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79-812: The Habsburg Law ( Habsburgergesetz (in full, the Law concerning the Expulsion and the Takeover of the Assets of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine ) Gesetz vom 3. April 1919 betreffend die Landesverweisung und die Übernahme des Vermögens des Hauses Habsburg-Lothringen ) was a law originally passed by the Constitutional Assembly ( Konstituierende Nationalversammlung ) of the Republic of German-Austria , one of

158-498: A democratic state along the lines of the First Austrian Republic . Soviet acceptance of Renner was not an isolated episode; their officers re-established district administrations and appointed local mayors, frequently following the advice of the locals, even before the battle was over. Renner and his ministers were guarded and watched by NKVD bodyguards. One-third of State Chancellor Renner's cabinet, including

237-717: A formal note of protest to the Allies against blocking German-Austrian union, on 10 September 1919 Renner signed the Treaty of Saint Germain and it was ratified by the Constituent National Assembly on 17 October. According to its provisions, on 21 October the country changed its official name from "Republic of German-Austria" to "Republic of Austria". It also lost the Sudetenland and German Bohemia to Czechoslovakia , South Tyrol and Istria (including

316-413: A majority in the area known as German West Hungary and agitated to join to Austria were successful and the area became the state of Burgenland , with the notable exception of the region around the city of Ödenburg (Sopron) which was also intended to be the state capital, but due to a very contentious plebiscite, remained part of Hungary. The only other part of the former German counties of Burgenland in

395-673: A proclamation relinquishing his right to take part in Austrian affairs of state. He also released the officials in the western (Austrian) half of the Habsburg realm from their oath of loyalty to him. On the following day, the Provisional National Assembly (Provisorische Nationalversammlung) of German-Austria , which claimed authority over the German-speaking portions of the western Habsburg lands (mostly

474-425: A proponent of new German-Austria becoming a part of the democratic German Republic , he expected Nazism to be but a passing phenomenon not worse than the dictatorship of Dollfuss's and Schuschnigg's authoritarian one-party system. During World War II , however, he distanced himself from politics completely. On 2 April 1938, Renner appealed to Austrians to vote yes in the 10 April plebiscite that legitimized

553-473: A republican form and preserved the potential for the continuation of the monarchy. On 25 October, the Provisional Assembly called on all German-inhabited Lands to form their own provisional assemblies. 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

632-537: A signatory of the Treaty of Saint Germain . Karl Renner Karl Renner (14 December 1870 – 31 December 1950) was an Austrian politician and jurist of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria . He is often referred to as the "Father of the Republics" because he led the first government of the Republic of German-Austria and the First Austrian Republic in 1919 and 1920, and

711-682: A unification with Germany whereas Vorarlberg in May 1919 held a plebiscite where 81% supported accession to Switzerland. 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

790-457: A would-be future Austrian cabinet from the country's communists in exile , but Tolbukhin's telegram changed Stalin's mind in favor of Renner. On 20 April 1945, the Soviets, without asking their Western allies, instructed Renner to form a provisional government. Seven days later Renner's cabinet took office, declared the independence of Austria from Nazi Germany and called for the creation of

869-430: Is an integral part of the German republic" (Article 2). 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

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948-599: Is valid wherever in Austria. The Habsburg Law was downgraded under Federal Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg on 13 July 1935 at the time of the Austrofascist Ständestaat (State of estates) from the status of constitutional law to that of normal law; the ban on certain Habsburgs from entering the country was lifted. The "Family-Provision Fund" of the Habsburg family was restored, and substantial property

1027-690: The Republic of German-Austria ( German : Republik Deutsch-Österreich ). This name, however, was prohibited by The Entente . They also vetoed a resolution of the Constituent National Assembly in Vienna that "German-Austria" was to be part of the German Weimar Republic . Even before the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Renner had proposed a future union of the German parts of Austria with Germany, even using

1106-602: The Austro-Hungarian Empire . Because of his intelligence, he was allowed to attend a selective gymnasium in nearby Nikolsburg (Mikulov), where one of his teachers was Wilhelm Jerusalem . From 1890 to 1896 he studied law at the University of Vienna . In 1895 he was one of the founding members of the Friends of Nature ( German : Naturfreunde ) organisation and created their logo. In 1896 he joined

1185-565: The Feldkircher Manifest, reiterating his claims to sovereignty and stating that any decision by the German-Austrian national assembly relating to the issue was "null and void for me and my House." Officials of the new republican government were angered that Charles had left Austria without explicitly abdicating. Accordingly, on 3 April, the German-Austrian parliament, on the initiative of Chancellor Karl Renner , passed

