The United States of Greater Austria – a step towards

European Union?

Iulian-Nicuşor ISAC

“The great origin, language, customs and mentality diversity of different nationalities
requires, for the whole Empire of the Habsburgs, a certain state form, which can guarantee
that not a single nationality will be threatened, obstructed or offended in its national-
political life, in its private development, in its national pride, in one word – in its way of
feeling and living”

A.C. Popovici

The political life, and not only, of Austro-Hungary at the beginning of

the 20th century is characterized by Aurel C. Popovici in his work1, as being
marked by endless parliamentary crisis, bitter fights and “a savage kind hatred”,
all the nationalities being bitter and throwing the responsibility on the Viennese
circles. The development of the national feeling with the occasion of the 1848
Revolution permitted the apparition of numerous projects for the reformation
and the reorganization of the Habsburgs monarchy which were starting, almost
without exception, from the necessity of the empire’s federalization on national
basis, preserving in the same time the political unity of the empire. Among the
most important and elaborated plans is the one prepared by Frantisek Palacky
beginning from 1848 and resumed in 1865-1866, which stipulated the division
of the empire into eight national states2 and the one stipulated by Franz
Schuselka, according to which Austria had to turn into a Völkerreich (“empire
of peoples”) in which every nationality to be able to keep its national identity.
A theory that was circulating in the epoch taken over by A.C. Popovici
from Johann Caspar Bluntschli3, was considering the nation, first of all, a
cultural community and not a state one (towards which it strived, however!)
estimating that the national feeling existing at the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s
peoples had as an aim the national autonomy inside the monarchy. Partisan of

1 See Aurel C. Popovici, Die Vereinigten Staaten von Gross-Österreich (Leipzig, 1906); the Romanian
edition: Stat şi naţiune. Statele Unite ale Austriei Mari (Bucharest: Fundaţia pentru literatură şi artă
“Carol II”, 1939).
2 In 1869 Palacky uttered the famous phrase – “Austria will be confederate or it won’t be at

all!”
3 International Law professor at the University of Heidelberg, Bluntschli published in 1878 a

project for the organizing of a European states society, on the base of the Swiss federal
experience. Besides, the political Swiss pattern is often mentioned in A.C. Popovici’s work.
the federalization of the monarchy by the nationalities principle, Aurel
Popovici affirmed, based on an interesting analysis, not always without fervour,
on the way of organising and functioning of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy,
the necessity of restructuring the empire, of reorganising it through “the
territorial separation of the nationalities”.
The project elaborated by Aurel C. Popovici enjoyed a special attention
in the epoch, but not only, the more so as it had the support of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, the successor of the imperial crown. Popovici considered
that the new edifice which was going to be brought about had to have three
pylons: the dynastic principle, the military skill and, first of all, “equity for all
the peoples which give the content to this empire”. Starting from the
supposition that the true essence of all the national fights is of national-
constitutional origin and offering primacy to the national-political principle
against the historical-political one, Aurel Popovici stipulated the forming of
“numerous national states in an unitary federal Austrian state” through the
national determination of all the big nationalities into states. This
determination was going to be made on the account of the ethnographic map
of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, observing that the peoples from the
empire aren’t very mixed, despite the existence of numerous isles, which were
going to be “sacrificed” for the general interest. Invoking again Bluntschli’s
ideas, Aurel Popovici considered necessary that the new-created national states
should become “neutral” from the national point of view, more like
“community” states. This was possible only if, through the new political-
territorial structure of the empire, the national pressure stopped giving place to
a community of interests for all the empire’s peoples which to oust the national
feeling; the main problem in the empire, considering its ethnic structure, was
the Pan-Slavonic idea. “Our monarchy, Popovici asserted, was never a national
state, it isn’t now and it will never be. It was and it has to stay a league of the
nations”.
In essence, Aurel C. Popovici’s plan stipulated the division of the
empire’s territory into the following states:
1. The German Austria – meaning the German interior Austria
together with the whole German realm from the western Hungarian border,
together with the German realm from the South-East of Bohemia and
Southern Moravia;
2. The German Bohemia – the North-West part of Bohemia together
with Tratenau realm;
3. The German Moravia (Silesia) which would contain almost the
whole German Silesia with the German realms from Moravia and Bohemia,
meaning the Schönhengst region;
4. Bohemia – the whole Czech realm of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia;
5. Western Galicia – the whole realm inhabited by Polish;
 6. Eastern Galicia – the Ruthenian part of the country with the
Ruthean counties from Hungary and Bukovina;
7. Transylvania with all the regions inhabited by Romanians from
Hungary and Romania;
8. Croatia – with Dalmatia, the Croatian Istria, Fiume and Mur Island;
9. Ukraine – which would contain all the Slovak settlements;
10. Slovakia;
11. Vojvodina – the Serbian realm of the Southern Hungary;
12. Hungary – the Hungarian realm;
13. The Country of Székely – the Hungarian parts of the following
three counties from Transylvania: Trei Scaune, Ciuc, Udvasarhely, with the
adjacent Hungarian parts from Mures-Turda;
14. Tyrol;
15. Trieste – with the Italian Görz and the Italian Istria.
Banking of the analysis of the subjoined maps4, we can observe the
attention paid by A.C. Popovici to the idea of dividing the Empire on the
ethnic-national criteria, trying to disprove another federal tendency, the
historical-political one. An interesting idea, but hard to achieve because of the
opposition manifested by the Romanian political class5, is that of the
achievement of the Romanians unification (item 7) inside the Habsburg
monarchy by the integration of the independent state of Romania into the new
political construction6.
The project of the territorial reorganization of the Empire was
accompanied by a federal Constitution for the achievement of which A.C.
Popovici was inspired by the U.S.A. Constitution, considered by Edward A.
Freeman as the most complete creation of the political genius; even the title
proposed for the new state suggests this thing – The United-States of Greater-
Austria. He invoked, to support the federalization of the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy, the force of attraction exerted by the freedom, the autonomy and
the possibility of development of U.S.A., which had got from 13 states to 45.
Another source of inspiration for A.C. Popovici was the Swiss pattern, often

