Karl Lueger

09/14/2010

Humanities: Karl Lueger

Karl Jueger was born in Vienna, 24 October, 1844 and died on 10 March, 1910. He definitely lived a full and adventurous life. He graduated in law from the University of Vienna. He founded and led the Christian Social Party which took political power from the German Liberals in Vienna and combated the Social Democrats. A faction in the Austrian parliament, the Christian Social Party won Vienna city council in 1895 and subsequently helped Lueger win mayoralty. He was the mayor of Vienna from 1897 to 1910.

In 1882 Lueger's party, called the Democratic was joined by the Reform and by the German National organizations, the three uniting under the name Anti-Semitic party. In 1885 Lueger associated himself with Baron Vogelsang, the eminent social-political worker, whose influence and principles had great weight in the formation of the future Christian Socialists. The year 1885 witnessed, too, Lueger's election to the Reichsrat, where, although the only member of his party in the house, he quickly assumed a leading position. In 1890 Lueger had been elected to the Lower Austrian Landtag and again he became the guiding spirit in the struggle against Liberalism and corruption. In municipal, state, and national politics he was now the leader of the Anti-Semitic and Anti-Liberal party, the back-bone of which was the union of Christians called variously the Christian Socialist Union and, in Vienna especially, the United Christians. This union developed later into the present dominant party in Austria, the Christian Socialists.

Lueger was known for his anti-Semitism and was an admirer of Edouard Drumont. Decades later, Adolf Hitler saw him as an inspiration for his own virulent hatred of anything Jewish. Lueger advocated racist policies against all non-German speaking minorities in Austria-Hungary. It soon became apparent that especially in Vienna any political group that wanted to appeal to the artisans had no chance of...