Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings Schuschnigg, Volume 8

The complete annotated edition of the Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings Schuschnigg will provide fundamental source material concerning the last years of the First Republic. Members of the Government dealt - often in great openness - with problems of foreign, domestic and economic policy. In a hitherto unavailable measure both opposition and consensus in discussions among the Members of the Government concerning particular problems can be pursued on the basis of the Minutes. The transcription of these sources (written in Gabelsberger shorthand notes) quite often provides additional information not available in the fair copy. In the framework of the research project it is intended to prepare the 8th and last volume of the complete edition for publication: Volume 8 - Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings Schuschnigg III (3 November 1936 to 16 February 1938) - No. 1056 of 4 June 1937 to No. 1067 of 4 February 1938; Schuschnigg IV (16 February 1938 to 11 March 1938) - No. 1068 of 16 February 1938 and No. 1069 of 21 February 1938; No. 1070 of 12 March 1938 and No. 1071 of 13 March 1938 The edition of the Minutes of the Schuschnigg Cabinet (Ministerratsprotokolle der Regierung Schuschnigg) will not only present new knowledge and insights about the difficult final stage of the First Republic but it will also open up further aspects of research work. Also the edition of these sources will constitute a fund for scholarly research and provide researchers with references to available archive material and point them to missing/unavailable sources. This will save time not only for the staff of the archives, but also for users/researchers who otherwise would conduct extensive individual searches. Providing information on all the historical participants of the source materials in question is an extensive biographical index which constitutes an important addition to the research of social elites in Austria, a matter very often neglected. Last but not least, the planned research project will present an essential, long overdue basis for international comparison of the political, social and economic position in Europe before the Second World War and of the way to deal with the National Socialism.

The Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings have to be regarded as central source materials for Austrian politics. The eighth and last volume of the Minutes of the Meetings of the Schuschnigg Cabinet encompasses meeting No. 1056 of June 4, 1937 to No. 1071 of March 13, 1938. The complete edition does provide fundamental source material concerning the last year of the Austrian First Republic. In terms of content, the discussions between the members of government contained therein pertain to a broad spectrum. Conflicts of interest or accordance between the cabinet members as well as the state of discussions pertaining to specific problems can be followed and traced through the minutes. As a result of the "Juli-Abkommen" of 1936 and the subsequent presence of nationalistically inclined ministers, the discussions tend to demonstrate an element of reluctance by the elites of the Austrian Corporate State (Ständestaat), and it becomes clear that discussions and decision-making on various important subjects also tended to take place elsewhere. Therefore, during the editing process, special care and emphasis was put on the question of how and where the exchange of information took place within the government body, where important decisions were made and where important deliberations took place. Especially notable in this context is the frequent convening of committees of ministers on various subjects (for example the "Ordnungsschutzgesetz", "Vereinsgesetznovelle", "Preisbildung", the corporate vocational make-up (berufständischer Aufbau), "II. Novelle des GSGV"), where only part of the government met for deliberation. Within the archival holding "Bundeskanzleramt/Berufständischer Aufbau" of the Austrian State Archives/Archive of the Republic, some minutes of meetings by the committee of ministers could be located. The minutes of those committees tend to clarify and further illustrate the decision-making processes. The frequently long intervals between cabinet meetings tended to cause quite extensive orders of business containing many items. Important subjects were the "Ordnungsschutzgesetz", the "Handelskammerngesetz" and the deliberations on the "Bundesfinanzgesetz 1938". Special mention must be given to the extensive archival holding of the minutes of the "Finanz- und Budgetausschuss" of the "Bundestag" from the years 1935 to 1937 in the Archive of the Austrian Parliament, which have been located in the course of research and have so far not been taken into consideration by the scientific community. The "Finanz- and Budgetausschuss" was a forum where the collision of party political trends, federalist interests, union demands and entrepreneurial interests in the struggle over distribution of financial resources are much more clearly visible than in the cabinet meetings. Additionally, it shows criticism of government policy to a heretofore unknown extent. The scientific commentary and explanatory notes required more intensive research than previous volumes in order to properly demonstrate the government`s difficult position between national opposition and lack of basis within the former Christian Socialist elites. A multitude of different archival holdings had to be consulted and searched. Occasionally, documents of special historical relevance were selected as additions to the Edition of the Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings. Overall, the edition of the last minutes of the cabinet meetings of the First Republic is able to demonstrate how Chancellor Schuschniggs room for maneuvering grew smaller and smaller. The publication of the minutes from this period will constitute an important contribution to the discussion pertaining to the question if the relevant period can be denoted as a "Kanzlerdiktatur" or as a "Regierungsdiktatur". The actions of the government, oscillating between the active and the reactive, are made clear.