Editing Ignaz Seipel (section)

== Life ==

=== Academician and priest ===
[[File:Ignaz Seipel im Juni 1899 Ch. Scolik sen.png|thumb|left|Ignaz Seipel in 1899|166x166px]][[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-08406, Ignaz Seipel.jpg|thumb|left|Seipel preaching at [[Bingen am Rhein|Bingen]], 1929|207x207px]] The son of a Viennese carriage driver, Seipel graduated from an academic high school ({{Lang|de|Staatsgymnasium}}) in [[Vienna]] in 1895, then studied Catholic theology at the [[University of Vienna]]. He was ordained a priest on 23 July 1899 and received his doctorate in theology in 1903. Seipel was a member or honorary member of numerous Catholic student fraternities.

In his 1907 work reflecting [[Catholic social teaching]], ''Ethical Teachings on Economics of the Church Fathers,'' he was the first to use the phrase "economic ethics". In 1908 he joined the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna. From 1909 to 1917 he was professor of moral theology at the [[University of Salzburg]]. There he published his study ''Nation and State'' (1916), which helped cement his later prominent role in the Christian Social Party. In the book he viewed the state – the self-governing political entity – as the primary justification of sovereignty, rather than the nation – a group that shares a common culture, as for example speakers of German.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boyer |first=John W. |title=Culture and Political Crisis in Vienna: Christian Socialism in Power, 1897–1918 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1995 |location=Chicago |pages=411}}</ref> In 1917 he was appointed professor at the University of Vienna, succeeding the moral theologian Franz Martin Schindler.

=== Politician ===
On 27 October 1918, during the final days of the [[Austro-hungarian empire|Austro-Hungarian Empire]], [[Emperor Karl I]] appointed Seipel Minister of Public Works and Social Welfare in the ministry of [[Heinrich Lammasch]], the last "imperial and royal" government of the Empire. At the beginning of November 1918, Seipel handed over his official duties to the government of [[Karl Renner]] of the [[Social Democratic Party of Austria]]. It had been appointed on 30 October 1918 by the [[State Council (German-Austria)|State Council of German-Austria]], the executive body of the short-lived [[Republic of German-Austria]]. The Lammasch ministry remained formally in office at the request of the Emperor until his own withdrawal. While still an imperial minister, Seipel was involved in formulating the declaration of abdication that the Emperor signed on 11 November 1918. On the same day the Emperor dismissed the Lammasch ministry.

On 16 February 1919 Seipel was elected on the Christian Social ticket<ref>{{Cite book |last=Funder |first=Friedrich |title=Vom Gestern ins Heute. Aus dem Kaiserreich in die Republik |publisher=Verlag Herold |year=1971 |edition=3 |location=Vienna |pages=468 |language=de |trans-title=From Yesterday to Today. Out of the Empire into the Republic}}</ref> to the [[Constituent National Assembly (Austria)|Constituent National Assembly]], the body that adopted the constitution for the [[First Austrian Republic]], which replaced the Republic of German-Austria. Seipel's parliamentary group elected him to the club presidium, one of its leadership bodies.

Seipel prevented the party from splitting in 1918 over the question of the abolition of the monarchy that was advocated by the Social Democrats and the greater Germans, the name for those who wanted Austria to join the German Reich (the [[Weimar Republic]]). In March 1919 he spoke out against the two parties' annexation euphoria on the grounds that annexation of German Austria to the German Reich was generally rejected by the victorious [[Allies of World War I]] and would endanger the peace treaty.{{Sfn|Funder|1971|pp=471 f}} In 1920 he nevertheless broke the Christian Social Party away from the coalition with the Social Democrats and formed an alliance with the nationalist [[Greater German People's Party]].

Although Seipel supported the Austrian Republic's new parliamentary democracy, he was clearly skeptical of it. During the preliminary deliberations on the [[Constitution of Austria|Federal Constitution]] in 1920 and thereafter in 1922, Seipel advocated a partial weakening of parliament in favor of a federal president endowed with significantly more extensive powers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Rathkolb |first=Oliver |date=July 2013 |title=Straßennamen Wiens seit 1860 als "Politische Erinnerungsorte", Forschungsprojektendbericht |trans-title=Street Names in Vienna since 1860 as "Political Places of Remembrance", Research Project Final Report |url=https://www.wien.gv.at/kultur/abteilung/pdf/strassennamenbericht.pdf |website=Stadt Wien |location=Vienna |pages=185–186}}</ref>

At the same time, Seipel supported the development of militant right-wing groups in Vienna, as seen above all in the fact that beginning in March 1920 he was a board member of the secret Association for Order and Law ({{Lang|de|Vereinigung für Ordnung und Recht}}). The group included monarchist and greater German representatives as well as military figures. It planned the forcible suppression of the Social Democrats and worked closely with the Bavarian right-wing radicals around [[Georg Escherich]].<ref name=":0" />

