Karl Renner Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Karl Renner (1870–1950) was an Austrian socialist who was the chancellor of the Austrian Republic from 1918 to 1920 and president of the Second Republic from 1945 to 1950. During his first term he signed successive peace treaties yielding Austrian territory to Czechoslovakia and Italy. In 1919 he was summoned by the Entente to sign the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which concluded World War I (1914–1918). The treaty contained a clause prohibiting Austria’s union with Germany. As Renner supported the annexation of Austria by Germany, he thereupon resigned. Even after losing his office, Renner advocated Austria’s entry into the League of Nations. He became leader of the Social Democratic Party’s right wing in the 1920s and was president of the lower house of parliament from 1930 to 1933, a period that also witnessed the rise of the Nazis in Germany. In 1938 he supported Adolph Hitler’s Anschluss, the political union of Germany and Austria.

Upon Germany’s defeat in World War II (1939–1945) and the occupation of Vienna by the Soviets in 1945, Renner formed a provisional government under Soviet auspices and became the first chancellor of the Second Republic.

Renner wrote the Osterreichs Erneuerung in three volumes in 1916 and his memoirs, An der Wende Zweier Zeiten, in 1946. With his classic work on jurisprudence, Rechts-Institute des Privatrechts und ihre soziale funktion (1929), he became one of the founders of the discipline of sociology of law. As an authority on private and public rights, he applied Marxist theory to command economy and the role of the new middle class. Renner was a preeminent statesman-scholar who played a major role in preserving Austrian national identity after two world wars.

Bibliography:

Pierre-Caps, Stephane. “Karl Renner et Etat Multinationale: Contribution Juridique a la Solution d’Imbroglios Politiques Contemporains.” Droit et Societe 27 (1994): 421–441.
“Karl Renner.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2009, www.britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/498156/Karl-Renner.

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