standing for radical movements.6
In the sciences and applied sciences the late Enlightenment brought
only moderate progress. Worth mentioning are the contributions by the
botanist Nicolaus J. Jaquin, succeeded by his son Joseph F. at the Uni¬
versity of Vienna; another pair of father and son were Joseph J. von
Littrow and Karl L. von Littrow, both distinguished astronomers from
the Franciscan to the early Francisco-Josephin era. Important were also
the contributions of the military mathematician Georg von Vega, still in
the late Enlightenment. The importance of technology was recognized
by the establishment of the Polytechni\um in Graz in 1806 and the
4 Josef Nadler, Osterreichische Literaturgeschichte (Linz, 1948), pp. 262 f.; Alfred
von Fischel, Der Panslawismus bis zum Welt\rieg (Stuttgart, 1919), pp. 125-130;
Alphons Lhotsky, Osterreichische Historiographie (Vienna, 1962), pp. 133-173.
5 See particularly Golo Mann, Secretary of Europe: The Life of Friedrich Gentz,
Enemy of Napoleon (New Haven, 1946), pp. 96-313 passim. Karl Mendelssohn-
Bartholdy, Friedrich von Gentz (Leipzig, 1867), pp. 29-126. On Adam Muller see
Jakob Baxa, Adam Muller (Jena, 1930), pp. 299-379 and Hans Lang, Politische
Geschichtsbilder zu Anfang des 19. fahrhunderts (Aarau, 1944), pp. 40-92. See also
Ernst Griinfeld, Lorenz von Stein und die Gesellschaftslehre (Jena, 1910).
Technical University (Technische Hochschule) in Vienna in 1815. Tech¬

nological contributions were the invention of the screw propeller for
steamships by Joseph Ressel in the late i82o’s and, as noted previously,
the construction of the Semmering railway, the first alpine mountain
railroad by Karl v. Ghega in the 1850’s. In railway construction Austria
could claim a “first” on the continent, namely, as mentioned in a different
context, the opening of the horse-drawn railway between Linz in Upper
Austria and Budweis (Budejovice) in Bohemia, in 1832; the first steam
locomotive on an Austrian track was operated on a short stretch of the
Northern railway in 1837.
A combination of practical and theoretical achievements can be seen in
the lifework of the geologist Eduard Suess, to whom Vienna owed its
water supply system, which carried water from the Alps to the city. This
spectacular achievement of applied science was completed by 1873. One
of the greatest theoretical scientists of the earlier Francisco-Josephin era
was Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), abbot of the Augustinian monastery in
Brno (Briinn), Moravia, whose genetic research, the famous Mendelian
laws, were not recognized in their full significance until two decades after
his death.
The greatest combined accomplishment of theoretical and applied re¬
search was the work of the Viennese School of Medicine. Its fame, from
the i88o’s to the First World War generally overshadows earlier progress,
although Leopold von Auenbrugger in the second half of the eighteenth
century pioneered in the field of auscultation. Ignaz Semmelweiss from
Buda in Hungary spotted the causes and indicated the prevention of
{ puerperal fever. The anatomist Joseph Hyrtl, the pathologist Karl von
[ Rokitansky, the professor of internal medicine Joseph Skoda, the derma¬
tologist Ferdinand von Hebra, all active before 1848 and in the first half of
Francis Joseph’s reign, were joined shortly after the revolution by the
physiologist Ernst von Briicke. One of the most versatile scientists, he too
contributed to what may be called the first flowering period of the Vien¬
nese medical school. It extended into the Francisco-Josephin era and led
up in the i87o’s to the beginning of a new period of momentuous achieve¬
ments.6
b) LITERATURE, THEATER, PRESS
There is a seemingly strange contradiction in the development of

German-Austrian literature from the Enlightenment to the rise of a new
6Erna Lesky, Die Wiener medizinische Schule im 19. fahrhundert (Graz-

Cologne, 1965), pp. 15-160.
liberalism in the 1860’s. In the dynamic reform era under Maria Theresa
and her sons literary achievements were hardly remarkable. Under the
political quietism of the Franciscan and pre-March era and the coming
neoabsolutist regime on the other hand, the arts made great progress. It
was perhaps the result of a delayed action impact of the great creative
efforts across the German borders. Only a generation after the main works
of Lessing, Herder, and the early works of Goethe, Schiller, and Kleist
were published, we see their distinct effect on Austrian literature. With
the spread of Romanticism in Germany the interval between German
cause and effect in Austria becomes much briefer and with the new rise
of Austrian literature it eventually disappears entirely. Yet there remains
something unexplainable about the great Austrian literary achievements.
They point to various features of the national character. Could they be
fully determined, intellectual history would be dreary and not the fas¬
cinating disicpline it is.
Between the death of Abraham a Sancta Clara in 1709 and the rise of
the most widely recognized Austrian classic, Franz Grillparzer (1791-
1872) the major achievement of Austrian literature rested in the popular
comedy, the Punch and Judy shows. Initially tolerated by Maria Theresa,
their performances were gradually curtailed and eventually suppressed,
largely through the influence of Sonnenfels, who lacked a sense of humor.
The popular comedy had its shortcomings 7, but the dreary highbrow
tragedies of Heinrich von Collin and Cornelius von Ayrenhoff in the
later part of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century
grew on more sterile ground.8 Grillparzer’s greatness as one of the fore¬
most writers of the German drama rests, indeed, not only on the peculiar
combination of romantic, classic, and realistic features in his lifework, but
on the fact that it could rise on Austrian grounds where he had no predeces¬
sor and very few successors of equal stature. His deep dissatisfaction
with what he considered a political climate averse to any intellectual
pursuits was linked to an equally profound attachment to his home
grounds. In this respect the shy and introvert man represented the am-
7 Except for reasons of clarification in some specific cases these notes are not
meant to refer to individual artists, however great, but rather to general trends. In
this respect Deutsch-dsterreichische Literaturgeschichte, 2 vols., ed. Johann W. Nagl,
Jakob Zeidler and Eduard Castle (Vienna, various editions), offers the most reliable
and comprehensive, though not the most sophisticated presentation.
8 See Otto Rommel, Die Alt-Wiener V ol\s\omodie (Vienna, 1957); Joseph
Gregor, Geschichte des osterreichischen Theaters (Vienna, 1948), pp. 112-148;
Reinhard Urbach, Die Wiener Komodie und ihr Publi\um: Stranitz\y und die
Folgen (Vienna, 1973); Kann, A Study in Intellectual History, pp. 202-224.
bivalent Austrian national character. He may be considered as the out¬

standing genuinely Austrian writer also in an imperial sense. Several of
his best plays deal with themes not only of Austro-German but Czech
and Magyar history. In regard to this topical range of his historical plays
he has no equal in the history of Austro-German literature.
Typically Austrian, in different ways, were also two contemporary
playwrights of high rank, both actors by profession. Ferdinand Raimund
(1790-1836), a comedian with romantic-sentimental tendencies, a keen
sense of humor, and poetic gifts, wanted to become a classical tragedian.
He did not fully succeed because of his limited education. His outstanding
achievements as popular, poetical playwright meant little to him. Johann
Nestroy (1801-1862), the other comedy writer and actor, was less senti¬
mental and poetic in his inclinations but he was a superlative student of
the human character, a social critic, and an outstanding satirist. The
antiintellectualism of the pre-March era lent itself particularly well to
satire. The deficiencies of government and the rigid class society offered a
challenge to such attacks, yet oppressive measures were not sufficiently
brutal to quell subtle opposition. Most writers during the pre-March era
and the early reign of Francis Joseph might be called moderate or cau¬
tious liberals, such as the playwright Eduard von Bauernfeld and the
aristocrat Count Anton Alexander Auersperg who wrote under the
pseudonym Anastasius Grim. A warm friend of Slovene cultural en¬
deavors, he turned against the Slovenes as soon as their nationalism began
to oppose the rule of the German minority in Carniola. Friedrich Halm
(Baron Mimch-Bellinghausen), a somewhat shallow playwright but one
time a competitor of Grillparzer, is forgotten today, but Friedrich Hebbel
(1813-1863) who came to Vienna from the German north has main¬
tained his stature as powerful though somewhat coldly intellectual dra¬
matist. His most interesting diaries show him from a more humane
angle. Ludwig Anzengruber (1839-1889), a liberal of anticlerical ten¬
dencies, possessed only modest poetic gifts but he introduced the social
drama into Austrian literature.
Outstanding was the melancholic lyric and writer of grand epics, Niko¬
laus Lenau (1802-1850), who came from Hungary but developed into a
master of the German language. Of all great Austrian poets he was the
only true, radical revolutionary. The most outstanding prose writer of the
time was Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868). None before him and none after
him brought nature to life the way he did. Like Grillparzer’s plays,
Stifter’s prose transcends the Austro-German orbit. One of his two novels,
Witikp, deals with Czech history in the high Middle Ages. Uniquely
harmonious in his work, Stifter, like Grillparzer, Lenau, and Raimund,
was a deeply unhappy man. He ended his life in suicide.
As seen in these brief observations, dramatic literary production and
with it the theater rank high in Austrian culture. Joseph II had founded
the Burgtheater as court theater and, more important, as Deutsches Na-
tionaltheater, in 1776. It maintained its reputation as the leading German
repertoire theater for more than a century and continues to hold a dis¬
tinguished rank to this day. It served as a unique bond between aristoc¬
racy, cultivated bourgeoisie, and intellectuals.9
Considering the censorship, at least the first-mentioned two groups
were served relatively well by the Austrian press. A Staatszeitung of 1724
evolved into the Wiener Zeitung of 1780, a local gazette but with literary
tendencies still cultivated today. The Presse founded in 1848 became the
mouthpiece of the liberal bourgeoisie. Gradually it was superseded by the
Nene Freie Presse founded in 1864, a journal internationally known and
respected on account of its excellent correspondents and literary contribu¬
tors, but edited by journalists of rather limited social understanding and
political outlook. The Vaterland, founded in i860, represented Catholic
conservative tendencies but after 1874 revealed more insight into social
problems than the liberal press.10 under the influence of a new editor,
Karl von Vogelsang.
c) MUSIC
Classical music in Austria reached high levels sooner but more gradually
than literature. It would be presumptuous to review it here in a few pages,
except for some brief remarks about the external conditions under which
it evolved. The fact that the Italian opera beginning with Leopold I and
orchestral music even under Maximilian I were largely sponsored by
court and aristocracy, played a restrictive role for a long time. The Italian
Pietro Metastasio in the eighteenth century held a middle position be¬
tween court poet and court composer of Emperor Charles VI. His can¬
zonets had much musical charm and his melodrama showed originality.
But his contemporary, Ch. W. von Gluck, the composer of operas and
orchestral music, was a greater artist. His “Orpheus and Eurydice” is one
of the early but greatest operatic works of all times. Gluck could not have
achieved what he did, had he not had some security as court conductor
9 See Rudolf Lothar, Das Wiener Burgtheater (Leipzig, 1899); Gregor, Geschichte
des osterreichischen Theaters, pp. 149-195.
10 Kurt Paupie, Handbuch der osterreichischen Pressegeschichte 1848-1859
(Vienna, 1966), I, 1-12.
{ From Late Enlightenment to Liberalism y>yy
for a time. Mozart, on the other hand, received practically no support

from the puritan Joseph II who considered his own love for music a
luxury if not a vice. Austria’s greatest composer died at the age of thirty-
five in 1791 after a hectic life which not for a single day of his adulthood
had been free of worries about the livelihood of his family.
Joseph Haydn is an example of a great artist who, until his fame as
composer was generally recognized, owed a modest degree of security to
music-loving artistocrats, above all the Esterhazys whose orchestra he
conducted. In Beethoven’s life the support by aristocrats and in particular
by Emperor Francis’ brother, Cardinal Archduke Rudolf, was un¬
doubtedly important. Schubert, perhaps the most genuinely Austrian
among the greatest composers, lacked support entirely and died in misery.
Of these five greatest—Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert—
all of whom spent the best part of their creative life in Austria, Gluck and
Beethoven were not born Austrians, and in a strictly legal sense Mozart,
born as subject of the then sovereign Prince Archbishop of Salzburg was
not either. The fact that Austria and particularly Vienna became the rally¬
ing point for the greatest composers, irrespective of their native country,
added to the glory of the city.11
Why Vienna became the center cannot be logically deduced. Equal and
perhaps superior sponsorship of music existed also at German and Italian
courts. Attractions of scenery and a receptive spirit of the people existed
in other places as well, and as to interest in musical innovations Vienna
was and is more conservative than other centers of music. Tradition and
musical receptiveness rather than full understanding on the part of the
population were important factors which merely help to explain the set¬
ting for a unique phenomenon, whose core remains unexplainable.
d) FINE ARTS
In the fine arts, especially architecture, the impact of external conditions

was more obvious. The Baroque, and its derivative the Rococo, were
primarily styles expressing the monumental pessionate, and later elegant
in the service of court, aristocracy, and the Church. The Baroque’s last
great representative in Austria is the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna,
11 The evaluation of Mozart as Austria’s greatest composer is based on the

assumption that Beethoven might be considered a German. Essentially the ques¬
tion of Mozart’s and Beethoven’s national affiliation and their comparative great¬
ness is a mute one. The following references are, of course, not meant to refer to
musical analyses but exclusively to the relationship of the composers to their
Austrian environment. See Heinrich Kralik, Das Buck der Musi\freunde (Vienna,
1951) and Karl Kobald, Wo unsterbliche Musi\ entstand (Vienna, 1950).
3j8 History of the Habsburg Empire
planned by the elder Fischer von Erlach and completed by Nicola Pacassi.
In the late Maria Theresan era a French-influenced Rococo style came to
the fore, which however, frequently revealed original classic features. The
Gloriette pavilion by Ferdinand von Hohenberg, on a hill overlooking
the formal Schonbrunn gardens, and the building of the old university
(now the Academy of Sciences) by N. Jadot de Ville Issey are examples
of the decorative and graceful but no longer monumental style.
Two of the last of the great fresco painters following the Baroque
tradition were Anton F. Maulbertsch and the Italian G. Guglielmi.
J. M. Schmidt (the so-called Kremser Schmidt) adopted also the Baroque
tradition of dramatic presentation of religious subjects. Martin van
Meytens, a portrait painter, deviated from the grand style; in sculpture,
Franz Messerschmidt and Wilhelm Byers under Maria Theresa and in
particular Franz Anton von Zauner under the young Emperor Francis
moved toward a less pretentious style which, on occasion, as the monu¬
ment of Joseph II by Zauner shows, has noble austerity.
From Joseph II to the revolution of 1848, when frequently shallow
replicas of historical designs came into vogue, this pattern of noble and
harmonious simplicity and gracefulness led to felicitous artistic creations.
Nevertheless this thoroughly original style of neoclassical dignity has not
received its full recognition to this day. The Military Medical Academy
(I. Cannavale) and the general hospital built under Joseph II in Vienna
are masterpieces of the new style. They are also monuments of the
social philosophy of the emperor. The gate of the outer Burg square in
Vienna by Peter von Nobile and the Schotten monastery by Josef Korn-
hausl, both built during the reign of Francis, are like the Fries (Pallavi-
cini) palace, also designed by Hohenberg, further landmarks of this
harmonious and dignified architecture.
New vistas were opened in painting. The Nazarene school of religious
subjects, represented in particular by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and
Joseph von Fiihrich in the pre-March era are less monumental but reveal
more feeling than many Baroque paintings, and the eminent Moritz von
Schwind (1804-1871), a more imaginative and subtle fresco painter than
his Baroque predecessors, excelled in that particular technique. Schwind
was also a genre and landscape painter of warmth and charm. In this
latter respect he was matched by Ferdinand Waldmuller and later by the
highly original Anton Romako, who moved almost imperceptibly toward
expressionist tendencies. Friedrich Amerling, Joseph Kriehuber, and in a
sense also August von Pettenkofen represented the art of portrait painting
in the pre-March and earlier Francisco-Josephin eras. Here, too, a new
bourgeois style of more modest designs but wider appeal gradually re¬
placed the courtly tradition.12
B. The Magyars
a) LITERATURE
Hungarian intellectual history throughout the Enlightenment lacks

somewhat the strong national spirit which had sustained it in general
throughout the preceding stormy centuries. The challenge to survival of
a proud small nation surrounded by different ethnic groups, ceased to be
effective for most of the eighteenth century. This was less a consequence
of the peace of Szatmar of 1711, which the Habsburgs imposed on the
Hungarian insurrectionists than of the denationalizing western influence
of the times. It strengthened the impact of the western-oriented part of the
aristocracy and learned professions, secular and clerical. It diminished
that of the national nobility and the burghers in the towns. Altogether
the small base of the political nation became apparent, from which not
only the non-Magyar half of Hungary was excluded but also the major
part of the Magyar population itself, the unfree peasants.
Peace with the crown had its social and political advantages, but at the
end of Maria Theresa’s reign many nobles, and not only the Magyar
aristocrats at the court in Vienna, were hardly in full command of the
national language. Ecclesiastic and Church-influenced writers on the
Catholic and the Protestant sides countered foreign influence, among
them the Jesuit priest Ferenc Faludi, a lyric poet of distinction, Janos
Illei, a representative of the Jesuit school drama, and Peter Apor (1676-
1752), a Transylvanian noble, author of the Metamorphosis Transylvaniae.
This historiographer of Transylvanian social history deplored the decline
of national mores under Habsburg rule. The writer of Calvinist church
songs, Paul Raday, worked for the peace of Szatmar of 1711, and hoped
for further reconciliation with the Habsburgs through the Pragmatic
Sanction. Gyorgy Bessenyei (1742-1810) represented the French influence
of the tragedie classique and the doctrinaire utilitarian character of en¬
lightened reformism. Laurence von Orczy (1718-1789), an imperial general,
likewise exemplified the French school in the form of his poetry, but this
literary style was merely the setting of his plea for the revival of the
Magyar mores and values of old.
The spirit of national revivalism, brought about largely as protest
12 Hans Tietze, Wien (Leipzig, 1918); Konrad Kaiser, ed., Romanti\ und
Realismus in Osterreich (Schweinfurt, 1968); Rupert Feuchtmiiller and Wilhelm
Masch, Biedermeier in Osterreich (Vienna, 1963),
against the denationalizing policies of Joseph II, made itself clearly felt
now. It expressed itself at the end of the eighteenth century and in the
first decades of the nineteenth according to the patterns of a new classicism
which became oriented toward the Latin rather than the earlier eighteenth-
century French tradition. The Pauline priest Benedikt Virag, a lyric of
rank who with some exaggeration was referred to as the Hungarian
Horace should be mentioned here. Jan Bacsanyi (1763-1845), head of the
literary circle at Kassa (Kosice, Kaschau) in Slovak territory, stood for
the breakthrough from the French to the national revolutionary spirit,
albeit still in Latinized form. Though only at the fringe involved in the
Martinovics Jacobin conspiracy, he remained a political suspect all his
life to the authorities, was sent to jail, reprieved, rearrested, and exiled to
Austria, where he spent the rest of his life under police supervision. In
his esthetic and critical writings even more than in his poetry he should
be seen as a vanguard of the coming new national revolution.
Alexander von Kisfaludy (1772-1844), a highly educated officer in the
noble guard, represented the national spirit in a more conformist manner.
A poet of love poetry, he became also a national tragedian, who selected
the topics of his plays from Hungarian history. They were performed in
Magyar in Buda in 1790, long before the Hungarian national theater
opened in Pest in 1837. The national historical drama was in the pre-
March era the great vogue. It was inspired by a patriotic and poetic spirit
rather than by concern with historic accuracy. No wonder—the scholarly
standards of the national historians of the earlv nineteenth century, such
as Istvan Kulcsar, Isaias Buday, and Istvan Horvath were not very high.
The Hungarian reform period, for ever associated with the inspiring
name of Count Istvan Szechenyi, the founder of the Hungarian Academy
of Science (1825) furthered socio-economic, cultural and in our particu¬
lar context literary activities widely and steered skillfully a course which
prevented serious molestations by the police regime of the restoration and
pre-March eras. Not all new literature was politically oriented. Foreign
classicism and Romanticism had primarily an artistic influence on Magyar
literary endeavors. This latter aspect is illustrated by the outstanding
translations of works of Shakespeare, Moliere, and Goethe by the lin¬
guistic reformer Ferenc von Kazinczy (1759-1831). Just the same, the
thrust of his predominantly literary interests could not protect him under
the Franciscan regime. Because of his involvement in the Martinovics
conspiracy Kazinczy was condemned to capital punishment. His sen¬
tence was commuted, and he spent years in various prisons including the
notorious Spielberg in Briinn,
j. From Late Enlightenment to Liberalism 381
Increasing familiarity with the foreign classics, the rise of national
; consciousness during the reform period, the influence of contemporary
I romanticism, and the desire that the cultural nation should transcend the
I narrow frame of the political one, led to the rise of a new realism with
wider popular appeal. Karoly Kisfaludi (younger brother of Alexander),
I the founder of a new literary almanac, Aurora, in 1822, represented these
new trends as national playwright, and writer of epics and songs. Jozsef
Katona exemplified them as tragedian, whose interests were focused on
{ Hungarian medieval history.
The national epic and the national historical drama were the concerns
of the poet Mihaly Vorosmarty (1800-1855), who was actively, deeply,
and tragically involved in the Magyar war of independence of 1848-1849.
His epic Zaldn s flight, which glorifies the conquest of Hungary by the
Magyars in the ninth and tenth centuries, became a symbolic centerpiece
of the new revolutionary, national spirit. Its equivalent in lyrics was
Vorosmarty’s famous Szozat (manifesto) of 1837, which became the lyrics
of the national anthem; it symbolizes in sublime language the destiny of
“the Hungarian rock surrounded by the Teutonic-Slavic sea.”
The Transylvanian aristocrat Baron Miklos Josika, referred to as the
Hungarian Walter Scott, was a novelist of distinction even though his
works are out of date today. He, too, was actively involved in the tragedy
of 1848-1849. The same held true for Baron Jozsef Eotvos (1813-1871),
mentioned earlier as one of the great Magyar political thinkers of all time.
Political reformer, minister of education briefly in 1848 and then again
from 1867 to 1871, and largely responsible for the well-intended but poorly
administered Hungarian nationality legislation of 1868, Eotvos was also a
poet and writer of social novels. A true humanitarian and advocate of
emancipation of the peasants, Eotvos was sceptical about the blessings of
Enlightenment and democracy, though he remained opposed to aristo¬
cratic prejudices. Baron Zsigmond Kemeny, novelist, journalist, and ed¬
itor, likewise involved in the revolution, did much to extricate Magyar
Hungary from an enforced cultural isolation in the postrevolutionary
period.
Jointly with Vorosmarty, Alexander Petofi (1823-1849) represented the
revolutionary spirit and the heroic revolutionary sacrifice. His colorful
life as traveling actor, his romantic-patriotic lyrics, and his heroic death in
the battle of Segesvar in the Hungarian war of independence, all com¬
bined to create the portrait of the national martyr-poet true to an ideal
type. Yet Petofi like Kossuth was of non-Magyar descent. His father was
of Serb and his mother of Slovak origin. As with Kossuth and other
History of the Hahshurg Empire
eminent Magyars, this non-Magyar descent strengthened his desire to

become a full-fledged Magyar and intensified his patriotism. He suc¬
ceeded and whatever may be said against the intolerance of Magyar na¬
tionalism, the fact that it could triumph within one generation is im¬
pressive. John Arany (1817-1882), like Petbfi of peasant stock, like him
originally an actor, and like him also an ardent patriot, had the opportun¬
ity, not given to Petofi, to develop his life to the fullest as writer of
poetry, epics, and ballads.
The Transylvanian Pal Gyulay (1826-1909) represents the transition to
the postrevolutionary generation. As poet, critic, and literary historian he
offered a sober analytical self-appraisal of Magyar literature. Mor Jokai
(1825-1904) was also actively engaged in the politics of the revolutionary
era but as deputy decidedly a moderate. This swimming against the
current during the last weeks of the republic in 1849 required as much
courage as revolutionary activities. Jokai remained a moderate liberal
inside and outside of parliament in the constitutional period after i860.
He became the novelist of the war of independence and, his realistic
novels opened a new era of social understanding in literature, although
many of them are inferior. Imre Madach (1823-1864), the author of the
monumental Magyar Faust drama “The Tragedy of Man” combined
realistic and romantic features in his lifework. Michael Horvath became a
widely known historian of the reform period and the war of indepen¬
dence. His literary qualifications were largely vitiated by the curse of
Magyar historiography: a far too uncritical spirit of nationalism.13
b) MUSIC
In the eighteenth century, Hungarian folk music, particularly dance

music, was more independent of western influences of the Enlightenment
than literature. Orchestral music, performed in the palaces of the great
feudal nobles, was primarily that of the Italian and German masters.
Ferenc Erkel (1810-1893) was the first distinguished composer of Hun¬
garian national operas. His contemporary Franz Liszt (1811-1886) born
close to the German-Magyar language border, as composer of orchestral,
choral, and piano literature belongs more in the German than in the
Magyar cultural orbit. But like Brahms he was indebted also to Hungar¬
ian folk music particularly the Czardas dance music and gipsy songs. But
13 See Johann H. Schwicker, Geschichte der ungarischen Literatur (Leipzig,

1888), pp. 202-833; Julius von Farkas, Die ungarische Romanti\ (Berlin, 1931);
Andritsch, ed., JJngarische Geistesgeschichte, pp. 115-245.
the great era of Magyar music was still to come, closer to the end of the
nineteenth century.14
c) FINE ARTS
Throughout the seventeenth century, the Hungarian Baroque produced

some outstanding specimens of ecclesiastic architecture in Nagy-Szombat,
Gyor, and Kassa. But its spread was impeded by the Turkish occupation
and the dubious blessings of the wars of liberation (until the peace of
Passarowitz in 1718), which also resulted in an extension in time of the
Baroque period. In the early eighteenth century Domenico Martinelli
reconstructed the royal castle in Buda in Baroque style, Lucas von Hilde-
brandt designed the palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy in Rackeve, and
Carlo Martino Carlone built that of the Esterhazys in Eisenstadt (Kis
Marton) somewhat earlier and in a less attractive design. A. Mayerhoffer
built the Grassalkovich castle in Godollo; later a royal palace, it repre¬
sented the beginning transition from late Baroque to a French-inspired
classicism. In the second half of the eighteenth century J. Fellner was the
leading Magyar architect of the new style. He designed the seminary
building in Eger (Erlau) and the episcopalian palace in Veszprem
(StuhlweiBenburg). The new classicist style after the transition period
is exemplified by the Protestant cathedral in Debrecen by Mihaly Pechy.
More characteristic is the building of the Hungarian national museum
in Pest by Mihaly Poliak, erected shortly before the revolution. This era
was followed by that of the typical revived, but often inimitable neo-
historical styles.
The influence of foreign, particularly Italian and German masters was
prevalent during the Baroque. The Magyar portrait painter Adam
Manyoki in the first half of the eighteenth century was an exception. In
the first half of the nineteenth century the foreign pseudo classicism of
Thorwaldsen and Canova strongly influenced the Hungarian sculptor
Istvan Ferenczy. On the other hand, the Magyar historical school of
painting, which developed somewhat later, revealed a more original
national style.
Altogether, Hungarian Baroque culture, because of the feudal structure
of estates, represented to a greater extent and for a longer time a courtly
ecclesiastic and particularly aristocratic culture than Austrian Baroque.
Furthermore, the long-lasting foreign domination served as a further
impediment to the development of national patterns in the fine arts.
14 Zoltan Halasz, Ungarn (Budapest, 1966), pp. 381-392.
]84 History of the Hahsburg Empire
These depend to a greater extent on external conditions than the humani¬
ties and social sciences. By the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth
century, these formidable obstacles had been successfully overcome.15
C. The Czechs
a) LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
During the Enlightenment and the subsequent conservative era, well

beyond the revolutionary intermission of 1848, the evolution of the
Magyar language but for the brief Josephin era was not impeded by
outside forces; the predominance of Latin in literary intercourse derived
from the feudal structure and changed within the strictly Magyar orbit
gradually without much friction. The development and use of the Czech
language among educated people, on the other hand, was severely re¬
stricted after the battle of the*White Mountain. These conditions were
only gradually lifted during the later enlightened era. Thus at a time
when Magyar literature evolved in a wide range of poetry, plays, and
epics, the Czechs had first to revise and to rebuild their national language.
They did so successfully within about two generations. The differences in
the pace of development referred to above disappeared within the second
half of the nineteenth century. In the first half they still prevailed.
In 1769 a learned society for the study of then so-called Bohemian, that
is Czech, culture, was founded by the enlightened aristocrats Prince Karl
Egon Fiirstenberg, Count Ernst Waldstein, Count F. J. Kinsky, and
mainly Count Kaspar Sternberg. The mineralogist Ignaz von Born pro¬
vided the scientific background, the historian Franz Martin Pelzel en¬
riched cultural endeavors in the humanities and social sciences. The first
really creative figure in the Czech Slavic renaissance was Josef Dobrovsky
(1753-1829). Dobrovsky, a Jesuit priest before the dissolution of the order
in 1773 , later an abbe was for a time director of the seminary in Hradiste
(near Olomuc) but lived for much of his life in the house of an aristo¬
cratic sponsor, Count Francis Nostitz. He considered Czech to be his
mother tongue but was aware that because of external suppression and
clerical upbringing his command of the native language was limited.
All the more impressive were his endeavors to correct that situation—en¬
deavors still for the most part formulated in German or Latin. Dobrovsky
wrote an Old Slavic grammar in Latin, a pioneer history of the Bohemian
15 Ibid., pp. 362-372; Julius Pasteiner, “Die Baukunst in Budapest,” [Crown-
prince Rudolf], Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic in Wort und Bild (Vienna,
1886-1903), Ungarn, III, 96-112, 417-421.
( From Late Enlightenment to Liberalism 385
( language and literature in German, another grammar focused on syntax
in German as well as a dictionary of the German and Bohemian (Czech)
language. Dobrovsky’s commanding position as Slavist is uncontested, in
£1 particular in the historic significance of his work in the field of general
£ Slavic studies. The work of Josef Jungmann (1773-1847) had more specific
philological value in regard to the Czech language. As prefect of the
U Academic Gymnasium in Prague he wrote a textbook on style in Czech
a and translated several works by Milton, Pope, Goethe, and Chateaubriand
ii into Czech. Much of his lifework was focused on the compilation of a
Czech-German dictionary in five volumes. He also wrote a history of
>£ Bohemian literature in Czech. Largely as a result of Jungmann’s efforts
jf the authorities finally permitted the teaching of Czech in secondary
j* schools, though not yet as language of instruction. In 1830 Jungmann
y founded the association for the scholarly cultivation of the Bohemian lan¬
guage and literature. He was the first great Czech Slavist by scholarly,
not by ideological and historical standards. Excessive nationalist zeal mis¬
led Vaclav Hanka (1791-1861), the librarian of the Bohemian Museum.
He fabricated two allegedly early medieval manuscripts, the Kralovedvor-
< sky and Zelenohorsky (Koniginhof and Griinberg) manuscripts. Accord¬
ing to these documents a fully developed Czech civilization (Kralove
Dvur and Zelena Hora) had existed in early medieval Bohemia. Despite
this aberration Hanka was a Slavist of considerable knowledge as was
Frantisek Ladislav Celakovsky, a collector of ancient folksongs and a
poet.
Pavel Josef Safarik (1795-1861), by birth a Slovak, ranks with Dobrov-
sky and Jungmann as the third great Slavist of the Czech renaissance
movement. He studied Slavic medieval history and ethnography and
wrote also a history of Slavic literature, which started from the assump¬
tion of the existence of a comprehensive Slavic mother language, sub¬
divided into the idioms of various Slavic tribes. Safank, also distinguished
as translator of German classical literature and as poet, may be called an
enlightened Panslav, who did not represent integral but humanitarian
nationalism. Born in Slovak territory, he spent much of his life in teach¬
ing positions in Hungary but became eventually professor of Slavic
Philology in Parague and afterward director of the university library
there. He represents a scholarly and ideological bridge between the
Czech and Slovak language orbits.
Frantisek Palacky (1798-1876) was mentioned earlier as distinguished
leader in questions of national reform. As national historian of the his-
tory of the Bohemian people to 1526, first in a German and then more ex¬
tensively in a Czech edition, and as collector of the documents of the
Hussite wars, he surpasses in scholarly quality contemporary Magyar and
Austro-German historiography. One of his students, Vaclav V. Tomek,
wrote a history of Prague, actually a history of the Czechs to the be¬
ginning of the seventeenth century, as well as a biography of the Hussite
leader Jan 2izka. Tomek was also the historiographer of Prague Uni¬
versity, the oldest in the Central European orbit, founded by Emperor
Charles IV in 1346. The Germans claimed it to be a German establish¬
ment and it was run as German institution until in 1882 a Czech uni¬
versity with Czech language of instruction was finally added. Either uni¬
versity, the German or the Czech, could with equal justification be called
the successor to Charles IV’s foundation.
The development of theatrical life in Prague was rich and for much
of the eighteenth century superior to conditions in any other part of the
Habsburg monarchy. It flourished for a long time under German and
Italian auspices. In the late seventeenth century the Jesuit drama
bloomed in the Czech orbit as in the German Austrian. In the first half of
the eighteenth century a theater devoted mainly to the performance of
Italian operas and another one for German plays were established under
the sponsorship of Count Franz A. Sporck. In 1783 the German National
Theater was opened under the sponsorship of Count Francis Nostitz.
Here in 1787 Don Giovanni was performed for the first time with Mozart
himself conducting. A few years later this theater was dubbed the Theater
of the Bohemian Estates or the Estates National Theater. As in Vienna,
Punch and Judy shows were performed until the 1770’s. An official,
though still only interim Czech National Theater, was opened in 1862.
The great Bohemian National Theater for plays and operas was built
between 1868 and 1891, the new German Theater, whose construction as
counterweight to the Czech institution was furthered by the government
in Vienna, was opened in 1888. In 1882 another German theater was
opened in Brno. In proportion to the much larger Czech population
Czech theatrical life was at a disadvantage compared with the German
institutions, but this hardly impeded its rich and diverse development
in the future.16
16 Hermann Munch, Bohmische Tragodie (Braunschweig, 1949), pp. 88-166;

Hans Raupach, Der tschechische Fruhnationalismus: Ein Beitrag zur Gesellschafts-
und Ideengeschichte des Vormarz in Bohmen (Darmstadt, 1969), pp. 26-130; A. V.
Pypin and V. D. Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Literaturen (Leipzig, 1884),
II, part 2, pp. 177-286; Frantisek Chudoba, A Short Survey of Czech Literature
| From hate Enlightenment to Liberalism 387
b) MUSIC
i Progress in music became apparent even earlier than in literature,

though here, too, German and Italian music came to the fore first. In the
early eighteenth century the operas and orchestral pieces of the Austrian
(Styrian) composer, J. J. Fux, were performed in Prague, among them
| an opera in celebration of the coronation of Charles VI as king of Bo-
i hernia in 1723. A regular Italian opera stagione existed in Prague as early
I as 1734, but German operas were offered as well. Mozart’s Marriage of
Figaro, The Elopement from the Serail, and as noted Don Giovanni were
all performed in the 1780’s.
But native Bohemian composers also played a distinguished part. In
rl the eighteenth century it is difficult to classify them as either Czech or
x German, because in Bohemian lands German or Czech names are no
3 reliable clues in this respect. The Minorit father Bohuslav Cernohorsky
t (1684-1742) however, was one of the earliest native orchestral composers
/ who definitely may be considered a Czech. The brothers Franz and Georg
Benda (1709-1786 and 1722-1795) followed. The former, concert master
of Frederick II of Prussia and an outstanding violin player composed
chamber music, the latter mainly operas with Italian librettos. Both left
I their native country, but Franz Xaver Brixi (1732-1771), composer of
ecclesiastic music, remained as chorus conductor at St. Vitus Cathedral.
Josephin puritanism and austerity curbed the aristocratic sponsorship of
private orchestras as in other parts of the Habsburg realms. Yet in 1803 a
symphony orchestra was founded in Prague, and the establishment of a
conservatory followed in 1811. Its director, J. F. Kittl (1809-1868), a native
of Bohemia, composed symphonies and operas.
In the early nineteenth century opera performances in Italian gradually
yielded to German, and in 1820 the first Czech libretto was offered.
Venceslav }. Tomasek (1774-1850) a composer of operas and orchestral
music may well be called a Czech, and the two classics Bedrich Smetana
(1824-1884) and Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) were Czechs. Smetana, the
(London, 1969), pp. 57-143; Hanus Jelinek, Histoire de la Litterature Tcheque

(Paris, 1930-1935), I, 219-393, II, 7—111; Richard G. Plaschka, Von Palac\y bis
Pe\ar (Graz-Cologne, 1955), pp. 6-35; Oskar Teuber, “Die Theater Prags,” in
[Crownprince Rudolf] Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, vols. Bohmen, II,
163-192; Richard Rosenheim, Die Geschichte der deutschen Biihnen in Brag
(Prague, 1938), pp. n-27; see also Robert Auty, “Changing Views on the Role of
Dobrovsky in the Czech National Revival,” in Peter Brock and H. Gordon Skill¬
ing, eds., The Czech Renaissance of the Nineteenth Century (Toronto, 1970), pp.
14-25.
composer of the Bartered Bride, Dalibor, and Libuse (Libussa), ranks
among the greatest opera composers of the nineteenth century. His
orchestra and chamber music, though somewhat overshadowed by the
fame of the Bartered Bride and Dalibor, were likewise creations of the
first order. As composer of numerous operas Antonin Dvorak was not
quite of the same rank as Smetana. His chief contribution was in orches¬
tral, choral, and dance music. The national, indeed perhaps nationalistic,
element in his music is more pronounced than in that of Smetana. Zdenek
Fibich (1850-1900) may also be considered a genuine national composer
of high achievements in regard to operatic and symphonic music. Alto¬
gether there is no question, that jointly with the Austro-Germans and
later the Magyars, the Czechs hold the first rank in musical creation and
production among the national groups under Habsburg rule. In regard to
the originality of their national music they had few equals.17
c) FINE ARTS
Ecclesiastic and secular Baroque architecture in the Bohemian lands

surpasses that in any other part of Central Europe. However, the work
of foreign masters such as father and son Fischer von Erlach from
Austria, Johann and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer from Germany, and the
Italian A. Loragho was of decisive importance. But the embedding of the
Baroque palaces and churches in the silhouette and the over-all panoroma
of the cities of Bohemia reveals great Czech artistic sensitivity. In the nine¬
teenth century Czech masters recreated the monumental buildings in neo-
historic styles of much vigor and, as anywhere else, doubtful originality.18
Painters representing the nineteenth-century historical school were Gabriel
Max (1840-1915) and Vaclav Brozik (1851-1901) a truly national painter
whose work in several ways is related to Makart’s art, but was superior in
his coloration. Skillful, not ostentatious blending of historical and neo-
historical styles remains characteristic for Czech art.19
17 Ottokar Hostinsky, “Musik in Bohmen,” in [Crownprince Rudolf] Die oster-

reichisch-ungarische Monarchic, vols. Bohmen, II, 17-60 and Christian von D’EIvert,
“Musik in Mahren,” vol. Mahren und Schlesien, pp. 263-282.
18 Here the most representative buildings, the Czech National Theater and the
Czech National Museum were designed by German architects in the second half
of the nineteenth century in a neo Renaissance style (Joseph Zitek and Joseph
Schulz).
19 On fine arts see Jaromir Neumann, Das hohmische Baroc\ (Vienna, 1971);
Karl Chytie “Malerei und Plastik der . . . Rococozeit” in [Crownprince Rudolf]
Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, vols. Bohmen, II, 378-385, and ibid. Victor
Barvitius, “Malerei und Plastik der Neuzeit”, pp. 385-432.; Munch, Bohmische
Tragodie, pp. 470-472.
x From Late Enlightenment to Liberalism 389
t
D. The Slovaks
lii
During the late Enlightenment and the first half of the nineteenth
: p century the struggle between a Catholic Slovak linguistic movement and
a Czecho-Slovak movement associated with the Czech Hussite tradition
( continued. The Catholic endeavors led by Father Antony Bernolak
(1762-1813) produced a Slovak grammar and dictionary. A Catholic
Slovak literary society, formed as early as 1792 supported these efforts,
which were successful, however, only in western Slovakia. While the
Czecho-Slovak union movement stressed the historical ties between the
two nations, the intent to build up a specific literary national language
was not forgotten. The two most eminent leaders were Jan Kollar (1793-
1 1852) and Ludevit Stur (1815-1856). Kollar must be considered as the
great romantic representative of a mystic humanitarian Panslavism. A
linguist of rank and collector of Slavic folksongs his fame among north-
5 ern and southern Slavs was primarily based on his sonnets, published
tj under the title Slavy dcera (Slavas Daughter). The glorification of the
Slavic mission in Europe was written in a somewhat artificial Czech
language of its own with strong Slovak literary associations. Stur, founder
of a Slovak literary journal in the i84o’s and professor of literature in
Bratislava, edited Slovak folksongs and fairy tales. His pronounced
Slovak nationalism collided at points with the literary programs of the
Czech intelligentsia. Stur was an eminent writer and linguist of political
tendencies, the priest Jan Holly (1785-1849) represented a less directly
political Catholic romantic Slavism, comparable to Kollar’s Protestant
Slavism. Holly translated Greek and Latin classics into Slovak and wrote
two national epics, which, like the works of Kollar, extolled national
history from a Panslav viewpoint. Another priest, the dome capitular
Jura Palkovic (1763-1835), translated the scriptures into Slovak and im¬
proved and enlarged Bernolak’s dictionary of the Slovak language. His
Protestant namesake Jiri Palkovic (1769-1850), professor of Czecho¬
slovak language and literature in Bratislava, a collector of Slovak folk¬
lore and translator of a Czech bible, promoted Czecho-Slovak linguistic
union. Joseph M. Hurban (1817-1888) and Michael M. Hodza (1811-
1870) were both Protestant pastors of Czecho-Slovak leanings. The
former was also a literary historian and epic writer. The latter, more con¬
cerned with politics, was also interested in the language reform in a
strictly Slovak national sense. Both became national leaders in the revolu¬
tionary era of 1848-1849. The language issue was technically solved by
a compromise brought about by Martin Hattala (1821-1903), professor at
39° History of the Hahsburg Empire
the Catholic Seminary in Trnava (Tyrnau, Nagyszombat). In his gram¬
mar of 1850 he merged the major Slovak idioms, represented in extreme
form by Bernolak and Stur, into a distinct literary language, which
despite its Czech roots maintained their Slovak characteristics.
Slovak novels, stories, epics, and lyrics had existed previously. They
continued to thrive further after their national identity had been fully
recognized, not against but basically with the cooperation of the neigh¬
boring Czech people. Problems of the future, when both nations would
have to live side by side in the same state, could not yet be clearly en¬
visioned.20
E. The Poles
The center of Polish national life in the two decades between the first
and third partition was still the area around Warsaw. Afterward for a
full generation, the generation of Polish literary Messianism, and roman¬
ticism, Paris became the rallying point of political Polish emigration and
to a degree of Polish cultural activities. Later, intellectual Poland, though
repressed in many ways, had its center of intellectual gravity gradually
returned to Russia largely because of the rise of Panslavism among Rus¬
sians as well as Poles. But another center was in the Republic of Cracow,
established at the Congress of Vienna and returned in 1846 to Austrian
rule.21 Cracow, during its republican era had its old medieval university
reorganized by the dome capitular Hugo Koll^taj between 1777 and 1782.
A Society of Fine Arts was established there in 1853 and later raised to an
academy. The opening of the National Polish Museum followed in 1879.
The University of Lwow founded in 1784 as well as the Polytechnicum of
1844 still offered instruction in German. As the result of the administrative
semi-autonomy granted to Galicia in 1868, this changed in 1871.
After 1830 the Poles in the Habsburg monarchy were treated better than
those in Russia and at least after the suppression of the second Polish
revolt of 1863 better than those in Prussia. Yet the evolution of Polish
cultural life did not benefit much from these conditions on Austrian
territory because Warsaw remained after all the center of the kingdom and
the Poles believed that their resurrection could only come from there.
Warsaw, not Cracow was also believed to be the future core of Polish
culture. The Habsburg empire seemed too feeble ever to be able to guaran¬
tee a comprehensive Polish future within its confines. There was, further-
20Pypin and Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Literaturen, 11:2, 310-352;
Ludwig von Gogolak, Beitrdge zur Geschichte des slowahjschen Voices (Munich,
1963-1972), I, 221-253, II, 1-171 passim, III, 19-31.
21 Cracow had been also under Austrian rule from 1795-1809.
I From Late Enlightenment to Liberalism 391
u more, the Ruthenian movement for equality, in particular in eastern
I Galicia, and the Poles felt, more wrongly than rightly, that the govern-
i ment in Vienna used a divide et impera policy by backing up the Ruthe-
j nians against them. Whether right or wrong, ill feelings were stronger
j in cultural life than on the administrative level.
None of the Polish classics such as Mickiewicz, Slovacki, and Krasinski,
. is directly related to Galician history, but a near-great writer, Count
, Alexander Fredro (1793-1876) wrote excellent comedies in the style of
) Moliere and had them performed in the national theaters in Cracow and
, Lwow. Distinguished scholars and academic teachers were the historian
: of law Anton S. Helcel, and the political philosopher Pawel von Popiel.
Both resided in Cracow after its reincorporation into Austria. The
medieval-history scholar Karol Szajnocha in Lwow was barred from an
academic position because of revolutionary activities in his youth. Notable
was the stimulating literary critic Julian Klaczko who wrote mainly in
French, until the mid-nineteenth century the language of Polish high
society in Galicia.22
The glory of Gothic and Renaissance paintings represented by Hans
von Kulmbach in the sixteenth century, and wood sculpture in the late
fifteenth by the great Veit Stoss were claimed equally for Polish and
German culture. The place of birth and training of these men was
German, the influence of the environment largely though not fully Polish.
Their superb achievements could not be revived by the historical school in
the nineteenth century, but some of its outstanding representatives like
Jan Matejko (1838-1893), a painter of major historical compositions, and
his contemporary Julian Kossak, a portraitist, were fine artists.
F. The Ruthenians
A major factor in the literary history of the Ruthenians in Galicia24,

which came under Austrian rule in 1772 and 1774, was the alienation of
aristocracy and intelligentsia from their historic culture. Polish influence
22 Manfred Kridl, in Bernadotte Schmitt, ed., Poland (Berkeley, 1945) > PP- 284"
310- Manfred Kridl, A Survey of Polish Literature and Culture (The Hague,
1967), pp. 317 L; Count Stanislaus Tarnowski, “Polnische Literatur” in [Crown-
prince Rudolf] Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, vol. Galizien, 591-648;
Erasmus Piltz, ed., Poland (London, 1919), PP- 291-301; Czeslav Milosz, The
History of Polish Literature (London, 1969), pp. 158-259.
23 Ladislaus Luszizkiewicz, “Architecture” in [Crownprince Rudolf] Die oster¬
reichisch-ungarische Monarchic, vol. Galizien, pp. 694-720 and Marian von
Sokolski, “Malerei und Plastik”, ibid. pp. 745“77i-
24 Jointly with the Hungarian Carpatho-Ruthenians the most western branch of
the Ukrainian people.

J92 History of the Hahsburg Empire
became prevalent and the Ruthenians lost the social and intellectual upper
structure of their national group, including a large part of the clergy, to
the Poles. The Uniate Church, established by the Union of Brest in 1596,
opened Ruthenians a spiritual center, seemingly close enough to their
own national tradition, but failed to open to her members the door to
equal status in Polish society. In this respect they were not better off than
the Ruthenians in the former Turkish Bukovina,25 where the old ortho¬
doxy continued to prevail. In the Hungarian Carpatho-Ukraine (the
Ruthenian territory longest under Habsburg rule, and settled by Ruthe¬
nians in the late Middle Ages), opportunities for the development of na¬
tional life were even more limited than in eastern Galicia.
Much of this changed during the reigns of Maria Theresa and Joseph
II. Furthering of Ruthenian seminaries by both rulers in Vienna (1774)
and Lwow (1783) and the establishment of the new Polish university in
Lwow in 1784 with at least some offerings in the Ruthenian language
enhanced the Ruthenian status. These concessions were withdrawn, how¬
ever, in the early nineteenth century, and teachings in Ruthenian on the
academic level resumed only after 1848, on a limited scale. The same
applied to conditions at the University of Czernowitz (Cernivtsi, Cer-
nauti), founded in 1875. The Maria Theresan-Josephin Ruthenian policy
and its continuation after the revolution of 1848, in which the Ruthenian
claim for equality with the Poles played its part, helped to reverse the
trends of denationalization among the Ruthenian people. In particular the
struggle for the use of Ruthenian as language of instruction in public
schools was of great significance. Simultaneous tensions in the Russian
Ukraine, the nationalist intolerance of the Polish aristocracy and gentry,
and the over-all influence of the Slavic renaissance were powerful con¬
tributing factors.
These tentative successes of Ruthenian recognition could not imme¬
diately lead to major literary achievements. A new conflict, this time not
between Ruthenian nationalism and the Polonization process, but between
the western Uniate and the eastern Orthodox trends within the clergy,
developed in the pre-March period. Supporters of the former, under the
leadership of the vicar general of the archdiocese of Lwow, Gregor von
Yakhimovych, defended the preservation of the Cyrillic alphabet against
the pro-Polish wing, anxious to switch to Latin. At the same time, a
conservative trend within the clergy stood for the old Slavic Church
language, which meant indirectly communion with the eastern Orthodox
Church and Russia. The course of the future however, was neither in a
25 Under Austrian administration after 1774.
Ruthenian liberal nationalism focused on east Galicia nor in a conservative

old Ruthenian linked to tsarism, and least of all in accommodation to
Polish culture. The objectives of future generations pointed to a broad
Ukrainian cultural nationalism, clearly delineated from Habsburg or
Romanov interests and ambitions.
Whether they intended it or not, the first and second generation of
Ruthenian literary men under Habsburg rule served this ultimate goal of
Ruthenian-Ukrainian nationalism. Three friends, Markiian Saskevyc
(1811-1843), Ivan Vahylevyc (1811-1866), and Iakiv Holovackyj (1814—
1888) deserve attention. Shashkevych, a Uniate priest, did for the Ruthe¬
nian people on a more ,elmentary level what the Slavists, Bobrovsky,
Jungmann, and Safarik had done for the Czech people. Undoubtedly they
and other Slavists had influenced Saskevyc’s lifework. In his collection
of folksongs he used the Ruthenian idiom in Galicia. In 1843, Saskevyc
and his friends, despite police chicaneries, published a literary almanac,
Rusal ha Dnistrovaia, and also wrote poetry. Vahylevyc studied Ruthenian
history (especially literary history) and ethnography. He translated medie¬
val Ruthenian literature into Polish. Holovackyj was for a time professor
of Ruthenian language and literature at the University of Lwow, where
he was also concerned with the collection of folksongs. His leanings
toward the Russians were the strongest among the three; accordingly he
had to relinquish his chair eventually. Vahylevic represented a moderately
pro-Polish position and Saskevyc the most definite Ruthenian one.
All three, however—and in this sense they are not so much represen¬
tatives of Ruthenian as of Ukrainian nationalism—established close con¬
tacts with the rising Ukrainian national literature across the Russian
border as represented above all by Ivan P. Kotlarewskyj (1769-1838) and
the great Ukrainian classic Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861). Within a few
decades they were followed by a group of writers, ethnographers, and
historians. Whatever the political conflicts between imperial Austrian and
Russian interests were, whatever the issues between Ukrainian, Ruthenian,
and Russian nationalisms had become, however divisive denominational
conflicts between Orthodoxy, Uniate, and Roman Catholic Church might
have been, the literary Ukrainian union movement had become irresistible
in the half century from the outgoing Enlightenment to the national
revolution of 1848. It took only two more decades for this union movement
to spread to the isolated Carpatho-Ukraine and to the Bukovina, where
the new University of Czernowitz and the literary society Ruska Besida
(1868) opened additional gates to cultural Ukrainian unionism. The
Ruthenian-Ukrainian literary rise, more an awakening than a renaissance
movement, was one of the most successful crusades of Slavic cultural na¬
tionalism in the nineteenth century. Its success in east Galicia and the
Bukovina were related to changes in the huge Ukrainian hinterland
across the Russian frontiers. Such relationship to a majority of ethnic
brethren across state boundaries was in itself by no means unique among
the national groups in the Habsburg empire. Unique was, however, the
joining in common cultural endeavors of two branches of a great nation
which had been controlled for generations by alien authorities. The ex¬
perience of similar outside pressures led to similar cultural objectives.26
G. The Southern Slavs
The cultural rise of the Southern Slav peoples in the Habsburg empire
from the Enlightenment onward is as much associated with the Slavic
renaissance as the rise of other Slavic peoples. What differentiated the
Southern Slav renaissance movement from that of other Slavs was the
direct, and not merely implied, relationship between endeavors for lin¬
guistic and literary union, and those for political union. Similar ideas, as
noted before, existed also among Czechs and Slovaks, but not quite simul¬
taneously and in a less specific and politically less realistic sense than
among the western Southern Slav nations, Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes.
Yet even there, endeavors to achieve linguistic-literary union, did not
mean cultural union and even less political union. The latter was brought
about only in a most imperfect manner by the establishment of Yugoslavia
in 1918.27 It took another generation and two world wars to establish a
genuine though still imperfect federation on the basis of national equality.
Linguistic- literary union has not been accomplished to this day although
an accommodation between Croatian and Slovene literature has progressed
gradually throughout the romantic stage of the Slavic renaissance and in
a less spectacular way ever since. The rise of a true joint Serbo-Croatian
literature coincided with the establishment of the first political union in
1918. It has not yet reached its goal. Nevertheless, this cultural union has
come closer to materialization after 1918 and increasingly so after 1945.
Southern Slav intellectual developments to this day may still be compre-
26 Emil Ohonowskij, “Ruthenische Literatur” (in Galicia) in [Crownprince

Rudolf] Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, Vol. Galizien, pp. 652-664, Emil
Kakuzniacki, “Die ruthenische Sprache und Literatur” (in Bukovina), Vol.
Bu\owina, pp. 400-405; Michael Hrushevsky, A History of Ukraine (New Haven,
I94I), PP- 47I_474> 487~493> 495~498-
27 In this respect, the declaration of Corfu on July 20, 1917 had only declaratory
character.
hended largely as a separate process within each of the three nations. Up

to 1918 separate analysis is necessary.
a) THE SLOVENES
The Slovenes (smallest of the Southern Slav national groups), pioneers

in the translations of the gospels into a Slavic language at the time of the
Reformation were pioneers also in grammatical development. The lin-
guisdc studies by Adam Bohoric, published in the late eighteenth cen¬
tury, anchored the previously noted sixteenth-century Bible translations of
Trubar and Dalmatin into a firm grammatical frame. The Counter
Reformation had represented a standstill in linguistic development, al¬
though Jesuit influence in the cultivation of the drama and the spread of
Italian Baroque opera music had modified the dangers of Slovene cultural
isolation.
An era of rapid advance began with the Enlightenment under Maria
Theresa as result of the attempts to introduce general education on the
elementary level. The consequences exceeded the modest original objec¬
tives. One cause was the French occupation of the so-called Austrian
Illyrian territories (most of Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia, Istria, Dalmatia,
and southwestern Croatia-Slavonia) from 1809-1814. The French ad¬
ministration cemented the foundations of the relatively brief Austrian re¬
form era and advanced it in higher education. The short duration of this
regime blunted tendencies to associate reforms with the impact of sup¬
pression by foreign governments.
The Slavic linguistic renaissance was another most important factor in
the cultural rise of the Slovenes. A literary almanac had been published
in Ljubljana as early as 1779, a newspaper followed in 1797. Both existed
only for a few years. Aristocratic sponsorship by Baron S. Zois and a
generation later by Anastasius Griin still had to provide a protective
shield for the activities of enlightened intellectuals, modest as they were
under the Franciscan police regime. At least the bucolic lyrics of Valentin
Vodnik (1758-1819) were permissible and a Bible translation could now
be undertaken on the Catholic side.
The great and lasting advancement of Slovene literary development
came under the auspices of romanticism, but a romanticism with solid
scholarly foundations. The previously mentioned linguist and philologist
Bartholomaeus Kopitar, director of the Austrian court library in Vienna,
was a pioneer in the field of comparative Slavic linguistics and a reformer
if not so some extent creator of modern Slovene. He intended to “convert”
Slovene, the most western of the Southern Slav languages, to a bridgehead
of western Slavism under Catholic, and by implication Habsburg, spon¬
sorship. He did more. His was the task, largely successfully performed, to
give a nation with a solid literary tradition but no political past, a future
solely anchored in cultural achievements and political potentialities. Simi¬
lar developments can be observed among other Slavic peoples but in no
instance was the political survival and future so clearly and predominantly
based on cultural attainments as in that of the Slovenes.
Kopitar’s influence reached beyond the Slovene orbit into that of Croats
and Serbs. In regard to general linguistic education and popular cultural
activities in the Slovene language his work was supported by the veter¬
inarian Janez Bleiweis, the founder of a journal, Novice, in 1843. Through
his professional, literary, and .political activities he exercised an almost
equal influence on peasants, clergymen, and the new writers. He was re¬
ferred to as father of the nation. Bleiweis inspired also the lyric France
Preseren (1800-1849). Kopitar’s scholarly student was Fran von Miklosich,
who in the following generation became the leading Slavist at the Uni¬
versity of Vienna. The primarily apolitical aspect of Slovene literature is
shown also by the post-1848 generation of Slovene writers, the lyrics
F. Lestvik and Simon Jenko, and the novelist Joseph Jurcic. New and
more radical literary developments were to evolve in the last decades of
the nineteenth century. The sensitivity for harmony in verse and prose,
introduced by the phonetics of Kopitar’s scholarship and the art of Pre¬
seren, remained a characteristic feature of Slovene literature.28
b) THE CROATS
The rich development of Croatian literature in the school of Dubrovnik

from Ivan Gundulic in the early seventeenth century to Nicola Dordic in
the late seventeenth and early eighteenth has been mentioned. So have been
the literary activities of the national heroes in the late seventeenth century
rising in the Croatian north, Counts Francis Frankopan and Peter
Zrinski (Zrinyi). Otherwise in the seventeenth century the influence of
the Counter Reformation in plays with ecclesiastic subjects was dominant.
In general, religious literary trends followed the Jesuit patterns. Secular
literature in the late seventeenth century—pseudohistoric epics, glorifying
the Habsburg campaigns against the Turks—had little artistic value.
Counterreformatory activities, in particular the various seminaries in Italy
28 Anton Slodnjak, Geschichte der slowenischen Literatur (Berlin, 1958), pp. 86-
161; Pypin and Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Literaturen, I, 376-395; Fischel,
Der Panslawismus his zum Welt\rieg, pp. 125-130.
for Croatian candidates for the priesthood were focused on missionary

activities in the territories occupied for generations by the Turks. This
helped to increase Italian cultural influence. It was less prevalent in the
literary field than in the fine arts. The monuments of the Venetian renais¬
sance in Dalmatia were followed by a less spectacular but longer lasting
influence of the Italian Baroque on Croatian architecture, painting, and
sculpture well beyond the coastal lands. In addition to the direct Italian
impact in these fields, there was also an influence of German Baroque
modified by Italian designs. Croatian folk art preserved its independent,
original character during that era, although its influence abroad remained
limited.
The direct impact on Croatia of the Enlightenment in the Maria
Theresan and Josephin reform era is not as apparent as in regard to the
Slovene territories. The constitutional relationship to Hungary and the
military character of the Frontier regime help to understand this. Matija
Rjelkovic, a frontier officer from Slavonia (1732-1798), who spent several
years during the third Silesian war as prisoner of war in Prussian captivity
exhorted his countrymen in a strange epic, Satir, to adopt the institutions
of the west and to renounce the old customs and folk poetry. With this
philosophy he ran counter, not only to a century-old tradition of the past,
but also to the romantic tendencies of the literary renaissance movement
of the following generation. Its character however, was changed by the
previously noted activities of Ljudevit Gaj (1809-1872) whose personality
combined features of Romanticism, political nationalism, and political ex¬
pediency. The last was more apparent than with most other leaders of
Slavic renaissance movements.
The idea of cultural union between Croats and Slovenes was not new.
The two peoples shared the Catholic-Latin heritage. Furthermore, Kopitar
had done much to emphasize the linguistic affinity in his grammatical
studies. Yet his concepts of a Catholic-Slav union could be considered
political only in a broad ideological sense. Gaj, who had studied at the
University of Vienna and was at the same time exposed to Kollar’s mystic
Panslavism, went further in his political objectives. He pursued them with
scholarly achievements inferior to those of Kopitar, but with a superior
sense for political timing. He strove for the further-reaching aim of lin¬
guistic union of the Serb and Croatian main branches of the Southern
Slav orbit to the west of the Bulgarians. He hoped to achieve this union
by turning to a southern Dalmatian dialect as basis of a linguistic com¬
promise between Croats and Serbs rather than to insist on subordination
to the existing Croatian literary language with its strong western ties. To
39# History of the Habshurg Empire
the extent that the bulk of the Serbs, then still under Turkish rule, was
farther removed from the impact of western culture than Croats and
Slovenes, this plan appeared to be a Croatian concession to Southern Slav
union. Yet as far as the concept if Illyrism was decidedly western, Latin
in character and associated with an alleged Roman (Illyrian) tradition
along the eastern shores of the Adriatic, it had also an anti-orthodox,
anti-Magyar, and pro-Catholic tinge. All three features were agreeable to
the pre-March policy of the Austrian government. Various concessions that
Gaj obtained, such as the permission to establish an Illyrian Book Founda¬
tion and a newspaper with a literary supplement, seemed to indicate
smooth relations to the authorities in Vienna. Actually allegations spread
by Gaj’s orthodox Serb opponents that he was a Metternich agent were
probably unfounded. The truth is simply that his activities concurred with
the policies of the minister of the Interior, Count Kolowrat, the relatively
most enlightened member of the government in Slavic questions. With
great skill Gaj had stressed the potential dangers of a Panslav (that meant,
pro-Russian) orthodox orientation of the Austrian Southern Slavs. Il¬
lyrism, on the other hand, promised a western version of the union move¬
ment under Croatian leadership, even though a linguistic understanding
with far-reaching concessions to the Serbs had been initiated in cultural
matters. The question remained, whether the ties of Illyrism with the
Habsburgs could be maintained, if and when a Croatian compromise with
the Magyars could be achieved. For the time being Illyrism had mended
its political fences with the government in Vienna and had encouraged
further cultural advance, unimpeded by governmental actions.
One of its first outstanding literary representatives was Stanko Vraz
(1810-1851), a poet who had moved from Slovene territory to Zagreb and
had accepted the Croatian (or, in Gaj’s terms, the new Serbo-Croatian)
language which should follow the southern Dalmatian pattern. Vraz,
founder of the literary review Kolo, was a collector of folksongs, a lyric
poet, writer of ballads, and—characteristic for Croatian literature—
satires. Ivan Mazuranic (1814-1890) revived the national epic of the
Southern Slav task of defending Christianity. Petar von Preradovic (1814-
1872), an imperial officer, the most romantic of the new Southern Slav
lyrical poets, glorified also the Southern Slav Illyrian mission in the
present and future world. The national legal and social historian Ivan
Kukuljevic, supported the bishop of Djakovo, Josip Strossmayer, in creat¬
ing the Yugoslav Academy (1851) and the university (1874), both in
Zagreb. Luka Botic, who belonged to the school of Mazuranic, perceived
in his epic poetry, against mounting parochial Croatian opposition to the
Illyrian unification idea, an even wider union concept, namely the recon¬
ciliation of Southern Slav Christianity and Mohammedanism. Here the
future problems of Bosnia within a prospective Southern Slav political
union were envisaged.29
c) THE SERBS
As noted in Chapter IV the Serbs in southern Hungary enjoyed a

limited religious and cultural autonomy granted by Emperor Leopold I
in 1690-1691. At times restricted, this autonomy never developed beyond
the levels of elementary education and church administration. Moreover,
during most of the eighteenth century pressures were exerted for cultural
union with the Croatians and for Germanization. The first partition of
Poland in 1772, which led to the establishment of a Cyrillic printing press
in Vienna primarily on behalf of the Ruthenians, offered the Serbs
limited facilities for literary publications also but the basic ideas of the
Enlightenment reached the Serbs in Hungary, the Banat, and Dalmatia
not from Vienna but from Belgrad. Dosjtije Obradovic (around 1740 to
1811), a Serb from the Banat who had studied in Vienna and Halle and
was impressed by Joseph IPs reforms, established an autonomous educa¬
tional system under over-all Turkish sovereignty after his return to Old
Serbia. The autobiography, letters, and essays on practical enlightened
philosophy of this remarkable man could be read only with difficulty in
Hungary, because the Old Slavonic Church language was used almost ex¬
clusively by the clergy and the idiom of the south Hungarian Serbs did not
lend itself as yet to the transmission of complex ideas. Obradovic and his
followers E. Jankovic, Bishop Lucian Musicki of Karlowitz (Carlovci),
J. Vujic, and others tried with moderate success to raise the standards
of the vernacular by translations from the German and Italian.
Largely due to the influence of Kopitar on his foremost student Vuk
Stefanovic Karadzic (1787-1864) a better solution was initiated. In
1813, Karadzic, born in Serbia and engaged in various revolutionary
activities against the Turks, was forced to flee to Vienna where Kopitar
prevailed on him to develop and raise a Southern Serb idiom to the
literary language of the great Southern Slav hinterland beyond the Sava.
Karadzic wrote a Serb grammar in 1814 and edited his famous collection
of folksongs admired by Goethe in the revised language. It represented
29 Paul Diels, Die slawischen Vo\er mit einer Liter aturubersicht von Alexander
Adamczy\ (Wiesbaden, 1963), pp. 248-253; Franjo Trograncic, “Literature (18th
Century),” in Francis H. Eterovich and Christopher Spalatin, eds., Croatia, II, 215-
239, and K. B. K., “Literature (1835-1895),” ibid. I, 242-256; Zvanc Crnja, Cultural
History of Croatia (Zagreb, 1962), pp. 281-321.
essentially a combination of Hercegovinian and southern Dalmatian
idioms, written in a simplified Cyrillic alphabet.
Karadzic may indeed be called the initiator of the joint Serbo-Croatian
literature of the still distant future. In his time, cultural and political tra¬
ditions and rivalries, beyond the issue of the Latin versus the Cyrillic
alphabet, prevented the early amalgamation of the-two languages which
might have led to the early evolution of a genuine joint Serbo-Croatian
literature. Nevertheless, the principles of a common Serbo-Croatian liter¬
ary language were recognized by the foremost Southern Slav philologists
against much opposition of the orthodox, largely pro-Russian, conservative
clergy.
Consequently, the first followers of Karadzic came from Habsburg
territories in southern Hungary: Branko Radicevic, the lyric poet, and
Jovan S. Popovic, the playwright, in the first half of the nineteenth cen¬
tury, as well as R. Jovan Jovanovic, a lyric poet and journalist in the
second half. There existed little doubt that the spectacular success of the
Slavic renaissance among the Czechs, Polish Messianism, and New Hel¬
lenism, all had the effect of strengthening the forces of romantic and
gradually liberal nationalism against cultural isolation and an intellectual
cast system. Above all, the revised and elevated idioms of the people had
prevailed against a decaying and sterile Church language. In fact the new
spirit with its double appeal to romantics and liberals initiated by Karadzic
was strong enough to give to the Hungarian Vojvodina well into the
1870^ the character of an enclave of Serb literary nationalism. The activi¬
ties of the secret nationalist youth organization Omladina until its dissolu¬
tion in 1872 30 were particularly significant. Only the establishment of a fully
sovereign Serbia in 1878 moved the center of gravity of Serb cultural
activities toward the newly strengthened political center.
Major intellectual steps toward this situation had gone on for a century.
Their limited success revealed the difficulties resulting from an oppressive
and divisive political past. Yet something else became clear: the substantial
political achievements brought about by the challenge of a great cultural
problem fought against enormous odds.31
30 A dissolution brought about by the anti-Slavic oriented Hungarian govern¬

ment with obliging assistance from the conservative Turkish vassal government in
Belgrad.
31 Ernest Denis, La Grande Serbie (Paris, 1915), pp. 86—93; Paul Diels and Alex¬
ander Adamczyk, Die lawischen Vdl\er (Wiesbaden, 1963), pp. 251-253; Pypin and
Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Literaturen, I, 263-312; Duncan Wilson, The
Life and Time of Vu\ S. Karadzic (Oxford, 1970), pp. 190-313.
H. The Latins
The Italians and Roumanians, separated from each other by the whole
length of the Habsburg empire from west to east, had few cultural rela¬
tions and those that existed were hardly based on ethnic affinity.32 Affinity
was limited in any case by the Slavic streak within the Rumanian na¬
tion. They shared the fact, that their cultural history within the Habsburg
empire was to a greater degree determined by their conationals across the
Habsburg borders than was true of other groups in a seemingly similar
position such as the Poles, Ruthenians, and Serbs. The Serbs could de¬
velop some limited autonomous cultural life in Hungary before that
chance was given to them in Serbia proper. The Poles represented (at
least after 1867-1868) a powerful political force within the empire. Even
though the cultural center gradually had become Congress Poland again,
the weight of the Austrian Poles was bound to be felt within the in¬
tellectual life of the whole nation. The Ruthenians went through a dif¬
ferent political, religious, and linguistic history than most of the Ukrainian
nation. This factor, too, gave their cultural life within the empire con¬
siderable significance. Regarding the Italians, the cultural impact of the,
nation state south of the Trentino and west of the Adriatic was so over¬
whelmingly powerful, that even the most active cultural life of the
Austro-Italians counted relatively little within the Italian cultural body.
The Roumanians were a politically suppressed national group in Tran¬
sylvania, legally until 1863 and practically again after 1867. This was not
true to the same degree in the Bukovina, yet here they were slightly out¬
numbered by the Ruthenians. Furthermore, the history of a permanent
separate administration of the crownland goes back only to 1849. Con¬
sidering these factors it is amazing how diverse Roumanian cultural life in
the empire was, even though it too could reflect only its secondary aspects.
a) THE ITALIANS
An active center of Italian enlightened reform ideas existed in

Rovereto, where a learned academy was established in 1750. An eminent
professor of natural law and member of the legal codification commis¬
sion under Maria Theresa, Carl Anton von Martini (1726-1800), came
from this region. Complete assimilation became so easy for him as for
32 Itmight be noted in passing that Morlaks, a group of Roumanian ethnic stock

had settled in the Middle Ages in northern Dalmatia. By the eighteenth century
they had become completely slavicized, however.
/j02 History of the Hahshurg Empire
many other distinguished Italians at the center of the imperial adminis¬
tration, that his Italian background was forgotten. Girolamo Tartarotti,
his contemporary, remained in the Trentino and became an advocate of
legal reforms in the spirit of Beccaria. One of the most interesting per¬
sonalities in the Rovereto circle was Count Antonio Rosmini-Serbati
(I797_I^55)- A priest, equally versed in philosophy and theology, he was
for a time minister of education in the papal state under Pius IX. Rosmini
developed an original philosophical system, which tried to combine fea¬
tures of an idealistic and a Cartesian philosophy. In 1849 this doctrine was
put on the Index, though by the end of the century it was finally cleared.
As for literature, Giovanni Prati (1815-1884), a notable lyric poet and
writer of novellas, changed his loyalties from Habsburg to Savoy. Andreas
Mafiei (1797-1855) became an outstanding translator of Schiller, Goethe,
and Milton.
Concerning Dalmatia, the impact of the Italian minority on various as¬
pects of Southern Slav culture, in particular Croatian, had been great
throughout the late Middle Ages and early Modern Times. Beginning
with the Enlightenment Italian influence declined, although traces were
still marked in the nineteenth century, such as those shown by the linguist
Tommaseo of Sebenico (1802-1874). When he became involved in anti-
Austrian revolutionary activities he had to leave the country. In the
Littoral, Capo d’Istria was an Italian cultural center like Rovereto in the
Trentino, and in 1793 an academy was established there too. Interests
were focused on social reforms. The southward orientation of Italian cul¬
tural life in Austria was not only a consequence of the general unification
drive but also of the lack of Italian institutions of higher education in
the Habsburg empire after 1866. The universities of Padua and Milan,
particularly the latter, had been centers of anti-Habsburg activities as long
as they were under Austrian administration. The establishment of an
Italian university on Austrian soil after 1866, if operated in a free at¬
mosphere of learning, might well have eased the development of irre-
dentism. Alienated Austro-Italian students might have modified their
feelings if given the chance to study at an Italian university in their home
country. The shortsightedness of the government, but above all German
nationalist tendencies prevented this. There was, indeed, little middle
ground between integral nationalism and more or less deliberate dena¬
tionalization, that is, Italian cultural activities of outright irredentist
character and those contributions of Italians which merged completely
with the central governmental political and educational structure.33
33Fortunat Demattio, “Italienische Literatur,” in [Crownprince Rudolf] Die
b) THE ROUMANIANS
The rise of the status of the Roumanians in Transylvania was chiefly

related to two events: the introduction of a Uniate Church at the end of
the seventeenth century and the conferral of citizenship status on them
almost a century later under Joseph II. Both actions helped the suppressed
serfs to strengthen their national consciousness. Even though this slow
evolution fell short of the attainment of equality with the Magyars,
Szekels, and Germans, the member groups of the estates in the three-
nation state, these modest concessions sufficed to lay the groundwork for
a vigorous evolution o£ national culture. The Vienna-educated Uniate
priest, and subsequently bishop, George Sincai, and his nephew Samuel
Klein were coauthors of a new Roumanian grammar The Element of the
Dacian-Roman or Wallach language. Klein who also had received his
theological training in the Uniate seminary in Vienna, edited also a prayer
book in the language revised according to the principles of the new gram¬
mar. Petru Maior (1754-1821), likewise a Uniate priest, went an important
step further in his effort to establish the national identity of the under¬
privileged Transylvanian Vlachs. After the publication of his sermons
his History of the Origin of the Roumanians in Dacia came out in 1812.
Based in part on previous studies by Sincai this book was indeed a
pioneer work of Roumanian national history.34 George Baritiu (1812-
1893), also a historian, became the editor of the first Roumanian-language
journal in Transylvania (1838). August Trebonia Laurian (1810-1881)
and Nicolas Bala§escu (1819-1852), as early as the 1840’s, were editors of a
historical journal. Alexander Odobescu (1834-1895) was a distinguished
archeologist. Most of these men had a distinctly anti-Magyar orientation,
but shared a limited trust in the Austrian government until 1848-1849.
Their gradual disappointment in the 1850’s and 1860’s was one reason
why the eminent Roumanian cultural leader, the archbishop Andrei
Saguna (1809-1873), head of the Orthodox Church in Transylvania, stood
for a cautious policy of reconciliation with the Magyars. It met consider¬
able opposition among the Roumanians. Yet in several ways the govern¬
ment in Budapest had more reasons to accommodate the Orthodox with
osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, Vol. Tirol und Vorarlberg, pp. 402-416; Anton

Zernitz, “Italienische Literatur,” in Vol. Kiistenland, pp. 249-256; Alfred Mussafia,
“Italienische Literatur,” in Vol. Dalmatien, pp. 213-231.
34 Dacia is generally to be understood as the area of the former Roman province
between Tisza river in the west, Carpathians in the north, the Dniester in the east
and the Danube to the south. This territory thus covers only very roughly the
Roumanian ethnic area.
their wide backing in the Slavic world to the east than the Uniates. Con-
siderable concessions in regard to Church autonomy and lesser conces¬
sions in the Nationality Law of 1868 were made. The prestige of the arch¬
bishop, in some ways a parallel figure to that of Strossmayer among the
Croats, helped to keep Roumanian policies in Translyvania on an even
keel. Saguna’s cultural contributions, in particular, the establishment of
the journal Transylvania for the cultivation of the Roumanian language
and literature were instrumental in strengthening national consciousness
in an era of steady political oppression.
There was less oppression in the Bukovina. Here Jon Budai-Deleanu
(1760-1820) published a Roumanian-German dictionary and a grammar
as early as 1805. In 1848, a newspaper was founded in the capital
Czernowitz (Cernauti), a literary journal in 1865. Eudoxious Hurmuzaki
(1812-1874) was a historian, well able to handle the medieval sources of
Roumanian national history. Roumanian and Ruthenian national cultural
progress in the Bukovina suffered indirectly, however, from the German
domination of intellectual life, particularly in the capital and the new
university founded in Czernowitz in 1875. Apart from the training fa¬
cilities in theology for the orthodox priesthood it could be called a
German institution. Without overt pressure it became clear to young
intellectuals in the Bukovina, that a career in the free professions and in
government service was easier in the German language orbit than in the
Roumanian, whose national base in the Bukovina was much smaller than
in Transylvania. Limitations in numbers worked directly as much against
the Roumanians here as outright political oppression there. In the light of
these difficulties Roumanian cultural progress was indeed impressive.35
I. Summary
All things considered cultural life among the national groups of the
Habsburg empire had made astounding progress in the era that leads
from the Enlightenment to liberalism. For the Austro-Germans it was, of
course, easier than for any other national group, except possibly the
Italians, to establish a working two-way cultural communications system
with the wide German hinterland. Even here the consequences of cultural
isolation before the Enlightenment were fully overcome only at the be-
35 Nicolai Jorga, Histoire des Roumains de Transylvanie et de Hongric, 2 vols.

