Dr Karl Renner

Renner ANK976 Karl Renner Karl Renner was born on 14th December 1870 in Unter-Tannowitz (or Dolni-Dunajovice), a Moravian market spot north of Nikolsburg (or Mikulov), the nearest large town some 8km distant. He was the tenth son of Matthäus and Marie Habinger Renner, who were farmers. The family had to struggle for its very existence, so he had a hard but not joyless youth. His cleverness and eagerness to learn were noticed by his teachers in the village school, and they urged his father to let this very talented youngster continue his studies. Matthäus ventured the attempt despite the ever more hard-pressed material circumstances into which the family came, due to poor harvests and the unfavourable economic development of agriculture in the 1870s (remember the panic of 1873 - translator's note).

Since the hope for free tuition in the Piarist gymnasium in Nikolsburg fell through, the whole plan was in danger of failure after just a few weeks. But the tough will to self-assertion of the 11-year old won out! Since the paternal home could provide only a roof over his head and a scant measure of daily bread, the small boy walked day after day, summer and winter, morning and evening, in all kinds of weather for two hours from his native village to school in Nikolsdorf, and back. This was an almost superhuman demand on an undernourished child, but perhaps the precondition for the robust health which Karl Renner enjoyed into his ripe old age.

He obtained a position in the Library of the Imperial Council and after studying law at the University of Vienna he obtained the degree of Doktor juris in the spring of 1896. Whilst still a student he married his wife Luise, and the pair remained devoted to each other till his death. Influenced mainly by his parents he became a member of the Social Democratic Party, then led by Viktor Adler. Opposed to the Habsburg monarchy, Dr. Renner was prominent as a party leader and was elected as deputy to the National Assembly in 1908. He thought deeply about the social and political problems of his times. His publications were nationalistic, in line with the trend of the period. His Fight of the Austrian Tribes and the State, Principles of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Marxism were followed by The Self-Determination of Nations.

In 1918, Austria-Hungary collapsed and on Nov 12th Dr. Renner formed the first, temporary Cabinet of the Austrian Republic. In the first republican elections in February 1919, Dr. Renner's party emerged as the largest representation in the National Constitutional Assembly and he became the first State Chancellor of the young republic. After the signing of the Treaty of St. Germain in 1919, which reduced Austria to a small, powerless state, a new coalition government was formed in which Dr. Renner added to the Chancellorship the portfolio of Foreign affairs. When that coalition was dissolved, he continued as Foreign Minister until he resigned in October 1919. Elected to the National Assembly in 1920, he remained a member until 1934 and acted as its President from 1931 to 1933.

He was one of the Socialist leaders imprisoned in 1934 when the Dollfuss regime, supported by Austrian Fascists, crushed the revolt of the Socialist workers by force and outlawed the Socialist party. Because of lack of sufficient evidence against him, Dr. Renner was released a few months later and during the following years remained politically inactive. That was the decisive period when Austria under Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg drifted more and more into the Nazi camp and as a German appendage could no longer be regarded as an independent nation. Dr. Renner supported Austria's union with Germany in pre-Hitler days, declaring that 'Austria has no future'. With the rise of nazism, however, the question of Anschluss took on different aspects, and when Hitler's forces marched into Austria on March 13, 1938, all freedom-loving Austrians, including Dr. Renner, realised that they had fought a losing battle. When Anschluss was completed and Austrian democratic forces went underground, Dr. Renner left his home in Vienna and went to live at Gloggnitz in Lower Austria.

Seven years later, on April 3rd 1945, he established contact with the Russian occupation forces that had marched into Austria, and on 20 April he was asked by the Russians to form the first Austrian Provisional Government and become its C Öhancellor. The new Government took office on 27 April; it was a coalition consisting of 10 Social Democrats, 7 Communists, 9 conservatives and 3 non-party representatives. The Declaration of Austrian Independence was issued, stating in part 'The Democratic Republic of Austria is re-established and shall be conducted in the spirit of the constitution of 1920' - not, note, a reversion to the immediately pre-Anschluss situation - and 'The Anschluss ... is null and void'. Dr. Renner and his wife were provided by the Government with a house in the American zone of Vienna. Following a broadening to include all the provinces, Renner's Government was eventually (20 October 1945) recognized by the Allied occupation powers, and soon afterwards it issued the first call for elections in Austria in eleven years.

General elections were held on 25 November 1945, and on 20 December Dr. Renner was elected Federal President for a term of six years, thus giving him the rare distinction of being chosen twice for virtually the same office, both after a world war. He received the unanimous vote of the two houses of Parliament, representing all three parties, including the Communists. Later he moved into the famous Hofburg palace on the Ring, the first non-royal head of the Austrian state to govern from the previous residence of the Habsburgs. As president, Dr. Renner pleaded for the return to Austria of South Tyrol, condemned the zoning of Austria by the occupation powers, and asked for a reduction in the numbers of the occupation forces. He stressed political unity and disclaimed Pan-German aims, saying he had always been an internationalist.

Dr. Renner repeatedly made it plain he favored the United Nations rather then the Communist brand of Internationalism, and consequently, when the Communist International was reorganized as the Communist Information Bureau at Warsaw in 1947, he was denounced as a traitor to the working class. A few weeks later Dr. Renner called for an immediate peace treaty with Austria 'to free her from imposed international entanglements' and to restore her sovereignty.

In 1948 Dr. Renner told the annual conference of Austrian trade unions that a one-party state cannot bring about social progress. He urged the delegates to adhere to democratic methods to obtain 'a truly social state'. He held up as a model the United States and Great Britain, which he said had drawn ahead of the rest of the world by change without revolution. In a 1949 radio appeal for admission of Austria to the United Nations, Dr. Renner said there was 'no serious political group in Austria which covets anything but true, full and peaceful democracy'. Soon afterward in 1949 the Austrian right-wing parties decisively defeated the Communists in the second postwar elections. Dr. Karl Renner died on Saturday Dec 30th 1950. His body lay in state for two days in the Hofburg; he was buried in Vienna on Thursday January 4th 1951.

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