4 Thanks to Professor Thomas Griesbacher from Karl-Franzens-Universität of Graz for his

amiability, Austria (www.thomasgraz.net).
5 Two examples are very suggestive: Titu Maiorescu considered the idea of the union of the

Romanians under the Habsburgs as “monstrous” and Take Ionescu had a specific response –
“Than an external affairs minister in Vienna, with Romania’s entrance at the Habsburgs, I’d
better be a waiter in Chicago!”
6 This idea of the achievement of the Romanians union into an European construction, it is

retaken today as an external affairs aim of Romania, but this time it’s about the Romanians
reunion into the great European family, the integration into the European Union being a
strategic option of the whole Romanian political class..
invoked by him in his study as a success formula for the achievement of a
federal state.
Divided into twelve “chapters”, the federal Constitution suggested by
A.C. Popovici contained a series of consecrate elements, but new ideas too,
which will constitute an analysis base for the politicians and analysts as well,
from the moment when this plan arose until today. For a better understanding
and analysis of the ideas included by A.C. Popovici in his plan, we’ve tried the
attainment of a comparative table between the federal Constitution of The
United States of Greater Austria and the project of the European Constitution.
Its perusal has to be done considering, of course, the time when the two
documents were done, the specific pursued purposes, but also the evolution of
the theories about this kind of political constructions. We’ve tried to mark out
the common elements of the two constitutional projects, renouncing the
discriminating aspects (for instance, the project pf Popovici has as a central
element the emperor’s authority, which doesn’t have a correspondent in the
Constitution of the European Union).

Comparative table

The Constitution of the United- Draft Treaty establishing a

States of Greater-Austria Constitution for Europe
Every citizen of a national state is in Every national of a Member State
the same time an Austrian citizen, too shall be a citizen of the Union.
(art.3) Citizenship of the Union shall be
additional to national citizenship; it
shall not replace it. (art. 8).
The United-States of Austria form a The Union shall have exclusive
common customs territory (art. 4) competence in the customs union (art.
12, par.1).
The competence of the Empire (or of
the Union) and of its organism extend
over the following matters, which are
common for all the national states,
members of the Union:
- all the external affairs, including the - The Union shall have competence to
diplomatic and commercial define and implement a common
representation abroad foreign and security policy, including
the progressive framing of a common
defence policy (art. 11, par. 4)
- Union delegations in third countries
and to international organisations