(Bucharest, 1915-1916), see II, 173-305; Johann Sbiera, “Die rumanische Literatur
und Sprache,” in [Crownprince Rudolf] Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic,
Vol. Bu\owina, pp. 376-393; Constantin Daicoviciu and Miron Constantinescu,
Breve Histoire de la Transylvanie (Bucharest, 1965), pp. 326-343; Cornelia Bodea,
The Roumanians1 Struggle for Unification, 1834-1839 (Bucharest, 1970), pp. 31-63;
Ladislas Makkai, Histoire de Transylvanie (Paris, 1946), pp. 284-299.
ginning of the nineteenth century. This did not pertain to the same
extent to the Italians, where the cultural community preceded the political
union all throughout modern and in part even medieval history. As for
the Magyars, the limited range of their language orbit represented a
serious impediment. Nevertheless they had become as fully associated
with western European literature in the Romantic era as the Poles. In the
nineteenth century the Roumanians too had reached a similar stage of
literary development in their relations to the west. The linguistic premises
for such breakthrough had become fully effective by 1848.
The same had indeed become gradually true for all Slavic national
groups in the Habsburg empire. Because of the differences in specific
social and political conditions of national groups, their cultural achieve¬
ments can neither be standardized nor truly compared. It can be said,
however, that by mid-nineteenth century, under the powerful impact of
the Slavic renaissance, they all had achieved a level of linguistic develop¬
ment which placed intellectual accomplishment within reach, although
on political grounds not necessarily within early realization.
The discussion ot one general problem should conclude this chapter:
the question of the influence of the cultural achievements of one group
within the empire on all others. Only for the Germans was such in¬
fluence uncontested on an empire-wide scale. A direct impact of Czech on
Slovak civilization and of Polish on the superstructure of the Ruthenians
is as discernible (though not always as clearly) as for instance that of the
Italians on the Croats. But above all the three Southern Slav groups,
Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes, each in its own way, shaped general
Southern Slav developments. Other influences existed, such as those ra¬
diating from and into the Magyar orbit. Yet they were primarily indirect
and, in part, imposed on politically weaker national groups. This, of
course, is true for the Germans as well. But unlike the German impact,
such influences were not outright accepted or rejected but rather digested
without specific intent in the course of times. Much of this kind of de¬
velopment can be seen between Magyars on one side and Slovaks and
Transylvanian Roumanians on the other. Beyond this, the fascinating
problem of cultural interaction between national groups pertains only to
the more recent stages of their development. By mid-nineteenth century
a process of mutual give and take had become fully conscious in regard to
all groups, although it did not take place necessarily on an equal footing.
The question will be taken up in the final chapter of this study in regard
to the cultural-intellectual development during the last half-century of the
empire’s existence.
CHAPTER VIII
Decline and Discord (i879-!9i4)
A. Politics in Austria-Hungary
a) FOREIGN POLICY
The day after the conclusion of the Austro-German alliance of 1879

Count Andrassy resigned as foreign minister, largely because he had
antagonized the German, and particularly the Magyar, liberals and na¬
tionalists with the Bosnian occupation. Moreover, although the crown had
approved the Austro-German alliance, the emperor still considered it
humiliating to have to coordinate his policy from now on with that of
Bismarck’s Germany, the power in the center of the continental po¬
litical stage. Andrassy’s successor, Baron Heinrich Haymerle, his former
aide, was committed to continue this foreign policy. After his sudden
death in 1881 he was succeeded by Count Gustav Kalnoky, former am¬
bassador in St. Petersburg, who until his resignation in May, 1895, over
an issue of Church prerogatives versus Magyar liberalism pursued a more
independent policy. Faithful to the German alliance, but anxious to
preserve Austria-Hungary’s freedom of action in the Balkans and in
particular in relations with Russia, he did not succeed fully in either
respect.
The situation faced by Andrassy’s successors was focused primarily on
the Habsburg empire’s relations to Russia, which had been strained from
the beginning of the Oriental crisis in 1876 and had certainly not im¬
proved after the Congress of Berlin of 1878. In the 1880’s, a conservative-
inspired Panslav nationalism developed at an accelerated pace in Russia.
It was favored by the new tsar Alexander III, who unlike his father
assassinated in March, 1881, was neither anxious to preserve cordial
406
Decline and Discord 407
relations with Germany nor to keep those with Austria at least on an
even keel. The chief battleground between Austria and Russia were the
Balkans, as hotly contested spheres of interest of both countries. Here
Austria could expect little direct benefit from the German alliance. In his
famous Reichstag speech of December, 1876, Bismarck had made it clear
that the whole Balkan problem was not worth the sacrifice of the straight
limbs of a single Prussian grenadier. The best means to protect and to
restrain Austria seemed to him to bring her and Russia to an understand¬
ing based on the foundation of monarchic solidarity. This was the premise
of the so-called Alliance of the Three Emperors of June, 1881, concluded
for three years and renewed for another three years in 1884.
The term “alliance” for the interrelationship between the three empires
—in contrast to the genuine Austro-German alliance of 1879—was a
euphemistic misnomer because Russia would never have been willing to
enter into far-reaching commitments with Austria. Neither would the
Austro-German alliance in case of strong Austro-Russian ties have pre¬
served its raison d’etre. The covenant was no more than a neutrality
agreement between the three powers, which agreed furthermore to con¬
sult if the territorial status of Turkey should be threatened. The principle
of the closure of the Dardanelles was recognized as well as the Austrian
claim to convert the occupation of Bosnia-Hercegovina into permanent
annexation,1 The union between Bulgaria, still a Turkish satellite state,
and the autonomous Turkish province East Roumelia was recognized in
principle. Since Austria thus seemed safe for the time being from a con¬
frontation with Russia she could afTord to reach a profitable agreement
of ten years duration with Serbia, whose conclusion was facilitated by
liberal subsidies for the absentee sovereign, King Milan. Austria promised
to support eventual Serbian expansion in the south, while Serbia pledged
even to conclude no agreements with other powers without Austria’s ap¬
proval. Thus the Habsburg empire’s predominance in the western Bal¬
kans seemed to be well secured.
The conversion of the Austro-German Dual Alliance of 1879 into the
Austro-German-Italian Triple Alliance of May, 1882, was meant by Bis¬
marck primarily to strengthen the protection of Germany’s western and
southern flanks in case of a two-front war with Russia and France. An
important secondary objective of this genuine but shaky alliance was
to check Italy’s designs to liberate at the appropriate time the eastern
coast of the Adriatic and the Trentino. This Bismarck strategem, applied
1 This agreement, which lapsed in 1887, did not preclude the necessity for the
approval of the other signatory powers of the Congress Act of 1878.
repeatedly—namely to turn mutual enemies into friends by joining them
as junior partners in an alliance—worked no better than the Austro-
German-Russian associations, namely the Three Emperors’ League of
1873 and the so called Three Emperors’ Alliance of 1881 in regard to
Austro-Russian relations.
The Triple Alliance of 1882 between Austria, Germany, and Italy, it
is true, offered much protection to Italy against a French attack but
little additional security to her allies. Germany was hardly in need of
Italian support against France. Only in case of the involvement of
Austria and Germany in a two-front war against Russia and France
could the Italian alliance be of possible use. Yet even this depended on
the doubtful assumption of Italian military proficiency and on the re¬
liability of Italy’s loyalty to the treaty. Neither Bismarck nor Kalnoky
were blind to these facts but they hoped that even a dubious ally was
better than a country without commitments that could be won over
easily to an opposing camp. Furthermore the very fact of the alliance
might put an end to the covert support of Italian irredentist activities in
Austria.
A secret alliance with Roumania, concluded in October, 1883, against
Russia,2 soon joined by Germany and Italy, was no more successful.
This agreement was based more or less on the two eyes of the Hohen-
zollern king of Roumania, Carol I, whose loyalty to the Central European
powers could be relied on. Although the Roumanians resented the forced
cession of southern Bessarabia to Russia in 1878, they were even more
interested in the liberation of the Roumanians in Transylvania and Buko-
vina. This national priority was in part due to the fact, that Austria-
Hungary was not as strong a power as Russia. Considering further the
French orientation of the ruling classes in Roumania, lack of popular
support for this secret alliance was so clearly predictable, that its public
disclosure was impossible, despite continuous Austrian and German pres¬
sure. Thus the assumption that Roumania would honor a treaty concluded
with the lesser evil (Austria) rather than with the bigger one (Russia)
because a feeble covenant was better than none, proved to be illusionary.
During the following four years, critical ones in the relationship be¬
tween the Central European powers and Russia, the effectiveness of the
new lineup of alliances was tested. In September, 1885 a revolt in East
Roumelia began with the aim to unite the province with Bulgaria. Within
2 The terms of the treaty did not mention Russia, but the meaning of the
alliance was unmistakable.
Decline and Discord 4°9
a year this move succeeded. Its immediate consequences were a Bulgarian
conflict with Serbia, in which the advance of Bulgarian troops under the
command of the new Bulgarian sovereign Alexander, Prince of Batten-
berg, was stopped only by an Austrian ultimatum. This was the first in
a series of similar Austrian interventions in Balkan affairs but this first
time—ironically enough—initiated on Serbia’s behalf.
Tsar Alexander III opposed the rule of Alexander of Battenberg, a
prince with English dynastic connections, who appeared to him too in¬
dependent, too liberal, and too western. In the fall of 1886 a Russian-
sponsored officers’ revolt removed Alexander and restored Russian more
or less indirect overlordship in Bulgaria, stepping up the Austro-Russian
crisis. The casus foederis could now arise for Germany to support
Austria over a Balkan issue—the kind of conflict Bismarck wanted to
avoid at all costs.
He believed he could do so by assuaging Austria’s and—secretly—
Russia’s concerns as well, but above all to keep his hands at the steering
wheel of the Triple Alliance. In early February, 1886, he encouraged
Austria’s adherence to a British-sponsored agreement of the Mediter¬
ranean powers with the exception of France. The declared objective was
to maintain the status quo in the Mediterranean and indirectly to block
French intentions in regard to Egypt and Russian designs to force the
openings of the Dardanelles. Likewise in February, the Triple Alliance
was renewed and in view of the critical situation in the Balkans Italy was
able to raise her price for further adherence to the treaty: a qualified
pledge on the part of the Central European powers to support Italian
interests in North Africa against France and—more important for Austria
—an agreement diat any expansion in the Balkans would entitle the
partner to territorial compensations.3 This concession to future Italian
aspirations in the Balkans limited Austria’s freedom of action.
Bismark was not naive enough to put all his policy eggs in the basket
of an increasingly illusionary monarchical solidarity of the three eastern
empires. He was concerned with a rapid deterioration of German-
French relations, due primarily to the unexpectedly fast recovery of
France after 1870-1871. More specific issues for the approaching crisis
were the dictatorial aspirations of the chauvinist French minister of
war, General Boulanger. A frontier incident provoked by Germany in
3 Exempted from this concession was the conversion of the status of Bosnia-
Hercegovina from an occupied to an annexed province. Such change would not
entitle Italy to compensatory claims.
4io History of the Habsburg Empire
Alsace-Lorraine added fuel to the fire. In consideration of such factors
Bismarck now moved to direct negotiations with Russia, embodied in
the famous secret Reinsurance Treaty of June, 1887.
The first part of the treaty pledged mutual neutrality between Germany
and Russia in case of conflict with other powers. Excepted from this
obligation were aggressive wars on the part of Germany against France
or of Russia against Austria. To put it in other words, Germany was not
obliged to support her ally, Austria, in an offensive war against Russia.
The determination of what constituted aggression was to be left to the
contracting parties. Much has been written on the question, whether this
agreement was compatible with the Austro-German alliance of 1879. As
far as the letter of the treaty goes, the answer should clearly be in the
affirmative. Since the alliance of 1879 was defensive in character, the new
German pledge did not conflict with it directly. In regard to the spirit
of the agreement we face another problem. The question concerning the
differences between offensive and defensive wars appeared even more
controversial than it is today. Furthermore, the secrecy of the agreement
suggested that Bismarck wanted it to be interpreted entirely accord¬
ing to German interests. This meant in regard to the Balkan questions,
to curb Austrian aspirations. As it turned out, if that policy would have
been consistently adhered to up to and including the July crisis of 1914,
the treaty could have been as much in Austria’s as in Germany’s interest.
Far less commented on in historical literature was the second part of the
agreement, in which Bismarck without knowledge of his Austrian ally
promised to recognize a predominant Russian sphere of interests in Bul¬
garia as well as diplomatic support for Russia’s intent to open the
Straits. Inasmuch as he prevailed on Austria in December, 1887, to
sign a second Mediterranean agreement with Italy and Great Britain,
whose objective was to preserve Turkey’s control of the Dardanelles and
noninterference in Bulgarian affairs, this part of the Reinsurance Treaty
represented a clear case of duplicity. At the same time, to pacify Austria’s
feelings, aroused by Bismarck’s refusal to support her openly in Balkan
affairs, he agreed to a publication of the Austro-German alliance treaty
of 1879. By this time, however, its existence was hardly a secret to the
European cabinets. In fact there is good reason to believe that the
Austrians suspected the existence of the Reinsurance Treaty as well. Yet
for the time being further escalation of the crisis was averted, and with
the fall of Bismarck from power in March, 1890, the new German
emperor Wilhelm II allowed the Reinsurance Treaty to lapse.
Eastern affairs quieted down briefly and the new prince of Bulgaria,
Decline and Discord 4i i
Ferdinand of Koburg, a former Austrian officer, was recognized by
Russia in 1896. In 1897 an<^ I9°3 Austria and Russia arrived at agreements
to preserve the status quo in the Balkans. At the same time the Ottoman
empire was urged to introduce reforms in Macedonia, which should
forestall actions by the Balkan states. This was an implied warning to
them not to interfere as long as Russia was engaged in other affairs—
meaning in particular the impending Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905.4
Seen in a larger frame, political developments appeared ominous
enough. The conclusion of the Franco-Russian alliance in 1894, the
Franco-British entente in 1904, and the first Morocco crisis of 1905-1906,
in which Germany and Austria stood isolated, were major warnings.
Added to them must be developments in the western Balkans. In 1889,
the corrupt Serbian king Milan, subsidized by Austria, had died, an
event which moved Austro-Serbian affairs into less tranquil waters. A
pro-Russian nationalist faction in Serbia gained steadily against one in
favor of cooperation with Austria. This change of balance paralleled shifts
among the Southern Slavs in the Habsburg empire, where political
leadership moved gradually from still pro-Habsburg Croatian political
direction to the Serbs, who favored secession and the establishment of a
Yugoslav state under Serb leadership. These were hopes for the future
and not yet definitive political action plans but in June, 1903, the young
king Alexander and his consort were brutally murdered by an officers’
conspiracy. The replacement of the basically pro-Austrian Obrenovich
dynasty by the head of the nationalist and pro-Panslav (pro-Russian)
house of Karadjordjevic under Peter I, changed the balance of power in
the Balkans, and soon in Europe. From here on not only Serbian national
sentiments but Serbian foreign policy became openly hostile to the
Habsburg monarchy.
Austria’s foreign policy did little to counteract these feelings. On the
contrary, a short-sighted economic embargo for the import of Serbian
pigs and grain, primarily in the interest of Magyar aristocratic estates
owners, aggravated the conflict. It was sharpened further by extreme
Austro-German and Magyar nationalism. In October, 1906, the Austrian
foreign minister, Count Goluchowski (1895-1906) resigned. He had
tried to maintain friendly relations with Russia and thereby indirectly
4 See William L. Langer, European Alliances and Alignments (New York, 1931),
pp. 204-250, 323-363. Allan J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe
(Oxford, 1957), pp. 304-325, 370-372; Sidney B. Fay, The Origins of the World
War (New York, 1938), I, 71-96, 141-151, 354-361. F. R. Bridge, From Sadowa to
Sarajevo: The Foreign Policy of Austria-Hungary, i866-igi4 (London, 1972), pp.
211-277.
4i2 History of the Habsburg Empire
with Serbia and was therefore accused by one group of slighting Magyar
interests, by another of being too obliging to them. The first group,
represented primarily by Magyar aristocrats, argued that Goluchowski
had not done enough to represent their economic interests in the eco¬
nomic warfare with Serbia. The second faction was led by the ultra¬
conservative heir apparent Archduke Francis Ferdinand who, opposed to
the Magyar establishment, could never quite swallow the terms of the
Compromise of 1867. He favored the reestablishment of a centralized
empire to be made more acceptable to the Slavs by some limited federalist
dressings.
Goluchowski was replaced by an activist foreign minister, the am¬
bassador in St. Petersburg, Count (then Baron) Aerenthal. Worse, a
new chief of general staff, General Conrad von Hotzendorf, was ap¬
pointed a month later at the behest of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. As
soon became apparent, he interfered with the direction of foreign policy.
His talents as military organizer and strategist could not make up for
the fact that here an outright champion of preventive war came into
high office. His views ran counter to those of the heir apparent, who
had recommended Conrad’s appointment on the strength of his military
qualifications but not on account of his previously little known political
opinions on foreign policy. Conrad believed the difficulties of the mon¬
archy could be solved in good time, namely by a “blood and iron” policy.
While his agitation for a preventive war against Serbia and Italy was not
immediately successful, the steady demand for action had an emasculat¬
ing effect on the supporters of a more cautious wait-and-see attitude, until
this general, one of the foremost gravediggers of the Habsburg monarchv,
finally had his ill-fated way.
Aerenthal, a more sophisticated man than Conrad, was not prepared to
advocate preventive war. Unlike the chief of staff he understood that
such action might easily lead to a general European conflagration. Yet
he, too, believed that some, though more limited, risks had to be taken in
an increasingly critical situation. In 1907-1908 he first attempted to
strengthen the Austrian position in the western Balkans by promoting a
railway project through the Sanjak to Salonika, the chief port in the
northern Aegean Sea. Although this scheme presented no threat of
war, it indicated a change of the status quo in the Balkans and was ob¬
jected to by Russia and seen with concern by Britain. Threatening friction
with Russia seemed not worth the price, and the Aerenthal plan was
dropped but suspicion remained. Soon a new and greater crisis appeared.
In July, 1908, the Young Turkish nationalist revolution succeeded in
Decline and Discord 4^3
transforming the Ottoman empire, at least on paper, into a constitutional
monarchy, proclaimed earlier in 1876 but never carried out. This could
have been interpreted to mean that the premises of the Austrian occupation,
agreed upon at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, were absolete. The sultan,
still in theory the suzerain of Bosnia-Hercegovina, as from now on
allegedly constitutional ruler, could demand restoration of his full sover¬
eign rights in the provinces.
It is doubtful that the Turks would have succeeded by an appeal to the
signatory powers of the Congress act to have the occupation terminated.
Aerenthal’s design to change the occupation into annexation used the
revolutionary change in Turkey rather as a convenient pretext. He was
more afraid of Southern Slav, particularly Serb, irredentist propaganda
in the kingdom, as well as in the occupied provinces and in Croatia. He
believed that only annexation could lay the ghost of a Yugoslav state in¬
cluding the Austrian-Hungarian Southern Slav territories. Beyond this he
felt that only energetic action on the part of the Habsburg monarchy
could dispel the notion of the empire as the second sick man in Europe,
whose dismemberment would follow soon after that of Turkey. In this
sense his course of action, motivated by understandable concern, repre¬
sented also a prestige policy. Starting from the assumption that Russia
so soon after her defeat in the Far East would not be able to counter
an Austrian move backed by German force, he considered the risk of a
major conflagration as remote.
Aerenthal played his hands too adroitly. In an entrevue with the Rus¬
sian foreign secretary Izvolski in mid-September, 1908, in the castle of
Buchlau in Moravia, owned by the then Austrian ambassador to St.
Petersburg, Count Berchtold, he informed Izvolski of the Austrian in¬
tention to change the status of Bosnia-Hercegovina. In return for assur¬
ances of Russian acquiescence he promised that Austria would not oppose
the opening of the Dardanelles to Russian warships. The Austrian and
Russian versions of the conversation are in conflict. According to Izvol¬
ski Aerenthal had obscured the fact that the proclamation of the an¬
nexation should take place in a matter of weeks. The Austrian foreign
minister was unable to repudiate this charge convincingly. On October 6
the annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina was proclaimed and a feeble consti¬
tution, not to say mock constitution, was granted to the provinces. Since
no agreement could be reached between Austria and Hungary, in whose
territory Bosnia-Hercegovina should have been incorporated, the provinces
were to be a condominium of the dual states under the continued ad¬
ministration of the joint minister of finance. As sop to the Turks the
evacuation of the Sanjak from Austrian troops was announced at the
same time. One day earlier Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria had proclaimed
the severence of the last ties of his country, including Eastern Roumelia,
with the Ottoman empire and the acceptance of the proud title of tsar.
The timing was shrewdly chosen by Ferdinand, because attention of the
great powers would now be fully occupied by the Austrian move and,
besides, the Habsburg monarchy would presumably be charged falsely to
have initiated the Bulgarian move.
Ferdinand proved to be right. The Austrian annexation, which in no
way changed the balance of power in Europe, escalated into a major
international crisis. Serbia saw her hopes to establish a Yugoslav empire
in the future delayed or shattered. Her government now initiated a
passionate campaign of irredentist propaganda linked with warlike threats
against Austria. In doing so Serbia had the full propagandist and diplo¬
matic support of Russia and also in a more moderate way that of
Britain. Here the fact that in August, 1907 Russia, France’s ally, had
become also the third partner in the Anglo-French entente—now the
Triple Entente—bore fruit for the first time. The Turks were likewise
upset, and with legal justification, because the Austrian decision should
have been taken only with the consent of all signatories of the Congress
Act of Berlin, that is the great powers and Turkey, but not Serbia. Be¬
yond the merits of the case, a major test of strength between the Triple
Alliance (actually only the Central Powers) and the Triple Entente was
now brewing. Austria yielded in part, at least in regard to her least dan¬
gerous opponent, Turkey. In December, 1908, Austria agreed to pay com¬
pensation to the Ottoman empire. This did not stop Serbian propaganda
and even military preparations backed by Russia. The tsarist government
felt doubly betrayed because the Austrian promise to support the open¬
ing of the Dardanelles to the Russian navy proved to be worthless in the
face of Franco-British opposition to such change. Thus the crisis deep¬
ened. Finally in March, 1909, Austria presented an ultimatum to Serbia
demanding demobilization and recognition of the annexation under
threat of military action. At the same time the German government re¬
quested Russia to abandon her support of Serbia, unless she wanted to
risk war with Germany. Russia, still weakened by the consequences of the
war against Japan, had to back down; this meant that Serbia had to ac¬
cept the humiliating Austrian ultimatum. Austria-Hungary got away with
her violation of the Congress Act of Berlin. Backed by Germany she had
secured a major diplomatic victory.
Decline and Discord 4*5
Yet if there ever was a clear case of a Pyrrhic victory, this was an
example. Austria had not increased her military power potential. Accord¬
ing to some she had actually weakened it by abandoning the Sanjak,
although military opinion is divided on this point. The hatred of the
Serbs increased and the humiliation of Russia meant that the ruling tsarist
regime could not survive another major diplomatic defeat. Unfortunately,
the most influential diplomatic and military dignitaries of the Central
Powers drew the opposite conclusion. They believed, if Russia had backed
down once she would do so again—namely in the July crisis of 1914.
Added to this wrong calculation must be the fact, that the annexation
accentuated the Southern Slav problem in the Habsburg monarchy fur¬
ther. Thus, Aerenthal’s prestige success, anchored primarily in German
support, meant that the international crisis as well as the national crisis
in the Habsburg monarchy had increased.5
With the second Moroccan crisis and the Tripolitanian war by Italy
against Turkey in 1911 the international situation deteriorated further.
Worse was to come. The outbreak of the first Balkan war in October,
1912, seemed to indicate that the soon to be expected demise of the first
sick man in Europe, Turkey, would lead to that of the second, Austria.
The liberation of the remaining Slavs in the Ottoman empire would be
followed soon by that of the Southern Slavs in the Habsburg monarchy.
By this time an unhappy change in the diplomatic command post had
taken place. Aerenthal had died in February, 1912, and was replaced
by Count Leopold Berchtold, ambassador to the tsar. Although Aerenthal
had taken too many risks, he was a circumspect diplomat. He was a man
of strong character, who had stood up in 1911 to Conrad’s preventive war
policy and had forced his resignation. Berchtold was an amiable aristocrat,
a man of diplomatic routine, anxious to please and always ready to march
with the stronger battalions. Although Conrad was returned to office in
1912, these stronger battalions were still led by the heir apparent, Arch¬
duke Francis Ferdinand. He was strongly opposed to any war that could
lead to a confrontation with Russia and the revolutionary overthrow of
5 Bernadotte Schmitt, The Annexation of Bosnia, igo8-igog (Cambridge, 1909),

passim; Hugo Hantsch, Leopold Graf Berchtold, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1963), see I, 115-
179; Heinrich Kanner, Kaiserliche Katastrophenpoliti\ (Vienna, 1922), pp. 36-58;
Alfred F. Pribram, Austrian Foreign Policy, igo8-igi8 (London, 1923), pp. 24-33;
Alexander Musulin, Das Haus am Ballplatz (Munich, 1924), pp. 153-171. See also
Istvan Dioszegi in Fritz Klein, ed., Osterreich-Ungarn in der Weltpoliti\ (Berlin,
1:965), pp. 230-249; Bridge, From Sadowa to Sarajevo, pp. 288-336; Fritz Fellner,
Der Dreibund (Vienna, i960), pp. 50-82.
the Habsburg and Romanov dynasties. Just because the opposition to war
by this autocrat was not based on humanitarian reasons but on dynastic
interests, he had great influence even on the aloof emperor, who was, to
say the least, not well disposed to him.
The first Balkan war of 1912-1913—that of a coalition of Bulgaria,
Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro against Turkey—ended with the defeat
of the Ottoman empire. It was now practically pushed out of Europe. In
the second war, the victors, joined by Roumania, coalesced against their
former ally, unhappy Bulgaria, whose spoils were considered inordinate.
Serbia had been blocked by Austria and Italy from access to the Adriatic,
and Greece from the acquisition of southern Albania, but Bulgaria at least
was expected to surrender most of her gains to the coalition. The coalition
won an easy victory on a three-pronged attack. The major part of Mace¬
donia was now shared by Serbia and Greece, which also gained most of
the Aegean coast held by Bulgaria, while Roumania, in possession of the
major part of the Dobrudja since 1878, acquired its southern territory
now as well. Turkey, which had attacked Bulgaria in a separate cam¬
paign in a fourth theater of war, regained Adrianople. From the view¬
point of the Danube monarchy this outcome of the Balkan wars was
devastating, except that Austria, this time supported by Italy, had man¬
aged to bar Serbia from access to the Adriatic by carrying out Berch-
told’s pet project, the creation of a supposedly independent but actually
at that time not viable Albania. The creation of this satellite state alien¬
ated Greece and infuriated Serbia, which had increased in size but had
been barred from its justified objective, access to the sea. Even this result
was only achieved by two ultimata threatening Serbia and Montenegro
with war, if they would not evacuate the Albanian coast. This dangerous
device placed the Habsburg monarchy in the eyes of Europe in the
role of the big bully. As usual when a big power faces a small one,
provocations by the latter were conveniently ignored.
The question may well be asked what risk Austria would have taken
if she had allowed Serbia to gain access to the Adriatic. It would have
been naive to assume that such concession would have ended the activi¬
ties of a government-sponsored Serbian irredentism against the mon¬
archy. On the other hand the moderates in the Serbian government and
parliament were not anxious for a confrontation with the big neighbor
whose defeat in a major European war could be brought about only at
enormous losses to their country. Austrian acquiescence in the acquisi¬
tion of an Adriatic port by Serbia, linked to an end of the embargo
against Serbian agricultural products, might have helped to preserve peace
Decline and Discord 4*7
for a period and to gain time.6 And gaining time, when the explosion of
a powder keg threatens, may mean gaining everything.7
To Conrad and Berchtold, the former anxious to unloosen the hounds
of preventive war, the latter equally concerned not to get into open
conflict with either the peace or war party, such considerations were out
of the question. The alternatives presented to both men, as they saw it
with their limited outlook, were the following: war followed by the
dismemberment of Serbia among her neighbors, an economic satellite
relationship of the kingdom to Austria-Hungary, or—the course pre¬
ferred for the time being by Berchtold—to wait and see which way things
were going and therupon to set sails to the stronger winds at court.
Berchtold did not have to wait long. On June 28, the heir apparent
Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his consort were shot in Sarajevo. The
perpetrator, like his fellow conspirators, was a Bosnian youth of Serb
origin, armed in Belgrad. When he pulled the trigger, history took a
decisive turn.
It cannot be the purpose of this study, limited to Austrian history, to
offer a detailed analysis of the responsibility for the outbreak of the First
World War. This would be impossible without discussing the positions
and actions of all major and minor powers involved. But as far as the
specific case of the Habsburg empire is concerned a few comments should
be made. The archduke was inadequately protected on the day he made
his official entry as heir apparent into Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia.
Moreover he made his entry on Vidovdan (St. Vitus day), a day of
national mourning, namely the anniversary of the battle of Kossovo of
1379, in which Serbia had lost her independence to the Turks. Obviously
neither of these facts suffice to explain either the external conditions or
the psychological climate of the assassination. They merely helped to set
the stage for the preparation of the act. Not even that much of an
argument can be made for the frequently advanced thesis that the arch¬
duke was chosen as victim because after his accession to the throne he
6 The embargo of Serbian cattle and pig imports was only slightly modified by a
commercial treaty of 1911. Aerenthal failed in essence to overcome the resistance
of the Magyar latifundia owners.
7 Pribram, Austrian Foreign Policy, pp. 33-54; Kanner, Kaiserliche Katastro-
phenpoliti\, pp. 59-191; Ernst Christian Helmreich, The Diplomacy of the Balkan
Wars 1 gi2-19/3 (Cambridge, Mass., 1938), passim; Fay, The Origins of the World
War, I, 353-546; Leo Valiani, ha Dissoluzione dell’ Austria Ungheria (Milan,
1966), pp. 9-97; see also Robert A. Kann, “Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand und Graf
Berchtold als Aussenminister, 1912-1914,” in Mitteilungen des osterreichischen
Staatsarchivs, Vol. 22 (1969), 246-279; and by the same author, Kaiser Franz Joseph
und der Ausbruch des Welthrieges (Vienna-Cologne, 1969), passim.
would have met the national demands of the empire’s Southern Slav
peoples within the frame of the monarchy. According to this view this
would have taken the wind out of the sails of Serbian nationalism
beyond the frontiers. Suppositions of such kind confound anti-Magyarism
with pro-Slavism and autocratic rejection of dualism with concern for
multinational democracy. The archduke, his prejudices and feudal bear¬
ing notwithstanding, was a man of stature. As for his faculties and
serious concern for the future of the empire he stood head and shoulders
above the slate of imperial princes, and as for intellectual ability this
superiority is true in comparison with the old emperor as well. Little was
known in his lifetime about his reform plans, and even that little as far
as it met demands of national groups was suspected by them on account
of the archduke’s feudal, autocratic proclivities.
There is, indeed, every reason to believe that Serb nationalism wanted
to destroy the archduke, not because he was considered to be a friend of
the Southern Slav peoples, but on the contrary because he was feared to
become an oppressor of the Serbs. No doubt about it, the Black Hand
terrorist organization in Belgrad selected young Bosnians of Serb na¬
tionality for the deed. No doubt either that the perpetrators were trained
in Serbia with the active participation of Serbian staff officers. Yet
whether these officers acted on orders or even with the full knowledge of
the Serbian government under Prime Minister Nicholas Pasic, has not
been established with certainty to this day and it may be assumed that it
never will be. Further actions of the government in Vienna were thus
based largely on surmises. In this respect it speaks for the high standards
of the civil service tradition in the empire that the Austrian Foreign
Ministry official Friedrich von Wiesner, entrusted with the task of investi¬
gating these missing links had the courage to say that he had failed to
prove their existence.
Not much equally commendable can be said about his superiors. We
have within the plethora of true and unrefuted charges in the war-guilt
question a firm tool of evidence in the minutes of the joint Council of
Ministers including the chief of general staff. After the authorities in
Vienna had assured themselves of the unconditional German support in
the coming crisis, a support solicited and (contrary to recent largely un¬
proved suggestions) not freely offered, they began to execute their plans.
In this respect, it is true, they were, to say the least, in no way discouraged
by German diplomatic and military activities.
In the joint Austro-Hungarian Council of Ministers, the chairman,
Count Berchtold, deprived now of the support of the most powerful
conservative voice in the antiwar faction, the deceased archduke, declared
that diplomatic success against Serbia would lead nowhere as shown in the
past. It might be necessary now to destroy Serbia as military threat, even
though he knew that this course of action could lead to war with
Russia. If action would be put off the international situation might
deteriorate further. This opinion including demands for the distribution
of major portions of Serbian territory in favor of other Balkan nations
and frontier rectifications of unspecified extent for the empire was sup¬
ported by the other ministers and Conrad, and opposed only to some
extent by the Hungarian prime minister, Count Tisza. He demanded the
transmission of an ultimatum containing harsh but not unacceptable
demands rather than outright war against Serbia. He agreed in case of
war to the cession of Serbian territory to other Balkan states, but strongly
opposed annexation of further Southern Slav land by the monarchy. The
views expressed in this council were kept so highly secret that through¬
out the war Tisza was generally believed to have been the chief war¬
monger. He fell as the victim to that erroneous charge, when left-wing
Magyar revolutionaries killed him in late October, 1918.8 In a second
ministerial council, held on July 19, Tisza yielded. That only—meaning¬
less—concession which he obtained, was the presentation of an ultimatum
to Serbia in lieu of immediate military action. Yet it had been determined
already that the terms should be drawn up in a way which would make
acceptance by the Serbian government virtually impossible. In regard to
the partial dismemberment of Serbia and the frontier rectifications in
favor of Austria-Hungary in case of a victorious war—and who would
think of a different outcome?—most other ministers, supported of course
by Conrad, had their way.
The ultimatum with a time limit of merely forty-eight hours submitted
on July 23, contained demands in regard to the suppression of Serb propa¬
ganda hostile to Austria and the arrest or punishment of those involved in
the assassination plot, which were in part clearly incompatible with the
Serbian constitution and the very character of a sovereign state. They re¬
quired suppression of the basic rights of free expression guaranteed by
the constitution in Serbia and, as flagrant violation of sovereignty, the
participation of Austrian officials in Serbian investigative-judicial pro¬
ceedings. The Serbian government, after consultation with the Russian,
accepted the major part of the Austrian demands, but rejected those
8 As to the records of the council of joint ministers see Miklos Komjathy,

Proto\olle des gemeinsamen Ministerrates der osterreichisch-ungarischen Monarchic
(1914-1918) (Budapest, 1966).
^20 History of the Hahsburg Empire
deemed incompatible with her position as a sovereign and constitutional
state. The Serbian government proposed, however, to submit the con¬
tested Austrian demands to a decision by the International Court in the
Hague. As expected Austria ignored this offer and severed diplomatic
relations at once. War was declared three days later on July 28.
The holocaust that followed was only partly , of Austria’s making,
since Austria did not want war with Russia and her allies, yet—and that
fact hangs heavily in the balance—Austria was ready to risk it. The
assurance given to Russia, that the Habsburg empire did not intend to
annex Serbian territory, although obviously untrue, changed little. Russia
would not have considered this assurance as a sufficient reason to refrain
from further action, and the international chain reaction of events made
the whole question illusory.
One further question, apart from the responsibility for the assassination,
will always remain unanswered. Conrad was deservedly reputed to be
an able strategist and tactician; yet at the same time he was an advocate
of war and, as far as the preparations for war were concerned, a bungler.
Had it been otherwise, the Austrian armed forces might have been ready
for action against Serbia at once, not a full month after the tragedy of
Sarajevo. Would not in that case the initial shock and the feeling of
monarchic solidarity have been strong enough to prevent a military
Russian response? We don’t know. But we do know that if Conrad had
been as competent a chief of staff as he had been reckless for years in
counseling the action against Serbia, the chance to avoid the worldwide
conflagration might still have existed. As it was, one half of the Austro-
Hungarian troops initially mobilized against Serbia had to be redirected
against Russia while en route to the Serbian theater of war. Spread of the
conflict a month after the assassination was inevitable.
While Conrad’s eagerness had a major share in the responsibility for
the events that followed, Berchtold’s cynical weakness is hardly less to
blame; he went to Conrad’s side when the curb of the archduke’s power¬
ful restraining hand had disappeared. It is difficult also to absolve the old
emperor entirely beyond making allowances for his advanced age. The
final decision was taken by him and by him alone. Neither enthusiasm
for war nor for revenging the death of an unpopular imperial prince
played the major part in the minds of Austria’s decision-making “elite.”
It was rather a cynical gamble that to get the crisis over with was pref¬
erable to continued crises. A slight chance of survival might be worth
taking the supreme risk. No questions were asked, however, what one
really could get over with except the old empire itself and how small the
impact of the crises endured was in comparison with those to be expected.

In a larger sense, and this may be an unpopular viewpoint, the empire’s
peoples were not entirely blameless either. In all warring countries people
after half a century of peace had forgotten what war meant and how
much more atrocious it would be in the future. Germans and Magyars
went to war with cheers and considered those opposed to it as traitors.
Yet these opponents, Slavs, Italians, Roumanians, socialists across the
empire and some liberals, had done too little to make their voices heard
during the time of continued crises from 1908 to 1914. All too easily was
1 the excuse accepted by one camp that it had no power, and by the
other that one could not foresee what the consequences of the conflagra¬
tion might be. It was a sad state of affairs when the hopes of peace hinged
on a reactionary like the archduke. All this on either side means not bad
intent but tragic callousness.
If one blames Austria it must not be forgotten that Russia backed
Serbia without obligation by a formal alliance treaty. Russia did so con¬
scious of the likely outcome. With the fullest understanding of Southern
Slav nationalisms it must be admitted also that an Austria, which like any
other state believed in a right of self-preservation could not meekly
accept disintegration. It is true further that previous diplomatic successes
forced at the point of a gun had achieved nothing. This failure might
■< serve as extenuating factor for Austria’s rejection of the British proposal
>: to take Belgrad as security and then submit the contested issues to arbitra-
i: tion by the other powers. Yet here insufficient military preparation made
it doubtful whether Austro-Hungarian forces would have been able to
hold Belgrad. Furthermore, the isolation of the two Central Powers in a
coming international conference against the Triple Entente and Italy
was certain. The latter, the third partner in the Triple Alliance, declared
her neutrality on August 3 and soon began to ask for compensation,
not primarily in the Balkans but in the Trentino and the Littoral, that
.2 is, in Austrian territory.
Yet all the true or alleged wrongs which, the empire’s top officials
genuinely believed, had been committed against Austria’s existence by
W the Serb and Italian irredenta as well as by the activities of Russian
1 Panslavism directed from St. Petersburg, should have generated the
3 resolve to avoid war at all costs. Defeat by an overpowering alliance
§ against an empire torn by national strife and an ally eventually to be
k exhausted by the confrontation with superior man- and seapower, and
ir overwhelming economic strength in regard to raw materials was prac-
» tically inevitable. What other course could have been taken? Hope,
^22 History of the Habshurg Empire
however dim, exists as long as life exists, and the hope for accommodation
with Austria’s enemies in the future could not be dismissed as long as
time could be gained. This argument is not based on hindsight but on
common sense. It should have been clear even to those in warring camps
on both sides who ignored humanitarian considerations.9
b) AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN COOPERATION
The operation of the Compromise between the dual states after 1867
led to a strengthening of the Hungarian position and a corresponding
weakening of the Austrian. Nevertheless the differences in Austro-
Hungarian relations, as they came to the fore, particularly in the pre¬
scribed economic negotiations every ten years, did not seriously undermine
the structure of the empire in peace time. The transition to a new
currency, based entirely on the gold standard, was effected smoothly in
1892. Henceforward the crown replaced the guilder in a relationship of
1: 2. The joint tariff system had to yield gradually to two separate but al¬
most identical systems.10 Altogether the replacement of the common
tariff and the commercial alliance of 1867 by a mere commercial treaty
system in 1907, had fewer direct than indirect economic-political conse¬
quences. Henceforward the Hungarian government claimed the right to
be a party and signatory to international commercial treaties. This might
eventually have served as precedent in the conduct of foreign relations
in general. The outbreak of the war in 1914 made this danger meaning¬
less in the face of far greater threats. It should be noted also, that despite
protracted wrangling between the representatives of the Austrian and
Hungarian governments, there was a peaceful adjustment of the quota
for joint expenditures by the two states, in 1867 originally 70 per cent to
be paid by Austria and 30 per cent by Hungary, and in 1907 63.4 per
cent and 36.6 per cent respectively. Finally, the administration of Bosnia-
Hercegovina under the supervision of the joint Austro-Hungarian minis-
9 Pribram, Austrian Foreign Policy, pp. 55-67; Kanner, Kaiserliche Katastrophen-

politil{, pp. 192-346; Fay, The Origins of the World War, II, 547-558; Pierre
Renouvin, The Immediate Origins of the War (New Haven, 1928), pp. 331-
355; Hermann Kantorowicz, Gutachten zur Kriegsschuldfrage 1914 (Frankfurt
am Main, 1967), pp. 413-444; Kann, Kaiser Franz Joseph und der Aushruch des
Welt\rieges; contrary to the varying opinions cited above, Hugo Hantsch, Leopold
Graf Berchtold, 2 vols. (Graz, 1963), II, pp. 541-647 and Musulin, Das Haus am
Ballplatz, pp. 195-248. See also Vladimir Dedijer, The Road to Sarajevo (New
York, 1966); Fritz Klein in F. Klein, ed., Osterreich-Ungarn in der Welpoliti\,
1900-1918, pp. 155-162; Fritz Fischer, Der Krieg der lllusionen: Die deutsche
Politi\ von 1911-1914 (Diisseldorf, 1969), pp. 542-585.
10 The most important of these exceptions became the introduction of a surtax
on sugar imports between the two dual states in 1907.
try of common finances did not lead to major friction between the dual
states.11
More serious were conflicts in the military sphere. Here differences in
the Austrian and Hungarian versions of the Compromise provided the
Hungarian government with a convenient handle to avoid the passing of
the annual quota of draftees in time, as prescribed in the common
Defense Law of 1868 (revised 1889). This quota, in line with the popu¬
lation increases, went steadily up, so the Hungarian government was in
the position to exercise pressure to exact concessions from the crown. They
led to a gradual weakening of the common defense structure and an un¬
dermining of the principle of the common language of command: Ger¬
man.
From 1902 to 1912, when defense legislation could finally be passed, a
continuous crisis existed in these respects. A hortatory imperial mani¬
festo, issued after the annual maneuvres of 1902 at Chloppy—“Joint and
unified as they have been, shall my armed forces remain . . —was of
little avail. The institution of national Hungarian regiments using
Magyar as language of command gained steadily in practice, if not in
principle. The national Hungarian militia (the Honveds), which by
law were under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Hungarian government,
increased in political importance in comparison with its counterpart, the
Landwehr and Landsturm in Austria, who played a more modest and
entirely nonpolitical role. In fact it was largely the demand for a
Hungarian national army, which in Hungary in 1905-1906 led to the only
really critical situation in Austro-Hungarian relations between 1867 and
October, 1918. It will be discussed below in connection with Hungarian
domestic developments. Yet even this crisis was weathered for the time
being as long as the Compromise, at least in foreign affairs, stood the
test of time—although such time clearly was running short. That the
service obligation—three years in the line for the common soldier and
one year only for reserve officers candidates who had passed the equivalent
of a higher secondary education—was essentially undemocratic in a
social sense in both dual states is another matter.12 All kinds of major
and minor differences between Austria and Hungary notwithstanding,
11 Adolf Beer, Der Staatshaushalt Osterreich-Ungarns (Prague, 1881), pp. 444-

509; Heinrich Benedikt, Die wirtschajtliche Entwic\lung der Franz Joseph Zeit,
Vienna, 1958), pp. 104-118. Kristina M. Fink, Die osterreichisch-ungarische
Monarchic als Wirtschajtsgemeinschajt (Munich, 1968), pp. 51-81; Peter Hanak, in
Ervin Pamlenyi, ed.. Die Geschichte Ungarns (Budapest, 1971), pp. 399-479.
12 See Edmund Bernatzik, Die osterreichischen Verfassungsgesetze mit Erlauter-
ungen (Vienna, 1911), pp. 688-713; Gmeiner, Grundzuge der Verfassung Ungarns,
pp. 119-125.
this simple fact symbolized the basic solidarity of interests in the alliance
between the German and Magyar social superstructure.
B. ClSLEITHANIAN AUSTRIA
a) DOMESTIC ADMINISTRATION
The centralistic governmental structure in a country increasingly weak¬

ened by national strife faced great difficulties. They affected the stability
of the administration. Thus in Germany, where the powers of the legisla¬
tive branch of government were encumbered with limitations similar to
those in Austria, only five chancellors headed the cabinet between 1871
and 1917. In the dual states of the Habsburg empire the situation was
different. Hungary had seventeen prime ministers and Cisleithanian
Austria twenty 13 during that period. Several of them in Austria headed
*
mere caretaker governments during protracted crises, some governed by

emergency decrees while parliament was recessed on the strength of
Article 14 of the basic statute 141 of 1867.
Important during that period were the cabinets headed by Count Taaffe
for a tenure incredibly long under Austrian conditions (1879-1893),
Windischgratz (1893-1895), and Badeni (1895-1897) with brief care¬
taker or transitional cabinets in between and afterward until 1900, when
Korber (1900-1904) took office. The Koerber cabinet was followed by the
ministries Gautsch (1904-1906) and Beck (1906-1908), again with a pro¬
visional cabinet sandwiched in between. Of the following three cabinets,
only that headed by Count Stiirgkh (1911-1916) was very significant.
With his assassination in the midst of the First World War the next to
last chapter in Austrian history was closed.
Although the Austrian cabinets were not technically dependent on a
confidence vote of parliament, successful conduct of business was possible
only if the legislature did not obstruct the activities of the executive
branch of government, as frequently happened during the second part of
the era under discussion from the fall of Badeni in 1897 to 1914. In this
sense the composition of parliament and the political party structure was
of vital importance. It will be discussed in the next section.
After direct but not equal franchise was introduced in 1873, the
deputies were no longer delegates of the diets but elected by the voters
as members of parliament. Still, they presented four very unequal social
curias—large estates owners, chambers of commerce and trade, towns,
13 Actuallyeven more cabinets held office during that period, but some prime
ministers in Austria (Gautsch, Korber) and in Hungary (Wekerle and the
younger Tisza) headed several ministries.
and rural communities. Membership in these curias depended on landed

property or tax contributions (with a minimum of ten guilders annually).
This eliminated practically all urban and rural daily wage earners and
a sizable part of the small peasants and craftsmen. Due to obvious social
pressures, resulting mainly from industrialization in the towns and dis¬
satisfaction of indebted peasants in rural communities, the property quali¬
fications were lowered from ten to five guilders in 1882. This, of course,
changed little, but from here on the question of electoral reforms tend¬
ing in the direction of general, equal, male franchise came more to the
attention of the public. Demands of bourgeois parties catering to the vote
of the so-called little man still carried more weight than socialist calls to
action. Taaffee himself proposed a compromise solution in 1893 according
to which the four curias of voters should remain intact but general
franchise should be introduced in the two lower curias of towns and
rural communities, qualified mainly by the requirements of literacy and
at least token tax contributions. This proposal was turned down by
conservatives and German liberals. Taafife’s main motivation for the re¬
form was the belief that the extension of the franchise to the agricultural
and industrial workers would diminish the acuteness of the national
conflict, led primarily by the educated and half-educated middle class.
Their influence on the conduct of public affairs should be reduced now.
Whether this assumption was right or wrong, Taafife had failed and he
resigned. In 1896 under Badeni the basic features of the Taaffe reform
became law in somewhat changed form. A new, fifth, curia of voters was
added to the existing four. It would elect 72 deputies in addition to the
existing body of 353. This fifth curia was based on the principle of general
franchise, curbed, however, by the fact, that a number of voters in other
curias obtained an additional vote in the fifth curia. Even now five
and a half million voters in this new curia elected only 72 deputies, as
compared to the 85 elected by some 5,000 large estates owners in the
first curia and 21 deputies by the limited number of members of the
chambers of trade and commerce. Nearly 400,000 propertied voters in the
towns elected 118 deputies and almost 1,500,000 in the rural communities
129.14
The electoral reform of 1896 was more a product of social pressure than
the reform attempts of 1893 and in line with the figures given above it
14 Gustav Kolmer, Parlament und Verfassung in Osterreich (Vienna, 1910), VI,

152-172; William A. Jenks, Austria under the Iron Ring, i8yg-igi3 (Charlottesville,
Va., 1965), pp. 293-302; Kulisch, Beitrdge zum osterreichischen Parlamentsrecht,
PP- 97-143-
was still unsatisfactory. Victory for the rising demands for general, male
franchise seemed possible only, if the forces working for social progress
would coalesce with those fighting for a better national equilibrium. This
finally occurred in 1907 and brought the electoral reform campaign in the
western half of the monarchy to a successful conclusion.
Actually the representation of the relatively privileged national groups
in parliament was never as disproportionately high than the parliamen¬
tary composition in regard to national wealth. The leading German posi¬
tion in Austria rested less on inordinate parliamentary strength than on
an economically privileged status anchored in various educational and
social advantages.
The Germans like the Poles lost some seats in parliament, the Czechs
gained correspondingly slightly in parliamentary strength. The relatively
most favorable national quota of the Italians remained almost untouched
like those of the Roumanians and of the Austrian Croats and Serbs. Main
winners of the reform in regard to national objectives were Slovenes and
Ruthenians. The former increased the percentage of their representation
by more than 25 per cent. The previously grossly underprivileged
Ruthenians had their national quota more than doubled. Still, it remained
well below par. Yet these changes as to national distribution were not
decisive. They could not have a major impact in the eleven years left
to the empire. Even if it had not disintegrated so soon after the passage
of the reform, it is highly unlikely that the new franchise order could
have substantially affected the course of events. Whatever major changes
came about and were to be expected resulted more from the shifts in the
social than in the national composition of parliament, brought about by
the elections of 1907 and 1911 under the new legislation. The representa¬
tion of the still predominantly conservative small peasants was strength¬
ened, that of more radical labor in relative terms somewhat weakened.
This state of affairs did not make major changes in peace time likely.15
The formation of the Taaffe cabinet in 1879 represented a switch from
the German liberal regime to a coalition of Poles, moderate and conserva¬
tive Czechs, and German Catholic Conservatives as the so-called Iron Ring
around German liberalism. The fourteen-year life span of this cabinet, in
which neither the prime minister nor any of his colleagues were out¬
standing personalities, can be explained by several factors. Brilliancy was
the least quality the emperor looked for. In fact original ideas were sus-
15 See William A. Jenks, The Austrian Electoral Reform of igoj (New York,
1950), PP- 126-198; Britta Skottsberg, Der osterreichische Parlamentarismus (Gote-
borg, 1940), pp. 104-110.
picious to him. He did not have to fear their injection in the course of
government by the old friend of his youth Taaffe, whom he could fully
trust. Besides, Taaffe had come to power at the top of a rising current
of conservatism, not only in Austria, but also in Germany and France.
This trend continued well into the 1890’$ and Taaffe fell from power
when he cautiously tried to change it with his electoral reform proposals
of 1893. Yet although not endowed with brilliance Taaffe was skilled in
administrative and legislative matters. In social questions he was not an
outright reactionary. A cynic, like several Austrian statesmen from
Kaunitz and Metternich on, he is credited with saying that the secret of
government in Austria consists in keeping all national groups in a state
of well-tempered dissatisfaction. There was some truth in these words.
Neither able nor capable to introduce comprehensive national reforms,
Taaffe avoided at least the pitfalls of an outright German course and met
Slavic demands to the limited extent that led neither to their nor to the
German liberals’ open parliamentary revolt. The liberals, organized in
1881 under the misleading label United Parliamentary Left (Vereinigte
deutsche Linke), pitied themselves on account of alleged governmental
discrimination, while they continued to enjoy all privileges of the domi¬
nant ethnic and social group as before. Yet this mild deviation from the
German course sufficed to secure for Taaffe the support of the Czechs,
among whom the Young Czechs gained steadily ground against the Old
Czechs. The prime minister also managed to keep the backing of the
Poles. With this support Taaffe had the Austrian railway net expanded,
the port facilities of Trieste improved, and above all and for the first
time a policy of social reforms initiated—still modest, but notable in
comparison to other countries. In seven years, from 1883 to 1889, workers’
health and accident insurance, limitations of the working day to eleven
hours (!), trade and craft inspectorates to enforce these and other mea¬
sures, were introduced. In part, the fear of a growing Socialist movement,
which had constituted itself for the first time as a united political party at
Plainfeld in Lower Austria in 1888, accelerated then long overdue and
largely insufficient reforms. Yet the workers and their leaders could be
credited only with a rather indirect influence at that time. Apart from
the policy of governmental expediency to weaken the liberal middle
and upper middle class, a genuine interest existed in social questions as
expression of Christian concern, as represented for instance in the writ¬
ings of Karl von Vogelsang. Its impact on public opinion may have been
greater than that of a socially still isolated labor class.16
16 Jenks, Austria under the Iron Ring, pp. 158-220.
zp.8 History of the Hahsburg Empire
Contemporaries of the Taaffe era would have considered one event
during that period as of paramount importance in the shaping of Austrian
history: the suicide of Crownprince Rudolf, probably as the consequence
of a illicit love affair. Allegations that fear of discovery of a conspiracy
between Rudolf and Hungarian aristocrats against the emperor were the
real reason for his death could never be proved. The crown prince’s sui¬
cide and the initial attempts by the government to hush it up damaged
the prestige of the devout Catholic dynasty. More important, Rudolf’s
death was felt to be a shattering blow to the German liberals, who
esteemed the archduke as their ideological ally. Such philosophy can
indeed be deduced from the archduke’s partly secret intercourse with
liberal writers and journalists and some of his public speeches. On the
other hand, we know now from his papers, published after 1918, that in
foreign affairs he followed an'imperialist policy in the east, which might
have led to a major war with Russia. Considering the shifty, tense, and
in the last years of his life neurotic features of the crown prince’s char¬
acter, there is little reason to believe that his reign would have offered an
auspicious future for Austria. By a macabre twist of fate his death is
related to the disintegration of Austria, because Archduke Francis
Ferdinand succeeded Rudolf as heir apparent. The new heir’s death at
Sarajevo opened the gate for the apocalyptic riders in 1914.37
After Taaffe’s resignation a ministry headed by the conservative aristo¬
crat Prince Alfred Windischgratz (1893-1895) returned the United
German Left—actually a center party—for a span of two years into the
ranks of the government coalition. Meanwhile the growing radicaliza-
tion of the Czechs led to their withdrawal from support of the cabinet.
This ministry fell as the result of a conflict concerning the national
language problem in southern Styria, this time a minor issue between
Germans and Slovenes. The national conflict increasingly became the
most conspicuous though not necessarily the most basic issue during the
last two decades of Austrian government.
In June, 1895, Count Casimir Badeni, governor of Galicia, was ap¬
pointed prime minister, with a program to solve the issue in one of the
most sensitive areas of binational strife: Bohemia. As we have seen,
Badeni’s cabinet tackled first the problem of electoral reform. This
piecemeal legislation was rated at that time a considerable political suc¬
cess. Under Badeni the last outstanding legislative judicial compila-
17 Oskar von Mitis, Das Leben des Kronprinzen Rudolf, revised edition by A.
Wandruszka (Vienna, Herold, 1971). Kann, N ationalitatenproblem, II, 186-191,
351 354
- -
tion in Austria, the Code of Civil Procedure was enacted in 1895. Credit
belonged, of course, primarily to the efforts of previous cabinets. Further¬
more a revised and from the point of social justice improved system of
graded personal income tax was passed by parliament in 1896. Yet
Badeni’s name is primarily associated with what should have been his
supreme achievement and turned out to be his catastrophic failure, the
attempt to settle the national language conflict between Czechs and
Germans. The language problem at issue will be discussed in section B-c.
Badeni’s reform proposals, though not the methods which he employed,
were basically constructive. But the violent obstruction and counterob¬
struction which they encountered dealt Austrian parliamentarism a blow
from which it never recovered.18
Badeni’s successors as prime ministers tried to patch up the conflict by
minor concessions to the Czechs but in substance they wanted to restore
the status before his reform attempts in favor of the Germans. In doing
so they encountered stiff Czech opposition without, however, securing
the support of the Germans. Accordingly only an unsatisfactory pro¬
crastination could put off the collision of opposing Czech and German
forces, concomitant with any comprehensive attempts to solve national
problems.
The ministry headed by Ernst von Korber (1900-1904), an ingenious
; and capable bureaucrat, came close to the settlement of the language
issue in Bohemia, and yet Korber failed, too, possibly in part because
the heir apparent Archduke Francis Ferdinand feared a decline of the
influence of the crown as arbiter between the feuding parties.19 Korber
also hoped to divert national demands from their sterile track by advanc-
i ing Austrian industrial programs, particularly the communication system.
He succeeded to a point, but he could not make the parties agree to a
i concept of economic priorities before national priorities. Thus his cabinet
J too fell largely over the language issue, this time because of Czech
3 opposition. The ministries Paul von Gautsch (1904-1906) and Max von
Beck (1906-1908), tackled again the question of electoral reform. Beck,
3 one of the ablest statesmen throughout the last decades of the empire’s
3 existence actually succeeded in this respect, as he did in bringing about a
1 new ten-year lease of life for the Austro-Hungarian economic settlement.
18Kolmer, Parlament und Verfassung, VI, 1-351 passim; Berthold Sutter, Die
\ Badenischen Sprachenverordnungen von i8gj (Graz-Cologne, 1960-1965), II, 402-
# 442-445-
19 See Rudolf Sieghart, Die letzten ]ahrzehnte einer Grossmacht (Berlin, 1932),
4 pp. 462 f.; see also Alfred Ableitinger, Ernest von Korber und das Verfassungs-
4 problem im Jabre 1900 (Vienna-Cologne, 1973), pp- 82-121.
Yet as the socialist leader Victor Adler put it, political democracy was like
air, you could not live without it, but you could not live from it alone.
Thus general equal franchise could not save the empire, apart from the
fact that Beck himself had to resign because the archduke Francis
Ferdinand could not tolerate it that one of his intimate advisers would
lend the emperor his services as prime minister before his own accession.
The last prime minister appointed in peacetime, Count Karl Stiirgkh
(1911-1916), became the initiator of wartime absolutism in Austria and
one of its major victims. His adjournment of parliament in March, 1914,
with resort to Article 14 (basic statute 141 of 1867) in the face of national
obstruction was no longer considered as extraordinary measure, yet it
paved the way for the elimination of parliament until May, 1917. Even
more important, it deprived the Austrian peoples in the July crisis of
1914 of the opportunity to raise their voices through elected representa¬
tives and to force the Conrads and Berchtolds to listen to them. This was
the supreme tragic effect of temporary absolutist government in Austria20
b) POLITICAL PARTIES
The emphasis given to national problems throughout the period 1879-

1914 does not mean that social problems were of secondary importance
in Cisleithanian Austria. Conflicts between labor, petty bourgeoisie, and
capital, and between industry and agriculture, and various cultural prob¬
lems played as important a role as in any other country. Yet the accentua¬
tion of the national problem means, that the broad issues of social conflict
were by and large channeled into the bed of diverse narrow national
interests.
Thus during the era under discussion some forty political parties, or¬
ganized in about twenty parliamentary clubs, operated or more often
obstructed the course of government. The party names and club affilia¬
tions were continuously changing which would make it confusing to
discuss here in detail the intricacies of the parliamentary lineup. National
groups were represented by one or more deputies, who stood for different
social and cultural interests, conservative, agrarian, clerical, liberal, later
20 Technically foreign policy was beyond the purview of the Cisleithanian

Austrian parliament, practically the members had the opportunity to alert public
opinion to its problems.
On the legislative and administrative record of the whole period from 1879-1904
see Kolmer, Parlament und Verfassung, Vols. Ill to VIII. On the same subject, with
chief emphasis on the administration, the less sophisticated and interpretative work
by Alois von Czedik, Zur Geschichte der W. osterreichischen Ministerial 1861-
1916, 4 vols. (Teschen-Vienna, 1917-1920).
Decline and Discord 43i
also socialist. These deputies of the nine recognized Cisleithanian national
groups were organized in loose roof organizations, such as the Czech or
Polish club, the German United Left, or since 1910 the so-called German
Nationalverband, which comprised about ten political parties. Of major
parties only the German Christian Socials almost to the end of the First
World War and the Socialists all throughout stayed clear of these clubs,
which put strange political bed fellows together. They were frequently
linked by nothing but national interests, or more often national prejudices.
The decline of the German liberals discussed in Chapter VI had led
to a political regrouping in the elections of 1879. This proved that the
industrial management sector—in international affairs German-oriented
and in church-state and cultural relations, anticlerical—had become too
small a base to govern Austria. Too small, that is, as long as it was no
longer propped up by an unjust franchise system. This was still the case.
Thus the decline of the German liberals was as yet only moderate in the
elections of 1886 (loss of fifteen seats). Even after those of 1891 some
170 Germans faced about 160 Slav deputies. A Latin Italian-Rumanian
group did not dip the scales. It was rather the support of the German
conservatives and various pacts with the German liberals, which enabled
Count Taaffe to continue in office after the Young Czechs, the actual
victors, had left the government coalition. A new German party, the
Christian Socials, as yet with only fourteen members, appeared in the
newly elected parliament. Also nearly a score of German nationalist
deputies had split by that time from the rank of the liberals. The elections
of 1897, which followed Badeni’s very limited franchise reform, almost
doubled the number of Christian Social deputies. The Young Czechs
now fully dominated Czech politics, and the conservative Old Czechs,
who a generation before had monopolized Czech party politics, dis¬
appeared from the scene. In this parliament Socialists (fifteen in num¬
ber) showed up for the first time.
In 1900 the German moderate Left lost some seats to the German
national Right, the Young Czechs to the German Agrarians and both
Christian Socials and Socialists lost slightly, a circumstance partly to be
explained by a conservative trend, which followed the Badeni crisis and
partly by the intricacies of the franchise law. In the elections of 1907, the
first elections held under general equal and secret male franchise, all
this changed more radically in a social than in a national sense. The
Christian Socials increased their number now from twenty-two to sixty-
eight, and in the election of 1911, the last to be held in imperial Austria,
to seventy-six. Even more spectacular was the rise of the Socialists from
ten to eighty-seven in 1907, followed by a slight decline to eighty-two
in 1911. The German national radicals, divided in various splinter groups,
continued to decline. Yet their influence on public opinion continued to
be greater than could be deduced from their parliamentary representation,
which had never exceeded about 5 per cent of all parliamentary seats. The
electoral reform gave Slovenes and particularly Ruthenians some more
adequate parliamentary representation. Thus the Slavs now held a rela¬
tive majority against the Germans. This, however, was obscured by the
fact that the numerically strongest party, the Socialists, who were offi¬
cially not committed in the national conflict, had their largest representa¬
tion in German territory and leaned somewhat to the German side.
Moreover, the last cabinets barely managed to survive by fluctuating
support from the moderate, conservative, and clerical parties; at that,
with little regard to national 'affiliation. The Polish club of about seventy-
five deputies remained as the most solid progovernmental block.
Of the new parties, or perhaps more correctly party movements, the
decisive changes occurred in the German orbit. The greater leverage of
German parties is explained by the incongruous franchise system, until
1918 by the tradition of the centralistic system, and by a control of key
economic positions including German dominance of the primary news¬
papers: the liberal Neue Freie Presse, after 1888 the socialist Arbeiter
Zeitung, and after 1894 the clerical Reichspost. Radical German national¬
ism, on the other hand, cannot be associated with any specific major
paper, but rather with a series of rapidly appearing and disappearing
dailies and periodicals.
By 1879 German liberalism in a parliamentary sense comprised many
conflicting trends and group interests, among them few genuine progres¬
sives, and more adherents of a capitalist industrialist system, whose
liberalism was expressed chiefly in their aversion to social legislation, anti¬
clericalism and anti-Semitism. There were further tendencies to give
the petty bourgeoisie, small crafts and trades, a better representation. Labor
had practically no representation and agriculture only a negligible one
within the liberal tent.21 Pervasive throughout the left as well as right
wing of liberalism was a noticeable, but officially not yet acknowledged
anti-Semitic trend, deeply anchored in the Austrian tradition and at¬
tributed to an alleged inordinate influence of the Jews in the political,
21 A small Viennese-centered left wing of the Liberals under the leadership of

deputy Ferdinand Kronawetter represented to a limited degree interests of labor in
the 1880’s and 1890’s. It was soon superseded by the Socialists. German spokesmen
for agrarian interests were as yet chiefly clerical conservatives.
cultural, and economic life of the liberal era. No single party could in the
long run serve all these interests. New alignments were clearly shaping
up.22
In September, 1882, some left-wing German liberals in Linz drew
i up the so-called Linz program with emphasis on national and social
; questions. Participants were the nationalist radical deputy Georg von
Schonerer (1842-1921), the young lawyer Robert Pattai, the writer
Engelbert Pernerstorfer, the young physician Victor Adler (1852-1918),
and the historian Heinrich Friedjung. Of these four, Schonerer soon be¬
came the leader of the nationalist Pan-German racist movement in
Austria, and Pattai became a prominent right-wing Christian Social
parlamentarian. Pernerstorfer was to become a prominent representative
of moderate German national trends in the future Social Democratic
party, and Adler its founder and undisputed leader. Friedjung, like Adler
of Jewish background, soon dropped out of politics, but as the only one
of the four remained faithful to the old liberal program.
The Linz program asked for the union of all German-speaking Austrian
lands, including Bohemia and Moravia. Administrative separation of
Dalmatia and Galicia from the bulk of the Austrian lands was demanded
to secure a solid German majority in parliament. German should be¬
come the state language. The Austro-German alliance supplemented by
a customs union was to be anchored in the constitution.23 Relations to
Hungary were to be reduced to purely dynastic ties.24
The racial factor—the exclusion of Jews from the new movement and
as far as possible from public life—was still lacking in these postulates.
But within two years Schonerer added demands to that effect as basic
principles to the program of the German National Association. Joined
to it was a passionate anti-clericalism, the “Los von Rom” movement.
Anticlericalism was fed by opposition to the infallibility dogma of the
Vatican Council of 1870. In that respect the program was part of the
liberal heritage. But in another it was anchored in racialism and attacked
i a double-faced enemy, Christian universalism and liberal pseudo-egali-
; tarianism. Hence the slogan: “Ohne Juda, ohne Rom, bauen wir den
[ deutschen Dom.”
Hitler glorified Schonerer in Mein Kampf, but deplored Schonerer’s
22 Jenks, The Austrian Electoral Reforms of igoy, pp. 176-214; Julius Sylvester,
■a Vom toten Parlament (Vienna, 1928), pp. 16-44; Kami, Nationalitatenproblem, II,
U 225-232,365-368.
23 Public opinion had long surmised the existence of an Austro-German alliance
1 of 1879 made public only in February, 1888.
24 Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 98-99, 294.
lack of organizational talent. Because of this deficiency Pan-Germanism
never reached great parliamentary strength and split up in mutually
feuding sectarian movements. Criticism of Schonerer’s and his ideologi¬
cal friends’ deficiencies, as seen from Hitler’s viewpoint, may have been
valid. Yet lack of organization was hardly the main reason why the
parliamentary strength of the movement never was at par with its
ideological impact. Schonerer, Karl H. Wolf, and other bitterly feuding
Pan-German leaders, never themselves believed that they had a chance of
bringing about the success of their program in its most radical form. It
would have meant the splitup of the Habsburg monarchy, whose German
crownlands would have been joined to the Reich, further, the creation
of Slavic satellite states, the reduction of the Jews to helots, and the
replacement of the Catholic Church by a strange kind of Protestantism,
similar to the German Christianity of the totalitarian future.
These were dream goals, which could not be achieved while the Habs¬
burg empire was still at least nominally a great power. Propagation of
this program in parliament meant a wasting of votes. Yet just because these
were dream goals—to the majority of the Austro-Germans still those of
bad dreams—they were discussed and promoted in all kinds of private
associations, such as athletic clubs (Turnvereine) or the powerful Ger¬
man School Association (Deutscher Schulverein). In particular, govern¬
ment officials in the lower and middle ranks, who by law were restricted
in their political activities, found here an outlet to work for their “cul¬
tural” interests. In this sense the seeds of the movement had a powerful
impact—which could be harvested half a century later.25
In the meantime many of its sympathizers voted secretly for a rival
party, whose leader, whatever his weakness, could not be charged with
lack of organizational ability. Dr. Karl Lueger, a lawyer (1844-1910),
came originally from the liberal fold, like Schonerer. Lueger, not less a
demagogue than Schonerer, but more skillful a tactician, saw a chief
weakness of liberalism in the pauperization of crafts and small shop¬
keepers in the face of rising industrialization. He was also concerned with
the lot of the small peasants, whose forest and pasture lands were gradu¬
ally taken over by saw mills and the big estates owners. To fight these
conditions was certainly justifiable but Lueger realized that a fight on
purely economic issues directed against the rich would deprive him of
25 Paul Molisch, Geschichte der deutschnationalen Bewegung in Osterreich

(Jena, 1926), pp. 106-266 passim; Andrew G. Whiteside, Austrian National
Socialism before igi8 (The Hague, 1962), pp. 14-15, 60-66, 81-86; Kann, Nation-
alitdtenproblem, I, 98-102, 376-382.
support of the establishment. Like Schonerer, he saw the best means of
promoting his program in deflecting it from the abstract issues to a per¬
sonified enemy, allegedly responsible for these conditions, the Jew, and in
particular the liberal Jew. As seen from an intellectual and not a social
viewpoint, Lueger appealed to basically more conservative strata. To them
liberalism in literature, press, theater, and universities appeared as what
later became known as cultural bolshevism. Statements like the one by the
Christian Social local politician H. Bielohlavek, in the Viennese city
council, “I am fed up with books, you find in books only what one Jew
copies from another” or Lueger’s own publicly expressed opinion that
the liberal scholars should shut up, until one of them could invent arti¬
ficial grass which a real cow could eat, were specimen of the new move¬
ment’s propaganda techniques.26
The fact that Lueger’s followers, radical in verbiage but basically con¬
servative in sentiments, did reject Pan-Germanism and remained faith¬
ful to the Church, did not diminish their vitriolic anti-Semitism, although
it was anchored in social causes and at least officially not in racial ones.
In practice the distinction was frequently negligible. The Christian Socials,
developed from a merger of various antiliberal associations (1885-1888) to
a political party organization. This changed the image of clericalism in
Austria radically. The new party rejected moderation, the stand against
demagogy and religious and political prejudices taken by the Austrian
episcopate. The lower clergy, on the other hand, widely realized the
propaganda value of the Lueger program, and its adherents had reason
to rejoice that the image of a union of Catholicism with conservatism, as
represented by the German Catholic People’s party in the Alpine lands,
were rapidly superseded by the new movement.
It was to become more radical in words than in deeds. Only gradually
did it become clear that craftsmen and small shopkeepers could no longer
be saved in the face of widespread industrialization. Lueger, though more
mindful of the social problems of the impoverished urban lower middle
class than the Pan-Germans, made his peace with industry as long as it
was not “officially” Jewish controlled. As for the peasantry, a scion of one
of the richest landowning aristocratic families, Prince Alois Liechten¬
stein became one of the leaders of the party. The Christian Socials, better
adapted to the image techniques of modern times than the liberals, be¬
came the chief carriers of the policies of the establishment with the elec¬
tions of 1907. This remained true till 1918 and well beyond.
26 See Kann, A Study in Austrian intellectual History, pp. 108-110 and the
sources quoted there.
If this process of evolution had been realized sooner by men more
sophisticated than Francis Joseph’s advisers, the confirmation of Lueger’s
election as mayor of Vienna in the face of a routed liberal party would
not have met the stubborn refusal from the crown, which in the end only
helped Lueger to establish himself more firmly in the saddle of the
mayoralty.27 The emperor finally yielded in April, 1897, and found that
the Christian Socials in government—though as yet only local govern¬
ment—were more moderate than as members of an entirely irresponsible
opposition.
No general conclusion can be drawn from this experience—least of all
in regard to national socialism in whose accession to power the reverse
proved to be true. The Christian Socials were in essence never a revolu¬
tionary party. They supported the existing structure of the dual mon¬
archy. They stood firmly against Magyar tendencies to weaken the
Compromise of 1867, and their leader, apart from his doubtful demagogic
talents, had uncontested ability as administrator. Neither did Lueger lack
a measure of social consciousness in regard to urban ecology, transfer of
public utilities to the public domain, conservation of natural resources,
and other reform measures.28
While Lueger’s record in this respect was quite good, it was good only
on the local level and it certainly was not good enough even in its farther
reaching social demands to meet the needs of the underprivileged labor
class. Here help could only be self-help by labor. It resulted in the
decisions of the Hainfeld Congress December 30, 1888, to January 1, 1889,
which established a common platform of the various trends and factions
within the labor movement, syndicalism, economic cooperative tendencies
and trade unionism. Above all, the desire for a joint political program
was met.
The anarchistic adherents of individual action had previously done
the image of labor great harm in the eyes of public opinion. Terror had
little direct influence on the modest social reform program of the TaafTe
regime, but it had led to repressive measures such as the infamous an-
27 Fearful of the allegedly revolutionary character of the Christian Social party,

the emperor denied Lueger between 1895 and 1897 four times confirmation of his
election as mayor of Vienna, although the majority behind him increased after
every one of the undemocratic dissolutions of the town council, ordered by the
authorities.
28 Kurt Skalnik, Dr. Karl Lueger (Vienna, 1954), pp. 53-165; on the history of
the Christian Socials see Reinhold Knoll, Zur Tradition der christlichsozialen Partei
(Graz-Cologne, 1973); Hugo Hantsch, Geschichte Osterreichs (Graz, 1947), II,
442-446, 458-459; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 102-104, 380-383.
archist law of 1886 which exempted major political crimes from the juris¬
diction of jury trials. The new Social Democratic party under the leader¬
ship of Victor Adler stated its clear intention to fight for improvement of
social conditions and against exorbitant demands of the military, the big
landowners, and industry according to democratic principles, in parlia¬
ment. The only extraparliamentary means used—seldom enough—was to
be strikes and demonstrations. The latter were used effectively in the
struggle for equal general franchise. Altogether the program was to be
understood as extension of social reform measures rather than as de¬
mands for socialization. They were not seriously raised in imperial
Austria.
As mentioned, the Pan-German movement benefited from support from
the lower and middle Austrian bureaucracy, the lower judiciary, and
altogether from the provincial middle-class intelligentsia. This greatly
helped the radical German Nationals to establish an influence far beyond
the parliamentary strength expressed in numbers of votes. The Chris¬
tian Socials in their later history could count on the help of the estab¬
lishment, the Social Democrats (as supporters of democratic means to
socialist ends) had economic change going for them. With the rapid
progress of industrialization in the cities and the slower advance in agri¬
culture, the ranks of the labor force—from here on organized labor—
would inevitably swell. It may be added that a sizable section of the
leadership, including that in the lower echelons came from the liberals.
They were equally alienated by the lack of social understanding in the
liberal party machine, operative in the United Left and later the National-
verband (a roof organization of bourgeois German parties), as by Chris¬
tian Social and Pan-German slogans. Much progress was thus achieved
in adult education and various cultural activities, above all in the establish¬
ment of a well-written and reasoned labor press.
In 1899 the Social Democrats in the nationality program of Briinn
(Brno) affirmed, at least indirectly, adherence and loyalty to a reformed
. Austrian empire. This program called for the solution of the nationality
problem by a broad system of territorial autonomy for the various national
[ groups. Yet labor had national problems of its own. In 1911 the Czech
party separated from the over-all Austrian Cisleithanian organization,
because of alleged inordinate German influence in the leadership. Not
) entirely without reason. A residue of Marx’s and Engels’ ideological in-
l heritance, national prejudices were still noticeable in the ranks of Ger-
t rnan-Austrian labor. Yet the differences could have been bridged just as
1 much as the deficiencies of the program of territorial autonomy which
did not do justice to the problem of minorities in nationally mixed areas.
More important was the fact that labor and its leadership believed in the
future of a restructured Austrian empire. The government ignored this
cooperative outlook.29
The Pan-Germans by their partial control of the lower and middle
bureaucracy influenced the course of government. In the last decade of the
monarchy, the Christian Socials were frequently represented in the
cabinets and had considerable indirect influence even before. The Social¬
ists, from the standpoint of the government, were considered to be be¬
yond the social pale of official collaboration, despite inofficial and occa¬
sional contacts with some right-wing socialist advocates of national and
cultural reforms, like Karl Renner and Engelbert Pernerstorfer. This is
not to say that the Austrian government perceived the Socialists as the
vaterlandslose Gesellen as the'German emperor Wilhelm II did. At this
time the loss of a great opportunity was caused more by adherence to a
stuffy tradition, than by fear of social revolution.
c) ISSUES OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE NATIONAL GROUPS
The struggle for national equality on the part of the underprivileged

national groups against the privileged elite was complex enough in
theory, but even more difficult to solve in practice. In many cases
privileged national groups were unwilling to yield advantages, nor were
they compelled to do so. In other instances underprivileged national
groups asked in theory for nothing but equality, but as soon as it seemed
to be achieved or within reach, this attitude changed to implied demands
for national predominance in some areas. All this may have been due to
a general human weakness, particularly characteristic in the national
struggle, namely the inability to project oneself into the position of the
other fellow, in this case the other national group, whether privileged or
deprived.
Strangely, while the basic issues of the national conflict were cer¬
tainly broad, the fight usually raged over very specific points, often seem¬
ingly insignificant except to legalistic minds and often incomprehensible
to the broad masses. This latter aspect of the problem may have had its
roots in part in the bureaucratic structure and tradition of the Austrian
29 Ludwig Briigel, Geschichte der osterreichischen Sozialdemo\ratie, 5 vols.

(Vienna, 1922-1925), see IV, and V, 10-143; Hans Mommsen, Die Sozialdemo\ratie
und die Nationalitatenfrage im habsburgischen Vielvol\erstaat, 1867-igoy (Vienna,
*963), I, 88-450 passim. Kann, Nationcditatenproblem, I, 104-108, 383-384 and,
concerning the national question, II, 160-182, 342-351.
state. Discussion of a few particularly significant problems may illustrate
the point.
The core issue of the national problem was the language question in
nationally mixed areas. The problem was important in schools and in
the communications between individual citizen and government in mat¬
ters of administration and court proceedings as well as in communica¬
tions between government agencies. The court-backed practice in grade
and secondary schools was that minorities of at least 20 percent in any
given area were entitled to schools or at least classes with instruction in
the vernacular of the students. In higher education, chiefly gymnasiums
and universities, the question was more complex. The Windischgratz
cabinet fell because of German National opposition to Slovene parallel
classes in a gymnasium in Cilli (Celje) in southern Styria. German vio¬
lent opposition also prevented the establishment of an Italian law faculty
in Innsbruck in 1904. On the other hand, the partition of the German
university in Prague in a German and a Czech institution was ac¬
complished peacefully in 1882, and the separation of the boards of educa¬
tion followed there in 1890. The Polish university in Lwow gradually
set up a number of chairs with instruction in Ruthenian and the Croatian
university of Zagreb, established in 1874, was significant also for Austrian
Southern Slav students.
Storm centers of strife in the nationally mixed areas were the crown-
lands with the culturally most advanced population, particularly Bohemia
with its roughly three-fifths to two-fifths relationship between Czechs
and Germans. Here the distinction between language of the land (Landes-
sprache) and language customary in the lands (landesiibliche Sprache)
has to be introduced. The former notion meant that a language of the
land was any language spoken as vernacular by at least 20 percent of the
people. That applied to Bohemia and Moravia in regard to the Czech
and German languages, in Silesia to the Polish as well.30 According to a
language ordinance of 1880, administrative actions should be taken in
the language in which they were initiated by an individual party with
interpreter service provided for the other party, if necessary. The other
concept, the language “customary in the land” was for the Germans in
Bohemia and Moravia the language prevalent in any given district. The
Czechs did not recognize any distinction between the two concepts in
80 According to the official Austrian census of 1910, 63.2 percent Czechs and 36.8
percent Germans lived in Bohemia, 71.8 percent Czechs and 27.6 percent Germans
in Moravia, and 43.9 percent Germans, 31.7 percent Poles, and 24.3 percent Czechs
in Silesia.
these two crownlands. The Germans stressed the importance of the
distinction. It looked like a hair-splitting theoretical issue, yet in practice
the consequences were far-reaching.
The Czechs demanded that the Czech language should, on historical
grounds be the only official language throughout the two crownlands,
even in German districts. The Germans on the other hand held that the
official language should be only the one customary in any given district—
in the German districts, German. The Germans thereby promoted the
administrative separation of Bohemia and Moravia as historic entities, in
a Czech and German part. This view was opposed by the Czechs who
considered the lands of the Bohemian crown as historically Czech lands
once united under the crown of St. Wenceslav. The Czech position would
have been stronger if they had taken the same position in regard to Silesia
where they were outnumbered by Germans and Poles. There they wanted
to perceive the national problems of Silesia as part of a Czech entity of
all lands of the Bohemian crown rather than as crownland with German
recognized as official language throughout. Even more subjective was
the German position. Except for the unjustified demand for full adminis¬
trative partition of Bohemia, the German position would have been
arguable there as well as in Moravia, if the Germans had been ready to
agree to recognition of the same principles in predominantly Slovene
southern Styria or in the Italian part of South Tyrol (the Trentino).
Here the Germans insisted that the historic lands must be administered
as entities with German majorities, even though Slovenes and Italians had
a clear majority in the South of both crownlands.
As for the language of administration, a further bone of contention was
the administrative practice in regard to a tripartite concept of language
use: first, an “external” language used in communicating with the in¬
terested parties, second an “internal” language used within the govern¬
ment agencies for the agenda not to be communicated to the parties,
and third the so-called “innermost” language used between lower and
higher government agencies, in particular in communicating between the
crownland administrations and the ministries in Vienna. The struggle for
the use of the internal language in the administration of Galicia was
won by the Poles in 1868, by the Czechs not until the 1890’s and only in
part.31
Prime Minister Count Badeni, appointed in 1895, believed he could
settle the enervating Czech-German language conflict in Bohemia and
31Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 186-199, 416-420; Rudolf Sieghart, Die letzten

]ahrzehnte einer Grossmacht, (Berlin, 1932), pp. 397-402.
Moravia by two language ordinances o£ 1897 which provided simply for
the conduct of business in both languages, Czech and German throughout
the crownlands. Badeni consequently ordered that all public officials in
Bohemia and Moravia would have to acquire a sufficient command of
both national languages within three years. Otherwise they would lose
their office. Badeni hoped that if this plan succeeded it could correspond¬
ingly be introduced in other crownlands.
Few Czech officials lacked a sufficient knowledge of German, the
second language of most educated people in the empire. Few Germans,
on the other hand, had a commensurate knowledge of Czech which many
arrogantly considered to be the inferior language of a small people.
Other Germans simply believed it was too difficult to learn and of only
limited practical use. Many took Badeni s decrees as insult and challenge
to their feeling of national superiority. German nationalists and liberals
started filibustering in parliament. Badeni might have attempted to com¬
promise on the time limit of three years and thus might have split the
opposition to his basically valid principles. Fie put himself in the wrong,
however, by trying to break the filibuster by the questionable tactics of
introducing a new order of parliamentary procedure. The filibuster now
turned to open violence in parliament, and spilled from there into the
streets of Vienna and Graz as well as the German towns of Bohemia.
The earlier German nationalist and German liberal oppositions were now
supported by Christian Socials and Social Democrats and the battle was
joined on the opposing sides by almost all Czechs, but also Southern
Slavs, and some Ruthenian and Polish deputies. The police dragged a
score of deputies from the halls of parliament. Riots in the streets en¬
sued and the emperor had to yield to force and dismiss Badeni. The
following cabinets modified and in 1899 rescinded the decrees. Czech fili¬
buster replaced the German filibuster practically to the end of the empire.
Open violence had ceased but so had a working system of Austrian par¬
liamentarism. It was generally recognized now that Austria was torn far
too much by internal conflict to allow for evolutionary reforms of the
1 centralistic system.32
Actually it was not only blind obstinacy and nationalist prejudices,
which were responsible for this state of affairs. Both existed on either
side of the conflict, though they were more conspicuous in the German
camp. Yet a fundamental lack of understanding of the political process
32 Kolmer, Parlament und Verfassung, VI; Munch, Bohmische Tragodie, pp.

