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Religious Associations and the Formation of Political Catholicism in Vienna, 1848 to the 1870s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

William D. Bowman
William D. Bowman
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History at Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA 17325.
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Extract

One of the ironies of the Revolution of 1848 in Austria is that one of the most attacked institutions, the Roman Catholic Church, was able to draw the most benefit from the revolutionary upheaval. By the time Cardinal-Archbishop Eduard Milde returned to his palace in the Wollzeile from his safe mountain retreat, the dreaded Katzenmusik (mock serenading) had died down and it was clear that real social reform, not to speak of social revolution, was dead as well. Along the way, however, Catholic agitators, including Catholic priests, had learned how to use the revolution to further their own purposes.

Type
Articles
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 27 , January 1996 , pp. 65 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1996

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References

1 I have here in mind primarily conditions in Vienna. It is clear that removing the final constraints of serfdom in the countryside did constitute a type of social revolution, albeit one that did not always benefit rural people. On the revolution in Vienna in general, see Rath, R. John, The Viennese Revolution of 1848 (Austin, Texas, 1957)Google Scholar. On the social and economic aspects of the Revolution of 1848, see Rudolph, Richard, “Economic Revolution in Austria? The Meaning of 1848 in Austrian Economic History,” in Economic Development in the Habsburg Monarchy in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Komlos, John (New York, 1983), 165–82Google Scholar.

2 Brunner is one of the famous figures in nineteenth-century Austrian Catholicism. Much has been written on his career. See, for example, Ritzen, Johannes, Der junge Sebastian Brunner in seinem Verhältnis zu Jean Paul, Anton Günther und Fürst Metternich (no place, 1929)Google Scholar ; and Treimer, J., “Sebastian Brunner als Historiker” (D.Phil, diss., University of Vienna, 1949)Google Scholar. Veith was a Jewish convert to Catholicism and a famous preacher; see Loewe, Johann Heinrich, Johann Emmanuel Veith. Eine Biographie (Vienna, 1879)Google Scholar; and Winter, Eduard, Domprediger Johann Emmanuel Veith und Kardinal Friedrich Schwarzenberg. Der Günther-Prozeβ in unveröffentlichen Briefen und Akten (Vienna, 1972)Google Scholar.

3 Loidl, Franz, Geschichte des Erzbistums Wien (Vienna, 1983), 228–30Google Scholar.

4 On the origins of the Katholikenverein, see Sauer, Walter, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien. Zur Geschichte des christlichsozial-konservativen Lagers vor 1914 (Salzburg, 1980), 26–28Google Scholar; and Krisianowsky, Hildegard, “Die Anfänge des katholischen Vereinswesens nach 1848 in Wien” (D.Phil, diss., University of Vienna, 1937), 22–40Google Scholar.

5 Catholic clubs were established in Reindorf, Wieden, Landstraβe, Leopoldstadt, Schottenfeld, Gumpendorf, Pillichsdorf, Würnitz, Unterolberndorf, Schöngrabern, Josephstadt, and Kremsmünster. By the end of September, Catholic clubs were founded in Neubau, Alservorstadt, Breitenfeld, Strozzigrund, Lichtental, Bockflieβ, Sankt Pölten, and Linz. See Gedenkblätter zur Jubelfeier des fünfundzwanzigjährigen Bestehens des Severinus-Vereines in Wien (Vienna, 1873), 15–18Google Scholar; and Krisianowsky, “Die Anfänge des katholischen Vereinswesens,” 22–25, 28.

6 Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 79.

7 Sauer goes so far as to state that the newly named club became so ineffectual that by the 1870s politically active Catholics used the term “Severinus brother” as a swearword (Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 79). Hildegard Krisianowsky, on the other hand, gives a far more benign and naive account of the conversion of the Katholikenverein into the Severinus Verein (Krisianowsky, “Die Anfänge des katholischen Vereinswesens,” 37–38).

