Political clientelism at the Permanent Diet (1740-1763)

In contrast to older studies more focused on power politics modern historians of the Holy Roman Empire have emphasized the law- and peacekeeping ability of the Empire. This is specially valid for the smaller Estates who owed their existence mainly to the protection by the Emperor and to the working of the Imperial constitution. They frequently became clients of the Emperor or of one of the bigger estates like Brandenburg-Prussia. The patron- client relation was especially important at the Permanent Diet, as the antagonism between Austria and Prussia shaped the middle of the 18th century. Against this background, the project shall examine how Austria and Prussia tried to use patronage and clientele policy in order to gain allies and to accomplish their policy at the high-profile Permanent Diet. The approach shall be explicitly comparative. Research has shown so far that there was an Austrian and Prussian clientele policy, but the characteristics and functionality of these patron-client relations as well as the factors that influenced the principle of service and service in return are still unexamined. Consequently, the epistemological interest of this project is to explore unsought structural characteristics of the Imperial policy around 1750. These characteristics can be described as building networks ("Verflechtung" in terms of Wolfgang Reinhard). To connect the level of the two predominant powers in the Empire with the level of the smaller estates in a strictly comparative way offers new insights into the relationship between more powerful and smaller members of the Empire in general. The Permanent Diet is especially well suited for these research aims, as the Austrian and Prussian envoys interacted directly with the envoys of their clients. In examining the clientele policy of Vienna and Berlin, the formal and informal structure and the functionality of the Diet during the growing Austro-Prussian antagonism will become clearer. Consequently, "the new image of the Old Empire" (Anton Schindling) will be enhanced by a new important insights.

The Everlasting Imperial Diet (1663-1806), one of the central institutions of the Holy Roman Empire, was an important forum for the Viennese Court in building and maintaining a loyal following. It has been seen in a negative light by historical researchers for a long time. This is due, in the main part, to older historiographys bias towards the idea of a powerful nation state. In recent decades, however, a fundamental re-evaluation has come about among researchers of the Diet. This development is due to a fundamental revision of the image of the Holy Roman Empire in research. Nowadays, the Old Empire is no longer seen as a fossilised political commonwealth which was incapable of action, in particular in foreign relations, as it has been in older historiography. Rather, the focus has been, in recent years, on its powers to maintain lawfulness and peace. A number of points of departure for research have emerged particularly in the last few years, which, in a sense, paint a new picture of an old Diet. This is the framework in which the research project presented should be seen. It will find its completion in a monograph with the title Austria and the Everlasting Diet. Studies on clientele politics and formation of parties (1745-1763). It shows, with a focus on the Austrian, and a comparative use of the politics of the Prussian Diet, in which way these important institutions were a locus of political patronage and one for the formation of Partheyen (parties) in the sense of longer term agreements between a number of Estates of the Empire. In this, it becomes evident that the thought construct that is prevalent in research so far, namely the growing out of Austria from the Holy Roman Empire has to be differentiated. This is because it is possible to show, with the research here presented, that the Empire and Diet politics of the Viennese Court during the joint governance of Emperor Franz I. and Maria Theresia were a factor which should not be underestimated in significance within the structure of Imperial, or Austrian politics. This is shown based on personal relations which, in research, is defined by the terms clientele, patronage, interrelationships and Partheyen. In this process it becomes clear that the Viennese Court had a number of methods at its disposal, and used widely varying means (for example payments of money, presents, the conferral of honours, regiments, orders and titles and so on), to achieve support of their own Imperial politics. It is important for the general context that, in this, it is not only source material of Austrian extraction that has been used, but also archive material that shed light on the perspective of the clientele and the party supporters. On the whole, the monograph makes a contribution to a better understanding of the social structures of the Old Empire, using the example of the Everlasting Imperial Diet.