\\ 405-458; Berthold Sutter, Die Badenischen Sprachenverordnungen von 189J (Graz-
.) Cologne, 1960-1965), I, passim, II, 50-175.
in regard to the handling of minorities prevailed in all Europe, not only
in Austria. It was widely held that the key to the solution of the national
problem in mixed areas was territorial autonomy for the settlements of
various ethnic groups. To make them nationally homogeneous would
have required, however, the establishment of such small districts, that
their administration would have become unmanageable. But in larger
administrative areas territorial autonomy could in effect mean the sub¬
ordination of substantial scattered minorities to a narrow majority. Re¬
form proposals of this kind, though frequently advanced, thus missed
their objective of national justice. The ingenious Socialist deputy, Dr. Karl
Renner (1870-1950) later chancellor of the first and second Austrian
republics and eventually head of state, proposed another scheme, so-called
personal autonomy. This meant that national status corrected was not
to be conferred on the population in a nationally mixed territory but
linked to the individuals themselves, regardless of their domicile. People
could register in a public record book as nationals of their own
choosing. They were then eligible to vote in a national curia, German,
Czech, or whatever, for a predetermined number of deputies. Some public
agenda, particularly the most controversial cultural-educational matters,
were to be administered by nationally homogeneous agencies. In 1905 a
compromise of this kind was reached between Czechs and Germans in
Moravia, another in 1910, between Ruthenians, Roumanians, Germans,
and Jews in the Bukovina,33 and the enactment of a third in Galicia be¬
tween Poles and Ruthenians was only blocked by the outbreak of the
First World War.
The principle of personal autonomy, even though it was a more
sophisticated instrument of national justice than that of territorial auton¬
omy, would not in the long run have resolved the problems of national
conflict. In the last analysis most national groups in the Habsburg empire,
like any other who were or felt to be oppressed, wanted statehood and not
just national equality based on a perfect legal structure. Personal auton¬
omy though more equitable than territorial autonomy, actually seemed
33 Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, I, 199-201, 331-335, 420-421, 471-472, and by
the same author “Karl Renner,” Journal of Modern History, XXIII (1951), 243-249.
Austrian legal practice did not recognize the Jews as a separate national group
in terms of Article XIX of the basic law 142 of 1867. Neither did the majority of
Jews desire such recognition. After 1900, however, the rise of Jewish national
sentiments, furthered by the new Zionist movement, led increasingly to demands
for separate Jewish national status, particularly in the crownlands with the rela¬
tively largest Jewish population, Galicia and Bukovina. The national compromise
of 1910 in the Bukovina met these demands halfway by incorporating a number of
dietal seats reserved for Jews into the German curia.
farther removed from the semblance of the desired identity of nation
and state. The nation appeared to be anchored in the public records
rather than in conspicuous territorial jurisdiction, however limited. Never¬
theless, as long as the empire lasted within the setting of the centralistic
systems in the dual states, personal autonomy could have provided
national justice to a degree which no other institutional system could
grant under existing conditions. Moreover, reforms on this basis pre¬
cluded the sweeping innovations of a federal structure, which probably
could not have been brought about without conflicts with Hungary and
ensuing intervention from neighboring countries. Thus, although the
personality principle would not have solved the Austrian national prob¬
lems, it might have helped to arrest the creeping disease of national dis¬
integration for some time. This, however, was the most a desperately
sick patient could have hoped for.
d) INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL GROUPS AND NATIONAL CONFLICT
German political developments have been sketched in the preceding

survey of political party movements. Major problems of the Czechs have
likewise been touched upon. Here, the national leadership of the former
Old Czech leader, Frantisek Rieger, was superseded in the early 1890’s by
the brilliant Young Czech parliamentarian Dr. Karel Kramar who tended
in the direction of a moderately conservative Panslavism. His predecessors
in the leadership of the new movement, Dr. Karel Sladkovsky, a revolu¬
tionary of 1848, and the brothers Dr. Edward Gregr and particularly
Julius Gregr, had given it a decidedly pro-Russian orthodox orientation.
Only shortly before and during the First World War were western as¬
sociations equally cultivated. The Young Czechs, who displayed various
features of an intransigent nationalism, at the same time had no more
understanding for social questions than the German liberals. The party
had reached its peak around 1897 and from then on had to share repre¬
sentation of Czech interests with an agrarian and a so-called National
Socialist party, actually a moderately left oriented liberal group, to the
right of the Socialists. After 1900 the great personality of Thomas G.
Masaryk (1850-1937), former Young Czech deputy and after 1900 leader
of the small moderately left liberal Realist party, became the ideological
leader of the Czech people. The future founder of the first Czech republic
secured this position not by parliamentary maneuvering but by the
strength of his personality, his humanitarianism, his courage in the
fight against prejudices, and his scholarly wisdom. Not yet ready to
abandon Austria, his program between 1900 and 1914 consisted in de-
mands for social and political justice, to be brought about by evolutionary
reform. It honors the Czech people that they acknowledged the moral
leadership of a man, who in imperial Austria did not share, desire, or lay
claim to any of the paraphernalia of power on which political careers are
generally based in parliamentary systems.34
As for the Poles, steady cooperation with the government continued
on the basis of the Galician administrative autonomy. It secured the Poles,
at the expenses of the Ruthenians, farther-reaching language rights than
the Czechs had ever possessed in imperial Austria. Gradually, however,
clouds came up on the political horizon. The anti-Polish policy of the
Biilow cabinet in Germany and in particular Prussia (1900-1909) also led
to a radicalization of Polish nationalism in Austria. Resentment was
stirred up earlier, with the Austrian electoral reforms of 1907, which
«»
increased the number of Ruthenian parliamentary seats, chiefly at the ex¬

pense of the Polish representation. A Polish-Ruthenian compromise, al¬
though never enacted because of the outbreak of the World War, forced
the Poles to new concessions. It resulted largely from fear of the activities
of a Ruthenian irredenta in case of a conflict with Russia. Several polit¬
ical leaders, only losely affiliated with the establishment of the Polish
Szlachta, played a role here, especially Roman Dmowski of the new
National Democratic party, which was pro-Russian, anti-German, anti-
Ruthenian, and anti-Semitic. Unorthdox in the sense of the Polish club in
the Austrian parliament were also the policies of the leader of the Polish
socialists, Ignaz Daszynski, a brilliant parliamentary orator. Neither
Daszynski nor Dmowski had as yet a large following in Galicia, but the
personalities of these men were powerful enough to destroy the image of
a monolithic conservative Polish policy. A contribution to this effect was
also made by the agrarian leader of the Small Peasant party, Wincenty
Witos, like Daszynski a prime minister of the future Polish republic,
of which Dmowski was to become a foreign minister.35
The Ruthenians in the era under discussion were a national group on
34 Munch, Bohmische Tragodie, pp. 553-627; Jan Havranek, “The Development

of Czech Nationalism,” Austrian History Yearbook, 111:2 (1967), 248-260; Kann,
N'ationalitdtenproblem, I, 197-209, 419-424; Horst Glassl, Der mdhrische Ausgleich
(Munich, 1967), passim.
35 Wilhelm Feldman, Geschichte der politischen Ideen in Polen seit dessen Tei-
lungen iygy,-igi4 (Osnabriick, 1964), pp. 298-304, 401-431; Estreicher in Cam¬
bridge History of Poland, II, 449-460; Piotr S. Wandycz, “The Poles in the Habs-
burg Monarchy,” Austrian History Yearbook, III :2 (1967), 279-286; J6zef Buszko,
“Revolutionare Bewegungen in Osterreich-Ungarn zu Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts
und die Teilnahme von Polen daran,” La Pologne au Xlle Congres International des
Sciences Historiques a Vienne (Warsaw, 1965), pp. 101-114; Kann, Nationalitdten¬
problem, I, 228-233, 433-434*
the upswing in Austria. It was an ominous sign of the creeping disinte¬
gration of the empire that such changes of national status for the better
did rather weaken than strengthen loyalty to the empire. Among the
Ruthenians, the pro-Ukrainian Young Ruthenians outnumbered the
orthodox pro-imperial Old Ruthenians in parliamentary representation by
four to one in 1907 and more than ten to one in 1911. The relationship
was to some extent similar to that between Old and Young Czechs, al¬
though corresponding to their firmer grip on the national representation,
the loyalty of the Young Ruthenians was considerably more doubtful
than that of the Young Czechs before 1914. At that time the Young
Ruthenians had succeeded to have a language law passed by the Galician
diet which secured near equality with the Poles, except for communica¬
tions with the central authorities and continued inferiority as to uni¬
versity education. In the Bukovina they achieved full equality with the
other major national groups by the previously discussed crownland com¬
promise of 1910. Able leaders were Julijan Romanczuk, founder of an
Ukrainian National Council in East Galicia in the 1880’s, and the younger
E. Lewyckyj, an expert in the intricate language problems of multinational
areas. Both, Romanczuk and Lewyckyj, in principle favored an under¬
standing with the Poles.36
Of the empire’s Southern Slavs nearly 3,000,000 lived in Hungary in¬
cluding Croatia-Slavonia, more than 2,000,000 in Austria, and less than
2,000,000 in Bosnia-Hercegovina (population census of 1910). Bosnia-
Hercegovina represented a wholly Southern Slav territory, in which the
proportional relation between Serbs and Croats was about two to one. In
Hungary including Croatia-Slavonia, the Southern Slavs at that time
had a share of 14 percent within the total population of whom nearly two-
thirds were Croats, the remainder Serbs. In Austria only 7.3 percent of the
population were Southern Slavs, of whom more than three-fifths were
Slovenes, the remainder Serbo-Croats.37
On the basis of these population figures it would have been reasonable
to assume that the Southern Slav union movement, the genuine leitmotif
of Southern Slav politics in the era from 1879 to 1914, should have started
36 Borys Krupnicky, Geschichte der Ukraine (Wiesbaden, 1963), pp. 242-263;

Ivan L. Rudnitzky, “The Ruthenians under Austrian Rule,” Austrian History
Yearbook, 111:2 (1967), 407-429.
37 The Austrian official statistics, unlike the Hungarian, did not distinguish be¬
tween Croats and Serbs and comprised both groups under the heading of Serbo-
Croats. On linguistic and religious grounds it is impossible to assign the 34 percent
Mohammedans of the total Bosnian population to either Croats or Serbs. There is
no doubt, however, that according to ethnic principles they must be recognized as
Southern Slavs.
in Bosnia, and if not there in Hungarian-controlled Croatia. Actually
until about 1903 the center of the movement was in Austria and later in
Serbia, for the following reasons. Until 1908 Bosnia-Hercegovina was an
occupied territory under the administration of an enlightened absolutism
in regard to agriculture, industrial development, and communications.
This regime had little regard for claims of national autonomy and less for
social justice on behalf of the exploited peasants. The grant of a crown-
land constitution at the time of the annexation in 1908 changed little.
This anachronistic estates’ constitution exposed bills passed by the Bosnian
diet to the threefold veto of the joint Ministry of Finance and of the
Austrian and Hungarian parliaments. Yet even if the new crownland
constitution had been more democratic, it presumably would not have
made much difference. By 1903, with the replacement of the pro-Austrian
Obrenovic dynasty in Serbia by the pro-Russian house of Karadjordjevic
the kingdom had moved definitely into the sphere of Panslav agitadon
and alliances hostile to Austria. Presumably this change in Serbian atti¬
tudes would have happened anyway because of the inevitable trend
toward integral nationalism even without the violent events of 1903 in
Belgrad. In any case, Southern Slav nationalism had now become largely
irredentist, and a strong irredentist movement could be directed effec¬
tively only from abroad. In domestic policies the harassment tactics of the
Hungarian government continued, not only in Hungary proper but also
in Croatia. Here the banus, Count K. Khuen-Hedervary (1883-1903)
and most of his successors would play Serbs and Croats against each
other. Accordingly concerted Southern Slav action generating from
Zagreb became increasingly difficult.
Before the twentieth century, Croatian-Serb rivalries and not Serb
irredentism had primarily impeded the union movement. The Croats in
the Habsburg empire, a historic national group of long standing endowed
with autonomous rights in Hungary, had consistently claimed leadership
of Southern Slav national interest. They had considered the orthodox
Serbs as a junior, culturally less advanced partner of their nation. Un¬
doubtedly remnants of the traditions of Illyrism played also a part, not
intended by its ancestor Ljudevit Gaj. Yet the influence of the conserva¬
tive late nineteenth century and prewar twentieth century Croatian
leaders Ante Starcevic (founder of the Party of Right) and later Josip
Frank (founder of the Party of Pure Right) 38 was declining. Both
38 “Right” to be understood as Croatian rights, interpreted and represented by a

conservative party. In this sense the policies of the later Frank party were even
more out of line with the course of Southern Slav unionism than those of
Starcevic.
parties were strongly national Croatian, which meant in the case of
Frank’s followers pro-trialist under Croatian leadership but above all
strongly anti-Serb. Neither of them could deliver the goods of a trialistic
program which would have given the Southern Slavs under Croatian
leadership equal constitutional status with Austria and Hungary. Neither
did these politicians understand the social problems of the poor peasants,
particularly in Serbia and the Serb regions of Bosnia, but to a lesser ex¬
tent in all other Southern Slav territories as well. Gradually it became
clear that, irrespective of national claims, Serbs and Croats had many
social issues in common. The new peasant party under Ante and Stjepan
Radic and the new Croatian Progressive party represented such issues in
the past prewar decade.
A remarkable change of policies took place in 1905, when the Croatian
opposition was disappointed by emperor-king Francis Joseph’s legally
correct refusal to negotiate with Austrian Croatian deputies from Istria
and Dalmatia on behalf of their oppressed brethren in Hungarian-
controlled Croatia-Slavonia. The Croatian opposition leaders now decided
to cooperate with the Magyar anti-dualistic Independence party. In return
for Croatian support the nationalist Magyar opposition pledged a liberal
interpretation of the Hungaro-Croatian compromise of 1868 (the
Nagodba), as well as initiation of democratic reforms in Croatia. The
Magyar and the Croatian opposition also agreed on the demand that
Dalmatia should be joined to the triune kingdom. On October 4, 1905,
this understanding was endorsed by a convention of Austrian and Hun-
garian-Croatian deputies in opposition to their governments, in Rijeka
(Fiume). Two Austrian Croats from Dalmatia who were not exposed to
the vengeance of the government in Budapest, Frano Supilo and Dr.
Ante Trumbic, subsequently Yugoslav minister of foreign affairs, took
a leading role in these proceedings.
Less than two weeks later twenty-six Austro-Serb deputies agreed in
the resolution of Zadar (Zara) in Dalmatia to the program of Rijeka.
A second, this time joint, Croatian-Serb meeting at Zadar coordinated
common objectives still further. Croats and Serbs declared now to be one
nation, bound to fight for the same program. This political philosophy,
however, was endorsed neither by the People’s party, the adherents of the
old Starcevic party of Right, nor by Frank’s Party of Pure Right. Un¬
disputed Croatian leadership in a Southern Slav union program was then
still the foremost issue. Even a party anchored in a socially broader base,
the new Peasant party under the charismatic leadership of Stjepan Radic,
did not suport the Croat-Serb coalition of Zadar but came out for some¬
what vague ideas of broad, empirewide federal objectives.
Yet the policy of the strong Croat-Serb coalition operative in the diet
in Zagreb was not destroyed from inside but from outside, because of the
nationalist intransigence of the Magyar Independence party which, in
1905, formed the nucleus of the so-called Hungarian coalition govern¬
ment. It stood in strong opposition to the previous and future semi¬
liberal establishment. In 1907, the intolerant nationality policy of this
regime imposed, contrary to previous promises, a new Magyarizing
language legislation on Croatia. It was answered by Croatian obstruc¬
tion in the Hungarian parliament and an electoral victory of the Croat-
Serb coalition which by now had reversed its collaboration with the Hun¬
garian government.
The coalition opposed the annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina in 1908,
a major factor in the high-treason trial of Zagreb in 1909 against the Serb
leaders of the coalition.39 A subsequent libel suit in Vienna showed that
the convictions in this trial were largely based on forged evidence,
probably with the foreknowledge of Austro-Hungarian authorities. The
defendants of Zagreb were fully exonerated in a legal sense, and the un¬
scrupulous methods of Hungarian political justice were proved. The non¬
judicial question of loyalty of those convicted in Zagreb to the Habsburg
monarchy was, of course, a different matter.
After suspension of the Croatian constitution of 1912 as sanction for
obstructionism, the new Tisza government in Hungary succeeded to
paper over the conflict with Croatia by withdrawing the objectionable
language legislation. Strict adherence to the Nagodba of 1868 was pledged
again. Yet in essence none of the major problems between Hungary and
Croatia were solved because they were all caused by the broad ethnic
issue, not by the constitutional problem in a narrow sense. In this
respect a genuine long-range understanding on joint Serbo-Croatian pol¬
icies beyond declaratory statements and issues of immediate concern may
have been still remote as far as the majority of both peoples in the empire
was concerned. But a common opposition, supported by a strong ma¬
jority, against Austria-Hungary’s foreign policy, against the nationalistic
spirit of the Hungarian government, and less directly against discrimi¬
nation in Austria came ever more clearly to realization. Such was the situa¬
tion when war broke out in July, 1914.40 To be sure, the union program
39 The issue will be touched upon again in the context of Hungarian domestic
policy in Section C: a of this chapter.
40 Wendel, Der Kampf der Sudslawen, pp. 385-620; Rudolf Kissling, Die Kroaten
(Graz-Cologne, 1956), pp. 62-90; Dimitrje Djordjevic, “The Serbs as an Integrating
and Disintegrating Factor,” Austrian History Yearbook, 111:2 (1967), 70-82;
Carlile A. Macartney, The Habsburg Empire ijgo-1918 (New York, 1969), pp.
of Zara (Zadar) in its full extent has not been fulfilled to this day because
of the undeniable difference in cultural and social structure and tradi¬
tion between the Serbs and Croats.
The sizable Slovene minorities in the crownlands of Styria and Car-
nithia were strongly discriminated against by Germans. Their status was
better, though still in some respects not fully equal with that of the
Germans, in Carinola, where they represented a majority of more than
90 percent. In Goricia too, where they also formed an absolute majority,
the government favored the Italian minority. In all these crownlands
Catholic conservative leadership was dominant among the Slovenes. It
represented Slovene interests with some success. In 1885, in return for
support of the Taaffe government the Slovenes secured a more adequate
representation in the diet of Carniola where previously 6 percent Germans
had held two-thirds of all seats. They also gained considerably by the
electoral reform of 1907; limited language rights were secured in Carin-
thia and Styria. Consequently, in 1912 the conservative Slovenes and
Croats, united by the common Roman-Catholic tradition, in the declara¬
tion of Ljubljana (Laibach) came out for a Croat-Slovene union, in effect
an anti-Serb alliance. This Slovene policy, however, lead by the clerical
conservative Dr. Antonin Korosec, was opposed by the small group of
Socialists who stood for a comprehensive concept of Southern Slav union,
including not only Serbs but Bulgarians as well. Eventually the liberal na¬
tional movement gained the upper hand also among the Slovenes; this
development was indeed inevitable even though the majority of Slovene
deputies in the Austrian parliament and in the diet in Carniola were
still conservative. One of their leaders close to the Christian Socials was
Father (Prelate) Janez Krek. But the Slovenes, the smallest of the South¬
ern Slav national groups, had nowhere to go except in conjunction with
the Croats. In Austria they were an isolated group. Thus when the Croats
saw the need for a common program with the Serbs, it was clear that the
Slovenes would have to join under the flag of Southern Slav unionism.
This unionism, however, could not be materialized as long as the Com¬
promise of 1867 was in force, and that meant practically as long as the em¬
pire lasted. Neither trialism stood a chance, nor even less subtrialism,
767-77°; Mirjana Gross, Vladavina Hrvats\o-Srps\e Koalicije igo6-igoy (Beograd,

i960), pp. 228-232, and by the same author Povijest Pravas\e Ideologije, (Zagreb,
1:973), pp. 223-429, 431-440; Stanko Guldescu in Francis H. Eterovich and Chris¬
topher Spalatin, eds., Croatia, II, 50-70; see further, Denis, La Grande Serbie, pp.
130-165; See also not 51 in this chapter. Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, I, 254-264,
29(^298, 441-443, 455-456.
4$o History of the Hahshurg Empire
the concept of subordination of a union of the empire’s Southern Slavs as
a junior partner of minor rights to the dual states. Trialism was opposed
by the Austro-Hungarian establishment, subtrialism was rejected by the
Magyars and the Southern Slavs themselves. The fact that the largest
body of Serbs in the Habsburg monarchy lived in Bosnia as the oppressed
brethren at the gates of the Serbian kingdom voided the possibility of a
solution within the empire. This was one reason why unionism was
promoted from Serbia. Even if the governments of the dual states had
agreed to a trialistic solution within the empire, the time for its realiza¬
tion had run out with the nineteenth century.41
As for the Latin national groups, united in the Austrian parliament
under a loose roof organization, the Unio Latina', the Roumanians in
Cisleithanian Austria represented less than i percent of the total popula¬
tion. Most of them lived in the Bukovina, where their national rights
were adequately secured by the compromise, incorporated in the crown-
land constitution of 1910.42 This does not mean that the Austro-Rouman-
ians considered this as a definitive solution. Such a solution was perceived
only in a union with their brethren in Hungarian Transylvania and those
in the independent Roumanian kingdom. The fact that Roumania was
Austria-EIungary’s ally, although only in secret, put at least some limited
restraint on irredentist propaganda from outside. The Austro-Roumanians
could thus settle for a temporary, fairly comfortable arrangement with
the government. The struggle for Roumanian rights under conditions
not comfortable but outrageous took place in Hungary. In the context of
the discussion of Hungarian political conditions we will return to the
Roumanian problem.
If it has been said that the secret Roumanian alliance impeded irredenta
activities against the monarchy, it seems to be suggestive that this con¬
sideration should doubly apply to the status of the Italians in the empire.
In this case Italy was not only a secret but a publicly professed partner
of the Triple Alliance. Things worked out quite differently, however.
Roumania was a relatively small Balkan state, possibly in need of Austrian
and German support against Russia. Italy was at least nominally a great
power, and courted by Germany and the Russo-France counter alliance.
There was no reason for the Italian government to refrain from the
support of irredentist activities and to pay more than lip-service respect to
41 Fran Zwitter, “The Slovenes and the Habsburg Monarchy,” Austrian History
Yearboo\, 111:2 (1967), 173-182; Kann, Nationalitdtenproblem, I, 305-307, 459.
42 Richard Wenedikter, “Bukowina,” in Karl Gottfried Hugelmann, Das Nation-
alitatenrecht des alten Osterreich (Vienna, 1934), pp. 724-734; Kann, Nationalitdten¬
problem, I, 332-335, 471-472.
the Austrian protestations. Up to the end o£ the 1880’s these anti-Austrian
activides were partly curbed by the fact that the Italian population in the
Trentino, to the south of German South Tyrol, was largely oriented to¬
ward Catholic conservadsm and opposed to radical liberal forces in
Italy. The same could not be said for the Austrian Littoral and par-
dcularly not for Trieste. Here the liberals and Socialists were definitely
on the march. In fact, in 1911 the future martyr of the Italian irredenta
in Austria, the Socialist Cesare Batdsd, was elected to parliament even
in the Trendno. Italians had reason to complain about the brutal and
stupid German opposidon which denied them a university on Austrian
soil. Sdll they enjoyed a limited administrative autonomy in the Trendno.
Furthermore, the disinclination of Austrian bureaucracy to officiate in a
Slavic language applied less to Italian. As for the Littoral, the Italians
enjoyed a privileged status concerning linguistic rights in comparison
with the absolute Slovene majority in Goricia and Gradisca and the rela¬
tive Serbo-Croadan majority in Istria. Privileges for the Italians were
even stronger in Dalmatia, where the Italians represented less than 3 per¬
cent of the populadon, compared with more than 96 percent Serbo-Croats.
Concerning representadon in parliament, the Italians were the one
group that elected a deputy with fewer votes than even the Germans.
Inasmuch as che Italians were the smallest national group in Austria
(about three-quarters of a million) this generosity—partly meant to be a
concession to the unpleasant ally in the South—had little long-range
significance. No constellation was conceivable in which the Italians, if
given the opportunity, would not turn against the empire and join their
conationals in the kingdom. Counterarguments, which refer to the rela-
dvely superior standard of living of the Austro-Italians as compared with
the Italians in the mother country frequently do not acknowledge that
the superiority applies only to Italian averages and only in part to
Lombardy and Venetia, the neighboring provinces. Yet even if the
standards of living of the Austro-Italians would have been much higher
and those in the kingdom even lower, the course of events is inevitable for
a small minority bound to a vast ethnic majority across the border, when
the hour strikes.43
43 Robert K. Greenfield, “The Italian Problem of the Austrian Empire,” Austrian

History Yearbook, III :2 (1967), 501-526; Georg Pockels, “Tirol,” and Alfred
Manussi-Montesole, “Die Adrialander,” in Hugelmann, Das Nationalitatenrecht,
pp. 545-568 and 569-684; Theodor Veiter, Die Italiener in der osterreichisch-
ungarischen Monarchic (Vienna, 1965), pp. 7-92. On the attitude of the Italian
government to the issue of irredentism in Austria, see the memoirs of the Austrian
ambassador to Italy, 1904-1910, Heinrich von Liitzow, Im diplomatischen Dienst
der Y 6* Y Monarchic (Munich, 1971), pp. 110-171.
45^ History of the Habsburg Empire
C. Hungary
a) DOMESTIC ADMINISTRATION AND PARTY STRUCTURE
The Kalman Tisza cabinet of 1875—liberal in terms of a hardly re¬

strained Manchester liberalism—continued in office until 1890. It re¬
quired a skillful tactician to remain in the saddle so long, when the
Magyar position was attacked by the nationalities on the one side and
within Magyarism itself from the other for alleged subservience to
Austria. By maintaining a grossly unrepresentative franchise system,
based on gerrymandering, Tisza was capable of containing the opposition
of the suppressed national groups. It was different with the opposition
from the Left, radical in national terms and rather moderately left in
social ones, as represented by the Party of 1848. Its parliamentary mem¬
bers were not to be appeased by concessions concerning the interpretation
of the Compromise, according to them dictated by Vienna. Actually the
Hungarian establishment was threatened more by dissension within its
own ranks. The so-called united opposition of 1878 organized in 1892 as
National Party, and led by the brilliant Count Albert Apponyi and
Dezso Szilagyi illustrated this well. These more conservative nationalists,
like the members of the Independence party, were serious when they
asked for revision of the Compromise, yet they were quite content with
business as usual in regard to social questions. Their representatives came
after all from the same class as the supporters of the government. A
candidate for parliament stood little chance for election if he did not
represent the social interests of the Magyar upper and middle class, pref¬
erably rural but possibly urban as well. As for the national question, the
opposition had objected to a defense bill, which offered the Hungarian
Honveds a field of activity too limited in their view. In 1888-1889 serious
trouble arose about the passage of the general defense bill, which the
opposition and many government supporters rejected as an undue bow to
the hated German language of command in the armed forces. Faced by
these difficulties Tisza took the opportunity to resign in 1890 over a
minor issue, the question of the recognition of Hungarian citizenship of
the exile Louis Kossuth.
Under the elder Tisza, particularly because of the efforts of Gabriel
von Baross, minister of commerce, public works and communications,
much had been done to centralize and improve the railway and canal
system including the major problem of preventing Danube floods. Com¬
merce and industry prospered to a degree under the system. Yet little
had been done to tackle the closely related nationality and social problems.
The unsatisfactory state of both was illustrated by the at times violent
flareup of anti-Semitism particularly in the countryside. As in Austria it
was partly based on racial ethnic features and partly on social issues. Yet
there were also different aspects. The heavy immigration of Jews from
the east—even larger than the substantial immigradon to Austria—
played a major part. The number of Jews in Hungary between 1870 and
1914 nearly doubled to almost one million as compared with an over-all
population increase of only about one-third during that period. That
meant an increase from 3.7 percent to almost 5 percent of the total
population.44 This anti-Semitism could not take umbrage at the unques¬
tionable Jewish loyalty to the country. Charges that Jews were the spear¬
heads of the leftist revolutionary movement were taken seriously only
after the turn of the century. The splendid Jewish contribution to Hun¬
garian social and cultural life could not be questioned, except in the
problematical sense that the Jews had progressed more than any other
national group. It was charged also that some Magyarized Jews wanted
to be more Magyar than the Magyars themselves in their stand against
the demands of the nationalities for equal rights. Furthermore it was
held that sizable strata of the economically and culturally most ad¬
vanced Jews, who originally had come from eastern Europe, considered
Hungary as a transit station on their path to further migration to the
west. After they had moved to the west their place was taken by poor
Jews from Russia and Poland. Thus Hungary had to pay the bill for
westernization to the advantage of other countries. These were real
problems, although hardly problems for which the Jews could be
blamed in terms of individual responsibility. Inasmuch as anti-Semitism
is an indication of unjust social conditions, these were certainly not im¬
proved by the Tisza government.45
44 Comparable figures for Austria would be an increase from 820,000 to

1,300,000 during the same period. The Jews in Austria represented little more than
4 percent of the population in 1870 and still less than 5 percent in 1910. Both the
Austrian and Hungarian figures are based, of course, on religious and not ethnic
racial statistics, which can only be surmised. Yet as far as they can be surmised,
conversions on the whole pertained mainly to the upper strata of the Jewish
population. See also Robert A. Kann, “Hungarian Jewry during Austria-Hungary’s
Constitutional Period (1867-1918),” Jewish Social Studies, VII14 (1945), 357-386.
See also the excellent study by William O. McCagg, Jewish Nobles and Geniuses
in Modern Hungary (New York, 1972), pp. 48-109.
45 Gusztav Gratz, A Dualizmus Kora: Magyaroszag Tortenete i86y-igi8 (Buda¬
pest, 1934), I, 204-269; Kosary, History of Hungary, pp. 282-304; Berthold Sutter,
“Die innere Lage Ungarns vor dem ersten Weltkrieg in der Beurteilung deutscher
d$4 History of the Habshurg Empire
The next cabinet, headed by Count Gyula Szapary (1890-92), followed
in principle the Tisza policy with a slight deviation toward the Inde¬
dependence party. Just the same the national opposition forced Szapary’s
resignation over the question of increased administrative centralization
versus the historic comitat (county) system. The comitats could indeed
have become the basis of a grassroot democracy on the local level, work¬
ing its way gradually toward genuine nationwide democratic institutions.
Actually this institution served the Independents mainly to protect historic
privileges in a parochial sense.46
Szapary’s successor as prime minister was Alexander Wekerle (1892-
1895), a statesman experienced in economic questions. Endowed with
considerable political skill and an equal degree of opportunism, he tried
to reconcile the Independence party. Liberals and Independents saw eye
to eye on major issues, such as"curbing of the power of the Church, which
seemed to the nationalists to impair Hungarian independence and to the
liberals to suppress freedom of conscience. In 1895, against considerable
conservative opposition, obligatory civil marriage was introduced and
mixed marriages between Catholics, Protestants, and Jews were legal¬
ized. This was an extraordinary feat of legislation in a predominantly
Catholic country under the rule of a devout dynasty, which, however, to
the national opposition appeared to be a foreign one. This legislation
undoubtedly contributed to Wekerle’s fall, although as skillful compro¬
miser he was called to the office of prime minister twice again.47
The new prime minister, Baron Deszo Banffy (1895-1899) tried to win
favor with the liberals by continuation of the anticlerical policies and
with the Magyar nationalists by a particularly ruthless Magyarization
policy in Transylvania. Yet the old stratagems did no longer work.
Banffy lost the confidence of the ruling Liberal party, when he agreed to
have the ten-year economic compromise ratified by parliament, even
though it had to be octroyed in Austria by emergency degree. He pre¬
ferred to resign over this issue rather than by reason of a more immediate
conflict with the papal nuncio.48
Under Banffy the gradual splitup of the huge government party began.
The left wing of the Liberals joined the opposition under the leadership
Diplomaten,” Sudostdeutsch.es Archiv (Munich, 1970-1971), XIII, 119-194, XIV,

188-224; McCagg, Jewish Nobles and Geniuses, pp. m-166.
46 Gratz, A Dualizmus Kora, I, 270-335.
47 Ibid., pp. 306-334; Moritz Czaky, Der Kultur\ampj in Ungarn (Graz-Cologne,
1969), pp. 29-110; see also Bucsay, Geschichte des Protestantismus in Ungarn, pp.
176-178.
48 Gratz, A Dualizmus Kora, I, 336-393; Czaky, Der Kultur\ampf in Ungarn.
of the younger Andrassy, who was later to become the empire’s last
minister of foreign affairs in 1918. Furthermore, a new Catholic People’s
party began to make some headway, which promoted a program similar
to that of the Austrian Christian Socials. Also, Magyar industrial labor
began to stir and accepted the Austrian Hainfeld program of 1889 as
political objective. This meant in essence the gradual shift from mere
trade unionism49 supplemented by some modest welfare legislation con¬
cerning rural cooperatives and industrial workers’ sick and unemploy¬
ment benefits, to a genuine political program.
Prime Minister Kalman von Szell (1899-1903) succeeded once more to
reconcile the rifts between government and Independents. But his cabinet,
like that of Tisza before him, stumbled over the defense bill including in¬
tense parliamentary opposition to the hated German language of com¬
mand. Here even more so than in Austria the deep causes of social un¬
rest and dissension were covered up by passionate conflicts over secondary
issues of national prestige. Still they could generate trouble. A cabinet
under the banus of Croatia Khuen Hedervary (1903), a man much hated
by all Southern Slavs, failed to solve the conflict. The king-emperor’s
manifesto to the armed forces of September 1903 made it clear that he
was not prepared to yield on the issue of unified command.50 He now
entrusted Kalman Tisza’s son, (Count) Istvan Tisza (1861-1918) with
the formation of the government, with the understanding that the new
prime minister’s cabinet (1903-1905) would be able to ram the essential
defense legislation through parliament. From his standpoint Francis
Joseph could not have selected a better man, even though the task before
him exceeded his powers. The younger Tisza, a courageous and stub¬
born character, made of much sterner stuff than his father, deeply be-
lieved in the mission of a Magyar Hungary as first among equals in the
Compromise. At the same time he considered the Compromise as the
supreme guarantee of safety for this Magyar-controlled Hungary, sur¬
rounded by Germans, Slavs, and Roumanians, to whom he was unwilling
to make concessions. Since the Compromise could not survive without
the passage of the defense bill, Tisza forced it through parliament by
approximately the same kind of dubious tactics which Badeni had used
in Austrian parliament—and with little better results. The new elections
49 Recognized in Hungary, though with various restrictions, by legislation of

1872 and 1884. See Tibor Stile, Sozialdemo\ratie in Ungarn (Cologne-Graz, 1967),
pp. 1-74.
60 Gratz, A Dualiszmus Kora, I, 394-413, II, 1-26. Kosary, History oj Hungary,
304-310.
held in January, 1905, on a doubtful constitutional basis led to a crushing
defeat of the government majority. The parliamentary opposition gained
229 parliamentary seats, 159 of them held by the Independence party
alone. It was the good fortune of the government in Vienna that this now
powerful party was led by a paper tiger, Ferenc Kossuth, whose main
attraction rested in the charismatic name of his father.
Francis Joseph was ready to appoint a new coalition government con¬
sisting of the Independence party, the Catholic People’s party, and the
Andrassy Liberals, provided they would drop the demand for the revision
of the Compromise, in particular in regard to the creation of a Flungarian
national army. When the coalition refused, a nonparliamentary interim
government under Geza von Fejervary, a general faithful to the old Habs-
burg army tradition, remained nevertheless in office (1905-1906). Parlia¬
ment was recessed several times and freedom of assembly and press cur¬
tailed. In 1906 parliament was altogether dissolved by a royal military
commissioner. A tax strike of incensed voters threatened and it seemed
out of the question to have the annual recruit quota passed by legal
means. Just at this critical juncture when the possibilities of either revolu¬
tion or permanent royal absolutism had to be faced, the coalition sur¬
rendered. It actually took office under Alexander Wekerle (1906-1910),
but—and this was the decisive qualification—under the terms of the
Compromise of 1867, unchanged in basic matters. The success of the
coalition, led by the feeble younger Kossuth, had thus become meaning¬
less and a new sweeping electoral victory, in which some Socialists entered
parliament for the first time, changed matters little.
Actually the crown was the victor by a simple but elective device. It
had introduced a general, equal franchise reform bill in parliament. The
adoption of this reform would have toppled the Hungarian political and
social structure. No doubt it would have given the nationalities at least a
near-majority and together with the Magyar Left (People’s party and
Socialists) probably a majority. This would have meant the victory of
small peasants and agricultural and industrial workers, welcome neither
to the Magyar establishment nor to the crown. In the face of a threaten¬
ing social revolution the coalition dropped the political revolution. This
concurred fully with Francis Joseph’s intention. He supported the
Austrian electoral reform to a measure, but there he was under greater
pressure from industrial labor and better organized political organiza¬
tions of national groups than those existing in Hungary. The only power
close to the crown which took the Hungarian franchise reform seriously
was the heir apparent, Archduke Francis Ferdinand—not because he
wanted to democratize the empire, but because he hoped to take Magyar
aspirations one peg down. This opened vistas of possibly revising if not
revoking the Compromise after his accession to the throne.
The outcome of the crisis had proved convincingly that the national
prestige issues raised by the coalition and supported in an underhand
way by the Liberals were not taken seriously enough to move the Magyar
masses to a revolution against the crown. This held doubly true for the
other national groups. At the same time the crisis had shown that the
Magyar establishment, divided in political matters but united in de¬
fense of social privilege, was strong enough to block radical political
and social changes. The status quo continued with minor changes until
a truly revolutionary situation arose in the fall of 1918.51
Under the coalition an industrial insurance act was passed and a new
code of civil procedure was prepared, and adopted by the following gov¬
ernment in 1910. Yet in regard to the nationality issue, the minister of edu¬
cation, Court Apponyi, managed to push the process of Magyarization
and concomitant suppression of the nationalities further by the Educa¬
tion Act of 1907. It made government subsidies of the sectarian schools
among non-Magyar national groups dependent on expanded use of the
Magyar language among teachers and students. Apponyi was seconded
by Minister of Commerce Ferenc Kossuth, who infringed on Croatian
language rights, contrary to the Hungaro-Croatian Compromise of 1868.
The coalition government had disappointed its supporters, particularly
the truly liberal left wing under Gyula Justh. It had embittered the op¬
position. It felt that the strength of the Habsburg empire had suffered
from the protracted conflict about the interpretation of the Compromise,
while the coalition had not secured one single tangible concession. The
restricted political nation eligible to vote, was tired of this performance
and gave the former Liberals, headed now by Tisza a large majority. He
organized the 237 parliamentary members of his party as National Labor
party, which indicated the obvious truth that liberalism was neither in
vogue any longer nor had it ever been the genuine leitmotif of the party.
But parliament was not yet ready to accept the leadership of the strong
man Tisza. Two transitional cabinets, Khuen Hedervary (1910-1912) and
Lukacs (1912-1913), followed. They had to face strong opposition in
Croatia by Croatians and Serbs alike. In particular the latter had scored
a major propaganda victory in 1908-1909, when the previously noted mis-
51 Gratz, A Dualizmus Kora, II, 127-170; Kosary, History of Hungary, pp. 304-
311; Julius Miskolczy, Ungarn in der Habsburger Monarchic (Vienna, 1959), pp.
170-181; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 135-138, 399-401.
carriage of justice in a treason trial in Zagreb against Serb politicians was
exposed in the eyes of Europe by a subsequent jury trial in Vienna. The
evidence admitted by the court in Zagreb was fabricated, but the anti-
Habsburg and anti-Magyar sentiments of the defendants were genuine.
This added indeed an element of satire to a tragedy.52
In 1912 labor troubles of major proportions followed, including aborted
attempts at a general strike in support of the franchise reform in Hun¬
gary. In 1913 parliament was ready for a new Tisza regime (1913-1917).
A defense bill could finally be passed in parliament. A course was ini¬
tiated according to which the government was ready to live up to the pro¬
visions of the Compromise in terms of the narrowest interpretation of
joint Austro-Hungarian affairs. But this sufficed to strengthen somewhat
the military forces of the empire and thus it was hoped its position in in¬
ternational relations. As Tisza saw it, this policy stood for rejection of any
concessions to the nationalities, particularly in the question of franchise
reform; and as for Magyars and non-Magyars alike, repression of a pro¬
gressive social reform movement. Surely this course of action was out¬
dated, but if one man could give it at least a new brief lease of life it
was the puritan Tisza, an incorruptible man of determination, ability,
and political blindness.53
b) PROBLEMS OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE NATIONAL GROUPS
The Southern Slav problem in the empire including Hungary has been
discussed briefly in section B-c of this chapter on the nationality problems
in Austria, since the union movement because of political restrictions could
not start from Hungarian soil. Further references to the over-all national¬
ity problems in Hungary have been made also throughout the preceding
subsection C-a. It is necessary, however, to consider some remaining na¬
tional issues germane exclusively to Hungary, especially that of the Slo¬
vaks. Suppression, tightened after conclusion of the Compromise, in¬
creased further under the regime of Kalman Tisza (1875-1890). The ac¬
tivities of the Slovak literary society Matica were suspended, several high
schools closed, and Magyarization by governmental pressure at its ugli¬
est promoted by the Hungarian writer Bela Griinwald, an adherent of
52 Here the Austrian historian Heinrich Friedjung, who had testified to the
genuineness of incriminating documents, probably forged with full knowledge of
the Austrian legation in Belgrade, had to make a humiliating confession of having
been deceived. Friedjung’s personal good faith was not in doubt, but his judgment
was exposed as deplorable. See Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 293-296, 455-456.
53 Gratz, A Ducilizmus Kora, II, 170-281; Miskolczy, Ungarn in der Habsburger
Monarchic, pp. 181-194.
Apponyi. What made the Slovak situation especially difficult was the
fact, that the Church autonomy granted to the Greek Orthodox, Greek
Catholic, and Uniate churches, from which Carpatho-Ruthenian and Serb
national aspirations benefited at least to some extent, was of no help to
the partly Lutheran and partly Catholic Slovaks. The Roman Catholic
Church cautiously refrained as far as possible from taking sides in the
national struggle and the Lutherans were not granted full Church auton¬
omy by the government. Individual Protestant pastors and Catholic
priests, the former represented by Martin Razus (1888-1937), the latter
by Father Andrej Hlinka (1864-1938) were leaders of the movement for
Slovak autonomy within Hungary and godfathers of the Slovak People’s
party, which gained seven seats in the Hungarian parliamentary elections
of 1906. Under the existing oppressive conditions this was to be rated as a
great success. The so-called Cernova massacre of the same year in which
about a dozen people were killed in a brutal attack by Hungarian
gendarmery when a new church was dedicated in Hlinka’s birthplace, was
a blow directed against his charismatic leadership of the peasants. Even¬
tually, by spring 1918, Hlinka, steadily harassed and several times im¬
prisoned by the Hungarian authorities, turned to the concept of Czecho¬
slovak union. None of the Slovak leaders could more strongly rely on
the loyalty of his followers.
Some Slovak intellectuals, among them Milan Hodza, now a member
of the Hungarian parliament, had hoped for help from Archduke Francis
Ferdinand. But communications between this future prime minister of
Czechoslovakia and the heir apparent, whether they related to federaliza¬
tion of the empire or a Slovak territorial autonomy within Hungary,
l never went beyond a vague blueprint stage. That much seems suggestive:
in peacetime the majority of Slovak nationalists favored autonomy within
Hungary rather than union with the Czechs. This program was pro¬
moted increasingly after 1895, in particular by Thomas G. Masaryk, in
the so-called Hlasist movement (deriving its name from the journal
Hlas, The Voice).54
! 64 Ludovit Holotik, “The Slovaks: An Integrating or a Disintegrating Force?”

Austrian History Yearbook, 111:2 (1967), 389-393; Robert W. Seton-Watson (Scotus
Viator), Racial Problems in Hungary (London, 1908), pp. 161-204, 339-351; Gil¬
bert L. Oddo, Slovakia and its People (New York, i960), pp. 148-154; Laszlo
Katus, “fiber die wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Grundlagen der Nation-
3 alitatenfrage in Ungarn vor dem ersten Weltkrieg,” Die nationale Frage in der
(
it osterreichisch-ungarischen Monarchic igoo-igi8 (Budapest, 1966), pp. 149-216;
Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Slovakia (New York, i960), pp. 54-57; Kann, Nation-
alitatenproblem, I, 281-285, 449-451; Hanak, in Ervin Pamlenyi, ed.. Die Geschichte
3 Ungarns, pp. 471-480.
Deplorable was the situation o£ the Carpatho-Ruthenians who had
seen their best days of limited national recognition under the neo¬
absolutist Bach regime. National repression initiated after 1867, increased
here too, but the Uniate Church could give the conservative Ruthenians
at least some protection, whereas the liberals were helped to a limited de¬
gree by the cultural-linguistic activities sponsored by the Basilius Asso¬
ciation founded in Ungvar in 1865. More pronounced liberal in char¬
acter was the Unio publishing house, established, likewise in Ungvar, in
1902.55
The 2 million Germans in Hungary are frequently not counted among
the suppressed nationalities. They took in some measure advantage of
the privileged position of their kin in Austria and even more of the German
alliance which was so dear to Magyar national interests. The Germans in
the Zips, in the Slovakian minilig towns, and the Saxons in Transylvania,
whose history in Hungary could be traced to the High Middle Ages, were
in a better position than the so-called Danube Swabians, most of whom
had immigrated in the later part of the eighteenth century. The Magyari-
zation process affected these old German communities with their well-
established social structure less than the newer wave of immigration in
the south. For these Germans conversion to Magyarism was made easier
than for any other nationality in Hungary and members of these groups
like Alexander Wekerle and Gustav Gratz became ranking statesmen in
Hungarian political life. This meant in effect that the Nationality Law
of 1868 was adhered to by authorities in relation to the Hungarian Ger¬
mans. It did not mean, however, any recognition of their national group
as political entity. The founding of the Hungarian German People’s party
in 1905 was to promote the preservation of the national identity of the
Germans as national group and not merely as individuals.66
More serious, even from the Magyar point of view, was the problem of
Roumanian nationalism, thinly camouflaged though it was by the secret
alliance and the cordial relationships between the Austrian and German
dynasties and the Roumanian Hohenzollern king. The program of the
Transylvanian Roumanians, drawn up by a Roumanian national party in
Transylvania had consistently been the restoration of the historic Transyl¬
vanian autonomy, comparable with the status of Croatia-Slavonia. This
65 Ivan Zeguc, Die nationalpolitischen Bestrebungen der Karpatho-Ruthenen
1848-1914 (Wiesbaden, 1965), pp. 72-119; Rene Martel, ha Ruthenie Subcar-
pathique (Paris, 1935), passim.
56 Harold Steinacker, Austro-Hungarica (Munich, 1963), pp. 249-266; 298-311;
Raimund F. Kaindl, Geschichte der Deutschen in Ungarn (Gotha, 1912), pp. 54-
104; Geza C. Paikert, The Danube Swabians (The Hague, 1967), pp. 8-47.
movement was supported by the Roumanian Cultural League, founded
in Bucharest in 1891. Its goals were after all objectives compatible with
loyalty to the empire and the Hungarian crown, but incompatible with
persistent Magyar national intransigence. The outcome of the Hungarian
state crisis of 1905-1906 was disappointing. It did not, as hoped for, lead
to equal franchise, of which the nationalities would have been chief bene¬
ficiaries. The Apponyi educational laws of 1907 changed conditions for
the worse. Attempts by Archduke Francis Ferdinand to reconcile the
Roumanians by vague promises of territorial autonomy or federal status, as
exemplified by the rather primitive federation plans of the Transylvanian
Roumanian Aurel Popovici offered too little and came too late. Now it be¬
came increasingly clear, though it was never stated in so many words,
that nothing but union with the kingdom across the Carpathians could
solve the Roumanian question. Further repressive Magyar measures could
only add fuel to a fire that could no longer be extinguished.67
All things considered, the Magyar nationality policy after 1867 and
particularly under Kalman Tisza and afterward was not always as atro¬
cious as pictured by the various national irredenta movements. The fairly
liberal Hungarian nationality law of 1868 was respected at certain times
in dealings with individual national groups, though never with all of
them at the same time. Absent, however, was the understanding for the
desire not only of individuals but of national groups for identification in
f the form of autonomy, whether territorial or personal. Lacking also was
I the understanding that national discrimination, added to social discrim¬
ination, aggravated the lot of the socially underprivileged non-Magyar
peasant and worker still further. Social and political dissatisfaction, il¬
lustrated by increased emigration were symptoms of a situation waiting
for an explosion that was bound to happen.
D. Economic developments in Austria-Hungary
By the beginnings of the 1880’s Austria had recovered from the after-
3 effects of the great stock exchange crash of 1873. Austrian and Hungarian
3 agriculture and industry progressed, though due to the differences in
1 national wealth, social stratification, and per capita income at a rather
57 Miron Constantinescu, Etudes d’Histoire Transylvaine (Bucharest, 1970), pp.

2 27-43; Stephen Fischer-Galati, “The Roumanians and the Habsburg Monarchy,”
n Austrian History Yearbook, III:2 (1967), 442-449 and ibid., Andrei Oteta, “The
5
!;l Roumanians and the Disintegration of the Habsburg Monarchy,” 463-476; Horvath,
Die Geschichte Siebenbiirgens, pp. 150-155; Ladislas Makkai, Histoire de
Transylvanie (Paris, 1946), pp. 325-334.
different pace. Beginning with the 1890’s an over-all crisis began in
European countries with a surplus of agricultural products resulting
from the import of cheap wheat and cattle from the Americas and
Australia. Furthermore, the tense political situation in the Balkans, the
friction between Germany and the western powers, which closed the
western financial markets to the Habshurg empire, .had their effect on the
balance of trade. It had been consistently active from 1876—three years
after the crash—to 1898, though intermittently by rather low margins. It
became passive in 1898 for the first time, when the breakup of the
Austro-Hungarian Compromise appeared to be a distinct threat. Exports
then rallied again, but the balance of trade became definitely passive after
the annexation crisis of 1908-1909.
In economic relations between Austria and Hungary the basic, though
at times modified, position was the Hungarian promotion of a free-trade
policy. It would assure the export of Hungarian agricultural goods to
Austria, and it was hoped, to the European market in general, while ex¬
port possibilities of Hungarian industry, though increasing, were still of
secondary concern. Austria, on the other hand, whose agricultural inter¬
ests were declining in over-all economic terms, favored a protective-
tariff policy, which would support her growing industrialization. Hun¬
gary’s export to Austria throughout the era under discussion amounted
to more than 70 percent of the country’s over-all export. The bulk of
these exports consisted in agricultural products. Hungarian imports from
Austria—chiefly industrial products— in the first prewar decade slightly
exceeded in value the exports to Austria. Altogether, the economic rela¬
tionship between the dual states was certainly close, although it operated
with increasing friction. Such friction had become inevitable because it
was no longer a relationship between a mixed industrial-agricultural and
an agricultural economy but now between two thoroughly mixed econ¬
omies. Of these the Austrian economy paid increasing attention to its
industrial needs while, partly for political reasons, it could not neglect
agricultural interests, including those of the small peasants. Hungary now
showed a relatively greater rise in the industrial sector. While the agricul¬
tural sector was still dominant, the pattern of exchange of Hungarian
agricultural versus Austrian industrial goods became more problematical,
because Germany became a strong competitor for industrial exports to a
Hungarian economy, whose demands for industrial quality goods were
steadily on the rise.
A few figures will help to illustrate the point. In 1900 about 58 per¬
cent of the Austrian population were engaged in agriculture compared
Decline and Discord
with 68 percent in Hungary including Croatia. Industry employed 22
percent of the working population in Austria, 14 percent in Hungary.
The corresponding figures for commerce and transportation were 7 per¬
cent as against 5 percent. Altogether the gap between the social structure
of the two states was steadily narrowing. It remained wide, however,
within the social structure of individual occupations. Austria’s agriculture
consisted primarily of small and middle-sized homestead farms with a
sprinkling of large estates in the possession of the aristocracy and of
some monasteries. Some of these properties were inordinate in size but
the situation in Hungary was more striking. Small homesteads, which
could not provide for the livelihood of a family even with the most
modest standard of living, were owned by more than half of the agricul¬
tural population, versus 3,000 people or institutions (aristocrats and re¬
ligious establishments) who owned almost half of the arable land of the
country. This situation influenced not only socioeconomic but also politi¬
cal conditions including foreign affairs. Thus it would have been to the
best interest of the empire to fight Southern Slav irredentism heading
from Serbia by a liberal customs policy. Yet this ran counter to the
interest of the Magyar latifunda owners, and after 1906 an embargo on
the import of Serbian pigs had to be imposed. Street demonstrations of
Austrian industrial workers against the rising meat prices followed.
I Two years later, in the year of the annexation crisis, Serbian agricultural
imports were drastically reduced. In 1911 the mentioned slight liberalization
of this policy occurred. The tertius gaudens in this economic warfare was
the German empire which in some respects replaced the Habsburg
monarchy as trade partner of Serbia. The brunt of the damage was to be
borne by the Austrian workers but in the last analysis by all peoples of
Austria-Hungary. It would be naive to suggest that the Austro-Serbian
conflict could have been reconciled by a liberal trade policy. Yet, like with
the previously discussed alternative of letting Serbia gain access to the
Adriatic, a Serbian economy tied by agreement and not pressure to the
empire, presumably would not have presented the united anti-Austrian
| front, to which Serbs of all parties subscribed between 1908 and 1914.68
68 Herbert Matis, Osterreichs Wirtschajt 1848-igi3 (Berlin, 1972), pp. 342-447;

Fink, Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic als Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft, pp. 51-
76; Kann, Werden und Zerjall des Habsburgerreiches, pp. 80-88, 121-134; Stefan
Pascu, Tibor Kolossa, Jan Havranek, et ad., Die Agrarfrage in der osterreichisch-
ungarischen Monarchic igoo-igi8 (Bucarest, 1965), passim; Miskolczy, Ungarn in
1 der Habsburger Monarchic, pp. 138-194; see further, Ivan Berend and Gyorgy
Ranki, “Nationaleinkommen und Kapitalakkumulation in Ungarn 1867-1914,” and
n
Laszlo Katus, “Economic Growth in Hungary during the Age of Dualism (1867-
Magyar intransigence, in addition to increasing food prices directly,
also indirectly increased production costs of Austrian industry. One
reason why this industry could not stand up to the economic policy of the
Magyar magnates was the preponderance of middle-sized and small in¬
dustrial establishments. More than three-fifths of them employed less
than fifty workers each. Consequently they had little political leverage.
The center of Austrian industry remained the three crownlands of the
Bohemian crown. It comprised three-fifths of all Austrian industrial estab¬
lishments and production and nearly two-thirds of all persons employed
in industry, primarily in textile, glass, and paper production and in¬
creasingly also in iron-ore processing and machine-manufacturing. In
agricultural products, sugar-beet planting, particularly in Moravia, became
the single most important combined agricultural-industrial export article.
Furthermore the Skoda works in Plzen (Pilsen) became the chief arma¬
ment center of the empire. Bohemia with her rich mineral resources of
coal, tungsten, tin, uranium, and radium was not only the center of the
metallurgical industry, but also of the mining of these resources in the
empire. These mines were even richer than those in northern Hungary.
Lower Austria continued to be a second important center of textile and
paper industry and of manufactured luxury goods of various kinds,
particularly leather, china, and furniture. In this latter respect the large
lumber resources in the Alpine lands were important. Significant was
also the machine industry in Lower and Upper Austria, armament works
in Steyr and chemical industry in Carinthia and Carniola. The utilization
of the Galician oil wells increased. One of the most important Austrian
industrial corporadons was the Alpine Montan Gesellschaft, founded in
1881, which mined the rich iron resources of northwestern Styria. Yet the
major foundries and furnaces of the company were in Moravia and
Bohemia. Only a few larger steel-producing plants operated in Styria.
Economically favorable was the expansion of the Austrian railroad
net, in particular the construction of the scenic Arlberg route between the
Swiss frontier and Tyrol, and the Tauern railroad which added to the
Brenner route a second important connecting link between Vienna and
the south across the Alps. Considering the fact that Austria’s only access
1913),” both in Ervin Pamlenyi, Social Economic Researches in the History of

East-Central Europe (Budapest, 1970), pp. n-34, 35-127; Alexander von Matle-
kovits, Das Konigreich Ungarn (Leipzig, 1900), II, 491-567; Guillaume Vautier,
La Hongrie Economique (Paris, 1893), pp. 201-483; Hanak in Pamlenyi, ed., Die
Geschichte Ungarns, pp. 408-437; Akos Paulinyi, “Die sogenannte gemeinsame
Wirtschaftspolitik Osterreich-Ungarns” in Adam Wandruszka and Peter Urbanitsch
eds., Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848-1918 (Vienna, 1973- ), I., pp. 567-604.
to shipping was by an inland sea, the Adriatic, the expansion of the Aus¬
trian Lloyd Triestino to the largest commercial shipping company in the
Mediterranean was highly satisfactory, as was the development of the
Austrian Danube Steamship Company, which carried freight from
the German frontier to the Black Sea.
In Austrian agriculture, sugarbeet plantations in Moravia and potato
plantations in Galicia could be efficiently run, but farming in the Alpine
and Karst lands to the south was in a state of continuous crisis. The
homesteads were too small, farm labor in the mountains strenuous, and
the climate too harsh to raise crops at prices which could compete with
the Hungarian large-scale production, particularly in wheat. Beef cattle
in the Alpine territories could not compete with the Hungarian imports
because of the high fodder costs, and cheaper meat could not compete with
the lower-quality beef cattle raised in Galicia. The Austrian mountain
peasant in general was in debt, which commenced usually as soon as he
came into possession of the farm. First he had to carry the debts in¬
curred by his father, secondly he had to pay off his brothers4 and sisters’
share in the inheritance, and he could do neither without mortgaging
his homestead. Most Alpine peasants concentrated on dairy products,
fruit, and sometimes vegetables, but these rarely sufficed to earn the
livelihood for a whole family. The answer was in many cases a forced
selling out to the lumber companies or to the big estates owners who
changed pastures and fields to forests, a transaction which combined the
pleasure of enlarged hunting facilities with the opportunity of profitable
sales to the lumber mills. If the Austrian mountain peasant could have
been assisted it would have been by cheaper credits and a channeling of
production into more specialized products. But the major problem of
merging the smallest farms to units of at least twenty acres, which could
support a family, was not solvable without far-reaching government
intervention. This, like farm subsidies, was out of the question in pre¬
war Austria. But although it was uncertain how the mountain peasants
could be helped, the tariff war with Serbia was counterproductive.59
As for Hungary including Croatia-Slavonia, the competitive superior¬
ity of Hungarian agriculture was not only based on the economic power
of the big estates owners. Climate, soil conditions, and centuries of ex¬
perience of the labor force favored large-scale agricultural operations,
59 H. Matis and K. Bachinger, “Osterreichs industrielle Entwicklung,” ibid., pp.
105-229; Benedikt, Die wirtschajtliche Entwicklung in der Franz Joseph Zeit, pp. 104-
181; Marz, Osterreichische Industrie und Ban\politi\ in der Zeit Franz Josephs /.,
pp. 213-362; Tremel, Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte Osterreichs, pp. 324-372;
Matis, Osterreichs Wirtschajt 1848-IQ13, pp. 371-383.
which could not be pursued to the same extent in Austria. Still, without
the introduction of protective tariffs Hungarian agriculture could hardly
have weathered the wheat crisis, which threatened in the 1890’s, an era
of European tariff warfare, largely because of flooding of the market with
cheap American crops. Some enlightened reformers like Count Alexander
Karolyi and Ignaz von Daranyi helped by establishing farmers’ cooperatives
and credit societies, but these measures barely touched the social problems
of the small farms. The Hungarian agrarian Socialist movement was a
response to the hardship endured. Surely the Hungarian small peasant
was no better off and the agricultural worker even worse off than his
Austrian counterpart. Heavy emigration to overseas countries was the con¬
sequence. It occurred in spite of the fact that the gross product from the
over-all point of the national economy was relatively larger, cheaper, and
for crops and cattle of better' quality, than in the western part of the
empire.
Much of the Hungarian industry benefited from its close link with
agriculture, especially flour mills, sugarbeet refineries, distilling of spirits,
and agricultural machinery. Elungarian textile and leather industry was
likewise tied to agriculture. The rich mineral resources in the north fed
the new armament industry in the vicinity of Budapest. The railroad net
expanded almost tenfold between 1867 and 1907. Altogether the Hungar¬
ian economy, despite its grave deficiencies in the distribution of the na¬
tional product, was basically sounder than the Austrian.60
In Bosnia-Hercegovina, finally, the Bosnian serf-peasant, the Kmet, a
hereditary lease holder, who owed one-third of his earnings to the landlord,
was the most exploited agricultural worker in the empire. After 1908,
reforms were introduced attempting to convert the land of the Kmets
to free property by government loans. Because of the outbreak of the war
in 1914 the reforms had little effect and nobody knows whether much
more would have been done if there had been no war. After 1878 the
Bosnian administration under the Joint Ministry of Finance had intro¬
duced tobacco and potato plantations and sugarbeet production. Cattle¬
raising was considerably improved. Yet much good that could have come
60 Matlekovits, Das Konigreich Ungarn, I, 189-616; II, passim; Ivan Berend and
Gyorgy Ranki, “Das Niveau der Industrie Ungarns zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts
im Vergleich zu dem Europas,” in Vilmos Sandor and Peter Hanak, eds.,
Studien zur Geschichte der osterreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie (Budapest, 1961),
pp. 267-289; Solle, Sozialdemo\ratie in Ungarn, pp. 112-163; Hanak in Pamlenyi,
ed., Die Geschichte Ungarns, pp. 438-441, 466-471; I. T. Berend and G. Ranki,
“Ungarns wirtschaftliche Entwicklung 1849-1918” in A. Wandruszka and P.
Urbanitsch eds., Die Habsburgermonarchie i84g-igi8, I, pp. 462-520.
of these reforms was voided by the poor communication system. The

Hungarian government vetoed the construction of a railroad between
Bosnia and Dalmatia, since this Austrian crownland was claimed as a
fief of the crown of St. Stephen. Thus Bosnian agricultural products were
barred from cheaper transport by sea. Furthemore, the main wealth of
Bosnia, the huge forests, was largely in the hands of Austrian and Hun¬
garian lumber mills. The logs were processed in Bosnia, but the chief
profits were made by Austrian and Hungarian businessmen.
Bosnia might have been even worse off under Turkish administration,
but it was certainly not well enough off under the Austrians to blunt
the drive of nationalist unionism in the occupied and subsequently an¬
nexed land.61
61 Kurt Wessely, “Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung von Bosnien-Herzegowina,”

ibid., pp. 528-566. Ferdinand Schmid, Bosnien und die Hercegovina unter der Verwal-
tung Osterreich-Ungarns (Leipzig, 1914), pp. 297-566; Peter R. Sugar, Industrializa¬
tion of Bosnia-Hercegovina 1878-1918 (Seattle, 1963), pp. 33-220 passim; Ernest Bauer,
Zwischen Halbmond und Doppeladler: 40 Jahre osterreichische Verwaliung in
Bosnien-Hercegovina (Vienna, 1971), pp. 115-178.
CHAPTER IX
World War and Dissolution (i9i4-i9is)
Austria-Hungary’s last war and the subsequent dissolution has inspired

more literature than any other period in the empire’s history. Chief
reason for this abundance is not only the interest in the disappearance pf
a great and old political body from the stage of history, a major event
in itself, but in particular the interest in the fate of the national groups in¬
volved in the dissolution process. To some of them the last phase of the
empire’s history appears to be the first glorious chapter of their newly
gained or regained national sovereignty.
The historian who deals with the evolution and the disintegration of an
empire in four centuries cannot take this forward-looking position. To
him the dissolution must be primarily linked to the past and not to the
future, legitimate as the other viewpoint may be, as seen from the
angle of national philosophy. If we look backward, we will recognize
the significance of the great historical process of the dissolution. Yet we
will have to look at it in the proper perspective against the background of
a full and diverse history of four centuries. In this sense the disintegration
process is an important chapter in the history of the Habsburg empire,
but after all just one chapter in a long chain of events. Therefore this
study cannot allot to these four years space out of proportion to the total
time covered by this book. History deals with the evolution, the maturity,
and the decay of thought and action in time. What happened within a
few war years is in essence only an abstract of a long-drawn-out process
of decline.
468
World War and Dissolution 469
A. Conduct of the war
a) FOREIGN AFFAIRS
A new and unique factor in the analysis of the empire’s foreign re¬
lations during the war period is the impossibility, apparent particularly
during the last years of the war, to separate foreign from domestic
policies. The gradual secession of the national groups as part of their
state-forming process belongs in both spheres. The decisive steps were no
longer taken in coordination with Vienna. In fact national leaders were
frequently either unwilling or unable to keep in touch with the govern¬
ment. Beginning with the summer of 1918 the foreign policy conducted
by the Joint Ministry of Foreign Affairs became an empty shell, though
its significance had by then been in marked decline for at least a year. In
the following survey it is necessary to recognize distinctions as far as
possible, between actions taken from the weakening seat of imperial
power and the national centers. This means that in this first section we
i will discuss foreign relations as they were still conducted from Vienna.
The actions of the various national movements, as far as they pertain to
foreign relations, will be surveyed in sections dealing with the national
crisis in Austria and Hungary.
During the first half of the war the two chief problems of foreign
poliey were the coordination with allied Germany and the efforts to
prevent Italy from joining the Entente powers. The hope that Italy
[ might honor her commitments to the Triple Alliance was shaky due to
the problematical nature of Austro-Italian relations in any case. Yet Aus¬
tria had failed to consult with her southern neighbor before presenting an
ultimatum to Serbia, hence Italy could claim that she was not bound to
i support the Habsburg empire. During the second half of the war, which
begins for Austria with the accession of Charles I after the death of
Emperor Francis Joseph on November 21, 1916, several decisive shifts
occurred in problems of chief concern to the government. The first was
1 the unsuccessful but protracted attempts to terminate the war by secret
peace negotiations. The second, rather transitory one, was the conclusion
of peace with revolutionary Soviet Russia and with Roumania, which like
Italy had changed from an ally to an opponent. The third supreme,
! desperate, belated, and wholly unsuccessful endeavor was to establish
1 peace by open negotiations on the basis of sweeping concessions to pre¬
vent the dissolution of the empire.
Of the issues listed here the relationship to Germany will be discussed
4jo History of the Habsburg Empire
in one of its most important aspects, the military one. Italian problem
was a diplomatic one during the first year of the war. As early as August 4,
even before Austria was formally at war with the Entente powers,1 did
Italy declare her neutrality, preceded in that respect by one day by Rou-
mania, the secret ally. The Italian declaration, which for tactical reasons
did not yet terminate her technical adherence to the Triple Alliance
treaty was based on the assumption that Austria’s war against Serbia
represented not a defensive but an aggressive war. Moreover, Italy claimed
that she had not been notified in time about the Austrian ultimatum to
Serbia; hence the casus foederis had not occurred. Both these assertions
were arguable but both were predictable. Undoubtedly the war against
Serbia was defensive to a degree in its motivations, but not in a legal
technical sense. As for informing Italy in accordance with the terms of
the Triple Alliance in good tithe before the ultimatum, it would probably
have led to a leak to Russia and Serbia. This fact alone is a drastic
demonstration of the adventurous character of the Berchtold-Conrad
policy.2
Within a few weeks after the declaration of neutrality on the strength
of Aiticle VII of the Triple Alliance treaty, Italy raised demands for
compensation for Austrian conquests in the Balkans. The Italian govern¬
ment made it clear that she was not primarily interested in parcels of
newly conquered territory, but in Austrian lands, that is, the Trentino,
part of the Littoral, and various Dalmatian islands although specific
demands were not immediately made. It was of little concern to Italy
that these claims were clearly in conflict with the terms of the alliance,
which referred to compensations in regard to newly annexed territories
and not merely temporarily occupied ones. Since November 1914 the
crown was under pressure by Germany, represented at the Quirinal by
the pro-Italian former chancellor Prince Billow as ambassador, to accede
1 The Austrian declaration of war on Serbia occurred on July 28, on Russia on

August 6; the British and French declaration of war on Austria on August 12; the
Belgian declaration of war not until August 28. Berchtold had obviously hoped to
avoid a formal break with the Western Powers similar to the German attitude
towards Italy, after the latter had declared war on Austria in May, 1915.
2 According to the terms of the fourth renewal of the Triple Alliance Treaty,
Article VII, a full exchange of opinion between Austria and Italy before the pre¬
sentation of the ultimatum to Serbia would have been required. The Austro-
Hungarian Foreign Ministry merely informed the Italian government two days in
advance of the presentation of the ultimatum and even then only in general terms.
The text of the ultimatum was transmitted only after the notification of the
Serbian government. See Ludwig Bittner, et ah, eds., Osterreich-Ungarns Aussen-
politi\, 8 vols. and index vol. (Vienna, 1930), see VIII, 538-642 passim.
World War and Dissolution 47*
as far as possible to Italian demands. If treaty rights did not support
them, a deteriorating military situation certainly did. In the beginning of
January, 1915, Count Berchtold was ready to yield in regard to the cession
of the Trentino and of parts of the Albanian coastline. The latter con¬
cession would have been less controversial, from the Austrian viewpoint,
because it did not apply to territory of the empire. In regard to interna¬
tional law it was a highly dubious proposition.
Berchtold was firmly opposed by Tisza, who saw in the cession of the
Trentino an ominous precedent for potential Roumanian demands for the
cession of Transylvania. This argument, the voluntary abandonment of
territories of the multinational empire as precedent for demands by other
states and national groups, was certainly powerful. But so was the need
to prevent the opening of a new theater of war, particularly at a time
when the German offensive in the west had come to a permanent halt
and the Russians had pierced the Carpathian defense line at some points.
The ill-fated Berchtold could not cope with this difficult situation and
surrendered his office, which for the sake of the monarchy’s welfare he
should never have accepted. His successor was Baron (later Count)
Stefan Burian, a former Hungarian diplomat and later joint minister of
finance. He was a serious, less cynical official than Berchtold, but his long-
winded, legalistic, and unimaginative policy made him as incapable a
minister of foreign affairs as his predecessor had been. In March, 1915,
when Burian was finally ready to offer cession of the Trentino, Italy also
demanded large parts of territories in the Littoral and Dalmatian islands.
Worse, it had become clear that she could get them from an alliance
with the Entente powers as well—in fact more easily—than from Austria.
In the beginning of April Italy had finally formulated a compensation
program to an extent, which clearly would have made Austria’s maritime
position untenable, although for the time being a mere sweeping auton¬
omy of Trieste was asked for in lieu of outright annexation. Yet by this
time Italian public opinion and leading government circles had moved
away from the idea of gaining their objectives by pressure, not to say
r blackmail, rather than by alignment with the Entente powers. On April
26, 1915, a secret pact of London between Italy and the Entente powers
f was signed. According to its terms, if Italy joined the war on the side of
t the Entente within four weeks she should obtain the Trentino, Goricia,
Gradisca, Istria, Trieste, the most important Dalmatian islands, and the
; southern part of Dalmatia. This unfortunate treaty which considerably
exceeded the ethnic boundaries of territory settled by Italians, became a
major stumbling block for any subsequently conceivable peace negotia-
4J2 History of the Hahshurg Empire
tions between Austria and the Entente powers. Besides, the treaty repre¬
sented a source of future friction between Italy and Yugoslavia. When
Burian, in early May, 1915, limped behind events and offered the Tren-
tino plus a strip of Isonzo territory, the game was clearly up. Italy con¬
tinued negotiations in a halfway manner for appearance’s sake until she
was ready to strike. Her declaration of war occurred on May 23, 1915.
The conflict with Italy became the only part of the war which even in the
long run remained popular with a majority of the Austrian and Hun¬
garian peoples. They felt deeply embittered by the Italian action and took
it as a real breach of faith.
Could Austria have prevented this turn of events? It is unlikely for
two reasons, both of major consequence for further developments. First, in
view of the history of the wars of 1859 and 1866, Italian public opinion
felt strongly that the country must not owe the liberation of Italian terri¬
tory to smart diplomatic dealings and pressure on Austria but to a genu¬
ine national military effort. Secondly, the question of the timing of the
transfer of the ceded territories in case of an Austro-Italian deal repre¬
sented insoluble difficulties. Immediate cession, as demanded by Italy,
would have laid Austria open to attacks from the south at any time of
Italy’s choosing. Postponement until the end of the war made it highly
probable that Austria, except in case of outright defeat, would refuse to
honor a deal concluded under severe pressure. Italy’s security to keep the
conquered territory depended indeed on Austria’s defeat, which meant
the dismemberment of the empire. Among the powers allied against
the Danube monarchy Italy was the only one thus at least indirectly
committed before 1918 to the empire’s dissolution. Naturally she hoped
and endeavored to win her allies over to that objective. In this sense the
entry of the Italian forces into the war with Austria, even though Italy’s
military strength was not equal to her ambitions, was perhaps the most
fateful strike against the empire throughout the war.3
In October, 1914, Turkey had joined the war on the side of the Central
Powers under considerable German pressure. The Ottoman empire had
more to fear from a Russian-British than from a German-Austrian vic¬
tory. The Turkish entry into the war put Bulgaria in a squeeze. The
3 Allan J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848-1918 (Oxford,

1957), pp. 544-548; Karl von Macchio, Wahrheit: Burst Billow und ich in Rom
1914/1$ (Vienna, 1931), pp. 25-135; Count Stefan Burian, Drei Jahre: Aus der Zeit
meiner Amtsfiihrung im Kriege (Berlin, 1923), pp. 11-51; Leo Valiani, La Dis-
soluzione dell’Austria Ungheria (Milan, 1966), pp. 97-138; Angelo Tamborra,
LTdea de Nazionalita e la Guerra 1914-1918 (Trento, 1963), pp. 16-19; Arthur J.
May, The Passing of the Habsburg Monarchy 1914-1918 (Philadelphia, 1966), I,
170-202.
danger of attack from west and east on the one side and the chance to
take revenge on Serbia on the other, forced the cunning king of Bul¬
garia to take the big jump rather than to wait out the war crisis. In
September, 1915, Bulgaria became a partner of what from now on was
called the Quadruple Alliance. Now a contiguous territory from the
Vosges in the west to Anatolia in Asia Minor was under control of the
Central Powers. But Britain dominated the seas and Russia, though
several times indecisively defeated, seemed to have a nearly inexhaustible
pool of manpower at her disposal; hence Bulgaria’s entry into the war
could merely delay the inevitable. It was certainly offset in August, 1916,
by Roumania’s declaration of war against the Central Powers. This action
resulted from the conviction that the Central Powers were doomed,
rather than from the consideration that Hungarian Translyvania was a
more valuable objective than Roumanian Bessarabia.4
In early November, 1916, the Central Powers proclaimed the establish¬
ment of conquered Congress Poland as independent kingdom of Poland.
This restoration was one of the clumsiest diplomatic moves of the German
chancellor Bethmann Hollweg and the more obtuse Burian. The paper
independence under Allied occupation was expected to pay dividends by
the recruiting of Polish soldiers for the cause of the Central Powers.
Apart from this, the deceitful proclamation already had become obsolete
by the tsarist government’s pledges for the reestablishment of a united
Greater Poland under Russian auspices. Thus the promise of the Central
Powers did not open the way for the restoration of Poland—on the con¬
trary, it meant the perpetuation of the contradictory relationship between
a satellite condominium of the Central Powers and the continuation of
the Austrian regime in Galicia and the German one in West Prussia and
Poznan.5
On November 21, 1916, Emperor Francis Joseph died close to the end of
the sixty-eighth year of his tragic reign.6 Fate spared him the tribulation of
4 Frank G. Weber, Eagles on the Crescent: Germany, Austria and the Diplomacy
of the Turkish Alliance igi4~igi8 (Ithaca, 1971), passim. Gerald Silberstein, The
Troubled Alliance: German Austrian Relations igi/p-igiy (Lexington, Ky., 1970),
pp. 129-247; Burian, Drei Jahre, pp. 52-61, 103-108.
5 Bernadotte E. Schmitt, “The Polish Problem in International Politics,” in
W. F. Reddaway, J. H. Penson, et al., eds., Cambridge History of Poland (Cam¬
bridge, 1950-1951), II, 481-489; Werner S. Conze, Polnische Nation und deutsche
Politi\ im ersten Welt\rieg (Cologne-Graz, 1958), pp. 46-257; Burian, Drei
fahre, pp. 62-87, 254-264; see also Heinz Lemke, “Die Regierung Stiirgkh und die
Plane zur Teilung Galiziens,” in Fritz Klein, ed., Osterreich-Ungarn in der Welt-
politik, igoo-igi8 (Berlin, 1965), pp. 267-283.
6 Personal tragedies of his reign—apart from the political decline of the empire
—were the execution of his brother Maximilian in Mexico in 1867, the suicide of
witnessing the breakup o£ the Habsburg monarchy. He was succeeded
by his grand nephew Archduke Charles, a young man in no way superior
to his predecessor in intellectual ability and second to him in consistency
and, naturally, experience. In domestic and above all in foreign policy
there were important differences between the two rulers. Francis Joseph,
in part due to his age and tradition, was averse to change, in particular
in relations to the German ally. He would in all probability have con¬
tinued the war to the bitter end as the faithful, though hardly cheerful,
junior partner of the German alliance. Charles, married to the Italian-
born Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma, whose brothers served in the
Belgian army,* * * 7 had an entirely different outlook. Neither Charles no
his more energetic consort were disloyal to the German alliance, but
the new emperor was not raised in the tradition of Austria as the presid¬
ing power in the German Confederation and of the Habsburgs as Holy
Roman emperors. To him, the alliance meant less than the genuine in¬
dependence of the Habsburg empire. The aim of achieving peace, if pos¬
sible by coordinated action with Germany, if necessary by going it alone,
dominated his thinking from the beginning of his brief reign to its
tragic end.
Now the second phase of the diplomatic history of the war, the Aus¬
trian attempt to obtain peace began. On December 12, 1916, the Quad¬
ruple Alliance in a clumsy and arrogant manner declared to the world
its readiness to enter into peace negotiations, without however even hint¬
ing at the restoration of Belgium and Serbia within their prewar bound¬
aries. Germany did not indicate either that a compromise on the French
claim to the return of Alsace-Lorraine was feasible. Obviously this first
official attempt to initiate peace negotiations in the works already before
Charles’ accession, was bound to fail. In December, 1916, the new em¬
peror, who wanted a more flexible and ingenious foreign minister than
the dreary Burian, appointed Count Ottokar Czernin, former confidant
of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and until recently minister to Bucharest,
as Burian’s successor.8 Czernin was a highly controversial personality.
More flexible, more original in his thinking and more energetic than
either Burian or Berchtold, this intelligent German-Bohemian aristocrat
Crownprince Rudolf in 1889, the assassination of the Empress-Consort Elisabeth by

an Italian anarchist in 1898, and finally the assassination of the heir presumptive in
Sarajevo in 1914.
7 As claimants to the French crown, scions of the House of Bourbon could not
serve in the French armed forces.
8 See Robert A. Kann, “Count Ottokar Czernin and Archduke Francis Fer¬
dinand,” journal Central European Affairs, XVII:n (1956), 117-145.
was also more neurasthenic, more mercurial in temper and unpredictable
in his course of action than his predecessors. The unfortunate war situa¬
tion and the contradictions in Czernin’s personality were in part the cause
for the gifted man doing as much damage to the empire as his predeces¬
sors.
General semiofficial attempts by President Wilson to initiate peace nego¬
tiations introduced only days after the sterile declaration of the Quad¬
ruple Alliance, were met by a negative response from the Entente powers.
The beginning of the unrestricted U-boat warfare by Germany on Feb¬
ruary i, 1917, opposed only feebly and vainly by the Austrian authorities,
sounded the death knell for efforts to rally public opinion in all warring
countries behind efforts to end the war without annexations to be made
or reparations to be paid on either side, as proposed by Pope Benedict XV
in the summer of 1917.9 10 In this situation the Austrian and German gov¬
ernments were agreed that each was entitled to make secret contacts of its
own with Entente representatives. The respective ally had only to be in¬
formed about the general fact of such contacts, which might eventually
lead to peace negotiations, to be conducted and concluded jointly by all
partners of the alliance. A whole host of such secret attempts on the Ger¬
man as well as on the Austrian side were made subsequently, none of
them to any avail. Chief stumbling blocks were generally the German
unwillingness to compromise on the question of Alsace-Lorraine and to
agree to the unconditional restoration of a fully sovereign Belgium. The
j Austrians, on the other hand, declined to agree to the terms of the secret
treaty of London of April, 1917, whose provisions had in a general way
come to the knowledge of the Central Powers. Here the British and
French governments, much to their own disliking, were bound to support
the inordinate Italian demands in full.
Austria as the weaker partner in the alliance of the Central Powers was
less feared by the Entente Powers than Germany. It seemed to some
Entente diplomats Austria might be agreeable to a separate peace. In any
case she had the better chance in secret peace negotiations to arrive at
pmutual understandings of the problems, if not at agreements. In 1917
such secret discussions, among others, were held between the Austrian
diplomat Count Nikolaus Revertera and the French diplomat Count
Abel St. Armand, as well as between the former Austrian ambassador to
9 Burian was actually his immediate predecessor (after Berchtold) and his im¬
mediate successor as well.
10 Wolfgang Steglich, ed., Der Friedensappell Benedi\ts XV. vom 1. August igiy
und die Mittelmachte: Diplomatische A\tenstuc\e (Wiesbaden, 1970), pp. 1-22.
rf]6 History of the Hahsburg Empire
the Court of St. James, Count Albert Mensdorff-Pouilly and the South
African Prime Minister, General Jan Christian Smuts. In these latter
negotiations Smuts drew the picture of a huge Central and Central
Eastern European federation or confederation headed by Emperor
Charles, provided the Habsburg empire would leave the German alliance
and make the necessary concessions to Italy. This vague scheme could
probably never have materialized, and if so such a structure would hardly
have outlasted the drying of the signatures on the treaty. Even if Italy
would ever have agreed to such a plan, a highly unlikely contingency,
most member states of the new federal or confederal structure would un¬
doubtedly have seceded soon to attain fully sovereign statehood. Apart
from this, Czernin refused to entertain notions of Austria’s betrayal of
the alliance with Germany, and with good reasons. As he saw it, irrespec¬
tive of the moral question involved, such efforts would have permanently
alienated the dominant national groups, Austro-Germans and Magyars,
the pillars of the Compromise of 1867, while at this late stage of the war
support of the empire’s Slavic and Latin populations could have been
gained, if at all, only temporarily.
Thus, not much significance should be attached to those attempts, ex¬
cept for one, the so-called secret Sixtus negotiations, held from March to
May, 1917, between the emperor and his consort and Prince Sixtus of
Parma, one of her brothers, who served as semiofficial representative of
the French and British governments. Czernin, according to most sources,
was only partly informed about these negotiations held secretly in the
imperial castle of Laxenburg, ten miles to the south of Vienna. According
to the disputed accounts of the empress and her brother Sixtus, however,
Czernin had full knowledge of the proceedings. The negotiations in
themselves were no more remarkable than any other secret pourparlers
held between other negotiators, except that the emperor and his authority
were directly involved. On the other hand, a Bourbon prince was a poor
choice in the eyes of French as well as German (and German-Austrian)
public opinion in case the negotiations would have been successful and
would eventually have been made public. Yet there was little reason to
worry about this point, since they floundered like previous contacts on the
cliffs of the terms of the treaty of London, which would have made the
Habsburg empire for all practical purposes a land-locked country.
The important fact about the so-called Sixtus negotiations was neither
their outcome, nor even the personalities of their august participants but
the circumstances, under which they were disclosed to the public opinion
of the world, more than a year after their termination. The emperor had
committed the uncautious act of handing over to Prince Sixtus a letter for
transmittal to the French president Poincare, which included the clause
that Charles “would by all means at his disposal support the justified de¬
mands for the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France.” It is highly unlikely
that Czernin as a statesman with at least some professional diplomatic ex¬
perience would ever have agreed to such assurances in writing, which,
however justified in themselves, contradicted the terms as well as the
spirit of the Austro-German alliance.
For reasons not fully clarified to this day, the foreign minister in a
public speech of early April, 1918, alluded to French attempts to enter
Jnto secret peace negotiations with Austria. Probably he had meant to
refer to St. Armand’s conversations with Revertera, whereas the new
French prime minister, the tough Clemenceau, understood Czernin’s
remarks as reference to the Sixtus negotiations, which were initiated on
the imperial and not on the French side. In the course of an exchange of
widely publicized assertions and denials between Czernin and Clemen¬
ceau, about the still obscure negotiations, the latter hinted at the emperor’s
personal involvement; Czernin denied this. Thereupon Clemenceau had
the whole so-called Sixtus letter published in fascimile. The fallout of this
revelation was widespread and serious beyond expectations, since feeble
and hopeless dementis showed the matter only in a worse light, as
seen from the point of view of Austrian credibility. In this respect the
challenge to the emperor’s truthfulness did greater damage than that to
the correctness of Czernin’s statements.11
The emperor, though clearly motivated by a desire for peace, exercised
however in all ill-advised and less than frank manner, had exposed him¬
self as a man who, in three respects, could not be trusted: by his own
peoples, particularly the Austro-Germans and Magyars, by the German
ally, and in practice most serious, by Clemenceau and Lloyd George, the
British and French prime ministers. To the Magyars and Germans within
and across the border he had become the man who had gone back on the
alliance and what it stood for. To the allied representatives he appeared
now as a negotiator whose discretion was not to be trusted, and who, in
a pinch, would rather deny the obvious than face the consequences. Un¬
doubtedly as far as the matter of discretion was concerned, Czernin was
' largely to blame. Unquestionably also, extenuating moral circumstances
spoke for the more flagrant lapse of the hapless emperor. Unfortunately
11 See Robert A. Kann, Die Sixtiisaffare und die geheimen Friedensverhandlungen