8 Severinus founded several monasteries, of which the chief one was on the Danube near present-day Vienna. His precise origins are unknown, but he had apparently been a monk in Egypt for several years before coming to Austria (Noricum) as a missionary to peoples on the fringes of the decaying Roman Empire. See Attwater, Donald, A Dictionary of Saints (New York, 1958), 241Google Scholar; and Bentley, James, A Calendar of Saints: The Lives of the Principal Saints of the Christian Year (New York, 1986), 12Google Scholar.

9 For an overview of social and economic conditions in nineteenth-century Austria, see Bruckmüller, Ernst, Sozialgeschichte Österreichs (Vienna, 1985), 363–97Google Scholar; for a brief discussion of social conditions and the Catholic church in the pre-1848 period, see Hosp, Eduard, Kirche Österreichs im Vormärz 1815–50 (Vienna, 1971), 343–48Google Scholar.

10 See Weinzierl, Erika, “Österreichs Clerus und die Arbeiterschaft,” Wort und Wahrheit 10 (1957)Google Scholar.

11 On the continuing conflict between Catholic clericals and liberals in Austria, see Boyer, John W., Political Radicalism in Late Imperial Vienna: Origins of the Christian Social Movement, 1848–1897 (Chicago, 1981), 122–83Google Scholar.

12 On liberalism and its various activities in the 1860s and 1870s, see Judson, Pieter M., “German Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Austria: Clubs, Parties, and the Rise of Bourgeois Politics” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1987), 105–292Google Scholar. See also Vocelka, Karl, Verfassung oder Konkordat? Der publizistische und politische Kampf der österreichischen Liberalen urn die Religionsgesetze des Jahres 1868 (Vienna, 1978)Google Scholar; and Kammerhofer, Leopold, ed., Studien zum Deutschliberalismus in Zisleithanien 1873–79 (Vienna, 1992)Google Scholar.

13 On the working class in Austria, see Steiner, Herbert, Die Arbeiterbewegung Österreichs 1867–1889. Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte von der Gründung des Wiener Arbeiterbildungsvereines bis zum Einigungsparteitag in Hainfeld (Vienna, 1964)Google Scholar. On the history of Social Democracy in Austria, see Brügel, Ludwig, Geschichte der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie, 5 vols. (Vienna, 1922–1924)Google Scholar.

14 Between 1851 and 1874, at least seventy-nine separate associations were established in Vienna. Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 206–31.

15 For the background to this development, see Stipperger, Roswitha, “Die Bruderschaften in der Pfarre Haus im Ennstal. Religiöses Gemeinschaftsleben in der Barockzeit und seine Einflüsse auf kirchliche Vereine des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts” (D.Phil, diss., University of Graz, 1980)Google Scholar. On the confraternities in general, see Weiβ, Karl, Geschichte der öffentlichen Anstalten (Vienna, 1867), 73–83Google Scholar. See also Pammer, Michael, Glaubensabfall und Wahre Andacht. Barockreligiosität, Reformkatholizismus und Laizismus in Oberösterreich 1700–1820 (Munich, 1994), 197–205Google Scholar.

16 The attack on the religious brotherhoods had actually begun as early as the 1770s. In 1771, the government of Maria Theresa had forbidden the establishment of new confraternities and ordered an accounting of the existing confraternities' funds. Five years later all of the social activities of the confraternities were outlawed. In 1783, all existing confraternities were suspended and replaced by a single state-sponsored organization, the so-called Brotherhood of Active Neighborly Love (Bruderschaft der thätigen Liebe des Nächsten). See Valjavec, Fritz, Der Josephinismus. Zur geistigen Entwicklung Österreichs im achzehnten und neunzehnten Jahrhundert, 2nd ed. (Munich, 1945), 57–58Google Scholar; and Winter, Eduard, Der Josephinismus und seine Geschichte. Beiträge zur Geistesgeschichte Österreichs 1740–1848 (Brno, 1943), 241Google Scholar.

17 The activities of the Bruderschaften in the pre-Josephinist period (pre-1780), such as sponsoring processions or special masses on their patrons' feast days, generally produced a small payment for the priests, who participated in these religious practices. Under the Josephinist system, illegal brotherhoods were not always vigorously pursued by priests, who perhaps still received financial compensation for allowing the Bruderschaften to exist. See Bowman, William David, “Priests, Parish, and Religious Practice: A Social History of Catholicism in the Archdiocese of Vienna, 1800–1870” (Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1989), 310Google Scholar.

