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The Municipal and the National in the Bohemian Lands, 1848–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Jeremy King
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Extract

Between the Revolution of 1848 and the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, imperial Austria experienced an extraordinary expansion of nationalism and of national conflict. German, Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, Italian, Slovene, and other national movements became major players and rivals, transforming public life in the process. This essay examines that process through a municipal lens. What was particular about the intersection of the national in imperial Austria with the municipal? How did municipal and national politics affect one another, and what can we understand, through their dynamics, about Austrian politics more generally?

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Articles
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Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 42 , April 2011 , pp. 89 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2011

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References

2 Redlich, Josef, Das Wesen der österreichischen Kommunal-Verfassung (Leipzig, 1910), 61–62Google Scholar.

3 Cohen, Gary, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861–1914 (Princeton, 1981) (second, revised edition: West Lafayette, IN, 2006)Google Scholar; King, Jeremy, Budweisers into Czechs and Germans: A Local History of Bohemian Politics, 1848–1948 (Princeton, 2002)Google Scholar. See also Hubbard, William, Auf dem Weg zur Grossstadt: eine Sozialgeschichte der Stadt Graz, 1850–1914 (Vienna, 1984)Google Scholar; Giustino, Cathleen, Tearing Down Prague's Jewish Town: Ghetto Clearance and the Legacy of Middle-Class Ethnic Politics around 1900 (Boulder, 2003)Google Scholar; Kladiwa, Pavel, Obecní výbor Moravské Ostravy 1850–1913 [The Municipal Council of Moravská Ostrava, 1850–1913] (Ostrava, 2004)Google Scholar.

4 A small part of that legal tradition was transmitted to the United States by Redlich, who taught at Harvard Law School for a number of years after World War I. He published, among other studies, Austrian War Government (New Haven, CT, 1929).

5 Haas, Arthur, “Metternich and the Slavs,” Austrian History Yearbook 4–5 (1968–1969): 120–49, at 121CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Klabouch, Jiří, Die Gemeindeselbstverwaltung in Österreich (Munich, 1968), 7Google Scholar. See also Redlich, Josef, “The Municipality. I. Austria: The Commune System,” Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation 8, no. 1 (1907): 12–40, at 15Google Scholar.

7 The best exceptions include Boyer, John, Political Radicalism in Late Imperial Vienna: Origins of the Christian Social Movement, 1848–1897 (Chicago, 1981)Google Scholar; Boyer, John, Culture and Political Crisis in Vienna: Christian Socialism in Power, 1897–1918 (Chicago, 1995)Google Scholar; Urbanitsch, Peter, “Die Gemeindevertretungen in Cisleithanien,” in Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918, vol. 7/1: Verfassung und Parlamentarismus: Die regionalen Repräsentativkörperschaften, ed. Wandruszka, Adam and Urbanitsch, Peter, [2199–2281] (Vienna, 2001)Google Scholar; Hlavačka, Milan, Zlatý věk české samosprávy: samospráva a její vliv na hospodářský, sociální a intelektuální rozvoj Čech 1862–1913 [The Golden Age of Czech Self-Government: Self-Government and Its Influence on the Economic, Social, and Intellecual Development of Bohemia, 1862–1913] (Prague, 2006)Google Scholar; Fasora, Lukáš, Hanuš, Jiří, and Malíř, Jiří, eds., Občanské elity a obecní samospráva 1848–1948 [Civic Elites and Municipal Self-Government, 1848–1948] (Brno, 2006)Google Scholar.

8 See, for example, Brubaker, Rogers, Ethnicity without Groups (Cambridge, MA, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Judson, Pieter and Rozenblit, Marsha, eds., Constructing Nationalities in East Central Europe (New York, 2005)Google Scholar; Judson, Pieter, Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria (Cambridge, MA, 2006)Google Scholar; Zahra, Tara, Kidnapped Souls: National Indifference and the Battle for Children in the Bohemian Lands, 1900–1948 (Ithaca, NY, 2008)Google Scholar; idem., “Imagined Noncommunities: National Indifference as a Category of Analysis,” Slavic Review 69, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 93–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 King, Budweisers, 57–61. See also the data appendices of Brix, Emil, Die Umgangssprache in Altösterreich zwischen Agitation und Assimilation (Vienna, 1982)Google Scholar.

