You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in German. (August 2022)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Karl Renner]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template{{Translated|de|Karl Renner}} to thetalk page.
In 1896 he joined theSocial Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAP), representing the party in theNational Council (German:Reichsrat) from the 1907 elections until its dissolution in November 1918. During this period he founded and edited the party's journal,Der Kampf, together withOtto Bauer and Adolf Braun.[1] Renner's interest in politics also led him to become a librarian for theReichsrat. During these early years, he developed new perspectives on law — all the while cloaking his innovative ideas under a variety of pseudonyms (for example,Synopticus andRudolf Springer) lest he lose his coveted post as parliamentary librarian.[2] He was especially interested in the problems of the Austrian state, whose existence he justified on geographical, economic and political grounds. On the nationality question, he upheld the so-called "personal autonomy" on the basis of which the super-national state should develop, and thereby influenced the agenda and tactics of the Social Democratic Party in dealing with it. As a theorist he was reckoned as one of the leaders ofAustro-Marxism.[3]
In 1918, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was in the forefront of the Provisional and the Constitutional National Assemblies of thoseCisleithanian "Lands Represented in the Reichsrat" (the formal description of the Austrian half of the Dual Monarchy) that predominantly spokeGerman and had decided to form anation-state like the other nationalities had done. Renner became the first head of government ("State Chancellor") of that newly established small German-speaking republic which refused to be considered the heir of theHabsburg monarchy and wished to be known as theRepublic of German-Austria (German:Republik Deutsch-Österreich). This name, however, was prohibited byThe Entente. They also vetoed a resolution of the Constituent National Assembly in Vienna that "German-Austria" was to be part of the GermanWeimar Republic. Even before the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Renner had proposed a future union of the German parts of Austria with Germany, even using the word"Anschluss".[4] Like other Austrian socialists, Renner believed that the best course was to seek union with Germany.
He was the leader of the delegation that represented this new German-Austria in the negotiations ofSt. Germain where the "Republic of Austria" was acknowledged but was declared to be the responsible successor to Imperial Austria. There Renner had to accept that this new Austria was prohibited any political association with Germany and he had to accept the loss of German-speakingSouth Tyrol and the German-speaking parts ofBohemia andMoravia where he himself was born; this forced him to give up his share in the parental farm if he, "the peasant proprietor who turned Marxist",[5] wanted to remain an Austrian government officer.
Renner wasChancellor of Austria of the first three coalition cabinets from 1918 until 1920 and at the same time Minister of Foreign Affairs, backed by agrand coalition of Social Democrats andChristian Social Party. A wide range of social reforms were introduced by Renner's government, including unemployment insurance, paid holidays, the eight-hour workday, and regulations on the working conditions of miners, bakers, women, and children. State aid was also provided for the disabled, together with health insurance for public employees. In addition, a law was passed that provided for collective bargaining and the mediation of disputes.[6]
From 1931 to 1933, Renner was President of Parliament, theNational Council of Austria.[7] After the dictatorialCorporate State period from 1934, when his party was prohibited, he even welcomed theAnschluss in 1938. Having originally been a proponent of new German-Austria becoming a part of the democraticGerman Republic, he expectedNazism to be but a passing phenomenon not worse than the dictatorship ofEngelbert Dollfuss's andKurt Schuschnigg's authoritarian one-party system. DuringWorld War II, however, he distanced himself from politics completely.
On 2 April 1938, Renner appealed to Austrians to voteyes in the 10 Aprilplebiscite that legitimized the Anschluss; many Austrians followed his advice, and as a result, Austrians welcomed the Germans andHitler himself.[8] After the Anschluss, Renner offered to serve in the Nazi government during theoccupation, but his offer was declined. During the occupation, according to official Austrian figures, 51,500 Austrian Jews out of a total of 200,000 were killed in concentration camps, which, as documented during the Nuremberg war-crimes trials, had a disproportionately large number of Austrian guards.[9]
On 20 April 1945, the Soviets, without asking their Western allies,[12] instructed Renner to form a provisional government. Seven days later Renner's cabinet took office, declared the independence of Austria fromNazi Germany and called for the creation of a democratic state along the lines of theFirst Austrian Republic.[12] Soviet acceptance of Renner was not an isolated episode; their officers re-established district administrations and appointed local mayors, frequently following the advice of the locals, even before the battle was over.[13]
Renner and his ministers were guarded and watched byNKVD bodyguards.[14] One-third of State Chancellor Renner's cabinet, including the crucial seats of theSecretary of State of the Interior and theSecretary of State for Education, was staffed by Austrian Communists.[12] The Western allies suspected the establishment of apuppet state and did not recognize Renner.[12] The British were particularly hostile,[12] and even American PresidentHarry S. Truman, who believed that Renner was a trustworthy politician rather than a token front for the Kremlin,[15] denied him recognition. However, Renner had secured multi-party control of the government by designating two Under-Secretaries of State in each of the ministries, appointed by the two parties not designating the Secretary of State.
Renner's government opted to restore the 1920 Constitution, as amended in 1929. However, followingelections that November, the Federal Assembly temporarily suspended the provision calling for the president to be popularly elected, and elected Renner as president on 20 November.[16] Karl Renner died in 1950 in Vienna and was buried in the Presidential Tomb at theZentralfriedhof.