18 On the Saint John of Nepornuk confraternity's activities, see Bowman, “Priests, Parish, and Religious Practice,” 306–12.

19 Wien, Diözesanarchiv, Bischofsakten, V Hohenwart I, May 29, 1806Google Scholar.

20 The Bruderschaften also had a definite social welfare component. The members generally supported each other through special collections and pensions and did not have charitable goals beyond their own group or parish, however. For an example from Vienna, see Bowman, “Priests, Parish, and Religious Practice in Vienna, 1800–1870,” 307. For an account of legacies left by Bruderschaften in Upper Austria, see Pammer, Glaubensabfall und Wahre Andacht, 200–205. On the social welfare associations in the post-1848 period, see Krisianowsky, “Die Anfänge des katholischen Vereinswesens,” 41–54.

21 The first Katholischer Jungfrauen-Verein in Vienna was established in the Wieden district in 1855. In the same year a branch was founded in Neubau. By 1863, at least two other branches existed in Vienna: one in Schottenfeld and one in Rossau. Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 210.

22 Groups such as the Bruderschaft der allerheiligsten Dreifaltigkeit (1864) and the Erzbruderschaft zur beständigen Anbetung des allerheiligsten Sakramentes des Altares und zur Ausstattung armer Kirchen (1858) were established. The latter association was originally founded as a Verein and only later changed its name. It also established branches in every province of the Habsburg monarchy. The former's original mission was to help promote pilgrimages to Karnabrunn. See Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 214–19.

23 Ibid., 32–33. On the Concordat, see Weinzierl, Erika, Die österreichischen Konkordate von 1855 und 1933 (Vienna, 1960)Google Scholar.

24 A further example of a social welfare Catholic club was the Witwen- und Waisen-Fond Verein of 1863. Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 219.

25 Examples of social welfare associations for women in post-1848 Vienna include the Katholischen Frauenwohltätigkeitsvereine in Reindorf, Altlerchenfeld, Laimgrube, and Wieden. See Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 28, 33, 115, 154–55, 207, 222, 248–50.

26 See, for example, Prelinger, Catherine M., Charity, Challenge, and Change: Religious Dimensions of the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Women's Movement in Germany (New York, 1987)Google Scholar; and Prochaska, F. K., Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England (Oxford, 1980)Google Scholar. For an early modern example of the charitable activities of women, see Rapley, Elizabeth, The Dévotes: Women and Church in Seventeenth-Century France (Kingston, Ontario, 1990)Google Scholar. For women's attempts to trans-late charitable activity into a public and political role, see Koven, Seth and Michel, Sonya, “Womanly Duties: Maternalist Policies and the Origins of the Welfare State in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, 1880–1920,” American Historical Review 95, no. 4 (10 1990): 1076–1108CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Celerin, Alfred, “Die österreichischen Katholikentage des 19. Jahrhunderts” (D.Phil, diss., University of Vienna, 1955), 36–38Google Scholar; Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 37–38.

28 Krisianowsky, “Die Anfänge des katholischen Vereinswesens,” 28.

29 Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 37.

30 There is an obvious need for a social history of Catholic associations in nineteenth-century Austria. Walter Sauer's Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien is an excellent work, but his book is largely a history of the organization of Catholic clubs, their associational practices, and their finances. Only secondarily does Sauer analyze the social dimensions of Catholic clubs. A study of Catholic clubs that examined in detail members' social, educational, and economic back-grounds, along with their membership in other, non-Catholic clubs and their political activities outside of the associations, would be very valuable indeed. Such a study would enable us to know much more about political Catholicism at the grassroots level. In this article, I seek merely to outline the political history of the clubs from 1848 to the 1880s in order to show their importance for the evolution of political Catholicism in Austria.

31 On the 1867 law and liberals' use of it in Austria, see Judson, “German Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Austria,” 293–339.

32 Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 32.