Osterreich-Ungarns im ersten Weltkrieg (Munich, 1966), pp. 9-90 passim. Ingeborg
Meckling, Die Aussenpoliti\ des Grafen Czernin (Vienna, 1969), pp. 314-358.
4j8 History of the Hahsburg Empire
his good intentions were not matched by prudence and consistency to
stand by his words. In this regard Charles’ cable to Emperor Wilhelm, in
which he denied everything and pledged that his answer to Clemenceau’s
“lies” were to be given by the Austrian artillery in the west, did little
good before friend and foe alike. As for the latter it made matters worse.
Yet all this was almost incidental. Imperial Austria in the eyes of the
leading allied statesmen from now on lacked sufficient'"credibility to
continue or to take up further meaningful negotiations. Two months
after the public scandal of the exposure of the Sixtus affair the French
government recognized the Czechoslovak National Council as represen¬
tative official agency of the Czech people, followed within days by similar
American and within weeks British action. Austria, now sitting between
two chairs, had to commit herself even more fully to the iron grip of
the German alliance as made clear to the world by the visit of Charles
to the German emperor at the German headquarters at Spa August 14,
1918. The Austrian emperor had to disown his independent peace policy
and with it perhaps the last hopes for the future of his empire. The
brilliant but intemperate Czernin had to yield his office to the deplorable
Burian, now minister of foreign affairs for the second time, which added
only satire to the tragedy.12
The miserable outcome of the Sixtus affair was only one important
factor in the impending collapse. An even more serious one, were the na¬
tional revolutions, evolving with increasing speed at home but directed
largely from abroad. These developments will be reviewed in a separate
section. The third major factor was the response of the Austro-Hungarian
authorities to the extraordinary events of the Russian November revolution
and also the Roumanian defeat. Russia, after the February revolution of
1917 under Kerensky’s leadership, had resolved to continue the war, a de¬
cision hailed by the western powers not merely for military but also for
ideological reasons. Now the great alliance against the Central Powers
appeared no longer encumbered and compromised by the impact of
tsarist absolutism. Yet in October of the same year the Bolsheviks over¬
threw the moderate pro-Western Kerensky government, never to re¬
linquish power again. Within weeks, they decided to withdraw from
the war, and, if world revolution could not be accomplished now, at least
a separate peace with the Quadruple Alliance would open the chance for
unrestricted revolutionary development within the country and revolu¬
tionary propaganda abroad. The armistice and peace negotiations between
12 Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau, Die Katastrophe (Vienna, 1929), pp. 205-234;

Kann, N ationalitatenproblem, II, 260-291, 376-385.
the Quadruple Alliance, the Soviet Union, and a separate Ukrainian dele¬
gation started in mid-December, 1917, at Brest-Litovsk. With the Ukraine
these negotiations were concluded on February 9, 1918, by a peace treaty.
A new, nominally independent state was recognized.
Negotiations with the Soviet delegation under Trotsky’s skillful leader¬
ship proved to be difficult. Hostilities were in fact resumed in early
February, 1918, when the Soviets refused to accept the extremely harsh
demands of the Central Powers. Actually they were no longer willing or
able to offer military resistance. On March 3, the Soviet delegates were
forced to return to the conference table and to sign a peace treaty on the
dotted line.
Sound reasoning on the part of the Central Powers would have de¬
manded that the peace terms agreed upon should have been moderate,
in part to blunt the effective revolutionary Soviet propaganda, chiefly,
however, to show to a world deeply impressed by President Wilson’s
Fourteen Point peace program of January 6, 1918, that the Central
Powers now so close, to defeat in the west, were, as victors in the east,
more moderate than Allied propaganda would have it. The German and
Austrian peace delegations, the former headed by the German secretary
of foreign affairs Richard von Kiihlmann, the latter by Count Czernin,
and both under pressure of the German high command, actually did the
opposite. They showed the world the brutality of an imposed German
peace. The treaty of February 9, which recognized the Ukraine as a sov¬
ereign state, actually a merely camouflaged German-Austrian condomin¬
ium to be ruled by right-wing groups, opened the prospects of further
revolutionary change. Moreover, the cession of the Cholm district in
Congress Poland to the new state and the announcement of the partition
of Galicia in a western Polish and an eastern Ukrainian crownland em¬
bittered Austro-Polish relations from here on to the end of the empire.
Yet the Ukrainian “bread treaty,” as it was called, promised sub¬
stantial grain imports from the east and thus relief from the desperate
food situation in Austria. Even these expectations were only partly ful¬
filled. But if there was some justification for the Ukrainian treaty in re¬
gard to the determination of boundaries with Poland, there was none for
that with the Soviet Union, enforced by the German High Command
and meekly acquiesced to by the Austrian authorities. Kurland, Lithu¬
ania, Livonia, and Estonia were meant to become German vassal states
under German princelings, although the Hohenzollern empire had col¬
lapsed before the spoils could be divided between the various German
dynasties. Congress Poland and Finland, now to be nominally indepen-
dent, might at least indirectly have become German satellite states within
the Lebensraum scheme directed toward the east. As for imperialistic
designs they were second only to those of Hitler three decades later. A
German peace was thus exposed to the world as true Siegfrieden and the
last illusion that Austria could be more than a satellite with this system
was shattered.13
Roumania had capitulated like Russia in December, 1917. Peace was
concluded at Bucharest on May 7, 1918. This treaty was less important
though just as harsh. It divided the Dobrudja between Austria, Germany,
and Bulgaria, gave the Carpathian passes to Hungary, and handed over
the rich Roumanian oil wells to the Central Powers for a number of years.
From here on the Habsburg monarchy did no longer have to worry about
the results of secret peace feelers or about a negotiated peace. In the face
of what had happened in the east, both concepts had lost their meaning.14
In view of the desperate military situation Austria-Hungary on Septem¬
ber 4, 1918, submitted a request to all warring nations to start peace
negotiations at once. This move made without any diplomatic prepara¬
tions was rejected off hand by the Entente. That it violated also the
agreement with Germany concerning joint peace negotiations had become
an academic question.
On October 4, the last joint Austro-German diplomatic action followed
the breakdown of the Bulgarian front in the southern Balkans which
opened the way for the Entente armies into Hungary. Austria and Germany
now offered acceptance of Wilson’s Fourteen Points as basis of peace
negotiations, but clearly this concession came too late. As far as Austria
was concerned it would have involved the evacuation of Russian terri¬
tory and the restoration of Serbia, Montenegro, and Roumania as well as
the acceptance of frontiers with Italy based on the ethnic principle. Even
the establishment of a free Poland comprising the Austrian and Prussian
Polish territories could be swallowed in the hope that at least the trunk of
the Habsburg empire could be preserved. This hinged on Point Ten,
which demanded opportunity for autonomous development for the people
of Austria-Hungary. When Wilson, on October 18, 1918, rejected this
offer with reference to the fact that autonomy in lieu of national self-
13 Wolfgang Steglich, Die Friedenspoliti\ der Mittelmachte igiy/18 (Wiesbaden,

1964) , I, 313-415; Henryk Batowski, Rozpad Austro-Wegier, 1914-1918 (Warsaw,
1965) , pp. 147-152; Ottokar Czernin, Im Welt\rieg (Vienna, 1919), pp. 289-347;
Richard von Kiihlmann, Erinnerungen (Heidelberg, 1948), pp. 518-568; Wolf-
dieter Bihl, Osterreich-Ungarn und die Friedensschlusse von Brest-Litovs\ (Vienna,
1970), pp. 35-130.
14 Czernin, 7m Weltlprieg, pp. 351-366; Kiihlmann, Erinnerungen, pp. 550-562.
determination had become anachronistic by this time, the long-pending
death sentence for the empire was, so to speak, officially pronounced.
What happened from now on, when all serious negotiations took place
with the representatives of the Austro-Hungarian nationalities rather
than the Joint Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is comparable to the frantic
and senseless knocking about of a drowning man. On October 24 the
luckless Burian resigned and was replaced by the liberal Hungarian
Count Andrassy, whose bitter task was to terminate the German alliance,
concluded by his father nearly four decades earlier.
Emperor Charles with his limited comprehension of affairs, over¬
strained by the blows of fate of the last two years, believed that this des¬
perate act taken at this late hour would enable Austria to gain a separate
peace. Naturally the offer was made in vain and Austria could at least
have been spared an unnecessary further humiliation. On November 2
Andrassy resigned and a powerless ruler lacking a viable government
behind him failed to appoint a successor. On the following day, after the
collapse of the Italian front, the armistice between Austria-Hungary and
the Entente powers was signed. Here Italy acted on behalf of the Great
Alliance. The agreement permitted free movement of Entente troops on
Austrian soil, unilateral disarmament, evacuation of Tyrol south of the
Brenner pass, surrender of the Littoral and Dalmatia. Moreover, be¬
cause of a dubious Italian interpretation of the time of the termination of
hostilities, which earned cheap laurels for a foe of greater ambitions than
military prowess, nearly 400,000 Austrian troops became prisoners of
war. On November 11, the emperor formally relinquished his claims to
participation in the government of Cisleithanian Austria and approved
in advance of the form of government of the new Austrian republic.
This somewhat ambiguous action was meant to get around the formal
necessity of abdication. Yet neither abdication nor mere withdrawal
from participation in governmental affairs was of practical significance
any longer.
Notable is the fact that the German High Command after the signing
of the Austrian armistice, in the wake of the German collapse ordered the
march of German troops into Austria. Only the outbreak of the German
revolution on November 9 prevented the spread of hostilities to Austrian
soil north of the Alps. This military decision so desperate in nature and
taken at so desperate a time made it doubly clear that the notion of an
Austrian withdrawal from the Dual Alliance at an earlier stage, when
Germany was in full command of her military forces, had been illu¬
sionary.
A final over-all observation on Austrian foreign policy may be in order
at this point. Taking a view across the centuries, such policy was no
more aggressive than that of other major powers, and if we distinguish
between basic motivations and their execution probably even less so.
Against the Turks, the French, the Prussians, the Italians, and finally the
Russians, the Habsburg empire’s five most powerful opponents through
four centuries, Austria was by and large in essence in a defensive posi¬
tion. This does neither preclude nor excuse individual aggressive actions.
On the whole, however, they were rare.
Neither can it be said that the foreign policy of the empire was in
general conducted by men inferior in skill or vision to the statesmen of
other countries. In a decisive period between mid-eighteenth and mid¬
nineteenth century the opposite was true. It was regrettable that in the
supreme crisis leading to the World War and all through it men of in¬
ferior qualifications were at the helm. Yet it would be a simplification
of history to say that even this fact was decisive.
What distinguished the foreign policy of the Habsburg empire from
that of other great powers, and what definitely contributed to its decline
and ultimate downfall, first, was the incongruity of its national composition
which has been discussed throughout this study. It was impossible to
subordinate the foreign policy of the multinational empire to the concept
of the nation state. Yet, a less obvious fact, it could not be subordinated
to distinct and clear-cut historic and geographic notions either. The his¬
toric traditions within the Habsburg empire, ancient and venerable as they
were, ran across those of other states, and the geographic boundaries were
drawn in the course of history partly by defense needs, but more often
by almost accidental opportunities, hardly ever by clearcut objectives
forged and maintained through the centuries. Hence the loss of non¬
contiguous territories in Italy, southwestern Germany, the Netherlands,
and hence the acquisition of others, Galicia, Bukovina, and Bosnia. In
neither case did long-established historic or geographic-economic ties ease
the integration of such territories in the empire or make their loss par¬
ticularly difficult. Similar examples can be found also in the history of
other powers, but there they represented in the main rather the exception,
in the Habsburg empire they represented the rule.
These facts do not obviate the existence of strong, ancient, and in many
ways culturally beneficial traditions for the people under Habsburg rule
and well beyond to the east, west, north, and south. They were not homo¬
geneous, however, not well directed, not strong enough to guarantee the
survival and least of all the revival of the Habsburg empire. It was the
very tragedy of this situation that the essentially defensive position of the
Habsburg empire in history was primarily not a consequence of moral
strength but of inherent, deeply rooted political weakness. No foreign
policy could in the long run succeed against such odds.
b) MILITARY AFFAIRS
In the war, the Habsburg empire with a population of 52,000,000 peo¬

ple lost 1,200,000 killed; 3,500,000 were wounded and 2,200,000 became
: prisoners of war, of whom an unspecified but large number never re¬
turned. Even in the briefest survey of the military events that led to this
tragedy, one must also consider the operations in theaters of war, particu¬
larly on the western front, where Austrian forces, except for some units of
heavy artillery, did not participate. Nominal head of the armed forces,
until the death of the old emperor, was Archduke Frederick, reputed to
be a better businessman than soldier. Actually leader of military opera¬
tions was the chief of staff Conrad. Disregarding his damaging prewar
political interventions, he was in some ways an ingenious strategist, but
also a man of erratic temper, tense and difficult in his dealings with the
German ally. Until December, 1914, the Balkan army was under the
command of General Potiorek who had sloppily handled security mea¬
sures at the time of the assassination of Sarajevo. Potiorek on December 2,
1914, the anniversary of the emperor’s coronation, laid Belgrade at “his
majesty’s feet,” but had to evacuate the city the next day with the sacrifice
of lives of thousands of soldiers. Upon this act of Byzantinism he was
belatedly cashiered. His replacement was Archduke Eugene, an able
soldier, who distinguished himself later also in the Italian theater. After
the death of Francis Joseph, the new emperor whose military experience
was negligible, nominally assumed the supreme command, with no better
results than his colleagues in such function, the German emperor and
the Russian tsar. Conrad, equally difficult as subordinate and commander
was now replaced by the more amenable General Arz von Straussenburg
as chief of staff. Conrad in turn was given the command of the armed
forces in South Tyrol, in which region he could claim expert knowledge.
I Yet an overambitious offensive of his in the spring of 1918 backfired and
: he was forced to resign. A man with far better than average gifts had on
balance done great harm to the empire. As for other generals, some were
poor like the archdukes Joseph Ferdinand and Peter Ferdinand, whose
command was almost exclusively anchored in their exalted rank, some
like the Croatians Svetozar Boroevic von Bojna on the Isonzo front and
j Stephan Sarkotic von Lovcen on the Balkan front, were outstanding rep-
resentatives of the Military Frontier tradition in the Habshurg armies.
The small Austrian navy, which owed its development largely to the
interest of the archduke Francis Ferdinand and the excellent command
of Grand Admiral Anton Haus, could defend the Austrian shores success¬
fully against the superior Italian navy. All things considered the armed
forces of the empire fought well until October, 1918. Except for some
Czech regiments, which went over to the Russian enemy, and a number
of individual deserters, usually from Slavic units, they served with dedi¬
cation and almost complete disregard of the nationality conflict raging on
the home front.
The over-all strategy of the war on the part of the Central Powers was
geared to that of the stronger ally, Germany. During the second part of
the war, Hindenburg and Ludendorff were in charge of the German
General Staff. They directed also in a general way the common efforts
of the Allies under the nominal command of the German emperor, al¬
though the Austrian emperor had reserved his veto power.
The German Schlieffen plan of 1905 provided that the main German
forces should immediately after outbreak of the war be sent to the west
with the objective of knocking out France before a British army could
arrive on French soil. Meanwhile only small German detachments would
face the Russians in East Prussia, while the bulk of the Russian armies,
by far the largest of all warring countries, should be contained by
Austrian forces, until such time—middle of September—when the French
were expected to be defeated and the German armies could be trans¬
ferred to the Russian front.
The plan failed. In early September, 1914, the German armies were
checked in their advance toward Paris and the Channel by the French and
British armies at the Marne. The initiative lost there was never regained.
As for the east, the Germans with the support of some troops transferred
from the western front (possibly just the ones lacking in the decisive
battle at the Marne) routed the Russians in East Prussia under Hinden¬
burg. Still, this spectacular success did not change the situation decisively.
The Austrian armies, in early August in accordance with prearranged
plans, had taken the offiensive in Galicia, but by the end of the month
they had to yield to numerically superior Russian forces. Accordingly the
offensive was reversed. On September 1, the official Austrian war com¬
munique announced to an unprepared and stunned population the often-
quoted sentence ‘‘Lemberg (Lwow) still in our possession.” The follow¬
ing day the Russians took the city. The Austrians incurred enormous
losses, particularly among the active officers, and withdrew to the Car¬
pathians. Yet even this defense line was pierced at points in November.
World War and Dissolution 48s
Russian troops entered Hungarian mountain territories, though not yet
the Hungarian plains. With determined effort and considerable German
support the front could be held, and in early May, 1915, combined
Austrian-German forces took the offensive, broke through the Russian
front at Gorlice, and by late summer had conquered most of Poland and
Lithuania. Conrad and Hindenburg’s predecessor as Germany’s chief of
staff, the brilliant General von Falkenhayn, was credited with the plan¬
ning of this operation. Still, in one respect it failed in its objective. It
had been hoped that the great offensive would deter Italy from joining
the Entente. But the treaty of London was signed two weeks before the
offensive started.
Meanwhile events in the Balkan theater of war required Austrian at¬
tention. As mentioned before, the Austrian army against Serbia under
an inferior general had done poorly against the fine Serbian troops,
; particularly well trained in new techniques of guerrilla warfare. By De¬
cember, 1914, Serbian soil was cleared of Austrian forces. But when Bul¬
garia joined the Central Powers it was possible to start a new and now
successful offensive against Serbia. In October, Austrian and German
forces attacked from the west and Bulgarians from the east. In Decem¬
ber, 1915, Serbia and Montenegro were conquered.
While the Austrians had not distinguished themselves particularly on
the Balkan front, they stood up well to the task of fighting the Italian foe in
a third major theater of war. Since the bulk of the Austrian armies was
engaged against Russia and Serbia, their troops were vastly outnumbered
by the Italians. Still, in eleven bloody battles along the river Isonzo from
May, 1915, to September, 1917, the Italian forces, superior in numbers but
not comparable to the qualities of the Serbian army, had gained hardly
more than ten miles. Between October and December, 1917, they were in
fact routed at Caporetto at the gate to the Italian plains. Three hundred
thousand Italians became prisoners of war and an even greater number
went over as deserters, by far the greatest number in any combatant
force. Had it not been for French and British help, Italy would have been
knocked out of the war. The strain on all fronts made it impossible for
the Central Powers to send reinforcements to the southwestern front al-
1 though they might have been of decisive importance.15 The wear and
tear of the war had become too great for the armies of the Central Pow¬
ers, particularly after the first American forces appeared on the western
front and opened up vast untapped resources of manpower. Even more
15 The theory that the German high command did not want to defeat Italy
completely, since in that case Austria would have lost interest in the war, cannot
be proved.
important, the effect of the allied naval blockade on the food supply of
the armies and the demoralizing effect of the worse food conditions on
the home front made themselves increasingly felt.
In June, 1918, the Italians stopped a new Austrian offensive, started
from South Tyrol, at the river Piave; a final ill-conceived offensive in
late October, when the empire was in a process of dissolution already,
was checked at the same fatal river. Hungarian troops left the front at
that time and returned to their country, which was on the brink of revolu¬
tion. In this critical situation in fall 1918 British troops broke through the
Austrian front line and Italians followed. With British help the decisive
Italian victory of Vittorio Veneto was thus secured.
As for the eastern front, from the end of June to September, 1917, the
Russian forces under General Aleksej Brussilov started a major thrust, in
which they reconquered East Galicia and the Bukovina. More than half a
million soldiers, mostly Austrians, were captured by the Russians. With
German help the defeat and retreat, primarily attributable to poor
Austrian generalship, could be halted and the situation brought under
control again. By July, 1917, East Galicia was reconquered, and the Bol¬
shevik October offensive put an end to further Russian resistance. Still,
the defeat of 1917 had increased Austrian dependency on Germany.
In the meantime, Roumania had decided to take the plunge and join the
great coalition. In late August, 1916, the kingdom declared war on the
Central Powers and its army invaded Transylvania. In one of the most
brilliantly executed operations of the war joint Austrian and German
forces under Falkenhayn took the counteroffensive in late September and,
supported by Bulgarians from the south, took Bucharest in early Decem¬
ber. The Roumanian danger had passed.
Still, Roumania was a relatively minor foe. The decisive—be it well un¬
derstood, purely military—cause of the breakdown of the Central Powers,
apart from the consequences of national conflict and economic attrition,
was the German defeat in the west and the failure of the unrestricted
U-boat warfare. By spring, 1918, in particular with the arrival of large
American forces in France, the conclusive turn of the military operations
had become fully evident. By August, 1918, the German forces were in
full retreat. Shortly afterward, in September, the collapse of the Bulgarian
forces was of great impact. By the end of the month, an Entente army,
assembled in Salonica on Greek soil,16 broke through the Bulgarian
16 Greece had entered the war on the side of the Western Allies in June, 1917,
but a provisional government established under Venizelos in Crete had sided with
the Allies as early as September, 1916.
frontline at Monastir. Bulgaria capitulated, and thereupon the path to the

Danube and Hungary was open to the Entente armies. The Central
Powers could not hold the line in a new major theater of war. In this
sense, the Italian victory at Vittorio Veneto was the mere aftermath to a
decisive turn of events, reached previously in a political as well as in a
military sense. Notwithstanding great efforts and enormous sacrifices of
men on all sides, the powers bound to win because of military and
economic strength, but also because of the superiority of a democratic
ideology, had prevailed.17
B. Domestic developments in Austria-Hungary
a) WARTIME ARSOLUTISM AND WARTIME CONSTITUTIONALISM
IN AUSTRIA
The national problems had driven the Habsburg empire into the war,
the same problems led to a political situation, in which it could not sur¬
vive defeat. It was doomed to dissolution. The development of these na¬
tional problems during the war in Austria and Hungary will have to be
discussed in separate sections. At this point it is necessary to survey the
setting, in which these explosive changes occurred.
The primary factor in domestic policies during the first part of the
war was the decision of the Austrian prime minister, Count Stiirgkh,
approved of by Emperor Francis Joseph, to keep parliament adjourned.
This move allowed for unrestricted censorship of the press, resort to
extraconstitutional military courts in political matters, prohibition of
assemblies, and in general of the curtailment of civil rights (Grundrechte),
guaranteed to the Austrian peoples in the basic state law 142 of 1867.
These curtailments could not have occurred as easily, if parliament,
sent home by the government in March, 1914, had remained in session.
As noted before, a session of parliament during the crisis following the
assassination in Sarajevo might conceivably have saved the peace. Yet
without condoning Count Stiirgkh’s unconstitutional action, from his
pragmatic point of view he had good reason to stick to it. The loyalty
of the great majority of Germans and Magyars—not excluding the So-
17 On the over-all course of military operations see Rudolf Kissling, Osterreich-
Ungarns Anteil am ersten Weltkjieg (Graz, 1958). See further, Franz Conrad von
Hdtzendorf, Aus meiner Dienstzeit, igo6~igi8 (Vienna, 1921-1925); see Vols. IV
and V and Oskar Regele, Gericht uber Habsburgs Wehrmacht (Vienna, 1968). See
also Imre Gonda in Fritz Klein, ed., Osterreich-U ngarn in der Weltpoliti\ (Berlin,
1965), pp. 162-182; Gerhart Ritter, “Die Generalstabe und der Kriegsausbruch,” in
Wolfgang Schieder, ed., Erster Weltkrieg: Ursachen, Entstehung und Kriegsziele
! (Koln, 1969), pp. 283-308.
cialists until 1917—was uncontested almost to the end of the war. Most
Slavs in the first war years probably wanted to sit things out and see
which way things were turning, irrespective of the prompting of the
political exiles from abroad. The best the government could hope for
was thus a loyalty on short notice of complete reorientation, depending
on a radical change of the military situation. As for some groups—the
Ruthenians after the Russian occupation of Galicia, the Serbs, and the
Italians—it would have been illusory to count even on conditional loyalty.
On the other hand, swelled by the military power of the great German
ally, the demands of the Austro-German nationalists became more sweep¬
ing. The expression of their feelings of arrogant nationalist superiority was
hardly hampered by the absolutist war government. All things considered,
Stiirgkh had indeed good reason to expect that a convocation of the Aus¬
trian parliament in wartime would not lead to responsible discussions be¬
tween different political and national groups, which would give the world
the impression of a free people divided as to means but united as to over¬
all purpose. In lieu of this, one could expect passionate opposition against
the outrages of military justice, of death sentences, imprisonment, and
trial of political leaders in star-chamber proceedings without due process
of law.18 The increasingly critical food situation aggravated by the fact
that Hungary refused to send food supplies to Austria, would have
evoked storms of indignation.19 All this could conceivably have been ac¬
cepted and free discussion on these points might have done some good.
Yet an open debate, which would have challenged obligations of loyalty
to the empire, was another matter. When parliament could finally re¬
assemble at the end of May, 1917, representatives of some Slavic national
groups gave more or less veiled notice of possibly severing their allegiance
to Austria. Fear of such a situation had made convocation of parliament
unacceptable for the Stiirgkh cabinet. A state which is faced by dilemmas
of this kind has lost its raison d’etre.
Stiirgkh, no vicious tyrant but a bureaucrat of German centralistic ten¬
dencies, who like most Austrian high dignitaries despised noisy obstruc¬
tionism and filibustering in parliamentary proceedings thus held to his
course. In October, 1916, he was shot dead by an Austrian left-wing
18 Stiirgkh, though a prime mover of wartime absolutism, opposed the illegal

and ruthless interference of the Supreme High Command with civil gov¬
ernment and due process of law. See Christoph Fiihr, Das u. Armeeober-
\ommando und die lnnenpoliti\ in Osterreich (Vienna-Cologne, 1968), pp. 15-159
passim. On the Stiirgkh administration during the war see Alois von Czedik, Zur
Geschichte der osterreichischen Ministerien, IV, 432-524.
19 Hungary, however, supplied the armies in the field with food.
Socialist, Friedrich Adler, son of the party leader, Victor Adler. Stiirgkh’s
assassination was the first open act of defiance against the war regime in
. any country and a storm signal that the Socialist International, shattered
1 by the nationalist furor of the July crisis of 1914, would become alive
again. The events which led to Stiirgkh’s assassination had not done
credit to Austria. In the public trial, reported extensively in the press,
Adler in an open break with wartime absolutism was enabled to turn
his defense into an indictment of the regime.
Sentenced to death and later reprieved by Emperor Charles, Adler,
who had attacked an unjust cause by unjustifiable means became the most
celebrated international revolutionary leader in prison. He used his popu¬
lar appeal resulting from a revolutionary deed in 1919 to rally the Aus¬
trian workers against a Communist putsch—a curious twist of history. In
1916, the impact of Adler’s action and of his subsequent trial on public
opinion was great enough to pierce the power of absolutism.20
In another political trial, which preceded that of Adler, court proceed¬
ings in the country were subject to severe criticism. From May, 1915, to
November, 1916, Dr. Karel Kramar, the brilliant Young Czech leader, was
tried for high treason by a military court in secret and sentenced to
death by hanging. Whether Kramar was a determined enemy of the
Habsburg empire before he underwent this gruesome experience, is de¬
batable. That he became one after he had been amnestied in July, 1917,
is certain. From here on he ranks among the staunchest champions of the
complete independence of his people.21
Stiirgkh’s successor was expected to modify the system of wartime
absolutism. Ernest von Koerber, who had been prime minister from 1900
to 1904, was one of the more enlightened and experienced administrators.
His tenure of office bridged only the last months of Francis Joseph’s and
the first one of Charles I’s reign. His resignation had three reasons. First,
he believed the planned convocation of the Austrian parliament to be
premature, but the young emperor wanted to present himself to his
peoples as soon as possible as constitutional monarch. Secondly, Koerber
objected to far-reaching concessions to Hungary about to be offered in the
negotiations on a new ten-year compromise. The new emperor, on the
other hand, did not want to disturb his relations to Hungary with too
20 See [Friedrich Adler], Friedrich Adler vor dem Ausnahmegericht (Berlin,

1919) and Ronald Florence, Fritz (New York, 1971), passim; Robert A. Kann,
“Am Beispiel Friedrich Adlers” in Neues Forum, XIII: 154 (1966), 601-603 and
XIII: 155—156, 727-730.
21 [Karel Kramar], Der Hochverratsprozess Kramar (Vienna, 1919).
adamant a position. The compromise, finally passed under Ernst von
Seidler, Koerber’s second successor, represented a middleground position.
On this point reasonable men might differ, yet on the third and most
important one Koerber was certainly right. He was firmly opposed to
Charles’ almost immediate coronation in Hungary, or more precisely to
his taking the coronation oath before Austro-Hungarian relations and the
conflicts in the Austrian and Hungarian versions of the Compromise of
1867 would have been straightened out. After Charles had taken the
coronation oath, the question of federal reform in the whole empire could
be ruled out, and according to the Hungarian position even in Cisleithan-
ian Austria alone. In this oath the king-emperor had to pledge that he
would preserve the territorial and constitutional integrity of Hungary.
This made any prospective changes in the Compromise legislation legally
*
impossible.
Furthermore, as will be remembered, the Compromise was based on
the promise of constitutional government in Austria, and this meant ac¬
cording to Hungarian theory the Austrian constitutional laws of 1867.
Actually, Charles’ commitments went further. If he had any leverage to
persuade the Hungarian prime minister, Count Tisza, and the Hungar¬
ian parliament, that franchise should be extended and at least some kind
of national autonomy granted to the non-Magyar national groups, such
opportunity existed only before the coronation. Now the well-meaning
young Charles wanted all these reforms, yet unexperienced, shifty, and
anxious to please everybody all the time, he succumbed to Tisza’s en¬
treaties to take the coronation oath and hope for the best afterward.
Koerber, who foresaw this development, resigned.22
New appointments in the first month of Charles’ reign included that
of the somewhat mystically inclined Autro-German centralist, Count
Arthur Polzer-Hoditz, one of his former tutors as chief of the emperor’s
personal cabinet. The key positions were given to two men who had be¬
longed to his uncle’s the late Archduke Francis Ferdinand’s, brain trust,
the Bohemian feudal lords Count Ottokar Czernin as foreign minister
and Count Heinrich Clam-Martinic as Austrian prime minister. Clam-
Martinic was offered the position as a second choice, because Czernin had
declined.23 Clam-Martinic could be described as a moderate conservative,
22 Czedik, Zur Geschichte der osterreichischen Ministerial, IV, 525-565;

Gratz, A Dualizmus Kora, II, 338-363; May, The Passing of the Hahsburg
Monarchy, I, 422-447; Kann, N ationalitatenproblem, II, 236-248, 369-372.
23 A previous offer made to Dr. Alexander Spitzmiiller, former Minister of
Commerce, had been withdrawn on Czernin’s insistence.
basically German, but moderately so in outlook, with many noble Czech
connections. As a former adviser of Francis Ferdinand, he was considered
to be a friend of some form of limited national autonomy in the lan¬
guage questions and administrative matters in general. In no way did
he support federal programs. Under Clam-Martinic, parliament after
three years of absolutism was reconvened on May 30, 1917. This was
about all he accomplished. His outworn program of limited national
autonomy was rejected by the German nationalists as ignoring the histor¬
ical leading position of the Germans in Austria. To most Slavs represented
in the Reichsrat on the other hand, Clam’s plans appeared too vague and
noncommittal, and the radicals felt that the time for reform had passed
altogether. To paraphrase a German saying, it was a program that would
not tempt a dog to leave the warm corner behind the stove. Clam-
Martinic gladly relinquished his office in mid-June, 1917.24 His qualifica¬
tions as prime minister had been poor, but those of his successor,
Ernst von Seidler, were poorer. An official in the Ministry of Agriculture
and, like Polzer, a former tutor of Charles, he assumed office, first of a pro¬
visional nature and then as regular prime minister until mid-August,
1918. A narrow-minded German centralist, unimaginative and stubborn,
he did what could be expected from a man of his caliber, essentially
nothing. Nevertheless, under Seidler, but at the personal initiative of the
emperor, an amnesty was issued for political prisoners. It was strongly
criticized by the military, especially Conrad, the determined foe of sub¬
versive activities. It was also condemned by the German nationalists. On
the other hand, the amnesty did not have the hoped for impact on the
Slavic nationality representatives in parliament. Yet with the benefit of
hindsight we know that it was a step in the right direction. In fact it
succeeded for a time to blunt the appeal of the propaganda of the political
emigrants abroad.
During the second half of Seidler’s tenure the political crisis was aggra¬
vated. In January, 1918, a wave of strikes occurred in the munitions and
other armament factories, particularly in and around Vienna. Here
workers at starvation rations and wages had to toil frequently under
the sanction of martial law. They were frozen in their civil jobs, but stood
now under military discipline and had to work for token military pay.
These strikes were influenced by the Socialist Left under the leadership of
Otto Bauer, who had returned from captivity in a prisoner of war camp
in Russia. Ominous was also, in February, the sailors’ mutiny in the
24 Felix Hoglinger, Ministerprasident Heinrich Graf Clam-Martinic (Graz-

Cologne, 1964).
Austrian naval base at Kotor (Cattaro) in southern Dalmatia. It was
suppressed but, in spite of some executions, because of Socialist inter¬
vention not with quite the same harshness as otherwise might have been
the case. Still, the Socialist Right under the influence of Karl Renner
remained completely loyal to the German alliance, and this position, on
the whole supported by the German-oriented party leader Victor Adler,
carried the day for the time being.
The Seidler regime had failed, largely because of the insoluble char¬
acter of most of the empire’s political problems at that time. But Seidler,
revealing an extraordinary degree of political insensitivity, wanted to solve
the national issue in Bohemia at this late hour by administrative partition
in national districts, so hateful to the Czechs. In August, 1918, he resigned,
but such were the contradictions in the nature of the weak emperor, that
he appointed this nonentity chief of cabinet, although Seidler, in his
German-centralistic proclivities was opposed to the emperor’s principles.25
Seidler’s successor was Baron Max von Hussarek, a conservative, devout,
and erudite former minister of education, who tried to reconcile the
Southern Slavs by conversion of the dualistic into a trialistic system. After
the declaration of Corfu of July 20, 1917, in which Southern Slav leaders
from Serbia and emigre leaders from the empire announced the formation
of a future united Southern Slav state comprising Croats, Serbs, and Slo¬
venes, Hussarek’s plan appeared completely anachronistic. Even if the
problem had not been settled in the meantime from outside, he had as little
reason to hope that the Hungarian government would be willing to change
the Compromise of 1867 as that a new Poland would be willing to be tied
to the dying Habsburg monarchy. Concerning both issues he hoped against
hope. If reforms could not be reached in negotiations with Hungary a
shortcut was necessary. A crown council of October 15 approved of an
imperial manifesto which proclaimed the conversion of Cisleithanian
Austria into a federation of national member states. Hungary was to be
reconciled by a clause which promised that the lands of the Hungarian
crown should not be affected by this constitutional change.
By this move, the emperor hoped that President Wilson might be per¬
suaded to accept the Habsburg empire’s adherence to the Fourteen Point
program as a basis for peace negotiations. Within two days Charles had
25 Glaise-Horstenau, Die Katastrophe, pp. 235-264; Arthur Count Polzer-

Hoditz, Kaiser Karl (Vienna, 1929), pp. 386-552; Helmut Rumpler, Max Hussare\
(Graz-Cologne, 1965), pp. 22-103; Richard G. Plaschka, Cattaro-Prag: Revolte und
Revolution (Graz-Cologne, 1969), pp. 15-192; Ludwig Briigel, Geschichte der
osterreichischen Sozialdemo\ratie (Vienna, 1922-1925), V, 329-340.
learned that his naive action—belated as to content, precipitate as to man¬
ner of execution—had doubly misfired. The manifesto issued on October
16 fell far short of the assurances given by the Entente powers to Czechs,
Southern Slavs, and Poles. This was known to almost everybody, and on
October 18 even to the emperor. At that time Wilson rejected the peace
notes of the Central Powers which had accepted the Fourteen Points in
principle, as no longer in line with actual developments.
Emperor Charles and Baron Hussarek might have been forgiven, for
attempting the impossible, if they had announced the proclamation of an
empire-wide federation plan with the slim hope that this would meet at
least a partly positive response in Austria and even in Hungary. The
manifesto, as issued on October 16, however, was a farce. The pledge to
preserve the integrity of Hungary meant that Croatian, German, Rou¬
manian, Serb, and Ruthenian territories would remain divided. Thus the
manifesto was to have created not a federation of national groups but of
truncated splinter groups. All the emperor got in response was the declara¬
tion of the Hungarian government that Charles’ action, according to the
previously discussed Hungarian constitutional theory, was in violation of
the Compromise of 1867. With this rejection the Realunion with Austria
had ended. What remained for a few weeks was the personal union of
merely the same ruler in both states. The emperor had been forewarned
of these developments by the Hungarian Prime Minister Wekerle’s strong
dissent in the crown council of October 15. By this time the process of
disintegration had proceeded so far that little attention was given any
longer to the momentous act of severing the Realunion with Hungary.26
Hussarek resigned, and on October 27 the last imperial cabinet under
Professor Heinrich Lammasch took office, a former professor of criminal
and international law in Vienna and a champion of peace through the
war years. Members of the new government were the distinguished
constitutional historian Josef Redlich and a future chancellor of the
Austrian republic, professor of moral theology, Ignaz Seipel.
It could not even be said, paraphrasing Sir Winston Churchill, that this
cabinet presided over the disintegration of the empire—the cabinet could
merely watch it. When Lammasch came into office the national govern¬
ments seceding from Austria were either in the saddle already or in the
process of establishment. Lammasch could do nothing but resign within a
fortnight. His resignation did not even mark the end of imperial Austria,
but just the disappearance of a symbolic government without power.
26 Helmut Rumpler, Das Vol\ermanijest Kaiser Karls vom i6.X.igi8 (Vienna,
1966), passim; Kann, TVationalitatenproblem, II, 284-288, 382.
4g4 History of the Hubs burg Empire
Lammasch’s resignation coincided with a final imperial manifesto of
November n, which announced Emperor Charles’ withdrawal from
participation in the government of German-Austria (Deutschosterreich)
and approval of her form of government. This act of state was not the
end of the disintegration process but merely the end of the illusion that
imperial Austria had still been in existence until November n, 1918.27
b) WARTIME GOVERNMENT IN HUNGARY
Prewar Hungary is generally pictured as a country more opposed to na¬

tional and social reforms than Cisleithanian Austria. This study does not
take exception to such interpretation, but the war aims of the Magyar
nationalists, unlike those of the Austro-German nationalists, were not
focused on the support of Germany’s annexation program but on the
preservation of the Magyar dominant position in Hungary. This implied
in principle opposition to territorial gain of non-Magyar territories which
would further imperil the precarious Magyar position in Hungary. Be¬
sides, charges against the Hungarian franchise system were certainly
justified, but it has to be admitted that Magyar national pride kept
parliament in session from the first to the last day of the war and opened
thus a forum for the free discussion of public affairs. In contrast to this,
Austrian parliament, elected by general franchise, meekly submitted for
almost three years to continued prorogation of its meetings. True, the
government in Hungary could rely on the support of a pseudo-liberal, by
no means truly democratic majority, whereas in Austria genuine liberal¬
ism never succeeded in coming to power. Still, respect for a constitutional
history dating back to the Bulla aurea could not be matched by a similar
vigorous tradition in Austria.
Tisza had firm control of the government throughout the first half of
the war. The food situation in Hungary was far better than in Austria,
but not entirely because of larger production and better soil conditions. In
Hungary, as well as in Austria, the food crisis was largely due to man¬
power shortage and poor transportation facilities, resulting from the
severe demands of the armed forces on labor and railways. At least the
first and major one of these problems could be handled better on the large
Hungarian estates with their agricultural machinery than on the small
mountain farms in Austria.
27Zbynek A. B. Zeman, The Breakdjp of the Habsburg Empire 1914-1918 (Lon¬

don, 1961), pp. 119-176; Josef Redlich, Schic\salsjahre Osterreichs 1908-1919: Das
politische Tagebuch Josef Redlichs, 2 vols. (Graz-Cologne, 1953-1954), I, 307-318,
II, 214-218, 287-291, 361-363, 383-385; see also Kann, Sixtusaffare, pp. 81-84.
Tisza failed, however, in the understanding of the nationality and
franchise problems. As late as September, 1918, he shouted to a South¬
ern Slav delegation in Bosnia: “May be we will have to perish but before
that we will still have the strength to crush you.”28 He opposed stub¬
bornly the modest efforts to give the vote to soldiers who had served at the
front. Such refusal was, by then, an untenable position even in Magyar
Hungary. Possibly Tisza’s aversion to any concessions was based on the
fact, that Count Michael Karolyi had become the chief proponent of
reforms. In the summer of 1916 this aristocratic frondeur broke away
from Andrassy’s and Apponyi’s Independence party and established his
own left-wing party club. Karolyi’s demands for national autonomy, gen¬
eral franchise, and breaking up of the big estates were unacceptable to
Tisza in principle, but even more hateful was to him the fact that these
demands were proposed by a man whom he considered to be a traitor to
his class. To be sure he liked the left-wing intellectuals not much better,
the sociologist Oscar Jaszi foremost among them. Their allegiance to
western democratic principles was to him evidence of decadence border¬
ing on treason. Even more firmly did he reject socialist programs.
In May, 1917, Tisza, whose pride, stubbornness, and probably also Cal¬
vinist creed were objectionable to King Charles, was forced to resign,
though he remained the leader of the parliamentary majority.29 His suc¬
cessor for a few months was the more amenable Count Moritz Esterhazy.
Because of Tisza’s and his supporters’ opposition he failed to have a
limited franchise reform bill passed. In August, 1917, he was replaced by
that shrewd compromiser, Alexander Wekerle, who managed at least
to conclude the negotiations on the economic compromise. But in regard
to the nationality question he did not come closer to a solution than Tisza
and a bill introduced in December, 1917, to liberalize somewhat the fran¬
chise system was stalled in parliament. The government did little to pre¬
vent this. Actually the so-called Democratic Bloc for Electoral Rights
consisting of members of the Karolyi party and several liberal groups,
among them Vilmos Vazsonyi and his followers as genuine moderates
and Oscar Jaszi’s adherents to the left, were probably no longer interested
in solving controversial problems within the dualistic system. The main
objective of such groups—with the exception of the Vazsonyi faction—
28 Glaise-Horstenau, Die Katastrophe, p. 287.

29 Gratz, A Dualizmus Kora, II, 318-352; Ludwig Windischgratz, Vom roten
zum schwarzen Prinzen (Berlin, 1920), pp. 197-210; Glaise-Horstenau, Die
Katastrophe, pp. 67-112, 267-308; Hanak, in Ervin Pamlenyi, ed., Die Geschichte
Ungarns, pp. 480-495.
was to propagandize the franchise question as one of the issues to be solved
in the coming revolution. Not even the prime minister could be con¬
sidered any longer as reliable supporter of the establishment, as his atti¬
tude proved in response to the imperial manifesto of October 16, announc¬
ing the conversion of Cisleithanian Austria into a federation. Yet when
Wekerle declared the Realunion as void and the personal union as last
remaining tie between Austria and Hungary, he had little choice. He was
forced now to satisfy not the king but Karolyi and the rising radical
Left, but particularly the National Council established on October 23.
Charles, ill-advised as so often before, yielded to pressure and Karolyi was
appointed prime minister on October 31 30 with the hope, that the revolu¬
tion could now be prevented. In fact, it was accelerated. The same day
Tisza, fearless to the last, was killed by red guardists, and the following
day Karolyi asked to be absolved from his oath of allegiance to the king.
Charles complied and Karolyi was henceforward only responsible to the
nation. Archduke Joseph, the head of the Hungarian Habsburg line,
played a dubious role in this affair. Yet King Charles could hardly be
criticized for bestowing the seal of office on a man if he could have
been expected to bring about the essential social and national reforms.
Karolyi succeeded in this at best only to a limited extent, his good inten¬
tions notwithstanding. King Charles, as ruler a failure himself, had
handed over the government of Hungary to an aristocratic enfant ter¬
rible, certainly his intellectual superior, but a dilettante without any gifts
of statesmanship in domestic or foreign policy. The man who as prime
minister had proclaimed the Hungarian republic on November n, 1918,
had to relinquish power as head of state in March, 1919, to spend most
of the remaining thirty-six years of his life in exile as backseat critic of
political events.31 Karolyi had failed to secure more favorable armistice
terms for the country, to put into practice his reasonable agricultural re¬
forms, and to bring the country closer to the bitter necessity of recon¬
ciliation with its neighbors. These were all formidable tasks, but the
man, so keen as social critic, so effective as speaker for the radical opposi¬
tion, had accomplished nothing but to hand over the country—involun¬
tarily to be sure—to a Communist dictatorship which in turn paved the
30 After Wekerle’s resignation and before Karolyi’s appointment, a moderate

cabinet under Count Janos Hadik had been in office for two days. Gratz, A
Dualizmus Kora, II, 352-388.
31 Except for a brief return to Hungary in 1946 and a subsequent tenure of
two years as ambassador to France, 1947-1949. When Karolyi resigned then in
justified protest to Stalinist outrages in Hungary, he had proved again his lack of
political foresight after his return to Hungary.
World War and Dissolution ^gy
way for the more sterile and at least in its beginnings equally harsh dicta¬
torship of the Right.
Yet this was not the bankruptcy of an individual’s policy, it was the fail¬
ure of the century-old system, which had divided the role of leadership
and opposition both within the establishment. Even men who did not
merely feign such opposition like the Apponyis and Andrassys but were
serious about it, had to come from the ranks of the ruling oligarchy. No
wonder that Karolyi failed to comprehend the spirit of the new revolu¬
tionary times, just as his intellectual supporters, who had received their
political training in the coffee houses of Budapest. To the peasants and
workers they remained just as much alien as the unhappy count, who cuts
such an unhappy figure in Hungarian history, all his noble dreams and
personal sacrifices notwithstanding.32
C. The conflict between the national groups comes to a head
The supreme crisis in this struggle, the deadly disease of the multi-
i national empire during the war, can be understood only in conjunction
with a purview of military and political events. The steady deterioration
of the position of the Central Powers in these respects affected the strategy
and the success of the political emigrants abroad. It made, of course, its
influence on domestic developments felt as well, where wartime censor¬
ship in the long run was of little avail. Furthermore, the increasingly
: desperate food situation had its primary impact on the home front.33
Probably no other single factor contributed as much to the radicaliza-
tion of the masses. History has shown repeatedly that people can put up
for a long time with the suppression of civil liberties by wartime absolut-
? ism, and that they may accept heavy war casualties as inevitable; but
i mothers just won’t tolerate the slow starvation of their children while the
s fathers are absent in the service of an unpopular war machine. The vari-
32 Kosary, A History of Hungary, pp. 377-384; Oscar Jaszi, Magyariens Schuld,

1 Ungarns Suhne (Munich, 1923), pp. 1 -66; Michael Karolyi, Fighting the World
(New York, 1925), passim; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, I, 142-146, 402-404;
:1 Hanak, in Ervin Pamlenyi, ed., Die Geschichte Ungarns, pp. 499—513.
33 See General Ottokar Landwehr von Pragenau, Hunger: Die Erschopfungsjahre
1 der Mittelmachte igiy/18 (Vienna, 1931), passim. In 1917-1918 Landwehr was
k chief of the joint Austro-Hungarian food committee (Gemeinsamer Ernahrungs-
\i ausschuss). See also Wilhelm Winkler, Die Totenverluste der osterreichisch-
W ungarischen Monarchic (Vienna, 1919); Ivan T. Berend and Gyorgy Ranki, “Un¬
it garns wirtschaftliche Entwicklung 1849-1918” in A. Wandruszka and P. Urban-
W itsch eds., Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848-1918 (Vienna, 1973- ), I, 520-527.
k Prinz Ludwig Windischgratz, Vom roten zum schwarzen Prinzen (Berlin, 1920)
PP- 15^-314-
ous hunger revolts, the naval mutiny, and the munition workers’ strikes of
January, 1918, contributed strongly to the formulation of the social
demands, which became an intrinsic factor in the November revolutions
of 1918. Although there is not necessarily a direct connection between na¬
tional programs, hunger revolts, and demands for social reform, there is a
strong indirect connection. People, who have chronic grievances (as was
the case with the nationality issues), are apt to perceive all social ills as re¬
lated to them and to blame the government accordingly. The war had
largely started as a struggle over nationality issues and in this sense all the
evils resulting from it could be linked to Austria-Hungary’s stubborn
refusal to comprehend and to attempt to solve the Southern Slav prob¬
lem before the assassination of Sarajevo. Moreover, the inter-nationality
conflict could no longer be focused primarily on points of national honor
and prestige, belabored by the tiresome oratories of semi-intellectuals.
Socialist propaganda had affectively fought such outworn slogans. Genu¬
ine socialist theorists like Otto Bauer, Karl Renner, and others had made
it abundantly clear that nationality discrimination involved social dis¬
crimination as well and that its first and chief victims were the under¬
privileged class of industrial and agricultural workers.
a) CISLEITHANIAN AUSTRIA
Of the concomitant causes discussed above, the desperate food situation

and increased social radicalism were more strongly felt in the more in¬
dustrialized western part of the empire than in Hungary. They have to be
understood as the orchestral accompaniment to the problems discussed be¬
low. The political leverage of the Austro-Germans had steadily increased
during the war. Before the reconvening of parliament in May, 1917,
this strength was largely the result of the influence of the German al¬
liance. With the radicalization of Slav national movements, which in¬
cluded even the estrangement of the largely conservative Polish parlia¬
mentary club, the government now depended almost entirely on German
support. The radical German national wing of the essentially nationalist
German Nationalverband tried to take advantage of this situation by
promoting a national program, irrational even in peace and absurd in
war. The demands presented, for instance, in the so-called Osterbegehr-
schrift of 1915 included the separation of Galicia and possibly also of
Dalmatia and Bukovina from the bulk of the Austrian lands to assure
an artificial German majority. German was then to become the official
state language and Bohemia was, on the basis of these achievements, to
be divided in German and nationally mixed, but not Czech administra-
tive districts. The Austro-German alliance was to be incorporated in the
constitutional laws of the dual states. But these and other reform plans
of the same kind were not just day dreams of beer-consuming German
secondary-school teachers. In late summer, 1918, while the western powers
had already recognized the various national councils on a provisional
basis and the German western front was pierced, the German parties in
Austria voted for an old pet project, the establishment of a German
district court in Trautenau in Bohemia, a foolish move ignored by the
Czechs.34
Such aberrations from sanity were common but there were exceptions.
The moderate German national parliamentary leader in Bohemia, Rudolf
Lodgman von Auen, strove honestly and vainly for a German-Czech
compromise making no claims for German cultural superiority.35 The
Social Democrats opposed the German nationalist program with greater
energy during the second half of the war than they had ever done in
peacetime, while the Christian Socials, though not fully committed to
the policy of the Nationalverband, supported to a degree its political pro¬
gram for the recognition of a privileged German position anchored in
constitutional law, in other words a German state nation in Austria. Such
policies were to a considerable extent influenced and furthered by the
Mitteleuropapogramm of the German progressive pastor Friedrich Nau-
mann, published first in 1915. Naumann, who in social questions showed
considerable understanding, cannot be classified as a crude German im¬
perialist, even though he promoted a program which would have gone
beyond the dreams of the earlier nineteenth-century German economic
>; semiimperialists Friedrich List, Karl Friedrich von Bruck, and the fed-
i eralist Constantin Frantz. Naumann wanted to “contitutionalize” the
l Austro-German alliance and supplement it by a customs union and a
1 strictly coordinated military defense system. The commanding position in
] this setup would have been held by Germany. Austria would have en-
0 joyed little more than autonomy, although this was not spelled out in
so many words.
Naumann looked with satisfaction on a Germanization policy in
Austria, but even more strongly did he recommend continuation of Mag-
b yarization in Hungary, because he rightly assumed that the Magyars, em-
b battled by Slavs and Roumanians, would be the strongest champions of
34Molisch, Geschichte der deutschnationalen Bewegung,pp. 238-265; Kann,

Nationalitatenproblem, I, 96-102, 375-382; II, 244-252, 370-374; Zeman, The Brea\-
^ Up of the Habsburg Empire, 84-94, 116-118, 147-176.
35 Kann, Ndtionalitdtenproblem, II, 247-248, 372.
Mitteleuropa. Naumann’s program received strong support from the
German Right, but also from German and Magyar moderate rightist and
center parties, in addition to that of the right-wing Socialist Karl Renner,
and of the Magyar leftist Oscar Jaszi.
To do justice to Naumann, he was in many ways more moderate than
the German military and industrialist annexionist establishment. Precisely
for these reasons he was an all the more valuable ally for these interests.
Personally a man of integrity, he made the program of industry and mili¬
tary forces appear respectable and idealistic in the eyes of the middle class.
It found considerable support within the German Nationalverband in
Austria. Although the emperor was opposed to it, Czernin, though not
fully committed to Naumann’s ideas, hoped that accommodation in the
direction of a customs union could persuade the German military around
Hindenburg and Ludendorff to make concessions to the Entente in
regard to Alsace-Lorraine and Belgium. In this respect like in so many
others, Czernin was to be disappointed.36
Thus the German policy of the government, the Nationalverband, the
Christian Socials, and until the outbreak of the war largely that of the
Socialist, had failed. Still, most Austro-Germans, the only ones of the em¬
pire’s peoples, remained loyal to the crown and the imperial govern¬
ment to the end. The convocation of a provisional national assembly for
German-Austria on October 21, 1918, consisting of the German deputies
in the Austrian parliament was merely a response to the break-away
movement in full swing among all other national groups in the empire.
No political initiative can be seen in this inevitable action, and this is
also true for the proclamation of a provisional German-Austrian constitu¬
tion on October 30. It declared German-Austria (Deutschosterreich) to be
a part of the coming German republic. German-Austrian parliamentarians
believed—as it turned out with good reasons—that an independent and
hence isolated German-Austrian republic would alone be held responsible
for the actions and commitments of the dissolving empire. The “An¬
schluss” under existing conditions was a natural reaction to this concern.
Even German-Austrian persistence in regard to the Anschluss, after it
had become clear that the union with Germany would be of no help
36 Friedrich Naumann, Mitteleuropa (Berlin, 1915); Gustav Gratz and Richard

Schuller, Die aussere Wirtschajtspoliti\ Osterreich-Ungarns: Mitteleuropaische
Plane (Vienna, 1925); Droz, L’Europe Centrale, pp. 217-222; Kann, Nationalitdten-
problem, II, 252-260, 373-377. See also Leon Grosfeld, “Mitteleuropa und die
polnische Frage,” in La Pologne au XIIe Congres International des Sciences
Historiques h Vienne (Warsaw, 1965), pp. 115-132.
World War and Dissolution 50/
in freeing the country from the stated liabilities, can be understood. At

least German-Austria would not be entirely set apart.
For obvious psychological and less obvious political reasons it was
impossible now to retreat voluntarily from the position taken on October
30. The proclamation of the German-Austrian republic on November 12
took cognizance of this situation. It followed the emperor’s relinquish¬
ment of his constitutional rights and his approval of the constitutional
pattern of the new Austria. The people’s failure to identify fully with
the new state, from which the coming republic was to suffer so much,
was probably more the result of lack of popular initiative in its creation
than—as widely assumed—the identification of the new state with defeat
and the empire’s dissolution. The Anschluss movement after 1918-1919
which must be distinguished from that during the revolutionary crisis, still
represented this fear of initiative. It was primarily a response to untoward
events and less the fullfillment of a program, though idealistic motives
! should not be denied.37
The Czechs were the national group whose policies were most clearly
directed by political emigres and whose political strategy proved most suc¬
cessful. These emigres were guided since 1914 by the towering person¬
ality of Thomas G. Masaryk, who combined in an ideal manner a western
{ outlook and western political connections with a deep understanding of
£ Russian Slavism. He also had the good fortune to be relieved of much
routine work and squabbles, so irksome among political exiles, by the
consummate, but controversial skill of Edvard Benes. Masaryk’s and
Benes’s leadership benefited from the fact that Kramar was removed
from the political arena for almost three years, up to the July amnesty of
1917, because of the ordeal of his trial and later confinement. As little as
i the leaders abroad wished for this situation, Kramar with his conservative
v orientation toward Russian tsarism, was the only representative Czech
until the Russian March revolution of 1917 who could have deflected the
western course charted by the political emigres under Masaryk’s guidance.
I Leadership by the prominent parliamentarians at home was indeed un-

inspiring and was harshly criticized by Benes. Allowances had to be
made for the fact that the exiles abroad were free to express their opinion
n and to conduct their policies accordingly. Similar action undertaken in
37 Charles A. Gulick, Austria from Habshurg to Hitler, 2 vols. (Berkeley-Los

1. Angeles, 1948), I, 43-65; Walter Goldinger, Geschichte der Republi\ Osterreich
l (Vienna, 1922), pp. 9-22; Karl R. Stacker, The Birth of the Austrian Republic
l igi8-ig2i (Leiden, 1966), pp. 17-32.
Austria would have led to high-treason proceedings by Austrian mili¬
tary courts, as was the case in regard to Kramar and other Czech leaders.
Emigres abroad criticized the Czech parliamentarians in Vienna and
Prague not quite fairly for undue caution. Actually and understand¬
ably, up to the beginning of 1918 they were not clear themselves about
their political aims. The Czech declaration at the reopening of the Aus¬
trian parliament in May, 1917, asked for the conversion of Austria into a
multinational federation and the establishment of the lands of the Bohe¬
mian crown and of the Hungarian Slovak territories as one of its member
states. In no way could such plans be considered as treasonable. Even the
Epiphany Declaration of 1918 of the Czech parliamentary and dietal
deputies of the lands of the Bohemian crown, which asked for the
right of national self-determination, did not break off all bridges to
a future within the Habsburg empire. Yet only a few months later after
the revelations of the Sixtus affair had destroyed all hopes for a separate
peace of the western powers with Austria-Hungary, did the French in
late June, 1918, recognized the Czech National Council in Paris as the polit¬
ical body which represented the Czech nation. Almost simultaneously the
U.S. government issued a declaration which interpreted Point Ten of the
Fourteen Points program not in the sense of comprehensive autonomy but
of self-determination directed toward independent statehood. This state¬
ment was supplemented by the Pittsburgh Declaration of the representa¬
tives of Czech and Slovak organizations in America, which was issued
with the cooperation of Masaryk. According to this document, the Slovaks
would form an autonomous nation within the new Czechoslovak state.
These developments were made inevitable by the participation of Czech
legions consisting of prisoners of war and deserters from the Austro-
Hungarian armed forces in the battles in all theaters of war, but particu¬
larly their operations on the Russian front and their subsequent tribula¬
tions in Siberia.
Masaryk, realist that he was, did not consider the proclamation of
the Czech National Council in Prague as the government of the new
Czechoslovak republic on October 28, 1918, to be the formative act in
creating statehood. This constitutional transaction was to him merely
recognition of the inevitable, after the Austrian authorities had yielded
quietly and thus had avoided a hopeless struggle. According to Masaryk,
the decisive actions were the official recognition of the new state in mid-
October, first by France and a few days later by the United States. The
deep attachment of the Czechoslovak republic to France and the trauma
following its betrayal by the Third French Republic in 1938 have their
roots in this mid-October action of 1918. All things considered, none of
the national groups seceding from the empire had a representation abroad
which worked as determinedly and skillfully for statehood. Recognition of
this truth must not overshadow another one: there were no people
either who through the centuries had quietly prepared themselves better
for the revival of the past in the setting of a deeply tragic future.38
The fact that the Czechs were settled entirely in Cisleithanian Austria
and even jointly with the Slovaks still entirely in Austria-Hungary,
whereas the Polish nation was partitioned between three empires, played
an important part during the war. Neither problem could be solved
then, but the Polish issue, which had to be faced on the national and
international levels, generated greater difficulties. The existing rift be¬
tween various Polish political factions was only one cause but not the
main one that Polish national organizations were less effective than the
Czech representation abroad. The primary cause was the character of the
Polish problem as bargaining issue within the two great alliances, on one
side between the western Entente powers and the more directly involved
tsarist empire, and on the other between the Central Powers themselves.
In both cases the Poles from the start of the war were directly engaged
in negotiations with one or the other partitioning power to whom
Poles individually were bound to owe allegiance. In the beginning of the
war this meant further that these Poles were more objects of discussion
than participants in them. The conspiratorial character of the Czech
liberation movement was largely absent in the Polish situation. This does
not mean that at least tacit support of the Polish freedom movement by
the Poles themselves in Austria as well as in Prussia and Russia was
absent. It does mean that it becomes practically impossible to perceive the
Polish struggle for independence in any of these countries in isolation.
Polish nationalism before the war was suppressed more severely in
Prussia than in Austria. The Prusso-German wartime administration, in
which the commanding generals in every province practically took over
important functions of civil government, restricted the possibilities of
Polish political activities. Russian Congress Poland had been, since sum¬
mer 1915, in the hands of the Central Powers and remained so except for
the strip of territories reconquered during the Brusilov offensive the fol¬
lowing summer and then lost by the Russians again. Thus public Polish
political activities during the war were primarily concentrated in Galicia
38 Thomas G. Masaryk, Die Weltrevolution (Berlin, 1925), pp. 386-435; Edvard

Benes, Der Aufstand der Nationen (Berlin, 1928), pp. 555-696; Zeman, The Break¬
up of the Habshurg Empire (London, 1961), pp. 217-245.
^0/f History of the Habshurg Empire
and in Congress Poland under the administration of the Central Powers.
Russia was soon eliminated as a directly codetermining factor, but not
so as an indirect one. The tsarist government at the beginning of the war
had promised to restore a united Poland including the Austro-Polish and
Prusso-Polish territories under the tsar. In domestic policies this would
have meant roughly a restoration of the Polish status on a larger scale
than that existing between 1815 and 1830. This promise was vaguely
implemented by the appointment of a joint Russo-Polish committee,
which was supposed to work out the specifics of a new Polish autonomy.
The formation of this commission coincided with the conquest of Con¬
gress Poland by the armies of the Central Powers after the breakthrough
of Gorlice in spring, 1915, and its task therefore became meaningless.
More seriously was taken the announcement by the new government
under Prince Georgij Lvov as temporary prime minister and Alexander
Kerensky, then minister of justice, after the outbreak of the Russian
March revolution of 1917 that a truly independent Poland should be
restored. The outcome of the Russian November Revolution confirmed
the notion that from the Russian side any claims for the reconquest of
Poland had been dropped, although the frontier issues remained open.
These were the intangibles which the Austrian and German policy in
regard to the Poles had to face.
It was largely the Austrian tolerance toward Polish nationalism based
on half a century of cordial relationship with the Polish club in parlia¬
ment, which facilitated the establishment of a Polish national committee
under the leadership of Joseph Pilsudski on the socialist Left, supported
by Roman Dmowski on the moderate Right. A Polish Legion was es¬
tablished now, a move for which preparations had been made before
the outbreak of the war with the tacit approval of the Austrian govern¬
ment. It failed to understand, however, that Pilsudski and his followers
presented a philosophy different from that of the Szlachta members in
the Polish parliamentary club in Vienna. We noted earlier the disappoint¬
ing effect of the stillborn declaration of November 5, 1916, by the Central
Powers, which promised the establishment of an independent Congress
Poland—actually rather a joint Austro-Hungarian-German satellite state
or condominium which should serve as recruiting station for the Allied
armies. The promise of an expansion of the Galician autonomy followed;
it was supposed to console the Austrian Poles for their disappointment in
the November declaration. It had no practical impact.
From here on the situation moved from bad to worse from the Austrian
point of view. The Poles in conquered Congress Poland and those in
World War and Dissolution 5°5
Galicia, Poznan, West Prussia, and Prussian Silesia resented the division
of Russian Poland under two separate Austrian and German military
administrations. The establishment of a Polish state council in Warsaw
as merely advisory body, primarily to the German military administra¬
tion, offered small comfort. Pilsudski, the man of the hour and the fu¬
ture, rejected the demand that Polish troops should take an oath of
allegiance to the military command of the Central Powers and was there¬
upon detained in Germany. This arrest of the highly popular leader
squashed the hopes of creating a Polish legion loyal to the Allied cause.
In fact the Russo-Polish members, whose loyalty to the Central Powers
was suspected, had to be ousted from the legion. The Austrian and
Prussian Poles on the other hand were bound to serve in the regular
military units of the countries whose citizenship they held.
Meanwhile the process had begun of disposing of or bartering the
Polish conquest to the mutual benefit of the Central Powers, or, as seen
from the angle of Berlin and Vienna, to the advantage of one or the
other of them. Originally the German government would have been
ready to have a Congress-Polish state in a satellite relationship linked to
Austria. This might possibly have served as compensation for expected
more sweeping German conquests. Bethmann-Hollweg, however, ob¬
jected to the union of Russian Poland with Galicia because such union
would have raised hope for the liberation of the Polish minority in
Prussia, which, as will be remembered, was more seriously suppressed
than the Austrian Poles in Galicia. Obviously this “solution” could
not be made palatable to any Polish nationalists, however moderate.
Czernin as foreign minister was willing to reverse this course and to
agree to the affiliation of a Congress Poland augmented by Galicia with
Germany, if the German emperor’s government would be willing to re¬
move the gravest obstacle to peace and agree to the return of Alsace-
Lorraine to France and to the unconditional restoration of Belgian sover¬
eignty. Czernin’s policy would have looked better if he had not tacked
another condition to his proposal, namely a free hand for Austria in
Roumania. This could have meant an affiliation of Roumania and Tran¬
sylvania as a satellite state within Austria-Hungary. The German govern¬
ment saw in this proposal a shift in the balance of the Central Powers to
the advantage of Austria. Yet even if Germany had been amenable to
Czernin’s proposal Tisza was not. He objected to any open or camouflaged
trialistic solution which would have established Poland plus Galicia or
Roumania plus Transylvania as third partner in a revised Compromise
of 1867. He was, however, subsequently generous enough to accept the
annexation of substantial parts of Roumanian territory and their in¬
corporation into Hungary.
Neither of these solutions, even if agreed to between diplomats, would
have been acceptable to the people directly affected. There were also other
obstacles. The planned settlements of the Polish question would have
established a dangerous precedent in regard to the Southern Slav problem,
as the Austro-Hungarian authorities saw it. Furthermore, the Austro-
German nationals, although they had constantly asked for the adminis¬
trative separation of Galicia from the bulk of the Austrian territories,
were opposed to the establishment of a Slavic state as equal partner of
Austria and Hungary.
To add to these rising troubles, Czernin had to agree in Brest-Litovsk
to the transfer of the Congress-Polish Cholm district to the Ukraine.
Even though this concession ,was largely justified on ethnic grounds, it
violated the concept of the historic frontiers of Poland and led to the
permanent alienation of the Polish club in the Austrian parliament. From
now on it ceased to support the government. Yet this club could hardly
speak for the interests of the nation on the rapid march toward unifica¬
tion and restoration, although its members had come out for the estab¬
lishment of an all-Polish state comprising the Austrian, Prussian, and
Russian Poles. Affirmation of a constitutional tie of such a state with
Austria-Hungary by the loyal conservative Austro-Poles was no longer to
be taken seriously. The club dissolved in mid-October, 1918, and now the
leadership of Polish affairs was clearly in the hands of a Polish committee
in Cracow, in conjunction with a regency council in Warsaw that had
switched from mere advisory to executive functions. On November 3,
1918, the Polish republic was proclaimed in Warsaw. This outcome was
clearly predictable but the further difficulties to establish the frontiers of
the new state in the east and the ordeal it had to undergo two decades
later were still unpredictable. Clearly, diplomatic bargaining by the
Central Powers on the strength of temporary military success was built
on sand. It could neither overcome the concerted will of the affected
peoples, nor the powerful historic tradition of the dream of a resurrected
Poland, whose long awaited hour had finally struck.39
The Polish problem was complicated further by the Ruthenian ques¬
tion. The Polish-Ruthenian compromise which had been negotiated for
39Batowski, Rozpad Austro Wegier, pp. 162-211; Bernadotte E. Schmitt, ed.,

Poland (Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1945), pp. 70-85; Werner Conze, Polnische Nation
und deutsche Politi\ (Cologne-Graz, 1958), pp. 307-403; Czernin, Im Welt\rieg,
pp. 271-287; Kann, Nati on alitaten problem, I, 231-238, 434-435.
years between the two national groups in Galicia and which should have
come into force in July, 1914, fell through with the outbreak of the war.
A wave of hysteria now swept through the unhappy crownland. To the
Polish feeling of national superiority was added that of patriotic ardor;
the Ruthenians were accused of being disloyal and traitors to the cause
of the Central Powers. Logic is not a strong element in nationalism and
the fact that the Poles themselves became increasingly inclined to break
away from Austria did not diminish the zeal with which these charges
were voiced.
The Russian invasion of Galicia put the Ruthenians in a quandary. It
affected the conservative pro-Russians and the liberal pro-Ukrainians
alike. Cases of collaboration with the enemy undoubtedly occurred. They
did not justify mass arrests and executions, often with the flimsiest evi¬
dence. The persecution of the Ruthenians in Galicia, and to a lesser extent
in the Bukovina and in Hungary, was a sorry chapter in the history of
the nationality struggle during the war. Whether the Polish-Ruthenian
compromise could ever have been enforced, if the war had ended in a
stalemate is an open question. Yet it is clear that an Austrian solution
was out of the question after the Ukraine had been recognized as sov¬
ereign state in early Febuary, 1918. The establishment of a western Uk¬
rainian republic on October 19, comprising also the Hungarian Ruthenian
territory, was largely obviated by the seizure of East Galicia by Polish
troops. Further developments, the proclamation, in January, 1919, of a
united Ukrainian republic now independent from great power control in
the west, but soon subject to a far stricter one from Bolshevik Russia, con¬
verted the country after a bloody civil war into a member republic in
the Soviet system. These events culminated in the preliminary (October,
1920) and permanent (March, 1921) peace treaties of Riga between the
Soviet Union and a Soviet Ukraine which, however, acted hardly as free
agent. For all practical purposes this meant that the western powers had
relinquished their interests in the major part of the area. But they had
retained some control through the western Ruthenian branch by way of
France’s allies, of whom Poland was to control East Galicia, Roumania,
the Bukovina; Czechoslovakia was to control the Carpatho-Ukraine—
ethnically the most absurd solution.
Some of these problems transcend the scope of this study. Yet the un¬
predictable irony of history led to a strange result, related to our topic.
The Ruthenian people in Galicia and in the Bukovina, who had violently
demanded the breakup of the empire, remained for another two decades
under foreign rule, those in Hungary for almost thirty years. In the first
two instances the Polish administration, despite the treaties for the pro¬
tection of minorities under the sponsorship of the League of Nations, was
harsher than the Austrian. To the Austrian government, Ruthenians
represented after all an important counterweight to Polish nationalism.
The Carpatho-Ukrainians in Czechoslovakia were better off than those
under Hungarian rule, yet they remained as isolated from their cona¬
tionals as before. All these three groups of the western branch of the
Ukrainian people achieved only belatedly national recognition and uni¬
fication in the Soviet Union, but at the price of submission to a totalitar¬
ian regime.
The thrust of these observations is not that the Ruthenians were neces¬
sarily better off under Austrian rule than under a Soviet regime. Such
comparisons are irrelevant, because the choice between a dissolving em¬
pire and a new Ukrainian state did not exist. The former, irrespective of
the preferences or aversions of the Ruthenians was on the way out, the
future of the latter was as yet unpredictable. This unpredictability of
history even at short range is, indeed, the lesson to be derived from the
destiny of this ethnic group. The path of the Ruthenians conjointly with
the Ukrainian mother nation to independent statehood seemed clearer
than that of other Slavic peoples. The line-up of a western-supported
Poland in the conflict with the Soviet Union had permanently destroyed
that possibility by 1921 as it appears now, but could not be foreseen then.40
As pointed out before, the Italian question in the Habsburg empire
during the war represented a severe roadblock to the establishment of
either a separate peace of Austria-Hungary or a joint one of both Central
Powers with the Entente. The situation created also a serious military
problem. By 1915 it had become clear that the Austrian maritime crown-
lands and South Tyrol would be lost in case of an Italian victory. Certainty
of this loss stiffened the Austrian war efforts in the southwest, but it made
also Italy the most determined champion of the dissolution of the empire
since a landlocked Habsburg empire could never have accepted such
mutilation in the long run.
The Austro-Italians in the Trentino and the Littoral were accordingly
hardly camouflaged supporters of complete separation. Even the sup¬
porters of boundary lines along ethnic frontiers in Tyrol, the so-called
Salurnisti, yielded at the beginning of the war to the views of the cham¬
pions of a strategic frontier reaching as far north as the Brenner pass.41
40 Michael Hrushevsky, A History of the Ukraine (New Haven, 1941), pp. 500-
555; Czernin, Im Wclt\rieg, pp. 313-351.
41 The language frontier at Salurn is about sixty miles to the south of the Bren¬
ner pass.
Even the martyr of Italian irredentism, the Socialist Cesare Battisti, at the
beginning of the war converted to the more radical view. Many Austro-
Italian clericals, who up to the end of the nineteenth century had sup¬
ported concepts of autonomy within Tyrol, had shifted to the radical line
even earlier than Battisti. The prince bishop of Trento, Dr. Colestin
Endrici, during the last years of the war a staunch irredentist, had to be
confined to German-Austrian territory, outside of his diocese.
The radicalization of the Italian claims was in some respects no longer
primarily directed against Austria but against Yugoslavia in the making.
Italy expected Yugoslavia to become after the war a highly unpleasant
neighbor at the shores of the Adria. Thus the abandonment of the ethnic
principle for strategic frontiers gave Italy an inordinately large part of
Istria and, hardly justified, a string of Dalmatian islands, as well as by
illegal seizure Fiume (Rijeka) in 1919. All these land grabs were largely
meant to be precautionary measures against future Yugoslav expansion.
Nevertheless, the true or frequently alleged suppression of Italians by
Austria served as motivation for these actions. Allied propaganda had
understandably publicized widely the shameful circumstances of Battisti’s
execution.42 It is true nevertheless that the Austro-Italians, even in war¬
time, were on the whole better treated than irredentists among other
national groups. Respect for Italian culture and the notion of inevitable
separation may have played a part here, in spite of the fact that the war
against Italy was the most popular facet of World War I in Austria. Yet
the issue of moderate or harsh treatment of Italian nationals in Austria
had little effect in the face of inexorable historical contingencies.43
b) HUNGARY
There is an important difference between the action and philosophy of

the Austro-German and the Magyar nationalists. The Austro-German
nationalists were dominated by the Pan-Germans in the Reich and ap¬
proved of a German annexation program. It would serve them in the
Habsburg empire but also and even better in case the empire would
42 At the beginning of the war Battisti had fled to Italy to participate as officer in
the Italian campaign against Austria. Captured by the Austrians in summer of
1916 he was, as Austrian subject, legally correctly condemned to death. Yet this
fact does not excuse the hideous circumstances of the execution of this brave man.
43 Bernhard Schloh, in Franz Huter, ed., Sudtirol (Vienna, 1965), pp. 293-297;
Anton M. Zahorski-Suchodolski, Triest (Vicuna, 1962), pp. 46-62; Valiani, La Dis-
soluzione dell’Austria Ungheria, pp. 344-413; Tamborra, L’Idea de Nazionalita e la
Gueira igi4~igi8, pp. 89-115; Theodor Veiter, Die ltaliener in der osterreichisch-
ungarischen Monarchic (Vienna, 1965), pp. 93-108; Claus Gatterer, Cesare Battisti
(Vienna, 1967), pp. 49-114.
5/0 History of the Habsburg Empire
dissolve and they would be given the opportunity to join Germany. As
for oppressive tactics against the non-Magyar groups in Hungary, the
Magyars outdid the Austro-Germans because they had much wider op¬
portunities in a country more clearly under Magyar domination than
Cisleithanian Austria under German. But, as noted, the Magyars had
the primary interest of preserving the status quo, that is, to prevent the
incorporation of further Slavs and Roumanians into Hungary, because it
would make the Magyar position more precarious. Although during the
quid pro quo negotiations between the Central Powers Tisza had agreed
to the incorporation of substantial Roumanian territories into Hungary,
this agreement was a transitory phase of the negotiations with Roumania
in winter and spring of 1918. The cession of Roumanian Carpathian
passes, as determined eventually in the otherwise very harsh treaty of
Bucharest in May, 1918, while,not justified on ethnic grounds, was limited
in nature. Tisza’s original attitude reflected the Hungarian response to
what was considered to be treason by a former ally. Inasmuch as the
Roumanian alliance was secret, this attitude was more unreasonable than
the Austrian in regard to Italy’s switch from the Triple Alliance to the
Entente. The most that can be said in defense of the handling of the
nationality question by the Hungarian establishment during the war is
that it subsequently somewhat modified its position. Tisza had at least
the virtue of consistency. He stubbornly opposed the extension of fran¬
chise except for soldiers who had been decorated for outstanding bravery
at the front. So-called Magyar moderates, such as Baron Gyula Szilassy,
promoted a vague and contradictory concept of general franchise linked to
further Adagyarization efforts, apparently in accordance with Naumann’s
prescriptions. The aristocratic frondeur Prince Louis Windischgratz, on
the other hand, proposed extended but not general franchise. More so¬
phisticated were the proposals of the left-wing liberal intellectual Oscar
Jaszi, minister for national minorities under the Karolyi regime. Jaszi, a
scholar, was stronger endowed with critical faculties than with an under¬
standing of practical politics. He criticized the weakness of the imperial
Austrian and Hungarian system, but his reform proposals were interest¬
ing but unrealistic—they included a modified acceptance of Naumann’s
Middle Europe, an imperial federation anchored in the “Big Five”
(Germans, Magyars, Czechs, Poles, and Croats), and a cantonal reor¬
ganization of Hungary according to the Swiss pattern.44 Just as unclear
were the notions of his chief, Karolyi, who at various times had supported
44 Czernin, 1m Welt\rieg, pp. 349-366; Karolyi, Fighting the World, pp. 398-
400; Jaszi, Magyariens Schuld, Ungarns Suhne, pp. 233-239; Kann, Nationalitaten-
problem, I, 83, 141-145, 372, 402-404; II, 8-9.
World War and Dissolution 5”
proposals for national autonomy, federalization of Hungary, a Danube
confederation, and only as last resort national self-determination. If
possible, he as well as Jaszi wanted to pursue their reforms within the
frame of the historic frontiers of Hungary, obviously impossible even in
peacetime. To do Jaszi and Karolyi justice, it should be noted that they
had proposed their programs in times when their promotion required
considerable political courage. In the question of the change of the
Hungarian franchise system to a democratic one, the record of both men
was clear and straightforward.
Concerning the Hungarian national groups, the alternatives in regard
to the Roumanian problem were either continued suppression or secession
and union with the kingdom. Hopes entertained by Czernin during his
tenure as Austrian minister to the Roumanian court (1913-1916), that a
Roumanian kingdom enlarged by Transylvania could be brought into a
satellite relationship to Austria-Hungary, were illusory during the critical
war years. Even earlier, in spring, 1914, only the imaginative Czernin
himself took them seriously. As for Roumania, it may be doubted that a
more generous peace than that concluded in May, 1918, in Bucharest,
could have changed matters substantially. That treaty divided the Dob-
rudja between the Central Powers and Bulgaria, turned over a number of
Carpathian villages and some mountain passes to Hungary, but kept the
oil wells under the joint administration of the Central Powers. A more
moderate attitude might—perhaps—have impressed the western powers,
but hardly Roumania herself. When the process of the Habsburg empire’s
disintegration had begun, the outcome was inevitable. Roumania resumed
the war against an enemy that in a military sense no longer existed and
hardly in a political sense either. Thus between the end of November and
the first of December, 1918, the kingdom brought about the union with
Transylvania, the Banat, and the Bukovina with little military efforts.
In fact, Roumania which so long had been sitting on the fence, waiting
for the highest bid from the Central Powers and Russia cashed in even¬
tually from both. The state gained southern Bessarabia from the Soviet
Union as well. These acquisitions made Roumania for two decades the
most conspicuous winner of all the countries involved in the war. Yet his¬
tory rarely repeats itself. The extent of the territorial gains, which in
east and west transcended the ethnic boundaries, led to tragic involvement
of the country in the struggle between Hitler Germany, her satellites, and
the Soviet Union. The Second World War brought more severe tribula¬
tions for Roumania than those endured during the First World War.45
45 Daicoviciu and Constantinescu, Breve Histoire de la Transylvanie, pp. 372-389;