1264-582: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes from seizing some of its territory. 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

1343-651: The Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAP), representing the party in the National Council ( German : Reichsrat ) from the 1907 elections until its dissolution in November 1918. During this period he founded and edited the party's journal, Der Kampf , together with Otto Bauer and Adolf Braun. Renner's interest in politics also led him to become a librarian for the Reichsrat . During these early years, he developed new perspectives on law — all

1422-599: The Sudetenland and German Bohemia . The German population of Bohemia and Moravia was 3 million. From 1914 to 1918, Austria-Hungary fought in the First World War as one of the Central Powers and an ally of Germany. By May 1918, the empire was facing increasing military failure and defeat, as well as domestic unrest caused by food and fuel shortages. Additionally, the demands of the empire's nationalities were becoming increasingly radicalised, encouraged by

1501-572: The Adriatic port of Trieste ) to the Kingdom of Italy , and Carniola , Lower Styria and Dalmatia to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes . Article 88 of the treaty, sometimes called a "pre- Anschluss attempt" , 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

1580-696: The American president Woodrow Wilson 's commitment to self-determination in his Fourteen Points published in January 1918. In October, the independence of Czechoslovakia and the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (the latter unified with Serbia that December to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , later called Yugoslavia), Hungary withdrew from the dual monarchy and the Austro-Hungarian army surrendered to Italy at Vittorio Veneto . With

1659-572: The Anschluss; many Austrians followed his advice, and as a result, Austrians welcomed the Germans and Hitler himself. After the Anschluss, Renner offered to serve in the Nazi government during the occupation , but his offer was declined. During the occupation, according to official Austrian figures, 51,500 Austrian Jews out of a total of 200,000 died in concentration camps, which, as documented during

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1738-634: The Christian Social Party, and the Social Democrat Karl Seitz . 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

1817-650: The Danubian and Alpine provinces) proclaimed German-Austria a republic and announced its union with the German republic . In the night after his proclamation Charles I and his family left Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna and moved to Schloss Eckartsau east of the city, then belonging to the Habsburg Family Funds. There he was visited by a Hungarian delegation and on 13 November signed a similar proclamation for

1896-475: 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

1975-479: 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. 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

2054-471: The Germans represented only 37% of the population. However, Upper and Lower Austria , Salzburg , Carinthia , Vorarlberg and most of Styria and Tyrol had a predominantly German population. These territories were the core "Austrian" provinces and had a population of 6.5 million. 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

2133-624: The Habsburg Law was amended on 30 October 1919, retroactively from 3 April, expressly recording which of the claimed funds or endowments in particular were to count as expropriated. When the Austrian Constitution came into force in 1920, the Habsburg Law was made a constitutional law. However, the provisions of the Habsburg Law concerning expropriation were expressly not brought into force in Burgenland in 1922 (as well as

2212-613: The Habsburg Law, and it was retained when Austria regained its independence after World War II . The law has been found to violate human rights, and for this reason, Austria was forced to repeal large parts of it, notably the ban on members of the Habsburg family entering Austria, before being admitted to the European Union in 1995. After a report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) criticized

2291-439: The Habsburg Law. The law stripped the Habsburgs of their sovereign rights and banished all Habsburgs from Austrian territory. Charles was barred from ever returning to Austria again. Other Habsburgs were only allowed to return if they renounced all dynastic claims and accepted status as private citizens. Those assets of the state that had been under the administration of the imperial court, the so-called Hofärar , were placed under

2370-655: The Kingdom of Hungary also not to become part of the Austrian Republic due to the treaty was Preßburg ( Bratislava ) which went to Czechoslovakia (now the capital of Slovakia ). German-Austria originally consisted of nine provinces ( Provinzen ): 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" ( Deutschösterreich, du herrliches Land ). Its words were penned by then-Chancellor Karl Renner ,

2449-411: The Kingdom of Hungary. Although these proclamations have sometimes been interpreted as abdications, Charles did not formally abdicate, intending to retain his freedom of action in case the people of either nation recalled him. The new republican government of Austria, uncomfortable with this situation, gave Charles three options: (1) abdicate formally and remain in Austria as a private citizen, (2) leave

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2528-539: The Kremlin, denied him recognition. However, Renner had secured multi-party control of the government by designating two Under-Secretaries of State in each of the ministries, appointed by the two parties not designating the Secretary of State. Historian Harold Green commented: "But for Renner's having gained Soviet support for creating a Social Democratic Austrian Republic - and his establishing it at record speed after

