Republic of German-Austria
Republic of German-Austria Republik Deutschösterreich (German) | |||||||||
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1918–1919 | |||||||||
Status | Unrecognized rump state | ||||||||
Capital | Vienna | ||||||||
Common languages | German | ||||||||
Demonym(s) | German-Austrian | ||||||||
Government | Unitary directorial republic (1918–1919) Unitary parliamentary republic (1919) | ||||||||
Head of state | |||||||||
• 1918–1919 | State Council | ||||||||
• 1919 | Karl Seitz | ||||||||
Chancellor | |||||||||
• 1918–1919 | Karl Renner | ||||||||
Legislature |
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History | |||||||||
• Proclaimed | 12 November 1918 | ||||||||
• Prohibited by Treaty of St Germain | 10 September 1919 | ||||||||
Currency | Krone | ||||||||
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Today part of | Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, and Slovenia |
The Republic of German-Austria (German: Republik Deutschösterreich, alternatively spelt Republik Deutsch-Österreich) was an unrecognised state that was created following World War I as an initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking and ethnic German population within what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with plans for eventual unification with Germany. The territories covered an area of 118,311 km2 (45,680 sq mi), with 10.4 million inhabitants.
In practice, however, its authority was limited to the Danubian and Alpine provinces which had been the core of Cisleithania. Much of its claimed territory was de facto administered by the newly formed Czechoslovakia, and internationally recognized as such.
Attempts to create German-Austria under these auspices were ultimately unsuccessful, especially since union with Germany was forbidden in the Treaty of Versailles, and the new state of the First Austrian Republic was created in 1920.
Background
The
Austria-Hungary was a multinational entity comprising Germans and Hungarians, as well as nine other major nationalities, who increasingly demanded the right to self-determination. Historically, the Germans had been dominant in the Habsburg monarchy, and their power and influence greatly outweighed their numbers.[7] Even within Cisleithania the Germans represented only 37% of the population.[8] However, Upper and Lower Austria, Salzburg, Carinthia, Vorarlberg and most of Styria and Tyrol had a predominantly German population.[9] These territories were the core "Austrian" provinces and had a population of 6.5 million.[10] While Bohemia and Moravia were predominantly Czech, Germans constituted a majority in a strip of territories that edged their borders, recently self-proclaimed as provinces of the Sudetenland and German Bohemia.[9] The German population of Bohemia and Moravia was 3 million.[10]
From 1914 to 1918, Austria-Hungary fought in the
History
Declaration of the Republic
On 21 October 1918, the deputies representing German-speaking areas in the
In early October 1918, the Social Democrats were the first to call for all "German-Austrians" to be united in a German-Austrian state. They had recognised the right of all nationalities of the empire to self-determination and they said this should equally apply to German-Austrians. The German nationalists were willing to accept the Social Democrat position to allow further negotiation to take place. The Christian Social Party accepted it as well, but said they had reservations because of their "religious and dynastic convictions".[16] Calling themselves "the Germans of the Alps and Sudetens",[9] all 208 deputies met on 21 October, and unanimously voted that they now constituted the "Provisional National Assembly" for German-Austria.[17] They declared that:
the German people in Austria are resolved to determine their own future political organization to form an independent German-Austrian state, and to regulate their relations with other nations through free agreements with them.[17]
They also elected three Presidents of the Assembly, one from each of the three political groupings: Franz Dinghofer (de) of the German National Movement, Jodok Fink of the Christian Social Party, and the Social Democrat Karl Seitz.[18] A 20-member executive committee was appointed to make constitutional recommendations to the Assembly and, on the committee's subsequent recommendation, a State Council was created as an executive body on 30 October. The Council immediately nominated 14 State Secretaries to head up an administrative structure that mirrored the imperial ministries. As at the end of October, therefore, the German-speaking part of the empire effectively had two governments: the new administration created by the Provisional National Assembly and the imperial government appointed by the emperor under Heinrich Lammasch, last minister-president of Cisleithania. The monarchy was still formally in existence and, in fact, the imperial government was pleased with the constitutional measures brought in on 30 October, believing that they did not assume a republican form and preserved the potential for the continuation of the monarchy.[14]
On 25 October, the Provisional Assembly called on all German-inhabited Lands to form their own provisional assemblies.[17]
On 11 November 1918, Charles I gave up his right to take part in Austrian affairs of state. He deliberately avoided using the term "abdication", as he wanted to retain his freedom of action in the event that his Austrian subjects recalled him. Nevertheless, this decision effectively ended 700 years of Habsburg rule.