Nicolas Jorga, History of Roumania (London, 1925), pp. 258-265; Erich Prokopo-
yi2 History of the Hahsburg Empire
In theory it would have been easy for the Slovaks to plan for an intra-
Hungarian solution, because the Slovaks were, in substance, confined to
northern Hungarian territories.46 Magyar oppressive nationality policies
thwarted such possibilities before, and even more so during the war. At
the same time political persecutions had driven a relatively large number
of Slovak leaders into exile, such as Milan Stefanik and Stefan Osusky.
Popular leaders in the country who may have been amenable to the
autonomy concept within Hungary, like Father Andre Hlinka and Milan
Hodza (the future Czechoslovak prime minister) could do little under
Hungarian wartime absolutism, even though Hodza was a member of
parliament. It was small wonder therefore, that the Slovak political
emigres came under the leadership of the Czechs. In April, 1918, at the
congress of the suppressed nationalities in Rome, Czechs and Slovaks
were represented by a joint delegation and the final resolution passed
there proclaimed a joint political future.
The difficulties in the Czech-Slovak relationship which were to be¬
come an intrinsic part of the history of the first and second Czechoslovak
republics received little attention before the hour of victory. Besides, the
substantial number of Slovak immigrants to the United States cared little
about ethnic and political differences between the two nations. As noted
above, the Pittsburgh declaration of June 30, 1918, agreed upon between
Thomas G. Masaryk, himself of Slovak descent, and the American Slovak
leaders confirmed the union of Czechs and Slovaks in the new state. The
promise of autonomy for the Slovaks in the future republic presented
no difficulty then, though it turned out later that it meant too sweeping
a concession to the Czechs and too little to the Slovaks. These problems,
however, were not anticipated in the days of joy about the bloodless
separation from the Habsburg empire. The proclamation of the new
Czechoslovak republic by the National Council in Prague on October
28, 1918, was followed the next day by a solemn concurring resolution of
the Slovak National Council on October 29 at Turciansky Svaty Martin
on Slovak soil. No serious offer of an alternative solution within Hungary
had been made to the Council by the Hungarian government to that day.
The Karolyi cabinet of October 31, had it come to power a few weeks
witsch, Die rumanische Nationalbewegung in der Bu\owina und der Da\o-

Romanismus (Graz-Cologne, 1965), pp. 130-159; Miron Constantinescu, Ptudes
d’Histoire Transylvaine (Bucarest, 1970), pp. 43-113.
46 An unspecified but substantial number of people of Slovak descent lived in
Austria in particular in Bohemia, Moravia, and also in Lower Austria. The official
Austrian national statistics, however, failed to recognize the Slovaks as ethnic group
separate from the Czechs.
World War and Dissolution 5*3
earlier, could hardly have changed matters. Yet, not too little was offered
to the Slovak people but nothing. They took the only possible course of
union with the Czechs, because reform within Hungary had become
anachronistic and independent statehood would have exposed the Slovaks
to expansionist pressures from the east without any protection from out¬
side.47
The national evolution of the Southern Slavs was discussed in the
preceding chapter in the context of Austrian developments, because the
union movement, fully suppressed in Hungary before the war, could be
initiated cautiously from Austrian soil. The history of the three Southern
Slav peoples in Austria-Hungary is so closely interwoven that only joint
discussion can clarify the issue. Therefore it would seem logical to survey
the situation during the war from the angle of the Serbian kingdom,
whose position in the union movement had become commanding. Yet
analysis of events in Serbia beyond the realm of international relations
would transcend the scope of a study of the history of the Habsburg em¬
pire. Accordingly the next best alternative seems to be to place this final
discussion of the question in the context of the national crisis in Hungary
where a substantial relative majority of the empire’s Southern Slavs lived.48
This discussion pertains to an era when police suppression of the union
movement was no longer effective.
A new impetus for the Southern Slav union movement did not have
to wait for the July crisis of 1914. It began with the outbreak of the first
Balkan war in October, 1912, when the fight for the liberation of Serbian
territory from the grip of the first sick man in Europe, the Ottoman em¬
pire, began. The sympathies of all Southern Slav peoples in this struggle
were definitely on the side of Serbia. To some extent this situation re¬
versed itself briefly after the assassination of the archduke in Sarajevo.
Now sizable rightist elements in Croatia and many of Croatian stock in
Bosnia, as well as many Slovenes, turned against the Serbs. The attacks
on individual Serbs and the wrecking of Serb stores should be considered
as mob action rather than as expression of the popular will, but the ma¬
jority of the empire’s Croats and even more so Slovenes sided then with
the imperial cause. Field Marshal Boroevic, in command at the Isonzo
47 Jozef Lettrich, History of Modern Slovakia (New York, 1955), pp. 43-58;
S. Harrison Thomson, Czechoslova\ia in European History (Princeton, 1953), pp.
276-325; Victor S. Mamatey, The United States and East Central Europe ig14-1918
(Princeton, 1957), pp. 29-34, 282-284, 336—339; Kann, Nationalitatenproblem, II,
283-286, 450-451.
48 The Southern Slavs in Austria and Bosnia-Hercegovina combined outnum¬
bered those in Hungary only by a ratio of approximately four to three.
front and Colonel General Sarkotic, who held a command in the

Balkans49 were popular military leaders, who represented the Croatian
Military Frontier tradition at its best. A Southern Slav legion, consisting
of prisoners of war and deserters, organized by the Entente, on the other
hand, had fewer than 20,000 members. In effectiveness it could not be
compared with the famous Czech legion. Rumors about the extent of
concessions to Italy made by the Entente at the expenses of the Southern
Slavs in the secret London treaty of April, 1915, restrained the desire
to establish contacts with the western powers. Accordingly, Croatian and
Slovene sympathies could largely be kept in line with the interests of
the Habsburg monarchy.
This state of affairs did not change much during the first three years of
the war. The Slovene parliamentary leader, Anton Korosec, in a letter
of January, 1917, to the Austrian prime minister, Count Heinrich Clam-
Martinic, expressed the loyalty of the Slovene people, and other Slovene
leaders, the priest Ivan Sustersic and Janez Krek, cooperated with the
Austro-German Christian Socials, in particular with the conservative wing
of the party.
At the reopening of the Austrian parliament at the end of May, 1917,
the Croatian-Slovene position shifted to some extent. Now the union of
all Southern Slavs within the empire was asked for, that is, in effect, a
trialistic solution. Such demands, which had been raised before, did not
challenge the role of the dynasty directly. This program was now fully
(that is, in a less anti-Serb vein) supported by the Frank party in Croatia
and to a substantial part by the high Roman Catholic clergy under the
leadership of the archibishop of Sarajevo, Josef Stadler. It was still under¬
stood also that the dominant role in this union project should accrue to
the largest Southern Slav national group on Austro-Hungarian soil, the
Croats.
Yet all this represented only one side, and as it turned out the less
significant one, of the whole story. In the later years of the war, par¬
ticularly in 1918, Magyar pressure decreased under the new banus of
Croatia, Anton von Mihalovich, a moderate Croatian nationalist. Now
the movement for union with the Serbs in the kingdom came into
the open, aided by the Croatian Socialists but also by the peasant party
under Stjepan Radic and at least indirectly by members of the high
clergy. With such support it had become respectable. At the same time,
the Yugoslav political emigres in London made their weight felt under
49 Sarkotic was also the last imperial and royal governor of Bosnia-Hercegovina;
see also Bauer, Zwischen Halbmond und Doppeladler, pp. 140 f.
World War and Dissolution 5*5
the leadership of the Croatian democrat Ante Trumbic, who had split
with the conservatives. The Declaration of Corfu of July 20, 1917, pro¬
claimed the coming union of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in a future
Yugoslavia. To the two latter national groups as well as to the Serbs in
the empire this meant, of course, a shift of allegiance from the house of
Habsburg to the Karadjordjevic dynasty. The shift for all three was no
longer a major problem.
The Rome congress of the oppressed nationalities in the spring of 1918
recognized the union of the Southern Slav peoples, but to avoid trouble
with Italy at a critical juncture of the war the delegates abstained from
asking for the determination of boundaries at this time. This postpone¬
ment of the decision in regard to foreign relations can be understood
better than the failure to agree upon federal principles in the organiza¬
tion of the new state. Yet both omissions had regrettable consequences.
The first led to inequitable ethnic boundaries to the disadvantage of the
Southern Slavs and, thereforee, to protracted differences with Italy. The
second, a built-in autonomous system in a still largely centralized state
—to Croats and Slovenes merely a greater Serbia—made the establish¬
ment of a royal dictatorship in 1929 possible.
The Declaration of Corfu, proclaimed after deliberation of the Croatian
and Slovene political exiles with the Serbian government, was an im¬
portant political step. This does not mean that events in the monarchy
were of lesser significance. Serbia led the union movement, but the de¬
cisive question was, whether the Southern Slavs in the Habsburg em¬
pire were willing and able to keep up with the program activated abroad.
The Serbs in the camp of the western Allies had not only the ad¬
vantage of unimpeded propaganda facilities, supported by the govern¬
ment in exile. Their resistance in the struggle against the Austrian,
German, and Bulgarian armies, the sacrifice of nearly one-third of the
population of Serbia in that fight, appeared to many Southern Slavs
within the empire as the most convincing factor in favor of Serbian leader¬
ship.
Against these feelings stood the different western historic, religious,
and cultural tradition of Croats and Slovenes. While the question of
union with the Serbs was still not clarified within the Habsburg empire,
the establishment of national councils in Carniola, Dalmatia, Bosnia, and
on October 6 one in Zagreb for all Southern Slav peoples under Habsburg
rule, proceeded smoothly and practically unimpeded by the Austrian
and even Hungarian governments. These councils were agreed that
the union of the Southern Slav peoples in the Habsburg empire was im-
5/6 History of the Hubs burg Empire
perative and that the trialistic or subtrialistic solutionso0 ventilated by
the crown but rejected by Hungary had as little chance of success as the
unhappy Hussarek manifesto of October 16, 1918. This conviction in
itself led to the compelling conclusion that the Habsburg dynasty, split
between an Austrian Dr. Jekyll and a Hungarian Mr. Hyde, could not
bring about this union and would have to quit. This quandary moved the
union movement close, but not close enough, to the final agreements
with Serbia. The Slovenes remained largely opposed to a regime under
the orthodox Karadjordjevic dynasty and would have preferred a repub¬
lican government. Radic, the Croatian peasant leader, wanted to empha¬
size the federal or preferably the mere confederal character of the union.
He proposed three heads of state, only one of them to be the king of
Serbia. Yet these differences notwithstanding, union with Serbia was to
be the over-all objective. By the end of October, 1918, the national councils
had agreed in principle to the transformation of Serbia into the SHS
(Serbian, Croatian, Slovene) state. Even the emperor had in a way sanc¬
tioned this solution by implication by handing over the Austro-Hungarian
navy to the evolving new Yugoslavia on October 31.51
Within the empire, the Slovene leader Korosec informed the western
powers of the formation of a Croatian National Council as the legal rep¬
resentation of the Southern Slav peoples within the dissolving Habsburg
monarchy. This declaration did not conflict with the union agreement.
It was meant primarily to secure Croatian and Slovene participation in
the coming peace conference. But the expectations of the Austro-Hun¬
garian Southern Slavs were disappointed because Serbia alone was repre¬
sented at the peace conference. This rejection added fuel to a protest
movement against unification under Serbian leadership in a greater
Serbia rather than in a genuine tripartite federation. By the end of
November, however, the National Council in Zagreb yielded and the new
centralized Yugoslavia, with weak safeguards for national autonomy
within the three-nation state, was proclaimed on December 1, 1918. An
uninterrupted series of crises and renewed frightful bloodletting in the
Second World War followed before a genuine federal structure was
agreed upon with great difficulties in 1945 and enacted finally in 1946.
Thus the Southern Slav peoples had succeeded in the midst of a bloody
war to bring about peaceful secession from the Habsburg empire. By
50 As noted, a subtrialistic solution meant the division of the empire in three com¬
ponent parts, of whom the third, the Southern Slav unit, should be subordinated to
Austria and Hungary.
51 Within days, however, the navies of the Western powers divided the bulk of
the Austro-Hungarian navy among themselves.
World War and Dissolution 5H
putting of? the determination of the frontier question according to ethnic
principles and the transformation of the union into a genuine federation,
they had not eliminated any of their basic difficulties. Besides, they had
to yield to Italian annexionist actions, soon to be aggravated by Fascist
imperialism. For their failure to settle the constitutional issue they had to
pay by more than two decades of latent civil war. The unsolved crises in
domestic and foreign affairs were directly related to the Yugoslav tragedy
during the Second World War. The union movement in 1918-1919 had
fully succeeded in severing by then anachronistic bonds. It had failed to
break the ground and to establish ground rules for a viable political
organization in internal and international relations.52
D. A FINAL REFLECTION ON THE DISSOLUTION PROCESS
The abundance of studies dealing with the disintegration of the Habs-

burg empire may roughly be divided into two overlapping groups. One
holds that the impetus to the dissolution of Austria came from forces
outside the empire, the other sees domestic problems as the main cause.
In the first case a merely contributory role is assigned to the national
groups at home. In the second the exile organizations represent the sup¬
porting cast. The former view perceives the causes mainly in the activities
of the political exile organizations abroad and their influence on the
policies of the Wilson administration in the United States and the British
and French governments.53 For Italy such extraneous influence of exile
organizations was hardly necessary. In the group of studies which as¬
signs chief responsibilities to political exile organizations, we find those
who defend the role of the Habsburg empire in Europe as balancing
factor and sometimes even glorify it as a model how different nationalities
can live together in peace and prosperity as long as they are not misled by
agitators. It is also pointed out that numerous original and well-perceived
reform plans in the last years of the empire’s peacetime existence were
52 Fran Zwitter, “Les Problemes Nationaux dans la Monarchie de Habsbourg,”

122-128, and by the same author “The Slovenes and the Habsburg Monarchy,”
Austrian History Yearboo\, III:2 (1967), 182-188; Bogumil Vosnjak A Bulwar\
Against Germany (London, 1917), pp. 213-263; Bogdan Krizman, “The Croatians
in the Habsburg Monarchy, Austrian History Yearboo\, 111:2 (1967), 113-115, 144-
158; Kissling, Die Kroaten, pp. 97-127; Dusan A. Loncarevic, ]ugoslawiens Entste-
hung (Vienna, 1929), pp. 633-660; Hermann Wendel, Der Kampf der Siidslawen
(Frankfurt, 1925), pp. 621-755; Josef Matl, Siidslawische Studien (Munich, 1965),
pp. 58-102; Guldescu in Francis H. Eterovich and Christopher Spalatin, eds.,
Croatia, II, 82-96; Denis, La Grande Serbie, pp. 298-322; Kann, Nationalitaten-
problem, I, 306-308, 459, II, 285-287, 383.
63 Mamatey, The United States and East Central Europe, IQ14-1Q18, pp. 380-384.
yi8 History of the Hahshurg Empire
promoted by such men as the right wing socialist Karl Renner in regard
to personal autonomy, the liberal Transylvanian Roumanian Aurel Popo-
vici concerning territorial autonomy, or the ultraliberal Magyar Oscar
Jaszi, who recommended a combination of both. It is held further that
as far as change was necessary, political ideas developed within the empire
provided also the means to effect this change.
Such views, which gradually have been muted within the past decade
by more critical ones, may appear simplistic, but they are so only insofar
as they picture the Habsburg empire as paradise on earth. The reform
plans on the whole were drawn up by men of political sophistication,
though perfect solutions were out of the question. Their projects were
bound to fail above all because the first premise, the genuine intent of
perserving the empire, was lacking. However, the view that the empire
could have been saved by ingenious reform plans but was destroyed at the
initiative of outside forces (a view supported by sizable groups within the
empire), can advance stronger evidence. Only the two privileged national
groups, Austro-Germans and Magyars, took no initiative to secede until
the last weeks of the war. Even then they acted more or less on the spur
of necessity but not of preference. For all other national groups, the de¬
cisive actions for secession were engineered by outside forces, not neces¬
sarily though primarily by exile organizations, but also, as in regard to
the Italians and Roumanians, by governments in sympahty with the ob¬
jectives of irredenta movements. If we accept this with due consideration
of the social revolutionary factors involved in the disintegration process,
we can make a convincing case for the following propositions. The be¬
lief that the empire was destroyed primarily by outside forces is held by
those who confirm the existence of a cultural and political mission of the
Habsburg empire, but not by those alone. One may be critical of the em¬
pire’s policies, may consider its continued existence in the twentieth cen¬
tury as anachronistic, and still believe that the empire was destroyed
from outside.
The other view is that the empire failed to solve the nationalities prob¬
lem, failed to adjust itself to overdue social changes, and rushed into a
war whose outcome, practically any outcome—win, draw, or lose—
would have worse consequences for the Habsburg monarchy than those
of gradual yielding in the Balkan questions and other contested issues of
nationalist conflict. The defenders of the Habsburg empire’s position in
history can easily prove that a string of political defeats in international
relations as well as on the home front would have set dangerous prece-
World War and Dissolution 5J9
dents which might have led to disintegration. Yet it would be difficult to
assert that all concessions would have involved risks as great as war.
The adherents of the view that the Habsburg empire was responsible
for its doom and died, to paraphrase Marx, as a consequence of its in¬
herent contradictions, usually cite and analyze a long list of sins of com¬
missions and omissions stretching through the centuries. This study does
not follow this technique, partly because the deficiencies of the Habsburg
empire have been spelled out in these pages and repetition would add
little. Partly, however, because I believe that all the wrongs put together
would not have made the doom of the empire inevitable. I reject
theories of historical inevitability. I believe at the same time, that the in¬
trinsic causes for the dissolution did not come from outside but from
within the empire. One can affirm at a certain point in time the necessity
of the empire’s fall on the strength of domestic inadequacies without con¬
demning the empire’s position and achievements in history. I reject
blanket condemnation as much as uncritical glorification and shallow
hopes for restoration. The empire can never be restored because all its
social premises have been destroyed.
In rejecting theories of historical inevitability I do not deny that in¬
dividuals and nations in certain phases of their history may set actions
which can never be reversed. Such irreversibility is not the result of a
historical law but simply of lack of time. When Austria-Hungary in con¬
doning the war with Serbia committed suicide from fear of death, the
dual monarchy lost the only chance it had to survive: namely by the help
of time itself. The decline could probably have been slowed down or even
stopped by various constellations in international politics. When the
brittle political body of the empire joined the war, a time limit was set
for its continued existence—namely that necessary to arrive at a military
decision. This decision, from the beginning of the war probably an un¬
favorable one for the Central Powers, sealed its doom. It seems equally
clear that victory, an almost paradox possibility, would have merely
aggravated the nationalities problem. An annexionist policy would prob¬
ably have been pursued in that case; it would presumably have led within
a short time to either further wars or revolutions, probably both. The
improbability of a negotiated peace—in itself the least dangerous alterna¬
tive—is shown by the failure of the secret peace negotiations. Even if they
had succeeded it seems illusionary that a weakened Habsburg empire, now
deprived of the support of a strong Germany, would have had as good
a chance to survive as if it had never taken up arms.
As for domestic causes, the engineers of the empire’s dissolution abroad
were products of the intelligentsia of the various national groups at home.
To a point they were also agents of coming social revolutions. Masaryk,
Benes, Trumbic, Dmowski, Stefanik, and many other lesser leaders be¬
came alienated at home and carried the conflict germinated there abroad.
Although they succeeded partly because of their political skill and above
all due to the help they received from the western powers, they could
never have attempted what they did if the conditions they worked for to
change, had not existed at home. Thus the search for the prime cause is
in this case not a question who comes first the hen or the egg, a fallacious
logical problem based on the inevitable lack of evidence by observation.
Such evidence is not lacking in the case of the Habsburg empire. There
we know what caused the conditions, which enabled the political emigres
to become successful. This -study supports the second view that the
causes of disintegration were to be found on the home front and merely
supported by forces abroad.
In one respect, however, I dissent from both views, the one which holds
that the causes for destruction are to be found primarily abroad and the
other which perceives them primarily at home. My dissent pertains to
the single point on which both views agree, namely that the dissolution
process of the Habsburg empire marks the end of an era. Neither do I
believe that the Habsburg demise heralds the beginning of a new one.
As will be discussed in the final chapter, a new period had been evolving
for several decades already.
CHAPTER X
Tdevo Beginnings-, Cultural 'Trends from the
mo ’s to 1918
The dissolution of the empire represented merely a stage in the evolu¬

tion of a new, highly promising era of cultural developments. Gradually it
had come into existence, even before the advent of the new century
and it continued after 1918. The maturation of these developments has
not come to an end in our days and is subject to further expansion.
To sketch this intellectual process requires some change from the
lineup of the national groups presented in Chapter VIII. There we have
started with the politically leading national groups, the Germans and
Magyars, followed by the Czechs, to whom the Slovaks were attached for
ethnic reasons. Discussion of the two northeastern national groups, the
Poles and Ruthenians followed. Then the Southern Slavs from West to
East (Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs) were discussed. The two Latin groups,
Italians and Roumanians, came at the end. This organization was appro¬
priate on political and geographical grounds. Since it is not our aim
to rank national groups according to a rating of cultural merits, the factor
of priorities in this respect could be disregarded.
The situation, as it presents itself in this final chapter is different.
We still do not intend to classify national groups according to a system
of cultural achievements. But we may well ask ourselves, how much
the members of these national groups, who were settled in Habsburg terri¬
tories contributed to cultural progress that outlasted the empire. Some
ethnic groups which taken as a whole made great cultural contributions to
European civilization, could not make a comparable impact with the
521
splinter groups of conationals in the Habsburg monarchy. Would it then
be appropriate to proceed according to a scheme, in which the nations,
whose confines were fully within the borders of the empire, would receive
priority? This means Croats, Czechs, Magyars, Slovaks, Slovenes. Yet
such a lineup would reflect the true situation only to a limited extent.
Both, Slovenes and Slovaks, though settled fully within the territory of
the empire, had fewer specific though not fewer general cultural achieve¬
ments to show during the last half century of the Habsburg monarchy’s
existence than for example the Austrian Poles, who represented only a
minority of their nation as a whole. The stress here is put on the attribute:
specific. We are not concerned with the issue of major or minor cultural
achievements but with the question to what extent such achievements
were integrated into the cultural history of the Habsburg empire. The
Slovene cultural activities merged increasingly with the Southern Slav
union movement, in particular with the aspects of it inspired by the
Croats. Essentially the same holds true for the relationship of the Slovak
cultural activities with those of the Czechs during the period under dis¬
cussion. The Austro-Germans, on the other hand, though only a branch
of the German-speaking people became outstanding in the evolution of
ideas of lasting cultural significance for the empire as a whole and be¬
yond. Similar achievements could be observed in the Magyar and Czech
orbits and to a lesser extent in those of Croats and Poles. We will attempt
to clarify in the following, that these developments were not the result of
an innate superiority of any national group, but of a continuation of his¬
torical, socioecological, and psychological factors. Other national groups
could fully compete with these attainments, if we look at them either as
part of nations as a whole or in conjunction with related ethnic groups,
and not merely as fragmentary groups within the empire. Accordingly, if
we want to build a case for out thesis it is suggestive to work “from the
outside.” This means to begin with those national achievements which
had a less direct impact on the new cultural germination within the em¬
pire referred to above. From the outer fringe we will proceed to the con¬
tributions considered most outstanding in our mentioned terms of refer¬
ence. Accordingly we will begin with a brief survey of the situation
among the Latin groups, Italians and Roumanians. In doing so we will
not be concerned primarily with the uncontested achievements of these
nations as a whole, but with those of their conationals within the empire.
They had to be interested in the first place with creating the political
premises for participation in the cultural life of the entire nation, that is,
the life of their conationals across the borders. Specific cultural activities
New Beginnings 523
within the empire beyond those of a political national character frequently

had to come afterward.
Poles and Ruthenians in the empire formed a geographic though not
a cultural and ethnic entity. The cultural contributions of both groups were
outward-directed, especially in the last decades of the empire’s existence.
Many cultural advantages favored the Poles in this respect in comparison
with the Ruthenians. Of the Southern Slavs, the Serb position was almost
completely focused on cultural trends outside the monarchy beyond the
right banks of the Sava and the Drina rivers. As for the two Catholic
Southern Slav national groups, Croats and Slovenes, the achievements of
the latter appear no longer as distinct as they did at the time of the
Slavic renaissance. They were increasingly influenced by the Croats. Even
though the Croats moved toward the Southern Slav union movement,
Croatian culture during the period under discussion was still largely
shaped by the affiliation with the Habsburg empire. To some extent
trends which outlasted the empire began to develop within the sphere of
this influence. Similar developments are more fully true for Magyars,
Czechs, and Austro-Germans. In particular the last-mentioned formed a
center of cultural intercommunications. The language conflict between
Czechs and Germans in the lands of the Bohemian crown, though
exacerbated by a domineering German attitude, does not contradict this.
In fact it focused attention on Czech-German cultural interrelationship.
For this reason the Czech position in this survey is placed close to that of
the Germans.
The Slovaks are discussed here jointly and briefly with the Czechs.
But, much as their political national struggle progressed successfully, the
Slovak specific cultural contributions, like those of the Slovenes, became
less easily identifiable than in previous periods. A partial explanation may
be that the national struggle of the small national groups of peoples
without independent political history within the Habsburg empire con¬
sumed an increasing part of their national energies in the last decades of
Austria-Hungary’s existence.
Magyars and Austro-Germans represent the two cases where, jointly
with that of the Czechs, our thesis can be demonstrated most convinc¬
ingly. In regard to Magyars as well as Czechs German influence was of
great significance, but significance with a difference. We are faced by a
mutual Czech-German cultural penetration, a kind of osmosis. On the
conscious level the Czechs rejected German influence; indirectly they
were exposed to it as were the Germans to that of the Czechs. Many
advantages rested here with the larger nation.
In regard to the Magyars, opposition to German influence did not
exist nearly to the same degree. Conflict occurred there on the political
level between the Cis- and Transleithanian administrations, but not on
the cultural-national between Germans and Magyars. It might have
existed if this influence would have come primarily from German-Austria.
Actually it came chiefly from Germany, where the young Magyar intelli¬
gentsia had become indoctrinated with German culture. The Austro-
Germans might have been considered to represent a threat to the Magyar
position, not so the Germans in the Reich, who were welcomed as allies
against a Panslav danger. To the Czechs such distinction was meaning¬
less, since as neighbors of the Reich they were as much exposed to cul¬
tural and possibly political penetration from Germany as from the
Austro-German lands.
In accordance with these considerations we will discuss the Magyars
after the Czechs, and finally the Austro-Germans. Either directly or via
Germany the major new cultural trends became most spectacular here. In
line with the foregoing we will have to discuss the cultural achievements
of Czechs, Magyars, and particularly Germans at relative greater length
than the other national groups. Again, no value scheme is involved here,
but merely the question of pertinence to our problem.
A. The Latins (Italians and Roumanians)
A shift of cultural activities from the Trentino to Trieste became

increasingly marked after the middle of the nineteenth century among
the Austro-Italians. The steady economic rise of Austria’s only major
commercial port city, made Trieste at the same time also the center of
public political activities as distinguished from the symbiosis of quietism
and irredentism prevalent in Trento and surroundings. This rural area,
in which clericalism was still relatively strong, did not have the economic
strength to establish cultural facilities on a large scale. For this reason the
Austrian government considered it safer, at the beginning of the twentieth
century, to establish an Italian law school in Trento rather than in Trieste,
and an artificial furor teutonicus prevented operation of the project even
in Innsbruck, the German-speaking capital of Tyrol. Antonin Gasoletti, a
neoromantic lyric, was perhaps the last major poet, who in the second
half of the nineteenth century headed from the environment of Trento.
In the social sciences, the patriotic martyr Cesare Battisti from Trento
made an important contribution to the geography of the region.
Trieste, which in the later part of the nineteenth century succeeded to
the cultural position which the Trentino had held during the Enlighten-
New Beginnings 525
ment, could afford to develop an Italian theater, a city orchestra, and

an art gallery. Literary life surpassed soon that of any other region of
the Littoral or of the Trentino. Here was also the seat of “Legio Nazion-
ale” (the Italian national association). Domenico Rossetti, a contemporary
of Gasoletti, still followed the romantic tradition. Yet Riccardo Pittieri
represented already the neoromantic ultranationalist spirit of Gabriele
D’Annunzio. Scipio Slataper, a remarkably original prose writer and a lyric
introduced new realistic trends. His autobiography II mio Carso of 1912,
which pictured the multinational character of the Littoral as seen from
the point of view of Italian nationalism, received more attention in Italy
than in Austria. Italo Svevo, influenced by the art of Proust, in the early
twentieth century made an important contribution to the psychological
novel and Umberto L. Saba, who died almost forty years after the First
World War, was another distinguished prose writer and lyric. Altogether
the cultural efforts of the Austro-Italians proved convincingly that they
could not be held down by an alien and unsympathetic, though not op¬
pressive government. At the same time it must be conceded that no major
new cultural trends originated from these regions during the last decades
of the empire’s existence.1
Although a large number of all Roumanians lived in Habsburg terri¬
tory, especially Hungary, than, proportionally, Italians, the center of cul¬
tural activities remained Bucharest and not Hungarian Koloszvar (Cluj,
Klausenburg) or Austrian Czernowitz (Cernauti). One factor in this
respect was the severe suppression of Roumanian cultural activities by the
Hungarian government. It was difficult to publish Roumanian literature on
Hungarian territory and even more difficult to promote it. Lyrics and fic¬
tional prose were suspected of irredentist propaganda. All the more im¬
pressive were literary activities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, when oppressive measures were at their height. George Co§buc
from Transylvania was a remarkable lyric; Jan Slavici, was a versatile
native of Hungary proper, who distinguished himself as a prose narrator
of Roumanian peasant life and of fairy tales, as well as a playwright. He
became a successful editor of the Journal Tribuna in Sibiu (Nagyszeben,
Hermannstadt). The lyrics and rural novels of the Transylvanian Octavian
Goga parallel in some ways Slavici’s works.
Least impeded by the authorities was the writing of regional national
1 Fortunat Demattio, “Literatur in Tirol und Vorarlberg: Die italienische Litera¬

tur,” in [Crownprince Rudolf], Die osterreichisch-ungansche Monarchic, Vol.
Tirol, pp. 410-416; Anton M. Zuhorsky-Suchodolski, Triest (Vienna 1962), pp.
150-164.
history, and here we meet contributions like those of A. Papiu Ilarion,
who, particularly in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, distin¬
guished himself as writer of Roumanian national history in Transylvania.
His equal and contemporary was Eudoxius Hurmuzaki, the son of a
Roumanian political leader, who resided in Cernauti (Czernowitz, Cher-
nivtsi) and wrote a voluminous but still incomplete history of the
Roumanians. Those in the Habsburg empire received special consideration.
This work, whitten partly in German and partly in Roumanian, and
largely based on original sources, is still rated as an important contribution
to the subject matter.2
B. The Ruthenians and Poles
Ruthenian culture in Austria became increasingly oriented toward

outward centers. The old tripartite division between Austrian-, Russian-,
and Ukrainian-oriented cultural trends shifted gradually toward the
Ukrainian conationals across the border. Ukrainian culture by the end of
the nineteenth century had become the mainroad of Ruthenian civiliza¬
tion. Beginning with the i86o’s and 1870’s, the influence of the journal
Prawda, published in L’viv (Lwow, Lemberg) was important. The ideas
of the previously mentioned Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (1814-
1861), radiated from the Russian East Ukraine into Galicia. Ivan Franko
(1856-1916), the greatest modern Ruthenian writer in the Habsburg
monarchy, equally distinguished in his lyrics, stories, and novels, which
deal largely with social problems, represented a moderate pro-Ukrainian
orientation. The ethnographer Volodymyr Hnatiuk and the Ruthenian
historian at the University of Lwow, Mykmailo Hrushevs’kyi stood even
more distinctly for the Ukrainian national movement. The same holds
true for Osyp Fed’kovych, a poet, who lived in the Bukovina, where the
literary society Russka Besida represented both the pro-Russian and the
gradually victorious Ukrainian cultural movement. It might be added
here that the University of Chernivtsi founded in 1875, furthered Ruth¬
enian cultural activities only to a limited extent beyond the orbit of the
theological faculty. The same held even more true for the Roumanian
position in the academic life of the Bukovina. This university furthered
the Germanization of the educated upper strata of the crownland and was
only of indirect benefit for the training of the young Ruthenian and
2 Daicoviciu and Constantinescu, Breve Histoire de la Transylvanie, pp. 326-358;

Jakal Negruzzi and George Bogdan-Duica, Geschichte des rumanischen Schrifttums
(Wernigerode, 1892), pp. 136-232; Nicolae Jorga, Histoire des Roumains de Tran-
sylvanie et de Hongrie, 2 vols. (Bucharest, 1915-1916), II, 306-401.
New Beginnings 527
Roumanian intelligentsia. The Ruthenian national struggle took place

in several theatres, above all in confrontations with Russian orthodoxy
and Polish nationalism. Therefore, the advancement of the Ukrainian
cultural movement, which spread to the remote corners of the Hungarian
Carpatho-Ukraine (Carpatho-Ruthenia) was all the more remarkable.
There, cultural associations like the Basilius Society and subsequently the
more liberal Unio Society exercised a notable influence. Evmenij Sabov, a
literary historian, furthered the national objectives. Altogether the policies
of tsarism in Russia, which suppressed the Russian Ukrainians even
more severely than the Hungarian government did in regard to the Car-
patho-Ruthenians, actually strengthened the Carpatho-Ruthenian national
resistance movement.3
For the Poles, Cracow (Krakow) with its ancient Jagellonian university
of 1364, its Academies of Science and Fine Arts, was as much the cultural
center of Polish activities in Austria as Lemberg (Lwow) was that of
political activities.4 Michael Bobrzynski, one time governor of Galicia and
Polish minister in the Koerber and Clam-Martinic cabinets during the war,
must be considered a great national Polish historian, whose presentation
was based not on a glorified nostalgic longing for the Poland of old but
on a critical approach to the bygone kingdom’s unsolved social problems.
Joseph Szujski (1835-1883), professor of history in Cracow, wrote a his¬
tory of Poland in a more traditional, conservative vein. At the same time
he was also an effective representative of the national historical drama
and, like Bobrzynski, engaged in Polish politics in the Austrian Reichsrat.
Count Stanislaus Tarnowski, a colleague of both men and president of the
Polish Academy of Science, made a similar contribution to the history of
Polish literature. K. Estreicher distinguished himself in the auxiliary his¬
torical sciences. S. Pawlicky was a historian of classical philosophy. In the
sciences, Ladislaus Natanson and Marian Smolchowski were widely
known physicists; the latter was one of the early explorers of atomic
theory.5
Juljan Falat (1852-1929), the director of the Academy of Fine Arts, was
3 Michael Hrushevsky, A History of Ukraine (New Haven, 1941), pp. 483-513;
2eguc, Die nationalpolitischen Bestrebungen der Karpato-Ruthenen 1848-1914, pp.
92-100; Emil Ohonowskij, “Ruthenische Literatur,” in [Crownprince Rudolf], Die
osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, Vol. Galizien, pp. 660-665 and Emil Kakuz-
niacki, “Die ruthenische Sprache und Literatur,” in Vol. Bu\ovuina of the same
work, pp. 401-405.
4 The university (of 1784) and technical university there, though in size sur¬
passing the institutions of higher learning in Cracow, had not the same standing in
Polish tradition.
5 Erasmus Piltz, ed., Poland (London, 1919), pp. 296-313.
active during the same period as one of the early representatives of Polish
impressionism. One of his successors as director of the Academy was the
sculptor Ksawery Dunikowski, who had moved from impressionism to a
monumental and austere symbolism. The influence of both men on mod¬
ern Polish art extended beyond the dissolution of the empire.6 In litera¬
ture, too, Cracow became a dynamic center of new ideas, fully effective after
1918. Lucjan Rydel (1870-1918) was a widely known dramatist, but the
most interesting and diverse literary personality was Stanislav Wyspian-
ski, a poet and playwright, but at the same time a painter of mystic ten¬
dencies. Wyspianski also had interesting ideas about architecture. Yet his
genius had no opportunity to put in practice his plans of blending modern
architecture schemes with medieval Polish village architecture. S. Przy-
byszewski, likewise from Cracow, was as talented as Wyspianski, but the
topics of his writings were more specialized. They were influenced by the
sex problem according to Freudian theories and the literary works of
Strindberg. S. Brzozowski, a young Socialist in the prewar period, rejected
extreme individualism and promoted ideas of mass culture. Stanislaus
Kozmian and his successor Tadeusz Pawlikovski were foremost represen¬
tatives of the pattern-forming theater in Cracow. One young Galician
Pole, Jozef Wittlin, who reached manhood only during the First World
War was the author of one of the best novels on the Ruthenian peasant
milieu ever written. It reveals no trace of Polish national prejudice.7
Yet all these men were nationalists to a greater or lesser degree, but
generally in a creative sense. This nationalism, whether in history, the
sciences, or literature and the fine arts exercised in its achievements a
greater influence beyond the Polish orbit and thereby within the over-all
Austrian sphere than the works produced by the members of the other
national groups considered thus far. In part this may be due to the fact,
that the Austrian Poles played a more important role within their nation
than the Austro-Italians or Ruthenians. In some respect the Polish cul¬
tural achievements emanating from Galicia and in particular from the
6 Ibid., pp. 352-378; Ladislaus Luszczkiewicz, “Die Architektur,” pp. 706-708
and Marian von Sokolowski, “Malerei und Plastik,” pp. 756-771 both in [Crown-
prince Rudolf], Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, Vol. Galizien; Irone Pio-
trowska, “Fine Arts,” in Bernadotte E. Schmitt, ed., Poland, pp. 311-322.
7 Stanislaus Count Tarnowski, “Polnische Literatur,” in [Crownprince Rudolf],
Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, Vol. Galizien, pp. 635-648; Piltz, ed.,
Poland, pp. 330-343; Manfred Kridl, “Polish Literature” in Bernadotte E. Schmitt,
ed., Poland, pp. 284-310; Roman Dyboski, “Literature and Learning in Poland since
1863,” in Cambridge History of Poland (Cambridge, 1951), II, 535-566; Manfred
Kridl, A Survey of Polish Literature and Culture (The Hague, 1967), pp. 350-471;
Czeslaw Milosz, The History of Polish Literature (London, 1969), pp. 281-379.
New Beginnings 529
Cracow area belong to those which not only the Poles but imperial
Austria have transmitted to the postwar world.
C. The Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes
For the Serbs, the days of Slavic romanticism and the Slavic renais¬
sance had gone, when Karadzic could consider Vienna a focal point of
communications with Slavists from other nations. Now Belgrad had
become the main center of Serb cultural activities. Of the last generation
before the First World War, the lyric Veljko Petrovic, came originally
from and returned in later life to the southern Hungarian plains, but
spent his most creative years in Serbia. Otherwise, Bosnia-Hercegovina,
the most recently acquired Habsburg domain with the proportionally
largest Serb population became the most important area of Serb cultural
activities outside of the kingdom. It seems that the province nearest to
central Serbia, the Hercegovina, had the closest cultural ties to the
kingdom also. Vojislav Ilic, a lyric writer who died as a young man,
headed from there. So did Aleksa Santic, a nationalist playwright and
lyric, whose poetry, at the turn of the nineteenth century reflects the
scenery and sentiments of his Hercegovinian home territory and the
strong desire for Southern Slav union. Ivo Andric from central Bosnia,
the novelist and Nobel prize winner of the future, born in 1894, repre¬
sents a bridge between imperial and royal Habsburg and future Yugoslav
Bosnia. Although he portrayed the imperial administration of Bosnia with
great sensitivity and knowledge, he and the other writers mentioned above
were outward directed toward Serbia. Their works can hardly be con¬
sidered as part of a composite civilization within the Habsburg empire.8
The situation was different with the Catholic Slovenes, an ethnic group
fully within the borders of the Cisleithanian part of the empire. Yet it
was not as different as it might have been expected from the nation, from
which had come Kopitar, Mikiosic, and Preseren, all champions and
examples of a kind of Austro-Slavism. Josip Stritar (1836-1923), poet-novel¬
ist, essayist, and editor of the Slovene literary journal Zvon, published in
Vienna since 1870, was one of the last Austro-Slavists, yet one more nation¬
alist than his predecessors. Ivan Tavcar, from Ljubljana (Laibach), a many-
sided talent equally distinguished as lyric, novelist, and playwright, may be
8 Matthias Murko in Paul Hinneberg, ed., Die osteuropaischen Literaturen und

die slawischen Sprachen (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 233-238; Anton Hadzic, “Die ser-
bische Literatur,” in [Crownprince Rudolf], Die osterreichisch-ungarische Mon¬
archic, Vol. Kroatien-Slavonien, pp. 149-152; Josef Matl, Siidslawische Studien
(Munich, 1965), pp. 494-526.
5J0 History of the Hahsburg Empire
considered as the pioneer of Slovene literary realism and symbolism with
Socialist leanings, who had overcome the naturalistic tendencies, which
had not been particularly fruitful in Slovene literature. Other realists
were Janko Kersnik and Fran Lestvik, the former primarily a lyric, the
latter a novelist and playwright. Oton Zupancic, also from Ljubljana,
who died in 1949, a lyric and creator of modernized folk poetry repre¬
sented expressionist tendencies in Slovene literature. Dragotin Kette stood
for similar sentiments in a perhaps less sophisticated manner. All these
men were not as concerned with the union movement as the Austrian
and Hungarian Serbs. At the same time they cannot be considered as
representatives of Austro-Slavism either. It had entered its period of
decline with the passing of the Slavonic renaissance even among the one
fully Austro-Slav nation, the Slovenes.9
More complex were developments among the Croats, in particular
those in the triune kingdom and in Dalmatia. The Southern Slav union
movement had made enormous political progress during the last prewar
decades and the Serb political ascendancy became stronger. Yet in the
cultural realm Serb and Croatian cultural endeavors and achievements
could still be separated clearly in a linguistic as well as in a cultural sense.
Center of Croatian literary activities was Zagreb, where the main literary
journal of the 1880’s and 1890’$ the Vijenac (wreath) became the arena
for the struggle between the conservatives and the young radicals, a
conflict that continued in the main cultural association, the Matica Hrvat-
s\a (Croatian cultural national association). Literary radicalism, however,
was not identical with political and national radicalism.
By the end of the nineteenth century we have to distinguish between
three main literary trends among the Croats, all of which represented the
Moderna, a movement characterized by a deepening interest in psycholog¬
ical interpretation, skepticism, and interest in the new literary trends repre¬
sented by the Russians, Scandinavians, and French. This development was
clearly shown in the school of Zagreb with particular emphasis on
Dostoevsky, Ibsen, and later Strindberg. Here nationalism was a by¬
product of the literary revolution. The so-called school of Prague where
many young Croats studied at the Czech university, represented, to a
much higher degree, national-social objectives. A kind of Austrian north-
south Panslavism became rather effective. In Vienna, on the other hand,
9 Slodnjak, Geschichte der slowenischen Literatur, pp. 158-324; Gregor Krek,
“Die slovenische Literatur,” in [Crownprince Rudolf] Die osterreichisch-ungarische
Monarchic, Vol. Karnten, Krain, pp. 442-448; Murko in Paul Hinneberg, ed., Die
osteuropdischen Literaturen und die slawischen Sprachen, pp. 230-231, 237; Matl,
Sudslawische Studien, pp. 529-540.
New Beginnings 53/
the Croats who studied at the university were also influenced by the
i’art pour Vart trends of the period, as exemplified by Baudelaire and
Verlaine, and consequently less radical in political questions. All these cur¬
rents eventually merged with the mainstream of Croatian nationalism
and Southern Slav unionism. Yet the very existence of these diverse
trends in Croatian cultural history confirmed ties between the new brands
of cultural nationalism and the institutional traits and traditions of the
Habsburg monarchy.
Evgenij Kumicic (1850-1904), a writer in the second half of the nine¬
teenth century, still represented the influence of Zola’s and perhaps
Turgenev’s naturalism. The outstanding representative of the era be¬
tween national romanticism and naturalism was August Senoa (1838-81).
This encyclopedic talent, as literary critic, stage manager, lyric, and epic
poet, as well as author of realistic village stories and the historical novel
Baron Ivica, influenced Croatian intellectual life lastingly in the coming
age of the Moderna. Silvije Kranjcevic (1865-1908), already an adherent
of the Moderna, became a lyric poet of social tendencies. Mihovil Nikolic,
another lyric poet, can be considered as a neoromantic of sentimental
idyllic tendencies, in contrast to Vladimir Vidric who in his poetry stood
for a sensual, hedonistic spirit unusual in the rich poetry of Croatian
literature.
Ivo Vojnovic, who came from Dubrovnik in Dalmatia, rates as the
greatest modern Croatian dramatist, whose symbolism superseded the
naturalist tendencies which were still dominant in Petar Petrovic-Pecija’s
plays. Miroslav Krleza (1893- ), a more original artist, revealed in his
plays but particularly in his novels a strange combination of a revolu¬
tionary and a pantheistic spirit. At the time when this survey ends, in
1918, he, like the Serb Andric, had given a mere foretaste of his great
talents. All three writers were still active in the new Yugoslavia.
August Matos, critic and essayist in the last prewar decades was an im¬
pressionist influenced by French literature. Branko Vodnik, who died in
1926, was a scholarly literary historian whose interests were focused
largely on nineteenth-century Illyrism.10
As for music, German and Italian influences were strong throughout
the nineteenth century and afterward. Vatroslav Lisinski (Ignatz Fuchs),
10K.B.K. on literature in F. H. Eterovich and C. Spalatin, eds., Croatia, I, 253-

272; Nicola Andric, “Erganzung zur croatischen Literaturgeschichte in [Crown-
prince Rudolf] Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, Vol. Kroatien, Slawonien,
pp. 137-149; Murko in Paul Hinneberg, ed., Die osteuropaischen Literaturen und
die slawischen Sprachen, pp. 231-233, 237-238; Matl, Sudslawische Studien, pp. 455-
5J2 History of the Habshurg Empire
1819-1954, was a composer of operas, and after him Ivan Zajc, a prolific
creator of vocal music and author of the historical opera Nicola Subic-
Zrinshj dominated the musical scene in Zagreb. Yet the truly original
contributions to modern music were made in the main only after 1918. In
the fine arts, on the other hand, an original Croatian school of architec¬
ture, painting, and sculpture was in full bloom already in the nineteenth
century. Bartol Felbinger (1785-1871), a successful student of a neo¬
classical style, became the chief architect of a modernized Zagreb. Viktor
Kovacic (1874-1924) introduced modern functionalism into Croatian
architecture. In painting, Vlaho Bukovac, (1855-1922) who had studied
in Paris, stood for academic realism in the setting of large compositions;
Josip Racic and Miroslav Kraljevic were late impressionists and portrait
and landscape painters. The pioneer of modern Croatian sculpture was
the Dalmatian Ivan Rendic '(1849-1932), teacher of the Dalmatian Ivan
Mestrovic (1883-1962), whose art superseded impressionism. Mestrovic’s
genius cannot be classified, but undoubtedly his art was related to expres¬
sionism. Mestrovic who had studied at the Academy in Vienna and who
later lived in Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain, and the United States
was recognized everywhere as a towering Southern Slav artist. His
originality blended well with the tradition of national culture. At the
same time his great lifework is a symbol for the many trends which tied
Croatian art to the empire and have radiated from there into the world.11
D. The Slovaks
The Slovak contribution to the establishment of independent statehood

in 1918 was equal to that of the Czechs and in regard to support by cona¬
tionals abroad, particularly in the United States, perhaps superior. The
same cannot be said in regard to nineteenth and twentieth century Slovak
cultural developments, but there were substantial contributions. In the
late nineteenth century Svetozar Hurban Vajansky was a representative
of Slovak poetry, attuned to the atmosphere of the Tatra mountains. He
promoted the national cause and fought Magyarism in his epical work.
Pavol Orszagh-Hviezdoslav (1849-1921), the most important Slovak
11 Fedor Kabalin on music in Eterovich and Spalatin, eds., Croatia, I, 283-287;

Ruza Bajurin on architecture, sculpture, painting, ibid., pp. 323-345. See further on
music Diels, Die slawischen Voider, pp. 296 and ibid., on fine arts, pp. 287; Ferdo
Miler on music and Isidor Krsnjavi on fine arts in [Crownprince Rudolf], Die
osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, Vol. Kroatien, Slawonien, pp. 168-176; see
further Matl, Sudslawische Studien, pp. 447-448; Zvanc Crnja, Cultural History of
Croatia (Zagreb, 1962), pp. 319-336.
New Beginnings 333
novelist of the period, was interested in the life and customs of the
Slovak rural gentry. Martin Razus was another novelist of the time.
Vaclav Chaloupecky (1882-1951), a Czech scholar at the University of
Bratislava, was the historian of Slovak relationship to the Hussite move¬
ment. He represented a link between Czech and Slovak historiography.
Viteslav Novak became the great authority on Slovak folk music and a
distinguished composer of orchestral music. Altogether Czech and Slovak
bonds in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the early
twentieth were better reflected in political cooperation than in cultural
associations. Yet one was in many ways the premise for the other.12
E. The Czechs
Czech culture, regardless of national objectives, was related to the

over-all Austrian culture because Germans and Czechs had lived so
closely together for many centuries that a kind of osmosis between liter¬
ary, musical, artistic, and scholarly activities resulted. The strong migra¬
tion of Czechs and Germans to Vienna played an additional important
part. The intensified national conflict between the two peoples after the
revolution of 1848 did not impede this cultural interchange, and in some
respects furthered it. The renewed rapid Czech cultural rise beginning
with the Slavic renaissance inspired national objectives. They helped to
further Czech cultural and cultural-political activities which made them
competitive with developments in the German-Austrian orbit. Every
gifted young German from Bohemia or Moravia who moved to German
Austria to make his professional artistic, literary, or scholarly career, bene¬
fited from this twofold, intertwined background. Every Czech, who was
given the opportunity of a professional career in Bohemia or Moravia
profited in the same way from the German cultural heritage which co¬
existed in these lands. As soon as the political and social privileges, on
which it was based, could be successfully challenged, benefits for the
Czechs outweighed previous disadvantages. It might be suggestive to re¬
view Czech and German cultural trends in the Bohemian lands jointly.
It is not done here because most culturally outstanding Sudeten Germans
12 Alexander Adamczyk, in Paul Diels, Die Slawischen Voider (Wiesbaden,

1963), pp. 222-224; Friedrich Prinz, “Die volkskulturellen Grundlagen: b) Die
Slowakei,” in Karl Bosl, ed., Handbuch der Geschichte der bohmischen hander
(Stuttgart, 1969), IV, 287-299; Otto Rade, in Leonid I. Strakhovsky, Handbook of
Slavic Studies (Cambridge, 1949), pp. 494-495; Samuel Czambel, “Die slovakische
Sprache und Literatur,” in [Crownprince Rudolf], Die osterreichisch-ungarische
Monarchic, Vol. Ungarn, V, 443-446.
(the Germans in the lands of the Bohemian crown) moved eventually
into the German-Austrian geographical orbit. For reasons of greater clarity
it is preferable to discuss the Sudeten Germans with the Austro-Germans.
Besides, joint treatment might obscure the individualistic character of
Czech culture. Yet, whether treated jointly or separately, whether ac¬
knowledged or not by the parties concerned, interchange between two
great cultures at the time under discussion was in many ways beneficial.
a) LITERATURE AND PRESS
We will remember that early nineteenth-century Czech literature was

dominated by the work of great linguistic scholars. Because most edu¬
cated Czechs were fully conversant with German development, the belles
lettres in their own language were less articulate. Karel Hynek Macha
(1810-1836), a lyrical poet influenced by Byron’s romanticism, was one
of the earliest widely known Czech writers whose lifework can be
separated from scholarly activities. Yet there were few like him at that
time. The situation changed rapidly in the course of the second half of
the century. Jan Neruda (1834-1891) was a lyric and story writer superior
to Macha and so was the writer of social novels Jakub Arbes. Svatopluk
Cech, who died in 1908, took the subjects of his novels largely from the
dynamic late medieval and reformation history of his people. He did so
in a more critical and in part satirical vein than most contemporary
writers of historical novels, such as Alois Jirasek, whose topics likewise
covered the Hussite period but also that of national oppression in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. More realistic was the work of
Bozena Nemcova (1829-1862) whose peasant novels represented a first
in Czech literature. Nemcova, one of the many significant women writers
in Czech literature, distinguished herself also as collector and editor of
sagas and fairy tales. Of great influence throughout the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century was Jaroslav Vrchlicky (pseudonym for Emil
Frida), 1853-1912, professor of comparative literature at the Czech Uni¬
versity in Prague and life member of the Austrian House of Lords.
Vrchlicky was a lyric and epic poet and writer of tragedies and comedies.
His chief contribution was perhaps the elegance of his language and his
splendid translations into Czech of German, French, and Italian classics.
Otakar Brezina (pseudonym for Vaclav Jebavy, 1868-1929), a lyric of
mystical tendencies, was probably influenced by Nietzsche. He was a
political prose writer and oriented toward realism.
A powerful lyrical poet was Petr Bezruc (1867-1959). His Silesian
songs whose topics were the intertwined social and national problems of a
New Beginnings 535
highly industrialized area, were translated into German by Franz Werfel.

A writer of more pronounced political tendencies was Viktor Dyk who
wrote radical nationalist and social novels. Josef Svatopluk Machar (1864-
1942), a brilliant writer of literary feuilletons and political prose who re¬
sided in Vienna for many years, supplemented Dyk’s work. He later be¬
came inspector general of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia. Karel
Capek (1890-1937), friend and biographer of T. G. Masaryk, was an ex¬
pressionist novelist and an author of highly original social utopian plays.
He shared international fame with Jaroslav Hasek (1883-1923), creator of
the immortal figure of the sly, seemingly naive but actually complex
Czech saboteur soldier Schwejk in the First World War. With all credit
due to Hasek’s outstanding .talent, it is questionable whether the fame of
Schwejk has not spread too far for the good of the Czech national image.
Schwejk represents one trait in the Czech character, that of cunning and
calm composure, which served underground resistance so well during a
long period of oppression. Yet Schwejk does not personify the straight¬
forward and heroic Czech national character.
The previously mentioned greatest journalist of the nation, Karel
Havlicek (1821-1856) is the splendid example of a writer who managed to
either outwit or defy censorship. In the oppressive pre-March period he
made his liberal national views known to his people. Julius Gregr, the
editor of Narodni Listy (Nationalblatt) in the liberal era of the 1860’s
and 1870’s upheld Havlicek’s tradition successfully. Gas (The Times),
founded in 1886 as a weekly and continued as a daily since 1900, repre¬
sented, under T. G. Masaryk’s editorial guidance, the blending of the old
liberalism with the new socially progressive forces.13
b) FINE ARTS
Karel Purkyne (1834-1868), son of a famous physiologist, Jan E.

Purkyne, was a student of Courbet and introduced the strong relation¬
ship to French schools into Czech painting. But in a sense he and his
other teacher, Josef Manes (1820-1871), who had received his training in
Munich, were the last eminent and still traditional nineteenth-century
painters among the Czechs. Antonin Chitussi (1847-1891) and Antonin
Slavicek (1870-1910) were landscape painters; the former was influenced
13 Prinz, “Das kulturelle Leben (1867-1939),” in Karl Bosl, ed., Handbuch der
Geschichte der bohmischen Lander, IV, 213-216; Munch, Bohmische Tragodie, pp.
291-296, 475-486; Eduard Goldstiicker, ed., Weltfreunde: Konjerenz uber die
Prager deutsche Literatur (Berlin, 1967), report by Paul Reimann, pp. 7-31;
Hanus Jelinek, Histoire de la Litterature T'cheque, 3 vols. (Paris, 1933-1935), see II,
113-347, HI, 11-146, 195-242.
by the plain-air Barbizon school, the latter could be considered an im¬
pressionist. Max Svabinsky (1873-1962), likewise originally an impres¬
sionist, became a portraitist and graphic artist. Emil Filla and Rudolf
Kremlicka were influenced by Picasso. The most outstanding artist
among these painters was possibly Jan Zrzavy (1890-1971).
As for sculpture, the last distinguished traditionalist was Vaclav Levy
(1820-1870). The first representative of the modern school was a student
of Manes, Josef Vaclav Myslbek (1848-1922), creator of the St. Wenceslas
equestrian monument in Prague, in more than one way the symbol of
Czech independence. Ladislas Saloun, about two decades younger than
Myslbek, designed the Hus monument in Prague, a work of equal sym¬
bolic significance as Myslbek’s statue but of somewhat controversial artistic
merit. Jan Stursa, somewhat younger than Saloun, and likewise an im¬
pressionist, revealed in his art the influence of Rodin. In general, French
influence on the Czech fine arts is perhaps stronger than that of any other
nation.
The transition from the eclectic pseudo-historical styles to modern art
was particularly rapid. The architects Josef Gocar (1880-1945) and his
contemporary Jan Kotera could already be considered representatives of
functionalism.14
c) MUSIC
It is convincing evidence for the greatness of Czech music that the trio
of Smetana, Dvorak, and Fibich soon found congenial successors. Josef
Suk (1874-1935), Dvorak’s son-in-law, was an inventive and colorful
composer of orchestral and chamber music. Leos Janacek (1874-1935), a
Moravian, composer of the operas Jenufa and The Sly Little Fox, re¬
vealed spiritual relationship to Mussorgskij. At the same time, Janacek
represented the Czech national spirit in his operatic work as well and
clearly as Smetana. Jaromir Weinberger, the composer of Svanda the
Bagpiper, continued the tradition of the national popular opera in a
milieu of national folklore.15
d) SCHOLARSHIP
Czech scholarship which could point to a proud and rich tradition,

benefited from the division of the ancient University of Prague, in 1882,
14 Munch, Bdhmische Tragodie, pp. 470-475; Prinz, “Das Kulturelle Leben
(1867-1939),” in Karl Bosl, ed., Handbuch der Geschichte der bohmischen Lander,
IV, 207-209.
15 Prinz, “Das kulturelle Leben (1867-1939),” in Karl Bosl, ed., Handbuch der
Geschichte der bohmischen Lander, IV, 209-211; Munch, Bdhmische Tragodie,
PP- 495-500-
New Beginnings 537
into Czech and German institutions. The establishment of the Czech

Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1894 had the same effect. Now the or¬
ganizational frame which had heretofore been missing, helped in educat¬
ing a new academic generation. Only a few highlights can be touched
upon here. In historical disciplines the tradition of Palacky’s scholarship
was further expanded. Vaclav Tomek, a student of his and his liberal
colleague at the Reichstag of Vienna, and Kromenz (Kremsier) in 1848—
1849 eventually became a conservative national historian, as shown in his
biography of 2izka and his history of Prague—at the same time a monu¬
mental history of the Bohemian kingdom. His legal political concept was
practically that of the Bohemian Staatsrecht, namely the lands of the
Bohemian crown as separate unit of the Habsburg empire. Anton
Gindely, his colleague, the historian of the Counter-Reformation in
Bohemia and of the Thirty Years’ War, may be considered as the most
Austrian, the most supranational of the Czech historians. His sovereign
command of sources was not entirely matched by originality of thought
and stimulating presentation. Josef Kalousek, twenty years younger than
Tomek and about ten years younger than Gindely, was the distinguished
biographer of the great Luxembourg ruler Charles IV, but also a too un¬
critical defender of tradition in the dispute about the authenticity of the
Kralovedvorsky (Koniginhof) and Zelenohorsky (Griineberg) manuscripts.
A historian of greater scholarship was Jaroslav Goll (1846-1929) who
studied the organization of the Bohemian Brethren church structure and
the diplomatic aspects of the Thirty Years’ War in relation to Bohemia.
Goll who had close ties to German and Austro-German historians was
the first fully modern Czech historian. The second of equal distinction
was Josef Pekar (1870-1937), whose work on Zizka superseded that of
Tomek as much as his study on Wallenstein that of the Austro-German
historian Srbik.
Among many distinguished scholars in the humanities and social sci¬
ences too numerous to mention here, the orientalist and linguist Bedrich
Hrozny (1879-1952) proved the Indo-German origin of cuniform writ¬
ings. H. Jirecek (1829-1909) was an authority on Slavic legal history, and
the Moravian professor of criminal law, Frantisek Weyr, was one of the
first who fully comprehended and promoted the significance of Hans
Kelsen’s pure theory of law. T. G. Masaryk should also be mentioned
here as social philosopher, although his great scholarly contribution to the
understanding of Russian intellectual history is overshadowed by his
political fame. In the sciences, Czech progress, introduced by the physiol¬
ogist Jan E. Purkyne in the first half of the 19th century, was as great as
in the other fields of knowledge. But the breakthrough to world attention
53# History of the Hahsburg Empire
came only after the First World War when the financial resources of the
Czech University in Prague were no longer those of an Austrian provin¬
cial institution.16
The great Czech influence on Austrian culture is one of the strongest

factors which injects into achievements of the Austro-German orbit some
fertile traits different from those of purely German culture. Yet, in regard
to Czech culture, much as it was to prosper later, the year 1918 repre¬
sented the end of an age. The unique interrelationship between Czech,
German, and German-Jewish culture declined in the different setting of
the new state in which the primacy of Czech culture was firmly estab¬
lished. With the end of the interwar period, this interrelationship ceased.
After 1918 a new broadening and deepening of an ancient civilization
was on the rise in the Bohemian lands. Yet a unique brand of multina¬
tional culture of high and strong achievements was on the way out.
F. The Magyars
Much that has been said about the Czechs is also true for the Magyars.
There was a strong cultural relationship between the Hungarian and
the Austrian orbit in general. This meant in particular a sizable move¬
ment of the intelligentsia and of artists from Budapest to Vienna. Yet the
Magyars who moved to the West in the second half of the nineteenth
century were not to the same degree indoctrinated with German culture
as the Czechs. On the other hand, there was less friction between indi¬
vidual Germans and Magyars than between Czechs and Germans. The
conflicting issues between Czechs and Germans were national problems,
which touched closely upon the feelings of the individuals, those between
Magyars and Germans in essence problems of state-craft, which did not
affect individuals as closely as national problems.
a) LITERATURE AND PRESS
Jokai was followed by a brief period of relative stagnation in Magyar

literature. Geza Gardonyi (1863-1922), an author of historical and peasant
novels and stories filled this void with some other authors of lesser rank.
Ferenc Herczeg (1863-1954), editor of the literary periodical t)j Idd\
(New Times) a neoromantic writer of original historical novels and
16Jelinek, Histoire de la Litterature T'cheque, III, 245-330; Munch, Bohmische

Tragodie, pp. 488-492; Prinz, in Karl BosI, ed., Handbuch, IV, 188-195; Richard G.
Plaschka, Von Palac\y bis Pe\ar (Graz-Cologne, 1955), pp. 27-90; Erna Lesky,
Pur\ynes Weg, Wissenschajt, Bildung und Nation (Vienna, 1970), passim.
New Beginnings 539
stories, represents the transition to the modern spirit in a conservative

Catholic way. In his time he was respected as a favorite author of high
society. Ferenc Molnar (1878-1952) who went into exile during the
Second World War is more difficult to place. Many playwrights and
critics who see evidence of genius in the fact that they themselves are un¬
able to draw characters true to life, to hold the attention of the audience
with their dialogue, or to write clear prose, look down on Molnar’s un¬
heard-of success, who excelled in all these respects. Accordingily, his
amusing and witty plays were considered second-rate entertainment litera¬
ture. Yet after his death even critics had to recognize what the general
public had felt all along, that the creator of the character of the gangster
Liliom, of the play The Swan, of the children’s novel The hoys of St.
Paul's Street was a truly modern poet of the first rank.
Still it could be held that Molnar spent as great a part of his life in
Viennese coffeehouses as in those of Budapest and that he was just as
much at home in Paris and later seemingly (but not actually) in New
York. In that sense he may be called a great writer, but a typical Magyar
writer only with qualifications. In this respect, Endres Ady (1877-1919),
rates first in modern Magyar literature. This scion of the gentry, who was
a chief contributor to the new literary journal Nyugat (West) was a
radical, influenced by contemporary thought on Marxism and psycho¬
analysis, and in a literary sense by French impressionism. Ady, who
spent some years of his youth in Paris, was impressed by the lyrics of
Rimbaud, Baudelaire, and Verlaine. But in his collections of poetry New
Poems 1906 and Blood and Gold 1908 he remained independent. The
same is true for his impressive later epics. Ady can be classified neither
as impressionist nor as expressionist. If he had lived to an old age he
would probably have been called an existentialist, because his fear of
life and infatuation with death became increasingly demanding. In an¬
other way it is difficult to conceive that a genius like Ady would not have
changed his philosophy if he had survived the two world wars. Mihaly
Babits as the editor of Nyugat, a friend and colleague of Ady, was more
versatile, though less grandiose. Equally distinguished as lyrical poet, play¬
wright, and author of novels and stories, he died like Ady as a young
man. Yet while Ady was perhaps wrongly associated by the public with
the Left, Babits, whose symbolism was difficult to understand, was at¬
tacked by Right and Left alike.
Easier to comprehend were the numerous novels and stories by Zsig-
mond Mdricz (1879-1942) which represented the various conflicts in
Hungarian society. Moricz was one of the few, who frankly discussed
54<o History of the Habsburg Empire
the problem of anti-Semitism. Dezso Kostolanyi (1885-1936) was the
most conservative representative of the new generation; he could be con¬
sidered a distinct impressionist at a time when impressionism had passed
its zenith. As individualist and l’art pour l’art aesthete this eminent poet
and writer of psychological novels had little use for the revolutionary
lyrics of Ady.
A few remarks may be added here about the press in Hungary, a coun¬
try, whose urban society and particularly urban intellectuals consisted
largely of avid newspaper readers. An evil institution taken over from the
West was the boulevard journalism represented by Az Est, (The Even¬
ing), whereas Pesti Hirlap (Budapest Journal), possibly the most in¬
fluential paper in Budapest, stood for middle-class liberalism, anticlerical¬
ism, and largely chauvinism as well. After 1900 the official socialist paper
Nepszava (voice of the people) became a daily, that did much to promote
a Marxian program. The novel approach of this journal also interested
non-Marxian intellectuals. Altogether Magyar Hungary had many bril¬
liant journalists with linguistic gifts in several western languages. Some
journalists who went into exile after the accession to power by the Horthy
regime distinguished themselves subsequently as journalists in Austria,
Germany, France, and the United States. Standards of journalistic integ¬
rity in Hungary were not always commensurate to the journalistic talents
of Magyar writers.17
b) FINE ARTS
In painting, Miklos Barabas (1810-1896) represented the neoclassicism

of the old school, Mihaly Zichy (1827-1896) neoromanticism. Victor
Madarasz’s art revealed French romantic influence and Gyula Benczur
stood still for the large-scale traditional paintings of historical topics
from national history. The same was true of Mihaly von Munkacsy
(1844-1890) some of whose paintings revealed the spirit of early im¬
pressionism. Fiilop Laszlo (1869-1937) was a portraitist of high society
in western Europe before the First World War.
17 Tibor Klaniczay, Jozsef Szander, Miklos Szabolcsi, Geschichte der ungarischen

Literatur (Budapest, 1963), pp. 152-215; Johann H. Schwicker, Geschichte der
ungarischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1888), pp. 833-927; Josef Remenyi, Hungarian
Writers and Literature (New Brunswick, N.J., 1964), pp. 146-370; Antal Siviasky,
Die ungarische Literatur der Gegenwart (Bern, 1962), pp. 13-47; Zoltan Horvath,
Die Jahrhundertwende in Ungarn: Geschichte der zweiten Reform-generation
(1896-1914) (Neuwied, 1966), pp. 176-203, 267-283, 373-412; on the press, ibid.,
pp. 302-715. Andritsch, Ungarische Geisteswelt, pp. 245-273; William O. McCagg,
Jewish Nobles and Geniuses in Modern Hungary (New York, 1972), pp. 71-74;
see also for background reading William M. Johnston, The Austrian Mind: An In¬
tellectual and Social History 1848-1938 (Berkeley, 1972), pp. 335-350.
New Beginnings 541
The first painter of the modern impressionist school was Pal Szinyei
Merse (1845-1920). Karoly Ferenczy, who was influenced by the French
Barbizon school and particularly Jozsef Rippl-Ronai in his early work,
were other characteristic representatives of the modern school, Rippl-
Ronai of the then ultra modern Secession. Most of these modern painters
were still influenced by the Magyar equivalent of the French Barbizon
school, that of Nagybanya.
In sculpture the traditionalists were longer in control. Istvan Ferenczy
(1792-1856) was a student of the neoclassicism of Canova and Thor-
waldsen. Miklos Izso (1831-1875) created true-to-life portrait plastics
in the traditional style. Only Janos Fadrusz’ (1858-1903) art introduced
a transitional stage to the modern spirit. Fiilop O. Berk (1873-1945)
represented it in full.
Hungary's architecture had a full share of the eclectic pseudo-historical
styles of the nineteenth century. Frigyes Fresl (1821-1884) stood for
neoromantic motives, Miklos Ybl for the neo-Renaissance, while Imre
von Steindle, the architect of the monumental, somewhat pompous,
Hungarian parliament, combined Gothic and Renaissance features in
his work. Odon Lechner (1845-1914), however, became an interesting
representative of a modern style. He worked for a compromise between
the secessionist trend in the fine arts with the designs of historic Hun¬
garian folk art.18
c) MUSIC
Czech, German, and Magyar music in their great achievements reveal

mutual influence. Combined they represent the essence of musical heritage
developed in the Habsburg empire and transmitted from there to the
world. The specific Magyar contribution rests primarily in the blending
of modern with folk- including gipsy music. Ernst v. Dohnanyi (1877-
1960) and Jeno Hubay (1858-1937) were composers of traditional opera
and symphonic music. Both, and this is characteristic for Magyar music,
were practizing artists also, Dohnanyi as pianist and Hubay as violinist.
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) creatively injected the themes of old folk
tunes into modern music. He was also a musicologist of rank. Zoltan
Kodaly (1882-1967), for nearly a generation the great old man of Magyar
music, was the composer of choral work, a sophisticated brief opera and
symphonic music. His Psalm us Hungaricus like Bartok’s Kossuth sym¬
phony was a landmark of a new style. Bartok and Kodaly were the out¬
standing composers in contemporary music who raised cliche concepts of
18Lajos Nemeth in Ungarn (Budapest, 1966), pp. 371-380; Horvath, Die
Jahrhundertwende, pp. 217-223, 425-433.
5^2 History of the Habshurg Empire
pseudo-romantic folk music and standard patterns of national music to
new emotional and intellectual levels.
One should also mention the Magyar contribution to the operetta. The
two best known names of the light muse were Imre Kalman, composer
of the Czardas Princess and Franz Lehar of the Merry Widow. The
center of gravity, however, of the musical activities of these two more
gifted than distinguished musicians was Vienna-rather than Budapest.
Finally it should be noted that one of the most outstanding German con¬
ductors, Arthur Nikisch, and the Bohemian-born Austrian composer
Gustav Mahler, were both consecutively directors of the excellent Hun¬
garian national opera house in Budapest. All things considered, Magyar
music beginning with the second half of the nineteenth century, gave as
much to Czech and German musical developments as it received from
their music.19 *
d) SCHOLARSHIP
Humanities and Social Sciences
In the humanities one might mention first two great literary critics.
Georg Lukacs (1885-1971) was an independent neo-Marxist philosopher,
equally conversant in the field of philosophy and literature. Most of his
internationally known, though often controversial work was done after
the First World War and therefore has to remain outside of this discus¬
sion. Yet his penetrating study on the evolution of the modern drama
was published in 1911, and his equally interesting work on the theory
of the novel, though published only after the war, was largely completed
by 1918. Baron Lajos Hatvany (1860-1961), the scion and black sheep of
a wealthy Magyar industrialist family of Jewish background, who was
forced to spend much of his life in exile, was a literary critic, essayist, and
writer of sophisticated and entertaining novels dealing with the problems
of Jewish assimilation in prewar Hungary.
Armin Vambery (1832-1913) became a famous Turkologist of inter¬
national reputation. Gustav Beksics (1847-1906), a distinguished liberal
historian, was primarily interested in Hungarian constitutional and na¬
tional problems. Henrik Marczali (1856-1910) was likewise an authority
on Hungarian constitutional history and on the enlightened era. Two
representative late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Magyar historians
19 Andras Pernye in Ungarn, pp. 390-399; Horvath, Die Jahrhundertwende, pp.
204-216, 413-424; Stefan Borsody, “Modern Hungarian Historiography,” Journal
of Modern History, XXIV:i5 (1952), 398-405; Andritsch, Ungarische Geisteswelt,
pp. 273-281.
New Beginnings 543
were Gyula Szekfii (1883-1955) and Balint Homan (1885-1951). Szekfii

was a versatile, though not very consistent Magyar historian, who vacil¬
lated according to the spirit of the times between Right and Left. Still,
his work on state and nation, his biographies of the younger Rakoczi in
exile and of Gabriel Bethlen, and his The State of Hungary, were speci¬
mens of outstanding scholarship as was his share in the five-volume work
History of Hungary written by him and Homan. Homan, the great Hun¬
garian medievalist, wrote the two first volumes of this monumental work.
Convicted for his pro-German policy as minister of education during the
early part of the Second World War, he died in prison. Characteristic for
Hungarian historiography, as indeed for Hungarian history in general, is
the emphasis put on institutional and particularly constitutional problems.
The Hungarian contribution to sociology was focused largely on the
nationality problem. Oscar Jaszi (1875-1957), minister of nationalities
in the Karolyi administration 1918-1919 is usually considered as a social
historian if judged by his contributions to the analysis of the Habsburg
empire and the Hungarian revolutions of 1918-1919. Yet his studies on
nationalism, published before the First World War in Hungary and not
yet translated into a western language, characterize him primarily as so¬
ciologist. An original sociological thinker along biological lines was
Bodog Somlo (1873-1920). A philosophy of law, strongly influenced by
Spencer’s positivist sociology, owes much to Gyula Pikler (1864-1934).
The greatest sociologist and social philosopher of Magyar origin was
Karl Mannheim (1893-1947), student of Max Weber. Mannheim’s Ideol¬
ogy and Utopia owed much to his early education in Hungary, although
he never held a chair at a Hungarian university because scholars found a
better sounding board in the west than in the narrow Magyar-language
orbit of Hungary. The migration of Hungarian scholars to the west,
however, was also in part the result of Hungarian national chauvinism,
anti-Semitism, and beginning with the March revolution of 1919 to this
day the totalitarian influences from the Right and Left.20
Sciences
Ignac Semmelweiss (1818-1865), w^° sPent best Part his Pro'

fessional career in Vienna, is credited with the momentous introduction
of antiseptics into obstetrics, an invention which he could put through
only against enormous odds of the prejudices and hurt vanities of his
20 Horvath, Die Jahrhundertwende, pp. 86-104; Johnston, The Austrian Mind,

pp. 365-379; McCagg, Jewish Nobles and Geniuses, pp. 102-112, 142-148.
colleagues. Anyos Jedlick (1800-1885) made an original contribution to
electrophysics and Joszef Petzval (1807-91), in his later life professor in
Vienna, was a pioneer in photographic optics. Lorand Eotvos, president of
the highly reputed Hungarian Academy and minister of education from
1894 to 1895, was an eminent scientist in the field of geophysics. The com¬
manding position in physics which issued from Hungary into the world
was yet to come. Endree Hogyes (1847-1906) became a famous neurolo¬
gist. Hungarian contributions to science are richer during the period un¬
der discussion than those of the Czechs who were their equals in other
fields. Hungary’s position within the dualistic system provided particu¬
larly the university in Budapest with means comparable only to those
offered to the University of Vienna. Just the same, decentralization of in¬
stitutions of high learning in the Habsburg empire, as far as it went, en¬
riched cultural progress.21
Altogether Magyar cultural achievements, because of the ethnic isola¬
tion of the nation, had greater difficulties in breaching the language bar¬
rier than even the small Slavic national groups with their interrelated
languages. Yet greater challenges led also to greater stimuli. None of
the peoples under Habsburg rule has succeeded to a wider degree in in¬
jecting its major cultural attainments in the western languages to the
world across its borders. In doing so—and this is the second most remark¬
able fact—the nation has fully preserved its national identity. The reasons
are as apparent in the cultural field as in any other: Magyars have always
considered this national identity as the most precious treasure of their
stormy history.
G. The Austro-German orbit
This subheading differs in character from the preceding ones, which re¬
fer to national groups but coincides with the one selected in Chapter VII.
It has been chosen after some deliberation. In the center of the empire we
have to deal with actions on two levels. First Austro-German cultural con¬
tributions and, of equal importance, but not identical though largely over¬
lapping, cultural contributions within the Austro-German geographical
and social orbit. It should be reemphasized that the following survey can
offer only a highly selective picture, in which individuals will be sometimes
referred to for the sake of illustrating a trend rather than because they
were necessarily the greatest in their field of activity.
21 Helen Antal, Ungarn (Budapest, 1966), pp. 261-263.
New Beginnings 545
a) LITERATURE, PRESS, THEATER
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916), the daughter of a Moravian

aristocrat family, is generally reputed to be Austria’s greatest woman poet.
The setting of her novels is largely that of her Moravian homeland. Fre¬
quently the aristocracy residing on their country estates and so well
known to her by origin and environment, plays an important part in her
writings. Yet usually the peasants, not the nobles are the heroes. A strong
feeling for social justice permeates Ebner-Eschenbach’s work. She fre¬
quently portrays the Moravian peasant as Peter Rosegger (1843-1918) does
the Styrian peasant. The social outlook of both writers is thus similar,
although their social origin was vastly different. Rosegger was the son of the
poorest type of mountain peasants and wrote on the basis of experience
gained by an outlook from below, where Ebner-Eschenbach was primarily
motivated by social injustices observed from above. Both share a similar
social philosophy, with the difference, however, that a sprinkling of Ger¬
man nationalism in Rosegger’s writings is alien to Ebner-Eschenbach.
The Tyrolian physician Dr. Karl Schonherr (1869-1943) was one of the
most gifted dramatists of the period. His peasant characters as well as the
intellectuals, frequently taken from his own medical profession, are
sketched in a simplified but in his best works monumental realism tending
toward expressionism. The modern impressionist and later expressionist
age in Austrian literature is represented by the Viennese Arthur Schnitzler
(1862-1931), Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929), Richard Beer-Hof-
mann (1866-1945), and Peter Altenberg (1859-1919, original name Rich¬
ard Englander). Schnitzler, the oldest of them, was only fifteen years
older than Hofmannsthal, the youngest. The best known today is still
undoubtedly Schnitzler, a physician, son of a Jewish academic upper mid¬
dle class family in Vienna. Schnitzler is known today primarily on ac¬
count of his plays and here in part because of the erotic but never coarse
tinge in some of them. His outstanding prose, particularly his novellas, are
not as well remembered as they should be. Schnitzler is the prototype of
the apolitical, but by no means kart pour l’art writer. His topics are the
basic conflicts of men through the ages, love, death, reality, dream. Social
questions are not ignored, but are presented as personal, not as gen¬
eral problems. His philosophy of life in several ways influenced by his
great contemporary, Sigmund Freud. Though the setting of Schnitzler’s
plays is frequently the educated Austrian upper burgher class, this does
not mean that Schnitzler wanted to be identified with it. His themes of
lasting human significance—and that keeps his oeuvre alive—were illus-
trated by the conflicts within the class of people Schnitzler knew best.
Essentially they are human throughout. Richard Beer-Hofmann was closer
to problems alien to Schnitzler, the relation between individual and nation,
man and God. His work, small in volume with emphatic attention to im¬
maculate form, was largely focused on the problems of the Jew from
biblical history to his own age. Hugo von Hofmannsthal shares with his
friends the great concern for a noble and purified prose. A cultured man
with sensitivity pertaining to all major themes of world literature, he was
not particularly original but an outstanding connoisseur and editor of
classical works. He was also the author of noble, though somewhat aca¬
demic essays and of a sensitive lyric. Hofmannsthal’s ability to understand
the work of others made him the congenial writer of the texts of Richard
Strauss’s most famous operas. It would be inappropriate to call these texts
mere librettos. Peter Altenberg was the typical member of the Boheme in
his daily life; his field was the small but carefully written sketch of daily
impressions. He was the most impressionist of these four great writers and
the only one who stayed with this trend to the end of his life.
Anton Wildgans (i 181-1931), author of dramas, epics, and lyrics,
though almost within the age group of the others, outgrew impressionist
tendencies. An artist of great emotional power he came close to expres¬
sionism. Wildgans’ work is marred to some extent by jingo patriotism at
the beginning of the First World War and a tendency to work himself
into extreme passion. Still, with some of his lyrics and some of his prose
more than with his dramatic work, he belonged to the notable writers of
his day. The same cannot be said for the versatile talents of a Her¬
mann Bahr who has to be mentioned here chiefly because of his vacillating
position between various trends in literary history. From naturalism to
impressionism, expressionism, and symbolism, he represented all styles in
his plays and prose work. In politics he navigated with skill between so¬
cialism, liberalism, radical nationalism, and finally devout Catholicism.
Richard von Schaukal (1874-1942), who moved from Briinn (Brno) to
Vienna, was an essayist, but primarily a lyric who upheld traditional con¬
servative and religious values. Georg Trakl (1887-1914), wrote pessimistic
poetry, which reveals extraordinary powers of vision and formal beauty.
He ended his life through suicide. The highly gifted Franz Werfel (1880-
1945) from Prague belongs in this context only with the expressionist
works of his radical youth. The novels which made him famous were writ¬
ten after 1918. The critic and prose writer Karl Kraus (1874-1936), ac¬
cording to his self-description, was the servant of the word, the foe of
shoddy journalism. It was his interesting theory that extreme care in culti-
New Beginnings 547
vation o£ a clear and fully correct language determines in a decisive way

the course of human relations. Whether Kraus’ own style complied fully
with his stiff demands remains, however, debatable. Kraus, for more than
thirty years editor and eventually the only contributor to the journal
Die Fac\el (The Torch) was a highly aggressive personality, in perma¬
nent conflict with Austrian journalism and most of his fellow writers. In¬
asmuch as he too moved through various political strata, by and large from
the Left to the Right, it was not hard for him to find opponents and it was
even easier to pick quarrels with smooth and insincere writers. Though
Kraus’s cantankerous and morbidly vain character left much to be de¬
sired, he had outstanding merits in much of his prose and to some extent
as eminent lyric. Whatever may rightly be said against his character and
excessive introvert disposition, his passionate protest against the First
World War, expressed in his monumental drama The Last Days of Man¬
kind, is a work of genius and intellectual courage.
Here may be the appropriate place to refer to two writers, originally
from Prague, whose place is easier to establish in world literature than in
relation to German-Austrian letters. Rainer (Rene) Maria Rilke (1875-
1926) led a restless life, impeded further by his poor health and his fragile
nervous system. He could work only intermittently, but his lyrics are
considered by many in the western world as the greatest to have originated
on Austrian soil. His sonets and elegies reveal strong romantic and panthe¬
istic tendencies. The fear of life and death, seemingly overcome in his last
works, leads frequently to his evaluation as early existentialist. His impact
on world literature is greater than that of any other Austrian lyric before
and after him.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) shares with Rilke a fame abroad unsurpassed
by any other writer in modern Austrian literature. Yet although his stories
and later novels represent, according to many, expressionist abstractions as
their main characteristic, a certain realism, as shown in Kafka’s impres¬
sions of the Prague of his youth in its mystical-gloomy attraction, is more
obvious in his writings than in Rilke’s. They both share the great fear of
death, and the urge for salvation. Symbolism plays a predominant role
in Kafka’s almost magically powerful prose in its mixture of reason and
phantasmagories.22
22 Johann W. Nagl, Jakob Zeidler and Eduard Castle, Deutsch-dsterreichische
Literaturgeschichte (Vienna, 1899-1937), IV, 833-866, 1355-1358, 2119-2120; Josef
Nadler, Liter aturgeschichte Osterreichs (Linz, 1948), pp. 356-480; Claudio Magris,
Der habsburgische Mythos in der osterreichischen Lteratur (Salzburg, 1966); Allan
Janik and Stephen Toulmin, Wittgenstein’s Vienna (New York, 1973), pp. 33-91;
Johnston, The Austrian Mind, pp. 357-361.
As for the press so bitterly attacked by Kraus, the three leading German-
Austrian dailies by the end of the nineteenth century were the Neue Freie
Presse the Socialist Arbeiter-Zeitung, and the Catholic Reichspost. The
Neue Freie Presse had the smallest popular support and the widest recog¬
nition among the intelligentsia and the well-to-do classes in the country
and abroad. It was German-liberal in an economic, anticlerical sense, capi¬
talistic, and strongly dynastic. What gave the paper-added appeal was the
roster of excellent literary writers and occasional contributors from the
highest ranks of government. A staff member was the founder of Zionism,
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) who, however, was forbidden to promote his
cause in the paper because it offended the feelings of the assimilatory Jew¬
ish bourgeoisie, represented by the editor in chief, Moritz Benedikt. The
Arbeiter-Zeitung, edited by Victor Adler, the leader of the party, and
Friedrich Austerlitz, a brilliant young journalist, conducted a brave fight
against social injustice. Considering the fact that the means at the disposal
of the paper were limited, the intellectual level of its simple, lucid, but
never banal discussions of complex social problem was as noteworthy as
the devotion to the cause of workers’ education in general. The Reichspost,
under the management of Friedrich Funder was strictly pro-Austrian
in a so-called black-yellow, anti-Magyar? anti-German-nationalist sense.
To leave no doubt that this latter position did not imply any conciliation
with liberalism, the devout clerical paper was, in Lueger’s spirit, strongly
anti-Semitic. The German nationalist press, because of poor political orga¬
nization, was represented only by numerous dailies and weeklies of rela¬
tively small circulation. Their cumulative influence was nevertheless con¬
siderable.23
Of the Viennese theaters, the Opera reached the summit of its achieve¬
ments in the late nineteenth and early new century under the musical leader¬
ship of Gustav Mahler. The other state theater, the Burgtheater, founded
by Joseph II as National Theater in 1776 but actually operated as imperial
court theater, had its most glorious era behind it by this time. When the
performances were still given in the modest old house, the so-called Old
Burgtheater under the management of Heinrich Laube (from 1849—
1867), a former Young German radical, they were unexcelled in the
whole German language orbit. After Laube, under Franz von Dingel-
23 Kurt Paupie, Handbuch der osterreichischen Pressegeschichte 1848-ig^g, 2 vols.

