State authorities, municipal forces, and military intervention in the policing of strikes in Austria-Hungary, 1890s-1914

This chapter examines the different demands faced by the state in the policing of strikes in Austria-Hungary and the use of violence during repression. The increased number of social conflicts from the 1890s onwards often pushed to their limits the overstretched security forces. The management of public order involved different levels of power (municipalities, local state authorities, and the military) who were also confronted with a growing demand for state impartiality in labour disputes. The high reliance on military units to maintain public order had a damaging impact on the Austro-Hungarian army’s reputation among the population. The attitudes of the state in policing strike violence led to several public debates in the decades immediately preceding the First World War, on the biases of municipal police forces or gendarmerie units and on the use of soldiers as replacement workers. Through the topic of strikes, this chapter explores the relations between civilian, municipal, and military authorities in the Habsburg Empire and the strength of the rule of law on the ground. It also analyses the discrepancy between central decisions and local practices by looking at the vast regional differences between the core industrial bastions of the monarchy and the rural peripheries.