- the whole army and navy, including
the drafting and the enactment of the
fulfilment of the military service
- the common legislation concerning
the civil and penal law and the
procedure
- the commercial and drafting law
- the setting of the currency and its
appreciation
- the finance concerning the collecting
and the expenses of the federal state
(art. 6)
The federal government is composed
by the representatives of the national
shall represent the Union (art. III-230)
- The Union’s competence in matters
of common foreign and security
policy shall cover all areas of foreign
policy and all questions relating to the
Union’s security, including the
progressive framing of a common
defence policy, which might lead to a
common defence (art. 15, par. 1)
- There is a European Armaments,
Research and Military Capabilities
Agency, which shall have among his
tasks to propose multilateral projects
to fulfil the objectives in terms of
military capabilities, ensure
coordination of the programmes
implemented by the Member States
and management of specific
cooperation programmes (art. III-212)
- Among the shared competences of
the Union and the Member States is
the area of freedom, security and
justice (art. 13, par. 2).
- The Union shall have competence to
promote and coordinate the economic
and employment policies of the
Member States (art. 11, par. 3).
- The Union shall have exclusive
competence in the field of monetary
policy, for the Member States which
have adopted the euro (art. 12, par. 1)
- The Union shall provide itself with
the means necessary to attain its
objectives and carry through its
policies
- Without prejudice to other revenue,
the Union’s budget shall be financed
wholly from its own resources (art.
53)
- The Council of Ministers shall
consist of a representative of each
states (art. 7)
The empire’s government has the
following committees: domestic
affairs, external affairs, army and navy,
finance and administration of the
occupied realm. In everyone of each
committee has to be represented at
least 3 national states. Every state has
a single vote (art. 14 and 15).
The governs of the national states
send three authorized representatives
in the empire’s government in the
following vote proportion: German
Austria – 7, Hungary – 7, Bohemia –
5, Transylvania – 4, Croatia – 3,
Eastern Galicia – 3, Western Galicia –
3, German Bohemia – 2, Slovak
Country – 2, German Moravia – 1,
Ukraine – 1, Vojvodina -1, Tyrol – 1,
Trieste – 1, The Country of Székely -
1. Altogether 42 votes (art. 13).
The legislative power is commonly
exerted by the Emperor, The House
of Deputies and The Senate (art. 9)
The House of Deputies is composed
of deputies elected by the whole
Empire’s people or of the Union by
secret and direct universal vote (art.
10)
It is instituted an Empire’s Court of - The Court of Justice shall include
Justice to decide: the litigations in the European Court of Justice, the
which the Empire takes part, the High Court and specialised courts. It
Member State at ministerial level for
each of its formations (art. 22, par. 2)
- The Commission shall consist of a
College comprising its President, the
Union Minister of
Foreign Affairs/Vice-President, and
thirteen European Commissioners
selected on the basis of a system of
equal rotation between the Member
States (art. 25, par. 3)
- For deliberations of the European
Council and of the Council of
Ministers requiring a qualified
majority, members’ votes shall be
weighted as follows: Belgium 12,
Czech Republic 12, Denmark 7,
Germany 29, Estonia 4, Greece 12,
Spain 27, France 29, Ireland 7, Italy
29, Cyprus 4, Latvia 4, Lithuania 7,
Luxembourg 4, Hungary 12, Malta 3,
Netherlands 13, Austria 10, Poland
27, Portugal 12, Slovenia 4, Slovakia 7,
Finland 7, Sweden 10, United
Kingdom 29
(art. 2 from Protocol on the
representation of citizens in the
European Parliament and the
weighting of votes in the European
Council and the Council of Ministers)
- The European Parliament shall,
jointly with the Council of Ministers,
enact legislation, and exercise the
budgetary function (art. 19, par. 1).
- The European Parliament shall be
elected by direct universal suffrage of
European citizens in free and secret
ballot (art. 19, par. 2).
litigations between some national
state; these on the one hand and the
Empire on the other hand; between a
national state and the citizens or the
guilds of another state; between the
citizens and the Empire; between the
citizens from different national state;
the complaints against the federal
clerks etc. (art. 18)
All the problems which aren’t
especially reserved for the Empire’s
competence become the national
states’ competence (art. 9).
In every national state is instituted a
parliament, a different govern and a
judiciary power (art. 20)
Every national state elaborates its own
Constitution which has to be
approved by the Empire’s power (art.
23)
The Constitution of the isolated states
can’t contain instructions which might
contradict the ones of the Empire’s
Constitution (art. 24, par.1)
It is forbidden any private alliance and There are no references. The Treaty
any political treaty between different establishing the Constitution shall not
national states (art. 24, par. 4).
shall ensure respect for the law in the
interpretation and application of the
Constitution (art. 28, par.1).
- In addition, The European Court of
Human Rights, having the
headquarters in Strasbourg, decides
over the observance or the un-
observance of the fundamental
human rights and liberties consecrated
by the European Convention of
Human Rights from 1950, amended
by the additional protocols.
- Under the principle of conferral, the
Union shall act within the limits of the
competences conferred upon it by the
Member States in the Constitution to
attain the objectives set out in the
Constitution. Competences not
conferred upon the Union in the
Constitution remain with the Member
States (art. 9, par. 2).
There are no references, The
European Union being composed of
independent and sovereign states.
- The Constitution, and law adopted
by the Union’s Institutions in
exercising competences conferred on
it, shall have primacy over the law of
the Member States (art. 10).
preclude the existence or completion
of regional unions between Belgium
and Luxembourg, or between
Belgium, Luxembourg and the
Netherlands, to the extent that the
objectives of these regional unions are
not attained by application of the said