(Vienna, 1961-1966); Adam Wandruszka, Geschichte einer Zeitung: Das Schic\sal
der ‘Presse’ und ‘Neuen Freien Presse’ (Vienna, 1958); Janik and Toulmin,
Wittgenstein’s Vienna, pp. 77-81.
New Beginnings 549
stedt, director from 1872 to 1881, the theater still maintained its high
reputation and improved it, in fact, in regard to scenery and costumes. To
Laube, who had focused his attention exclusively on the spoken word, the
external aspects of the stage had meant little. When the Burgtheater
moved into a huge, richly decorated new palace in 1888, the cultivation of
the spoken word on the stage, whether prose or verse, declined. Moreover,
the theater remained out of tune with literary developments, a factor
more widely resented in the age of new mass education than previously.
Dr. Max Burkhardt, a new manager, tried to improve matters in this re¬
spect in the 1890’$ and introduced the plays of Ibsen and Gerhart Haupt¬
mann to the stage of the court theater. In essence he fought a losing battle.
The master of the imperial household, the supreme chief of the theater,
insisted that the theater and its repertoire must always be kept within the
bounds of the imperial-royal tradition. Revolutionary changes and experi¬
ments, therefore, ought be banned from this hallowed ground. The Burg¬
theater as court theater always retained a respectable level of quality but
while it could never claim literary leadership it lost its primacy in theatri¬
cal techniques as well. The Deutsches Volkstheater, opened in 1889 under
private management, was expected to be unimpeded by courtly etiquette
which plagued the Burgtheater. The new theater was to cultivate modern
plays and popular Austrian dramatic literature. It succeeded to some ex¬
tent but never gained the prestige that the Burgtheater had in the era of
Laube as the model for excellent standards of performance and as the
school of graceful living for aristocracy and upper burgher class. New
theaters, some more radical than the Volkstheater and some more ready
to cater in their offerings to a popular preference for the operetta, were
established. But the leadership in offerings of plays of literary interest and
new experimental stage techniques by the turn of the century had passed
on to Berlin.
Austrian impressionism in literature had established patterns to be fol¬
lowed widely in western literature, as had the Austrian stage before the
last quarter of the nineteenth century in the German orbit.24
b) FINE ARTS
The most celebrated painter of the 1870’$ and i88o’s was Hans Makart
(1840-1884). He was much admired for his presentation of female beauty
in the manner of Rubens, partly in the setting of semi-historical, huge
24 Joseph Gregor, Geschichte des osterreichischen Theaters (Vienna, 1948), pp.
196-253; Rudolf Lothar, Das Wiener Burgtheater (Vienna, 1899), pp. 124-203.
compositions, partly in sensual female portraits in a pseudo-Greek frame.

Colorful, highly decorative, but somewhat sloppy in his drawings and his
technique of painting which made his shining colors fade after a few
years, Makart was a symbol for the eclectic and essentially superficial
make-believe taste of the period. Hans Canon (1829-1885) followed the
same pseudo-historical and pseudo-allegorical but not equally sensual
pattern. A greater though less ostentatious artist was Anton Romako (1834—
1889) whose landscapes herald future expressionism. The work of the
woman landscape painter Tina Blau (1845-1916) was more clearly
impressionistic. Her and Romako’s equal was Rudolf von Alt (1812-
1905) likewise a painter of landscapes and also of picturesque city views,
who started out in the manner of the eighteen-century Venetian artists,
the Canalettos, and ended his long life as adherent of the plain-air school.
Alt in his old age represented a transitional stage to the modern school.
Its foremost representative and one of the most gifted artists on Austrian
soil, whose fame has been revived in recent years, was Gustav Klimt
(1867-1918). A founder of the new modern school, represented by the
Sezession, Klimt’s highly original combination of a simplified realism
with an ornamental style and a brilliant sense of color gave to his com¬
position of portraits but also allegorical subjects a more genuine sensuality
than the showy art of Makart. Egon Schiele (1890-1918) followed the
pattern of Klimt. His style is less ornamental and more expressionist than
that of his master. The third outstanding representative of the modern
school, definitely expressionist in his portraits and grand compositions, was
Oskar Kokoschka (1886- ) an artist equally impressive as painter and
writer. His art too, like that of Klimt, had considerable influence beyond
the Austrian borders.
Sculpture in Austria was more strongly associated with the traditional
than painting. Anton Fernkorn (1813-1888) was the creator of two great
equestrian statues (Archduke Charles and the more monumental Prince
Eugen of Savoy) in the big outer courtyard of the Hofburg in Vienna.
Kaspar von Zumbusch (1830-1915) created the biggest, but certainly not
most beautiful monument on Austrian soil, that of Maria Therera in Vi¬
enna. The statue of the empress is surrounded by a host of oversize statues of
her advisors and generals, some of them on horseback. Decorative and
monumental in character it is what time and place primarily asked for. The
later nineteenth and early twentieth century artists Viktor Tilgner (sculp¬
tor of the elegant Mozart monument) and Hans Bitterlich (monument of
Empress Elisabeth) deviated from the monumental pseudo-naturalistic
style to a more pleasing simpler one, Edmund Hellmer followed this trend
New Beginnings 55/
with the Goethe monument and the memorial to the liberation from the
Turks in St. Stephan’s cathedral.25
Most characteristic of all branches of fine art of a period is usually archi¬
tecture. This can be understood by the fact, that the architect, due to the
costs of his works in skilled labor and money, is more dependent on pub¬
lic or private support than the painter and—to some degree—the sculptor.
He is therefore bound to make more concessions to the wishes of his
sponsors than other artists. It means further that his work is more closely
linked to the social conditions of time and place than theirs.
The great architects of the second half of the nineteenth century were
the designers of what is frequently referred to as Ringstrassenarchite\tur.
That means the eclectic, pseudo-historical styles of the new monumental
boulevard encircling the inner city of a Vienna, that was on its way to
becoming now a great city, not only as previously by tradition but also by
population figures. The Ringstrasse represents the power of the imperial
House, that of the rising new industrial and financial bourgeoisie, but
above all the will to represent or make believe greatness. At the same time
this architecture of the Griinder period that exploded in part in the big
crash of 1873 did not lack taste and the artistic sensibility inherent in the
talents of the German-Austrian people. The new architecture offered an
interesting compromise.
The best work of the period was also one of its earliest, the Opera house
in Italian Renaissance style, erected in the 1860’s by Eduard Van der Null
and August von Siccardsburg. Public criticism of this noble building in a
rich but not yet lavish setting drove Van der Null to suicide and Siccards¬
burg to an untimely death due to nervous exhaustion a few weeks later.
Gradually the Viennese became used to the new blending of historical
styles by the so-called three great building barons, the Dane Theophil von
Hansen, the German Friedrich von Schmidt, and the Austrian Heinrich
von Ferstel. Hansen, perhaps the most gifted of the three, was attracted by
classical Greek designs, which he blended with Renaissance motives in the
palaces of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, the Musical Association
(Musi\yereinsgebaude), the stock exchange, and several apartment houses.
All these buildings, though not quite in line with modern taste, were
commodious, monumental, and dignified. A misconception, however, was
his main work the House of Parliament, the most “Greek” of his works,
not because it was unattractive in itself, but because it did not fit in the
surroundings—a Greek temple in a Baroque city. Schmidt, though a lesser
25 Destroyed during World War II. His subsequent Johann Strauss monument
was a relapse to previous pseudo-naturalistic tastelessness.
artist than Hansen, did better with the city hall, which combined Renais¬
sance and Gothic features and did not look nearly as strange in its more
spacious surroundings than the Parthenon-like parliament. Ferstel was the
designer of the pseudo-Gothic Votiv Church, also an early work of the
period. As all-too-faithful, all-too-regular replica of late medieval French
cathedrals, this in many ways commendable work reveals artificial sweet¬
ness which its great models lack. Ferstel was also the designer of the main
building of the University in Italian Renaissance style and here some of
the failings of the Ringstrassen architecture came glaringly into the open.
An inordinate part of the space available was used for two monumental
staircases, while many lecture halls and offices are inadequate. According
to a sarcastic joke which contained a good deal of truth, the university was
built for the opening ceremonies by the emperor and not for faculty and
students. What was true for the university was doubly true for the new
Burgtheater and the two imperial museum buildings. In both instances
a fourth building baron, Karl von Hasenauer (1833-1894), an epigone to
the other three, had botched the noble original plans of the brilliant Saxon
architect Gottfried Semper. The Burgtheater is not only richly but over-
lavishly decorated, but when it was opened one could not see the stage well
from most seats. An expensive partial rebuilding was necessary which,
however, could not remedy fully the basic deficiencies to this day.
Even more inappropriate was the distortion of Semper’s plans by
Hasenauer for the buildings of the imperial museums. The domes are
discordant with the basic designs, the vestibules and staircases overdeco¬
rated. In the Museum of Fine Arts, lavishly ornamented and guilded high
exhibition halls smother the objects shown there. These last epigone
Ringstrassen buildings reveal an architecture in decay, which in its begin¬
nings and at its height had great merits. Yet these merits pertained chiefly
to the palaces of the inner city. The main shortcomings of the Ringstrassen
style rested in the fact, that it was indiscriminately copied in the apartment
buildings for the poor, the so-called “rent barracks”, (Zins\asernen)
where plaster took the place of stone and marble, and the money spent
on superfluous and ugly decorations in cheap material was taken from
the funds which should have been spent on lacking essentials.
Otto Wagner (1841-1918), one of the early members of the Sezession
(the symbol of a new style evolving around the turn of the century)
broke finally with the eclectiv pseudo-classical pattern. His architecture,
as shown in several churches, private and public buildings, present a curi¬
ous and sometimes startling blending of an incipient functionalism with
simplified historical motives. The results are in his best works outstanding,
New Beginnings 553
in others still notable. But this is typical for the pioneer artist. Two of his
students, Joseph Olbrich, designer of the Sezession’s exhibition building,
and Josef Hoffmann, were on the way to a more complete functionalism.
Its full-fledged representative was Adolf Loos from Moravia (1870-1933)
who abandoned the ornament and make-believe decorations in architec¬
ture completely and designed the so-called House without Eyebrows, that
is, without window ornaments. According to contemporary critics, its
vicinity to the imperial castle (the Hofburg) made it a petrified crimen
laesae majestatis. Adolf Loos, like Kokoschka also a brilliant writer, pro¬
moted his ideas in essays on various aspects of esthetics. They still make
interesting reading today, after his views which appeared paradox in his
time have met general acceptance.
Indeed, while the Austrian pseudo-historic architecture was in line with
similar developments elsewhere in Europe, the architecture of Wagner,
Olbrich, Hoffmann, and Loos has had a genuine avant garde impact on
architectural developments in the new and old worlds to this day.26
c) MUSIC
The greatest period in Austrian music, and perhaps in the music of

western civilization altogether, were the two generations between the rise
to manhood of Josef Haydn and the death of Beethoven and Schubert in
the pre-March era. As with Beethoven, new lustre came to Austrian music
when another outstanding German composer who followed the classic
pattern, Johannes Brahms, took up permanent residence in Vienna. He
resided there from 1869 to his death in 1897. Thus the supreme achieve¬
ments of Brahms in symphonic and chamber music, his requiem and
many of his Lieder are associated with the musical atmosphere of Vienna.
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), episcopal organist in Linz, Upper Austria,
took up his headquarters in Vienna a few years later. His grandiose sym¬
phonic work is as reminiscent of the Austrian Baroque as that of Brahms
is of German neoclassicism. The third great, somewhat younger sym¬
phonic composer, Gustav Mahler (1860-1922), for ten years director of
26 Karl Oettinger, Renate Wagner, Franz Fuhrmann and Alfred Schmeller,

Reclams Kunstjiihrer Osterreichs, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1961); Hans Tietze, Wien
(Beriihmte Kunststatten, Vol. 67) (Leipzig, 1918), pp. 279-312; Fritz Novotny,
Anton Roma\o (Vienna, 1954); Emil Pirchan, Gustav Klimt (Vienna, 1956);
Oskar Kokoschka, Schriften: igoy-igyy (Munich, 1956); Renate Wagner, ed., Die
Wiener Ringstrasse: Bild einer Epoche (Vienna-Cologne, 1969), Vols. I and II;
Elisabeth Lichtenberger, Wirtschaftsstrulptur und Sozialstru\tur der Wiener Ring¬
strasse (Vienna-Cologne, 1970), passim; Robert Waissenberger, Die Wiener
Sezession (Vienna, 1970), passim.
the Vienna Opera, represented a highly emotional neoromantic style.
Hugo Wolf (1860-1903), an outstanding Lieder composer, in particular
in the spirit rather than in the style of Italian and Spanish music, created
also an opera Corregidor, which is undeservedly forgotten today. For a
time it was perhaps the enormous influence of Richard Wagner and later
in a different way that of Richard Strauss which discouraged Austrian
musicians to emulate masters of the old opera and the new musical drama.
Only Johann Strauss, the younger (1825-1899), composer of unparalleled
and widely celebrated Viennese waltz music, filled a lacuna, perhaps pre¬
cisely because he did not want to compete with the very great. Two of his
operettas, Der Zigeunerharon (the Gipsy Baron) and Die Fledermaus
(The Bat) are frequently considered light comic opera; yet it does not
impair the musical brilliance of Die Fledermaus if one refers to it as
operetta.
The great pioneer of modern music in Austria, radiating from Austria
to the world was Arnold Schonberg (1874-1951). From free harmonic
composing—atonality—he moved to the stricter frame of the twelve-tone
scale. Yet, revolutionary as these changes in harmonics were, Schonberg
still preserved the classical structure of symphonic and choral works. Of
his students, the most outstanding one was Alban Berg (1885-1935), the
creator of the opera Wozze\. A revolutionary work of creative genius, it
was worthy of the teachings of Berg’s master. In connection with the new
atonal music the teacher of the theory of music, Heinrich Schenker (1868—
1935) should be mentioned.
In this silver age of music in Austria musical life was rich. The phil¬
harmonic concerts of a world-renowned orchestra under various conduc¬
tors of high rank remained unparalleled in continental Europe. Yet after
the resignation of Mahler in 1906 the Opera never fully regained its former
brilliance, although performing artists and the superb orchestra continued
to be of the highest quality. In other respects musical development left
something to be desired. The operetta, an art form for masters like
Johann Strauss and even Franz Lehar, Imre Kalman, or Oskar Straus
(the composer of Waltz Dream) became increasingly trivial under lesser
successors, accommodating the musical taste of the masses. This cheap
musical export article found its unlamented end roughly with the out¬
break of the Second World War. As for serious though no longer classical
music, the new era from Mahler to Schonberg and Berg gave powerful
incentives to musical developments across the world.27
27Heinrich Kralik, Das Bach der Musipjreunde (Vienna, 1951), pp. 94-199;
Franz Farga, Die Wiener Oper (Vienna, 1947), pp. 196-313; Lothar Fahlbusch
New Beginnings 555
d) SCHOLARSHIP
Austrian scholarship during the half century under discussion here struck
a middle line between the traditional and the revolutionary. The former
pertains by and large to the historical disciplines, the latter to the natural
sciences. In the social sciences we meet both, but with strong tendencies
toward new vistas.
Humanities
In the humanities Theodor von Sickel (1828-1908) from Germany, at

some time director of the Austrian Institute for Historical Research at
the University of Vienna and director of the Austrian Historical Institute
in Rome, was an outstanding medievalist and teacher of the auxiliary
historical sciences. Oswald Redlich, the biographer of Rudolf von Habs-
burg, likewise a distinguished medievalist, was at the same time a keen
student of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Josef Redlich from
Moravia (1869-1936), a liberal parlamentarian has remained to this day
the unexcelled biographer of Francis Joseph and a constitutional his¬
torian of first rank. Alfons Dopsch, an original social historian of early
medieval history, explored the continuity of development from ancient
to medieval times. August Fournier, biographer of Napoleon, and Hein¬
rich von Srbik (1878-1951) biographer of Metternich, were first-rank his¬
torians from an intellectual and literary point of view, though Srbik’s
studies on the German unification idea were marred by national prej¬
udices.
Of outstanding musicologists Eduard Hanslick from Prague (1825-
1904), is frequently remembered chiefly for his criticism of Wagner.
Actually he was a pioneer scholar in musical esthetics. Guido Adler, from
Moravia (1855-1941) became the meritorious editor of the Den^male der
Tonkunstin Osterreich.
Exciting were developments in philosophy. Theodor Gomperz from
Brunn (Brno) (1832-1912) held the middle-ground between intellectual
history and philosophy. His great work Griechische Denver (Greek
Thinkers) is still worth reading from a literary point of view. Entirely
new ideas were introduced by Franz Brentano from Germany (1838—
1917). He was the scion of a family which had given much to German
scholarship and arts. Brentano, a former Catholic priest, was secularized
ed., Eduard Hanslic\, Musi\\riti\en (Leipzig, 1972); Richard Specht, Das Wiener
Operntheater (Vienna, 1919); Marcel Prawy, Die Wiener Oper (Vienna, 1969).
and then married the daughter of a Viennese patrician family. This
marriage because of the denominational impediments of Austrian mar¬
riage legislation, cost him his chair at the University of Vienna and he
had to continue his teaching as unpaid lecturer. Brentano, an adherent of
philosophical realism, rejected the idealistic philosophy of Kant as domi¬
nated by intent and replaced it by a doctrine of psychic phenomena, con¬
sisting of concepts, judgments, and feelings not of the senses but of the
heart. His metaphysics are characterized by a Christian liberal theism.
The liberal aspects in philosophical teaching were taken up by Friedrich
Jodi from Germany (1844-1914) who adhered to a materialistic monism.
But Brentano’s teaching had a greater significance because of its influ¬
ence on the theory of phenomenology, developed later by Edmund
Husserl from Moravia (1859-1938). Husserl rejected psychologism in
logic by proving the existence of a priori logical laws. His phenomenology
is a combination of an analytical and intuitive discipline. Judgments de¬
rive from immanent intuition, as so-called intuitive evidence. This philoso¬
phy in turn had great influence on the existentialism promoted by Martin
Heidegger. Thus the chain of thought unloosened by Husserl ranks
among the most important trends in modern philosophy. Original were
also the ideas of Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932), a philosopher of
diverse interests, at the German university in Prague. He may be con¬
sidered as a pacemaker for the development of Gestalt psychology. In
regard to important and lasting influence the teachings of the great
Jewish philosopher of religion, Martin Buber (1878-1965), who attempted
to direct Jewish orthodox theology with its emphasis on the law to the
personal I-Thou relation to God, made a profound impact on Protestant
theology and religious philosophy.
The “Viennese circle” of neopositivism, in which Moritz Schlick from
Germany (1882-1936) exercised leadership, played an important and dif¬
ferent role. It stood for pure empiricism and aprioristic logics in the
sense of Husserl. Unlike Husserl this school saw a solution to the psycho¬
physical problem in physical terms. Yet the most brilliant representative
of the philosophy of the Viennese circle, which penetrated the western
world, deviated eventually from its doctrines. Ludwig Wittgenstein
(1889-1951) Professor at Cambridge University recognized a kind of
metaphysics. He perceived the world as the totality of connections be¬
tween objects, that is, the facts. But statements are facts, too. Logics are
not concerned with reality. The connection between thinking and being
cannot be expressed in words, it can merely be recognized and indicated
by symbols. This is the basis of a new semantics, according to which
New Beginnings 557
philosophy is criticism of language, a doctrine which in different ways

confirms and develops conclusions of the linguistic German-Bohemian
philosopher, Fritz Mauthner (1849-1923), a generation before Wittgen¬
stein. The three main works of Wittgenstein the Tractatus logico-phi-
losophicus of 1921, the Philosophical investigations, and Remarks on the
foundation of mathematics—the latter two published after his death—
rank with the most important contributions of philosophical thought of
our century. In few other fields of human knowledge have ideas de¬
veloped or initiated on Austrian soil become as all-pervasive as those in
modern philosophy.28
Social Sciences
In the social sciences Austria produced outstanding legal scholars whose

fame transcended the confines of the country’s legal system. Joseph Unger
(1828-1913), in the liberal Auersperg era member of the cabinet, was an
outstanding theorist in general civil law. Anton Menger (1841-1906), pro¬
fessor of civil procedure and as Socialist a truly rara avis in the Austrian
academic world, wrote about the unfair treatment of the poor in civil
law, an unfairness largely brought about not by discrimination but by
the application of a mechanic system of equality. Franz Klein (1854—
1926), from 1906 to 1908 attorney general and chief archiect of the
Austrian Code of Civil Procedure with its principle of free judicial evalua¬
tion of evidence saw the basic ideas of his code accepted by other coun¬
tries. Edmund Bernatzik, professor of constitutional law, was an au¬
thority on the complex problems of nationality legislation. One of the
greatest Austrian legal scholars after Zeiller, the chief compilator of the
Austrian Code of Civil Law of 1811, was Hans Kelsen from Prague (1881—
1973). His theory of pure law which perceives the state not as a social or
political order but as a system of law, has been studied, emulated, devel¬
oped around the globe as has no other work by a contemporary legal
scholar. It was on many occasions not only criticized on a scholarly basis
but sneered at by some of his colleagues and their followers in Austria,
in part due to misunderstanding of new ideas and in part due to racial
prejudices. Kelsen’s theory has met most challenges; and the constitution
of the Austrian republic, of which he was the author after the collapse
28 Alphons Lhotsky, Osterreichische Historiographie (Vienna, 1961-1962), pp.
174-223; Richard von Mises, Positivismus (Cambridge, Mass., 1951); Norman
Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein (London, 1958); Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin,
Wittgenstein’s Vienna (New York, 1973) pp. 120-201; Johnston, The Austrian Mind,
pp. 181-220, 290-307. On philosophy in Austria see also Albert Fuchs, Geistige
Stromungen in Osterreich: i86y-igi8 (Vienna, 1949), pp. 199-226.
55# History of the Hahshurg Empire
of the empire, is again the law of the land after it had been abolished dur¬
ing the National Socialist occupation.
Here may be the place to inject some remarks about the Austrian peace
movement, although it is connected with the academic world only in the
person of Heinrich Lammasch (1853-1920), professor of criminal and
international law at the University of Vienna. During the war he spoke
out for peace in the Upper House, was Austria’s last prime minister for
two weeks, and made several notable scholarly contributions to the con¬
cept of international arbitration in theory and practice. Most impres¬
sive, however, was the example of his sincere and courageous personality.
Bertha von Suttner, born in Prague in 1843 as Countess Kinsky, died in
Vienna just a month before the outbreak of the First World War. No
scholar, and a promoter of the peace idea primarily by strength of emo¬
tional appeal, this author of the novel Die Waffen nieder was awarded the
Nobel peace prize in 1905. The same honor was awarded to Alfred H.
Fried (1864-1921) in 1911. As founder of the German and Austrian peace
societies he took an unpopular stand for his cause during the war.
World famous became the so-called Austrian School of Economics in¬
cluding its later sociological ramifications. In originality it ranks close
to the Austrian contributions to philosophy. Karl Menger (1840-1921),
Eugen von Bbhm-Bawerk from Moravia (1851-1914), and Friedrich von
Wieser (1857-1926), all three professors of economics at the University
of Vienna were pioneers of new doctrines, the latter two also cabinet
members (Bohm-Bawerk as minister of finance 1900-1904 and Wieser
minister of commerce 1917-1918). They developed a theory of marginal
profit, and beyond it one of economic value altogether. Wieser, the
youngest of the original founders of the school proved himself also as
original social thinker in his study Recht und Macht, 1910. The younger
members of the Austrian school carried its findings into the Anglo-Saxon
world and developed them further. With the exception of Ludwig von
Mises (1881-1973) equally distinguished as economic historian and theorist,
they belong already to the generation active after the First World War. The
connecting link between old and new generation was Joseph Schumpeter
from Moravia (1883-1950), an economist and sociologist and a powerful
and original thinker. He became one of the leading critical historians of
economic theory in his time and in his Capitalism, Socialism, and De¬
mocracy (first ed. 1942) a highly perceptive critic of Marxism, who at the
same time recognized the power and originality of Marx’s thought.29
29 Fuchs, Geistige Stromungen in Osterreich, pp. 5-275 passim: Ludwig von

Mises, The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics (New Rochelle,
New Beginnings 559
Natural Sciences
From the 1870’s to the beginning o£ the new century the Austrian
medical school held almost uncontested leadership in the western world.
It was lost after the dissolution of the empire, partly for economic reasons.
Karl von Rokitansky from Bohemia (1804-1878) became the best-known
anatomic pathologist of his time. He established his discipline in a
sense as the foundation of medical education altogether. Theodor Billroth
from Germany (1829-1894), a musical close friend of Brahms, became the
leading surgeon of the Viennese school and with it of an era. His achieve¬
ments include new findings in histology, pathological anatomy, and
anesthesiology. Hermann Nothnagel from Germany (1841-1905) was a
versatile teacher of internal medicine who was equally competent in
physiology and pathology of the heart, the nervous and the intestinal
system. Contrary to Billroth he was also dedicated to liberal principles. Of
international fame and a Nobel prize winner was the bacteriologist Karl
Landsteiner (1868-1943), discoverer of the blood groups. Clemens von
Pirquet (1874-1929), professor of pediatrics, was a pioneer in the study of
allergies and serum disease, and the first to use the tuberculin test. No
medical discipline has contributed more to the reputation of the Viennese
school than medical psychology and psychiatry. Theodor Meynert from
Germany (1833-1892) perceived psychiatry primarily as exploratory
science and contributed in this sense greatly to the study of the human
brain. Richard von Kraft-Ebbing, on the other hand, his successor, also
from Germany (1840-1902), understood psychiatry rather as descriptive
science. In this sense he wrote a comprehensive textbook of psychiatry
and another one of forensic psychopathology. He was succeeded by
Julius von Wagner-Jauregg (1857-1941), who was awarded the Nobel
prize for his discovery of the treatment of progressive paralysis by malaria
therapy.
The most widely known Austrian scientist and perhaps most widely
known Austrian of this century is, of course, Sigmund Freud (Freiberg,
Moravia 1856—London, 1939). It is impossible in these pages to do justice
to his theory and therapy of psychoanalysis which penetrated the western
world, particularly in its wide anthropological and cultural ramifications.
In strange and sad contrast to Freud’s genius and fame are the impedi-
1969); Rudolf A. Metall, Hans Kelsen: Leben und W er\ (Vienna, 1969); Wilhelm
Weber, “Hundert Jahre osterreichische Nationalokonomie an der Universitat Wien,”
Studien zur Geschichte der Universitat Wien, (Graz-Cologne, 1962), pp. 104-125;
Johnston, The Austrian Mind, pp. 318-320.
ments which blocked his academic career on Austrian soil. This is more
often than not explained with the anti-Semitism which in its most
hideous National Socialist form drove Freud into exile at the age of 82.
And yet the basic reason for the harassments he was subjected to before
his expulsion derive presumably more from an even more powerful moti¬
vation than racial prejudice: fear. Freud’s contemporaries everywhere—
not only in Austria—shrank from the consequences which his exploration
of the subconscious and unconscious in the human psyche might have
on their lives. It remains a problem of the future to determine whether
those who loudly proclaim and frequently misapply and vulgarize Freud’s
momentous findings in sundry disciplines do not merely overcompensate
those fears which the preceding generation not more sincerely but more
patently professed. Josef Breuer (1842-1925) Freud’s early collaborator
and originator of the first observations leading to the development of the
new discipline was also a highly original physiologist. Alfred Adler
(1870-1937), originally a student of Freud, deviated from the less than
tolerant master’s doctrines and introduced the concept of Individual-
psychologie, which replaced the sex factor as source of neurosis by the
conflict between the urge for social position and the often dismal social
reality. His school, too, greatly influenced psychiatric therapy in England
and the United States and like psychoanalysis it developed in substance
outside of the academic frame. Even Freud had only the honorary title
of professor and never held a chair at the University of Vienna.
In the natural sciences outside of medicine, developments in physics
were most conspicuous. Christian Doppler (1803-1853) made an im¬
portant contribution to the theory of sound and light waves. The work of
Josef Loschmidt from Bohemia (1821-1895) on the theory of molecules
was of high practical and theoretical significance. Ludwig Boltzmann’s
(1844-1906) findings supplemented Loschmidt’s research on molecular
theory. He also succeeded in proving the correctness of J. C. Maxwell’s
electromagnetic theory of light. But of the greatest importance were the
achievements of the genius of Ernst Mach from Moravia (1838-1916).
They are of equal importance for physics, physiology, and philosophy. He
made contributions to mechanics, physiology of the senses, and to a
functional philosophy which considers causal connections as purely specu¬
lative. The progress of neopositivism and the theory of relativity in
physics are closely connected with Mach’s creative thoughts. Great tech¬
nological contributions to applied physics were made by Carl Auer von
Welsbach (1858-1928) who introduced gas lighting and a type of electric
New Beginnings 56/
bulb, and by Robert von Lieben, an amateur physicist who made the
basic invention of the amplifier tube in the development of early radio
technique.
Reference should be made also to the great geologist Eduard Suess
(1831-1914). From the 1870’$ to the 1890’$ this scholar was also a leading
Austro-German liberal deputy who fought for educational reforms.80
H. Conclusions
Of the more than eighty outstanding men discussed in this last section,
twenty were born in the lands of the Bohemian crown—generally Bo¬
hemia or Moravia—and most of them moved sooner or later to German-
Austria, usually to Vienna. Two came from Hungary and sixteen from
Germany. Almost a dozen left the country again, either for Germany or
the United States. Among the men who were in their thirties and forties
by 1918 the impact of the subsequent National Socialist persecutions of
Jews played an important part. Yet this does not explain the whole prob¬
lem of emigration which went on steadily after 1918.
Some facts stand out. Not all personalities discussed here were Aus¬
trians by citizenship, but they all spent at least a good part of the most
creative period of their lives in Austria. Irrespective of their citizenship,
ethnic origin, or religious affiliation, they used German as their native
language and were immersed in the culture of the Austro-German orbit.
Yet this was no unmixed Austro-German culture. Those who came from
the Bohemian lands were also influenced by the blending of the Austro-
German and Czech cultural setdng. Furthermore—and because of the
scope of this work it cannot be shown in these pages-—many of those
born within the Austro-German orbit were only second-generation Austro-
Germans. Their parents and grandparents had come from the Bohemian
lands, Hungary, Galicia, the Bukovina, and other parts of the empire. It
should be added also that the sizable number of Germans from the Reich
who settled in Austria added an important and stimulating element to
cultural conditions in German-Austria. This is true also for the many and
varied challenging ideas which radiated to the world at large from the
Habsburg empire in its political decline. We are faced here no longer with
the Austro-Germans in isolation or the Austro-German orbit by itself, but
with that orbit as center and intersection of crossroads of the empire’s
30 Erna Lesky, Die Wiener medizinische Schule im ig. Jahrhundert (Vienna-

Cologne, 1965), pp. 119-632; Fuchs, Geistige Stromungen in Osterreich: i86j-igi8,
pp. 202-212, 227-247; John T. Blackmore, Ernst Mach (Berkeley, 1972), passim.
peoples from east and west, north and south. The cosmopolitan character
of the empire and the fertile seeds which began to grow there frequently
blossomed and bore fruits in another country.
Was it then the cosmopolitan character of intellectual and artistic
Vienna as symbol of both a multinational and a supranational culture,
which led to outstanding achievements? The question seems all the more
puzzling, since this atmosphere was in so many ways in conflict with
the narrow-minded, bigoted, and prejudiced aspects of political party life,
which long before Hitler drove many of Austria’s best sons into isolation
at home or exile abroad.
Before we attempt to deal with this problem, two others have to be
clarified. In the first place, there does not exist any fully satisfactory or
comprehensive explanation why great intellectual and artistic achieve¬
ments occur in one country, at a certain time and not in another at a
different one. It is largely the combination of inexplicable psychological
and biological factors with more obvious socialeconomic ones which defy
a full elucidation of the phenomenon. For that reason intellectual history
becomes so fascinating and in some respects so enigmatic a subject.
The other point to be clarified is this. If we say that the last half century
of the empire’s existence produced works and ideas which had a greater
influence on the world than anything that had been created in Austria
before, this does not necessarily mean that the Austrian cultural achieve¬
ments during the last decades of its history were superior to any previous
ones. Magnificent as they were, the older Fischer von Erlach in the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth century was probably a greater architect
than any of his nineteenth and twentieth-century successors. Grillparzer’s
standards as a dramatist and Stifter’s as a prose writer were not fully
equaled by the following generations, and the great musical classics of the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries remained unmatched by
posterity.
This is not true in all fields, but in some it is obvious. Why then the
more pervasive influence of ideas developed in Austria in the later period
in philosophy, economics, medicine, musical theory, fine arts, and in
several other areas? Improvements in communications may have played
its part, but it is uncertain to what degree. Unheard-of progress in this
respect in the contemporary world has not been matched by equally
unique cultural achievements. Even genuine greatness, we well realize,
offers not more than a partial explanation. Its full recognition in presence
and future is to a large measure dependent on unpredictable social and
political conditions. The multinational character of the empire and in
New Beginnings 563
particular the multinational background in the ancestry of great Austrians
may presumably have been an important, though not fully provable
factor. Yet at least limited negative proof is possible here. Austrian cul¬
tural fertility has been steadily declining after the dissolution of the em¬
pire, a process that has been slowed down but not come to its end by now.
In the postwar decades economic misery and later National Socialist
oppression played an important part; yet today, in a more prosperous era,
the cultural prospects look possibly somewhat, but not conspicuously,
more promising. In the East Central European succession states, political
suppression has greatly impeded cultural development. The one state
which until 1938 resembled most closely the multinational character of
the Habsburg empire, the Czechoslovak republic, could also point to sig¬
nificant cultural achievements, and in any case to the relatively most
liberal political atmosphere. This factor has been consistently overlooked
by German, Magyar, and Polish nationalism.
This does not mean to say that a multinational setting is an essential
precondition of cultural development, but presumably it is a favorable
one. People in the democratic Austrian republic share with those in Yugo¬
slavia and the East Central European states in the Russian orbit, a keen
sense of intellectual curiosity and full appreciation of esthetic harmony
and beauty. These gifts, provided they can be exercised under socially
acceptable conditions of political freedom, herald the possibility of future
cultural attainments which may well reverse present-day trends. In the
Habsburg monarchy such accomplishments, however, were achieved un¬
der ethnic and political conditions different from any existing in the
East Central European states now. Social inequality was unquestionably
greater. But so was in several areas political and cultural freedom through¬
out the last decades of the empire’s existence.
Yet, if reference has been made to the momentous cultural achieve¬
ments of the pre-March period in the Habsburg empire, which was
surely a period of political suppression under a police regime, does that
not contradict the assumption that such freedom is a favorable precondi¬
tion for great attainments? I do not acknowledge the existence of such
a contradiction. In the first place this suppression was not always as severe
as that which we have been watching in our time in many a country
under totalitarian rule. Secondly, Austrian police absolutism did not re¬
quire active participation of the intellectual and the artist in support of
government policy. On the contrary, this regime wanted him to stay away
from interference in public affairs. The totalitarian state of today recom¬
mends the active involvement of the intellectual and the artist to a higher
degree than that of anybody else. This particular factor is an almost insur¬
mountable barrier for the promotion and spread of creative thought. We
do not suggest that Austrian conditions between 1814 and 1848 were ideal,
but they allowed creative men to resort to the flight into a fancy world
outside the reach of police power. By no means, however, am I ready
to accept the view, held by some, that commanded restraint from partici¬
pation in public affairs and the permissible flight into irreality created
particularly favorable conditions for cultural development. These condi¬
tions were merely a lesser evil than totalitarian control, and the existence
of such lesser evils gives convincing testimony for the greatness of the
Austrian genius since it proved to be fully capable of overcoming serious
impediments.
More suggestive as contributing factor to outstanding cultural attain¬
ments in another consideration which pertains again directly to the last
decades of the empire’s existence. There seems to be much truth in the
ancient saying victi victoribus leges dederunt. It applies impressively to
the cultural conquest of the Greeks in east and west after Alexander
the Great had destroyed the last shreds of Hellenic political independence.
Cultural stimuli are with much better grace accepted from a state
which does not present any longer the danger of cultural penetration in
the service of a dreaded political supremacy. Psychological resistance is
weakened in such cases as we can see in more recent times in the strong
influence of French civilization on the victorious German empire after
1871 and conversely of the culture of the Weimar republic on France
after 1918. Admittedly this is only one factor which helps to understand
the easing of difficulty in the transmission of cultural ideas. It does not ex¬
plain the basically unexplainable causes for the great achievements of
the human spirit. Yet, whether explainable or not, facts they are, namely
the greatness, the originality, and the wide appeal abroad of the Habsburg
empire’s cultural accomplishments and of the wealth of ideas generated
there in the last century of its existence. The chain reaction of cultural
stimuli makes it conceivable that this cultural impact may last even
longer than the four centuries of political development reviewed in this
study. In this sense, what has been suggested at the outset of this chapter
seems to be true. At the time when the political history of the Habsburg
empire ended, the history of its cultural message to the world in an
ever-more widening sense had just begun.
CHAPTER XI
Bibliographical Essay
A complete bibliography about the main topics discussed in the pre¬

ceding chapters may fill a volume of the size of this study. Consequently
only a relatively narrow selection can be offered in this bibliographical
essay.
The principles on which the selection is based are the following. Pri¬
ority is given to literature in West-European languages. This means
primarily works in German, because more items have been published in
this language than in all other Western languages combined. Next,
significant works in English will be cited, and some in French and
Italian. Studies in the various languages of the national groups repre¬
sented in the Habsburg empire will be listed in the first place in English
translation and only if none exists in German.1
But where standard works dealing with the broad aspects of the prob¬
lems discussed in this volume are covered neither fully in Western lan¬
guages nor by translations into Western languages, some representative
works in the vernacular of the national groups will be cited. The same
is true in general for a selected number of works in non-Western lan¬
guages. References to national bibliographies, in particular if bibliog¬
raphies published in Western countries are not sufficiently comprehensive,
are likewise listed in non Western languages. The literature in the na¬
tional languages published in this century has come up amazingly fast
in quantity and quality, and therefore such extension of the bibliography
is often imperative.
1 If translations in both languages are available, the one based on the most re¬
cently revised edition in the original language will be chosen. German translations
of English works will in general be referred to in the first place, if they represent
revised editions of the original work.
565
As for the principles of selection, the yardstick applied in general is
scholarly and literary standing of a work, secondly that it illustrates a spe¬
cific viewpoint with particular clarity, thirdly that it is the only one which
covers a specific important fact. Preference is given to modern works.
Older ones, which have for years been out of print and are not available
in most substantial libraries in this country, are listed only if their
paramount historic importance in the field demands inclusion.
It may have been suggestive to organize the bibliography like the text it¬
self in ten main sections. This has not been done because the same topics
occur several times in the book in different chronological and national
settings. In many cases such division of the bibliography would have re¬
quired repeated listing of the same item in a number of places. As the
bibliography stands now, attention is focused on topical divisions and
only in the second place on chronological order. This organization should
n.
help to reduce the necessity of multiple listings. Furthermore, to keep

this bibliographical essay within reasonable bounds, a fairly large number
of works will be found only in the footnotes. This is true of monographs
on specific topics or of works which have been referred to only in a few
instances. On the other hand, in view of the desired representative char¬
acter of this bibliography, a number of works, in particular in Slavic lan¬
guages which have not been used, are included in this essay. It is meant to
be in the first place a selective bibliography on the topic in general, ir¬
respective of its relationship to the text of this book.
Bibliographical Essay 567
Organization of Bibliographical Essay :
I. The Habsburg Empire: General Works

A) Geography
B) Histories of the Habsburg Empire including Comprehensive Bib¬
liographies
C) Dissolution of the Empire
D) Foreign Relations to 1914
E) Economic and Social History
F) Cultural History
G) Party Ideologies
H) Nationality Problems in the Habsburg Empire: General Survey
I) Churches
J) Armed Forces
K) Constitutional Problems and Administration
L) Primary Sources (Records) in Domestic Affairs and Foreign Re¬
lations
(a) In Domestic Affairs
(b) In Foreign Relations
M) Historiography
N) Biography, Reference Works
O) Serials and Newspapers
P) Statistics
Q) Bibliography
II. Literature on the History of the National Groups
A) The Austro-Germans
B) The Magyars
C) The Italians
D) The Roumanians
E) General Slavic Intellectual and Linguistic History
F) The Czechs
G) The Slovaks
H) The Poles
I) The Ruthenians
}) The Southern Slavs
(a) The Croats
(b) The Slovenes
(c) The Serbs
5<68 History of the Hahsburg Empire
I. The Habsburg Empire : General Works
a) geography
Carl von Czoernig, Ethnographie der osterreichischen Monarchic, 4 vols.

(Vienna, Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1849-1857), is a standard work as yet
only in parts outdated. Leon Dominian, Frontiers of Language and Na¬
tionality in Europe (New York, Holt & Co., 1917), is a useful reference
work on ethnic questions. Konard Kretschmer, Historische Geographic
von Mitteleuropa (Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1904), and more recently
Richard H. Osborne, East Central Europe (New York, F. A. Praeger,
1967), are notable surveys. See also George W. Hoffmann, “The Political-
Geographical Bases of the Austrian Nationality Problem,” in Austrian
History Yearboo\, III :i (Houston, Rice University Press, 1967).
The most comprehensive work is [Rudolf, Crownprince of Austria-
Hungary, sponsor], Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic in Wort und
Bild, 24 vols. (Vienna, Osterreichische Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1886—
1902). It appears outdated more in style and appearance than in substance.
This work, written in general by outstanding authorities in the field,
offers frequently excellent surveys on descriptive geography, economic
policies, social institutions, and cultural developments in the empire.
b) histories of the habsburg empire including comprehensive
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
No fully satisfactory history of the Habsburg empire exists in any

language, but some in German are relatively most adequate. This factor is
not due to any alleged German cultural supremacy but a consequence of
the centuries-old political dominance of the German-speaking people in
the empire. A substantial number of these works are by intent fully ob¬
jective, but they were still written from the vantage point of German
centralism.
Hugo Hantsch, Die Geschichte Osterreichs, 2 vols. (Graz-Cologne,
Styria, 4th and 5th edition, 1968-1969), is one of the good modern works
written from such traditional German centralist viewpoint. Franz von
Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte Osterreichs, 4 vols. and index vol.
(Berlin, Th. Hofmann, 1876-1879), is a valuable, concise, somewhat dry,
but reliable presentation of facts, supported by comprehensive bibliograph¬
ical references. The history of the nineteenth century, however, is merely
sketched. Alfons Huber, Geschichte Osterreichs, 5 vols. (Gotha, F. A.
Perthes, 1885-1896), Vol. II, 13th and 14th centuries, revised by A. Lhotsky
Bibliographical Essay $6g
(Vienna, Bohlau, 1967) is still valuable. Franz M. Mayer, Geschichte

Osterreichs mit besonderer Beruc\sichtigung des Kulturlebens, 2 vols.
(Vienna, W. Braumiiller, 1909), is a readable presentation (German cen¬
tralist viewpoint). Raimund F. Kaindl, Hans Pirchegger and Anton A.
Klein, Geschichte und Kulturleben Deutschosterreichs, 3 vols. (Vienna,
Braumiiller, 1958-1965), is a revised edition of the original work, confined
primarily to the German-Austrian orbit. It does not come up to the liter¬
ary standards of the original work. Victor L. Tapie, Monarchic et Peuples
du Danube (Paris, Fayard, 1969), is one of the best modern studies of
the empire as a whole. This work has been published in English under
the title The Rise and Fall of the Habsburg Monarchy (New York,
Praeger, 1971). Adam Wandruszka, Das Haus Habsburg (Vienna, Verlag
fur Geschichte und Politik, 1956) (available also in English translation)
covers the dynastic bond which held the empire together through the cen¬
turies. See in this respect also Robert A. Kann, “The Dynasty and the
Imperial Idea,” Austrian History Yearbook Vol. Ill :i. Erich Zollner,
Geschichte Osterreichs (Vienna, Verlag fur Geschichte und Politik, 3d
edition 1966) is a very sound, factual history written from the German
centralist viewpoint (good bibliography).
Sixteenth Century
Heinrich Ullmann, Kaiser Maximilian I, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, Cotta,

1884-1891, reprint 1968), offers important background material. Hermann
Wiesflecker, Kaiser Maximilian I, 1 vol. (Vienna, Verlag fiir Geschichte
und Politik, 1971; Vols. II-IV in preparation) is expected to become
a new standard biography and at the same time a history of the late
Renaissance in the hereditary lands. In the evolution of the Habsburg
empire Ferdinand I is perhaps the most important figure. A major mod¬
ern biography is needed, but Wilhelm Bauer, Die Anfange Ferdinands 1.
(Vienna, Braumiiller, 1907) and Franz B. von Bucholtz, Geschichte der
Regierung Ferdinands L, 8 vols. and appendix volume with documents
(Vienna, Schaumburg & Co., 1831-1838; reprinted with excellent intro¬
duction by Berthold Sutter available), an old, partly outdated but still
valuable standard work, takes its place. Laszlo Makkai, Die Entstehung
der gesellschaftlichen Basis des Absolutismus in den Landern der oster-
reichischen Habsburger (Budapest, Akademiai Kiado, i960), offers an in¬
teresting social analysis of the reign of Ferdinand I written from a Marx¬
ian viewpoint. Moritz Ritter, Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Gegen-
reformation und des 50-jahrigen Krieges 1555-1648, 3 vols. (Stuttgart,
Cotta, 1889-1908), is still useful. Karl Brandi, Reformation und Gegen-
formation (Munich, Bruckmann, i960), is a modern standard work and
Johann Loserth, Reformation und Gegenreformation in den innerdster-
reichischen Landern im 16. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, Cotta, 1898), gives a
thoroughly documented presentation of the Protestant position.
Seventeenth Century
Bernhard Erdmanns dor ffer, Deutsche Geschichte vom Westfalischen

Erie den bis zum Regierungsantritt Friedrichs des Grofien, 2 vols. (Berlin,
Grote, 1892-1893), is a somewhat pedestrian but objective work which
may be considered to be a continuation of Ritter’s work (see above).
Hans Sturmberger, Ferdinand II. und das Problem des Absolutismus
(Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1957), is a perceptive study of the leading coun¬
terreformatory ruler of the first half of the century. See also Josef V.
Polisensky, The Thirty Years dWar (Berkeley and Los Angeles, Univers¬
ity of California Press, 1971) and C. V. Wedgwood, The Thirty Years
War, listed more fully under I:D. Oswald Redlich, Weltmacht des
Baroc\: Osterreich in der Zeit Leopolds I. (Vienna, R. Rohrer, 1961),
offers a fairly comprehensive picture of the second half of the century.
Max Braubachs monumental biography of Frinz Eugen von Savoyen,
5 vols. (Vienna, Verlag fur Geschichte und Politik, 1963-1965), is signi¬
ficant for the understanding of the political history of the late seven¬
teenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Eighteenth Century
The historiography of this period is largely personalized and focused

on some outstanding personalities. Hanns Mikoletzky, Osterreich: Das
grosse 18. Jahrhundert (Vienna, Bundesverlag fur Wissenschaft und
Kunst, 1967), offers an over-all presentation and Oswald Redlich, Das
Werden einer Grossmacht: Osterreich 1J00-1J40 (Briinn-Vienna, R.
Rohrer, 1942), serves as excellent introduction into the political history
of Austria’s evolution to great-power status. The standard work of the
middle period of the era is still Alfred von Arneth, Geschichte Maria
Theresias, 10 vols. (Vienna, Braumliller, 1863-1879). Although tech¬
nically a biography of the empress, this work is in the first place a history
of her reign. Eugen Guglia, Maria Theresia: Ihr Leben und ihre
Regierung, 2 vols. (Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1917), is valuable in the
same sense. George P. Gooch, Maria Theresa and other Studies (London,
Longmans, Green & Co., 1951), includes some perceptive essays. Alexander
Novotny, Staats\anzler Kaunitz (Vienna, Hollinek, 1947), is a readable
brief biography of one of Austria’s greatest diplomats. Here, a more
Bibliographical Essay 57/
comprehensive work is needed. See further, Friedrich Walter, Die Theres-

ianische Staatsreform von 1749 (Vienna, Verlag fur Geschichte und
Politik, 1958). Paul von Mitrofanov, Joseph II., 2 vols. (Vienna, C. W.
Stern, 1910), is still the best, though in some respects outdated biography
of the emperor. Useful are also the brief studies, Francois Fejto, Un
Habsbourg Revolutionaire: Joseph II, (Paris, Plon, 1953); Paul P.
Bernard, Joseph II, (New York, Twayne, 1968) and by the same author
Jesuits and Jacobins: Enlightenment and Enlightened Despotism in Aus¬
tria (Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1971); T. C. W. Blanning,
Joseph II and Enlightened Despotism (London, Longman, 1970). A new
comprehensive biography of Joseph II, comparable in scholarly standards
to the excellent one of his brother by Adam Wandruszka, Leopold II.,
2 vols. (Vienna-Munich, Herold, 1965), is needed.
Nineteenth and Twentieth Century
Viktor Bibl, Der Zerjall Osterreichs, 2 vols. (Vienna, Rikola, 1922-

1924), perceives the beginning of the disintegration process of the empire
in the early nineteenth century and continues this story to 1918 (German
national viewpoint). Allan J. P. Taylor, The Habsburg Monarchy: 1809-
1916 (London, Hamilton, 1951), is a readable and sophisticated brief pre¬
sentation, marred, however, by a predilection for unprovable paradox
conclusions. Richard Charmatz, Osterreichs innere Geschichte 1848-1907
(Leipzig, Teubner, 1909-1911), is a useful, concise survey (liberal view¬
point). See further Arthur J. May, The Habsburg Monarchy: 1867-1914.
(New York, Norton, 1951), a readable presentation and Carlile A.
Macartney, The Habsburg Empire, 1790-1918 (New York, Macmillan*
1969), a somewhat controversial, but interesting and perceptive presenta¬
tion. Adam Wandruszka and Peter Urbanitsch eds., Die Habsburger-
monarchie 1848-1918 (Vienna, Osterreichische Akademie der Wissen-
schaften, 1973-) is designed as collective work of 8 volumes, covering all
aspects of the history of the Habsburg empire throughout the indicated
period. So far vol I, Die wirtschaftliche Entwichlung, has been published.
Gustav Kolmer, Parlament und Verfassung in Osterreich, 8 vols.
(Vienna, Fromme, 1902-1914), (German liberal viewpoint), covers the
parliamentary history from 1848 to 1904 in a chroniclelike but neverthe¬
less interesting manner (indispensable). Alois von Czedik, Zur Geschichte
der \.\. osterreichischen Ministerien (1861-1916), 4 vols. (Teschen, Pro-
chaska, 1917-1920), is likewise an essential but far less interesting refer¬
ence tool. The works of Kolmer and Czedik are confined to the institu¬
tional history of Cisleithanian Austria.
Of more specialized studies see Hanns Schlitter, Aus Osterreichs
Vormarz (Vienna, Amalthea Verlag, 1920), Part 1 Galizien und Krakau;
Pt. 2 Bohmen; Pt. 3 Ungarn; Pt. 4 Niederosterreich (useful, and based on
thorough archival research). Joseph A. von Helfert, Geschichte der oster-
reichischen Revolution, 2 vols. (Freiburg i. B., Herder, 1907), presents the
conservative viewpoint; Ernst Violand, Die soziale Geschichte der Revo¬
lution in Osterreich (Leipzig, O. Wigand, 1850), a liberal viewpoint.
Heinrich Friedjung, Osterreich von 1848-1860, vols. I and II/i (Stuttgart,
Cotta, 1908- 1912), is a masterly but incomplete history of the neoabsolutist
era. See further Eduard Winter, Fruhliberalismus in der Donaumonarchie
(Berlin, Akademieverlag, 1968). William A. Jenks, Austria and the Iron
Ring 1873-93 (Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 1965), is the
first solid study focused on the Taaffe administration.
The two outstanding biographies for the period are Heinrich von
Srbik, Metternich: Der Staatsmann und der Mensch, 3 vols. (Munich,
Bruckmann, 1925-1954) and Josef Redlich, Kaiser Franz Joseph von
Osterreich (Berlin, Verlag fur Kulturpolitik, 1928); in English Emperor
Francis Joseph of Austria (New York, Macmillan, 1929).
c) DISSOLUTION OF THE EMPIRE
Henryk Batowski, Rozpad Austro Wegier 1914-1918 (Wroclaw, Zaklad

Narodowy im. Ossolinskich-Wydawnictwo, 1965) and Leo Valiani, La
Dissoluzione dell Austria Unghera (Milano, Casa Editrice II Saggiatore,
1966), now available in English as The End of Austria-Hungary (New
York, Knopf, 1973), use some new material. Z. A. B. Zeman, The Break¬
up of the Habsburg Empire 1914-1918 (London, Oxford University Press,
1961) and by the same author A Diplomatic History of the First World
War (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971). See also Arthur J. May,
The Passing of the Habsburg Monarchy 1914-1918, 2 vols. (Philadelphia,
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966). All three works are significant
recent contributions in English.
Robert A. Kann, The Habsburg Empire: A Study in Integration and
Disintegration (2nd ed. New York, Octagon, 1973), published in Ger¬
man under the title Werden und Zerfall der Habsburgermonarchie
(Graz-Vienna, Styria, 1962) discusses briefly the integration as well as
the disintegration process of the empire. Robert A. Kann, Die Sixtus-
affare und die geheimen Friedensverhandlungen Osterreich-TJngarns im
ersten Welt\rieg (Vienna, Verlag fur Geschichte und Politik, 1966),
offers new material on the secret peace negotiations. On the peace
negotiations with the Soviet Union and the Ukraine see Wolf dieter
Bihl, Osterreich-Ungarn und die Friedensverhandlungen von Brest-

Litovs\ (Vienna-Cologne, Bohlaus Nachf., 1970). Edmund von Glaise-
Horstenau, Die Katastrophe (Vienna, Amalthea Verlag, 1929), is a
readable study written from the viewpoint of German centralism. Oscar
Jaszi, The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy (Chicago, University
of Chicago Press, 1929), is the best study on the social aspects of the prob¬
lem. Josef Redlich, Austrian War Government (New Haven, Yale
University Press, 1929), discusses the wartime administration in Cis-
leithanian Austria. Gutav Gratz and Richard Schuller, The Economic
Policy of Austria-Hungary in its External Relations (New Haven, Yale
University Press, 1928), emphasizes the Middle Europe concept of eco¬
nomic union between the two Central Powers. Victor S. Mamatey, The
United States and Eastern Central Europe (Princeton, Princeton Uni¬
versity Press, 1951), is a comprehensive study in diplomatic history on
the interrelationship between U.S. foreign policy and the dissolution
process. Its counterpart in regard to Great Britain is Harry Hanak, Great
Britain and Austria-Hungary during the First World War (London,
Oxford University Press, 1961). Gordon Brook Sheperd, The Last Habs¬
burg (New York, Weybright and Talley, 1968), a biography of the last
emperor Charles ofiers some interesting new material. A recent study are
the minutes of the international congress “Herbst 1918,” edited by
Richard G. Plaschka and Karlheinz Mack under the title Die Auflosung
des Habsburgerreiches (Vienna, Verlag fur Geschichte und Politik,
1970). See finally Richard G. Plaschka, Horst Haselsteiner, Arnold
Suppan, Innere Front. Militarassistenz, Widerstand und Umsturz an der
inneren Front der Donaumonarchie, 1918, 2 vols. (Wien, Verlag fur
Geschichte und Politik, to be published 1974).
d) foreign relations to 1914
The standard histories of the Habsburg empire are also the most
informative works on its foreign relations in the sixteenth and seven¬
teenth centuries. Beginning with the eighteenth century, monographs are
of increasing importance. Franz von Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte
Osterreichs, Vols. II, III (listed under I:B) is not an inspiring but a
thoroughly reliable guide for the empire’s diplomatic history in the six¬
teenth and seventeenth centuries. For the Reformation and early Counter
Reformation era see Karl Brandi, Kaiser Karl V2 vols. (Munich, Bruck-
mann, 1937-1941). For the interrelationship of the policies of the German
and Spanish Habsburg lines see Helmut G. Konigsberger, The Habs-
burgs and Europe, 1516-1660 (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1971).
There is no finer book on the diplomatic issues of the Thirty Years War
than Cecily V. Wedgwood, The Thirty Years War (London, Cape,
1944). For the diplomatic history of the reign of Leopold I and those of
his sons and successors Joseph I and Charles VI, see Oswald Redlich,
Weltmacht des Baroc\: Osterreich in der Zeit Leopolds I. (see under
I:B) and by the same author Das Werden einer Grossmacht: Osterreich
ijoo-ijqo (Briinn, R. Rohrer, 1942).
Important are also Heinrich von Srbik, Wien und Versailles 1692-yj
(Munich, Bruckmann, 1944) and Max Braubach, Versailler und Wien
von Ludwig XIV. bis Kaunitz (Bonn, Rohrscheid, 1952).
Alfred von Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias (see I:B) is still the
best over-all presentation of the diplomatic history during the forty years
of the empress’ reign from 1740 to 1780. For the discussion of the Polish
question during that period see Herbert H. Kaplow, The First Partition
of Poland (New York, Columbia University Press, 1972).
Of older works, Albert Sorel, The Eastern Policy in the Eighteenth
Century (London, Methuen and Co., 1898) and John A. R. Marriot,
The Eastern Question: A Historical Study in European Diplomacy
(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1951), slightly revised and supplemented from
the original edition of 1917, are still reliable and informative but in some
respects outdated in regard to the sources used.
A comprehensive diplomatic history of the Habsburg empire from the
outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 to the Congress of Vienna in
1814-1815 has not yet been written. A number of monographs of high
scholarly standards, some of which have been referred to in the notes
to Chapter V, Sections A and J, must take their place. Only a few can
be mentioned here. Golo Mann, Secretary of Europe: The Life of Fried¬
rich Gentz, Enemy of Napoleon (New Haven, Yale University Press,
1946), is a sophisticated study on a key figure in diplomatic history, but
the lack of a scholarly and bibliographical apparatus diminishes the
value of this work. Enno E. Kraehe, Metternich’s German Policy (Prince¬
ton, Princeton University Press, 1963), Vol. I “The Contest with Napo¬
leon: 1799-1814;” and Rudolfine von Oer, Der Frieden von Pressburg
(Munich, Aschendorff, 1965), are important.
For the so-called conference period after the Congress of Vienna, C.
Irby Nichols, The European Pentarchy and the Congress of Vienna (The
Hague, M. Nijhoff, 1971), is very useful. Henry A. Kissinger, A World
Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace 1812-22
(Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1957), offers a sophisticated analysis.
A brief and challenging, though in regard to documentation somewhat

outdated survey is Richard Charmatz, Geschichte der auswdrtigen Poli-
ti\ Osterreichs im 19. Jahrhundert, 2 small volumes (Leipzig, K. G.
Teubner, 1912-1914). An up to date diplomatic history is R. F. Bridge,
From Sadowa to Sarajevo: The Foreign Policy of Austria-Hungary,
1866-1914 (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972).
For the intervening period from the end of the conference period 1822,
to the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, see four well-documented perceptive
studies: Elisabeth Andies, Das Biindnis Habsburg-Romanow (Budapest,
Akademiai Kiado, 1963) and for the Crimean war crisis Bernard Unckel,
Osterreich und der Krim\rieg (Lubeck-Hamburg, Mathiesen, 1972); Paul
W. Schroeder, Austria, Great Britain and the Crimean War (Ithaca,
Cornell University Press, 1972) and Wilfried Baumgart, Der Friede von
Paris 1856 (Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1972).
The core of Austrian foreign policy, the German question, is covered
in Heinrich von Srbik, Deutsche Finheit: Idee und Wirl?lich\eit vom
Heiligen Reich bis Koniggratz, 4 vols. (Munich, Bruckmann, 1935-1942),
grossdeutsch romantic outlook and Heinrich Fried]ung, Der Kampf um
die Vorherrschaft in Deutschland 1859-1866, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, Cotta,
1897-1898), German liberal viewpoint. In essence this brilliantly written
classic is still valuable. The 8th edition is abridged.
Austro-Italian relations until 1866 have been somewhat neglected in
Austrian historiography. All the more welcome are the monographs by
Richard Blaas, “Die italienische Frage und das osterreichische Parlament
1859-1866,” Mitteilungen des osterreichischen Staatsarchivs, Vol. 22
(1969), 151-244 and by the same author “II Problemo Veneto nella
Politica Estera Austriaca del Periodo 1859-1866,” Archivo Veneto, Serie
V, XXX (1967), 39-157, and Tentativi di Approcio per la Cessione del
Veneto (Venice, Tipografia Commerciale, 1966). For an interpretation
close to the Italian viewpoint see William R. Thayer, The Life and Times
of Cavour, 2 vols. (New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1914), see Vol. II.
For the 1870’$ see the somewhat longwinded but in terms of diplo¬
matic history informative biography by Eduard von Wertheimer, Graf
Julius Andrdssy und seine Zeit, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlagsan-
stalt, 1910-1913), and the fine study by William N. Medlicott, The Con¬
gress of Berlin and After: A Diplomatic History of the Near Eastern
Settlement 1858-1880 (London, Methuen, 1938).
For the 1870’s with particular regard to the eastern question, see John
A. R. Marriot, The Eastern Question, as noted above, Chapters XIII-XV,
346-432. For the two last decades of the empire’s history see Fritz Klein,
5j6 History of the Hahsburg Empire
ed., Osterreich Ungarn in der W eltpoliti\ 1900-1918 (Berlin, Akademie
Verlag, 1965), Marxian interpretation. See further, the interesting analysis
by Stephan Verosta, Theorie und Realitdt von Bilndnissen: Heinrich Lam-
masch, Karl Renner und der Zweibund {1895-1914), (Vienna, Europa
Verlag, 1971) and Alfred F. Pribram, Austrian Foreign Policy, 1908-1914
(London, Allen and Unwin, 1923), a brief masterpiece. Three significant
studies are also Bernadotte E. Schmitt, The Annexation of Bosnia, 1908-
1909 (Cambridge, University Press, 1937); Fritz Fellner, Der Dreibund:
Europaische Diplomatie vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg (Vienna, Verlag fur
Geschichte und Politik, i960) and Ernst Christian Helmreich, The Di¬
plomacy of the Balkan Wars 1912-1913 (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard
University Press, 1937); see further Friedrich Engel-Janosi, Geschichte
auf dem Ballhausplatz (Graz, Styria, 1963).
For world war diplomacy see I :C (Dissolution of the Empire); for
collections of documents see I:L (b), (Primary Sources, Records on For¬
eign Relations). Biographies which have an important bearing on foreign
policy but are not exclusively focused on foreign policy are found in I :B.
e) economic and social history
A comprehensive economic and social history of the Habsburg empire

does not exist. Although some of the following publications are of high
scholarly quality, they do not fill this gap completely. Ferdinand Tremel,
Der Fruhkapitalismus in Inner Osterreich (Graz, Leykam, 1954), is con¬
fined to the eastern Alpine territories. By the same author, Wirtschafts-
und Sozialgeschichte Osterreichs: Von den Anfangen bis 1955 (Vienna,
Deuticke, 1969) carries the author’s research within the confines of the
German-Austrian lands to the present. A counterpart of this work for
Hungary is Zsigmond P. Pach, Die ungarische Agrarentwicklung im 16-
iy. fahrhundert (Budapest, Akademiai Kiado, 1964). In a wider geo¬
graphical context, see for early modern history also Ingomar Borg, ed.,
Der Aussenhandel Ostmitteleuropas 1450-1650: Die ostmitteleuropaischen
Voikswirtschaften in ihren Beziehungen zu Mitteleuropa (Vienna-
Cologne, Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1973). See further, Gustav Otruba, Die
Wirtschaftspolitik Maria Theresias (Vienna, Bergland Verlag, 1963).
Louise Sommer, Die osterreichischen Kameralisten in dogmengeschich-
tlicher Darstellung (Vienna, C. Konegen, 1920), is an excellent study of
the evolution of economic theory in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
Austria. Valuable is also Jerome Blum, Noble Landowners and Agri¬
culture in Austria, 1815-1848 (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1946).
Eduard Marz, Osterreichische Industrie und Bankpolitik in der Zeit
Franz Josephs I. (Vienna, Europa Verlag, 1968), liberal; and Heinrich

Benedikt, Die wirtschaftliche Entwic\lung in der Franz Josephs Zeit
(Vienna, Herold, 1958), conservative, offer insight into an era of rapid
economic change. More comprehensive is Herbert Matis, Osterreichs
Wirtschaft 1848 bis 1913 (Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, 1972). See further,
Kristina Maria Fink, Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic als Wirt-
schaftsgemeinschaft (Munich, R. Trofenik, 1968), which strongly affirms
the economic unity of the empire. These studies are supplemented by
Hans Mayer, ed., 100 Jahre osterreichische Wirtschaftsentwic\lung
1848-1918 (Vienna, Springer, 1949) and Stefan Pacsu, Tibor Kolassa,
Jan Havranek et al., Die Agrarfrage in der osterreichisch-ungarischen
Monarchic (Bucarest, Academy, 1965). Friedrich Naumann, Mitteleuropa
(Berlin, Reimer, 1915), is the main work that promoted the concept of
German economic expansionism in the Habsburg monarchy after the end
of the First World War. Vilmos Sandor and Peter Hanak, eds., Studien
zur Geschichte der osterreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie (Budapest,
Akademiai Kiado, 1961), comprises interesting essays on various aspects
of nineteenth century economic developments in the empire, as seen from
a Marxian viewpoint. See in this respect also Ervin Pamlenyi, Social-
Economic Researches on the History of East-Central Europe (Budapest,
Akademiai Kiado, 1970). Nikolaus von Preradovich, Die Fiihrungsschich-
ten in Osterreich und Preussen 1804-1918 (Wiesbaden, Steiner, 1955),
gives an interesting pioneer study on the selection of leadership. See also
the previously noted works by G. A. Gratz and R. Schuller, O. Jaszi,
and R. A. Kann noted under I :C, and Die osterreichisch-ungarische Mon¬
archie in Wort und Bild, under I:A.
See further Wandruszka and Urbanitsch eds., Die Habsburgermon¬
archie 1848-1918 (see I:B) and Ivan T. Berend and Gyorgy Ranki,
Economic Development in East Central Etirope in the 19th and 20th
Centuries (New York, Columbia University Press, 1974), the latter work
published after completion of this study.
f) cultural history
Johann W. Nagl, Jakob Zeidler and Eduard Castle, Deutschoster-

reichische Literaturgeschichte, 4 vols. (Vienna, Fromme, 1899-1937), is
the most comprehensive German-Austrian literary history. Josef Nadler,
Literaturgeschichte Osterreichs (Salzburg, O. Muller Verlag, 1951), is a
briefer and readable, but less objective one (German nationalist ten¬
dency). Claudio Magris, Der Habsburgische Mythos in der osterreichi-
schen Literatur (Salzburg, O. Muller Verlag, 1966), relates literature to
the imperial idea. See also Robert Blauhut, Osterreichische Novellisti\ des
20. fahrhunderts (Vienna, Braumiiller, 1966). As for fine arts, Reinhardt
Hootz, ed., Kunstden\maler in Osterreich, 2 vols. (Munich, Deutscher
Kunstverlag, 1966), stresses architecture. Hans Tietze, ed., Wien: Kultnr,
Kunst, Geschichte (Vienna, Epstein, 1931), is an excellent cultural history
of the capital. On history of the stage see Josef Gregor, Geschichte des
osterreichischen Theaters (Vienna, Donau Verlag, 1948).
Concerning the Austrian Renaissance at the court of Maximilian I,
see Kurt Adel, ed., Conrad Celtes (Graz, Stiasny Verlag, i960) and the
important monograph by Alphons Lhotsky, Thomas Ebendorfer (Stutt¬
gart, Hiersemann, 1957). For the transition period from late Renaissance
to early Baroque see R. J. W. Evans, Rudolf II and his world. A Study in
Intellectual History, 15J6-1612 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1973). In
regard to Baroque art, see Therese Schiissel, Kultur des Baroc\ in
Osterreich (Graz, Stiasny Varlag, i960) and Werner Hager, Die Bauten
des deutschen Baroc\ 1690-iyjo (Jena, Diederichs, 1942) and Jaromir
Neumann, Das bohmische Baroc\ (Vienna, Forumverlag, 1971). As for
intellectual history from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth
century, see Robert A. Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History:
From late Baroque to Romanticism (2nd ed. New York, Octagon, 1973),
published in German under the title Kanzel und Katheder (Vienna,
Herder, 1964). Intellectual history in the seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries is covered more broadly in Eduard Winter, Baroc\: Absolut-
ismus und Auf^ldrung in der D on aum on archie (Vienna, Europa Verlag,
1971) and by the same author Friihaufhlarung (Berlin, Akademie
Verlag, 1966). For the problem of Josephinism, see also by Eduard
Winter, Der Josefinismus und seine Geschichte (Brunn, R. Rohrer, 1943),
left-wing interpretation. Fritz Valjavec, Der fosephinismus, second revised
edition (Vienna, Verlag fur Geschichte, 1945), national liberal and Her¬
bert Rieser, Der Geist des fosephinismus und sein Fortleben (Vienna,
Herder, 1963), catholic interpretation.
Regarding intellectual history in the early nineteenth century, see
Eduard Winter, Romantizismus: Restauration und Fruhliberalismus
im osterreichischen Vormarz (Vienna, Europa Verlag, 1968). For the
following period and by the same author, Revolution, Neoabsolutismus
und Liberalismus in der Donau Monarchie (Vienna, Europa Verlag,
1969); Albert Fuchs, Geistige Stromungen in Osterreich, 1867-1918
(Vienna, Globus Verlag, 1949), left-wing interpretation. While the works
by E. Winter and A. Fuchs meet high scholarly standards, a compre¬
hensive, fully impartial presentation of the subject is still needed. William
M. Johnston, The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History
1848-1938 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press,
1972), is a first, largely successful attempt to offer a full-fledged Austrian
intellectual history. Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin’s interesting Witt¬
genstein’s Vienna (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1973), covers in part
the same ground but is focused on Vienna. See further, Robert Waissen-
berger, Die Wiener Sezession (Vienna, Jugend und Volk Gesellschaft,
1971). Concerning the rise of Austrian medical science to world fame,
see the excellent work by Erna Lesky, Die Wiener Medizinische Schule
im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Cologne-Vienna, Bohlaus Nachfolger,
1965).
On cultural history of the Habsburg empire, see also under LA,

[Rudolf, Crownprince] Die osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic in Wort
und Bild.
g) party ideologies
See Adam Wandruszka’s perceptive “Osterreichs politische Struktur,” in

Heinrich Benedikt, ed., Geschichte der Republi\ Osterreich (Vienna,
Verlag fur Geschichte und Politik, 1954), Pt. II on the origins of the
political party system among the Austro-Germans. See further Johann
Christoph Allmayer-Beck, Der Konservatismus in Osterreich (Munich,
Isar Verlag, 1959) and Georg Franz, Die deutschliberale Bewegung in
der Habsburgischen Monarchie (Munich, Callway, 1955) and by the same
author, Kultur\ampj: Staat und \atholische Kirche in Mitteleuropa
(Munich, Callway, 1954), both books are written from a German na¬
tional viewpoint. See further Paul Molisch, Geschichte der deutsch-
nationalen Bewegung in Osterreich (Jena, Fischer, 1926), German na¬
tional interpretation.
Concerning the Socialist movement in Austria see Ludwig Briigel,
Geschichte der osterreichischen Sozialdemohratie, 5 vols. (Vienna, Verlag
der Volksbuchhandlung, 1922-1925) and in a popular presentation
Jacques Hannak, Im Sturme eines ]ahrhunderts: Vbl\stumliche Geschi¬
chte der sozialistischen Partei Osterreichs (Vienna, Verlag der Wiener
Volksbuchhandlung, 1952), both works present the Socialist viewpoint.
For the early history of the labor movement see Herbert Steiner, Die
Arbeiterbewegung Osterreichs 1867-1889 (Vienna, Europa Verlag, 1964).
h) national issue in the habsburg empire: general surveys
Hugo Hantsch, Die Nationalitdtenfrage im alien Osterreich (Vienna,

Herold, 1952), is a brief and useful general survey. Robert A. Kann,
y8o History of the Hahshurg Empire
The Multinational Empire: Nationalism and National Reform in the
Habshurg Monarchy 1848-1918, 2 vols. (New York, Columbia Univer¬
sity Press, 1950 and New York, Octagon Press, 1964 and 1970), is a more
extensive study which includes a comprehensive bibliography. The re¬
vised and enlarged German edition of this work Das Nationalitatenprob-
lem der Habsburgermonarchie, 2 vols. (Vienna-Cologne, Bohlaus Nach-
folger, 1964), includes considerable additional material, particularly in
the chapters on the Slavic national groups. The bibliography is brought up
to 1964. Franz Zwitter in collaboration with Jaroslav Sidak and Vaso
Bogdonow, Les Problems Nationaux dans la Monarchic des Habsbourg
(Beograd, i960), offers an interesting unorthodox Marxian interpretation
and useful bibliographical information, particularly on modern Slavic lit¬
erature. Peter Hanak, ed., Die nationale Frage in der osterreichisch-
ungarischen Monarchic (Budapest, Akademiai Kiado, 1966), presents in
most contributions various views prevailing in countries, which belong to
the Eastern European Communist block. As for legal problems, Ludwig
Gumplowicz, Das Recht der Nationalitaten und Sprachen in Osterreich-
Ungarn (Innsbruck, Wagner, 1879), is the pioneer work in the legal
aspects of the national problem. Karl Gottfried Hugelmann, ed., Das
Nationalitatenrecht des alien Osterreich (Vienna, Braumiiller, 1964), is
a more recent, important collection of contributions to the same issue.
Theodor Veiter, a student of Hugelmann, offers in his Das Recht der
Volhsgruppen und Sprachminderheiten in Osterreich (Vienna, Brau-
miiller, 1970), a kind of continuation of Hugelmann’s work for the Aus¬
trian republic. Yet in many ways this volume comments also on the
national problems of the Habsburg monarchy. The viewpoint of both
works is predominantly grossdeutsch. Hans Mommsen, Die Nationali-
tatenfrage und die Sozialdemo\ratie im Habsburgischen Vielvdl\erstaat
(Vienna, Europa Verlag, 1963), offers a good analysis of the Socialist
viewpoint represented in the theories of such Socialist classics as Karl
Renner, Das Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Nationen (Vienna, Deuticke,
1918) and Otto Bauer, Die Nationalitatenfrage und die Sozialdemokratie,
2d edition (Vienna, Verlag der Volksbuchhandlung, 1924). The con¬
servative equivalent to these works is Ignaz Seipel, Nation und Staat
(Vienna, Braumiiller, 1917). See further, in Peter F. Sugar and Ivo
J. Lederer, eds., Nationalism in Eastern Europe (Seattle, University
of Washington Press, 1969), the chapters on the Czechs by Joseph F.
Zacek, on the Magyars by George Barany, on the Poles by Peter Brock,
on the Roumanians by Stephen Fischer-Galati, and on the Southern Slavs
by Ivo J. Lederer.
Bibliographical Essay 5*i
i) CHURCHES
Ernst Tomek, Kirc hen geschichte Osterreichs, 3 vols. (Innsbruck,

Tyrolia, 1935-1959), is the uncompleted standard work on the history of
the Catholic Church in Austria. Vols. II and III cover the period from the
Reformation through the Enlightenment. Josef Wodka, Kirc he in Oster-
reich (Vienna, Herold, 1959), is a briefer useful survey. See further,
Erika Weinzierl, Die osterreichischen Kon\ordate von 7855 und 1933
(Vienna, Verlag fiir Geschichte und Politik, i960). On the relationship
of Church policies to the national problem see Friedrich Engel-Janosi,
“The Church and the Nationalities,” Austrian History Yearbook III 13,
(1967) and ibid. Emanuel Turczinsky, “The National Movement in the
Greek Orthodox Church in the Habsburg Monarchy.”
On the problem of Josephinism in relation to the Church see Eduard
Winter, Der Josefinismus: Die Geschichte des osterreichischen Reform-
\atholizismus 1340-1848 (Berlin, Ritter and Loening, 1962); Herbert
Rieser, Der Geist des Josefinismus und sein Fortleben (Vienna, Herder,
1963) and Charles H. O’Brien, Ideas of Religious Toleration at the Time
of Joseph II (Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1969). See
further, Ferdinand Maass, Der Friihjosephinismus (Vienna, Herold,
1969), ecclesiastic viewpoint. The indispensible documentary collection is
Ferdinand Maass, Der Josephinismus, 5 vols. (Vienna, Herold, 1951-
1961), which covers the period from 1760 to 1850 (conservative-ecclesiastic
interpretation). On the relationship between governmental and ecclesiastic
authorities with particular regard to the problem of censorship in the
eighteenth century see Grete Klingenstein, Staatsverwaltung und \irch-
liche Autoritat im 18. Jahrhundert (Vienna, Verlag fiir Geschichte und
Politik, 1970). See also Eduard Hosp, Kirche Osterreichs im Vormdrz,
1813-1830 (Vienna, Herold, 1971).
On the history of Protestantism, see Grete Mecensefly, Geschichte des
Protestantismus in Osterreich (Graz-Cologne, Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1956)
and the work by J. Loserth listed under I:B.
j) ARMED FORCES
See Eugen Heischmann, Die Anfange des stehenden Heeres in Oster¬

reich (Vienna, Osterreichischer Bundesverlag, 1925). Oskar Regele, Der
osterreichische Hojhyiegsrat 1336-1898 (Vienna, Osterreichische Staats-
druckerei, 1949). Hugo Schmid, Heereswesen, 2 vols., 3d edition (Vienna,
Selbstverlag H. Schmid, 1915). See further, Gunther E. Rothenberg, “The
Habsburg Army and the Nationality Problem in the Nineteenth Cen-
tury, 1815-1914,” Austrian History Yearboo\, III :i (1967); Walter Wag¬
ner, Geschichte des Kriegsministeriums, 1848-1888, 2 vols. (Graz-
Cologne, Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1966-1971); Nikolaus von Preradovich, Die
Fuhrungsschichten in Osterreich, as listed under I :E. See further Thomas
M. Barker, Raimondo Montecuccoli and the Thirty Years War: a military
intellectual and his battles (Albany, State University of New York Press,
to be published 1974).
k) constitutional problems and administration
Hermann I. Bidermann, Geschichte der osterreichischen Gesamtstaat-

sidee, 1526-1804 (Innsbruck, Wagner, 1867), is an incomplete, original
attempt to perceive the evolution of the Habsburg empire as a combina¬
tion of legal and political factors. Otto Brunner, Land und Herrschaft:
Grundfragen der territorialen Verfassungsgeschichte Osterreichs im
Mittelalter, 4th revised edition (Vienna-Wiesbaden, R. Rohrer, 1943)
presents a more modern approach for the medieval period. See also
Helmut G. Koenigsberger, Estates and Revolution (Ithaca, Cornell Uni¬
versity Press, 1971). Alfons Huber, Osterreichische Reichsgeschichte, 2d
revised edition by Alfons Dopsch (Vienna, A. Tempsky, 1901), is a
masterpiece in the field of constitutional and administrative history. How¬
ever, the work carries the story only to the 1870*8. Ernst C. Hellbling,
Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungs geschichte (Vienna,
Springer, 1956), a presentation not on a par with that of Huber-Dopsch
but with some additional bibliographical information, covers the topic to
the end of the Second World War. See also Otto Stolz, Grundriss der
osterreichischen Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte (Innsbruck-
Vienna, Tyrolia, 1957), a brief survey; and most recently Friedrich
Walter, Osterreichische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungs geschichte von
1500-1955 (Vienna-Cologne-Graz, Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1972). See also
Hermann Baltl, Osterreichische Rechtsgeschichte, 2nd enlarged ed. (Graz,
Leykam, 1972), a brief survey with emphasis on medieval and early mod¬
ern history.
Josef Ulbrich, Das osterreichische Staatsrecht, 3d revised edition
(Tubingen, J. C. B. Mohr [P. Siebeck], 1909), is a reliable constitutional
history. Its counterpart for the eastern part of the empire is Heinrich
Marczali, Ungarisches Verfassungsrecht (same publisher, 1911). Josef
Redlich, Das Osterreichische Staats- und Reichs problem, vol. I/i, vol. I/2
(notes and documents), vol. II (Leipzig, P. Reinhold, 1921), is a monu¬
mental torso which covers Austrian constitutional history from 1848 to
1867. Beyond this, the work offers deep insight into the political problems
and ideas which arose in the Habsburg empire in the eighteenth and later
nineteenth centuries. See further, Louis Eisenmann, Le Compromis Austro-
Hongrois de 1863 (Paris, G. Bellais, 1904), the thus-far best analysis of the
Compromise. Strictly factual but more limited in scope than Eisenmann’s
work is Ivan Zolgar, Der staatsrechtliche Ausgleich zwischen Osterreich
und Ungarn (Leipzig, Duncker and Humblot, 1911). See further, Max
Kulisch, Beitrage zum osterreichischen Parlamentsrecht (Leipzig,
Duncker and Humblot, 1900). Britta Skottsberg, Der osterreichische Par-
lamentarismus (Goteborg, Elanders, 1940), offers a perceptive and reliable
analysis.
Three works on administrative history are significant: Ignaz Beidtel,
Geschichte der osterreichischen Staatsverwaltung (1340-1848), ed. by
Alfons Huber, 2 vols. (Innsbruck, Wagner, 1896-1898); Thomas Fellner,
Die osterreichische Zentralverwaltung, completed by Heinrich Kretsch-
mayr, 3 vols. (Vienna, Holzhausen, 1907); and Friederich Walter, Die
osterreichische Zentralverwaltung (1792-1848), 2 vols. (Vienna, Holz¬
hausen, 1956), (a continuation of T. Fellner’s work).
l) primary sources (records) in domestic affairs and foreign relations
(a) Domestic Affairs
Ferdinand Maass, ed., Der Josephinismus, as quoted under I:}, offers for
the first time a nearly complete record of the pertinent documents of the
history of Josephinism in Austria from 1760 to 1850. Anton Springer,
ed., Protohplle des Verjassungsausschusses im osterreichischen Reichstage
1848-1849 (Leipzig, S. Hirzel, 1885) and Alfred von Fischel, Die Proto-
kplle des Verjassungsausschusses und die Grundrechte (Vienna, Gerlach
and Wiedling, 1912), are in several ways as important as the records of
the proceedings of the general assembly at Vienna and Kremsier them¬
selves, Verhandlungen des ersten osterreichischen Reichstages, 5 vols.
(Vienna, Kremsier, 1848-1849). See further, Heinrich von Srbik, Quellen
zur deutschen PolitiJ{ in Osterreich 1839-1866, 5 vols. (Munich, R. Old-
enbourg, 1934-1938). The volume on the Austrian nationality legislation,
edited and interpreted by Edmund Bernatzik, Das osterreichische Na-
tionalitatenrecht (Vienna, Manz, 1917), is an indispensable source.
(b) Foreign Relations
Concerning the transactions of the Congress of Vienna, see Johann L.