The next day, 12 November, the National Assembly officially declared German-Austria a republic and named Social Democrat Karl Renner as provisional chancellor.[19] On the same day it drafted a provisional constitution that stated that "German-Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German-Austria is an integral part of the German republic" (Article 2).[20] The latter provision reflected the deputies' view that felt that Austria would lose so much territory in any peace settlement that it would no longer be economically and politically viable as a separate state, and the only course was union with Germany. This was enforced by the refusal of Hungary to sell grain and of Czechoslovakia to sell coal to Austria-Germany.
As the Empire collapsed and a ceasefire was announced, the Provisional Assembly sought to forestall socialist revolution by organizing a coalition government led by the minority Social Democrats. Karl Renner became Chancellor and Victor Adler became Foreign Minister. The Social Democrats co-opted newly created soldier and worker councils and used their control over labour unions to implement social policies that blunted the socialist appeal.
Charles went into exile in Switzerland on 24 March 1919. Angered that he had left without a formal abdication, Parliament passed the Habsburg Law, which dethroned the Habsburgs and confiscated their property. Charles was permanently banished from Austria, while other male Habsburgs could return only if they gave up all claims to the throne.
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Social Democrat leader Otto Bauer wrote:
German-Austria is not an organism which has followed the laws of historical growth. It is nothing but the remnant of what remained of the old Empire after other nations had broken away from it. It remained as a loose bundle of divergent Lands.[3]
Failed union with Germany
On 13 November 1918, German-Austria asked Germany to start negotiations of union and on 15 November sent a telegram to President Wilson to support union of Germany and Austria.
On 12 March 1919, the Constituent Assembly re-confirmed an earlier declaration that German-Austria was a constituent part of the German republic. Pan-Germans and Social Democrats supported the union with Germany, while Christian Socialists were less supportive.
During spring and summer of 1919, unity talk meetings between German and Austrian representatives continued. All this changed after 2 June 1919 when the draft peace treaty with Austria was presented, which demonstrated that the Western Allies were opposed to any union between Germany and Austria.
Treaty of Saint Germain
After submitting a formal note of protest to the Allies against blocking German-Austrian union, on 10 September 1919 Renner signed the
Article 88 of the treaty, sometimes called a "pre-Anschluss attempt"[by whom?], stated:
The independence of Austria is inalienable otherwise than with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations. Consequently Austria undertakes in the absence of the consent of the said Council to abstain from any act which might directly or indirectly or by any means whatsoever compromise her independence, particularly, and until her admission to membership of the League of Nations, by participation in the affairs of another Power.
This clause effectively foreclosed any attempt by Austria to unite with Germany.[22]
Likewise, the
Borders
On 22 November, the national assembly officially claimed sovereignty over all the majority-German territory of the former Habsburg realm: a total area of 118,311 km2 (45,680 sq mi) with 10.4 million inhabitants. This included nearly all the territory of present-day Austria, plus
However, the
Countries on the winning side of the war took many territories with German majorities. The Czechs insisted on the historic borders of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown; thus, three million Germans became Czechoslovak citizens, an indirect precipitant of the Sudetenland crisis 20 years later. A victor nation, Italy occupied and was awarded Trentino and South Tyrol, of which South Tyrol is still majority German-speaking. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) was given parts of Carinthia and Styria. The Klagenfurt region was retained after a plebiscite on 20 October 1920, when three-fifths of voters voted to remain with Austria.
Later
Several German minority populations in Moravia, including German populations in Brno (Brünn), Jihlava (Iglau) and Olomouc (Olmütz), as well as the German enclave of Gottschee in Carniola also attempted to proclaim their union with German-Austria, but failed. The areas now outside of the current Republic of Austria often had significant non-German minorities and occasionally non-German majorities and were quickly taken by troops of the respective countries they were to eventually join.
Regarding
On the other hand, ethnic Germans in the western part of the
Subdivisions
German-Austria originally consisted of nine provinces (Provinzen):
- Bohemian Forest region (Böhmerwaldgau) now in the South Bohemian Regionof the Czech Republic;
- Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), all of the current Austrian state of Lower Austria and the city-state of Vienna, plus German South Moravia (Deutschsüdmähren), now divided between the Czech regions of South Bohemia, Vysočina, and South Moravia;
- German Bohemia (Deutschböhmen), areas of western Bohemia that were later part of Sudetenlandfrom 1938 to 1945, now part of the Czech Republic;
- Sudetenland, parts of the historical regions of Moravia and Austrian Silesia. Boundaries do not correspond to later use of the term Sudetenland.
- Lower Styria;
- Salzburg, all of the current Austrian state of Salzburg;
- ;
- Tyrol and the present-day Italian province of South Tyrol, but not the current Italian province of Trentino;
- Vorarlberg, all of the current Austrian state of Vorarlberg.