The national states, in the middle of
which there are avowed national
minorities, have to guarantee them,
the rights and liberties, which have to
be specified (art. 24, par. 5).
Treaty (art. IV-5).
The Treaty makes reference, in Title
III, to the equality of rights without
discrimination and it’s completed by a
series of compulsive documents or by
a recommendation concerning the
protection of the minorities.

Aurel C. Popovici’s plan, although it appeared in 1906, through its

concepts and the ways of organizing a state federation on the principle “a state,
a nation”, represents an step towards the emergence of a supranational concept
which “avouches and guarantees the national-political personality of its
different nations, and on the other hand to really ensure its unity and power”.
Although it remained a theoretical exercise, due to the opposition of different
powers, parties and nations and the “adverse” evolution of history as well7,
Popovici’s project will be actualized, as a debate base, by Richard Nikolaus
Coudenhove-Kalergi, the creator of the idea of Pan-Europe, who considered
that the only hope for a Europe devastated by war was to become a federation
following the patterns which A.C. Popovici and others proposed for Austro-
Hungary8.
Unfortunately, the plan for the achievement of The United States of
Greater Austria, besides the fact that it’s not a very well formulated one from
the structural, constitutional and judicial point of view, it represents a part (a
small part) of a study that is “soaked” with racist ideas, having as a source the
theory which bases the nation on biological premises, theory which makes a
career in the epoch and represents one of the fascism and Nazism’s roots. On
the base of the creation of a multinational state, Aurel Popovici put on first the
separation of the nations between the ethnographic borders, but this
separation, from his view, doesn’t limit to the frontiers. Along his whole book,
he pleaded directly for the rejection of the cultural interference, giving as an
example precisely the Jews, who, in his opinion, had succeeded “to transform
into a power that comprises the whole world” by the purity of their race.
The evolution of the history confirmed at least two ideas supported by
Popovici (too) – (1) in the context of the deployment of the World War I, the
national states, but independent too, arose pursuant to the national pressure

7 “The moment is a historical and a decisive one. for our whole future: will the Habsburgs

Empire preserve or will it collapse? Everything can still be aligned, everything can still be
saved. It’s now or never!”, A.C. Popovici wrote at the end of his work.
8 William M. Johnston, The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual & Social History, 1848-1938 (University

of California Press, 1983), 321.

(but these didn’t become “neutral” from the national point of view) and (2) the
realization of a pan-European construction of “community” essence.

http://www.thomasgraz.net/glass/map-popov.htm

Plan for a federation of independent states based on ethnographic

principles:
proposed by the Romanian nationalist Aurel C. Popovici in his book Die
Vereinigten Staaten von Groß-Österreich (Leipzig, 1906).

German- German- German- (mostly German)

Austria Bohemia Moravia Enclaves
Bohemia Slowakia West Galicia East Galicia
Hungary Szeklerland Trentino Trieste
Carniola Croatia Vojvodina Transylvania
http://www.thomasgraz.net/glass/map-ethn.htm

Ethnographic map of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, 1910

German Hungarian Slovene Croat, Serb

11,987,000 (24%) 10,051,000 (20%) 1,253,000 (2%) 5,623,000 (11%)
Czech Slovak Polish Ruthenian
6,436,000 (13%) 1,946,000 (4%) 4,968,000 (10%) (Ukrainian)
3,983,000 (8%)
Italian Ladin, Friulan Romanian TOTAL
768,000 (2%, 3,223,000 (6%) 50,238,000 (100%)
incl. LAD, FRI)