10 See the early chapters of King, Budweisers; and of Judson, Pieter, Exclusive Revolutionaries: Liberal Politics, Social Experience, and National Identity in the Austrian Empire, 1848–1914 (Ann Arbor, MI, 1996)Google Scholar. This essay understands nationalism or nationhood in the spirit of works by such scholars as Benedict Anderson and Rogers Brubaker. See Anderson, , Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 2nd edition (London, 1991)Google Scholar; Brubaker, , Nationalism Reframed (New York, 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brubaker, Ethnicity without Groups.

11 For a discussion of why Austrian law treated territorial corporations of citizens in undifferentiated fashion, almost regardless of size, see Ogris, Werner, “Die Entwicklung des österreichischen Gemeinderechts im 19. Jahrhundert,” in Die Städte Mitteleuropas im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Rausch, Wilhelm, 86–92 (Linz, 1983)Google Scholar.

12 Ulbrich, Josef, “Autonomie,” in Österreichisches Staatswörterbuch. Handbuch des gesamten österreichischen öffentlichen Rechtes, vol. 1, ed. Mischler, Ernst and Ulbrich, Josef, 380–83 (Vienna, 1905)Google Scholar. For additional remarks on “autonomy” by Redlich, see “The Municipality,” 19–20. See also Slawitschek, Rudolf, Selbstverwaltung und Autonomie (Leipzig, 1910)Google Scholar; Hledíková, Zdeňka, Janák, Jan, and Dobeš, Jan, Dějiny správy v českých zemích od začátku státu po současnost [The History of Administration in the Bohemian Lands from the Beginnings of the State to Contemporary Times] (Prague, 2005), 297Google Scholar.

13 A recent overview of these developments may be found in John Deak, “The Austrian Civil Service in an Age of Crisis: Power and the Politics of Reform, 1848–1925” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2009), Chapter 3.

14 Allgemeines Reichs-Gesetz- und Regierungsblatt für das Kaiserthum Österreich [henceforth RGBl.], Nr. 170/1849, 203, §1. See also §33 of the imposed or “octroyed” constitution of 4 March 1849, regarding the fundamental rights of the municipality. Both these laws, and indeed almost the whole of Austrian legislation between 1848 and 1914, may be accessed at http://alex.onb.ac.at.

15 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 14ff; Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 2199–204.

16 RGBl., Nr. 170/1849, §2-3, §71ff, §127ff, §138.

17 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 7; Redlich, Kommunal-Verfassung, 71.

18 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 32ff; RGBl., Nr. 170/1849, §142ff, §159ff.

19 RGBl., Nr. 170/1849, §110, §154, §167, §169, §177.

20 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 34–35; Hledíková et al, Dějiny správy, 273ff; Deak, “Austrian Civil Service,” Chapter 3.

21 RGBl., Nr. 170/1849, §4, 5, 27, 58.

22 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 136; Redlich, Kommunal-Verfassung, 74.

23 RGBl., Nr. 170/1849, §7–30; Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 2203–24; Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 36–42, 130–33.

24 RGBl., Nr. 170/1849, §4, 36–66; Lukáš Fasora and Pavel Kladiwa, “Obecní samospráva a lokální elity v českých zemích 1850–1918 [Municipal Self-Government and Local Elites in the Bohemian Lands, 1850–1918],” Český časopis historický [Czech Historical Review] 102 (2004): [796-827], at 813.

25 RGBl., Nr. 170/1849, §6; Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 41; Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 2203, 2211; Hledíková et al, Dějiny správy, 298.

26 RGBl., Nr. 2/1852 and Nr. 4/1852, especially Points 10, 11, and 13. See also Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 46–49.

27 RGBl., Nr. 170/1849, §74, 79; Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 50; Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 107–15; Redlich, “The Municipality,” 30–31.

28 RGBl., Nr. 58/1859, §96.

29 RGBl., Nr. 261/1859; Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 54–58. An 1852 decree requiring confirmation of the mayor by the political administration remained in force.

30 Brockhausen, Carl, Die österreichische Gemeindeordnung (Grundgedanken und Reformideen) (Vienna, 1905), 3Google Scholar.

31 RGBl., Nr. 18/1862.

32 RGBl., Nr. 18/1862, Articles 4–6, 9–11, 14, 22; Brockhausen, Gemeindeordnung, 2–37; Kulisch, Max, “Gemeinden: Gemeindewahlen,” in Österreichisches Staatswörterbuch, vol. 2, ed. Mischler, and Ulbrich, , 335–47 (Vienna, 1906)Google Scholar.

