The implementation of reforms: The Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Prussia in the first half of the nineteenth century

Abstract

The century between 1750 and 1850 saw the implementation of radical reforms which fundamentally changed the centuries-old society of orders in major European realms. How did these regimes succeed in changing or even abolishing ancient rights of the privileged members of the society of orders while simultaneously restructuring innumerable property titles? A comparative analysis of the land tax and land reforms in Austria, Bavaria, and Prussia in the first half of the nineteenth century aims to answer this question. The reforms were very comprehensive and complex: the area and value of millions of land plots had to be surveyed and calculated to determine an acceptable land tax and land property for all parties involved. The implementation took decades instead of years and belonged to the most important governmental and administrative transformations of the nineteenth century. The historiography of the implementation of these reforms points to three factors behind their success. These were the knowledge and administrative competence of the central bureaucracies, the ways in which the crown consulted the estates, and the involvement of the local (estates`) institutions and actors. Although earlier historical research showed the indispensable roles of these factors, the ways in which each of them contributed to the success of the reforms and potential patterns in these contributions has been insufficiently explored. In other words, historians have not yet answered the question how radical reforms were successfully implemented at the local level, during the interaction between central administrators, the provincial and local parties, the surveyors and economic commissioners and last but not least all landowners and peasants. To this end, this study reconstructed, analyzed, and finally compared the local implementation of the reforms in each of the three realms, based on often hitherto neglected primary sources. In Austria and Bavaria, it examined the land tax reform as implemented in the manor Heidenreichstein in the province of Lower Austria between 1810 and 1834, respectively in the district court Vilsbiburg in the Isar and later Lower Bavaria district between 1808 and 1851. In Prussia, it examined the land reform (Oktober Edikt) as implemented in the manor Lübbenau in the province of Brandenburg between 1807 and 1840. All three factors played indispensable roles in the reforms but followed a different pattern in each realm. In Austria, a competent reform institution at the court prepared a plan, closed a compromise, and successfully implemented the reform within a quarter of a century. Due to the initial lack of such competence, compromise, and local access, the implementation in Bavaria and Prussia took roughly half a century for the majority of all landowners and peasants. The case studies illustrate that successful reforms required a competent central bureaucracy that initiated the reform, or a less developed bureaucracy with the learning capacity to master it over time. Second, each implementation only took off after a compromise had been achieved. Third and most importantly, the success of the implementation always depended on the access and grip of the bureaucracy at the local level.