National anthem
Despite the prohibition of the use of the term "German-Austria", the republic's unofficial national anthem between 1920 and 1929 was "German Austria, you wonderful country" (
See also
Notes
- River Leitha, which formed the boundary between Upper Austria and Hungary.[1]
- Hereditary Lands[3] comprising Upper and Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Carinthia and Vorarlberg[4][5]
- ^ In fact, Karl never formally abdicated.[11] Instead, he simply declared in his statement of 11 November 1918: "I renounce every participation in the business of the state."[12]
References
- ^ a b Beller 2006, p. 143.
- ^ Brodbeck 2014, p. 7.
- ^ a b Barker 1973, p. 4.
- ^ a b Beller 2006, p. 140.
- ^ a b Healy 2004, p. 6.
- ^ Beller 2006, pp. 143–144.
- ^ Motyl 2001, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Beller 2006, p. 147.
- ^ a b c Magocsi 2018, p. 145.
- ^ a b Barker 1973, p. 10.
- ^ a b Brennan 2018, p. 116.
- ^ Gulick 2021, p. 60.
- ^ Beller 2006, pp. 190–191.
- ^ a b Boyer 1995, p. 439.
- ^ Barker 1973, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Barker 1973, p. 27.
- ^ a b c Barker 1973, p. 28.
- ^ Kriechbaumer 2001, p. 439.
- ^ Jelavich 1987, p. 151.
- ^ http://alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?apm=0&aid=sgb&datum=19180000&page=26 Gesetz über die Staatsform. StGBl. Nr. 484/1919
- ^ "85 Jahre allgemeines Frauenwahlrecht in Österreich". 2011-03-06. Archived from the original on 2011-03-06. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
- ^ "Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Austria; Protocol, Declaration and Special Declaration [1920] ATS 3". Austlii.edu.au. Retrieved 2011-06-15.
- ^ "Austria and Germany", Karl Polanyi, International Affairs – Vol. 12, No. 5 (Sep., 1933), pp. 575–592 (18 pages), Oxford University Press
Bibliography
- Barker, Elisabeth (1973). Austria 1918–1972. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-0-333-13369-9.
- Beller, Steven (2006). A Concise History of Austria. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52147-886-1.
- Boyer, John W. (1995). Culture and Political Crisis in Vienna: Christian Socialism in Power, 1897-1918. University Of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-22606-961-6.
- Brennan, Christopher (2018). "'Hesitant Heir and Reluctant Ruler': Karl I/IV of Austria-Hungary During the Great War". In Glencross, Matthew; Rowbotham, Judith (eds.). Monarchies and the Great War. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-319-89514-7.
- Brodbeck, David Lee (2014). Defining Deutschtum: Political Ideology, German Identity, and Music-critical Discourse in Liberal Vienna. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-936270-7.
- Gerwath, Robert (2020). November 1918: The German Revolution. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19954-647-3.
- Gulick, Charles A. (2021). Austria from Habsburg to Hitler: Volume 1 – Labor's Workshop of Democracy. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-52032-762-7.
- Healy, Maureen (2004). Vienna and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire: Total War and Everyday Life in World War I. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83124-6.
- Kriechbaumer, Robert (2001). Die grossen Erzählungen der Politik: Politische Kultur und Parteien in Österreich von der Jahrhundertwende bis 1945. Böhlau. ISBN 978-3-20599-400-8.
- Jelavich, Barbara (1987). Modern Austria: Empire and Republic, 1815–1986. Cambridge University Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-521-31625-5.
- Johnson, Lonnie R. (2008). "Austria". In Kaplan, David H.; Herb, Guntram H. (eds.). Nations and Nationalism: A Global Historical Overview, vol. 2. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-907-8.
- Magocsi, Paul Robert (2018). Historical Atlas of Central Europe (3rd ed.). University of Washington Press. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-4875-2331-2.
- Motyl, Alexander J., ed. (2001). "Austro-Hungarian Empire". Encyclopedia of Nationalism, vol. 2. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12227-230-1.
- Pelinka, Anton (2015). "A Delicate Relationship: Austria's Oversensitivity - Germany's Undersensitivity?". In Eberlein, Burkard; Schneider, Volker (eds.). Complex Democracy: Varieties, Crises, and Transformations. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-15849-5.
- Thaler, Peter (2001). The Ambivalence of Identity: The Austrian Experience of Nation-building in a Modern Society. Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-201-5.
- Strong, David F. (1939). Austria. (October 1918–March 1919). Transition from Empire to Republic. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231878708. Retrieved 2023-08-07.