33 On the role of Catholic bishops in Austrian politics, see Faustmann, Fritz, “Die Sozialpolitik der österreichischen Bischofe im Herrenhaus, 1861–1918” (D.Phil, diss., University of Vienna, 1949)Google Scholar.

34 Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 34–35.

35 “Wenn durch die konstitutionelle Verfassung Unheil kam, kann nur durch diese Verfassung geholfen werden.” Quoted in Weinzierl-Fischer, Erika, “Aus den Anfängen der christlichsozialen Bewegung in Österreich. Nach der Korrespondenz des Grafen Anton Pergen,” Mitteilungen des österreichischen Staatsarchivs 14 (1961): 466Google Scholar.

36 Milde has not received the attention in the secondary literature that Rauscher has. Milde was concerned with religious instruction and seems to have shied away from political conflicts almost instinctively; see Engelbrecht, Helmut, Zur Problematik und zu den Aufgaben einer MildeBiographie (Krems, 1977)Google Scholar; and Krebs, L., Vinzenz Eduard Milde in seiner Bedeutung für den Religionsunterricht (no place, 1925)Google Scholar. Rauscher, unlike Milde, was an accomplished politician; see Wolfsgruber, Cölestin, Joseph Othmar Kardinal Rauscher (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1888)Google Scholar; and Ettmayer, Albert, “Die Hirtenbriefe des Wiener Fürst-Erzbischofs Joseph Othmar Kardinal Rauscher. Ein Beitrag zur österreichischen Kirchenpublizistik” (D.Phil, diss., University of Vienna, 1982)Google Scholar.

37 Bowman, “Priests, Parish, and Religious Practice,” 55–57.

38 See Bowman, William D., “The National and Social Origins of Parish Priests in the Archdiocese of Vienna, 1800–1870,” Austrian History Yearbook 24 (1993): 17–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Unfortunately, it is not possible to follow further the membership of the Severinus-Verein; apparently after 1851 the association stopped compiling membership lists. In 1880, however, more than 22 percent of its executive committee (Vorstand) were tradesmen and artisans. See Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 121.

40 Alphabetisches Verzeichniβ sämtlicher Mitglieder des Central-Severinus-Vereines (KatholikenVerein) in Wien, bis zum Schlusse des Jahres 1851 (Vienna, 1852). Compare Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 118.

41 See Sauer, Katholisches Vereinswesen in Wien, 37–45, 117–22.

42 Ibid.

43 Boyer, Political Radicalism, 40–121.

44 The classic work on the Christian Social movement is Boyer's Political Radicalism in Late Imperial Vienna. Boyer continues his masterful treatment of Christian Socialism in a recently published second volume to his earlier work; see Boyer, John W., Culture and Political Crisis in Vienna: Christian Socialism in Power, 1897–1918 (Chicago, 1995)Google Scholar. On Christian Socialism, see also Lewis, Gavin, Kirche und Partei im politischen Katholizismus (Salzburg, 1977)Google Scholar.

45 Boyer, Political Radicalism, 243–44, 289–90, 418–21.

46 We have already seen that both Viennese archbishops, Milde and Rauscher, were opposed to Catholic political associations. On the tension between the Christian Social Party and the episcopate, see Boyer, Political Radicalism, 338–48.

47 Since the 1850s Rauscher had attempted to keep the Catholic associations free from politics. His strategy was to make the clubs purely devotional in character and to keep them under clerical supervision. As I have argued above, Rauscher's attempts, while not without serious consequences for Catholic associational life in Vienna, were not entirely successful. Boyer believes, on the other hand, that Rauscher's attitude, combined with other obstacles, robbed Viennese Catholicism of popular political character until the mid-1880s. See Boyer, Political Radicalism, 138.

48 Ibid., 33–48.

49 Boyer dismisses the Catholic associations from 1852 (the year after the renaming of the Katholikenverein as the Severinus-Verein) to 1887 (the year in which the Christlichsozialer Verein was founded) as “small, nondescript devotional groups which marked Viennese Catholicism” (Boyer, Political Radicalism, 136). Although certainly not as important or powerful as the Christian Social clubs, the Catholic political associations of the late 1860s and 1870s were much more substantial than Boyer's characterization would suggest.