CHAPTER 3: Poles in the Austrian Parliament

CHAPTER 3: Poles in the Austrian Parliament 1. The Imperial Council The origins of the Austrian parliament can be traced back to the so-called Adjunct Council (Beirath), established during the rule of Maximilian I and Ferdinand I� Only under Maria Theresa did it grow in significance� It was renamed the Council of State in 1760�916 Subsequently, following the Spring of Nations, in 1849, it assumed certain characteristics of a representative body and was renamed the Imperial Council� The basis for this change was established by the March Constitution, octroyed by the Emperor in 1848�917 The creation of the Imperial Council was also predicted in other draft constitutions, �i e� of April 1848 and the so-called Kroměříž draft constitutions of 1849� However, due to their excessively liberal nature and the ongoing revolution, they did not come into effect� We also need to highlight the fact that it is the Spring of Nations that we should consider as the beginning of the Habsburg monarchy’s systemic transformations toward constitutionalism in its modern sense� In the literature we can find an established view which posits that the dramatic events of that period ini- tiated the process of systemic transformations in Austria� This view is equivalent to considering this date as the starting point for any discussions on the absolute state’s transformation into a constitutional state� On April 25, 1848, the Constitutional Charter of the Austrian Empire, commonly referred to as the April Constitution, was enacted� Its scope was 916 F� Kasparek, Podręcznik prawa politycznego, vol� 2 (Cracow: 1881), p� 9� 917 In response to the events of March 1848 in Vienna, the emperor decided to grant certain concessions to the protesters, which resulted in a promise of rebuilding the state in the direction of liberal constitutionalism� The direct, almost immediate con- sequence of the riots in the capital was the announcement of an imperial manifesto on March 15, announcing, among other things, the adoption of a new constitution and the abolition of censorship� In the Manifesto, Emperor Ferdinand I undertook to convene a gathering of representatives of the provincial parliaments of the various provinces of the empire, whose task would be to prepare a draft of a new constitution� The full text of the Patent of March 15, 1848 can be found in: S� Starzyński, Kodeks prawa politycznego czyli ustawy konstytucyjne austriackie (Lviv: 1901), pp� 2–3� Dorota Litwin-Lewandowska - 9783631846650 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/25/2021 06:21:52PM via free access 220 Poles in the Austrian Parliament limited to the so-called hereditary lands,918 that is, Austrian and Czech lands together with Galicia and Bukovina� What was most important about this constitution was its source of origin� It was not the will of the citizens, but the monarch’s inspiration� This source of origin means that the constitution was octroyed, imposed� This fact was clearly confirmed 919 by the Emperor’s Patent of April 25, 1848� This constitution was not fully democratic, yet it already granted certain freedoms and political liberties�920 Under the April Constitution, a bicameral parliament was to be established, consisting of the upper chamber, i�e� the Senate and the lower chamber, i�e� the House of Deputies� The Senate, with no more than 200 members, would consist of 150 elected delegates of large-scale landed property estate, appointed for a period of five years by large-scale landed property owners, and imperial princes, aged twenty-four and over, appointed for life by the Emperor regardless of their origin� It follows that only a quarter of the Senate’s members would be nomi- nated, while the others would be representatives of large-scale landed property estate� The House of Deputies, on the other hand, was to consist of 383 members elected for five years in indirect and census elections�921 918 This provision was reflected in the Constitution of April 1848, section two; Starzyński, Kodeks prawa politycznego…, p� 13� Limiting its validity only to these lands seems justified, as the Hungarian lands received a separate constitution sanctioned by the emperor on April 11, while the exclusion of Italian lands was caused by the war- fare that took place there, and therefore the status of their belonging to the Austrian Empire was not yet established, M� Sczaniecki, Powszechna historia państwa i prawa (Warsaw: 1973), p� 497� … 919 See: Starzyński, Kodeks prawa politycznego , p� 12� 920 Section three of the April Constitution, establishing the fundamental rights of citizens, placed in the foreground the principle of equality before the law, which was to be expressed in the abolition of state differences and equal access of all citizens to public offices, regardless of their social status� It