Karl Renner

Karl Renner (December 14, 1870 - December 31, 1950) was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz (Dolní Dunajovice) (Moravia) and died in Vienna.

Renner was born as the 18th child of a poor farmer's family but because of his talents he was allowed to go to high school, and later study law at the University of Vienna from 1890 to 1896. In 1895 he was one of the founding members of the Naturfreunde (i.e. friends of nature) and invented their logo.

Renner was always interested in politics and became librarian in parliament and member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) in 1896. He started to represent the party in the Reichsrat in 1907. Afterwards, Renner was Chancellor of Austria and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1918 until 1920.

The peace treaty of St. Germain was signed in 1919 between Austria, under the leadership of Karl Renner, and the victorious Allies of World War I, and declared Austria a republic. From 1931 to 1933 Renner was President of the Representative Assembly. He always pleaded for the annexation of Austria by Germany but distanced himself from politics during the war.

After the collapse of the Third Reich, Renner tried to build up a Provisional Government and campaigned for Austria to be acknowledged as an independent republic. He was the first Chancellor after World War II. In 1945 he became the first President of the Second Republic.

For most of his long life, Renner has been alternating between the political commitment of a social-democrat and the analytical distance of an academic scholar. Central to Renner's academic work is the problem of the relationship between law and social transformations. With his "Rechtsinstitute des Privatrechts und ihre soziale Funktion. Ein Beitrag zur Kritik des bürgerlichen Rechts" (1904), he became one of the founders of the discipline of the sociology of law. His and Otto Bauers ideas about the legal protection of cultural minorities are only now finding acceptance and practical application.

Karl Renner died in 1950 was buried in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.

Literature

Karl Renner, The Institutions of Private Law and their ocial Function. Transl. by A Schwarzschild, with an introduction by Otto Kahn-Freund, LOndin 1949. Stephane Pierre-Caps, "Karl Renner et l'Etat Multinationale: Contribution Juridique á la Solution d'Imbroglios Politiques Contemporains", Droit et Societé 27 (1994), 421-441.

Preceded by: Heinrich Lammasch (Minister-President of Cisleithania)	Chancellor of Austria First Republic 1918-1920	Succeeded by: Michael Mayr
Preceded by: Austria united with Germany from 1938 - 1945	Chancellor of Austria Second Republic 1945	Succeeded by: Leopold Figl

1870 births | 1950 deaths | Chancellors of Austria | Foreign ministers of Austria | Presidents of Austria

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Karl Renner

Literature