Background
Ignaz Seipel was born in Vienna on July 17, 1876 to a coachman in the imperial household.
(Slight signs of wear!)
Slight signs of wear!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028967DU/?tag=2022091-20
Ignaz Seipel was born in Vienna on July 17, 1876 to a coachman in the imperial household.
Seipel studied theology at the University of Vienna and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1899.
During these years he wrote several books, including Nation und Staat (Nation and State), a remarkable study on the problem of the multinational Austro-Hungarian state, and works on international law. An implacable enemy of Social Democracy, Seipel refused to take office in the coalition governments of 1918-1919. He first formed an administration on May 31, 1922, at the head of a Christian Socialist-Pan-German coalition; he then negotiated and steered through parliament the League of Nations Reconstruction Loan, which restored Austria's finances. The reforms necessitated by the reconstruction entailed great hardships for much of the Austrian population, and on January 1, 1924, Seipel was severely wounded by an aggrieved fanatic. He resigned as chancellor in that autumn but remained leader of his party, and resumed office as chancellor on October 16, 1926. His opponents accused him of unmercifulness in his attitude over the Socialist riots and general strike of July 15, 1927. He resigned abruptly on May 4, 1929. In the crisis of 1931 he was invited to form another coalition government, but neither the Social Democrats nor the Pan-Germans would accept his leadership. He died on August 2, 1932.
He was a prelate and politician of the Christian Social Party (CS), who served as Federal Chancellor twice during the 1920s.
Seipel's antisemitic manners were the pattern for the character of Chancellor Dr. Schwerdtfeger in Hugo Bettauer's 1922 novel Die Stadt ohne Juden (The City Without Jews), picturized by Hans Karl Breslauer in 1924.
(Slight signs of wear!)
Leading a right-wing coalition government supported by the Greater German People's Party and the Landbund, his main policy was the encouragement of cooperation between wealthy industrialists and the paramilitary units of the nationalist Heimwehren. This alignment led to an increase in street violence and armed conflicts with the left-wing Republikanischer Schutzbund, culminating in the Vienna July Revolt of 1927 claiming numerous casualties.
He was a member of the Emperor Charles' last cabinet (October 1918) and in the crisis of the monarchy's collapse emerged as the intellectual leader of the Christian Socialists.
