1920: Federal Constitutional Law

“Austria is a democratic republic. Its law emanates from the people. Austria is a federal state formed of independent provinces (Länder).” These were the principles of the federal constitution of 1920. At the time, debates on the constitution were affected by the fundamental question of how the new state should be organised: according to centralist or federalist principles? The fundamental differences between the major political powers became apparent on this issue. State chancellor Karl Renner commissioned the recognised constitutional law teacher Hans Kelsen (1881–1973) to draft the government constitution. Time was pressing not only because of the stipulations of the Peace Treaty of Saint Germain, but also because of the particularism and the separatist aspirations of some provinces.

In the end, the more centralist ideas of the Social Democrats prevailed in the question of federalism. Ultimately, this was also due to the influence of Christian Social delegate Ignaz Seipel, who succeeded at dissuading the provincial representatives within his party of their extensive demands. Austrian federalism was therefore weak from the beginning.

The path to the constitution of 1920 was long: it led from the coalition programme of the Social Democrats and the Christian Socials of October 17, 1919 to the six drafts by Hans Kelsens, the drafts of the Salzburg Governor Franz Rehrl, the Tyrolean Stephan Falser and the Christian Social Secretary Michael Mayr, through numerous provincial conferences and, finally, to the Renner-Mayr draft. This draft was accepted unanimously as law on October 1, 1920, whereby the Austrian Republic was established as a federal state. The Austrian Federal Constitutional Law is thus one of the oldest constitutions in Europe that is still valid today. It was incomplete from the outset because the parties were unable to reach an agreement on major points, such as fundamental rights or the division of competences between the federal government and the provinces.

External Resources (in German):
Gesetz vom 1. Oktober 1920, womit die Republik Österreich als Bundesstaat eingerichtet wird: http://alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=sgb&datum=1920&page=1873&size=45