!!!Bauernbefreiung

Peasants, Emancipation of: From the middle of the 18%%sup th/%  
century, personal and economic dependency of peasants on the feudal 
landowners was eased, and finally abolished in 1848. Although there 
were considerable differences in the Austrian lands (in North Tyrol 
and the mountainous areas of Vorarlberg the peasantry enjoyed many 
freedoms), and although serfdom had virtually died out, Maria Theresia 
generally eased statute labour (Robot) in 1778. With the so-called 
Untertansstrafpatent of 1781, which provided for the right to 
complaint and the right to replace statute labour, Joseph II further 
eased the lot of the peasants. In 1789 he decreed a tax reform in 
favour of the peasantry, which, however, was not implemented after his 
death. The feudal system was only abolished after the Silesian deputy 
H.  Kudlich proposed the "abolition of the subordination of peasants 
with all its concomitant rights and obligations" in the Reichstag in 
1848. A patent, signed by Emperor Ferdinand on September 7, 1848, 
abolished subordination and the relation of dependency and protection 
("Schutzobrigkeitsverhaeltnis") between peasants and landlords and 
laid down that the charges on land were to be relieved through 
compensation for the previous owners. In the following years various 
commissions defined this compensation (two thirds of the estimated 
value) and the obligation of the peasants, now the new owners, who had 
to pay off this compensation over a period of 40 years. To replace the 
manorial lords, the state now had to set up municipalities, district 
authorities and courts.

\\
For the peasants, the consequences of the emancipation were not only 
positive, for instead of paying to the lords of the manor they now had 
to pay taxes to the state, the provinces and municipalities. Moreover, 
the first generation was not familiar with market conditions, so that 
after 1868 many small farms emerged as a result of the sub-division of 
land, which were hardly viable, and the level of indebtedness rose 
sharply. Only the following generations were able to avert the decline 
of the peasantry and create new market organisations in the form of 
agricultural cooperatives.

!Literature
Der steirische Bauer, exhibition catalogue, 1966; Hans 
Kudlich and die Bauernbefreiung in Niederoesterreich, exhibition 
catalogue, 1983.


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