Habsburg Law - First Republic

First Republic

On 11 November 1918, Emperor Charles I, counseled by ministers of his last Imperial Royal government as well as by ministers of German Austria, issued a proclamation relinquishing his right to take part in Austrian affairs of state. On the following day, the Provisional National Assembly (Provisorische Nationalversammlung) of German Austria, which claimed authority over the German-speaking portions of the western half of the Habsburg realm (mostly the Danubian and Alpine provinces) proclaimed Deutschösterreich a republic (and a part of the new German republic).

In the night after his Verzichtserklärung Charles I and his family left stately Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna and moved to Eckartsau Castle east of the city, then belonging to the Habsburg Family Funds. There he was visited by a Hungarian delegation and on November 13 signed a similar proclamation for the Kingdom of Hungary. However, Charles did not formally abdicate, intending to retain his freedom of action in case the Austrian people recalled him. The new republican government, uncomfortable with this situation, gave Charles three options: (1) abdicate formally and remain in Austria as a private citizen, (2) leave the country or (3) be interned.

With the help of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt, a British officer sent by George V of the United Kingdom, who was shocked by the fate of his Russian relatives, Charles and his family on 23 March departed from Eckartsau for Switzerland in the former Imperial train, Charles wearing an I & R field marshal's uniform. Before crossing the border on the morning of 24 March 1919, and changing into civilian's clothes, he revoked his waiver in the Feldkircher Manifest. Thence on 3 April, the German-Austrian parliament, on the initiative of Chancellor Karl Renner, passed the Habsburg Law.

The law stripped the Habsburgs of their sovereign rights and banished all Habsburgs from Austrian territory. Charles was barred from ever returning to Austria again. Other Habsburgs were only allowed to return if they renounced all dynastic claims and accepted status as private citizens. Those assets of the state that had been under the administration of the imperial court, the so called Hofärar, were placed under the government's management. The private funds and family funds of the House of Habsburg, common family property administered by the respective head of the house, were expropriated and transferred to the state property. Personal private property was preserved.

Also on 3 April, the nobility was abolished in German Austria, with the Law on the Abolition of Nobility.

The family demanded that various endowments and funds be placed at their disposal as personal private property; in response to this, and to clear up ambiguities related to this, the Habsburg Law was amended on 30 October 1919, retroactively from 3 April, expressly recording which of the claimed funds or endowments in particular were to count as expropriated.

When the Austrian Constitution came into force in 1920, the Habsburg Law was made a constitutional law. However, the provisions of the Habsburg Law concerning expropriation were expressly not brought into force in Burgenland in 1922 (as well as the Law on the Abolition of Nobility) when it became part of Austria. This was intended to turn the Burgenland aristocrats (who included members of the Habsburg family) more pro-Austrian, for pragmatic reasons. The abnormity that a constitutional rule would not apply to the whole republic was only "repaired" in 2008, when a federal constitutional law declared that by 1 January 2008 the Habsburg Law in total is valid wherever in Austria.