Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings Figl I, Volumes 11 and 12

The complete annotated edition of the Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings Figl I will provide fundamental source material concerning the first years of the Second Republic. Members of the Government dealt - often in great openness - with problems of foreign, domestic and economic policy. Therefore the Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings constitute an important contribution to the research work on the reconstruction and renewal of state and political organs of the Second Republic. 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 volumes 11 and 12 of twelfe volumes of the projected edition for publication: Volume 11 - Minutes of Cabinet Meetings No. 147 of 1 March 1949 to No. 162 of 28 June 1949. Volume 12 - Minutes of Cabinet Meetings No. 163 of 4 July 1949 to No. 179 of 8 November 1949. The edition of the Minutes of the Figl Cabinet (Ministerratsprotokolle der Regierung Figl) will not only present new knowledge and insights about the difficult reconstruction phase of the Second 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 after the Second World War.

In general: the Minutes of the Cabinet MeetingsThe minutes of the cabinet meetings constitute a fundamental source material of Austrian politics. In the past, the editorial work was being carried out in three series: 1) the Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings of the Austrian Monarchy; 2) the Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings of the First Republic; 3) the Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings of the Second Republic. These three series are of prime importance for the cultural identity of Austria and they provide access to a kind of memory of governmental power. This is due to 1) the importance of the source material itself; 2) the systematic scientific critical commentary; and 3) the fact that these sources as a whole provide a highly important basis for historical social and cultural studies.In particular: The Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings Figl I (1945-1949)The immediate post-war years from 1946 onwards were shaped by the coalition of ÖVP and SPÖ (with participation of the KPÖ until December of 1947) under Chancellor Leopold Figl and Vice-Chancellor Adolf Schärf. The members of government had to deal with numerous topics of everyday politics as well as with highly important decisions with long-lasting consequences for Austrian post-war history, for example the monetary reform, the participation in the Marshall-Plan and the preparations for the Austrian State Treaty. Specifically: Volumes 11 and 12 (1th of March 1948 8th of November 1949)Volumes 11 and 12 of the Minutes of the Figl Cabinet encompass the time period of March 1949 to the end of the Cabinet Figl I in November of 1949. A dominating topic during these months was the struggle to finalize the Austrian State Treaty, which can be traced through almost all of the minutes of that time period. At the same time, the government kept trying to manage Austrias economic and financial problems and to solidify its own authority in the face of the occupying powers. Just one of the many problems which demonstrates how limited that authority was, was the lasting uncertainty as to the fate of a high number of Austrian citizens (including high ranking state officials) who had been arrested by elements of the occupying powers (primarily the Soviet Union). At the same time the efforts of the federal government for Austria to be recognized by the international community continued both on a bilateral (trade agreement) and on an international level (accession to international organisations and treaties).