33 RGBl., Nr. 18/1862, Articles 6, 16, 18; Tezner, Friedrich, Handbuch des österreichischen Administrativverfahrens (Vienna, 1896), 388–89Google Scholar. For similar remarks, see Redlich, “The Municipality,” 15, 27, 40.

34 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 62, 68; Brockhausen, Gemeindeordnung, 26–37. See also Deak, “Austrian Civil Service,” Chapter 3.

35 RGBl., Nr. 18/1862, Articles 11, 17.

36 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 73–80.

37 Brockhausen, Gemeindeordnung, 82. The Crownland municipal orders may be found in Pace, Graf Anton, ed., Ernst Mayrhofer's Handbuch für den politischen Verwaltungsdienst in den im Reichsrathe vertretenen Königreichen und Ländern, 5th edition, vol. 2 (Vienna, 1896), 455ffGoogle Scholar. For a discussion of electoral provisions of the Bohemian municipal law, see František , Výklad zákona obecního (ze dne 16. dubna 1864) a zákona o zastupitelstvu okresním (ze dne 25. července 1864) pro Království České, [Commentary on the Municipal Law (of 16 April 1864) and on the Law concerning the District Representative Body (of 25 July 1864) for the Kingdom of Bohemia] 3rd edition (Prague, 1898), 957ff.

38 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 85, 102. Crownland laws generally remained within the framework laid down by imperial laws regarding self-government and political administration. But “federal” law did not trump Crownland law, nor did “constitutional” laws trump other ones. Francis Joseph was not bound by his own previous decisions and thus could set a different course in Galicia. Bernatzik, Edmund, Die österreichischen Verfassungsgesetze mit Erläuterungen, 2nd edition (Vienna, 1911), 435–38, 985Google Scholar; Herrnritt, Rudolf von, Handbuch des österreichischen Verfassungsrechtes (Tübingen, 1909), 120–22, 202–06Google Scholar.

39 RGBl., Nr. 105/1863; Brockhausen, Gemeindeordnung, 54ff; Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 127; Zdeňka Stoklásková, “Domovské právo a obecní samospráva, [The Law of Domicile and Municipal Self-Government]” in Občanské elity [Civic Elites] Fasora et al., 138–45.

40 RGBl., Nr. 141/1867, especially §11, 12; and Nr. 44/1868.

41 RGBl., Nr. 62/1869; Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 59, 93–99; Pace, Mayrhofer's Handbuch, vol. 4 (1898), 620, 716–43Google Scholar, 847–55.

42 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 55ff., 87–89; Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 2112–21; Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 20ff.

43 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 98.

44 King, Budweisers, Ch: 2; Mischler, Ernst, “Selbstverwaltung, finanzrechtlich,” in Österreichisches Staatswörterbuch, vol. 4, ed. Mischler, and Ulbrich, , 222–63 (Vienna, 1909), 239Google Scholar; Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 118–22. For case studies, see Cibulka, Pavel, “Královo Pole—život po boku moravské metropole [Královo Pole—Life next to the Moravian Metropolis],” in Občanské elity, ed. Fasora, et al. ., 271–83Google Scholar; Kladiwa, Obecní výbor [The Municipal Council].

45 King, Budweisers, Ch: 1; Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 231ff.; Garver, Bruce, The Young Czech Party 1874–1901 and the Emergence of a Multi-Party System (New Haven, 1978)Google Scholar; Judson, Guardians of the Nation, esp. Chapter 3.

46 See King, Budweisers; King, Jeremy, “The Nationalization of East Central Europe: Ethnicism, Ethnicity, and Beyond,” in Staging the Past: The Politics of Commemoration in Habsburg Central Europe, 1848 to the Present, ed. Wingfield, Nancy and Bucur, Maria, 112–52 (West Lafayette, IN, 2001)Google Scholar; Judson, Guardians of the Nation; Zahra, Kidnapped Souls, Introduction and Chapter 1.

47 See King, Budweisers; Judson, Exclusive Revolutionaries, 49–68.

48 Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 152; Redlich, Kommunal-Verfassung, 67.

49 Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 152; Rauchberg, Heinrich, Der nationale Besitzstand in Böhmen (Leipzig, 1905), 32Google Scholar; Jiří Malíř, “Obecní samospráva a národnostní problematika na Moravě před r. 1914 (Deset poznámek k ‘boji o radnice’ moravských měst), [Municipal Self-Government and the Nationalities Issue in Moravia before 1914 (Ten Comments about the ‘Battle for Town Hall’ in Moravian Towns]” in Národnostní problémy v historii měst [Nationalities Problems in Municipal History], conference organized by the Museum for the Prostějov Region and by the Regional Archive in Prostějov, 75-87 (Prostějov, 1993), 84–86.

