Karl Renner: «Staat und Nation» (1899)

Abstract

The article examines the Austrian linguistic question through one of the major austrian-socialdemocratic exponents, Karl Renner. In a historical period characterized a neverending turmoil about the complex political and cultural relationships among the many Austrian nationalities, Karl Renner proposed a de-territorial theory of nation, the latter was clearly defined as a subject of rights and duties rather than an entity within stabilized and defined territrial borders. In this sense, Renner elaborated and developed a year-long political Austrian tradition, represented for example by one of Renner,s mentor Adolf Fischhof, a tradition whose purpose was to find a peaceful solution to the nationalities question making the Austrian State a real Gesamtstaat, capable of unifing its nationalities while preserving their diversity. In other terms, through the lens of Renner’s political thoery the article tries to address one of the core issues of European political thought: the always complex problem of balancing political unity and the respect of diversity.