In September 1920, in a speech that was clearly tinged with anti-Semitism, Seipel called for a [[numerus clausus]] – an enrollment limit – for Jews at higher-level schools, colleges, and universities "according to population".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Huber |first1=Andreas |title=Der Deutsche Klub. Austro-Nazis in der Hofburg |last2=Erker |first2=Linda |last3=Taschwer |first3=Klaus |publisher=Czernin |year=2020 |isbn=978-3-7076-0651-5 |location=Vienna |pages=101 |language=de |trans-title=The German Club. Austro-Nazis in the Hofburg}}</ref>
[[File:Antisemitisches Wahlplakat CSP 1920.jpg|thumb|left|Anti-Semitic CS poster of 1920, depicting a [[Judeo-Bolshevik]] [[Serpent (symbolism)|serpent]] choking the [[Coat of arms of Austria|Austrian eagle]]; Text: "German Christians – Save Austria!"|213x213px]]

==== Chancellor of Austria ====
Seipel served as chairman of the Christian Social Party (CS) from 1921 to 1930. At his party's request, he was Chancellor of Austria in a Christian Social – Greater German coalition from 31 May 1922 to 20 November 1924. During his first term he personally coordinated the distribution of industry funds to right-wing militias. Seipel's primary concern was with their military efficiency; ideological proximity to the CS party was secondary. He focused on the right-wing Front Fighters Union of German Austria under the anti-Semite [[Hermann Hiltl]], which he also helped re-arm with financial resources from the Hungarian [[Horthy regime]].<ref name=":0" />

Seipel reorganized state finances with the aid of a [[Protocol for the reconstruction of Austria|League of Nations loan]] which was obtained when Austria officially renounced annexation to Germany. In order to fight the hyperinflation of the krone currency, the government prepared for the introduction of the [[Austrian schilling|schilling]] on 1 March 1925 and re-founded Austria's central bank, the {{Lang|de|Österreichische Nationalbank}}, with the task of securing monetary stability. 

In the fall of 1924 the Bavarian Immigration Police considered deporting [[Adolf Hitler]] from [[Bavaria]] to Austria if he were released from prison early. Hitler had been serving time at [[Landsberg Prison]] in Bavaria since April 1924 following his failed [[Beer Hall Putsch]] in 1923. Seipel did not want the putschist and troublemaker back in Austria and sent Bavaria a statement saying that Hitler had become a German by serving in its army. Bavaria attested that Austria had recognized the Austrian citizenship of German soldiers in other cases, but Seipel adhered to his legal opinion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ziegler |first=Walter |date=5 November 2006 |title=Versuchte Ausweisung Adolf Hitlers aus Bayern |trans-title=Attempted Expulsion of Adolf Hitler from Bavaria |url=https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Versuchte_Ausweisung_Adolf_Hitlers_aus_Bayern |website=Historisches Lexikon Bayerns |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Plöckinger |first=Othmar |title=Geschichte eines Buches: Adolf Hitlers "Mein Kampf". 1922–1945 |publisher=Oldenbourg |year=2006 |isbn=3-486-57956-8 |location=Munich |pages=59 |language=de |trans-title=History of a Book: Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" 1922–1945}}</ref>

===== Assassination attempt and resignation =====
After fierce criticism from his own party and an assassination attempt on 1 June 1924, he resigned on 8 November 1924 but remained chairman of the Christian Socialist Deputies' Association. The would-be assassin, Karl Jaworek (or Jawurek),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Botz |first=Gerhard |url={{Google books|OLASuzeE4kcC |page=29|plainurl=yes}} |title=1927, als die Republik brannte: von Schattendorf bis Wien |publisher=Edition va Bene |year=2001 |isbn=3-85167-128-7 |editor-last=Leser |editor-first=Norbert |edition= |location=Vienna-Kosterneuburg |pages=29 |language=de |trans-title=1927, When the Republic Burned: from Schattendorf to Vienna |chapter="Der Schattendorfer Zusammenstoss": Territorialkämpfe, Politik und Totschlag im Dorf |trans-chapter="The Schattendorf Clash": Territorial Battles, Politics and Murder in the Village |editor-last2=Sailer-Wlasits |editor-first2=Paul}}</ref> blamed Seipel for his poverty and shot the Chancellor at close range on the platform of a Vienna train station. Jaworek was sentenced to five years of hard labor.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 2014 |title=Attentat auf Kanzler Seipel: "Ich glaube, man hat auf mich geschossen" |trans-title=Attempt on Chancellor Seipel: "I think someone shot at me" |url=https://diepresse.com/home/zeitgeschichte/3814040/Attentat-auf-Seipel_Ich-glaube-man-hat-auf-mich-geschossen |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140604003440/https://diepresse.com/home/zeitgeschichte/3814040/Attentat-auf-Seipel_Ich-glaube-man-hat-auf-mich-geschossen |archive-date=4 June 2014 |access-date=4 June 2014 |website=Die Presse |language=de}}</ref>