50 Malíř, “Obecní samospráva, [Municipal Self-Government]” 82; Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 2266.

51 Malíř, “Obecní samospráva,” 79.

52 Stourzh, Gerald, Die Gleichberechtigung der Nationalitäten in der Verfassung und Verwaltung Österreichs, 1848–1918 (Vienna, 1985)Google Scholar; King, Budweisers, especially Chapter 4; Jeremy King, “Who Is Who? Separate but Equal in Imperial Austria,” (article manuscript, 2010); Jeremy King, “Which Equality? Separate but Equal in Imperial Austria,” (article manuscript, 2010).

53 Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 26–29, 33, 35–36, 179; Hledíková et al., Dějiny správy 306; Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 96.

54 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 132, 143; Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 2210, 2214.

55 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 101, 108, 128, 139–44, 157–61, 169–70; King, Budweisers, Chs: 3, 4.

56 Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 2216ff. In Bohemia, statutory cities continued to number only two. But in Moravia and Silesia, they increased during the 1860s and 1870s from three to nine.

57 King, Budweisers, Chs. 3, 4; Fasora and Kladiwa, “Obecní samospráva,” 822.

58 Jiří Kořalka, “Evropský význam Prahy jako metropole národa bez státu, [The European Significance of Prague as the Metropolis of a Nation without a State]” in Praha-Čechy-Evropa. 1100 let kulturní, hospodářské a politické metropole střední Evropy [Prague-Bohemia-Europe. 1100 Years of a Cultural, Economic, and Political Metropolis of Central Europe], ed., Václav Ledvinka, 88–97 (Prague, 2003).

59 Malíř, “Obecní samospráva, [Municipal Self-Government]” 76–78; Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 2269; Fasora and Kladiwa, “Obecní samospráva, 817; King, “Which Equality?”

60 Urbanitsch, “Gemeindevertretungen,” 2258–60; King, Budweisers, Chs. 2–4; Malíř, “Obecní samospráva,” 80.

61 For examples, see King, Budweisers, esp. Chs. 2, 3. For a comparison of municipalities with the political administration (the object of the Stremayr language ordinances of 1880 and the Badeni language ordinances of 1897), see Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 138–41.

62 King, Budweisers, esp. Chs. 2, 3; Burger, Hannelore, Sprachenrecht und Sprachgerechtigkeit im österreichischen Unterrichtswesen 1867–1918 (Vienna, 1995), 37–66, 87–110Google Scholar.

63 Stourzh, Gleichberechtigung, 112–15.

64 Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 92.

65 Stourzh, Gleichberechtigung, 106–110, 169–75; Pace, Mayrhofer's Handbuch, vol. 4 (1898), 671–72Google Scholar.

66 Bernatzik, Verfassungsgesetze, 989–91; Pace, , Mayrhofer's Handbuch, vol. 4 (1898), 500–513, 551, 737–40Google Scholar.

67 Stourzh, Gleichberechtigung, 203–39; Stourzh, Gerald, “Ethnic Attribution in Late Imperial Austria: Good Intentions, Evil Consequences,” in The Habsburg Legacy: National Identity in Historical Perspective, ed. Robertson, Ritchie and Timms, Edward, 67–83 (Edinburgh, 1994)Google Scholar; King, “Who Is Who?”

68 Moravian Laws 2 and 3 of 1906, in Landesgesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für die Markgrafschaft Mähren (Brünn, 1906), 10–43; King, “Which Equality?” Coming as it did after decisions by the Administrative Court of Justice that established a right of parties to choose the language in which they communicated with a municipality, Law 3 seems in some cases to have strengthened not individual rights but group ones, i.e., to have bolstered the right of municipalities with large national majorities to refuse bilingual treatment to some parties.

69 Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 111; Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 21; King, Budweisers.

70 King, Budweisers; Wingfield, Nancy M., Flag Wars and Stone Saints: How the Bohemian Lands Became Czech (Cambridge, MA, 2007)Google Scholar.

71 Redlich, Kommunal-Verfassung, 68; Klabouch, Gemeindeselbstverwaltung, 93, 159–61. See also Hlavačka, Zlatý věk, 8–9.

72 Regarding nationalizing states, see Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed.