Editing Karl Renner

{{Short description|Former President and Chancellor of Austria}}
{{Expand German|topic=bio|date=August 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Karl Renner
| image               = Karl Renner 1-E-901 (cropped).jpg
| caption             = Karl Renner in 1931
| office              = [[President of Austria]]
| term_start          = 20 December 1945
| term_end            = 31 December 1950
| chancellor          = [[Leopold Figl]]
| predecessor         = [[Wilhelm Miklas]] (1938)
| successor           = [[Theodor Körner (president)|Theodor Körner]]
| office1             = [[Chancellor of Austria]]
| term_start1         = 27 April 1945
| term_end1           = 20 December 1945
| president1          = 
| 1blankname1         = {{nowrap|Vice-Chancellor}}
| 1namedata1          = Leopold Figl<br />[[Johann Koplenig]]<br />[[Adolf Schärf]]
| predecessor1        = [[Arthur Seyss-Inquart]] (1938)
| successor1          = [[Leopold Figl]]
| 1blankname2         = Vice-Chancellor
| 1namedata2          = [[Jodok Fink]]
| term_start2         = 21 October 1919
| term_end2           = 7 July 1920
| predecessor2        = Himself as Chancellor of [[Republic of German-Austria|German-Austria]]
| successor2          = [[Michael Mayr]]
| office3             = Chancellor of [[Republic of German-Austria|German-Austria]]
| appointer3          = [[State Council (German-Austria)|State Council]]
| term_start3         = 30 October 1918
| term_end3           = 21 October 1919
| 1blankname3         = Vice-Chancellor
| 1namedata3          = [[Jodok Fink]]
| predecessor3        = Office established 
| successor3          = Himself as [[Chancellor of Austria]]
| office4             = [[President of the National Council (Austria)|President of the National Council]]
| term_start4         = 29 April 1931
| term_end4           = 4 March 1933
| predecessor4        = [[Matthias Eldersch]]
| successor4          = Leopold Kunschak (1945)
| office6             = [[Ministry of the Interior (Austria)|Minister of the Interior and Education]]
| term_start6         = 15 March 1919
| term_end6           = 9 May 1919
| predecessor7        = [[Heinrich Mataja]] (Interior)<br />Raphael Pacher (Education)
| successor6          = Matthias Eldersch
| office5             = [[Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start5         = 26 July 1919
| term_end5           = 22 October 1920
| predecessor5        = [[Otto Bauer]]
| successor5          = Michael Mayr
| birth_date          = 14 December 1870
| birth_place         = [[Unter-Tannowitz]], Austria-Hungary<br />(now [[Dolní Dunajovice]], Czech Republic)
| death_date          = 31 December 1950 (aged 80)
| death_place         = [[Vienna]], Austria
| party               = [[Social Democratic Party of Austria|Social Democratic Workers' Party]]
| spouse              = [[Luise Renner]]
| occupation          = [[Jurist]]
}}
'''Karl Renner''' (14 December 1870 – 31 December 1950) was an [[Austria]]n politician and jurist of the [[Social Democratic Party of Austria|Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria]]. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Republics" because he led the first government of the [[Republic of German-Austria]] and the [[First Austrian Republic]] in 1919 and 1920, and was once again decisive in establishing the present Second Republic after the fall of [[Nazi Germany]] in 1945, becoming its first [[President of Austria|President]] after [[World War II]] (and fourth overall).

==Early life==
Renner was born the 18th child of an [[Sudeten Germans|ethnic German]] family of poor wine-growers in [[Dolní Dunajovice|Unter-Tannowitz]] (present-day Dolní Dunajovice in the [[Czech Republic]]), then part of the [[Margraviate of Moravia]], a crown land of the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]]. Because of his intelligence, he was allowed to attend a selective ''[[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]]'' in nearby [[Mikulov|Nikolsburg]] (Mikulov), where one of his teachers was [[Wilhelm Jerusalem]]. From 1890 to 1896 he studied law at the [[University of Vienna]]. In 1895 he was one of the founding members of the [[Friends of Nature]] ({{langx|de|Naturfreunde}}) organisation and created their logo.

==Political career==
In 1896 he joined the [[Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria]] (SDAP), representing the party in the [[National Council (Austria)|National Council]] ({{langx|de|Reichsrat}}) from the 1907 elections until its dissolution in November 1918. During this period he founded and edited the party's journal, ''[[Der Kampf (magazine)|Der Kampf]]'', together with [[Otto Bauer]] and Adolf Braun.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Eric C. Kollman
|title=Book review|journal=Austrian History Yearbook|year=1970|volume=6|pages=423–425 |doi=10.1017/S0067237800010729|s2cid=143791169 }}</ref> Renner's interest in politics also led him to become a librarian for the ''Reichsrat''. 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''' and '''Rudolf Springer''') lest he lose his coveted post as parliamentary librarian.<ref>[[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, 1983 {{ISBN|0-520-04955-1}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=oDOdeRY2MHYC&dq=Karl+Renner&pg=PA105  p. 108]</ref> 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 "[[National personal autonomy|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 of [[Austro-Marxism]].<ref name=eb>{{Cite EB1922|wstitle=Renner, Karl}}</ref>

===First Republic===
In 1918, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was in the forefront of the Provisional and the Constitutional National Assemblies of those [[Cisleithania]]n "Lands Represented in the Reichsrat" (the formal description of the Austrian half of the Dual Monarchy) that predominantly spoke [[German language|German]] and had decided to form a [[nation-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 the [[House of Habsburg-Lorraine|Habsburg]] monarchy and wished to be known as the [[Republic of German-Austria]] ({{langx|de|Republik Deutsch-Österreich}}). This name, however, was prohibited by [[Allies of World War I|The Entente]]. They also vetoed a resolution of the Constituent National Assembly in Vienna that "German-Austria" was to be part of the German [[Weimar 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]]"''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=vQqNAAAAIAAJ&q=Karl+Renner+Staat+und+Nation 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</ref> Like other Austrian socialists, Renner believed that the best course was to seek union with Germany.

[[File:TratadoDeSaintGermainRenner1.png|thumb|left|Renner (centre) leaving the [[Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye|Château de Saint-Germain]], having signed the treaty]]
He was the leader of the delegation that represented this new German-Austria in the negotiations of [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)|St. 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-speaking [[South Tyrol]] and the German-speaking parts of [[Bohemia]] and [[Moravia]] 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",<ref>William M. Johnston, ''Karl Renner'', p.108</ref> wanted to remain an Austrian government officer.

Renner was [[Chancellor of Austria]] of the first three coalition cabinets from 1918 until 1920 and at the same time Minister of Foreign Affairs, backed by a [[grand coalition]] of Social Democrats and [[Christian Social Party (Austria)|Christian 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.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvCfTIsTOskC&q=germany+paid+vacations+miners+1919&pg=PA110 | title=Austria-Hungary & the Successor States: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present| isbn=9780816074693| last1=Roman| first1=Eric| year=2003| publisher=Infobase}}</ref>

From 1931 to 1933, Renner was President of Parliament, the [[National Council of Austria]].<ref name="parlamentat">{{cite web |title=Präsidentinnen und Präsidenten seit 1920 {{!}} Parlament Österreich |url=https://www.parlament.gv.at/WWER/NR/PRAES/ |website=www.parlament.gv.at}}</ref> After the dictatorial [[Ständestaat|Corporate State]] period from 1934, when his party was prohibited, he even welcomed the ''[[Anschluss]]'' in 1938. Having originally been a proponent of new German-Austria becoming a part of the democratic [[Weimar Republic|German Republic]], he expected [[Nazism]] to be but a passing phenomenon not worse than the dictatorship of [[Engelbert Dollfuss|Dollfuss's]] and [[Kurt Schuschnigg|Schuschnigg's]] authoritarian one-party system. During [[World War II]], however, he distanced himself from politics completely.

===Relationship with Nazism and Communism===
On 2 April 1938, Renner appealed to Austrians to vote ''yes'' in the 10 April [[1938 Austrian Anschluss referendum|plebiscite]] that legitimized the Anschluss; many Austrians followed his advice, and as a result, Austrians welcomed the Germans and [[Hitler]] himself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/austria/38.htm|title=Austria - THE ANSCHLUSS AND WORLD WAR II}}</ref> After the Anschluss, Renner offered to serve in the Nazi government during the [[Austria within Nazi Germany|occupation]], 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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/30/opinion/l-austria-welcomed-hitler-and-its-anti-semitism-persists-129701.html|title=Opinion &#124; Austria Welcomed Hitler, and Its Anti-Semitism Persists|newspaper=The New York Times|date=30 March 1985}}</ref>

On 29 March 1945, [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] commander [[Fyodor Tolbukhin]]'s troops crossed the former Austrian border at [[Klostermarienberg]] in [[Burgenland]].<ref name=E190>Eisterer 2009, p. 190.</ref> On 3 April, at the beginning of the [[Vienna offensive]], Renner, then living in southern [[Lower Austria]], established contact with the Soviets. [[Joseph Stalin]] had already established a would-be future Austrian cabinet from the country's [[Communist Party of Austria#First Republic, Second World War, and resistance to Nazism|communists in exile]], but Tolbukhin's telegram changed Stalin's mind in favor of Renner.<ref name=BO>Bordjugov 2005.</ref>

On 20 April 1945, the Soviets, without asking their Western allies,<ref name=S174/> instructed Renner to form a provisional government. Seven days later Renner's cabinet took office, declared the independence of Austria from [[Nazi Germany]] and called for the creation of a democratic state along the lines of the [[First Austrian Republic]].<ref name=S174/> 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.<ref name=E196>Eisterer 2009, p. 196.</ref>

[[File:Мирные будни в послевоенной Вене-5.png|thumb|Soviet troops in the [[Schönbrunn Palace]] gardens, 1945]]
Renner and his ministers were guarded and watched by [[NKVD]] bodyguards.<ref>Petrov 2009, p. 259.</ref> One-third of State Chancellor Renner's cabinet, including the crucial seats of the [[Federal Ministry of the Interior (Austria)|Secretary of State of the Interior]] and the [[Education in Austria|Secretary of State for Education]], was staffed by Austrian Communists.<ref name=S174/> The Western allies suspected the establishment of a [[puppet state]] and did not recognize Renner.<ref name=S174>Bischof, p. 174.</ref> The British were particularly hostile,<ref name=S174/> and even American President [[Harry S. Truman]], who believed that Renner was a trustworthy politician rather than a token front for the Kremlin,<ref name=S175>Bischof, p. 175.</ref> 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.

Historian Harold Green commented: "But for Renner's having gained Soviet support for creating a Social Democratic Austrian Republic - and his establishing it at record speed after the Nazi collapse - Austria might have shared Germany's post-war fate and spent several decades divided into a Communist East Austria and a Democratic West Austria, with Vienna as a divided city like Berlin."<ref>Harold M. Green, "The Swift Creation of Post-War Austria" in Dr. Nathan E. Field (ed.) "1989-2009: A Retrospective Look, Twenty Years After the End of The Cold War"</ref>

===Post–World War II===
{{See|Allied-occupied Austria}}
Renner's government opted to restore the 1920 Constitution, as amended in 1929. However, following [[1945 Austrian legislative election|elections 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr. Karl Renner |trans-title= |last=Panzl-Schmoller |first=Silvia |work=Stadt Salzburg |date= |access-date=1 March 2022 |url= https://www.stadt-salzburg.at/ns-projekt/ns-strassennamen/dr-karl-renner/ |language=de}}</ref> Karl Renner died in 1950 in Vienna and was buried in the Presidential Tomb at the [[Zentralfriedhof]].

==Antisemitism==
[[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."<ref>[https://www.krone.at/1716965  Interview with Marko Feingold 2013]</ref><ref>Maximilian Gottschlich "Die große Abneigung. Wie antisemitisch ist Österreich? Kritische Befunde zu einer sozialen Krankheit" Vienna 2012.</ref><ref>Siegfried Nasko, Johannes Reichl "Karl Renner. Zwischen Anschluß und Europa" (2000), p 273.</ref>

==Political beliefs and scholarly contributions==
[[File:Renner monument.JPG|thumb|Monument to Karl Renner next to the Austrian Parliament on [[Ringstraße]], Vienna, Austria]]
For most of his life, Renner alternated between the political commitment of a [[social democracy|social 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 his {{lang|de|Rechtsinstitute 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 the [[sociology 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.<ref>William M. Johnston, ''The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History 1848–1938''. Berkeley: University of California Press 1972, pp. 107–108.</ref>

His and [[Otto Bauer]]'s ideas about the legal protection of cultural minorities were taken up by the [[Jewish Bund]], but fiercely denounced by [[Vladimir Lenin]]. [[Joseph Stalin]] devoted a whole chapter to criticising [[National personal autonomy|Cultural National Autonomy]] in ''[[Marxism and the National Question]]''.<ref>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</ref>

The 1977–1978 academic year at the [[College of Europe]] was named in his honour.