[[Theodor Körner (president)|Theodor Körner]], a retired general and successful Social Democratic candidate for parliament in 1924, paid tribute to Seipel during the election campaign. The [[Innsbruck]] newspaper {{Lang|de|Volkszeitung}} quoted him saying that Seipel was "as a character of integrity in every respect, a diligent, selfless worker".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kollman |first=Eric C. |title=Theodor Körner. Militär und Politik |publisher=Verlag für Geschichte und Politik |year=1973 |isbn=3-7028-0054-9 |location=Vienna |pages=134 |language=de |trans-title=Theodor Körner. Military and Politics}}</ref>

===== Reelection and second term =====
From 1926 to 1929, Seipel was again Chancellor, fighting in particular against the Social Democrats. He united the CS with the Greater German People's Party, the ''[[Landbund]]'' (Rural Federation), and the [[Austrian Nazism|National Socialist]] "[[Walter Riehl|Riehl]] and Schulz Group" to form an anti-[[Marxism|Marxist]] front (the "Citizens' Bloc"). After the [[1927 Austrian legislative election|National Assembly election]] of 1927 in which Seipel's bloc won the majority of seats, there was a more rapid growth in the fundamental attitude that opposed Austrian democracy. With the help of Austrian industrialists, Chancellor Seipel strengthened the role of the increasingly anti-democratic [[Heimwehr]] and remained its most influential advocate until his death.<ref name=":0" /> This made him the great enemy of the Social Democrats.

In the Austrian town of [[Schattendorf]] on 30 January 1927, members of a right-wing paramilitary group fired on Social Democratic demonstrators, including members of its paramilitary Republican Protection League (''[[Republikanischer Schutzbund]]''), killing two and wounding five. The acquittal of the men charged in the deaths led to the [[July Revolt of 1927]] in Vienna during which police killed 89 protestors and wounded over 600. Afterwards, Social Democrats called Seipel a "[[prelate]] without clemency", a "prelate without mercy" and a "blood prelate". In his statement before the lower house of parliament, the [[National Council (Austria)|National Council]]''',''' on 26 July 1927, Seipel said, "In these days of misfortune, do not ask anything of the parliament and the government that would seem merciful to the victims and the guilty but would be cruel to the wounded republic."<ref>Stenographisches Protokoll. 7. Sitzung des Nationalrates der Republik Österreich. III. Gesetzgebungsperiode. 26. Juli 1927 [Stenographic Minutes. 7th Session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Austria. 3rd Legislative Period. 26 July 1927]. pp. 133 ff.</ref> Seipel's statement was followed by an intensely heated parliamentary debate. The opposition seized on the phrase "without mercy" and linked it to their criticism of the excessive police action, for which they blamed Police Commissioner and former Austrian chancellor [[Johannes Schober|Johann Schober]].
[[File:Emblem of the Heimatschutz.png|thumb|Emblem of the Heimwehr.]]
In 1928, Seipel, in agreement with [[Karl Buresch]], the governor of [[Lower Austria]], championed the interests of the Heimwehr by approving its march in [[Wiener Neustadt]], as well as one by the Republican Protection League, against the express wish of Wiener Neustadt Mayor Anton Ofenböck. As Chancellor, Seipel was able to show his strength with a massive contingent of police and military. There were no violent incidents on the days of the marches.

Seipel resigned from the office of chancellor on 4 April 1929, although he continued in office until 4 May, when he was succeeded as head of government by [[Ernst Streeruwitz]], also of the Christian Social Party.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 April 1929 |title=Kabinett Seipel zurückgetreten |language=de |trans-title=Seipel Cabinet Resigns |pages=1 |work=Vossische Zeitung |url=https://dfg-viewer.de/show/?set%5Bmets%5D=https://content.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/zefys/SNP27112366-19290404-0-0-0-0.xml}}</ref> In all, five federal governments of the First Republic were under Seipel's leadership.

