1918: The Abdication of Emperor Charles

The written renunciation of Charles I. on November 11, 1918 of any participation in state affairs in the newly formed German-Austrian state represented the end point of a development that had begun with the proclamation of the so-called "People’s Manifesto" on October 16 of the same year. Thus, citing the manifesto, and quite notably, several nationally delimited territories of the Austrian part of the Habsburg monarchy declared their independence, an act which increasingly dispossessed the power base of the emperor who had been ruling since 1916. The far-reaching collapse of the Austro-Hungarian army on the Italian front at the beginning of November also destroyed any hope of securing a negotiated peace or even just of maintaining the old state order.

As a result, Charles was presented with a declaration on November 11 by the last Prime Minister of the Austrian half of the Empire, Heinrich Lammasch, without any mention of the word abdication in the document. Although Charles signed the declaration according to which he renounced any participation in state affairs, he then retracted it upon his departure for exile in Switzerland on March 24, 1919 in the so-called “Feldkirch Manifesto”. As a result, on April 3, 1919, the Republic decreed by law the expulsion of the ruling family as well as the collection of family wealth connected to the state.