also guaranteed freedom of religion, personal freedom, freedom of speech and the press, the right to petition and establish associ- ations, and the right to equal treatment by the judiciary and the police, Starzyński, Kodeks prawa politycznego…, pp� 14–15� According to Stanisław Tarnowski, this constitution contains all the principles, requirements and provisions that serve the freedom of citizens: abolition of privileges, equality before the law, civil liberties, sep- aration of powers, establishment of assize courts and transparency of the judiciary, responsibility of ministers, S� Tarnowski, “Siedem projektów konstytucji w Austrii,” Przegląd Polski, vol� 3, no� 9 (1867), p� 459� 921 In both the municipal and the rural curiae, the institution of primary elections was introduced — each of the 500 constituencies entitled to vote would elect one voter, who would then elect a deputy from among the candidates� Under the Provisional Dorota Litwin-Lewandowska - 9783631846650 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/25/2021 06:21:52PM via free access The Imperial Council 221 The Parliament had the right to adopt budget and tax laws, to determine the amount of public debt, and to grant its consent to annual military conscrip- tion�922 The right of legislative initiative did not belong only to both chambers, but also to the emperor and the government� Every law passed by the parliament required the monarch’s sanction� Thus, the principle of equal rights of the head of state and parliament in the field of legislation was introduced, which was empha- sized in article thirty-four of the April Constitution�923 In article forty-two, the Constitution also guaranteed two basic principles of parliamentary life, i�e� freedom of speech and parliamentary immunity, stating that no member of the Chamber could be prosecuted or arrested during the term of office of the lower chamber without the express permission of the chamber to which he belonged, except for his apprehension in the act of committing an offence�924 This constitution never came into effect� The fact that it was octroyed and did not designate the nation as sovereign adversely affected its fate� It was badly per- ceived by liberal-democratic forces, and the main reason for its rejection was the fact that it was imposed by the monarch� These questionable aspects of the issued constitution were one of the reasons for the May Revolution of 1848� The domestic situation in the monarchy forced the emperor to take decisive action� By order of May 16, 1848, he suspended the constitution and ordered the convening of a new parliament, which, like the previous one, was to draft a new fundamental law, but with a more democratic overtone� On the basis of the proclamation of the general and equal elections to the unicameral parliament (Reichsversammlung), on July 22, the Constitutional Parliament (Reichstag) held its first session�925 The sessions of this Parliament were soon moved to Kroměříž (Kremsier in the region of Moravia), as a result of the third consecutive revolution, of October 1848, and lasted until March 1849� This unicameral parliament, which held its sessions at the turn of 1848/49, was the only case in the history of Austria where the entirety of the legislative power was in the hands of the monarch and Electoral Code annexed to the Constitution, Galicia would be entitled to 40 representatives in the Senate and to 96 representatives in the lower chamber, Starzyński, Kodeks prawa politycznego…, pp� 20, 24; J� Buszko, Polacy w parlamencie wiedeńskim 1848–1918, (Warsaw: 1996), pp� 14–15� 922 P� Sarnecki, System konstytucyjny Austrii (Warsaw: 1999), p� 6� … 923 Starzyński, Kodeks prawa politycznego , p� 16� 924 A� Nowicki, Historia Austryi konstytucyjnej 1860–1907, vol� 1 (Vienna: 1912), pp� 53–54� 925 Sarnecki, System konstytucyjny Austrii, p� 6� Dorota Litwin-Lewandowska - 9783631846650 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/25/2021 06:21:52PM via free access 222 Poles in the Austrian Parliament the constitutional authorities, because in that period no national parliaments assembled�926 Work on the new constitution was preceded by the solution of one of the most pressing problems of the monarchy of the period, namely the abolition of serfdom and feudal service�927 However, particular attention should be paid to the proposals for the establishment of a legislative authority, which the Constitutional Parliament presented� At that time, two draft constitutional laws were prepared in parliamentary committees, entitled: The Fundamental Rights of the Austrian People and The Constitutional Document for the Austrian States, but they were not voted on due to the dissolution of the constituent assembly� These two laws, called the Kroměříž projects, significantly contributed

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