Austrian Ideas for a United Europe

Austrian Ideas for a United Europe (1789-2004) Presented by: Prof. Dr. Ziegerhofer Date: 14 January 2022 (Habsburg) Plans for Europe before WWI - Foreign Minister and State Chancellor Klemens Wenzel Lothar Prince of Metternich (1773-1859): • Plan to reorganize the Habsburg Monarchy into parts with equal rights and proposed the following division: - Bohemia-Moravia-Galicia, Inner Austria, Illyria, Lombardo-Venetia, Hungary and Transylvania. - These areas were intended to exist autonomously and independently in relation to the emperor united by a strong central administrative body. - The Viennese lawyer and minister Franz Sommaruga (1780-1860) proposed a "Seventy-Million-Empire". - Accordingly, the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) and the Habsburg Monarchy would form a confederation, with the Habsburg Monarchy federally structured into the following states: • States of the Deutscher Bund, Austria (Inner Austria with Bohemia), Galicia, Lombardo-Venetia, Hungary with the Slovaks, Illyria (Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia, military border). - Following US-American and Swiss models, the "Austrian" parliament, would be organized as a two-chamber system. - External affairs, defense, financial, trade and infrastructural policies would be national ministries. The educational system, civil and criminal law as well as administrative organizations would be uniform within the Habsburg Monarchy, further competences would be in the hands of the respective country groups. - Austrian Minister of Commerce Karl Ludwig von Bruck (1798-1860): • Plan of the "Central European Costumes Unification" between Austria and the Costumes Union to align their customs, monetary and tax systems - Result: A "Trade and Customs Treaty" signed in 1865, the later so called „Königgrätz of trade policy". - Aurel Popovici (1863-1917): • The federal state "United States of Greater Austria" ruled by Emperor Francis Joseph I was envisaged to comprise 15 mostly autonomous "national states". - Article 1: German Austria, German Bohemia, German Moravia, Western Galicia, Eastern Galicia, Transylvania, Croatia, Carniola, Slovakia, Vojvodina, Hungary, Szekler land, Trento and Trieste, with the exception of Bosnia and the Herzegovina. - Article 3: All citizens of the 15 autonomous „national states" are citizens of Austria. - Article 4: The United States of Greater Austria will form a common customs area. - Article 20: The emperor would exert the imperial power, each „national state" would have its own parliament, government and court. - Article 23: Each „national state" has its own constitution, confirmed by the Austrian Emperor. - Article 25: Each „national state" has its own language. The common international language is German. - Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914) - Capper-Moneta-Suttner Proposal 1892: • Contains the foundation of the "European Union" which should be formed on the basis of legal regulations and the sovereignty of individual states. - "United States of Europe" must be the catch phrase of modern pacifism. Capper-Moneta-Suttner Proposal - Considering that the damage caused by armed peace as well as the danger looming all across Europe are due to a lack of legal basis among the various European states; - Considering that a European state union, which would also be desirable regarding the trade relations between all those countries, would remedy this state of lawlessness and create a lasting legal framework for Europe; - Considering, lastly, that such a state union would not in the least limit the independence of the various nations regarding their internal affairs and, thus, their forms of governance; - The congress invites all European peace societies and their supporters to make the foundation of such a state union the highest aim of their propaganda, on the basis of solidarity towards their interests. It further invites all societies in the world to explicitly point out the necessity of a lasting Congress of Nations during times of political elections, to which every question of international concern would be subjected to so that every conflict could be solved through legal regulations instead of violence. (Hedinger, 2000, pp. 64-65) Interwar Period – Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi 1894-1972 - Birth: 17 November 1894, Tokyo - 1915 Doctor of Philosophy - 1922 Foundation of the "Pan-European Movement" - 1923 Vienna "Hofburg" Headquarter of Pan-Europe-Union - 1923 Bestseller "Pan-Europe" - 1926 Pan-European Union became a society - Dead: 27 Juli 1972, Schruns/Vorarlberg Interwar Period – Pan-Europe Consists of Stages - Installation of a Pan-European conference with a Pan-European office - Conclusion of arbitration and guarantee-agreements between member states - Establishment of a Pan-European customs union - Formation of the „United States of Europe" = The Federal States of Pan-Europe with a constitution Interwar Period – Pan-Europe is a Necessity - It is because: • of the danger of an European war between Germany and France. • of the danger of Bolshevism. • of the danger of a terrible economic collapse. Interwar Period – Pan-Europe 1922-1938 - 1922-1933: Plan of a political unification of Europe • (Pan-European congresses in Vienna, Berlin and Basel, Pan-European-journal, Pan-European logo...) - 1933-1936: Plan of a economic unification of Europe (Pan-European economic and agrarian congresses (Elémer Hantos) - 1936-1938: Plan a cultural unification of Europe Interwar Period – Kulturbund - 1922 Kulturbund, founded by Karl Anton Rohan (1898-1975) - Goal of this association was to promote the union of Europe with Great Britain and Russia on a cultural level. - Until 1934, Rohan organized yearly congresses all across Europe (Madrid, Krakow, Paris, Barcelona, Heidelberg etc.). Thomas Mann, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Paul Válery or Max Beckmann visited the congresses and many European intellectuals published in Rohan's "Europäische Revue" 1934 the last congress of the Kulturbund was held in Budapest. After WW II till 2004 - 1946 Zurich Speech of Winston Churchill - 1946 Foundation of European Parliamentary Union by Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi - 1954 Renewing Pan-Europe-Union in Baden-Baden - Erhard Busek rekindled the Central Europe-Discourse: - In the 1970s and 1980s Busek travelled to Central and Eastern Europe and launched activities in the field of education and culture - he represented an anti-Naumann, a Central Europe with Vienna, Prague, and Budapest - without Berlin (Michael Gehler) - 1989, vice chancellor Erhard Busek had co-initiated the Central European Initiative in Budapest. - 27th June 1989 Alois Mock and Guya Horn cut apart a piece of the "Iron Curtain" between Austria and Hungary. - On 19th August 1989, under the patronage of Otto Habsburg and the Hungarian minister Imre Pozsgay Pan- European Picnic was organized by the Pan-European Movement. - Since 1995, Austria has been a member of the EU and welcomed its enlargements since 2004. Conclusion - Until the end of WWI ideas of Europe originating from Austria either are federalist conceptions of „Central Europe", which represent a „Europe en Miniature" or plans to reshape the Habsburg Monarchy. Only the first female nobel prize winner, Bertha von Suttner, composed a proposal of an „European Confederation". - After WWI metropolitan Vienna became a starting point and laboratory for implementing the European vision: Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi, founder of Pan-Europe, was the first visionary of Europe trying to turn this idea into reality und thus became immortal. - Being member of the European Union since 1995 visions for Europe originating from Austria became rare.