ABSTRACT

On the eve of the First World War, the Christlichsoziale Partei, or Christian Social Party, had already developed from its origins in the urban milieu of Vienna to a classic Reichspartei that identified with the continued existence of the monarchy and its institutions.1 The established Catholic Conservative groupings had to cede the leading role to the more dynamic Christian Socials, with their radical social reform programme, in almost all German-speaking areas of the western Cisleithenian part of the empire. The Christian Socials also succeeded in achieving a majority outside Vienna, by way of the farmers’ associations that they had founded. When in 1907 a union took place with the Catholic Conservatives in the Reichsrat, the parliament of the Austrian part of the monarchy, the Christian Socials formed the largest parliamentary party, subsequently participating in coalition governments, which at the outset included Albert Gessmann as Minister for Employment and Alfred Ebenhoch as Minister for Agriculture. In addition, some of their leading representatives were advisers to Franz Ferdinand, the successor to the throne.