2607-567: The Law on the Abolition of Nobility) when it became part of Austria. This was intended to turn the Burgenland aristocrats (who included members of the Habsburg family) more pro-Austrian, for pragmatic reasons. The oddity of a constitutional rule not applying to the whole republic was only "repaired" in 2008, when a federal constitutional law declared that by 1 January 2008 the Habsburg Law in total

2686-473: The Nazi collapse - Austria might have shared Germany's post-war fate and spent several decades divided into a Communist East Austria and a Democratic West Austria, with Vienna as a divided city like Berlin." Renner's government opted to restore the 1920 Constitution, as amended in 1929. However, following elections that November , the Federal Assembly temporarily suspended the provision calling for

2765-474: The Nuremberg war-crimes trials, had a disproportionately large number of Austrian guards. On 29 March 1945, Soviet commander Fyodor Tolbukhin 's troops crossed the former Austrian border at Klostermarienberg in Burgenland . On 3 April, at the beginning of the Vienna offensive , Renner, then living in southern Lower Austria , established contact with the Soviets. Joseph Stalin had already established

2844-584: The Reichsrat" (the formal description of the Austrian half of the Dual Monarchy) that predominantly spoke German and had decided to form a nation-state like the other nationalities had done. Renner became the first head of government ("State Chancellor") of that newly established small German-speaking republic which refused to be considered the heir of the Habsburg monarchy and wished to be known as

2923-672: The Second Republic brought into force again the Constitution of 1920/1929 according to its version as of 1933, and with it also the Habsburg Law of 1919. With the Constitution Transition Law, all constitutional laws enacted between 1933 and 1945, and all laws which were not compatible with the constitution that was in force until 1933, were repealed. Thus, the legal situation of the First Republic

3002-547: 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". Calling themselves "the Germans of the Alps and Sudetens ", all 208 deputies met on 21 October, and unanimously voted that they now constituted the "Provisional National Assembly" for German-Austria. They declared that:

3081-728: The basis of which the super-national state should develop, and thereby influenced the agenda and tactics of the Social Democratic Party in dealing with it. As a theorist he was reckoned as one of the leaders of Austro-Marxism . In 1918, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was in the forefront of the Provisional and the Constitutional National Assemblies of those Cisleithanian "Lands Represented in

3160-460: 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. Likewise, the Treaty of Versailles , dictating

3239-458: The country or (3) be interned. With the help of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt , a British Army officer sent by King George V , who was shocked by the fate of his Russian relatives , on 23 March Charles and his family departed from Eckartsau for Switzerland in the former Imperial train, Charles wearing a field marshal's uniform. Before crossing the border on the morning of 24 March 1919, and changing into civilian clothes, he issued

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3318-523: The crucial seats of the Secretary of State of the Interior and the Secretary of State for Education , was staffed by Austrian Communists. The Western allies suspected the establishment of a puppet state and did not recognize Renner. The British were particularly hostile, and even American President Harry S. Truman , who believed that Renner was a trustworthy politician rather than a token front for

3397-426: 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 East Silesia , plans for a plebiscite fell through, and the area was divided between Czechoslovakia and Poland. On the other hand, ethnic Germans in the western part of the Kingdom of Hungary that formed

3476-562: The empire collapsing, the Habsburg administration signed an armistice on 3 November and the last Habsburg emperor, Karl I , relinquished his powers on 11 November. On 21 October 1918, the deputies representing German-speaking areas in the Abgeordnetenhaus , the lower chamber of the Reichsrat , the imperial Parliament of Cisleithania , declared that they were the new Provisional National Assembly for German-Austria. With

3555-482: 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

3634-506: 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 . On the same day it drafted a provisional constitution that stated that "German-Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German-Austria

3713-683: The federal president's elections. The Arbitration Panel of the General Settlement Fund for Victims of National Socialism (decisions 5/2004, 6/2004, 7/2004) has declared that it lacks jurisdiction over applications of the Habsburg family, for reasons of constitutional and international law. In a subsequent complaint of the Habsburg family concerning decisions of the Arbitration Panel, the Austrian constitutional court has declared that it lacks jurisdiction. Republic of German-Austria In practice, however, its authority

3792-422: The first three coalition cabinets from 1918 until 1920 and at the same time Minister of Foreign Affairs, backed by a grand coalition of Social Democrats and Christian Social Party . A wide range of social reforms were introduced by Renner's government, including unemployment insurance, paid holidays, the eight-hour workday, and regulations on the working conditions of miners, bakers, women, and children. State aid

