!!!Absolutismus

Absolutism: doctrine and practice of unlimited power and absolute 
sovereignty, which formed the basis for the creation of states in the 
early Modern era, concentrating governing power in one ruler 
("princeps legibus solutus"). The Habsburgs developed Absolutism by 
successfully resisting the Reformation, estate revolts ("Blutgericht" 
or "Court of Blood" in Wiener Neustadt in 1522, the Battle of the 
White Mountains in 1620) and the peasants' uprisings. The 
"nationalisation" of the army in 1635 brought about sole "ius belli ac 
armorum" for the ruler. The nobility became the court nobility, with a 
continuing feudal basis. The court and the Catholic church promoted 
the impressive culture of the court and church ( Baroque) as the 
second pillar of Absolutism. After the state reform of Maria Theresia 
in 1749, Austria became a bureaucratically organised Bohemian-Austrian 
core state around which the other Habsburg territories were grouped; 
the right of provincial estates to approve taxes was abolished, state 
regions with governorships and local authorities were created. Under 
the Reformist Absolutism ("enlightened Absolutism") of Maria Theresia 
and Joseph II, the activities of the state were intensified with 
a view to enhancing the state's economic performance and general 
wealth (renewed legitimation of the ruler as the "first servant of the 
state"). The institutions of Reformist Absolutism remained those of 
"bureaucratic absolutism" from 1792-1848 without further reform 
impulses (later returning to reform as Neo-Absolutism from 1851-1906).

!Further reading
H. Matis (ed.), Von der Glueckseligkeit des Staates, 
1981; R. G. Plaschka, G. Klingenstein et al (eds.), Oesterreich 
im Europa der Aufklaerung, 2 vols., 1985; K. Gutkas, Kaiser 
Joseph II., 1989.


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