Vienna High Court Process 1870

The Viennese High Court trial began on July 4, 1870, under the auspices of the Vienna District Court. The process was directed against fourteen workers and leaders of the Social Democratic Labor Party, among them Heinrich Oberwinder, Johann Most, Andreas Scheu, Pope and Perrin.

The occasion for the trial was a protest protestation held by the Gumpendorfer Arbeiterbildungsverein on December 13, 1869, in front of the Reichsratsgebaude, which received about 20,000 participants. It aimed at the political and trade union rights of the working class. Subsequently, the responsible organizers of the event were arrested under the charge of treason and charged with their "state-threatening" convictions.

Despite the lack of evidence, judgments were pronounced by the court on 19 July 1870. Heinrich Oberwinder, one of the pioneers of the German labor movement, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The top confidants of the organized workforce were sentenced to six years' imprisonment.

After this process, the authorities triggered most of the workers' training associations, the majority of which existed for only a few months. Most of them had not come until April 7, 1870, when the government had abolished the prohibition of coalition of the workers of 1864 for fear of a dangerous revolutionary development. The new right left unions there. Associations, however, remained banned. Despite all this, the power of the state continued to use every means to combat the trade unions and keep their influence low.

The closures in 1870 triggered new protests and several-day riots, which led the government to a new coalition law. In the aftermath the convicts were amnestied.

Twice in recent Austrian history, the state has attempted to put an end to the socialist movement forced into illegality by means of high-treason trials against the party leadership: 1870 in the Vienna High Court trial and 1936 in the great socialist process. On both occasions the authorities were informed about the activities of the party leaders by traitors and informers, and were able to arrest almost all the leading figures.

However, these administrative persecutions, such as the high treason trial in 1870, were also unable to prevent the development of the movement. Edit source text Weblinks Edit sourcetext

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