3871-466: The first time women were allowed to vote. Out of the 38 German inhabited constituencies only 25 participated and 159 deputies were elected to the 170 seats with Social Democrats as the largest party. Social Democrats won 72 seats, Christians Socials 69 and German Nationalists 26. The Constituent National Assembly first met on 4 March 1919 and on 15 March a new government was formed, once again led by Karl Renner. Austrian Social Democrats, despite being one of

3950-477: The founders of the discipline of the sociology of law . In this book, Renner developed a Marxist theory of the institution of private law. Renner argued that the separation of public and private law is a creation of capitalism, whereby the state enforces the interests of capital owners. His and Otto Bauer 's ideas about the legal protection of cultural minorities were taken up by the Jewish Bund , but fiercely denounced by Vladimir Lenin . Joseph Stalin devoted

4029-544: The government's management. The private funds and family funds of the House of Habsburg, common family property administered by the respective head of the house, were expropriated and transferred to the state property. Personal private property was preserved. Also on 3 April, nobility was abolished in German Austria, with the Law on the Abolition of Nobility. The family demanded that various endowments and funds be placed at their disposal as personal private property; in response to this, and to clear up ambiguities related to this,

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4108-477: The impending collapse of the empire becoming apparent earlier in the month, the three main political groupings representing German-speakers in the lower chamber began negotiations on the way forward. The largest group was the German nationalists, a collection of smaller parties, with a total of 109 deputies elected in the last imperial elections, in 1911 . Their primary objective was Anschluss or union with Germany. The conservative monarchist Christian Social Party

4187-400: The imperial throne. Members of the Habsburg family and other families, "that have ruled before", have according to article 60, paragraph 3 of the federal constitution, the same rights and possibilities as any other Austrians, except from being unable to serve as Federal President. In 2010, Ulrich Habsburg-Lothringen , living in Carinthia , unsuccessfully tried to be accepted as a candidate at

4266-470: 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. 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

4345-410: The leading Marxist parties with its Austromarxism current, did not attempt to seize power or to institute socialism. However, the majority of conservative, Catholic politicians still distrusted them and this led to the fatal left–right split that plagued the First Republic and led to its downfall by 1934. Social Democrat leader Otto Bauer wrote: German-Austria is not an organism which has followed

4424-429: The legal validity of his declaration was questioned. In this connection the National Council decided to interpret the Habsburg Law authentically, with a majority of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ). Permission to enter was granted to the last empress, Zita of Bourbon-Parma , without a waiver, in 1982, because she was a Habsburg only by marriage and could therefore make no claim to

4503-510: The most part, each had their own institutions. There were separate parliaments and separate governments and ministries for "imperial Austria" and "royal Hungary". 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. Even within Cisleithania

4582-494: The name Cisleithania . Cisleithania included the core "Austrian" provinces, together with Carniola , Dalmatia , the Austrian Littoral ( Gorizia and Gradisca , Trieste and Istria ) to the south, and Bohemia , Moravia , Silesia , Galicia and Bukovina to the north and east. The dual monarchy, or Austria-Hungary as it came to be known, was effectively two states with the Habsburg monarch as Emperor of Austria in Cisleithania and King of Hungary in Transleithania. For

4661-461: The new state of the First Austrian Republic was created in 1920. The Austrian Empire of the Habsburgs had been reconstituted as a dual monarchy by the Compromise of 1867 . It comprised the Magyar -dominated " lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen ", the core of which was the Kingdom of Hungary and was sometimes referred to as Transleithania, and the German-dominated remainder of the empire, informally called "Austria" but semi-officially given

4740-435: The president to be popularly elected, and elected Renner as president on 20 November. Karl Renner died in 1950 in Vienna and was buried in the Presidential Tomb at the Zentralfriedhof . Antisemitism in contemporary Austria was widespread after the First World War and even after the Second World War, even in the highest government offices. Karl Renner, whom Emperor Karl I rejected as prime minister, stood out before and after

4819-500: The prohibition against members of the Habsburg family running for the Austrian presidency , this provision was also withdrawn in June 2011 by the Austrian parliament. Although the law still remains in force, it is considered largely obsolete, with the notable exception of the confiscation of the family's property in force since 1938. On 11 November 1918, Emperor Charles I , counseled by ministers of his last Imperial and Royal government as well as by ministers of German Austria , issued

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4898-461: 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. Timeline Elections to the Constituent Assembly were held on 16 February 1919 and for

4977-411: The successor states of dissolved Austria-Hungary , on 3 April 1919. The law dethroned the House of Habsburg-Lorraine as rulers of the country, which had declared itself a republic on 12 November 1918, exiled them and confiscated their property. The Habsburg Law was repealed in 1935 and the Habsburg family was given back its property. However, in 1938, following the Anschluss , the Nazis reintroduced

