House of Lords (Austria)
This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2018) ) |
House of Lords Herrenhaus | |
---|---|
Type | |
Type | |
Leadership | |
President (first) | Karl Wilhelm, 8th Prince of Auersperg (1861–1867) |
President (last) | Alfred III, Prince of Windisch-Grätz (1897–1918) |
Seats | 306 (1917) |
Meeting place | |
Debating chamber of the House of Lords Austrian Parliament Building Vienna |
The House of Lords (
History
First attempts to establish a Reichsrat advisory committee had been undertaken by the 1860
The House of Lords met for the first time on 29 April 1861 at the Palais Niederösterreich in Vienna's Herrengasse, its venue until the Austrian Parliament Building on the Ringstrasse boulevard was completed. The first session at the new location was held on 4 December 1883. The House of Lords chamber of debates was severely damaged in World War II. Restored in a modern style, it is today the meeting place of the National Council, the lower house of the Austrian Parliament.
The Hungarian magnates refused to send members to the Austrian House of Lords and insisted on their own parliamentary assembly. Their requests were initially denied by Minister Schmerling ("Austria can wait"), nevertheless, on the eve of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, the inaugural session of the second legislature took place on 20 May 1867 without Hungarian representatives even being called. Half a year later, the Diet of Hungary (Hungarian: Országgyűlés) was re-established by the December Constitution, including a House of Representatives as well as a House of Magnates (Főrendiház), while the Reichsrat legislature was only responsible for the Cisleithanian crown lands. Those common affairs which related to the whole Dual Monarchy, such as foreign policy, national defence and finances, were examined by parliamentary delegations of 60 MPs each; one third of the Austrian delegates were elected by the House of Lords.
In December 1906, the members of the House of Lords led by
During the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the last session of the House of Lords was held on 30 October 1918. The last Austrian Minister-president Heinrich Lammasch announced that his cabinet, appointed by Emperor Charles I on 27 October, would make no policy statement, whereupon the meeting was adjourned by Speaker Prince Alfred III of Windisch-Grätz after only five minutes. At the same time, the Provisional National Assembly of German-Austria met at the Palais Niederösterreich and implemented the government of State Chancellor Karl Renner.
The House of Lords chamber of the Parliament Building was destroyed by bombing during World War II. It was rebuilt in a contemporary style, and today serves as the chamber of the Austrian National Council.
Membership
Unlike the elected House of Deputies, most new members of the House of Lords were appointed. Membership of the House of Lords was made up of:
- the appointed Archdukes of the ruling House of Habsburg-Lorraine
- the Austrian archbishops and bishops of princely rank (similar to the Lords Spiritual of the United Kingdom)
- the heads of the wealthy and landed noble dynasties entitled by the Emperor of Austria (similar to hereditary peers)
- Austrian citizens appointed for life by the emperor for their services to the state or church, science or art (similar to life peers).
There were a number of spiritual peers who sat in the House by virtue of their ecclesiastical role in the
Membership was a birthright of all hereditary peers. The number of members was not fixed, though a law enacted in 1907 decreed that the category of life peers shall comprise at least 150 and no more than 170 seats.
Bills could be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Deputies. Members of the Lords were also allowed to take on roles as government ministers. The House of Lords had its own support services, separate from the Deputies, including the House of Lords Library.
The House of Lords scrutinised bills that had been approved by the House of Deputies and regularly reviewed and amended them. While it was unable to prevent bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it could delay them and force the Deputies to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the Lords acted as a check on the House of Deputies that was independent from the electoral process.
The
Composition
Spiritual members
According to the 1861 February Patent and its 1867 amendments, 18 members of the Cisleithanian clergy sat in the House of Lords, regardless of their religious denomination:
- the
- the Roman Catholic archbishops of Lemberg and Zara, the Greek Catholic archbishop of Lemberg, the Armenian Catholic archbishop of Lemberg, and the Greek Orthodox archbishop of Czernowitz
- the Roman Catholic prince-bishops of Brixen, Breslau (for the episcopal territory in Austrian Silesia), Krakau, Seckau, Trient, Laibach, Lavant, and Gurk.
Hereditary members
106 families had hereditary membership in the House of Lords. These were:
Three sovereign houses:
Sixteen mediatised princely houses:
|
|
Sixteen other princely houses:
|
Four mediatised countships:
|
Sixty-four other countships:
Schlick, Lodron,
Nine baronial families: |
Three margravial families:
|
In 1911, there were fourteen princes of the Imperial family, eighteen bishops, ninety hereditary peers, and 169 life peers. These were exclusively men. Some members of the House of Lords appointed as life peers include glass tycoon Ludwig Lobmeyr, cotton tycoon Nikolaus Dumba, Styrian poet Peter Rosegger, and brewery owner Anton Dreher. The House of Lords was presided over by a president, who was supported by two vice-presidents. From 1907, members of the House of Lords could stand for election to the House of Deputies. Nobles that did not sit in the House of Lords were always able to be elected to the House of Deputies.
Presidency
According to the 1861 February Patent, the presiding committee of the House of Lords was made up of the president and his deputies, always aristocratic members who were appointed by the emperor at the beginning of a new legislative session. The emperor also had the exclusive right to recall the presidium, which never happened throughout the years of the House's existence. The meetings were alternately chaired by the board members, temporarily acting as President of the House of Lords.
Presidents
- Karl Wilhelm 8th Prince of Auersperg (8 April 1861 - 31 December 1867)
- Josef 4th Prince of Colloredo-Mansfeld(31 January 1868 - 15 May 1869)
- Karl Wilhelm 8th Prince of Auersperg (88 December 1869 - 21 May 1870)
- Count Franz of Kuefstein (13 September 1870 - 1 March 1871)
- Karl Wilhelm 8th Prince of Auersperg (21 December 1871 - 17 May 1879)
- Anton Ritter von Schmerling (14 February 1871 - 10 August 1871)
- Ferdinand Hereditary Count of Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg(30 September 1879 - 12 December 1896)
- Alfred III, Prince of Windisch-Grätz (25 March 1897 - 12 November 1918)[1]
Vicepresidents
- Alfred III, Prince of Windisch-Grätz (1892 – 1897)
- Karl Maria Alexander 9th Prince of Auersperg (1897 – 1907)[2]
- Maximilian Egon II. 8th Prince of Fürstenberg (21 May 1917 – 12 November 1918)
- Alois 4th Prince of Schönburg-Hartenstein (21 May 1917 – 12 November 1918)
- Prince Ferdinand of Lobkowitz(12 October 1917 – 12 November 1918)
- Count Ernst of Silva-Tarouca (30 August 1917 – October 1917)[3]
References
- ^ Index der Stenographischen Protokolle des Reichsrates, XII. Session, Abschnitt VI. Personalien des Herrenhauses des Reichsrathes
- ^ Gustav Adolf Metnitz (1953), "Auersperg, Karl Maria Alexander Fürst, Herzog von Gottschee", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 1, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 438–438; (full text online)
- ^ Stenographisches Protokoll. Herrenhaus. 39. Sitzung der XXII. Session
- Lanjus, Friedrich Graf. Die erbliche Reichsratswürde in Österreich. Selbstverlag, Schloss Haindorf am Kamp, Langenlois 1939.
- G. Stourzh. Die Entwicklung der ersten Kammer in der österreichischen Verfassung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Zeit von 1848-61. Dissertation, Vienna 1951.