Parteien, Politik und Staatsgewalt in Dalmatien (1900–1918)

Abstract

Exemplary deep drilling of political events in Dalmatia (1900–18) forms the basis of this profound study investigating the actions of the Austrian state administration. The elections of the Imperial Council and the Dalmatian Diet, the Bosnian annexation crisis in 1908/09, the “Sprachenausgleich” of 1909, the political development before/during WW I, the dissolution of the municipal councils (1914–18) and the attitude of the Dalmatian Reichsrat members during WW I are all focused on in this analysis. The Austrian state authority did not always act flawlessly in Dalmatia, as contemporary printed sources show. However, studying the unpublished administrative files, one comes to the conclusion that in many respects the state administration in Dalmatia actually did a remarkable job. It tried hard to be objective although or because the state-political administrative bodies in Dalmatia and Vienna also had to protect the interests of the state as a whole or regarded the state as a whole. Basically supranational, it knew how to deal with crises in the province. What is more: It tried to balance the interests of the contending parties, functioned as mediator or fended off restrictive requests from the military administration in WW I. The great merit of this study is to convincingly show what the success of a good administration in the province really depended on: the spirit of the “Statthalterei” which saw itself as a hinge between the interests of Vienna and Dalmatia. Moreover, many of the developments only touched on in scientific literature are meticulously documented here in terms of sources used. This allows us to see them in their true shape and without ideological bias.