5056-444: The terms of peace for Germany, forbade any union between Austria and Germany. With these changes and the settling of Austria's frontiers, the era of the First Republic of Austria began. 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 km (45,680 sq mi) with 10.4 million inhabitants. This included nearly all

5135-425: The territory of present-day Austria, plus South Tyrol and the town of Tarvisio , both now in Italy; southern Carinthia and southern Styria , now in Slovenia ; the recently proclaimed provinces of Sudetenland and German Bohemia (which later became parts of Nazi Sudetenland ), now in the Czech Republic ; and East Silesia (now divided between Poland and Czech Republic). In practice, however, its authority

5214-555: The war and he also frankly said that Austria would not give anything back to them." For most of his life, Renner alternated between the political commitment of a social democrat and the analytical distance of an academic scholar. Central to Renner's academic work is the problem of the relationship between private law and private property. With his Rechtsinstitute des Privatrechts und ihre soziale Funktion. Ein Beitrag zur Kritik des bürgerlichen Rechts [The Institutions of Private Law and their Social Functions] (1904), he became one of

5293-455: The war due to vehement anti-Semitism. This attitude persisted even after the Nazi terror against Jewish returnees and survivors of the concentration camps. Marko Feingold , survivor of the concentration camp and president of the Salzburg Jewish Community, said in 2013: "Karl Renner, after all the first Federal President of the Second Republic, had long been known in the party as an anti-Semite. He didn't want us concentration campers in Vienna after

5372-402: The while cloaking his innovative ideas under a variety of pseudonyms (for example, Synopticus and Rudolf Springer ) lest he lose his coveted post as parliamentary librarian. He was especially interested in the problems of the Austrian state, whose existence he justified on geographical, economic and political grounds. On the nationality question, he upheld the so-called " personal autonomy " on

5451-409: The word " Anschluss ". Like other Austrian socialists, Renner believed that the best course was to seek union with Germany. He was the leader of the delegation that represented this new German-Austria in the negotiations of St. Germain where the "Republic of Austria" was acknowledged but was declared to be the responsible successor to Imperial Austria. There Renner had to accept that this new Austria

5530-483: 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. After submitting

5609-437: Was also provided for the disabled, together with health insurance for public employees. In addition, a law was passed that provided for collective bargaining and the mediation of disputes. From 1931 to 1933, Renner was President of Parliament, the National Council of Austria . After the dictatorial Austrofascism period from 1934, when his party was prohibited, he even welcomed the Anschluss in 1938. Having originally been

5688-443: 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 plebiscites in the provinces of Tyrol and Salzburg yielded majorities of 98 and 99% in favor of

5767-489: Was limited to the Danubian and Alpine provinces of the old Habsburg realm—with few exceptions, most of present-day Austria. However, the Allies of World War I opposed such a move. They had committed themselves to the cause of the Habsburg realm's minorities, and assumed almost without question that they wished to leave Austria and Hungary. German-Austria was largely powerless to prevent the forces of Italy, Czechoslovakia , and

5846-399: 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

5925-588: Was once again decisive in establishing the present Second Republic after the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, becoming its first President after World War II (and fourth overall). Renner was born the 18th child of an ethnic German family of poor wine-growers in Unter-Tannowitz (present-day Dolní Dunajovice in the Czech Republic ), then part of the Margraviate of Moravia , a crown land of

6004-401: Was prohibited any political association with Germany and he had to accept the loss of German-speaking South Tyrol and the German-speaking parts of Bohemia and Moravia where he himself was born; this forced him to give up his share in the parental farm if he, "the peasant proprietor who turned Marxist", wanted to remain an Austrian government officer. Renner was Chancellor of Austria of

6083-620: Was restored. In 1955, at the explicit request of the USSR the Habsburg law became part of the Austrian State Treaty . From 1960, many members of the House Habsburg-Lorraine signed the waiver. In 1961, it was also signed by Archduke Otto von Habsburg , Charles' son, who had succeeded his father as head of the house upon his father's death in 1922. His entry was delayed until 1966 by the Habsburg crisis, in which

6162-471: Was returned to the fund. After the " Anschluss ", Reichsstatthalter Arthur Seyss-Inquart , head of the "Austrian State Government", enacted the "Law on the cancellation of the transfer of property to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine", on 14 March 1939, on the grounds of a personal Führer decree; thus, the property passed without compensation to the " Land Austria", part of the Third Reich . In 1945,

6241-604: Was the next largest with 65 deputies and the Social Democrats , who favoured a democratic republic, had a representation of 37 deputies. 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

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