Domestic affairs, 1879–1908

Political realignment

The German liberals had opposed the Balkan policy of Andrássy, and, out of fear that the Slav element in the monarchy would be strengthened by the addition of a new Slav population, they voted against the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina—in this way withdrawing support from the government. When Prime Minister Auersperg resigned, the era of German liberal predominance came to an end. In 1879, the same year in which the so-called Dual Alliance with the German Empire bound the Habsburg monarchy to Germany’s foreign policy, the reappointment of Taaffe as Austrian prime minister signified a reorientation in domestic affairs. From 1879 onward, the German element in the Habsburg monarchy was on the defensive, fighting stubborn and senseless rearguard actions against the Slav drive for political and national equality.

Taaffe first tried to form a cabinet above parties. It was to include even the liberal Karl, Lord von Stremayr, who had presided over a caretaker government after Auersperg’s resignation. The situation decisively changed when Taaffe persuaded the Czechs in 1879 to give up their parliamentary boycott and participate in the government. Taaffe then governed with the support of a conservative coalition, including Slavs, German aristocrats, and clericals, which gave itself the name of the Iron Ring. In April 1880, language ordinances were issued that made Czech and German equal languages in the “outer [public] services” in Bohemia and Moravia. In 1882 the University of Prague was divided, giving the Czechs a national university. In the same year, an electoral reform reduced the tax requirement for the right to vote from 10 to 5 florins, thus enfranchising the more prosperous Czech peasants and weakening the hold of the German middle class.

Despite the conservative character of the government, political life in the Habsburg monarchy underwent a decisive change during the Taaffe period. The traditional party lineup decomposed, and new alignments and parties formed that were essentially radical and aggressive. From 1890 well into the 1920s, political life in Austria was dominated by three movements that originated in the 1880s: Pan-Germanism, Christian Socialism, and Democratic Socialism.

In German Austria, especially in Vienna, moderate liberals were increasingly challenged by extremist groups—notably German nationalists. In 1882 their “Linz program” proposed the restoration of German dominance in Austrian affairs by detaching Galicia, Bukovina, and Dalmatia from the monarchy, by reducing relations with Hungary to a purely personal union under the monarch, and by establishing a customs union and other close ties with the German Empire. This Pan-Germanic program found its chief protagonist in Georg, Ritter (knight) von Schönerer, a deputy to the Reichsrat, who also introduced a note of anti-Semitism into German nationalism. Although his version of extreme chauvinism and racialism never attracted more than a small number of followers, in a modified and moderate way Pan-Germanism and anti-Semitism became the ideological support of the bureaucracy and officer corps; though these elements did not favour union with Germany, they did feel that the Habsburg monarchy had the task of bringing German culture to the “inferior” non-German nationalities.

While Schönerer and Pan-Germanism appealed to the educated classes, Karl Lueger transformed the Christian Socialism of Karl, Freiherr (baron) von Voegelsang, into a political organization that appealed to small shopkeepers, artisans, tradesmen, and lower bourgeois circles of Vienna and the surrounding countryside. The workers’ movement, formerly a concern of welfare and adult-education societies, also transformed itself into a political party. Although workers’ movements had been weakened in Austria by personal rivalries and government persecution, in 1889 at a conference in Hainfeld, Victor Adler managed to unite the competing Marxist groups into the Social Democratic Party (see Marxism).

Taaffe continued to seek compromises between nationalities that were becoming increasingly radical in their demands. The Slav orientation of the Taaffe cabinet did not satisfy the Czechs, for example, but rather encouraged a mood of belligerence; because the moderate Old Czechs failed to live up to radical demands, the nationalistic Young Czechs were able to gain support from the electorate. In 1890 Taaffe tried to negotiate an agreement between the Old Czechs and the German liberals, whereby Bohemia would be divided for administrative and judicial purposes along lines of nationality, but he was balked by the more chauvinistic Young Czechs and German nationalists, and his efforts led to riots in Prague in 1893.

When Emil Steinbach joined Taaffe’s cabinet as minister of finance in 1891, he encouraged Taaffe and the emperor to try electoral reform as an instrument of breaking nationalist opposition. It was hoped that, by extending the franchise, nationalistic antagonism could be allayed and the growing unrest among urban workers could be placated. On October 10, 1893, the government introduced a suffrage bill that would have given the vote to virtually every literate adult male (while preserving the traditional system of voting in curiae). Conservative groups of all nationalities joined forces against this bill, and, under pressure from the Hungarian government, Taaffe had to resign on November 11, 1893.

Though failing in political matters, the cabinet had introduced some economic reforms. Between 1888 and 1892 a system of cooperative banks for farmers was organized, the taxation system was revised, Austrian currency was stabilized by a return to the gold standard, and the florin was replaced by the crown, which remained the Austrian currency until 1924. The Taaffe government is also remembered for social-reform legislation; the laws of 1884 fixed the maximum working day at 11 hours, outlawed the employment of children under 12, required a Sunday rest day for workers, and set up compulsory insurance against accidents and sickness.