Kliiter, ed., Der Wiener Congress in den Jahren 1814 und 1813, 9 vols.
(Erlangen, Palm und Ende, 1815-1819). Regarding the documentation of
the Congress of Berlin, see Alexander Novotny, Studien zur Geschichte
des Berliner Kongresses 1838 (Graz-Cologne, Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1971)
Vol. I. As first two volumes of a new comprehensive series, Die Proto\olle
des osterreichischen Ministerrates (1848-1867), introduced by Friederich
Engel-Janosi, the following have been published: “Einleitungsband” by
Helmut Rumpler and Section VI, Vol. I, “Ministerium Belcredi,” edited
by Horst Brettner-Metzler (both Vienna, Osterreichischer Bundesverlag,
1970-1971), cover foreign and domestic agenda. A Hungarian series cover¬
ing the period 1867-1918 will follow. Miklos Komjathy, ed., Protohplle
des gemeinsamen Ministerrats der osterreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie
(7914-1918) (Budapest, Akademiai Kiado, 1966) is important for the
understanding of wartime government.
Alfred F. Pribram, ed., The Secret Treaties of Austria-Hungary 1879-
1914, 2 vols. (New York, Fertig, 1969, reprint of the English edition),
translated from the German Die politischen Geheimvertrdge Osterreich-
Ungarns 18J9-1914 (Vienna, Braumiiller, 1920), is an imperative tool for
the study of diplomatic history. The same is true for Ludwig Bittner,
Alfred F. Pribram, Heinrich von Srbik and Hans Ubersberger, eds.,
Osterreich-Ungarns Aussenpoliti\ von der bosnischen Krise 1908 bis zum
Kriegsausbruch 1914, 8 vols. and index vol. (Vienna, Osterreichischer
Bundesverlag, 1930). This is the major Austrian publication of documents
pertaining to the prehistory of the First World War.
As for the immediate prehistory of the war, the official collection Oster-
reichisch-U ngarisches Rotbuch: Diplomatische A\ten stile \e zur V or ge¬
schichte des Krieges 1914 (Vienna, Staatsdruckerei, 1914), are incomplete
and unreliable but their deficiencies were largely corrected by the publica¬
tion of supplements in two parts in 1919. Interesting is also the selection
by Roderich Goos, Das Wiener Kabinett und die Entstehung des Welt-
brieges, 2d edition (Vienna, Seidel, 1919). See further, Osterreichisch-
Ungarisches Rotbuch: Diplomatische A\tenstilc\e betreffend die Bezie-
hungen Osterreich-Ungarns zu Italien, 20. Juli 1914 bis 23. Mai 1913
(Vienna, Manz, 1915) and Osterreichisch-U ngarisches Rotbuch: Diplo¬
matische A\tenstiic\e betreffend die Beziehungen O sterreich-U ngarns zu
Rumdniem vom 22. fuli 1914 bis 27. August 1916 (Vienna, Manz, 1916).
m) historiography
Heinrich von Srbik, Geist und Geschichte vom deutschen Humanismus

bis zur Gegenwart, 2 vols. (Salzburg, O. Muller Verlag, 1950-1951) and
Alfons Lhotsky, Osterreichische Historiography (Vienna, Verlag fur
Geschichte und Politik, 1962), are the major contributions to the his¬
toriography of Austrian history written in German. See also more recently
Paul Schroeder, “The Status of Habsburg Studies in the United States,”
and Fritz Fellner and Friedrich Gottas, “Habsburg Studies in Europe,”
both in Austrian History Yearbook, 111:3 (1967) and R. John Rath, “Das
amerikanische Schrifttum liber den Untergang der Monarchic,” in
Richard G. Plaschka and Karlheinz Mack, eds., Die Auflosung des
Habsburgerreiches, listed under I:C. For historiographical information on
the individual national groups see part II of this chapter.
n) biography, reference works
Constantin von Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexicon des Kaisertums

Osterreich 1550-1850 (1859), 60 vols. (Vienna, Hof- und Staatsdruckerei,
1856-1891), is an important biographical source. For the later part of the
period and the first half of the nineteenth century it is being supple¬
mented by Osterreichisches Biographisches Lexipon, 1815-1950, ed. by Leo
Santifaller and Eva Obermayer-Marnach (Graz-Cologne, Bdhlaus Nach-
folger, 1957- ).Neue osterreichische Biographie 1815-1918, ed. originally by
Anton Bettelheim (Vienna, Amalthea Verlag, 1923- ), is a selective bio¬
graphical work of respectable literary quality (so far eighteen volumes).
Austrian biography in German has to be supplemented by Allgemeine
deutsche Biographie, 60 vols. including appendixes and necrologies (Leip¬
zig, Duncker and Humblot, 1875-1912) and after 1945 by Neue deutsche
Biographie, 6 vols. so far (Berlin, Duncker and Humblot, 1953).
O) SERIALS AND NEWSPAPERS
Mitteilungen des Institutes fur osterreichische Geschichtsforschung

(MIOG), 1880- , various publishers and slightly varying titles currently
published by Bdhlaus Nachfolger, Graz-Cologne, is the standard scholarly
journal on Austrian history in German language. Mitteilungen des
osterreichischen Staatsarchivs (MIOSTA), (Horn, Berger, 1948- ), pub¬
lishes articles and monographs, based primarily on research in Austrian
archives. The national academies of the succession states to the Habsburg
empire publish likewise serials based on historical research in their coun¬
tries.
In English, see the Austrian History Yearbook (Houston, Rice Uni¬
versity, 1965- annual) and Central European History (Atlanta, Emory
University, 1968- quarterly). Various serials on Slavic history published
in Great Britain and the United States contain significant articles.
Of newspapers see particularly the following journals which outlasted
the empire: Neue Freie Presse founded in 1864 (German liberal),
Reichspost founded in 1894 (Catholic conservative), Arbeiter-Zeitung
founded 1889 (Socialist); all three published in Vienna. On the bibliog¬
raphy of the press in German see the work by K. Paupie, listed under
I:Q; on the press in other national languages see the references listed
under bibliographies in II :B to M.
p) STATISTICS
The official Austrian and Hungarian statistical publications are K. K.

Osterreichische Staatische Zentral Commission, Osterreichisches statis¬
ts c he s Handbuch (Vienna, A. Holder, 1880- annual, with slightly vary¬
ing title) and L’Office Central Royal Hongrois de Statistique Annuaire
Statistique Hongrois, (Budapest, Athenaeum, 1893-1918); both series are
of high quality.
The Magyarizing tendencies in the Hungarian statistics are not re¬
flected in any outright distortion of figures but rather in the manner of
presentation. The survey volumes at the end of every decade, 1880, 1890,
etc. are of particular importance. Of older works on statistics see the
one by Czoernig listed under I:A and Wilhelm Winkler, Statistisches
Handbuch der europdischen Nationalitaten (Vienna, Braumuller, 1931).
See also the bibliography on statistical sources in R. A. Kann, Nationali-
tatenproblem, Vol. II, Appendix I, listed under I:H and the monographs
listed in Appendix I of this study.
q) bibliography
Karl and Mathilde Uhlirz, Handbuch der Geschichte Osterreichs und

seiner Nachbarldnder Bohmen und Ungarn, 4 vols. (Vienna, Bohlaus
Nachfolger, 1927-1944). The first volume covering Austrian history until
1526 has been published in a revised second edition by Bohlaus Nach¬
folger, Graz-Cologne, 1964. This work in conjunction with the History
by Franz von Krones (see under I:B) contains presently the most compre¬
hensive bibliography on the political and administrative history of the
Habsburg empire. Richard Charmatz, Wegweiser durch die Literatur der
osterreichischen Geschichte (Stuttgart, Cotta, 1912) is a useful brief bib¬
liographical survey. The most up-to-date bibliographical work on current
literature with emphasis on works in German and English is Eric H.
Boehm and Fritz Fellner, Osterreichische historische Bibliographie—
Austrian Historical Bibliography (Santa Barbara, Calif., Clio Press, 1965-
annual volumes) compiled by Herbert Paulhart and Gunther Hode with
the cooperation of Wolf dieter Bihl. Fully up to date are also the important
bibliographies by Paul L. Horecky, East Central Europe (Chicago, Uni¬
versity of Chicago Press, 1969) and by the same author and publisher
South Eastern Europe (1969). Chief emphasis is put on the history of the
national groups to the present rather than of the empire itself. See also
F. R. Bridge, The Habsburg Monarchy 1804-1918: Boo\s and Pamphlets
Published in the United Kingdom between 1804 and 1918, a Critical Bib¬
liography (London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Uni¬
versity of London, 1967).
Apart from the standard bibliography on German historiography by
Dahlmann-Waitz, see E. Zollner (under I:B) and for recent literature also
Austrian History Yearboo\ (under 1:0) and Osterreichische historische
Bibliographic as noted above. On nationalism, see R. A. Kann, Das
Nationalitatenproblem and Fran Zwitter, Les Problemes Nationaux dans
la Monarchic des Habsbourg (particularly good on modern Slavic litera¬
ture), (both listed under I:H).
On the bibliography of the press see Kurt Paupie, Handbuch der oster-
reichischen Pressegeschichte, 2 vols. (Vienna, Braumiiller, 1960-1966); on
that of the labor movement see Herbert Steiner, ed., Bibliographie zur
Geschichte der osterreichischen Arbeiterbewegung (Vienna, Verlag des
osterreichischen Gewerkschaftsbundes, 1962).
II. Literature on the History of the National Groups
Many of the following items, like some of the previously listed ones,
are to a greater or lesser extent tinged with the spirit of nationalism. This
does not mean, however, that the topic is focused necessarily on the
national issue. It does mean that most of these works were written from
a national viewpoint.
a) the austro-germans
Most of the works on the Austro-Germans are covered in the sections

of the preceding Part I. To them, the following works which, at least in
part, emphasize aspects of nationalism, may be added.
Paul Molisch, Briefe zur deutschen Politic in Osterreich (Vienna,
Braumiiller, 1934), Wilhelm Schiissler, Osterreich und das deutsche
Schic\sal (Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlagsansstalt, 1918), and Heinrich von
Srbik, Osterreich in der deutschen Geschichte (Munich, Bruckmann,
1936) represent the grossdeutsch position. Heinrich von Srbik, Deutsche
Einheit: Idee und Wirhlichkeit vom heiligen Reich bis Koniggratz, 2
parts in 4 vols. (Munich, Bruckmann, 1936), is an important contribution
to the analysis of Austria’s role in the history of the German unification
movement. See also Andrew G. Whiteside, Austrian National Socialism
before 1918 (The Hague, Nijhoff, 1962). For bibliographical information
see the bibliographical section I:Q.
Important autobiographies and diaries written from different view-
points are Ernst von Plener, Erinnerungen, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, Deutsche
Verlagsanstalt, 1926), German liberal; Eduard Suess, Erinnerungen
(Leipzig, Hirzel, 1916), German liberal; Friedrich Funder, Mein Weg
vom Gestern ins Heute (Vienna, Flerold, 1952), Christian Social; Rudolf
Sieghart, Die letzten Jahrzehnte einer Grossmacht (Berlin, Ullstein,
1932), conservative; Joseph M. Baernreither, Fragmente eines politischen
Tagebuches (Berlin, Verlag fur Kulturpolitik, 1928), enlightened con¬
servative; Fritz Fellner, ed., Schic\salsjahre Osterreichs: Das Politische
Tagebuch Josepf Redlichs 1908-1919, 2 vols. (Graz-Cologne, Bohlaus
Nachfolger, 1953), German progressive. No fully adequate scholarly
biographies of major political figures such as Victor Adler, Karl Lueger,
Georg von Schonerer have as yet been published.
b) THE MAGYARS
■t
The standard Hungarian history is Balint Homan and Gyula Szekfii,

Magyar Tortenet, 5 vols. (Budapest, Egyetemi Nyomda, 1935-1936).
There is no single adequate history of Austria from the Middle Ages to
modern times in English, but there are several on Hungary. Dominic
G. Kosary, A History of Hungary (Cleveland, Benjamin Franklin
Society, 1941), is a stimulating survey. See further, Denis Sinor, History
of Hungary (London, Allen and Unwin, 1959); C. A. Macartney,
Hungary: A History (Edinburgh, University Press, 1962) and Sandor de
Bertha, La Hongrie Moderne de 189.9 a 1901 (Paris, Plon Norritt, 1901).
An interesting modern work is Erik Molnar, Ivan T. Berend, et ah, eds.,
Magyaroszag Tortenete (Budapest, Gondolat Konyvkiado, 1967), 2 vols.
The most recent history of Hungary written strictly from the viewpoint
of the prevailing party ideology in the country is Ervin Pamlenyi, ed.,
Die Geschichte Ungarns (Budapest, Corvina, 1971). The work offers
much new material on socioeconomic and some on political history but
it is onesided in its interpretation and in its bibliographical references. It
has been published in Hungarian and German. Julius Miskolczy, Ungarn
in der Habsburger-Monarchie (Vienna, Herold, 1959), discusses the
relationship of the lands of the Hungarian crown to the empire in a
conservative, by and large pro-imperial manner. A standard work on the
era from 1867-1918, as seen from the dualistic constitutional angle is
Gustav Gratz, A Dualizmus Kora: Magyaroszag Tortenete 186^-1918,
2 vols. (Budapest, Magyar Szemle Tarsasag, 1934). P. Hanak interprets
the same problem from the Communist viewpoint with greater emphasis
an socioeconomic factors in Austrian History Yearboo\, Vol. Ill :i. Hein¬
rich Marczali, Ungarische Verfassungsgeschichte (Tubingen, J. C. B. Mohr
(P. Siebeck), 1910) and by the same author Hungary in the Eighteenth
Century (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1910), are both
translations of distinguished works by a notable Magyar historian. See
also Bela Kirdly, Hungary in the late Eighteenth Century (New York,
Columbia University Press, 1969), a significant study with new material.
On the following period of reform, see George Barany, Stephan Szechenyi
and the Awakening of Hungarian Nationalism 1J91-1841 (Princeton,
Princeton University Press, 1968). For a Marxian interpretation of this
period see Erzsebet Andies, Metternich und die Frage Ungarns (Buda¬
pest, Akademiai Kiado, 1973).
Hungarian social and economic history: Count Paul Teleky, The
Evolution of Hungary and its Place in European History (New York,
Macmillan, 1923), is the work of an ardent Magyar revisionist after the
First World War. Written with intellectual honesty, the study contains
much useful factual information although the interpretation may fre¬
quently be challenged. Alexander (Sandor) von Matlekovits, Das
Konigreich Ungarn, 2 vols. (Leipzig, Duncker and Humblot, 1900),
(translated from the Hungarian), is a useful survey. Zsigmond P. Pach,
Die ungarische Agrarpoliti\ im 16. und 77. fahrhundert (Budapest,
Akademiai Kiado, 1964), (referred to in I:E), informative. See further,
Sonja Jordan, Die haiserliche Wirtschaftspoliti\ im Banat im 18. fahr¬
hundert (Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1967) and Konrad Muller, Sieben-
bilrgische Wirtschaftspoliti\ unter Maria Theresia (Munich, R. Olden¬
bourg, 1961). See also the previously listed work by V. Sandor and
P. Hanak, Studien zur Geschichte der osterreichisch-ungarischen Mon¬
archic, under I:D.
Nationalism: Josef Weber, Eotvos und die ungarische Nationalitaten-
frage (Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1966) discusses the national philosophy
of the outstanding political thinker and would-be empire reformer. Paul
Body, Joseph Eotvos and the Modernization of Hungary, 1840-1870
(Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1972), extends this analy¬
sis to the topic of administration. Julius Szekfii, Etat et Nation (Paris,
Les Presses Universitaires de France, 1945), translated from the Hungar¬
ian, is a study of great importance.
Cultural history: J. H. Schwicker, Geschichte der ungarischen Literatur
(Leipzig, W. Friedrich, 1888), is an older conservative, but still useful
work. More modern in outlook is Josef Remenyi, Hungarian Writers and
Literature (New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1964). See Julius
von Farkas, Die ungarische Romanti\ (Berlin, W. de Gruyter, 1931). See
further Johann Andritsch, ed., Ungarische Geisteswelt (Baden-Baden,
590 History of th e Habsb urg Empire
Flolle, 1968) and Antal Sivirsky, Die ungarische Literatur der Gegenwart
(Bern, Francke, 1962). One of the rare books which offers more than the
title promises, namely an analysis of major factors in Hungarian intellec¬
tual and social history, is William O. McCagg, Jewish Nobles and Geniuses
in Modern Hungary (New York, Columbia University Press, 1971).
Two important studies which discuss the gradual ascendancy of the
Left in Magyar intellectual life are Zoltan Horvath, Die ]ahrhundertwende
in Ungarn (Neuwied am Rhein, Luchterhand, 1966), translated from
the Hungarian, and Tibor Sule, Sozialdemo\ratie in Ungarn (Cologne-
Graz, Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1967).
Historiography: See Stephan Borsody, “Modern Hungarian Historiog¬
raphy,” Journal of Modern History (1952) and for the Communist
period Francis S. Wagner, A Magyar Tortenetiras uj utjai 7945-57
(Washington, D. C., 1956).
General reference: Ungarn (Budapest, Corvina, 1966).
Bibliography: Dominic Kosary, Bevezetes a Magyar Tortenelem
Forrasaiba es lodalmaba, 2 vols. (Budapest, Magyar Tudomanyos
Akademia, 1951- ), (for the period to 1825); see further, Magyar
Torteneti Bibliografia 1825-1867 (Budapest, Academy, 1950- ), and
Magyar Nemzeti Bibliografia (Budapest, National Szechenyi Library,
1946- ), classified according to subject matter.
c) THE ITALIANS
Most studies in Italian on the Austro-Italian problem written before

1918 represent the irredentist viewpoint; most studies in German, written
after 1918, the revisionist one. See L’Adriatico, Studio geographico storico
e politico (Milano, Fratelli Treves, 1915) and Virginio Gayda, LTtalia
dfoltre confine (Torino, Fratelli Bocca, 1915). See further Angelo Tam-
borra, Lildea di nazionalitd e la guerra 1914-1918 (Trento, Congresso di
Storia di Risorgimento Italiano, 1963). As for regional studies, see
Giuseppe Borghetti, Trento Italiana (Firenze, Barbera, 1903); Cesare
Battisti, 11 Trentino, ilustrazione statistico-economico (Milan, Rava et Co.,
1915) and Giorgio Roletto, Trieste ed i suoi problemi (Trieste, Borsatti,
1952).
In English see Kent R. Greenfield, “The Italian Nationality Problem

of the Austrian Empire,” Austrian History Yearboo\, 111:2 (1967). As
for literature in German see Hans Kramer, Die Italiener unter der
osterreichisch-ungarischen Monarchic (Vienna, Herold, 1954); Theodor
Veiter, Die Italiener in der osterreichisch-ungarischen Monarchic (Vienna,
Verlag fiir Geschichte und Politik, 1965); Michael Mayr, Der italienische
Bibliographical Essay $gi
Irredentismus im Entstehen und seine Entwic\lung, vornehmlich in
Tirol, 2d edition (Innsbruck, Tyrolia, 1937); Adam Wandruszka, Oster-
reich und Italien im achtzehnten fahrhundert (Vienna, Verlag fur
Geschichte und Politik, 1963).
Bibliography: See Attilio Pagliani, Catalog generate della libreria
italiana, 8 vols (Milan, Associazione tipografko libraria italiana, 1901-
1905) continued by Quaderni e riviste d’ltalia: repetorio biliografico
(Rome, 1958- ). For literature in German see the above-listed work
by H. Kramer.
d) THE ROUMANIANS
The standard work on Roumanian history is Nicolae Jorga, Istoria

Romanilor, 10 vols (Bucarest, Roumanian Academy, 1935-1939). A com¬
plete translation in French is out of print. Abridged editions of this work
have been published in English, French, and German. Relatively most
comprehensive of these shorter versions is the German edition: Greschichte
des rumanischen Voices im Rahmen seiner Staatsbildungen, 2 vols.
(Gotha, F. A. Perthes, 1905-1911). In English see particularly Robert W.
Seton-Watson, A History of the Rumanians (Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 1934).
On the Roumanians in the Habsburg monarchy, see Mathias Bernath,
Habsburg und die Anfange der rumanischen Nationsbildung (Leiden,
Brill, 1972) and Stephan Fischer-Galati, “The Roumanians and the Habs¬
burg Monarchy,” Austrian History Yearboo\, III:2 (1967). On the dis¬
solution of the Habsburg empire with particular regard to the Roumanian
problem see Constantin Daicoviciu and Miron Constantinescu, Destramarea
Monarhiei Austro-Ungare 1900-1918 (Bucarest, Editura Academei, 1964).
On the Roumanians in Hungary including Transylvania see Theodor V.
Pacatianu, Cartea de aur: sau luptele poliUce-nationale al e Romanilor de
sub coroana ungara, 8 vols. (Sibu, Tipografia arhidiecezana, 1904-1915).
For briefer presentations see Miron Constantinescu, Etudes d’Histone Tran-
sylvaine (Bucarest, Academy, 1970) and Constantin Daicoviciu and Miron
Constantinescu, Breve Histoire de la Transylvanie (Bucarest, Academy,
1965), the classic Nicolae Jorga, Histoire des Roumains de Transylvanie
et de Hongrie, 2 vols. (Bucarest, Gutenberg, 1915-1916), somewhat out¬
dated, and the scholarly study by Keith Hitchins, The Rumanian National
Movement in Transylvania 1^80-18^9 (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Uni¬
versity Press, 1964). On the Magyar viewpoint, see Eugen Horvath,
Transylvania and the History of the Rumanians (Budapest, Sarkany,
I935) and Ladislas Makkai, Histoire de Transylvanie (Paris, Press Uni-
versitaires de France, 1946). See also Konrad Muller, Siebenburgische
W irtschaftspoliti\ unter Maria Theresia (Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1961).
On the Roumanians in the Bukovina, see Erich Prokopowitsch, Die
rumdnische Nationalbewegung in der Bu\owina und der Daco-Romanis-
mus (Vienna-Cologne, Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1965).
Bibliography: See Andrei Veress, Bibiiografia romana-ungara, 3 vols.
(Bucarest, Certea Romaneasca, 1931-1935) and the above-listed works on
Transylvania by C. Daicoviciu and M. Constantinescu, and on the
Bukovina by E. Prokopowitsch. See also Studie revista de istoria, (Buca¬
rest, Academy, 1948).
E) GENERAL SLAVIC INTELLECTUAL AND LINGUISTIC HISTORY
See Hans Kohn, Die Welt der Slawen, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main,
S. Fischer, i960) and by the -same author, Panslavism: Its History and
Ideology (New York, Vintage Books, i960). On Panslavism see also the
excellent older study by Alfred von Fischel, Der Panslawismus bis zum
Welt\rieg (Stuttgart, Cotta, 1919). As general reference see further
Francis Dvornik, The Slavs in European History and Civilization (New
Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1962) and Leonid Strakhovsky, ed.,
A Handboo\ of Slavic Studies (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University
Press, 1949). Paul Diels, Die slawischen Voider (Wiesbaden, O. Harrasso-
witz, 1963), excellent. Paul Hineberg, Die osteuropaischen Literaturen und
die slawischen Sprachen (Berlin-Leipzig, Teubner, 1908). An older work,
translated from the Russian, is rich in facts and still useful: A. N. Pypin
and V. D. Spasovic, Geschichte der slawischen Literaturen, 2 parts in 3
vols. (Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1880-1884). Of some use is still Gregor Krek,
Einleitung in die slawische Literaturgeschichte (Graz, Lenschner, 1887).
Of greater importance are the works by Dmitry Cizevsky, Comparative
History of Slavic Literature (Nashville, Vanderbilt University Press,
1971) and by the same author Outline of Comparative Slavic Literature
(Boston, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1952).
Bibliographies: See Robert J. Kerner, Slavic Europe: A Selected Bib-
liography (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1918) and more
recently Jirina Sztachova, Mid Europe (New York, Mid European
Studies Center, 1953). For more extensive bibliographical information see
the references in the subsections on the individual Slavic national groups.
F) THE CZECHS
See Robert J. Kerner, ed., Czechoslovakia (Berkeley and Los Angeles,

University of California Press, 1945), is a useful general survey on poli-
tical, cultural, and socioeconomic history. Vaclav Novotny, Kamil Krofta

and Josef Macek, eds., Ceshe Dejiny, 3 vols. in 16 part (Prague, J.
Laichter, 1912-1966), is a comprehensive history still in progress. So far
it is the standard work on Czech medieval history. Still valuable are
Ernest Denis, Fin de Vlndependence Boheme, 2 vols. (Paris, A. Colin,
1890) and by the same author La Boheme depuis la Montague Blanche,
2 vols. (Paris, Leroux, 1903). Both works together cover Bohemian his¬
tory from the middle of the fifteenth to the end of the nineteenth cen¬
tury. Karl Bosl, ed., Handbuch der Geschichte der bohmischen Lander,
3 vols. (Stuttgart, A. Hiersemann, 1967-1970), Vols. I, III, IV: Vol. I on
medieval history; Vol. Ill on nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Vol. IV
on the history of the republic (Vol. II on early modern history not yet
published.) Hermann Munch, Bohmische Tragodie (Braunschweig, G.
Westermann, 1949), is excellent on German-Czech relations. To be
recommended is also Elizabeth Wiskemann, Czechs and Germans (Lon¬
don, Oxford University Press, 1938). In English, S. Harrison Thomson,
Czechoslovakia in European History (Princeton, Princeton University
Press, 1953) and Robert W. Seton-Watson, History of the Czechs and
Slovaks (London, Hutchinson and Co., 1943) are useful one-volume sur¬
veys. Outstanding relatively brief but comprehensive histories in Czech
language are Kamil Krofta, Dejiny Ces\oslovens\e (Prague, Janda, 1946);
see also Josef Macek, et al., eds., Prehled ces\oslovens\ych dejin, 3 vols.
in 4, (Prague, Akademie ved, 1958-1960), of which vols. 1-3 pertain to
Czech history until 1918 (Marxian interpretation); and a standard work
by Vaclav Novotny, ed., Dejiny in Ces\oslovens\a vlastiveda (Czecho¬
slovak Encyclopedia), 2 vols. (Prague, Sfinx, 1932-1933).
Of monographs, see Robert J. Kerner, Bohemia in the Eighteenth
Century, revised edition edited by Joseph F. Zacek (Orono, Academie
Internationale, 1969). Of other significant monographs see Hans Raupach,
Der tschechische Fruhnationalismus (Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buch-
gesellschaft, 1969) and Stanley Z. Pech, The Czech Revolution of 1848
(Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1970); Christian
Stolzl, Die Ara Bach in Bohmen: Sozialgeschichtliche Studien zum
Neoabsolutismus 1849-1859 (Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1971), offers im¬
portant new insight in socioeconomic problems of the neoabsolutist era in
Bohemia.
See further, the two valuable studies by Friedrich Prinz, “Die
bohmischen Lander von 1848-1914” and “Das kulturelle Leben (1867—
J939) vom osterreichisch-ungarischen Ausgleich bis zum Ende der ersten
tschechoslowakischen Republik,” both published in Karl Bosl, ed., Hand-
buck der Geschichte der bohmischen Lander, Vol. Ill, the second ibid.
Vol. IV. On the dissolution of the empire from the Czech viewpoint see
Jan Opocensky, The Collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and
the Czechoslovak State (Prague, Orbis, 1928). Two important auto¬
biographies, focused on the disintegration period, are Edward Benes, My
War Memoirs (London, Allen & Unwin, 1928) and Thomas G. Masary\
(New York, F. Stokes, 1927), both translated from the Czech.
On Czech constitutional history, see Ernst Birke and Kurt Oberdorffer,
eds., Das bohmische Staatsrecht in den deutsch-tschechischen Auseinander-
setzungen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts (Marburg/Lahn, Elvert, i960).
On Czech nationalism, largely discussed also in most of the works men¬
tioned above, see further Jan Havranek, “The Development of Czech
Nationalism,” Austrian History Yearbook, 111:2 (1967).
On Czech literary history,' see Count Francis Liitzow, A History of
Bohemian Literature (London, Heinemann, 1907); and more important
Hanus Jelinek, Histoire de la Litterature Tcheque, 3 vols. (Paris, Editions
du Sagittaire, 1930-1935), and more briefly Frantisek Chudoba, A Short
Survey of Czech Literature (New York* Kraus, 1969).
On Czech historiography see Richard G. Plaschka, Von Palacby bis
Pe\ar (Vienna-Cologne, Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1955).
Strongly contested are statistics of the Bohemian lands, particularly of
Bohemia herself. Three good works written from different viewpoints
are Alfred Bohmann, Bevdl\erungsbewegungen in Bohmen 1847-1947,
mit besonderer Berilc\sichtigung der nationalen Verhaltnisse (Munich,
Collegium Carolinum, 1958); Heinrich Rauchberg, Die Zahlenverhalt¬
nisse der Deutschen und Tschechen in Bohmen (Munich, Callway, 1900);
and V. Srb and M. Kucera, “Vyvoj obyvatelstva ceskych zemi v XIX,
stoleti,” in Statisti\a a demografie, I (1959).
Bibliography: Cesbgy casopis Historicity, Bibliografie vedec\e prdce 0
ces\e, minulosti za poslednich ctyricet let 1895-1934 (Prague, Ceska
Akademie, 1935). Josef Macek, Vaclav Husak and Branislav Varsik, eds.,
25 Ans d’Historiography Tschechoslovaque 1935-1960 (Prague, Czechslo-
vak Akademy, i960). See also Otokar Odlozilik, “Modern Czech His¬
toriography,” in Slavonic and East European Review (1930).
G) THE SLOVAKS
For brief surveys see Jozef Lettrich, History of Modern Slovakia (New
York, Praeger, 1955) and Jozef Mikus, La Slova\ie dans le Drama de
I’Europe 1918-1950 (Paris, Les Ills d’Or, 1955). Robert W. Seton-Watson,
Racial Problems in Hungary (London, Constable and Co., 1908), is a
first in Western languages which called attention to the discrimination

against Slovaks under Magyar administration. See further, Ludwig von
Gogolak, Beitrtige zur Geschichte des slowa\ischen Voltes, 3 vols. (Mu¬
nich, R. Oldenbourg, 1963-1972), Vol. I, Die Nationswerdung der
Slowaken und die Anftinge der tschechoslowa\ischen Frage (1526-1790);
Vol. II, Die slowa\ische nationale Frage in der Reformperiode Ungarns
(1790-1848); Vol. Ill, Zwischen zwei Revolutionen (1848-1919). In
Slovak language see Frantisek Bokes, Dejiny Slovenska a Slova\ov od
najstarsich cias po oslobodenie (Bratislava, Slovak Academy, 1946); Ludo-
vit Holotik, ed., Dejiny Slovens\a, 2 vols. (Bratislava, Slovak Academy,
1961-1968); Jan Tibensky, Slovens\o: dejiny (Bratislava, Obzor, 1971),
all three Marxian interpretation.
On early modern Slovak history see Ludovit Holotik and Anton Van-
tuch, eds., Humanizmus a renesancia na Slovens\u v 15.-16. storoci (Brati¬
slava, Slovak Academy, 1967). On the evolution of the Slavic renaissance
among the Slovaks in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, see Jan
Tibensky, ed., K’pociat\om slovens\eho narodneho obrodenia (Bratislava,
Slovak Academy, 1964) and Endre Arato, “A szlovak nemzeti mozgalom
a forradom elott (1845-1848),” in Szazado\ (Budapest, 1948), Magyar
Marxian interpretation.
On the position of the Slovaks in the Habsburg empire see Ernest
Denis, Fa Question d’Autriche: Les Slovaques (Paris, Delagrave, 1917);
Vaclav L. Benes, “The Slovaks in the Habsburg Empire: A Struggle for
Existence,” and Ludovit Holotik, “The Slovaks: An Integrating or a
Disintegrating Factor?” Both essays were published in Austrian History
Yearbook, III :2 (1967). See also Studia Historica Slovaca (Bratislava,
Slovak Academy, 1963- ).
Bibliography: Ludovit V. Rizner, Bibliografia pisomnictva slovens\eho,
6 vols. (V. T. Sv. Martine, Naklodom Matice Slovenskej, 1929-1934). See
further, as listed under II :F, J. Macek, et al., eds., 25 Ans dHistoriographie
T schechoslovaque.
h) the poles
Bernadotte Schmitt, ed., Poland (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University

of California Press, 1945), is a good survey on political, cultural, and
socioeconomic history. Of other surveys see, above all, William F. Redda-
way, J. H. Penson, Oscar Halecki, Roman Dyboski, eds., The Cambridge
History of Poland, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1950-1951), a work equally strong on political and intellectual history.
It does not deal primarily but still adequately with the Poles in Galicia.
A valuable modern survey is Alexander Gieysztor, Stefan Kieniewicz,
Emanuel Rostworowski, et al., History of Poland (Warsaw, Polish Scien¬
tific Publishers, 1968); on developments in Galicia, see particularly pp.
486-490, 496-499, 540-546, 577-579, 602-605, 616-628 by Stefan Kieniewicz
and Henryk Werezycki. Wilhelm Feldman, Geschichte der politischen
Ideen in Polen seit dessen Teilungen (Osnabriick, Zeller, 1934), is a standard
work on the political ideologies dominant in divided Poland. An out¬
standing work on Polish cultural history is Manfred Kridl, A Survey of
Polish Literature and Culture (New York, Columbia University Press,
1956) translated from the Polish. Exclusively focused on literature is
Czeslaw Milosz, The History of Polish Literature (London, Macmillan,
1969). See also Oscar Halecki, A History of Poland, 2d edition (New
York, Roy, 1956). In Polish language, Alexander Bruckner, Wlodzimierz
Antoniewicz, et al., Polsfa jep dzieje i \ultura, 3 vols. (Warsaw, Nakl,
Trzaski, Everta i Michaleskiego, 1927-1932), is still a standard history.
On the Poles in Galicia see also Konstanty Grzybowski, Galicja 1848-
1914: historii ustroju Austrii (Cracow, Academy, 1959); Hanns Schlitter,
Aus Osterreichs Vormarz, Part 1, “Galizien und Krakau,” as listed in
Part I:B; furthermore Piotr S. Wandycz, “The Poles in the Habsburg
Monarchy,” and Henryk Wereszycki, “The Poles as Integrating and
Disintegrating Factor,” both essays in Austrian History Yearboo\, 111:2
(1967) and Kazimierz Chledowski, Pamietnifi, 2 vols. (Wroclaw, Bib-
lioteka naradowa, 1951), Stefan Kieniewicz, Rewolucja Polsfa 1846 ro\u:
wybdr zrodel (Wroclaw, Biblioteka naradowa, 1950), a counterpart to
Schlitter’s work.
Bibliography: See Karol J. Estreicher, Bibliografia Polska, thus far 34
vols. and 4 supplementary vols. (Warsaw, Cracow, Academy, 1872- ).
This comprehensive Polish bibliography is in a continuous state of re¬
vision. The standard modern historical bibliography is Jan Baumgart et
al., eds., Bibliografia historii polsfiej (Cracow, Historical Institute of the
Polish Academy of Sciences, 1952- ), annual publication. See further,
Ludwik Finkel, Bibliografia historii polsfiej, 3 vols. (Cracow, Academy,
1906; reprint Warsaw, 1955), covers Polish history to 1815; Tom Wsterny,
ed., Bibliografia Historii Polsfi 1815-1914 (Warsaw, Panstwowe Wy-
dawnictwo Naukowe, 1954) supplements Finkel’s bibliography. In Eng¬
lish see Sigmund S. Birkenmayer, ed., Bibliography of Polish Literature
in English (University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971).
For brief bibliographical information see also the above listed work by
Bernadotte Schmitt, ed., Poland.
i) THE RUTHENIANS (WEST UKRAINIANS)
For general surveys, see Michael Hrushevsky, A History of Ukraine

(New Haven, Yale University Press, 1941) and by the same author, The
Historical Evolution of the Ukrainian Problem (London, Garden City
Press, 1915). Both were translated from the Ukrainian, like Dmytro
Doroshenko, History of the Ukraine (Edmonton, Institute Press, 1929).
See also Borys Krupnyckyj, Geschichte der Ukraine von den Anfangen
bis zum Jahre 79/7 (Wiesbaden, O. Harrassowitz, 1963).
On the Galician Ruthenians, see Ivan L. Rudnytsky, “The Ukrainians
in Galicia under Austrian Rule,” in Austrian History Yearbook, III:2
(1967); on the Ruthenians in the Bukovina, see Adrian Valeanu, “The
Question of Bukovina—then and now,” Journal of Central European
Affairs, V (Boulder, Col. 1945- annual); on the Carpatho-Ruthen-
ians, see Ivan 2eguc, Die nationalpolitischen Bestrebungen der Karpatho-
Ruthenen 1848-1918 (Wiesbaden, O. Harrassowitz, 1965). See also Rene
Martel, La Ruthenie Subcarpathique (Paris, P. Hartmann, 1935).
In Ruthenian language see K. Levyts’kyi, Istoriia politychnoi dumky
Halyst’kykh Ukraintsiv, 1848-1914, 2 vols. (Lwiw, 1929). See further
on the Young Ukrainian movement, Ivan Franko, Moloda Ukraina:
providni idei i epizody (Lwiw, Ukrains’ko rus’ka vydavnica spilka, 1910).
The best comprehensive reference work in English is Ukraine: A
Concise Encyclopedia, ed. by Volodymyr Kubijoviyc, 2 vols. (Toronto,
University of Toronto Press, 1963-1967). This work discusses all aspects
of Ruthenian political, cultural, and socioeconomic life.
Bibliography: Ivan Mirtschuk, Geschichte der ukrainischen Kultur
(Munich, Isar Verlag, 1957) and by the same author, Handbuch der
Ukraine (Leipzig, Harrassowitz, 1941) and Ukrainian Review (London,
Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, 1954- ).
j) THE SOUTHERN SLAVS
General: See Georg Stadtmiiller, Geschichte Siidosteuropas (Munich,

R. Oldenbourg, 1950). L. von Siidland (Pilar), Die sitdslawische Frage
und der Weltkrieg (Vienna, Manz, 1918), conservative. Hermann Wendel,
Der Kampf der Sudslawen um Freiheit und Einheit (Frankfurt a. M.,
Societas Druckerei, 1925), Socialist-liberal. Dusan A. Loncarevic, Jugo-
slawiens Entstehung (Vienna, Amalthea Verlag, 1929), Serb viewpoint.
On the Southern Slav action movement as seen from the Croatian angle
see Ivan Mucic, Hrvatska politika i Jugoslavenska ideja (Croatian Politics
and the Yugoslav Idea), (Split, Vlastita naklada, 1969). On Illyrism see
Fran Zwitter, “Illyrism et Sentiment Yougoslave,” Le Monde Slave,
(Paris, April-June, 1933) and Alfred Fischel, Der Panslawismus, listed
under I:E. On intellectual history, see Josef Matl, Sudslawische Studien
(Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1965).
For reference, see Werner Markert, Jugoslawien (Coiogne-Graz, Boh-
laus Nachfolger, 1954).
a) THE CROATS
Rudolf Kissling, Die Kroaten (Vienna-Cologne, Bohlaus Nachfolger,

1956), is written from a strictly conservative viewpoint. See further
Stanko Guldescu, The Croatian-Slavonian Kingdom 1526-1592 (The
Hague, Mouton, 1970). On cultural and social history, see Francis H.
Eterovich and Christopher Spalatin, Croatia: Land, People, Culture, 2 vols.
(Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1964-1970); Zvane Crnja, Cultural
History of Croatia (Zagreb, Office of Information, 1962) and Ante Kadic,
From Croatian Renaissance to Yugoslav Socialism: Essays (The Hague,
Mouton, 1969). For the same period, with emphasis on ideological history
see Mirjana Gross, Povijest Pravas\e Ideologije (Zagreb, Institute of
Croatian History, 1973).
A standard history of the Croats is Ferdo Sisic, Pregled povijesti
hrvats\oga naroda (Zagreb, Matica Hrvatska, 1962), thoroughly revised
by Jaroslav Sidak. The work was first published in 1873. Of great impor¬
tance is Jaroslav Sidak, Provijest Hrvats\oga Naroda 1860-1914 (Zagreb,
Skolska Knjiga, 1968). For the same period, with emphasis on ideological
history, see Mirjana Gross, Provijest Pravas\e Ideologije (Zagreb, Institute
of Croatian History, 1973).
On the military border, see the two studies by Gunther Rothenberg,
The Austrian Military Border in Croatia 1522-1545 (Urbana, University
of Illinois Press, i960) and The Military Border in Croatia 1540-1881
(Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1966), also Nikolaus von Prerado-
vich, Des Kaisers Grenzer: 500 Jahre Tur\enabwehr (Vienna, F. Molden,
1970). See further Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Die K. K. Militdr-
grenze (Vienna, Osterreichischer Bundesverlag, 1973) covers all Military
Frontiers of the Habsburg empire (comprehensive bibliography).
On the Croat status within the Habsburg empire, see Charles Jelavich,
“The Croatian Problem in the the Habsburg Monarchy in the Nineteenth
Century,” Austrian History Yearboo\, III :2 (1967) and ibid. Bogdan
Krizman, “The Croatian in the Habsburg Monarchy in the Nineteenth
Century.”
if Bibliographical Essay 599
Bibliography: The two above-listed essays by Jelavich and Krizman,

n and Fran Zwitter, Les Problemes Nationaux dans la Monarchic des Habs-
0 bourg listed in section I:P, provide adequate bibliographical information.
b) THE SLOVENES
In English see Dragotin. Loncar, The Slovenes: A Social History from

S the earliest Times to 1910 (Cleveland, American Yugoslav Printing and
Publishing Co. 1931). See further, Anton Slodnjak, Geschichte der
Slowenischen Literatur (Berlin, De Gruyter, 1958) and for the Slovene
I
m position within the Habsburg monarchy, Fran Zwitter, “The Slovenes in
1 the Habsburg Monarchy,” Austrian History Yearboo\, III :2 (1967) and
i Bogumil Vosnjak, A Bulwark against Germany (London, Allen &
Unwin, 1917). On Slovene economy within the Habsburg empire, see
Toussaint Hocevar, The Structure of Slovenian Economy 1848-1963
(New York, Studia Slovenica, 1963).
See Josir Mai, Zgodovina slovens\ega naroda najnovejsa doba (V Celje,
Druzba sv Mokorga, 1928-1929); Edvard Kardelj (Sperans), Razvoj
slovens\ega narodnega Vprasanja, 2d edition (Ljubljana, Drzavna
Zalozba Slovenije, 1957) and Bogo Grafenauer, Zgodovina slovens\ega
naroda, 5 vols. (Ljubljana, Kmecka knjiga, 1954-1962), revised editions
in progress.
Bibliography: See the above-listed essay by F. Zwitter and his Les
Problemes Nationaux, listed under I:H and I:Q.
c) THE SERBS
Josef K. Jirecek, Geschichte der Serben, 2 vols. (Gotha, Perthes, 1911),

revised and enlarged Serbian edition by Jovan Radonic (Beograd, Nauchia
knjiga, 1952), the emphasis is on medieval history. Stanoje Stanojevic,
Istorija srps\oga naroda, 3d edition (Beograd, Izdavacka knjizarnica
Napredak, 1926), is a useful general presentation on political history. On
the evolution of political thought see Vaso Cubrilovic, Istorija politicise
misli u Srbiji XIX ve\u (Beograd, Prosveta, 1958).
As for the Serb position within the Habsburg monarchy, see Wayne S.
Vucinich, “The Serbs in Austria Hungary” and Dimitrije Djordjevic,
“The Serbs as an Integrating and Disintegrating Factor,” both essays in
Austrian History Yearbook, 111:2 (1967) and Dusan J. Popovic, Srbi u
Vojvodini, 3 vols. (Novi Sad, Matica srpska, 1957-1963). A basic recent
biography is Duncan Wilson, The Life and Time of Vu\ S. Karadzic
(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1970).
For general reference see the work by W. Markert, fugoslawien, listed
under II :J and Alfred Stead, ed., Serbia by the Serbians (London, W.
Heinemann, 1909).
Bibliography: Bibliografija Jugoslavije (Beograd, Bibliographical Insti¬
tute, 1945- ) and, of older works, Emile Picot, Les Serbes de Hongrie
(Prague, Gregr & Dattel, 1873) and Ernest Denis, La Grande Serbie
(Paris, Delagrave, 1915). In English see the essays by W. S. Vucinich
and D. Djordjevic in Austrian History Yearbook 111:2 (1967) and Joel
M. Halpern, Bibliography of English Language Sources on Yugoslavia
(Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1969).
On Bosnia-Hercegovina see Ferdinand Schmid, Bosnien und die
Herzegowina unter der Verwaltung Osterreich-JJngarns (Leipzig, Veit &
Co., 1914); Peter F. Sugar, Industrialization of Bosnia-Hercegovina i8j8-
1918 (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1964), and Ernest Bauer,
Zwischen Halbmond und Doppeladler (Vienna, Herold, 1971). See also
Nikola Stojanovic, Bosans\a Kriza 1908-1914 (Sarajevo, Veselin Maslesa,
1958). See further Dorde Pejanovic, Stanovnistvo Bosne i Hercegovine
(Belgrad, Srpska Akademija Nauka, 1955) and Dominik Mandie, Bosnia
i Hercegovina (Chicago, Croatian Historical Institute, i960), Vol. I
(Croatian viewpoint).
APPENDIXES
*
Index
An n after a page number refers to discussion of a specific entry in a note.

Subdivisions of historical subjects are in general listed in chronological order,
others in alphabetical order. The names of royalties, except for some specific
instances, are listed in anglicized form. Otherwise, the spelling of names either
in anglicized form or in one of the vernacular languages of the Habsburg em¬
pire is determined in each individual case by the assumed familiarity of the
reader with the listing used.
Adler, Alfred, founder of Individual Psychol¬ financial agenda and taxation, 118 f.; judi¬
ogy, 560 cial system, 131; Reformation and Counter
Adler, Friedrich, socialist, 488 f. Reformation in, 108-110, 116; towns, 13 f.
Adler, Guido, musicologist, 555 Alt, Rudolf von, painter, 550
Adler, Victor, socialist leader, 433, 437, 489, Altenberg, Peter (Richard Englander), poet,
492; editor of Arbeiter Zeitung, 548 545
Administrative court, 362 Althusius, Johannes, political philosopher,
Adrianopel, peace of 1568, 41 M3
Ady, Endres, Magyar poet, 539 f. Altranstadt, peace of 1706, 87
Aerenthal, Count Aloys Lexa von, Austro- Ambras castle, 152, 154; art collection, 154 f.
Hungarian minister of foreign affairs, Amerling, Friedrich, painter, 378
412-416; and Buchlau meeting, 413 f. Andrassy, Count Julius (the elder), Hun¬
Agram. See Zagreb garian prime minister and Austro-Hun¬
Agriculture in Habsburg lands, 120-122, garian minister of foreign affairs, 278-
461-467 passim 280, 331-333, 352, 362, 364 f., 406; and
Aix la Chapelle: peace of 1748, 99-101, 156, Hohenwart program, 359 f.
160, 219; conference of 1818, 244 Andrassy, Count Julius (the younger), Hun¬
Albania, 416 f. garian minister of state and Austro-
Albert, duke of Saxony-Teschen, 206 Hungarian minister of foreign affairs,
Albrecht II, Roman king, 7 f., 12, 19 f., 33 454 U 456, 481, 495, 497
Albrecht, archduke, commander in chief, Andrian-Werburg, Viktor von, political writ¬
273, 275, 300, 319, 328 er, 250, 253, 257, 291 f.
Alexander I, tsar of Russia, 220, 222, 229, Andric, Ivo, Serbian novelist, 529, 531
232, 245 f., 294 D’Annunzio, Gabriele, poet, 525
Alexander II, tsar of Russia, 265, 279, 406 Anschluss movement, 500 f.
Alexander III, tsar of Russia, 406 f., 409 Anzengruber, Ludwig, playwright, 375
Alexander I, king of Serbia, 411 Apafy, Michael I, prince of Transylvania, 71
Alpine hereditary lands to 1740: administra¬ Apor, Peter, Magyar historiographer, 379
tion, 12 f., 129; crafts and industry, 122; Apponyi, Count Albert, Hungarian parlia¬
estates, 12; evolution, 4-12; extent, uf.; mentarian and minister of state, 352, 452,
Apponyi, Count Albert (continued) Austrian parliament, reconvention in May,
495, 497; and education act of 1907, 457, 1917, 488, 491, 514
461 Austrian succession, war of, 61, 90, 96-101,
Arany, John, poet, 382 199; Aix la Chapelle, peace of 1748, 99-
Arbes, Jakub, Czech novelist, 534 101, 156, 160, 219
Arcole, battle of, 215 Austro-French war of 1809, 208, 222-224
Armed forces: and defense system in Habs- Austro-French Sardinian war, 268 f., 323
burg lands to 1740, 132 f.; and estates Austro-German alliance of 1879, 281 f., 365,
“contribution,” 133; and “insurrection” 406 f; publication of, 410; Austrian with¬
force in Hungary, 133, 200; after 1740 drawal from,"in October 1918, 481
under Maria Theresa, 175, 222; under Austro-German Liberals; 1867-1879, 346-
Francis I, national militia in 1809, 222, 362 passim; 1879-1914, 428, 431 f.;
service obligations after 1815, 239; under United German Left, 428, 431; and
neoabsolutism, 323; language of com¬ Deutscher Nationalverband, 431, 498, 300
mand, 333; conscription law of 1868 Austro-German nationalist groups after 1867,
(1884), 357, 364; Honveds, 365; and 432 f., 434, 437 f., 498 f.; Osterbegehr-
Compromise of 1867, 423 f.; defense bill shrift of 1915, and Deutscher National¬
of 1913, 456-458. verband, 431, 498, 300
Arz von Straussenburg, Arthur, chief of Austro-German provisional national assem¬
general staff, 483 bly, 500 f.
Aspern, battle of, 223 Austro-Germans: culture, 14-16, 144-146,
Auenbrugger, Leopold von, professor of in¬ 284, 370-379, 522 f., 545-561; fine arts,
ternal medicine, 373 377-379; literature, 373~376; music, 376-
Auer von Welsbach, Carl, physicist, 560 f. 377; press, 376; sciences, 370-373
Auersperg, prince Adolf, prime minister, Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, 277,
356, 360 f. 280, 292, 316, 333-338, 412, 449, 455,
Auersperg, count Anton Alexander, writer, 476, 490; Delegations, 334; economics,
253, 298, 375; and Slovene culture, 395 335, 342, 422 f., 461 f.; and foreign affairs,
Auersperg, prince Johann Weikart, states¬ 337 f.; and armed forces, 423 f.; termina¬
man, 79 tion of, 493, 495
Auersperg, prince Karl (Carlos), prime Austro-Hungarian economic relations under
minister, 356 the Compromise, 462 f.
Augsburg, religious peace of 1555, 36 f., 45, Austro-Hungarian secret peace negotiations,
51, 109 475-478; Mensdorff-Pouilly and Smuts,
Augusta, John, bishop, 112 475 f.; Revertera and St. Armand, 475;
Austerlitz, battle of, 220 Sixtus negotiations, 476-478, 502
Austerlitz, Friedrich, editor of Arbeiter Zei- Austro-Italian war of 1866, 273 f.
tung, 548 Austro-Prussian war of 1866, 274-277, 323,
Austrian Academy of Sciences, founded in 33i
1847, 284, 371; architecture of, 378 Austro-Prussian war against Denmark, 271 f.
Austrian commercial code of 1862, 358 Austro-Roumanian alliance of 1883, 408,
Austrian constitutional laws of December 450, 510
1867, 317, 339-341; Article 19 of law Austro-Russian wars with Turkey; 1737-
142, 317, 339 f., 362; Emergency Article 1739, 69 f., 93, 95; 1788-1791, 70, 93
14 of law 141, 340 Austro-Slavism, 296, 353, 529 f.
Austrian Danube Steamship Company, 286, Autonomy, personal and territorial, 437 f.,
465 442 f.
Austrian empire, 2 f.; proclamation of, 218 f. Ayrenhoff, Cornelius von, playwright, 374
Austrian Institute of Historical Research, 371
Austrian Littoral, 351, 449 f., 470 f. Bach, Alexander, statesman, 266, 303, 308 f.;
Austrian Lloyd, 286, 344, 465 as leading minister, 319; administration,
Austrian National Bank of 1816, 241, 283 320-326
Austrian Netherlands, 11, 89; Barrier treaties, Bacsanyi, Jan, Magyar writer, 380
88 f., 167, 206; proposed exchange for Badeni, count Kasimir, Austrian prime minis¬
Bavaria, 167, 206; conflict with estates, ter, 424 f., 428 f., 431; and language con¬
205 f.; loss of 215, 230 flict in Bohemia and Moravia, 439—442
Austrian-Ostende Trade Company, 91-95 Bakunin, Michael A., revolutionary exile,
passim 293, 3i5
Index 625
Balasescu, Nicolas, Roumanian editor, 403 Benedikt, Moritz, editor of Neue Freie Presse,
Balaszi, Balint, Magyar poet, 147 548
Balbin, Bohuslav, Czech Jesuit historian, 142 Benes, Edward, Czech statesman, 501, 520
Balkan crisis of 1885-1886, 408 f. Benczur, Gyula, Magyar painter, 540
Balkan wars: first Balkan war 1912-1913, Berchtesgaden, 220, 223
416; second Balkan war 1913, 416 Berchtold von Ungarschitz, Count Leopold,
Banffy, Baron Deszo, Hungarian prime min¬ Austro-Hungarian minister of foreign af¬
ister, 454 f. fairs, 413-422 passim, 474; and responsi¬
Banhans, Anton von, minister of commerce, bility for war with Serbia, 419-422; resig¬
343 nation, 471
Bankers in Restoration period, 283 Berg, Alban, composer, 554
Barabas, Miklos, Magyar painter, 540 Berger, Johann Nepomuk, minister of state,
Baritiu, George, Roumanian historian and 347
linguist, 403 Berk, Fiilop 6., Magyar sculptor, 541
Baroque in Habsburg empire, 103 f., 368; Berlin, Congress of 1878, 279, 354, 406
architecture, 151-155, 377 f., 383 f., 397; Bernatzik, Edmund, professor of constitu¬
literature, 145 f. tional law, 557
Baross, Gabriel von, Hungarian minister of Bernolak, father Anton, Slovak linguist, 297,
commerce, 452 389 f.
Bartenstein, Baron Johann Christoph, states¬ Bessenyei, Gyorgy, Magyar playwright, 379
man, 79 Bezruc, Petr, Czech lyric poet, 534 f.
Bartok, Bela, composer, 541 f. Bethlen, Gabor, prince of Transylvania and
Basel, peace of 1795, 214 “prince” of Hungary, 43 f., 48, 50 f.
Bathory, Gabriel, prince of Transylvania, 43 Bethmann-Hollweg, Theobald von, German
Bathory, Stephen, prince of Transylvania chancellor, 505
and king of Poland, 41 Beust, Count Ferdinand, chancellor, 277,
Batthiany, Count Louis, Hungarian prime 356, 359 f.; and Austro-Hungarian Com¬
minister, 302, 306 promise, 332 f.
Battisti, Cesare, Austro-Italian socialist, 451, Bible, translations of, 144, 147, 149
509, 524 Biedermeier style, 374-378 passim
Baudelaire, Charles, French poet, 531, 539 Bielohlawek, Hermann, Christian-Social dep¬
Bauer, Otto, socialist leader, 491, 498 uty, 435
Bauerfeld, Eduard von, playwright, 375 Billroth, Theodor, professor of surgery, 559
Bavarian succession, war of, 165 f. Bismarck, Prince Otto, German chancellor,
Beccaria-Bonesana, Marchese Cesare, legal 270, 272, 278, 281, 337; Prussian prime
reformer, 402 minister in 1862, 270; and Austro-Prussian
Beck, Max Vladimir von, Austrian prime war, 274-277; and Congress of Berlin,
minister, 424, 429 f.; and electoral re¬ 279; and Austrian Balkan interests, 406-
form, 430; and archduke Francis Ferdi¬ 410
nand, 430 Bitterlich, Hans, sculptor, 550
Becher, Johann Joachim, mercantilist, 123 f., Blahoslav, Jan, Czech bible translator, 144,
141 146
Beer-Hofmann, Richard, poet, 546 Blau, Tina, landscape painter, 550
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 377 Bleiweis, Janez, Slovene national leader,
Beksics, Gustav, Magyar historian, 542 396
Belcredi, Count Richard, prime minister, Blenheim, battle of, 86
33i fi Bliimegen, Count Heinrich, 173, 179
Belgium. See Austrian Netherlands Blum, Robert, revolutionary parliamentarian
Belgrad: occupation of 1688, 82; peace of in 1848, 307 f.
1739, 69 Bobrzynski, Michael, Polish historian and
Bel, Matthias, Slovak historian and linguist, statesman, 527
147 Bocskay, Stephan, prince of Transylvania,
Bern, Joseph, revolutionary general, 307 42, 114
Benda, Franz, composer, 387 Bodin, Jean, political philosopher, 143
Benda, Georg, composer, 387 Bohemian-Austrian court chancery, 177, 180
Benedek, Ludwig von, general, 268, 274 f., Bohemian Brethren, Unity of, 110-112,
328 146 f.; and Taborite ideas, m
Benedict XV, pope, 475 Bohemia, nationality problem, 348
Bohemian crown, lands of, 18-23, 32; see Buber, Martin, philosopher of religion, 556
also Czechs; administration, 129 f.; aristoc¬ Bucharest, peace treaty of May 1918 with
racy, 292 f.; Bohemian Staatsrecht, 292 f.; Roumania, 480, 506, 511
crafts and industry, 122 f.; financial agen¬ Buda, 202; reconquest of, 66, 114 f.
da and taxation, 120; judicial system, Buday, Isaias, historian, 380
131; mining, 119; and Reformation and Budejovice, general diet of 1614, 48
Counter Reformation, 110-113, n6f. Budweis. See Budejovice
Bohemian Staatsrecht, 292 f., 348 Bukovac, Vlaho, Croatian painter, 532
Bohoric, Adam, Slovene linguist, 395 Bukovina: acquisition of, 164 f.; nationality
Bohm-Bawerk, Eugen von, co-founder of problem, 164-166, 299, 393, 404, 450;
Austrian school of economics, 558 administration in reform era, i8of., 190;
Boltzmann, Ludwig, physicist, 560 compromise on nationality problem, 442,
Bolzano, Bernhard, philosopher, 370 445
Bonitz, Hermann, educational reformer, 322 Bulgaria: entry into World War I, 473;
Born, Ignaz von, mineralogist, 384 military collapse, 480, 486 f.
Bornemisza, Peter, linguist, 147 Bulla Aurea of 1222, 22, 74, 127, 341, 494
Boroevic von Bojna, Svetozar, field marshal, Biilow, Prince Bernhard, German chancellor,
483, 5i3 f- 471 f.
Bosnia-Hercegovina: administration, 446; an¬ Buol-Schauenstein, Count Carl Ferdinand,
nexation crisis, 412-415, 448; culture, minister of foreign affairs, 263 f., 268
529; and Dalmatia, 280; economics, 466 f.; Burglechner, Mathias, geographer, 141
and German Liberals, 361; insurrection Burgtheater, 376, 548 f.; founded by Joseph
in, 278 f.; nationality problem, 445, 450; n, 376
occupation of, 70, 264, 279-282, 406 f.; Burian von Rajecz, Count Istvan, Austro-
Reichsstadt agreement of 1876, 279; ulti¬ Hungarian minister of foreign affairs, 471,
matum of March 1909, 414 474, 481
Botic, Luka, Croatian epic poet, 398 f. Burkhardt, Max, writer and director of
Boulanger, George Ernest, general, French Burgtheater, 549
minister of war, 409 Burschenschajten, 247
Bourbon dynasty in kingdom of the two Byers, Wilhelm, painter, 378
Sicilies, 231, 244 f. Brzozowski, Stanislaw L., Polish social phi¬
Bourbon dynasty in Spain, 245 losopher, 528
Brahms, Johannes, composer, 553, 559
Brahe, Tycho de, astronomer, 139 f.
Bratislava. See Pozsony Calvinism, no, 114, 117
Brentano, Franz, philosopher, 555 f. Cambrai, League of, 9
Brest, union of 1596, 298, 392 Canisius, Peter, saint, Jesuit preacher, 112,
Brest-Litowsk: peace negotiations and treaty 137
with Ukraine, 479, 506; peace negotiations Canon, Hans, painter, 550
and treaty with Soviet Union, 479 Canova, Antonio, sculptor, 383, 541
Brestel, Rudolf, parliamentarian, 31, 347 Capek, Karel, Czech novelist and playwright,
Breuer, Josef, physician, 560 535
Brezina, Otakar (Vaclav Jebavy), Czech Capistran, Johannes von, preacher, 16
writer, 534 Capo d’Istria, Count Agostino, diplomat in
Brixi, Franz Xaver, composer, 387 Russian service, 229
Brno. See Briinn Caprara, Count Aneas Sylvius, field mar¬
Brozik, Vaclav, Czech painter, 388 shal, 115
Bruck, Karl Friedrich von, minister of com¬ Caraffa, Count Antonio, general, 73
merce and finance, 308 f., 319, 324; and Carlone, Carlo, architect, 152
Middle Europe concept, 499 Carlsbad (Karlsbad): congress of 1819, 247;
Briicke, Ernst von, professor of physiology, decrees of 1819, 247, 253
373 Carniola, 141, 351, 449
Bruckner, Anton, composer, 553 Carol I, king of Roumania, 408, 460
Briinn, socialist nationality program of 1899, Carpatho-Ukrainians (Ruthenians) 115, 165;
436 f. in 1848, 304, 316, 355, 393, 460, 508,
Brusilov, Alexei Alexeivich, Russian general, 527; Basilius and Unio societies, 527
503 Castlereagh, Viscount Robert Stewart, British
Brussels, treaty of 1522, 28, 32 statesman, 229, 244
Index 627
Catherine II the Great, empress of Russia, Charles William Ferdinand, duke of Bruns¬
161, 167, 213 wick, manifesto of July 1792, 213
Catholic League of 1609, 48-50 Chaumont, treaty of 1814, 228
Catholic Reformation, 104 f. Chitussi, Antonin, Czech landscape painter,
Cattaro. See Cotor 535
Cavour, Count Camillo, Sardinian prime Chotek, Count Rudolf, chancellor of United
minister, 267 Court Chancery, 173, 179
Cech, Svatopluk, Czech novelist, 534 Christian Socials, 431, 434-436, 455, 498
Celje, 439 Church in Austria prior to Reformation,
Celtes, Conrad, poeta laureatus, 15 16 f.
Censorship under Joseph II, 194 f. Church-state relations: to 1740, 133-135; in
Centralism, 174 f.; in reform era, 174 f., 187; reform era, 187-192; church control un¬
under Francis I, 236 der Maria Theresa, 187 f.; monastic re¬
Cernauti. See Czernowitz forms under Joseph II, 187 f., 191 f., 206;
Cernivtsi. See Czernowitz tax exemption, 188 f.; under Leopold II,
Cernohorsky, Bohuslav, Czech composer, 387 192; under Francis I, 239 f., 284; under
Chaloupecky, Vaclav, Slovak historian, 533 neoabsolutism, 321 f.; May laws of 1868
Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor, 5 and 1874, 357
Charles IV, Holy Roman emperor, 19, 32, Churchill, John, duke of Marlborough, com¬
138, 537 mander in chief, 86 f.
Charles V, Holy Roman emperor (as king Churchill, Sir Winston, British prime minis¬
of Spain, Charles I), 10 f., 27-29, 33-35, ter, 493
58, 120, 179; and Protestantism, 35-37, Cilli. See Celje
106, hi; succession pact with Ferdinand Civil law, code of 1811, 180, 238, 240
I, 27 f- Civil procedure, code of 1895, 429; and
Charles VI, Holy Roman emperor, 12, 58- Franz Klein, 557
62, 96, 121 f., 125, 131, 166, 189, 219, Clam-Martinic, Count Heinrich, prime min¬
296; and church control, 134, 187; foreign ister, 490 f., 527
policy after 1714, 90-96; and mercantil¬ Clemenceau, George, French prime minister,
ism, 125, 135; and Pragmatic Sanction, 477 f-
59-61, 68 f., 75 f.; sponsorship of archi¬ Clement VII, pope, 35
tecture, 153; sponsorship of music, 149 f., Clement XIV, pope, 188
376, 387; trade company, 91-93; and Clui, university of, 149
war of Spanish succession, 78-80 passim Cobenzl, Count Johann, diplomat, 211-213
Charles VII, Holy Roman emperor (Charles Cobenzl, Count Johann Ludwig, vice chan¬
Albert, elector of Bavaria), 93, 97 f., 100, cellor, 211, 217
190, 197 Collin, Heinrich von, playwright, 374
Charles I, emperor of Austria, 469, 474-478, Colloredo, Count Franz, minister of state,
481, 483, 489, 495 f.; and October 16 211, 217
manifesto, 493; relinquishes participation Comenius. See Komensky
in Austrian government in November Commerce directory, 176 f., 181; and Direc¬
1918, 481, 494 tory in publicis et cameralibus, 176
Charles II, British king, 80 Commercial Academy of 1770 in Vienna,
Charles VIII, king of France, 8 194
Charles II, king of Spain, 29, 57 f., 83 f. Compactata (1433-1437), 111
Charles X, king of France (Count of Artois), Concordat of 1855, 321 f.; and education,
169 322; and marriage legislation, 322; termi¬
Charles XII, king of Sweden, 87 nation in 1870, 357
Charles, archduke, commander in chief, 29, Conde, Prince Louis, commander in chief,
156 f., 212, 214, 217-224, 239 f., 249 64
Charles, archduke in Inner Austria, 108 n. Conference ministry, 236
Charles Martel, mayor of Austrasia and Confessio Bohemica, 112
Neustria, 65 Congress Poland: restoration proclaimed in
Charles, duke of Lorraine, commander in 1916, 473, 502 f.; cession of Cholm district
chief, 65 f. to Ukraine, 479, 506; Polish State Council,
Charles, prince of Lorraine, general, 100, 172 505
Charles Albert, king of Piedmont-Sardinia, Conrad von Hotzendorf, Count Franz, chief
252 of general staff, 415, 417, 483, 485, 491;
Conrad von Hotzendorf (continued) constitutio criminalis Theresiana of 1769,
personality, 412; and responsibility for 179; code of substantive criminal law of
war with Serbia, 419-422 1787, 180; code of criminal law of 1803,
Conservatives in Austrian parliament 1867— 238, revision of 1852, 321; code of
1918, 346-362 passim criminal procedure of 1873, 358
Constance, Council of, in Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia and union of
Constitutio criminalis Maria Theresiana of 1527, 22
1769, 179 Croatian Moderna, 530 f.
Continental blockade, 221 f., 240 Croatian party of Pure Right, 446 f., 514
Convention regime in France, 209 Croatian Rights party, 354
Copernicus, Nicolaus, astronomer, 15, 139 Croats, 204 f.; Banus, position of and diet
Corfu, declaration of July, 1917, 492, 515 (Sabor), 288, 330, 364, 446; Civil or
Cosbuc, George, Roumanian poet, 525 Banal Croatia, 288; consequences of revo¬
Cotor, sailors’ mutiny of 1918, 491 f. lution of 1848, 316; and Counter Reforma¬
Council of State, 236 f. tion, 396 f.; culture, 148 f., 396~399> 523>
Counter Reformation in Habsburg empire: 530-532; and Dalmatia, 330; estates, 205;
in general, 102-107, 136 f.; in Alpine language conflict, 288; and neoabsolutism,
hereditary lands, ‘109^; in lands of 320; Southern Slav academy, 353, 398;
Bohemian crown, m-113; in lands of University of Zagreb, 353, 439; during
Hungarian crown, 114-116; and educa¬ World War I, 514, 516
tion, 137-139 Cseri von Apacza, Janos, Magyar lexicog¬
Court Chamber 30 f., 61, 119, 176, 285 rapher and linguist, 147 f.
Court Chancery, 30, 61, 173, 176, 285; Cusa (Cusanus), Nicolas von, cardinal,
supreme chancellors of United Court philosopher, 15 f.
Chancery, 173 Cuspinian, Johannes, historian, 15
Court and state chancery, 176 Customs policies after 1867, 342 f.
Court War Council, 30 f., 61, 132, 217, 323 Czechs. See also Bohemian crown, lands of
Cracow: as city republic and cultural center, Czechs: culture, 146 f., 153 f., 384-388, 523,
230, 390, 528; incorporation into Habs¬ 533-538; and German confederation, 254;
burg empire, 249, 294, 390; university in Restoration era, 292 f.; consequences
and academy, 390, 527; Polish national of revolution of 1848, 316; revolution of
museum, 390 1918, 501 f.; recognition by France in
Craft guild regulations, code of, 321 June, 1918, 501; proclamation of republic
Crafts and industry in Habsburg lands: in October, 1918, 502
to 1740: 122 f.; in Alpine hereditary Czech-German cultural interchange, 533 f.
lands, 122; in lands of Bohemian Czech legion, 514
crown, 122 f.; in lands of Hungarian Czernin, Count Ottokar, Austro-Hungarian
crown, 123 minister of foreign affairs, 474-479; and
in 1740-1792 (reform era): in Alpine Polish question, 505 f.; and Roumanian
hereditary lands, 183; in lands of question, 511
Bohemian crown, 183; in lands of Czernowitz, university of, 392 f., 404, 526 f.
Hungarian crown, 183
in 1792-1879: in Alpine hereditary Dacia, 403 n.
lands, 285 f., 324, 343 f.; in lands Dalmatia: and Croats, 330, 447; and Italians,
of Bohemian crown, 285 f., 324, 402, 451, 470 f.; and railway connection
343 f.; in lands of Hungarian crown, to Croatia, 345, 467, 509
342-344 f. Dalmatin, Jurij, bible translator, 144, 149,
in 1879-1914: in Alpine hereditary 395
lands, 464 f.; in lands of Bohemian Danube steamship company, 286, 344
crown, 464 f.; in lands of Hungarian Daszynski, Ignaz, Polish national leader, 444
crown, 465 f.; in Galicia, 464 f.; in Daun, Count Leopold Joseph, field marshal,
Bosnia-Hercegovina, 466 f. 160, 172
Crimean war, 244, 260, 263-267; Vienna Deak, Francis, Hungarian national leader,
four points, 264; Sebastopol, siege and 289, 302, 330-333, 352 f., 362, 365; and
fall of, 265; peace of Paris of 1856, 265- Austro-Hungarian compromise, 330-333
267; Sardinia at peace conference, 265 Defensores, 112
Criminal law and procedure, codes of: con¬ Deleanu, Jon Budai, Roumanian linguist,
stitutio criminalis Carolina of 1532, 179; 404
Index 629
Descartes, Rene, philosopher, 103, 143 Emancipation of peasants, legislation in 1848,

