Austria

The history of the eastern European country of Austria is linked to that of the Catholic Habsburg Dynasty. While providing most of the emperors to the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806), Austria presided for more than six centuries (1273–1918) over the destiny of the Austrian monarchy as well as over a number of states and kingdoms, constituting a multinational and multiconfessional empire, before giving up its dreams of European hegemony at the end of World War I. Austria then became a small federal Danubian republic of homogeneous religious confession, representing approximately the limits of the hereditary countries of “the House of Austria” (around 8 million inhabitants in 2001). This dynasty never developed a national consciousness; however, its identity was built in its will to assert the unity of the Catholic faith and in the religious contests/fights against heretics (Protestants) in the frame of the Counter-Reformation or against the unfaithful (Muslims) when it was the rampart of Christendom against the Ottoman Empire (with the Vienna sieges in 1529 and 1683 and its victory in 1697). However, the dynasty had to deal with pluralism: namely, the Toleranzpartent (“Edict of Toleration”) of Joseph II, granting to Protestants the right to private practice of their religion in 1781; the Protestantpatent (“Protestant Patent”) of 1861, conferring to them parity with Catholics and the status of a public law corporation; and recognition granted to the Islamic Hanefite rite in 1912.

In terms of religion, the basis of the Austrian judicial and legal order rests on various sources, reflecting many layers and milestones in the country's constitutional history. Religious freedom is guaranteed individually and collectively on the basis of Articles 14 and 15 of the Staatsgrundgesetz (StGG) of 1867—incorporated since 1920 in Article 149 of the Austrian constitution (Bundesverfassungsgesetz, BV-G); in Article 63 Section 2 of the Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919), granting the right to practice cult worship publicly, even when the cult is not officially recognized; as well as in Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, all of which are relevant to the legal status of religious freedom. As in Germany, due to the rejection of the state church and the neutrality of the state, state and church are separate, even though a certain number of domains are managed jointly (res mixtae): for example, religious instruction in schools, theology faculties, and army chaplaincy. One went from a state church marked with the Josephist stamp (the enlightened absolutism of Joseph II in the 18th century) to a coordination and partnership principle imposed around 1960 (the recognition and development in 1957 of the concordat of 1933/1934). The main coordination organ is the Kulutramt institution (culture office) under the cultural federal minister, which has branches in the nine federal states (Bundesländer) that constitute the Austrian Republic. Previously in charge of supervising the state church system, it is today a facilitating office for religious groups and provides protection to minority religious communities. Since the adoption in 1998 of the federal law on the Legal Personality of Registered Religious (RRBG, BGBl, I Nr. 19/1998), there are three categories of religious societies: (1) those recognized by the state (14 in 2010)—for example, the Catholic Church (73.66% of the inhabitants in 2001), the traditional Protestant churches (4.68%), the Orthodox churches (2.7%), Judaism (0.1%), and Islam (4.3%)—having the status of public law corporations, with certain para-public privileges (religious instruction in schools, help from the state in the collection of church contributions [Kirchenbeitrag]); (2) those registered by the state (10) and thus having legal status under private law; and (3) those that can only lay claim to the status of an association.

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