==Publications==
* Synopticus (pen name), {{lang|de|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.&nbsp;64 – 82 {{ISBN|0-415-24964-3}}
* Rudolf Springer (pen name), {{lang|de|Der Kampf der oesterreichischen Nationen um den Staat}} (1902)
*Joseph Karner (pen name), "{{lang|de|Die Soziale Funktion der Rechtsinstitute}}" (1904) in {{lang|de|Marx-Studien}}, vol. 1.
* {{lang|de|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)
* {{lang|de|Österreichs Erneuerung}} ("Austria's renewal"; 3 vols., 1916/17)
* {{lang|de|Marxismus, Krieg und Internationale}} (1918)
* {{lang|de|Die Wirtschaft als Gesamtprozess und die Sozialisierung}} ("The economy as an integrated process and the path to socialism"; 1924)
* {{lang|de|Staatswirtschaft, Weltwirtschaft und Sozialismus}} ("The national economy, the world economy and socialism"; 1929)
* {{lang|de|Die Rechtsinstitute des Privatrechts und ihre soziale Funktion}} (1929); translated into English by Agnes Schwarzschild as ''The Institutions of Private Law and their Social Function'', with an introduction by Otto Kahn-Freund, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul (1949); reprinted in ''International Library of Sociology'' (1976; 1996)
* {{lang|de|Wege der Verwirklichung}} ("The way to realization", 1929)
* {{lang|de|An der Wende zweier Zeiten. Lebenserinnerungen}} ("At the turning points in two eras: life recollections"), 2 vols.  Vienna: Braumüller 1946

Literary remains (unpublished works; {{langx|de|Nachgelassene Werke}}):
*' {{lang|de|Wandlungen der modernen Gesellschaft}} ("Transformations of modern society," 1947)
* {{lang|de|Hundert Jahre Karl Marx: Erbe und Auftrag}} ("100 years of Karl Marx: Heritage and Agenda"; 1947)
* {{lang|de|Arbeit und Kapital}} (1950) Vol. 3, Vienna: 1953, reprint ''European Sociology''  1975
* {{lang|de|Porträt einer Evolution}} in {{lang|de|Nachgelassene Werke}}, vol. 2, edited by Adolf Schärf, Vienna: {{lang|de|Verlag der Wiener Volksbuchhandlung}}, 1953.

==See also==
{{Portal|Austria}}
* [[Allied-administered Austria]]
* [[National personal autonomy]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Günter Bischof, ''Allied Plans and Policies for the Occupation of Austria, 1938–1955'', in: [[Rolf Steininger|Steininger, Rolf]] et al. (2009). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IylrS1jQWyAC Austria in the Twentieth Century]''. [[Transaction Publishers]]. {{ISBN|1-4128-0854-5}}. pp.&nbsp;162–189.
* Heinz Fischer, Hugo Pepper (ed.), ''Karl Renner.  Porträt einer Evolution'' Lauchringen: Baulino 1984 {{ISBN|978-3-203-50166-6}}
* 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, 1983 {{ISBN|0-520-04955-1}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=oDOdeRY2MHYC&dq=Karl+Renner&pg=PA105 pp. 105–109]
* Ephraim Nimni (ed.),   '' National cultural autonomy and its contemporary critics. Routledge Innovations in Political Theory'',(16 essays) London: Routledge, 2005  {{ISBN|0-415-24964-3}}
* 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. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vQqNAAAAIAAJ&q=Karl+Renner+Staat+und+Nation Materialien zur Arbeiterbewegung]'', PhD thesis,  Vienna: Europaverlag, 1985 {{ISBN|3-203-50897-4}}
*Pat Shannon: ''Review'' of ''The Institutions of Private Law and their Social Function'' In: Journal of Sociology  Vol. 13, No. 3 (1977) [https://archive.today/20130201165617/http://jos.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/13/3/264-a p. 264 PDF]
* [[Jamie Bulloch]], ''Karl Renner: Austria'' London: Haus Publishing, 2009 {{ISBN|978-1-905791-89-7}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Karl Renner}}

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{{s-bef|before=[[Heinrich Lammasch]]|as=[[List of Ministers-President of Austria|Minister-President of Austria]]}}
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{{s-vac|last=[[Arthur Seyß-Inquart]]|reason=[[Anschluss|Annexation by Germany]]}}
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{{s-vac|last=[[Wilhelm Miklas]]|reason=[[Anschluss|Annexation by Germany]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President of Austria|State President of Austria]]|years=1945{{spaced ndash}}1950}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Theodor Körner (Austrian president)|Theodor Körner]]}}
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{{Foreign Ministers of Austria}}
{{Presidents of Austria|State Presidents of Austria}}
{{AustrianChancellors}}
{{jurisprudence}}
{{Authority control}}

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