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The phraseImperial and Royal (German:kaiserlich und königlich,pronounced[ˈkaɪzɐlɪçʔʊntˈkøːnɪklɪç])[a] refers to the court/government of theHabsburgs in a broader historical perspective. Some modern authors restrict its use to the Dual Monarchy ofAustria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918.
During that period, it indicated that the Habsburg monarch reigned simultaneously as theKaiser (Emperor of Austria) and as theKönig (King of Hungary), while the two territories were joined in areal union (akin to a two-state federation in this instance). The acts of the common government, which was responsible only for the Imperial & Royal ("I&R") Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the I&R Ministry of War and the I&R Ministry of Finance (financing only the two other ministries), were carried out in the name of "His Imperial and Royal Majesty", and the central governmental bodies had their names prefixed withk. u. k.
Before 1867, the territories under the control of theHabsburg monarch inVienna usedkaiserlich und königlich[1][2][3][4] or the hyphenatedkaiserlich-königlich interchangeably. Neither of the spellings defined a hierarchy among the Habsburg dynastic kingdoms, principalities, duchies, and other bodies politic. The Habsburg monarchs ruled the kingdoms ofHungary,Croatia andBohemia as their Kings. The titleEmperor applied to their role as heads of the conglomerate of the mostly German states called theHoly Roman Empire until 1806. The same title,Emperor, came to identify their role as rulers of the newly namedAustrian Empire that the Habsburgs attributed so from 11 August 1804.
The name "Imperial-Royal Army" was used from 1745, as "Royal" referred to the Apostolic Kingdom of Hungary, which was not part of theHoly Roman Empire, but underHabsburg rule.[5]
After theAustro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Hungarians insisted on theund ('and'), not the hyphen, in all usage in line with the new autonomous status of the kingdom within the Habsburg lands. Use of the phraseKaiserlichund königlich was decreed in a letter written by the Emperor on October 17, 1889[6] for the military, the navy and the institutions shared by both parts of the empire.[7] Subsequently, the abbreviationk.k. only referred to the institutions of the "Austrian" part of Austria-Hungary (Cisleithania). The abbreviationm.k. (Hungarian:magyar királyi), orkgl. ung. (German:königlich ungarisch), both meaning 'Royal Hungarian', was applied in reference to the governmental bodies of the Kingdom of Hungary (Transleithania).
In official documents, the abbreviation used provides information on the lands targeted:
The ubiquity of this phrase in all administrative matters made it a synonym for the Habsburg administration, sometimes referred to as the "k. u. k. monarchy" inCentral European publications through the present. Other languages of the Habsburg Monarchy retained the German abbreviation or used it interchangeably with their own −c. i kr. inCroatian,c. a k. orc.-k. inCzech,cs. és kir. inHungarian,I.R. inItalian,c. i k. orC.K. inPolish, often hyphenated (cezaro-crăiesc) inRomanian,c. a k. inSlovak,c. kr. inSlovenian.
The abbreviationk.k. gave rise to the nounKakania (spelling out the letterK [kah] twice as well as reminiscent ofcaca in the Central European languages). It was intended to describe the Habsburg Monarchy as a state of mind, bureaucratic and with a highly stratified formal society. A discussion ofKakania became a highlight of the first volume ofRobert Musil's novelThe Man Without Qualities (1930).