KARL LUEGER AS LIBERAL: DEMOCRACY, MUNICIPAL REFORM, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER IN THE VIENNA CITY COUNCIL 1875-1882.
Item
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Title
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KARL LUEGER AS LIBERAL: DEMOCRACY, MUNICIPAL REFORM, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER IN THE VIENNA CITY COUNCIL 1875-1882.
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Identifier
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AAI8222934
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identifier
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8222934
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Creator
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BROWN, KARIN BRINKMANN.
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Contributor
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Andrew G. Whiteside | Paula Sutter Fichtner
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Date
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1982
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, Modern
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Abstract
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There is still no scholarly biography of Karl Lueger (1844-1910), founder of Austria's Christian Social Party and mayor of Vienna from 1897 to 1910. This important and controversial man rose to power in the late 1880's as a populist "Volksmann" spewing anti-Semitic slogans and promising to deliver the Viennese Kleinburgertum from capitalist exploitation and a Liberal municipal regime in power since 186l.;While historians have focussed on the anti-Semitic demogogue and mayor responsible for a broad program of municipalized public services, Lueger's early career as a young liberal City Councilman burning to serve the public interest and lead a progressive party to power in the Vienna Rathaus, has been all but ignored. This dissertation challenges the assumption that the first seven years of Lueger's public life are not worth studying; they were, in fact, critical to his development and yield valuable insights on the character and fate of this complex individual.;The first three chapters treat economic, constitutional, and political developments in Vienna from 1848 to 1875, when Lueger was first elected to the City Council. They introduce the political groupings and municipal problems that occupied Lueger over the following decades, and two personalities who greatly influenced the early stage of his career: Mayor Cajetan Felder, who personified the political power and purposes of the Viennese Grossburgertum; and Ignatz Mandl, Lueger's friend and mentor who taught him the art of electoral agitation and devised the reform program challenging the Felder regime on rounds of inefficiency and corruption in city Government, that won political allies for the two dissidents in the Council and parts of the press and public. The Vienna Democrats are presented and analysed in some detail to clarify Lueger's generally misunderstood relationship to the left liberals in the City Council.;The four succeeding chapters follow Lueger's rise to leadership of a powerful left coalition committed to administrative reforms and the extension of democracy. Lueger's rapid rise as party leader and effective contender for the public interest against certain private corporations, such as the gas and tramway companies, called up powerful enemies who brought about the downfall of his party and the end of Lueger's efforts to reform the liberal establishment from within.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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History
