Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2009
On November 27, 1905, leading members of the Czech and German communities in Moravia agreed to a political compromise that divided power in the provincial diet between Czechs, Germans, and members of the landowning and ecclesiastical aristocracy. Over the next few years, the Moravian agreement was used as a model for political compromises in Bukovina (1910) and Galicia (1914).1 For decades historians hailed the Moravian compromise and its successors as evidence that the feuding nations of the late Habsburg monarchy could indeed find sufficient common ground to live together in peace. Although in the past decade scholars generally have taken a more cautious approach to the results of these compromises, much of this work betrays a sense of disappointment over a missed opportunity. Somehow, the Czech-German compromise in Moravia might have become a model for ethnic cooperation, proof that the monarchy's contentious national communities could work out their differences and live together, or at least a sign
1 On the compromise in Bukovina, see John, Leslie, “Der Ausgleich in der Bukovina von 1910: Zur österreichischen Nationalitätenpolitik vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg,” in Geschichte zwischen Freiheit und Ordnung. Gerald Stourzh zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Emil, Brix, Thomas, Fröschl, AND Josef, Leidenfrost (Graz, 1991), 113–44;Google Scholar and Alon, Rachamimov, “Diaspora Nationalism's Pyrrhic Victory: The Controversy Regarding the Electoral Reform of 1909 in Bukovina,” in State and Nation Building in East Central Europe: Contemporary Perspectives, ed. John, Micgiel (New York, 1996), 1–16.Google Scholar On Galicia, see John Paul, Himka, “Nationality Problems in the Habsburg Monarchy and the Soviet Union: The Perspective of History,” in Nationalism and Empire: The Habsburg Monarchy and the Soviet Union, ed. Rudolph, Richard L. and Good, David F. (New York, 1992), 79–93;Google Scholarand Iaroslav, Isaievych, “Galicia and the Problem of National Identity,” in The Habsburg Legacy: National Identity in Historical Perspective, ed. Ritchie, Robertson andEdward, Timms, Austrian Studies, 5 (Edinburgh, 1994), 42–43.Google Scholar
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3 International Crisis Group, Changing the Logic of Bosnian Politics, Mar. 10,1998.Google Scholar A more selfserving interpretation of the significance of the Moravian compromise for future such arrangements is offered by Otto von Habsburg in a contribution to the report of the Marshall, George C.European Center for Security Studies conference, “The Significance of Centrifugal and Centripetal Geopolitical Forces for the Emerging European Security Systems,” 05 7–9,1998, ed. Denison, Andrew B. (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, 1998)Google Scholar
4 Cohen, Gary B., “Neither Absolutism nor Anarchy: New Narratives on Society and Government in Late Imperial Austria,” Austrian History Yearbook 29, Part 1 (1998), 37–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 Ibid.,61.
6 Inevitably when writing about the Habsburg monarchy in its last century, one must choose a naming strategy for provinces, cities, and towns. Because the prevailing naming system in Moravia during the events described in this essay used the German names, I have chosen to adhere to that system.
7 For example, in the first diet election after 1905, representatives of the new mass parties (Clerical, Social Democratic, National Socialist, Progressive, and Agrarian) received only 51 percent of the vote in the curiae based on restricted franchise (urban, rural), as compared to 86 percent in the small universal manhood suffrage curia. Almanach moravského sněmu zemského (Almanac of the Moravian Provincial Diet) (Brno, 1906), 139–51.Google Scholar
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9 See, for instance, a letter from Baron Heinrich d'Elvert to Baron Johan Chlumecky (both framers of the compromise), written on Sept. 6,1905, during the final negotiations over the compromise. Moravský zemský archiv (hereafter MZA), Chlumecky collection, folder “Moravský Pakt.”
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31 See, for example, a speech in the electoral reform committee of the Moravian Diet by Václav Perek, a member of the liberal (Czech) People's Party from Prossnitz, in which he warns that unless a compromise can be reached on electoral reform, those supporting universal manhood suffrage will eventually win the day. MZA A-ll, 1861–1914,454/11, Oct. 19,1904. On the origins of the struggle for universal manhood suffrage in the Bohemian lands, see Havránek, “Boj zavšeobecné”; and Jiří, Malíř, Vývoj liber´lního proudu české politiky na Moravě (The development of the liberal current in Czech politics in Moravia) (Brno, 1985), 103–5.Google Scholar
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37 See, for example, Brünner Wochenblatt, Apr. 26,1911.
38 The petitions are in MZA A-ll, Sném 1861–1914, 454/11 Reform.
39 Wingfield, “The Moravians' Compromise?”
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41 The debates over the education reform are discussed in detail in Glassl, Der mährische Ausgleich,217–26.Google Scholar
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48 Ibid.;82.
50 See, for example, a pamphlet produced by the Czech National Council (Národní rada Česká), K nastávajídmu sčítáni lidu (On the impending census) (Prague, 1910) urging all Czechs and Czech-speakers to declare Czech as their language of everyday use in the impending census. MZA B-26 2205A.
51 These matters are discussed in detail in Stourzh, “Ethnic Attribution in Late Imperial Austria.” The questions asked in the Moravian questionnaire appear on page 75.
52 Ibid.,75.
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54 Ibid.,98–116.
55 Ibid.,116,120.
56 Elsewhere in Austria, many electoral districts were de facto uninational, and in most districts the national voters of the local minority represented an even smaller minority in the voting district.
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62 See, for example, Snahy lidu (Aspirations of the people), Dec. 24, 1908, which attacked the parry's Czech opponents for supporting the “red and white banner on the fortress of black and red internationalism” (that is, the Austrian flag on the clerical /socialist fortress).Google Scholar
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