Minutes of the Cabinet Meetings Schuschnigg, Volume 8

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. 1069 of February 21; No. 1070 of March 12 and No. 1071 of March 13, 1938. The edition does provide fundamental source material concerning the last months 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. Special mention must be made of the transcription of the shorthand notes (written using the "Gabelsberger"-system), frequently yielding additional information not present in the fair copy, which has been unavailable to researchers until now. As a result of the "Juli-Abkommen" of 1936 and the subsequent presence of nationalistically inclined ministers even more so during the last few months before the "Anschluss" , 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, 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. Completion of the edition, encompassing eight volumes, not only makes the source materials available for scientific research, but also provides its users with a large amount of directions and references, pertaining to available as well as irrecoverably lost archival holdings, a fact which in all likelihood will spare the Archives as well as their users a significant amount of comprehensive searches. 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", as a "Regierungsdiktatur" or as evident in more recent literature as a "Beamtendiktatur". The actions of the government, oscillating between the active and the reactive, are made clear. A biographical index, containing detailed biographies of all relevant individuals, constitutes an important contribution to the research into political, social and cultural elites, a field which is lacking in Austria. With regards to contents, detailed geographical and subject indices are included.