=== Post-chancellorship and contemporary assessments ===
Seipel was not satisfied with the First Republic's form of government. He was a major driver behind the push to strengthen the role of the federal president that was realized in the 1929 amendment to the federal constitution. Seipel negotiated it with the Social Democrats and "probably thought of himself as the future holder of the office".{{Sfn|Kollman|1973|p=344}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kreisky |first=Bruno |title=Im Strom der Politik. Der Memoiren zweiter Teil |publisher=Siedler-Verlag |year=1988 |isbn=3-218-00472-1 |location=Berlin |pages=354 |language=de |trans-title=In the Stream of politics. The Memoirs, Part Two}}</ref> Under the political slogan of "true democracy", he proposed a cleansing of the system from the "evil of party rule":
{{Quote|text=I myself do not attach too much importance to the mere reform of the electoral law and procedures; I see the root of the evil in the kind of party rule which developed in the times of constitutional monarchy and which has shot up unchecked after the removal of the correction that the monarchy provided. In my view, the one who saves democracy is the one who purifies it from party rule and thereby restores it again.|author=Ignaz Seipel|title="Tübingen Speech", reprinted in Seipel's ''The Struggle for the Austrian Constitution'', 1930}}
In 1930 Seipel was briefly Austrian foreign minister in the cabinet of [[Carl Vaugoin]]. After the [[Creditanstalt#Downfall and merger|bankruptcy of the Creditanstalt Bank]] in 1931, he was to take over the reins of government again but was unsuccessful in forming a coalition.

Decades later, [[Bruno Kreisky]], Social Democratic Federal Chancellor from 1970 to 1983, criticized his own party for the 1931 events. Seipel had offered [[Otto Bauer]], the head of the Social Democrats, a coalition at the height of the world economic crisis. The party executive, however, had not taken him up on it. "In retrospect, it seems to me clearly wrong not to have pushed harder for a compromise in order to be in government at such a critical moment. ... In my opinion, this was the last chance to save Austrian democracy," Kreisky wrote in 1986.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kreisky |first=Bruno |title=Zwischen den Zeiten. Erinnerungen aus fünf Jahrzehnten |publisher=Siedler |year=1986 |isbn=3-88680-148-9 |location=Berlin |pages=195 f |language=de |trans-title=Between the Times. Memories from Five Decades}}</ref>

Seipel had seen in the Jews a class that represented mobile large capital and a "certain kind of merchant mentality" by which the people felt threatened in their economic existence. Austria, Seipel said, was "in danger of being dominated economically, culturally, and politically by the Jews." As a solution to the so-called Jewish question, he proposed recognizing the Jews as a national minority.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hirschbach |first=Frank D. |title=Austrian Writers and the Anschluss. Understanding the Past – Overcoming the Past |publisher=Ariadne Press |year=1991 |editor-last=Daviau |editor-first=Donald G. |location=Riverside,CA |pages=56–69 |language=de |chapter=Der Roman "Die Stadt ohne Juden" – Gedanken zum 12. März 1988 |trans-chapter=The Novel "The City Without Jews" – Thoughts on 12 March 1988}}</ref>

While Seipel's politics were initially characterized by a belief in Austria's self-reliance, he later took the view that without the German Reich Austrian politics were not meaningful.

=== Death ===
Seipel suffered from tuberculosis and also from diabetes as a consequences of the assassination attempt against him.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}} In December 1930 he went to [[Merano]] for a cure, where he received a telegram from [[Pope Pius XI]] wishing him a speedy recovery so that he could "return to his so meritorious activity".<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 December 1930 |title=Ein Telegramm des Papstes am Mons. Dr. Seipel |language=de |trans-title=A Telegram from the Pope to Mons. Dr. Seipel |page=5 |work=Alpenzeitung |url=https://digital.tessmann.it/tessmannDigital/digitisedJournalsArchive/page/journal/26/1/16.12.1930/108776/5}}</ref> He died in 1932 in the Lower Austrian sanatorium Wienerwald.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Olechowski |first=Thomas |url=https://silo.tips/download/ignaz-seipel-vom-kk-minister-zum-berichterstatter-ber-die-republikanische-bundes |title=Staatsgründung und Verfassungsordnung |year=2011 |editor-last=Simon |editor-first=Thomas |location=Vienna |pages=134 |language=de |trans-title=State Foundation and Constitutional Order |chapter=Ignaz Seipel – vom k.k. Minister zum Berichterstatter über die republikanische Bundesverfassung |trans-chapter=Ignaz Seipel – from k.k. Minister to Reporter on the Republican Federal Constitution}}</ref> Otto Bauer dedicated an obituary to him in the [[Arbeiter-Zeitung (Vienna)|''Arbeiter-Zeitung'']] (''Workers' Newspaper''), in which he attested to Seipel's "honest inner conviction":<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kriechbaumer |first=Robert |title=Große Erzählungen der Politik. Politische Kultur und Parteien in Österreich von der Jahrhundertwende bis 1945 |publisher=Böhlau |year=2001 |location=Vienna |pages=190 |language=de |trans-title=Great Narratives of Politics. Political Culture and Parties in Austria from the Turn of the Century to 1945}}</ref>