Dessewffy, Count Aurel, Hungarian enlight¬ 303, 317; under neoabsolutism, 324-326
ened aristocrat, 289, 328 Endrici, Colestin, prince bishop of Trento,
Deutsches Volhjtheater in Vienna, 549 509
Devolution, war of 1667-1668, 80; peace of Engels, Friedrich, socialist writer and leader,
Aix la Chapelle of 1668, 80 437
Dientzenhofer, Christoph, architect, 154, 388 Enlarged Reichsrat of i860, 326 f.
Dientzenhofer, Kilian Ignaz, architect, 154, Enlightenment in Habsburg empire, 170-
388 208 passim, 367—369
Dingelstedt, Franz von, writer and director Edtvos, Joseph von, Hungarian reformer and
of Burgtheater, 548 f. writer, 289, 302, 352, 365, 381; and na¬
Diploma Leopoldina of 1690-1691, 74 f., tionality law of 1868, 362 f., 381
115, 148, 190, 354, 392 Eotvos, Lorand, Magyar geophysicist, 544
District offices (Kreisamter), 177 Eperjes, assizes of 1687, 74
Dmowski, Roman, Polish national leader, Erfurt parliament, 261
444, 504, 520 Erkel, Ferenc, Magyar composer, 382
Doblhoff-Dier, Baron Anton, prime minis¬ Estates: to 1740, 125-129, 134 £.; in Alpine
ter, 255 hereditary lands, 125 f.; in lands of Bo¬
Dobrjanski, Adolf, governor of Hungarian hemian crown, 126 f.; in lands of Hun¬
Carpatho-Ukrainian comitats, 355 garian crown, 128 f., 205; under Maria
Dobrovsky, Josef, Slavist, 384 f. Theresa, 175 f.; under Francis I, 237
Dohnanyi, Dezso (Ernst) von, Magyar com¬ Esterhazy, Count Moritz, Hungarian prime
poser, 541 minister, 495
Dolezal, Paul, Slovak linguist, 147 Esterhazy, Count Moritz, minister of state,
Donner, Raphael, sculptor, 154 33i
Doppler, Christian, physicist, 560 Esterhazy, prince Pal, sponsor of music, 150
Dopsch, Alfons, economic historian, 555 Esterhazy palaces, 155; in Buda and Kismar-
Dordic, Nikola, Croatian lyric poet, 149, 396 ton (Eisenstadt), 155
Dover, treaty of 1670, 80 Estreicher, Karol, Polish historian, 527
Dozsa, George, peasant leader, 23 Eugene, Prince of Savoy, commander in
Dubravius, Joannes, bishop of Olomuc, 142 chief, 30, 67, 69, 79, 94, 132; in war of
Dunikowski, Ksawery, Polish sculptor, 528 Spanish succession, 85 f.
Dvorak, Antonin, composer, 387 f., 536 Exner, Franz, educational reformer, 322
Dyk, Viktor, Czech novelist, 535
Fackel, Die (The Torch) 547
Ebendorfer, Thomas, historian, 14 Fadrusz, Janos, Magyar sculptor, 541
Ebner-Eschenbach, Marie von, novelist, 545 Falat, Julian, Polish painter, 527 f.
£cole des Chartes, 371 Falkenhayn, Erich von, German chief of
Economic policies: in reform era, 1740-1792, general staff, 485 f.
181-183; 1792-1848, 240-242, 285-286; Faludi, Father Ferenc, lyric poet, 379
1848-1879, 342-345; 1879-1914, 460-467 Febronianism, 188
Education: to 1740: lower, 136 f.; intermedi¬ February Patent of 1861, 329-338
ate, 136 f.; higher, 137—139; Jesuit influ¬ Fed’kovych, Osyp, Ruthenian poet, 526
ences, 137-139 Fejervary, Geza von, general and Hungarian
in reform era, 1740-1792: 192-195; prime minister, 456
elementary education, 193; intermedi¬ Felbiger, Johann Ignaz, canon: educational
ate, 193; higher, 193; university edu¬ reforms 173, 193
cation, 193 f.; in Hungary, 200 Felbinger, Bartol, Croatian architect, 532
higher education under neoabsolutism, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman emperor, 9-12,
322 f.; lower and intermediate edu¬ 27 f., 93 n., 96, 138, 149, 153, 172, 176;
cation in liberal era, 357 and union of 1526-1527, 1, 10 f., 27, 32,
Ehrenfels, Christian von, philosopher, 556 41 f., 218; succession pacts with Charles
Electoral reform of 1873, 346, 357 f. V, 27 f.; reform of administration, 29-31,
Elisabeth, empress consort of Austria, 320, 61, 129-131; succession to Bohemian
333 crown, 33 f.; succession to Hungarian
Elisabeth, empress of Russia, 161 crown, 37-41; foreign policy of, 34-37;
Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, French and church reform, 133; and Reformation,
princess, 82 34-37, 106 f., hi, 114, 190; succession
6]o History of the Habshurg Empire
Ferdinand I (continued) Francis I, emperor of Austria (as Holy
after his death, 108 n.; and estates, 126; Roman emperor Francis II), 29, 159, 163,
military reforms, 132; and his court 169, 195, 209-242 passim, 249 f., 367;
historians, 141-143 and centralized absolutism, 174 f.; per¬
Ferdinand I, the Benign, emperor of Austria, sonality, 209 f.; proclamation as Austrian
237, 248, 257, 282, 306 f.; abdication, 309 emperor, 218 f.; abdication as Holy Roman
Ferdinand II, Holy Roman emperor, 44, emperor, 221; domestic administration
46-52, 54, 64, 135, 140, 187; administra¬ (1792-1815), 235-242; administration
tion, 61; and Counter Reformation, 106 f., (1815-1835), 282 fand Francis Joseph,
113, 190; and estates, 126; and church 310; death, 248 ".
control, 134 Francis I, king of France, 35
Ferdinand III, Holy Roman emperor, 46, 52, Francis Charles, archduke, 248, 259
71, 154, 190; and church control, 134 Francis Ferdinand, archduke, heir apparent,
Ferdinand the Catholic, king of Aragon, 10 59, 334> 428; and Hungary, 412, 429,
Ferdinand I, king of Bulgaria, 410 f., 414 456 f., 513; and peace party, 415 f., 418-
Ferdinand II, archduke in Vorderdsterreich, 421; and prime minister von Beck, 430;
108 n., 154 assassination of, 417 f.; and Roumanians,
Ferenczy, Istvan, Magyar sculptor, 383, 541 461; and Czernin, 474, 490; and Austrian
Ferenczy, Karoly, Magyar painter, 541 navy, 484; and Clam-Martinic, 490 f.
Fernkorn, Anton, sculptor, 550 Francis Joseph I, emperor of Austria, 186,
Ferstel, Heinrich von, architect, 551 f. 248, 250, 259 f., 268 f., 270 f., 277-279,
Fesl, Michael Joseph, philosopher, 370 f. 301, 331, 333 f., 361, 447, 483, 487, 489;
Feuchtersleben, Ernst von, professor of medi¬ request for Russian support in 1849, 260 f.;
cine and philosopher, 371 and Austro-Prussian war of 1866, 275 f.;
Fibich, Zdenek, Czech composer, 388, 536 personality, 309 f.; marriage, 320; crowned
Ficquelmont, Count Karl, general and pro¬ king of Hungary, 341; and Hungarian
visional prime minister 1848, 255, 300 f. crisis of 1905-1906, 455-457; death, 469,
Filla, Emil, Czech painter, 536 473 f-
Finance conference, 61 Franco-German war of 1870-1871, 276, 278
Financial administration (1526-1740) and Franco-Russian alliance of 1894, 411
taxation, 120-123; in Alpine hereditary Frank, Josip, leader of Croatian party of
lands, n8f.; in lands of Bohemian Pure Right, 446
crown, 119; in lands of Hungarian crown, Frankfurt constitution of May, 1849, 256,
119 f. 260 f.
First coalition, war of, with France, 208, Frankopan, Count Francis C., Croatian lyric
212-215; peace of Basel, 214; armistice poet, 148 f., 396
of Leoben, 215; peace of Campo Formio, Frantz, Constantin, political writer, 499
215-217 Frederick I (Barbarossa), Holy Roman
Fischer von Erlach, Johann Bernhard, the emperor, 5
elder, architect, 152 f., 338, 562; church Frederick II, Holy Roman emperor, 5
of St. Charles Borromaus, 153; Schon- Frederick I, king in Prussia, 85
brunn palace, 153, 378 Frederick II, the Great, king of Prussia, 89;
Fischer von Erlach, Joseph Emanuel, the and Silesian wars, 97 f., 158-167 passim,
younger, architect, 388 251
Fischhof, Adolf, revolutionary in 1848 and Frederick II of Babenberg, duke of Austria
political writer, 302, 311 (The Belligerent), 5
Fiume (Rijeka), 198, 201, 284, 320; con¬ Frederick III, Holy Roman emperor, 7-9,
vention of 1905, 446, 509 12, 14-16
Fontenoy, battle of 1745, 99 Frederick I, Elector Palatine (the ‘Winter
Fournier, August, historian, 555 King’ of Bohemia), 50
Franchise in Cisleithanian Austria: curia sys¬ Frederick, archduke, commander in chief,
tem, 424 f.; introduction of direct elections 483
in 1873, 425; electoral reforms in 1896, Frederick Augustus I, elector of Saxony (as
425 f.; general equal franchise law of king of Poland Augustus II), 93 f.
1907, 426 Frederick Augustus II, elector of Saxony (as
Francis I of Lorraine, Holy Roman emperor, king of Poland Augustus III), 94
94 f., 98; as grandduke of Tuscany, 95; Frederick William I, king of Prussia, 92,
marriage with Maria Theresa, 95 125, 135, 214
bid ex 631
Frederick William I, the great elector, 80, German Catholic People’s party, 435
German confederation of 1815, 221, 232-
134.. .
Frederick William II, king o£ Prussia, 169, 234, 247, 261, 270, 276; charter, 233 f.,
214 237, 254, 262
Frederick William III, king of Prussia, 169, German customs union of 1833-1834, 247 f.,
226, 229, 248, 257 284; initiation in 1819, 247 f.; and South
Frederick William (Friedrich Wilhelm) IV, German customs union, 248
king of Prussia, 248, 257, 260 f., 270 German position in Habsburg empire: and
Fredro, Count Alexander, Polish playwright, loss of Silesia, 162 f.; and acquisition of
39i Carpathian crownlands, 163-165; and
Freiligrath, Ferdinand, poet, 307 Joseph II, 204
French-Dutch war of 1672-1678, 73, 80 German question in foreign relations (1815-
French July revolution of 1830, 246 1879): 246, 250-263 passim, 270-282
Fresl, Frigyes, Magyar architect, 541 passim
Freud, Sigmund, 545, 559 f. Germans in Hungary, 460; and Hungarian
Fried, Alfred FI., organizer of peace move¬ German People’s party, 460
ment, 558 Ghega, Karl von, railway constructor, 373
Friedjung, Fleinrich, historian, 162, 433; and Gindely, Anton, Czech historian, 537
Zagreb high treason trial, 458 n. Giskra, Karl, parliamentarian and member
Fiihrich, Joseph von, painter, 378 of cabinet, 257, 343
Funder, Friedrich, editor of Reichspost, 548 Glaser, Julius von, professor of law, minister
Fiirstenberg, prince Karl Egon, enlightened of justice, 347, 356
Bohemian aristocrat, 384 Gluck, Christoph Willibald von, composer,
Fiirstentag at Frankfurt in 1863, 270 376 f.
Fussen, peace of 1745, 98 Gmunden, Johann von, astronomer, 14 f.
Fux, Johann Joseph, composer, 150, 387 Gobi, Ferdinand von, deputy at Reichstag
of Kremsier, 311
Gocar, Josef, Czech architect, 536
Gablenz, Ludwig von, general, 271, 274 Goga, Octavian, Roumanian writer, 525
Gaismair, Michael, peasant leader, 121 Goll, Jaroslav, Czech historian, 537
Gaj, Ljudevit, Croatian writer and linguist, Goluchowski, Count Agenor Maria Adam
295, 446; and linguistic Southern Slav (the younger), Austro-Hungarian minis¬
Union movement, 397 f. ter of foreign affairs, 411 f.
Galicia, 163, 230; acquisition of, 163 f., 165; Goluchowski, Count Agenor Romuald (the
nationality problem, 164 f.; estates diet, elder), minister of the interior, governor
176; administraton in reform era, 180 f.; of Galicia, 326 f., 328, 350
peasants, 198; insurrection of 1846, 249; Gomperz, Theodor, historian of Greek phi¬
semi-autonomy of 1868, 390, 444; Polish losophy, 555
Ruthenian compromise,, 444, 506; eco¬ Gorchakov (Gortschakow), Prince Alexander
nomics, 464 f. Mikhailovich, Russian chancellor, 279
Gallas, Count Matthias, general, 64 Gorgei, Arthur, Magyar revolutionary gen¬
Gardonyi, Geza, Magyar novelist, 538 eral, 313, 315
Garibaldi, Giuseppe, Italian national leader, Gorlice, breakthrough of May, 1915, 484,
267 504
Gasoletti, Antonin, poet, 524 Granicari (Grenzer), 76
Gastein, convention of 1865, 271, 274 Gratz, Gustav, Hungarian statesman, 460
Gautsch von Frankenthurn, Paul, Austrian Graz, 138; university: as Jesuit institution,
prime minister, 424, 429 f. 138; in reform era, 194; after 1815,
Gebler, Tobias Philip von, state councillor, 371 f.; Landhaus, 152; Polytechnicum,
173 372
General court chancery, 30, 61, 283 Great Northern war (1700-1721), 86
General diets and Ansschusslandtage (gen¬ Greek revolution and war of independence,
eral dietal executive committees): Bude- 245 f.
jovice (Budweis) in 1614, 48; Linz, 1530, Gregr, Edward, Young Czech parliamentar¬
1614, 127; Prague, 1541-1542, 127; ian, 443
Prague, 1615, 48 Gregr, Julius, Young Czech leader, 443, 535
Gentz, Friedrich von, diplomat and writer, Grillparzer, Franz, poet, 374 f., 562
210, 222, 229, 371 f. Gross Jagerndorf, battle of, 160
6g 2 History of the Habsburg Empire
Grossdeutsch and hleindeutsch, terminology Haus, Anton, grand admiral, 484
and issue, 256-259, 291 Havlicek, Karel, Czech political journalist,
Grosswardein. See Nagyvarad 293> 295, 535
Griin, Anastasius. See Auersperg, Count Haydn, Joseph, composer, 377
Anton Alexander Haymerle, Baron Heinrich, Austro-Hungar¬
Grunne, Count Ludwig, general, 319, 324 ian minister of foreign affairs, 406
Griinwald, Bela, Magyar nationalist writer, Haynau, Alexander von, general, 253, 315
458 f. Hebbel, Friedrich, dramatist, 375
Gubernia, 177 Hectorovic, Petar, Croatian lyric poet, 148
Guglielmi, Gregorio, painter, 378 Heidegger, Martin, philosopher, 556
Guild system, reforms of, 182 Hein, Franz, minister of justice, 311
Gundulic, Ivan, Croatian epic poet, 148, 396 Helcel, Anton S., legal historian, 391
Gunther, Anton, philosopher, 370 f. Helfert, Joseph Alexander von, historian and
Gyor (Raab) cathedral, 155 state official, 311, 372
Gyulay, Count Francis, general, 268 Heltai, Gaspar, bible translator, 144
Gyulay, Pal, poet and literary historian, 382 Hellmer, Edmund, sculptor, 550 f..
Gyula-Feharvar, pact of 1551, 40; treaty of Henry IV, king of France
1643 (renewed at Munkacs), 44 Henry II of Babenberg (Jasomirgott), duke
of Austria, 5
Habsburg dynasty: and German national Herbst, Eduard, minister of justice, 347
influence, 6, 17 f. Herczeg, Ferenc, Magyar novelist, 538 f.
Habsburg empire: terminology, 1-3; union Herder, Johann Gottfried von, philosopher
of 1526-1527, 1 f., 10, 18-24; as econom¬ and writer, 290
ic and geographic entity, 26 f.; reflection Herzl, Theodor, founder of Zionism, 548
on the dissolution process, 517-520 Hess, Baron Heinrich, field marshal, 252
Habsburg-Jagiello marriages, 9-11 Hildebrandt, Johann Lukas von, architect,
Habsburg succession: after death of Ferdi¬ 153; Belvedere palace in Vienna, 153,
nand I, 56 f.; succession treaties of 1617, 383
48 f.; and will of Ferdinand II, 57; merg¬ Hindenburg, Paul von, German chief of
er of German Habsburg lines in 1665, general staff, 484 f.
57 f.; and recognition of hereditary suc¬ Hitler, Adolf, 221, 433 f.
cession in Hungary, 57; and pactum Hlinka, Father Andrej, Slovak national
mutuae successions of 1703 between Ger¬ leader, 459, 512
man and Spanish line, 57 f., 87; and Hnatiuk, Volodymyr, Ruthenian ethno¬
Pragmatic Sanction, 58-61, 91-96 grapher, 526
Hague, treaty of 1720, 91 Hobbes, Thomas, political philosopher, 103,
Hainfeld conference of 1888-1889; founding M3
of Austrian Social Democratic party, 427, Hochkirch, battle of, 160
436; and Hungary, 455 Hochstadt, battle of, 86
Halm, Friedrich (Baron Miinch-Belling- Hodza, Michael, Slovak writer, 297, 389
hausen), playwright, 375 Hodza, Milan, Slovak national leader, 459,
Hanka, Vaclav, slavist, 385 512
Hansen, Theophil von, architect, 551 f. Hofbauer, Clemens Maria, saint, preacher,
Hanslick, Eduard, musicologist and music 240, 284
critic, 555 Hofer, Andreas, Tyrolean peasant leader,
Hardenberg, Prince Karl August, Prussian 223
chancellor, 229 Hoffmann, Josef, architect, 553
Hasek, Jaroslav, Czech satirist, 535 Hofmannsthal, Hugo von, poet, 545 f.
Hasenauer, Karl von, architect, 552 Hogyes, Endres, Magyar neurologist, 544
Hasner, Leopold von, Austrian prime min¬ Hohberg, Wolf Helmhard von, Lower Aus¬
ister, 347, 356 trian nobleman, 141 f.
Hattala, Martin, Slovak linguist, 389 f. Hohenberg, Ferdinand von, architect, 378
Hatvany, Baron Lajos, Magyar writer, 542 Hohenberg, Sophie, Duchess of, 59 n.
Hatzfeld, Count Friedrich, chancellor of Hohenheim, Theophrastus, scientist and phy¬
United Court Chancery, 173 sician, 139
Haugwitz, Count Friedrich Wilhelm, chan¬ Hohenwart, Count Siegmund, prime min¬
cellor of United Court Chancery, 173, ister, 358-360; federalist program for
175; military reforms, 175 lands of Bohemian crown, 358-360; Fun-
Index 633
damental Articles, 358 f.; nationality law, Hungary, political crisis (mid-i7th to mid-
359 18th century), 70-77
Holly, Jan, Slovak poet, 297, 389 Hungary: and customs union, 285; immi¬
Holovackyi, Iakiv, Ukrainian linguist, 393 gration from the east, 287; nationality
Holy Alliance of 1815, 232 f. problems and language conflict, 287 f.;
Holy League of 1508, 8 f.; of 1648, 66 reform period 1825-1848, 282; tax ex¬
Holzer, Wolfgang, mayor of Vienna, 14 emptions, 287
Homan, Balint, Magyar historian, 543 Hurban, Joseph Miloslav, Slovak writer and
Hontheim, Nikolaus, bishop, 188 linguist, 297, 389
Honveds, Hungarian national militia, 364, Hurmuzaki, Eudoxius, Roumanian histor¬
423 ian, 404, 526
Hornigk, Philip Wilhelm von, mercantil¬ Hussarek von Heinlein, Max, prime minis¬
ist, 123 f., 141; and Austrian patriotism, ter, 492; and imperial manifesto of Octo¬
I24 ber 16, 1918, 493, 516
Horvath, Istvan, Magyar historian, 380 Husserl, Edmund, philosopher, 556; and
Hrozny, Bedrich, Czech orientalist, 537 phenomenology, 556
Hrushevs’ky, Mykmailo, Ruthenian histor¬ Hussite movement, 18-20, 22, 108-m, 117,
ian, 526 119
Hubay, Jeno, Magyar composer, 541 Hyrtl, Joseph, anatomist, 373
Hubertusburg, peace of 1763, 162
Hiibner, Count Joseph Alexander, Austrian Ilic, Vojislav, Siberian poet, 529
diplomat, 267 Illyrian territories, 224, 229, 284, 395
Humboldt, Wilhelm von, Prussian states¬ Illyrism, 295 f., 531
man, 229 Imperial manifesto of October 16, 1918,
Hungarian academy of science, 380 493, 496, 516
Hungarian Catholic People’s party, 353, 454, Inner Austria: term, 108 n.; Counter Refor¬
456 mation in, 109, 116, 120; crafts and
Hungarian-Croatian compromise of 1868, industry, 122; mining in, 119
346, 353, 363 U 447 Innsbruck: Court Church, 152; university in
Hungarian crown, lands of: to 1740, 20-24; reform era, 194, after 1815, 371 f.
Reformation and Counter reformation, Intellectuals in Habsburg empire: native
112-116; administration, 130 f.; financial born intellectuals and immigrants, 561 f.;
agenda and taxation, ii9f., 200; crafts movement from east to west, 521-524;
and industry, 123; judicial system, 131 f., and multinational composition, 563
202; and end of the reform era (1740- Isabella, queen of Castille, 10
1792), 199-208; immigration into, 200; Isabella, Polish princess, 39 f.
language legislation of Joseph II, 203; Istuanfy, Nicolas, historian, 143
diet of 1791, 207 f.; and neoabsolutism, Italians, 296, 351, 450 f.; culture, 401 f.,
320; and transition to constitutional gov¬ 522, 524 f.; in Tyrol, 296, 351; as Latins
ernment, 330-334; constitutional status in Habsburg empire, 401, 450; in Littoral,
of 1867, 341; administration, 1879-1914, 296, 351; during World War I, 508-509
452-458; Jewish immigration, 453; state Italy and Triple Alliance 1914-1915, 469-
crisis of 1905-1906, 456 f.; Socialists, 472; declaration of war in May 1915, 472;
456; during World War I, 509-517; de¬ armistice with Austria-Hungary in 1918,
fensive war aims, 509 f. 481 f.
Hungarian Independence Party (Party of Izvolski, Alexander Petrovich, Russian minis¬
1848-1849), 352, 364, 452, 455 f*, 495 ter of foreign affairs, 413 f.
Hungarian National Party of 1892, 452 Izso, Miklos, Magyar sculptor, 541
Hungarian National Labor Party, 457
Hungarian Nationality Law of 1868, 352, Jacobine conspiracies, 209, 236, 380
404 Jadot de Ville Issey, Nicolas, architect, 378
Hungarian nobles’ conspiracy, 72, 115 Jager, Albert, historian, 371 f.
Hungarian revolution and war of indepen¬ Jagiello dynasty in Bohemia and Hungary,
dence of 1848-1849, 129, 251, 261, 301 f., 8 f.
306, 313-316, 382; proclaramtion of re¬ James I, British king, no
public in Debreczen, 314; Russian inter¬ Janacek, Leos, composer, 536
vention, 315 Jankovic, Emanuilo, Serb writer, 399
Hungarian Revolution Party of 1861, 352 Jaquin, Joseph F., botanist, 372
History of the Hahshurg Empire
634
Jaquin, Nicolaus J., botanist, 372 Kara Mustapha, Turkish commander in chief,
Jaszi, Oscar, historian and sociologist, 495, 65, 81
300, 543”> and Middle Europe project, Kalnoky, Count Gustav, Austro-Hungarian
minister of foreign affairs, 406, 408
51 o f.
Jedlick, Anyos, Magyar physicist, 544 Karadzic, Vuk, Serbian poet and linguist,
Jelacic de Buzim, Josef, general and banus 297) 399 f.
of Croatia, 302, 306 f. Karlocza. See Karlowitz
Jenko, Simon, Slovene poet, 396 Karlovic. See Karlowitz
Jesuit order, dissolution of, 188, i93> read¬ Karlowitz, peace of 1699, 35, 67, 76 f., 82
Karlsburg. See Gyula Feharvar
mission, 284
Jews, 125; expulsion under Leopold I, 125; Karoli, Gaspar, bible translator, 147
and Joseph II, 186, 191; and Maria Karolyi, Count Michael, Hungarian parlia¬
Theresa, 189 f.; under neoabsolutism, 321; mentarian and prime minister, 495-497,
after 1867, 432-435; as national group, 510 f., 543
442; in Hungary, 453 Katona, Jozsef, Magyar playwright, 381
Jirasek, Alois, Czech novelist, 534 Kaunitz, Count Dominik Anton, diplomat,
Jirecek, Hermengild, legal historian, 537 79
Jodi, Friedrich, philosopher, 556 Kaunitz-Rietberg, Prince Wenzel Anton,
Jungmann, Josef, Slavist, 385 state chancellor, 70, 99, 158 f., 161-170
Jurcic, Joseph, Slovene writer, 396 passim, 173, 210 f.
John (Johann), archduke, German regent Kavci£ (Kaucic), Matthias, deputy at Reichs¬
1848-1849, 220, 222 f., 249 f., 257 f., 261 tag of Kremsier, 311
John Hunyady, regent of Hungary, 8, 21 Kazinczy, Ferenc von, Magyar linguist, 380
John Sobieski, king of Poland, 65 f- Kelsen, Hans, professor of constitutional and
Jokai, Mor, Magyar novelist, 382, 538 international law, 537, 557 f.; and Reine
Joseph I, Holy Roman emperor, 58, 61, 75, Rechtslehre, 557 f.
Kemeny, John, prince of Transylvania, 71
78, 87, 93) 96, 100, 121, 141
Joseph II, Holy Roman emperor, 29, 70, 89, Kemeny, Baron Zsigmond (Siegmund),
129, 367, 372-378; administration and Hungarian enlightened conservative writer,
reforms, 170-204 passim, 238, 241; death, 352, 381
207; Edict of Tolerance (Toleranzpatent) Kempen-Fichtenstamm, Baron Johann, minis¬
of 1781, 186, 191; and education, 194; ter of police, 319, 324
foreign policy, 162—167, 211; and German Kempis, Thomas a, theologian, 147
nationalism, 186; language decree of 1784* Kepler, Johannes, astronomer, 139-141
185, 287, 380; personality, 157 f.; police Kerensky, Alexander, Russian prime minister
system, 283; and Protestants, 186; and and minister of war, 478, 504
Roumanians, 403; and Ruthenians, 392 Kersnik, Janko, Slovene poet, 530
Joseph, archduke, field marshal, 494 Kette, Dragomir, Slovene poet, 530
Joseph Ferdinand, archduke, general, 483 Khevenhuller, Count Ludwig Andreas, field
Joseph Ferdinand kur prince of Bavaria, 83 marshal, 100, 172
Josephine (Beauharnais), French empress Khlesl, Melchior, cardinal, 49 f.
Khuen-Hedervary, Karoly, banus of Croatia,
consort, 225
Josephinism, 134, 321; philosophy of, 183- Hungarian prime minister, 446, 455, 457
187; under Francis I, 200, 235 f., 284, Ivinsky, Count Franz, enlightened Bohemian
aristocrat, 384
367
Josika, Baron Miklos, novelist, 381 Kisfaludy, Alexander von, Magyar lyrical poet
Judex curiae, position of, 132 and playwright, 380 f.
Judicial system: to 1740, 131 f.; under Maria Kisfaludi, Karoly, Magyar playwright and
Theresa, 178-180; under Francis I, 237 f.; poet, 381
under neoabsolutism, 320 f. Kittl, Johann Friedrich, composer, 387
Justh, Gyula, liberal speaker of the Hun¬ Klaczko, Julian, Polish literary critic, 391
garian house of deputies, 457 Klapka, George, Magyar general, 275, 313
Klausenburg. See Clui
Klein, Franz, minister of state and creator of
Kafka, Franz, writer, 547 code of civil procedure, 557
Kalman, Imre, Magyar composer of operet¬ Klein, Samuel, Roumanian linguist, 403
tas, 542, 554 Klimt, Gustav, painter of Sezession style,
Kalousek, Josef, Czech historian, 537 550
Index 635
Kodaly, Zoltan, composer, 541 f. Krleza, Miroslav, Croatian playwright and
Koerber, Ernest von, Austrian prime minis¬ novelist, 531
ter, 424, 429, 489 f. Kromenz. See Kremsier
Kokoschka, Oskar, expressionist painter, 550, Kronawetter, Ferdinand, liberal parliamen¬
553 tarian, 432
Kolin, battle of, 160 Krones, Franz von, historian, 371 f.
Kollar, Jan, poet, and Romantic Panslavism, Kiibeck, Karl Friedrich von, president of
293, 297, 389, 397 General Court Chamber, 283, 300
Kollgttaj, Father Hugo, 390; and university Kuchuk-Kainarji, peace of 1774, 164
of Cracow, 390 Kudlich, Hans, parliamentarian in revolu¬
Kollonitsch (Kollonitz), Count Leopold, tion of 1848, 303
cardinal, 65, 72, 115 Kiihlmann, Richard von, German secretary
Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky, Count Franz Anton, of foreign affairs, 479
conference minister, 237, 249, 283, 300 f. Kukuljevic, Ivan, Croatian historian, 398
Koloszvir. See Clui Kulcsar, Istvan, Magyar historian, 380
Kolowrat-Krakowsky, Count Leopold, vice Kulmbach, Hans von, painter, 391
chancellor, 179, 398 Kumicic, Evgenij, Croatian novelist, 531
Komensky, Jan Amos, educator and philos¬ Kunersdorf, battle of, 160
opher, 142 f., 146 Kurucoks, Hungarian revolutionary peasant
Koniggratz, battle of, 162, 263, 273, 275 force, 73, 121 f.
Kopitar, Bartholomaus, Slovene linguist, 296, Kutuzov, Prince Mikhail Laironovich, Rus¬
298, 353, 37i, 397, 529; and Austro- sian commander in chief, 219 f.
Slavism, 395 f.; and Karadzic, 399
Kornhausl, Josef, architect, 378 Labor movement, 348 f.
Korosec, Antonin, Slovene catholic conserva¬ Lacy, Count Franz Moritz, field marshal,
tive leader, 449, 514, 516 173
Kosciuszko, Thaddeus, Polish national leader, Ladislas (Vladislav), as king of Hungary I,
215 as king of Poland III, 20 f.
Kossak, Julian, Polish portrait painter, 391 Ladislas (Vladislav), as king of Hungary II,
Kossuth, Ferenc, Hungarian parliamentarian as king of Bohemia V, 9, 20
and minister of state, 456 f. Ladislas Posthumus, king of Bohemia and
Kossuth, Louis, Magyar national leader, Hungary, 8, 20 f.
288 f., 292, 302, 304, 306, 313-315, 381; Laibach, 284; conference of 1820, 244;
and Illyrism, 295 f.; in exile, 352 declaration of 1912, 449
Kostolanyi, Dezso, Magyar poet, 540 Lamberg, Count Philip, general, 306
Kotera, Jan, Czech architect, 536 Lammasch, Heinrich, professor of law and
Kotlarewskyj, Ivan P., Ruthenian writer, 393 Austrian prime minister, 493 f., 558
Kotzebue, August von, playwright, 247 Landsteiner, Karl, pathologist and immu¬
Kovacic, Viktor, Croatian architect, 532 nologist, 559
Kozmian, Stanislaus, Polish playwright, 528 Language concepts, 439 f
Kraft-Ebbing, Richard von, professor of Language conflict: in Bohemia and Moravia,
psychiatry, 559 439-442; and Badeni cabinet, 440 f.
Kraljevic, Miroslav, Croatian painter, 532 Lantos, Tinodi, Sebestyen, Magyar poet, 147
Kramar, Karel, Young Czech leader, 443, Lassalle, Ferdinand, socialist leader, 349
Lasser von Zollheim, Josef, minister of in¬
48
Kranjcevic, Silvije, Croatian poet, 531 terior, 311, 356
Kraus, Karl, satirist, 546-548; and Die Laszlo, Fiilop, Magyar portrait painter, 540
~Fac\el, 547 Latour, Count Theodor, minister of defense,
Krauss, Baron Philipp, minister of finance, 300; assassination of, 306
309 Laube, Heinrich, writer and director of
Krasinski, Count Zygmunt, Polish poet, 391 Burgtheater, 548
Krek, Father Janez, Slovene national leader, Laudon, Ernst Gideon von, field marshal,
449 156, 160
Kremlicka, Rudolf, Czech painter, 536 Lazius, Wolfgang, historian, 141, 143
Kremsier, Reichstag of, 251, 308, 320; draft League of Augsburg, war of 1688-1697,
of constitution, 311 f.; dissolution, 251, 66 f., 81 f.; peace of Ryswick of 1697, 82
259 League of princes (Fiirstenbund) 167
Kriehuber, Josef, portrait painter, 378 Lechner, Odon, Magyar architect, 54
6j6 History of the Habshurg Empire
Lehar, Franz, composer of operettas, 542, Lobkowitz, Prince Wenzel Eusebius, states¬
554 man, 73, 79
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, philosopher, Lobositz, battle of, 160
103, 140 Locke, John, political philosopher, 103, 143
Leipzig, battle of, 227 Lodgman, von Auen Rudolf, liberal Sudeten
Lemberg. See Lwow German parliamentarian, 499
Lenau, Nikolaus (Niembsch von Strehlenau), Lohner, Ludwig von, deputy at Reichstag
poet, 375 of Kremsier, 311
Leopold I, Holy Roman emperor, 35, 58, Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, 230 f., 235,
135, 148, 354, 399; administration, 61, 73, 238, 253, 265; 284
100, 121, 166, 187; first Turkish war, Lombardy, 215 f.; loss of, 269
62-64; second Turkish war, 64-67; and London, treaty of April 1915, 471, 475, 514
war of Spanish succession, 78-90 passim; Lonyai, Count Melchior, Hungarian prime
and expulsion of Jews, 125, 189; sponsor¬ minister, 364
ship of music, 150, 376 Loragho, Carlo, architect, 154, 388
Leopold II, Holy Roman emperor, 29, 70, Los von Rom movement, 433
157; personality, 158, 195, 209-213; for¬ Loschmidt, Josef, physicist, 560
eign policy, 167-170; administration and Loos, Adolf, architect and writer, 553
reforms 170-208 passim, 237-241 passim Louis II, king of Hungary and Bohemia,
Leopold Wilhelm, archduke, art collector, 9, 20 f., 27
154 f. Louis XII, king of France, 8
Lestvik, Fran, Slovene novelist and play¬ Louis XIV, king of France, 55, 58, 63 f, 73,
wright, 396, 530 75, x53; and war of Spanish succession,
Leu then, battle of, 161 80-90 passim, 92, 134
Levy, Vaclav, Czech sculptor, 536 Louis XV, king of France, 93
Lewyckyj, Eugen, Ruthenian parliamentarian, Louis XVI, king of France, 168 f., 212,
445 302
Libocan, Vaclav Hajek of, Czech court his¬ Louis XVIII, king of France (count of
torian, 142 Provence), 228
Lieben, Robert von, inventor, 561 Louis Philippe, French king, 246
Liebenberg, Andreas von, mayor of Vienna, Louis, archduke, 237, 249
65 Louis, margrave of Baden, general, 66, 85
Liechtenstein, Prince Alois, Christian Social Lower Austria: term, 109 n.; Reformation
leader, 435 in, 108-110; mercantilism in, 125 f.
Liechtenstein, Prince Joseph Wenzel, field LudendorfT, Erich, German quartermaster
marshal, 160, 173 general, 484 f.
Liegnitz, battle of, 161 Lueger, Karl, mayor of Vienna, Christian
Linz: Ausschusslandtag of 1530, 127; general Social leader, 434-436, 548
diet of 1614, 48; peace of 1645, 44, 71; Lukacs, Georg, Magyar cultural philosopher,
program of 1882, 433 542
Lisinski, Vatroslav (Ignatz Fuchs), Croatian Lukacs, Ladislaus von, Hungarian prime
composer, 531 f. minister, 457 f.
Lisola, Baron Franz, ambassador, 79-81 Luther, Martin, hi, 113 f.; bible translation,
Lissa, naval battle of 1866, 273 144
List Friedrich, political economist, 499 Lutheran movement: in Bohemia, in f.; in
Liszt, Franz von, composer, 382 Hungary, 113 f.
Literature to 1740, 144-149: in Alpine Luzzara, battle of, 86
hereditary lands, 144-146; in lands of L’viv. See Lwow
Bohemian crown, 146 f.; in Croatian terri¬ Lvov, Prince Georgij, temporary Russian
tory, 148 f.; didactics, 144; Magyar litera¬ prime minister, 504
ture, 147 f.; Roumanian literature, 149; Lwow, 294, 484, 527; university and poly-
in Slovene territory, 146 £.; Slovene litera¬ technicum, 390, 439
ture, 144, 149
Littrow, Joseph J. von, astronomer, 372 Maass, Ferdinand, historian, 184
Littrow, Karl L. von, astronomer, 372 Mach, Ernst, physicist and philosopher, 560
Ljubljana. See Laibach Macha, Karel Hynek, Czech lyric poet, 534
Lloyd George, David (Earl of Dwyfor), Machar, Josef Svatopluk, Czech writer, 535
British prime minister, 477 Mack von Leiberich, Charles, general, 219 f.
Index 657
Madach, Imre, Magyar tragedian, 382 Martinovic, Ignaz Josef, abbe, 209, 236
Maffei, Andrea, poet and translator, 402 Marx, Karl, 437, 519
Magenta, battle of, 268 Mary II (Stuart), British queen, 82
Magyars, culture, 147 f., 155, 379-3845 523 f., Masaryk, Thomas Garrigue, political philos¬
538-544; fine arts, 383 f., 540 f.; litera¬ opher, president of Czechoslovak repub¬
ture, 379-382, 538-540; music, 382 f., lic, 443 f., 459, 501, 520, 535; and Slovak
541 f.; scholarship, 542-544 Hlasist movement, 459; and Pittsburgh
Magyar Independence party, 447 f. declaration, 502, 512; resolution of Tur-
Mahler, Gustav, composer, 542, 553 £.; and ciansky Svaty Martin, 512
Vienna opera house, 548, 553 f. Matejko, Jan, Polish painter, 391
Maior, Petru, Roumanian historian, 403 Matos, August, Croatian literary critic, 531
Makart, Hans, painter, 388, 549 f. Matthias I, Holy Roman emperor, 35, 41—
Manes, Josef, Czech painter, 535 f. 43? 47-495 M3; and Counter Reformation,
Manin, Daniel, Italian national leader, 251 f. 107, no, 112; and astronomy, 140
Mannheim, Karl, social philosopher, 543 Matthias Corvinus, king of Hnugary, 8;
Manyoki, Adam, Magyar portrait painter, reign, 21-23; art collections, 154
Maulbertsch, Anton F., painter of frescoes,
383 . .
March (Stadion) constitution of 1849, 310, 378
312 f., 320 f. Maurice of Saxony, 37
Marczali, Henrik, Magyar constitutional his¬ Mauthner, Fritz, philosopher of language,
torian, 542 557
Margarete, empress consort of Leopold I, 83 Max Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, 66, 83, 85
Maria of Burgundy, consort of Maximilian I, Max, Gabriel, painter, 388
8, 10 Maximilian I, Holy Roman emperor, 8-11,
Maria, queen consort of Hungary, 9 27; marriage policy, 9-11; and humanism,
Malplaquet, battle of, 81 14-18, 141,376; reform of administration,
Marengo, battle of, 217 17 f., 30 f., 108 n., 109, 119; tomb of,
Maria Anna, queen consort of Spain, 83 n. 152
Maria (Marie) Louise, French empress con¬ Maximilian II, Holy Roman emperor, 28,
sort, duchess of Parma, 225, 230, 231 n. 40 f., 47, 56, 108 n., 143 n.; and Church
Maria Antonia, daughter of Leopold I, 83 control, 133; and Protestantism, 107, 112,
Maria Theresa, empress-queen, 59-61, 76, 114, 190
79, 106, 135, 170-204 passim, 221, 237, Maximilian, emperor of Mexico, 277, 320; as
251, 270, 367; personality, 157 f.; and governor general of Lombardo-Venetian
Pragmatic Sanction, 91-96; marriage with kingdom, 320
Francis of Lorraine, 95; and war of Maximilian, duke of Bavaria, 47, 50
Austrian Succession, 96-101 passim, 156, Maxwell, James Clerk, physicist, 560
160; and Hungarian estates, 100; and Mayer von Mayrau, Cajetan, deputy at Reichs¬
Bohemian estates, 100; economic policies, tag of Kremsier, 311
125; judicial reforms, 131, 178-180; mili¬ Mayerhoffer, A., architect, 383
tary reforms, 132, 175; foreign policy, Mazarin, cardinal Jules, French statesman,
157-166 passim; administration and re¬ 7i
forms, 170-201 passim; treatment of Jews Mazuranic, Ivan, Croatian epic poet, 398
and Protestants, 189 f.; and Ruthenians, Mediterranean agreements of 1887, 409
392 Megerle, Ulrich. See Sancta Clara, Abraham a
Maria Theresia (Therese), queen consort of Megerle von Muhlfeld, Eugen, parliamentar¬
France, 83 ian, 257
Maria Theresian academy in Vienna (There- Melanchton, Philip, Protestant reformer, 106
sianum), 194 Mendel, Gregor, geneticist, 373
Marie Antoinette, queen consort of France, Menger, Anton, professor of law, 557
168, 209 Menger, Karl, co-founder of Austrian school
Marinussi, George. See Utiesenic, George of economics, 558
Marmont, August Frederic, French general, Mensdorff-Pouilly, Count Albert, ambassador,
224 475 f-
Martinelli, Domenico, architect, 152, 383; Mensdorff-Pouilly, Count Alexander, Aus¬
and royal castle in Buda, 383 trian minister of foreign affairs, 271, 277
Martini, Karl Anton von, reformer of civil Mercantilism in Habsburg lands, 118, 122-
law, 372, 401 f. 125, 181
Messenhauser, Wenzel, revolutionary officer Nagyszombat: cathedral, 155; peace of 1615,
in 1848, 307 43; university of, 115, 138 f., 147
Messerschmidt, Franz, sculptor, 378 Nagyvarad, secret pact of 1538, 39 f.
Mestrovic, Ivan, Croatian sculptor, 532 Napoleon I, French emperor, 209-231 passim;
Metastasio, Pietro, composer, poet, and libret¬ hundred days regime, 229
tist, 150, 376 Napoleon III, French emperor, 263, 267-269,
Metternich, Prince Clemens Lothar, state 271-278 passim
chancellor, 158, 210 f., 224-235, 244-251 Natanson, Ladislaus, Polish physicist, 527
passim, 266, 283, 301, 310, 361; person¬ Nations with and without independent po¬
ality, 224 f.; resignation, 250 f. litical history, 290 f.
Meynert, Theodor, psychiatrist, 559 Naumann, Friedrich, Middle Europe pro¬
Meytens, Martin van, portrait painter, 378 gram, 499 f.
Mickiewicz, Adam, Polish poet, 391 Nemcova, Bozena, Czech novelist, 534
Migazzi, Count Christoph Anton, cardinal, Neoabsolutism, 318-326
179, 188 Neruda, Jan, Czech poet, 534
Mihalovich, Anton von, banus of Croatia, 515 Nesselrode, Count Charles Robert, Russian
Miklosic, Franz von, Slavist, 371, 396, 529 chancellor, 229
Mikulov. See Nikolsburg Nestroy, Johann, playwright, 375
Milan I, king of Serbia, 281, 407, 411 New Year’s Eve (Sylvester) patent of 1851,
Military frontiers (Banat of Temesvar and 251, 320 f.
Southern Transylvania), 78, 130 f., 133, Nicholas I, tsar of Russia, 245 f., 249, 251,
198, 320, 354 260 f.; death, 265, 294
Military frontier (Croatian), 76 £., 130 f., Nikisch, Arthur, conductor, 542
133, 201, 288, 354, 514 Nikolic, Mihovil, Croatian poet, 531
Mining: in Alpine hereditary lands, 116, Nikolsburg, peace of 1622, 44; preliminary
120, 122; in lands of Bohemian crown, peace of 1866, 276
120; in lands of Hungarian crown, 116, Nobile, Peter von, architect, 378
120 North German federation, 276
Ministry of war, 323 Northern war (1655-1660), 71
Mises, Ludwig von, economist and economic Nostitz, Count Franz, enlightened Bohemian
historian, 558 aristocrat, 386
Moering, Karl, general, 250, 257, 291 f. Nothnagel, Hermann, professor of internal
Molnar, Ferenc, Magyar playwright, 539 medicine, 559
Moltke, Count Helmuth (the elder), German Novak, Viteslav, Slovak composer, 533
chief of general staff, 263, 270 Novara, battle of 1848, 252
Montecuccoli, Count Raimond, field marshal, Novibazar (Novipazar), Sanjak of, 279!.;
30, 64, 72 f., 132 railway project, 412
Moricz, Zsigmond, Magyar novelist, 539 f. Nymphenburg, alliance of 1741, 97
Morocco crises: first, of 1905—1906, 411; Nyugat (West), Magyar literary journal, 538
second, of 1911, 415
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 376 f.; and Oberst Burggraf, position of, 129 f.
Prague, 386 f. Obradovic, Dosjtije, Serb educational reform¬
Muller, Adam, political philosopher, 210, er, 399
284, 371 f. October Diploma of i860, 327, 329, 355
Muller, Johannes (Regiomontanus), astrono¬ Odenburg. See Sopron
mer, 14 Odobescu, Alexander, archeologist, 403
Miinchengratz, entrevue of 1833, 249 Ofenheim von Ponteuxin, Viktor, industrial¬
Mungenast, Josef, architect, 153 ist, 343
Munkacsy, Mihaly von, Magyar painter, 540 Olachus, Nicolas, archbishop, 149
Murat, Joachim, king of Naples and French Olbrich, Josef, architect of Sezession style,
general, 231 553
Music (to 1740), 149 f. Old Czech party, 292, 316, 358, 360, 431,
Musicki, Lucian, Serb bishop, 399 443
Myslbek, Josef Vaclav, Czech sculptor, 536 Olmiitz, 142; Jesuit university, 138 f.; punc-
tations of 1850, 251, 262 f.
Nadasdy, Count Ferencz, judex curiae, 72 Olomuc. See Olmiitz
Nagodba. See Hungarian-Croatian compro¬ Omladina, youth organization, 400
mise of 1868 6nod, assembly of 1707, 75, 122
Index 639
Orczy, Laurence von, Magyar general, poet, Pesina, Thomas of Cechorod, bishop and
379 historiographer, 146
Oriental Academy in Vienna, 194 Peter the Great, tsar of Russia, 135, 192
Orsini, Felice, Italian nationalist, 267 Peter III, tsar of Russia, 161
Orszagh-Hviezdoslav, Pavol, Slovak novelist, Peter I, king of Serbia, 411
532 £• Peter Ferdinand, archduke, general, 483
Osusky, Stefan, Slovak national leader, 512 Petofi, Alexander, poet, 381 f.
Otto II, Holy Roman emperor, 4 Petrovic, Veljko, Serb poet, 529
Oudenarde, battle of, 86 Petrovi^-Pecija, Petar, Croatian playwright,
Oxenstjerna, Count Axel, Swedish statesman, 53
7i Pettenkofen, August von, painter, 378
Petzval, Joszev, Magyar physicist, 544
Pacassi, Nicholas, architect, 153, 378 Peuerbach, Georg von, astronomer, 14
Palacky, Francis, Czech historian and nation¬ Philip II, king of Spain, 28, 34 f.
al leader, 254, 293, 311, 338; and German Philip III, king of Spain, 48 f.
Confederation, 254, 256, 302; and Slav Philip IV, king of Spain, 83
Congress of 1848, 304; and Slav Congress Philip V, king of Spain, 58, 84-88 passim,
of 1867, 338, 349; as historian, 385 f., 91 f., 95, 99
537 Philip of Swabia (German counter king) 19
Palatine, office of, 128, 132 Picasso, Pablo, Spanish painter, 536
Palkovic, Jura, Slovak linguist, 389 Piccolomini, Eneas Silvius of Siena. See
Paracelsus. See Hohenheim Pius II, pope
Paris: peace of 1763, 99, 159; peace of Piccolomini, Prince Octavio, general, 64
1814, 228; peace of 1815, 232 Pilat, Josef von, state official and writer, 284
Pasic, Nicholas, Serbian prime minister, 418 Pillersdorf, Baron Franz Xaver, prime min¬
Passau, treaty of, 37 ister, 255, 300 f., 303
Passarowitz (Passarovic), peace of 1718, 63, Pilsudski, Joseph, Polish national leader,
68, 91 504 f.
Pattai, Robert, Christian Social parliamen¬ Pinkas, Adolf Maria, Czech deputy at Krem-
tarian and speaker of the House, 433 sier, 311
Paul IV, pope, 35 Pirquet, Clemens von, professor of pedi¬
Paul I, tsar of Russia, 217 atrics, 559
Pawlicky, Stefan, historian of classical phi¬ Pittieri, Riccardo, writer, 525
losophy, 527 Pius II, pope, 15 f.
Pawlikowski, Tadeusz, Polish playwright, Pius IV, pope, 106
528 Pius VI, pope, 203
Pazmany, Peter, cardinal, 115, 139, 147 Plener, Ignaz von, minister of commerce
Peasants, 195—199; taxation and service obli¬ and finance, 356
gations in Alpine hereditary lands, 118 f., Plombieres, meeting of 1858, 267
197, 285; in lands of Bohemian crown, Podebrady, George of, king of Bohemia, 8,
121, 179 f.; in lands of Hungarian crown, 20, no
121 f., 197-199, 201; free tenants (do- Poincare, Raymond, French president, 477
minicalists), 195-197; unfree peasants Poland: first partition of 1772, 163, 168,
(rusticalists), 195-197; and patrimonial 398; second partition of 1793, 167, 213;
jurisdiction, 197 f., 320; and Robot Patent third partition of 1795, 214, 230
of 1775, 197-199; and revolution of Poles, 165, 249, 294 f., 445, 493; and rev¬
1848-1849, 199 olution of 1848, 302; support of govern¬
Peasant revolts in Alpine hereditary lands, ment after 1867, 349 f.; Galician semi¬
23 n., 121 autonomy of 1868, 350, 389, 444; culture,
Pechy, Mihaly, architect, 383 390 f., 523, 527-529; and Polish-Ruthe-
Pekar, Josef, Czech historian, 537 nian compromise, 444; and restoration
Pelzel, Franz Martin, historian, 384 of independence, 503-507; proclamation
Pergen, Count Johann Anton, minister of of Polish republic in November 1918,
state, 173, 283; and educational reforms, 506
i73> 193 Polish National Democratic party, 444
Pernerstorfer, Engelbert, socialist parliamen¬ Polish revolution of 1830-1831, 246
tarian and writer, 433, 438 Polish Succession, war of, 69, 94 f.
Perthaler, Hans von, state official, 328 Poliak, Mihdly, architect, 383
Polzer-Hoditz, Count Arthur, chief of cab¬ Purkyne, Karel, Czech painter, 536
inet, 490 f. Pyrenees, treaty of 1659, 80
Popovi2, Jovan S., Serb playwright, 400
Popovici, Aurel, Roumanian political writer,
461 Quadruple Alliance: of 1718, 91; of 1915,
Porta, Antonio da, architect, 154 473, 478; peace offer of December 1916,
Potiorek, Oskar, general, 482 474
Potocki, Count Alfred, prime minister, 356,
358
Potting, Count Eusebius Franz, ambassador, Racic, Josip, Croatian painter, 532
79 Raday, Paul, poet, 379
Pozsony, alliance of 1608, 47; diet of 1687- Radetzky, Count Joseph, commander in
1688, 57-59, 66, 74 f., 128; royal guber¬ chief, 212, 227, 252
natorial office, 73 Radic, Ante, Croatian peasant leader, 447
Pragmatic Sanction of 1713-1725, 58-61, Radic, Stjepan, Croatian peasant leader, 447,
68 f., 219, 334; and foreign policy of 514
Charles VI, 91-96 Radicevic, Branko, Serb poet, 400
Prague: Articles of 1420, in; general diet Railways, 286, 325, 344 f., 373, 464, 466
of 1541-1542, 127; of 1615, 48; defenes¬ Rainer, Ferdinand, archduke, prime minis¬
tration of 1618, 113; battle of 1757, 160; ter, 326, 328, 331
and revolution of 1848, 302; Slav* Con¬ Raimund, Ferdinand, playwright, 375
gress of 1848, 304 f.; university, 113, 138, Rakoczi, prince Francis II, 75; revolt, 74-
146, 538; partition of university in 1882, 76, 121 f., 171
439, 5375 Clementinum, 138; Baroque Rakoczy, George I, prince of Transylvania,
architecture, 153 f.; technical college, 240; 44. 5G 7i £-
National Theater and other theatres, 386; Rakoczy, George II, prince of Transylvania,
Academy of Arts and Sciences, 537 149
Prandtauer, Jakob, architect, 153; Melk mon¬ Ramillies, battle of, 86
astery, 153; St. Florian monastery, 153 Rampersdorf, pact of 1645, 71
Prati, Giovanni, lyric poet, 402 Rastatt, congress of (1797-1799), 216 f.
Prehauser, Gottfried, playwright, 145 Rauscher, Joseph Othmar von, cardinal, 310,
Preradovic, Petar von, Croatian poet, 398 319, 321, 326
Preseren, France, Slovene poet, 396, 529 Razus, Martin, Slovak novelist, 532
Press, 376, 432, 535, 540; German: Arbeiter Realist party, 443
Zeitung, 432, 548, Neue Freie Presse, Realunion. See Austro-FIungarian Compro¬
316, 432, 548, Presse, 376, Reichspost, mise
432, 548, Vaterland, 376, 535; Czech: Rechberg and Rothenlowen, Count Johann
Cas, 535, Narodni Listy, 535; Magyar: Az Bernhard, minister of foreign affairs, 268,
Est, 540, Nepszava, 540, Pesti Hirlap, 540 271, 325-327
Pressburg. See Pozsony Redlich, Josef, parliamentarian and histo¬
Premysl, Ottokar II, king of Bohemia, 5 f.; rian, 493, 555
and German culture, 6 f., 19 Redlich, Oswald, historian, 54, 555
Princely absolutism: to 1740, 125-129, Reform era, 1740-1792, 170-208
134 f.; after 1740, in reform era, 174- Reformation in Habsburg empire (in gen¬
178 eral), 102-108; determination of Protes¬
Privilegium maius of 1359, 7, 11 f., 32 tant affiliation, 106 f.; in the Alpine
Privilegium minus of 1156, 5, 11 hereditary lands, 108-110; in lands of
Proclamation of German-Austrian republic, Bohemian crown, 110-113; in lands of
500 Hungarian crown, 112-114; and educa¬
Prokop (Brockhof) Ferdinand, sculptor, 154 tion, 136 f.
Protestant Union of 1608, 48 Regensburg, imperial diet of 1653-1654,
Protestants: discrimination under Maria 55; immerwahrender Reichstag of 1663,
Theresa, 189; and Joseph II, 186, 191; 55
under neoabsolutism, 321 Reichenbach, agreement of 1813, 226
Pufendorf, Samuel, political philosopher, 143 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, 218
Punch and Judy shows, 374 Reichsgericht, 362
Purkyne, Jan E., Czech physiologist, 535, Reichsstadt, Francis, duke of (king of
537 f- Rome), 225, 231; entrevue of 1876, 279
Index 641
Reinsurance treaty of 1887, 410 Rosmini-Serbati, Father Antonio, philoso¬

Renaissance in Habsburg empire, 102-104, pher, 402
368 f.; architecture, 15 £., 151-155 passim, Rossetti, Domenico, poet, 525
literature, 147 f. Rousseau, Jean Jacques, political philosopher,
Rendic, Ivan, Croatian sculptor, 532 290
Renner, Karl, socialist statesman, 438, 492, Rudolf I, Roman king, 4-6, 18, 53
498; and personal autonomy, 442; and Rudolf II, Holy Roman emperor, 41-43,
Middle Europe project, 300 143, 146, 190; letter of majesty, 47-49,
Ressel, Joseph, inventor, 373 107, 110-113; and Church control, 133 f.;
Restitution, edict of 1629, 51 f. and astronomy, 139 f.; art collection, 154
Restoration era, 1815-1848, 282-284 Rudolf III, king of Bohemia, i8f.
Reunions, Chambers of, 81 Rudolf, crownprince, 428
Reversal of alliances, 90 f., 158 f. Rudolf, archduke, cardinal, 377
Revertera, Count Nikolaus, Austrian diplo¬ Rudolf the Founder (duke and archduke of
mat, 475, 477 Austria), 7, 15, 32
Revolution of 1848-1849: in regard to for¬ Russian November revolution of 1917, 478
eign affairs, 250-263; in spring and sum¬ Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, 279; St.
mer of 1848 in Vienna, 250, 300 f., 302 f.; Stefano, peace of 1878, 279
emancipation of peasants, 303; conse¬ Ruthenians, 165, 294 f., 298, 444 f.; culture,
quences, 316-318 391-394, 523, 526 f.; Uniate Church, 181,
Rhine, Confederation of the, 221, 227 392 f.; Greek Orthodox Church, 181, 190;
Richelieu, cardinal, Armand Jean Duplessis Old and Young Ruthenians, 298, 350,
de, French statesman, 71 445; consequences of revolution of 1848,
Rieger, Francis L., Old Czech leader, 311, 316; and Poles, 350, 439, 506 f.; and
349, 443 franchise reform, 426, 432; and Polish-
Riegger, Paul Josef, adviser on church-state Ruthenian compromise, 444, 506; during
relations, 173 World War I, 506-508; Prawda journal,
Riga, treaties of 1920 and 1921, 507 526
Rijeka. See Fiume Rydel, Lucjan, Polish dramatist, 528
Rilke, Rainer Maria, poet, 547
Ringstrassenarchite\tur, 551 f. Saba, Umberto L., novelist, 525
Rivoli, battle of, 215 Sabov, Evemenij, Carpatho-Ukrainian liter¬
Rjelkovic, Matija, Croatian epic poet, 397 ary historian, 527
Rimbaud, Jean Arthur, French poet, 539 Safarik, Pavel Josef, Slavist, 297, 385
Rippl-Ronai, Jozsef, Magyar painter, 541 §aguna, Andrei, Roumanian orthodox arch¬
Robot Patent of 1775, 197 bishop, 403 f.
Rococo style of decorations, 152, 368, 378 St. Armand, Count Abel, French diplomat,
Rokitansky, Karl von, anatomic pathologist, 475> 477
559 St. Gotthard, battle of, 64
Romako, Anton, painter, 378, 550 St. Paul’s national assembly, 254-260, 262;
Roman king and Holy Roman emperor, dis¬ dissolution in Stuttgart, 260, 291
tinction between titles, 6 n. Salm-Reifferscheid, Count Niclas, general,
Romanczuk, Julijan, Ruthenian parliamen¬ v 38, 65
tarian, 445 Saloun, Ladislas, Czech sculptor, 536
Rome congress of the oppressed nationali¬ Salzburg, 217 f., 220, 223;—university as
ties, April 1918, 515 Jesuit institution, 138
Roon, Count Albrecht, Prussian minister of Sancta Clara, Abraham a, court preacher,
war, 263, 270, 274 145 374
Romanticism in Habsburg empire, 368 fM Sand, Karl, revolutionary student, 247
374 Santic, Aleksa, Serbian poet and playwright,
Rosegger, Peter, novelist, 545 529
Rossbach, battle of, 160 Sardinia and Sicily, exchange of, 91
Rotterdam, Erasmus of, humanist, 149 Sardinian-Austrian war of 1848-1849, 252
Roumanians, 299, 355 f., 450, 460 f.; cul¬ Sarkotic von Lovcen, Stephan, general, 483
ture, 149, 403 f., 522, 525 f.; revolution Saskevyc, Markiian, Ruthenian priest and
of 1848 and its consequences, 304, 316 f.; linguist, 393
as Latins in Habsburg empire, 401, 450; Saurau, Count Franz, financial administra¬
during World War I, 511 tor, 241
Saxons (Germans) in Transylvania, 114, 205 Sedan, battle of, 277
Scamozzi, Vincenzo, architect, 152; Porcia Sedlnitzky, Count Joseph, president of po¬
palace, 152 lice and censorship agency, 283
Scenczi, Molnar Albert, linguist and trans¬ Seidler, Ernst von, prime minister, 490-492
lator, 147 Seipel, Ignaz, professor of moral theology,
Schaffle, Albert, minister of commerce, 360 f. 493
Schallaburg castle, 152 Semmelweis, Ignaz Philip, Magyar gynecolo¬
Schaukal, Richard von, poet, 546 gist, 373, 543 f-
Schenker, Heinrich, musical theorist, 554 Semper, Gottfried von, architect, 552
Schiele, Egon, expressionist painter, 550 Senoa, August, Croatian writer, 531
Schlegel, Friedrich von, writer, 284, 371 Serbs, 399 f., 523; culture, 399 f-, 529; in
Schleswig-Holstein question, 262, 270-272, Hungary, 74, 115, 190, 297; consequences
274; London protocol of 1852, 262; and of revolution of 1848, 316
peace of Prague, 276 Seven Years war. See Silesian wars
Schlick, Moritz, positivist philosopher, 556 Shevchenko, Taras, Ukrainian poet, 392, 526
Schlieffen plan, 484 Siccardsburg, August von, architect, 551
Schlozer, Ludwig August von, Slavist, 290 Sickel, Theodor von, historian, 372, 555
Schmalkaldian religious war, 36 f., 107, 111 Sigmund III Vasa, king of Poland, 44
Schmerling, Anton von, Austrian statesman, Sigismund, Holy Roman emperor, 20
257 3i9> 328 f., 331 Silesian wars: First Silesian war, 1740-1742,
Schmidt, Friedrich von, architect, 551 f. 97 f.; pacts of Klein Schnellendorf of
Schmidt, Johann Martin (Kremser Schmidt), 1741, 97; of Breslau and peace of Berlin,
painter, 378 both 1742, 98
Schnitzler, Arthur, playwright and novelist, Second Silesian war, 1744-1745, 98;
545 f- peace of Dresden of 1745, 98, 162

Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Julius, painter, 378 loss of Silesia and nationality problem
Schonberg, Arnold, composer, 554 of Habsburg empire, 99
Schonborn, Count Karl Friedrich, court Third Silesian war, 156-162; peace of
chancellor, 79 Hubertusburg, 162
Schonbrunn: palace, 153, 220, 377 £.; peace Silvan, Jan, lyric poet, 146
of 1809, 215, 223 f.; 226 §incai, George, Roumanian bishop, 403
Schonerer, Georg von, Austro-German na¬ Skala ze Zhore, Pavel, Czech church his¬
tionalist leader, 433-435 torian, 143
Schonherr, Karl, dramatist, 545 Skoda, Joseph, professor of internal medi¬
Schroeder, Wilhelm von, mercantilist, 123 f., cine, 373
141 Sladkovsky, Karel, Young Czech leader, 443
Schubert, Franz, composer, 377 Slataper, Scipio, Italian writer, 525
Schumpeter, Joseph, professor of economics, Slav congress: in Prague in 1848, 304!.; in
558 Moscow in 1867, 305
Schuselka, Franz, political writer, 253, 291, Slavic Renaissance, 368, 534
3ii Slavicek, Antonin, Czech landscape painter,
Schwarzenberg, Prince Charles, commander 535
in chief, 212, 226-228, 252 Slavici, Jan, Roumanian poet, 525; editor
Schwarzenberg castle in Krumlov (Krumau), of Tribuna, 526
154 Slovaks: culture, 146 f., 389 f., 523, 532 f.;
Schwarzenberg, Prince Felix, prime minister, nationality problem, 296 f., 355, 458 f., in
255 f., 266; appointment, 308; dissolu¬ 1848, 304; consequences of revolution of
tion of Reichstag of Kremsier, 310 f.; and 1848, 316; and revolution of 1918, 502!.,
neoabsolutism, 319 f.; foreign policy of, 512 f.; and Pittsburgh declaration of May,
258-263, 275, 309, 315; death, 262, 318 1918, 502, 512
Schwind, Moritz von, painter, 378 Slovenes, 254; culture, 144, 149, 296-298,
Sciences, progress in (to 1740), 139-141 395 f-, 522, 529 f.; nationality problem,
Sebenico, Tommasco of, Italian linguist, 35° f-> 438, 448-450; consequences of
402 revolution of 1848, 316; and franchise re¬
Second coalition, war of, with France, 208, form, 426, 432; during World War I,
216-217; peace of Luneville, 217 514-516; journal Zvon, 529
Secret Conference, 61 Slowacki, Juliusz, Polish poet, 39
Secret Council, 30, 61 Smetana, Bedrich, composer, 387 f., 536
Index 64s
Smolchowski, Marian, Polish physicist, 527 State Conference of 1836, 248
Smolka, Franciszek, speaker of the House, Stefanik, Milan, Slovak national leader, 512,
3ii, 350 520
Smuts, Jan Christian, South African prime Stein, Lorenz von, social historian, 372
minister, 476 Stella, Paolo della, architect, 153; Belvedere
Social Democrats (socialists), 431-433, 436- palace in Prague, 153
438, 444, 498; and nationality problem, Stifter, Adalbert, novelist, 375 f., 562
346; founding of party, 1888-1889, 427; Stoss, Viet, sculptor, 391
inter-party nationality conflict with Czechs, Stranitzky, Joseph, playwright, 145
437 Stransky, Pavel, sociographer, 143
Social sciences and humanities, progress in Strattmann, Count Theodor, diplomat, 79
(to 1740), 141-143 Straus, Oskar, composer of operettas, 554
Solari, Santino, architect, 152 Strauss, Johann (the younger) composer, 554
Solferino, battle of, 268 f. Strauss, Richard, composer, 554
Somlo, Bodog, Magyar sociologist, 543 Stremayr, Karl von, prime minister, 356,
Sommaruga, Franz von, parliamentarian and 361
writer, 257 Strikes in armament and munition factories,
Somssich, Count Paul, Hungarian enlight¬ January 1918, 491, 498
ened aristocrat, 328, 352 Stritar, Josip, Slovene writer, 529
Sonnenfels, Joseph von, reformer in Maria Strossmayer, Josip J., bishop of Djakovo,
Theresa’s era, 173 f., 372, 374; and re¬ 353, 398; and Southern Slav cultural
form of criminal procedure, 179 f., 182; union, 353; and unified liturgy, 353 f.
economic reform, 182 Stur, L’udovit, Slovak writer, 297, 389 f.
Sophie, archduchess, 250, 259, 301, 309, 319 Stiirgkh, Count Karl, prime minister, 424;
Sopron, diet of 1681, 73 adjournment of parliament, 425 f.; assas¬
Southern Slav unionism, 445, 449, 492; un¬ sination by Friedrich Adler, 488 f.
der Croatian leadership, 354 f.; under Stursa, Jan, Czech sculptor, 536
Serbian leadership, 513-517, 529 f.; cul¬ Styria, nationality problem in, 348, 350, 439
tural unionism, 391 f., 397-400 Suess, Eduard, professor of geology and
Southern Slavs in Cisleithanian Austria, 35 parliamentarian, 347, 373, 561
Spanish Netherlands, 10 f., 80, 89 Suk, Josef, Czech composer, 536
Spanish Succession, war of, 10 f., 35, 74, 84- Suleiman II, the Magnificent, sultan, 37-
90, 230; causes, 80-84; peace of Rastatt 39, 41, 62 f., 142, 147
of 1714, 10, 68, 88 f., 167; peace of Supilo, Franco, Austro-Croatian national
Utrecht of 1713, 88, 167, 209; peace of leader, 447
Baden of 1714, 88 Sustersic, Father Anton, Slovene catholic
Spasso, Pietro, architect, 155; cathedral in parliamentarian, 514
Nagyszombat, 155 Suttner, Bertha von, promoter of peace
Spinoza, Baruch, philosopher, 103, 143 movement, 558
Sporck, Count Franz A., enlightened Bo¬ Suvorov, Prince Alexander Vasilyevich, Rus¬
hemian aristocrat, 386 sian commander in chief, 217
Srbik, Heinrich von, historian, 537, 555 Svabinsky, Max, Czech painter, 536
Stadion, Count Franz, statesman, 178, 309; Svevo, Italo, writer of novels, 525
municipality legislation, 178, 317, 328; Swieten, Gerhard van, court physician and
and March constitution of 1849, 310 f., reformer, 173, 194
320 f. Swieten, Gottfried van, censor, 194
Stadion, Count Johann Philip, statesman, Szajnocha, Karol, Polish historian, 391
210 f., 220-222, 224, 239 f. Szalankamen (Slankamen), battle of 1691,
Stadler, Josef, archbishop of Sarajevo, 514 66 f.
Stanislas Lcscinski, king of Poland, subse¬ Szapary, Count Gyula, Hungarian prime
quently duke of Lorraine, 93 f. minister, 454
Starcevic, Ante, leader of Croatian Party of Szatmar, peace of 1711, 76, 171, 379
Right, parliamentarian, 354, 446 Szechenyi, Count Stephan, Hungarian states¬
Starhemberg, Count Guido, field marshal, man and reformer, 288 f., 292, 380
78-85 Szecsen, Count Antony, Hungarian enlight¬
Starhemberg, Count Ernst Rudiger, field ened aristocrat, 289, 328
marshal, 65 Szekels, 114, 205
State bankruptcy of 1811, 237, 241 f. Szekfii, Gyula, Magyar historian, 543
644
Szell, Kalman von, Hungarian prime minis¬ Tisza, Kalman von, Hungarian prime minis¬
ter, 455 ter, 352 f., 364 f., 452-454. 461; and
Szilagyi, Dezso von, Hungarian parliamen¬ Slovaks, 458 f.
tarian and minister of state, 452 Tolerance, Edict (Patent) of 1781, 186, 191,
Szilassy, Baron Gyula, Hungarian diplomat, 203, 206
Tomasek, Vaclav }., Czech composer, 387
510
Szinyei Merse, Pal, Magyar impressionist Tomek, Vaclav, Czech historian, 537
painter, 541 Tordassi, Michael, bible translator, 144
Szlachta, 294, 444 Torgau, batde of, 161
Szujski, Joseph, Polish historian, 527 Trakl, Georg, poet, 546
Tranoscus (Tranovsky), George, Slovak poet,
146
Taaffe, Count Edward (Eduard), prime min¬ Transylvania: revolt in, 70-75; court chan¬
ister, 332, 356, 361, 424 f„ 431, 436; and cery, 74, 201, 208, 328; Three nation
end of liberal regime, 361 f.; Taaffe cabi¬ state, 114, 208, 299, 403; religious liber¬
net and Iron Ring coalition, 426-428; so¬ ties in, 74 f., 115, 117; cultural progress,
cial reforms, 427, 436, 449 147 f., 525; Vlachs in, 149, 202-205;
Talleyrand, Charles Maurice, Prince de, abolition of serfdom, 202 f.; Uniate
French minister of foreign affairs, 218, church, 298; revolution of 1848 and con¬
228 f. sequences, 304, 316 f.; end of autonomy,
Tartarotti, Girolamo, legal reformer, 402 355 f-, 460 f.
Tattenbach, Count Hans, conspirator against Traun and Abensperg, Count Otto Ferdi¬
emperor Leopold I, 72 nand, field marshal, 100, 172
Tavcar, Ivan, Slovene poet, 529 f. Trautmannsdorff, Count Max, diplomat, 78 f.
Taxation: in reform era (1740-1792), 175 f., Trebonia Laurian, August, Roumanian edi¬
195-200; under neoabsolutism, 325 tor, 403
Tegethoff, Wilhelm von, vice admiral, 273 Treitschke, Heinrich von, historian, 257
Temesvar, Banat of, 198, 201, 299, 320 Trent, Council of, 37, in
Thinnfeld, Ferdinand Joseph von, minister Trentino, cultural activities in, 524 f.
of state, 309 Trialism, 354, 449 f., 516; and sub-trialism,
Third coalition, war of, with France, 219 f. 449 f., 516 n.
Thirty Years war, 44-53 Trieste: Austrian Lloyd, 286; autonomy,
Thokoly, Imre, prince of Transylvania, 73 f. 296, 351; cultural activities, 524 f.; port
Thorwaldsen, Bertel, sculptor, 383, 541 facilities, 126, 182
Three Emperors’ Alliance of 1881, 407 Triple Alliance of 1882, 351, 407-409, 414,
Three Emperors’ League of 1873, 278, 408 450 f., 469-472
Thugut, Baron Johann, diplomat, 211, 213 Triple Entente of 1907, 414
Thun and Hohenstein, Count Joseph Matthias, Troppau, conference of 1819, 244
political writer, 293 Trotzky (Trotsky), Leo, Russian commis¬
Thun and Hohenstein, Count Leo, states¬ sary of defense, 479
man, 293, 309, 316; and higher education, Trubar, Primoz, Slovene bible translator,
322 f. 144, 149, 395
Thurn, Count Matthias, Bohemian national Trumbic, Ante, Austro-Croatian parliamen¬
leader, 49 tarian, 447, 515, 520
Thurn-Valsanissa, Count Karl, governor of Turin, battle of, 86
Goricia, 72 Turkey: war with, of 1788-1791, 167;
Tilgner, Viktor, sculptor, 550 Sistowa, peace of 1791, 70, 167; entry
Tilly, Count Johannes, commander in chief, into World War I, 473 f.
64 Turkish-Egyptian crisis of 1840, 249
Tilsit, peace of 1807, 223 Tyrnau. See Nagyszombat
Tisza, Count Istvan, Hungarian prime min¬ Tyrnovo. See Nagyszombat
ister, 353, 448, 455-458; and ultimatum Tyrol: estates, 126; nationality problem, 296,
to Serbia, 419, 424 n.; defense bill, 458; 348, 351; peasant rising in 1809, 222;
and coronation of king emperor Charles, Trentino, demand for cession of, 470 f.
490; and war time government, 494 f.;
assassination, 496; and Polish question,
505 f.; and peace of Bucharest, 506, Uniate Church, 298 f., 392, 460; among
510 Roumanians, 403
Index 64s
Ukraine, recognition of and peace treaty Vienna, Congress of 1814-1815, 116, 164,
with, 479, 506 228-235, 244
Unger, Joseph, professor of civil law and Vilagos, surrender of, 251, 315
minister of state, 347, 557 Villars, Claude Louis, duke of, French mar¬
Unitarianism, H4f. shal, 86, 94
United Court Chancery, 236 Virag, Father Benedict, Magyar poet, 380
Unrestricted U-boat warfare, 475, 486 Vischer, Georg, cartographer, 141
Unterthanenpatent of 1781, 198 Vittorio Veneto, battle of, 486 f.
Upper Austria: Counter Reformation in, Vlachs in Transylvania, 149, 166, 190, 202-
109 f., 116; peasant revolt, 109; term, 205, 299, 403
109 n. Vodnik, Branko, Croatian literary historian,
Utiesenic, George, bishop, 39 f. 53i
Utraquists, m-112; Neo-Utraquism, 112 Vogelsang, Karl von, leader of Christian
social reform movement, 427
Vojnovic, Ivo, Croatian dramatist, 531
Vahylevyc, Ivan, Ruthenian writer and lin¬ Vojwodina, 74, 316, 320, 354, 400
guist, 393 Vorderdsterreich: Counter Reformation in,
Vajansky, Svetozar Hurban, Slovak poet, 109, no; term, 108 n.
532 Vorlande, 11, 108 n., 220, 230
Valeslavm, Daniel Adam, Czech sociogra- Vorlauf, Konrad, mayor of Vienna, 14
pher and court historian, 146 Vorosmarty, Mihaly, Magyar poet, author of
Valjavec, Fritz, historian, 185 Szozat (manifesto), 381
Valvasor, John Weigand of, sociographer, Vraz, Stanko, Croatian poet and linguist, 398
141, 143, 149 Vrchlicky, Jaroslav (Emil Freda), Czech
Vambery, Armin, turkologist, 542 poet and literary historian, 534
Van der Null, Eduard, architect, 551 Vujic, J., Serb linguist, 399
Vasvar (Eisenburg), peace of 1664, 64, 72
Vatican Council of 1870, 433 Wagner, Otto, architect of Sezession style,
Vauban, Sebastien, military engineer, 64, 86 552 f.
Vazsony Vilmos, Hungarian parliamentarian Wagner, Richard, composer, 554
and minister of state, 495 Wagner-Jauregg, Julius von, psychiatrist, 559
Vega, Georg von, mathematician, 372 Wagner von Wagenfels, Joseph, court his¬
Veith, Johannes Emanuel, theologian and torian, 141, 143
writer, 284, 371 Wagram, battle of, 223
Vendome, Louis Joseph, duke of, French Waldmiiller, Ferdinand, painter, 378
marshal, 86 Waldstein, Count Ernst, enlightened Bo¬
Venetian province, 215 f., 220; revolution hemian aristocrat, 384
in, 251 f., 269, 272 f. Wallenstein, Albrecht, Duke of Friedland,
Verboczi, Stephan, Magyar lawyer, 22; opus commander in chief, 51, 64, 132, 140
tripartitum juris of 1514, 119 Wallis, Count Joseph, minister of finance,
Verlaine, Paul, French poet, 531, 539 241
Vernewerte Landesordnung of 1627, 54 f. Wars of Liberation, 1813-1815, 226-229
Verona, congress of 1822, 245 Wars of Succession, reasons and rationaliza¬
Victor Emanuel II, king of Italy, 252, 267 tions, 77 f.
Vidric, Vladimir, Croatian poet, 531 Warsaw, grand duchy of, 224, 226
Vienna: Concordat of 1448, 16; first siege Wartburg festivities of 1817, 247
of 1529, 9, 38, 65; second siege of 1683, Waterloo, battle of, 208, 229
38, 62, 64 f., 81, 100; agreement (peace) Weber, Max, social historian, 543
of 1606, 42, 114; treaty of 1624, 44; uni' Weinberger, Jaromir, Czech composer, 536
versity of, 15, 193 f.; technical university, Wekerle, Alexander, Hungarian prime min¬
240, 373; mercantilism in, 125 f.; Hun¬ ister, 424 n., 454, 456, 460, 495; and civil
garian court chancery, 130; Baroque archi¬ marriage legislation, 454; and termination
tecture, 152 f.; engineering academy, 160; of Austro-Hungarian compromise, 493-
occupation of 1805, 220; occupation of 496
1809, 223; revolution of spring and sum¬ Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of,
mer 1848, 300-303, of October 1848, British commander in chief, 229
307 f.; world exhibition and crash of 1873, Werner, Zacharias, writer, 371
343, 347 Wesselenyi, Count Ferencz, palatin, 72, 115
Wesselenyi, Baron Nicholas de, Hungarian Worms, family pact of 1521, 27 f., 32
enlightened aristocrat, 289 Wratislaw, Count Wenzel, ambassador, 79
Wessenberg-Ampringen, Baron Johann, prime Wyclif, John, church reformer, 108
minister, 255 Wyspianski, Stanislav, Polish poet and play¬
Western Ukrainians. See Ruthenians wright, 528
Westminster, treaty of 1756, 159
Westphalian peace treaty of 1648, 52 f., 55
Weyr, Frantisek, Czech legal reformer, 537 Yakhimovych, Gregor von, conservative
White Mountain, battle of 1620, 44, 46, 50, Ruthenian priest and linguist, 392
56, 60, 72, 100, no, 113, 116, 119, 126, Ybl, Miklos, Magyar architect, 541
138, 142, 146 Young Czechs, 349, 360, 431, 443, 445
Wien. See Vienna Young Italy movement, 246
Wiener Neustadt: pact of 1506, 9; military
academy, 160, 194
Wieser, Friedrich von, professor of economics Zadar, resolution of 1905, 447-449
and Austrian minister of commerce, 558 Zadrugas, 76
Wiesner, Friedrich von, official in ministry Zagreb: cultural center, 530; high treason
of foreign affairs, 418 trial of 1909, 448, 457 f.; Matica Hrvat-
Wildgans, Anton, poet, 546 ska, 530; university, 353, 439; Vijenac
Wilhelm (William) I, German emperor, (wreath) journal, 530
263, 270; as prince regent, 269 Zajc, Ivan, Croatian composer, 532
Wilhelm (William) II, German emperor, Zapolya, John, Hungarian counter king, 37 f.,
281, 438, 478 39
Wilhelm III, British king, 82, 85 Zapolya, John Siegmund, prince of Transyl¬
Wilson, Woodrow, president of the United vania, Hungarian counter king, 40 f.
States of America, 475, 516; fourteen Zara. See Zadar
points peace program of January 1918, Zauner, Franz Anton von, sculptor, 378
479 f., 492 f.; rejects Austrian acceptance Zeiller, Franz von, professor of civil law,
of program, 480 f. legal reformer, 238, 372
Windischgratz, Prince Alfred, Austrian prime Zenta, battle of, 67
minister, 424, 439 Zichy, Mihaly, Magyar painter, 540
Windischgratz, Prince Alfred Candid, field Ziemialkowski, Florian, Austro-Polish leader,
marshal, 253, 259, 305, 307, 311, 313 f. 294> 350
Windischgratz, Prince Louis, Hungarian Zins\asernen (rent barracks), 552
minister of food administration, 510 Zips district, 163 f.
Witos, Wincenty, Polish national leader, 444 Zita von Bourbon-Parma, empress consort
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, philosopher and logi¬ of Austria, 474
cian, 556 f. Zois, Baron Siegmund, sponsor of Slovene
Wittlin, Jozef, Polish novelist, 528 culture, 395
Wolf, Hugo, composer, 554 Zorndorf, battle of, 161
Wolf, Karl Hermann, Sudetan-German na¬ Zrinski. See Zrinyi
tionalist parliamentarian, 434 Zrinyi, Count Nikolas (the elder), banus of
Wolkenstein, Oswald von, poet, 14 Croatia, 72 n., 77, 147
World War I, 468-517; foreign policy, 469- Zrinyi, Count Nikolas, (the younger), 72,
483; military operations, 483-487; domes¬ 77y 115. 147
tic developments in Austria, 487-494; Zrinyi, Count Peter, 72, 77, 115, 148 f., 396
domestic developments in Hungary, 494- Zsitvatorok (Zsitva Torok), peace of 1606,
497; nationality problems in Austria, 498- 42 f.
509; nationality problems in Hungary, Zumbusch, Kaspar von, sculptor, 550
509-517 Zupancic, Oton, Slovene poet, 530
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BOSTON

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Chapter 1. TOWARD THE UNION OF THE HABSBURG

Chapter 11. TURKS AND PROTESTANTS (1526-1648) 25

Chapter 111. AN EMPIRE EVOLVES AND ASSERTS ITSELF

G. Defense system 132

Chapter V. AN EMPIRE REASSERTS ITSELF (1740-1815) 156

Chapter VI. STANDSTILL, DECLINE AND STABILIZA¬

E. Transition to constitutional government (1860-1867) 326

F. Domestic affairs (1860-1879) 342

Chapter VII. CULTURAL TRENDS FROM LATE ENLIGHT¬

Chapter VIII. DECLINE AND DISCORD (1879-1914) 406

Chapter IX. WORLD WAR AND DISSOLUTION (1914-1918) 468

Chapter X. NEW BEGINNINGS: CULTURAL TRENDS

Chapter XI. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY 565

appendix 1. Population and nationality statistics 603

The permanent affiliation of the Habsburg dynasty, the ruling house in

1 Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language

3 Ernst R. Huber, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit ij8g (Stuttgart, 1957), I,

A. The political evolution of the Alpine

The Erblande, the hereditary lands of the Habsburgs, have to be per¬

established by Charlemagne in the later years of his reign, it included

8 See particularly “Epilegomena zu den osterreichischen Freiheitsbriefen,” in

of a millennium of wars between the Habsburgs and the French. The

10 The Vorlande, generally referred to also as Vorderosterreich, included Upper

B. Social and cultural conditions in the

HEREDITARY LANDS BEFORE 1526

The hereditary lands represented, in historical terms, the cradle of the

Courts, (Lcindrechte), nominated by the estates and appointed by the

Secular and ecclesiastic lords held considerable power in a country

11 See Alphons Huber and Alphons Dopsch, Osterreichische Reich s geschichte

von Gmunden. Only the mystical genius of the Copernicus’ precursor,

Feudal and ecclesiastic influence remained dominant in the cultural

C. The evolution of the eastern crowns and their status at the

TIME OF THE UNION OF I526-I527

The German-ruled and German-oriented lands represented and re¬

16 Heinrich Ullmann, Kaiser Maximilian 1, 2 vols. (reprint), (Vienna, 1967), see

of Jagiello, as king of Hungary in 1440 20 indicated the evolution of a

23 Peasant revolts followed also in the Habsburg domains of lower Styria,

A. The beginnings of political integration

The succession of the Habsburgs to the crowns of Bohemia and

burg domains by the Carpathians. Dalmatia in the southeast, which

the establishment of the mentioned Aulic Council (Hofrat) as Court of

5 Alphons Huber and Alphons Dopsch, Osterreichische Reich sgeschichte (Vienna,

B. Sovereignty in the Austro-German and

The supreme power of a political entity is vested primarily in its sover¬

C. Principles of foreign policy

The foreign policy of Ferdinand I and his successors to the middle of

10 Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte Osterreichs, III, 395-397; Hermann I.

Charles’ policy. To them may be added his resolve to curb a spirit of

successor to the imperial throne demanded. Accordingly Ferdinand dur¬

D. The Turkish wars

The problem of the Turkish wars in the sixteenth, and to a lesser

13 Laszlo Makkai, in Ervin Pamlenyi, ed., Die Geschichte Ungarns, (Budapest,

15 Horvath, Geschichte Siebenbiirgens; Constantin Daicoviciu and Miron Con-

16 Horvath, Geschichte Siebenburgens, pp. 81-100; Dominic C. Kosary, A

Up to that point the question of Habsburg rule in Hungary was held

E. The Thirty Years’ War;

i Due to the weakening of Emperor Ferdinand II’s German position and