Antisemitism in contemporary Austria was widespread after the First World War and even after the Second World War, even in the highest government offices. Karl Renner, whom Emperor Karl I rejected as prime minister, stood out before and after the war due to vehement antisemitism. This attitude persisted even after the Nazi terror against Jewish returnees and survivors of the concentration camps.Marko Feingold, survivor of the concentration camp and president of the Salzburg Jewish Community, said in 2013: "Karl Renner, after all the first Federal President of the Second Republic, had long been known in the party as an anti-Semite. He didn't want us concentration campers in Vienna after the war and he also frankly said that Austria would not give anything back to them."[17][18][19]
Monument to Karl Renner next to the Austrian Parliament onRingstraße, Vienna, AustriaMonument to Karl Renner inSiegendorf,Burgenland
For most of his life, Renner alternated between the political commitment of asocial democrat and the analytical distance of an academic scholar. Central to Renner's academic work is the problem of the relationship between private law and private property. With hisRechtsinstitute des Privatrechts und ihre soziale Funktion. Ein Beitrag zur Kritik des bürgerlichen Rechts [The Institutions of Private Law and their Social Functions] (1904), he became one of the founders of the discipline of thesociology of law. In this book, Renner developed a Marxist theory of the institution of private law. Renner argued that the separation of public and private law is a creation of capitalism, whereby the state enforces the interests of capital owners.[20]
Synopticus (pen name),Staat und Nation (Vienna, 1899). Reprinted as "State and Nation" in Ephraim Nimni (ed.),National Cultural Autonomy and Its Contemporary Critics, London: Routledge, 2005 pp. 64 – 82ISBN0-415-24964-3
Rudolf Springer (pen name),Der Kampf der oesterreichischen Nationen um den Staat (1902)
Joseph Karner (pen name), "Die Soziale Funktion der Rechtsinstitute" (1904) inMarx-Studien, vol. 1.
Grundlagen und Entwicklungsziele der österreichischen-ungarischen Monarchie, die Krise des Dualismus, ("Foundations and development goals of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy: the crisis of dualism"; 1904)
Die Wirtschaft als Gesamtprozess und die Sozialisierung ("The economy as an integrated process and the path to socialism"; 1924)
Staatswirtschaft, Weltwirtschaft und Sozialismus ("The national economy, the world economy and socialism"; 1929)
Die Rechtsinstitute des Privatrechts und ihre soziale Funktion (1929); translated into English by Agnes Schwarzschild asThe Institutions of Private Law and their Social Function, with an introduction by Otto Kahn-Freund, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul (1949); reprinted inInternational Library of Sociology (1976; 1996)
Wege der Verwirklichung ("The way to realization", 1929)
An der Wende zweier Zeiten. Lebenserinnerungen ("At the turning points in two eras: life recollections"), 2 vols. Vienna: Braumüller 1946
^William M. Johnston,Karl Renner: The Austro-Marxist as Conciliator. In:The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History, 1848–1938 Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983ISBN0-520-04955-1p. 108
^Ernst Panzenböck,Ein Deutscher Traum: die Anschlussidee und Anschlusspolitik bei Karl Renner und Otto Bauer. Materialien zur Arbeiterbewegung, PhD thesis, Vienna: Europaverlag, 1985 p. 93
^Maximilian Gottschlich "Die große Abneigung. Wie antisemitisch ist Österreich? Kritische Befunde zu einer sozialen Krankheit" Vienna 2012.
^Siegfried Nasko, Johannes Reichl "Karl Renner. Zwischen Anschluß und Europa" (2000), p 273.
^William M. Johnston,The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History 1848–1938. Berkeley: University of California Press 1972, pp. 107–108.
^Bill Bowring, "Burial and Resurrection: Karl Renner's controversial influence on the nationality question in Russia". In: Ephraim Nimni (ed.),National-Cultural Autonomy and its Contemporary Critics, London: Routledge 2005, pp. 162–176
Heinz Fischer, Hugo Pepper (ed.),Karl Renner. Porträt einer Evolution. Lauchringen: Baulino 1984.ISBN978-3-203-50166-6
William M. Johnston, "Karl Renner: The Austro-Marxist as Conciliator". InThe Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History, 1848–1938. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.ISBN0-520-04955-1pp. 105–109
Ephraim Nimni (ed.), National Cultural Autonomy and its Contemporary Critics. Routledge Innovations in Political Theory, (16 essays) London: Routledge, 2005.ISBN0-415-24964-3
Stephane Pierre-Caps, "Karl Renner et l'Etat Multinationale: Contribution Juridique á la Solution d'Imbroglios Politiques Contemporains",Droit et Societé 27 (1994), 421–441.
Ernst Panzenböck,Ein Deutscher Traum: Die Anschlussidee und Anschlusspolitik bei Karl Renner und Otto Bauer.Materialien zur Arbeiterbewegung, PhD thesis, Vienna: Europaverlag, 1985ISBN3-203-50897-4
Pat Shannon:Review ofThe Institutions of Private Law and their Social Function In: Journal of Sociology Vol. 13, No. 3 (1977)p. 264 PDF
.jpg)
.jpg)
