Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 36. (1983)

COONS, Ronald E.: Reflections of a Josephinist. Two Addenda to count Franz Hartig's „Genesis der Revolution in Österreich im Jahre 1848”

Reflections of a Josephinist

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irrelevant because, with or without his connivance, Metternich would most surely have been forced to resign in 1848 in the wake of revolution in Paris and of mounting unrest throughout central Europe. In 1848 the Habsburg Monarchy faced too many serious problems to withstand the revolutionary tide, as it had been able to do eighteen years earlier. Furthermore, those who, like Princess Metternich and Hartig, blame Kolowrat for the events of March 13 assume that he could have prevented demonstrations from escalating into political revolution had he only wished to do so. In fact, however, the victories of March 13 were made possible not by the malevolent machinations of highly-placed enemies of Metternich but, as William L. Langer has shown in a perceptive study, by the outmoded institutions of the pre-industrial Austrian state. Vienna lacked a modern police force that could have rendered protests by large numbers of demonstrators harmless, while the court lacked the will to unleash potentially untrustworthy troops upon unarmed subjects * 39).

Nevertheless, when Hartig writes „daß Kolowrat von einer bevorstehenden Demonstration zum Sturze Metternichs Kenntniß hatte und sie nicht verhindern wollte“40), he is at least partially correct. Kolowrat could hardly have failed to realize that March 13 would be no ordinary day in the political life of the Habsburg Monarchy. By the evening of March 12 rumors that the opening of the Lower Austrian diet the following morning would be accompanied by demonstrations in favor of reform were so widespread they even came to the attention of Metternich’s wife41). It is inconceivable that they could have escaped the notice of Kolowrat, who kept a close watch on public opinion and who had sources of information far superior to mere rumor. For example, the head clerk in his office, Alexander Baumann, attended a number of meetings in March 1848 at which Metternich’s opponents discussed political strategy, and he had every opportunity to report what he witnessed to his superior 42). Even

regeln gegen eintretende Kravalle, aber keine Vorsorge gegen eine ausbrechende Revolution“. Although neither the report to which Reschauer refers nor the minutes of the meeting upon which the report is based have been preserved, a brief summary of the deliberations is available; see Niederösterreichisches Landesarchiv Wien Präsidial-Akten Indexband 1848 Unruhen, items 534 and 546.

39) William L. Langer The Pattern of Urban Revolution in 1848 in French Society and Culture since the Old Regime, ed. Evelyn M. Acomb and Marvin L. Brown, Jr. (New York 1966) 100—104; a German translation of this important article is available in Die europäische Revolution von 1848, ed. Horst Stuke und Wilfried Forstmann (Neue wissenschaftliche Bibliothek 103, Königstein 1979) 46—69.

40) See below p. 232.

41) Ein Tagebuch aus den ersten Tagen der 1848er Revolution, ed. Wilhelm Weckbecker in Monatsblatt des Vereines der Stadt Wien 13 (1910) 175; Mé- moires laissés par le prince de Metternich 7 542.

42) Walter J a f f é Alexander Baumann (1814—1857). Ein Beitrag zum Wiener literarischen Vormärz und zum volkstümlichen Lied in Österreich (Forschungen zur neueren Literaturgeschichte 42, Weimar 1913) 16.