SEIPEL, IGNAZ

Austrian priest, statesman; b. Vienna, July 19, 1876;d. Pernitz, Lower Austria, Aug. 2, 1932. After ordination (1899) he gained a doctorate in theology (1903) and became professor of moral theology in Salzburg (1909) and Vienna (1917). A student and disciple of the social theorist and moral theologian Franz Schindler, he served as minister for social welfare in the last imperial cabinet, that of Heinrich Lammasch (1918), and as a member of the constitutional convention (1919). As leader of the Christian Social party from 1921, he was chancellor five times (1922–24, 1926–29). After the monarchy's downfall (November 1918) Seipel played a decisive role in creating a new state without bloodshed or strife and prevented a split of the Christian Social party into monarchial and republican wings. Along with Cardinal Piffi, Archbishop of Vienna (1913–32), Seipel was the outstanding Catholic opponent of Austrian Marxism's anti-religious propaganda. As head of the Bürgerblock, a coalition regime of all the non-Socialist parties, he led a heroic battle to win foreign acceptance of his country. By stabilizing the currency he preserved his nation's vitality and independence. In the July revolt (1927) his decisive action averted civil war and Communist seizure of power. The unbridled leftist agitation against Seipel's person and priesthood led to an assassination attempt (1924) and gave rise to a strong movement of separation from the Church. Political opposition and failing health caused Seipel to retire from governmental affairs (April 1929), save for a short term as foreign minister (1930).

Seipel was the father of the 1929 Austrian constitution. His last years were preoccupied with questions of the social order, advanced in Pius XI's encyclical quadragesimo anno (1931). During a very critical period he was a statesman of European stature, who esteemed the common welfare above party politics and based his policies on fundamental principles of Christian outlook and morality. To him the "restoration of souls" ranked higher than economic and financial health. He was a man broad in vision, clear in concepts, and practical in handling problems. Friend and foe esteemed his democratic disposition and personal unpretentiousness. His diaries reveal a lofty character, ascetic, priestly, self-sacrificing, and self-controlled. Although a prelate and prothonotary apostolic who delighted in ecclesiastical functions, he declined higher Church offices, including the archbishopric of Salzburg, because he believed his lifework lay in striving by political rather than purely religious means for the welfare and upbuilding of a Christian Austria. His publications include scholarly works, as well as his diary and speeches.

Bibliography: Works. Reden in Österreich und anderwärts, ed. j. gessl (Vienna 1926); Mensch, Christ, Priester in seinem Tagebuch, ed. r. blÜml (2d ed. Vienna 1934); Die wirtschaftsethischen Lehren der Kirchenväter (Vienna 1907); Nation und Staat (Vienna 1916); Die geistigen Grundlagen der Minderheitenfrage (Vienna 1925); Der Kampf um die österreichische Verfassung (Vienna-Leipzig 1930). Literature. b. birk, Dr. Ignaz Seipel (Regensburg 1932). w. thormann, Ignaz Seipel, Der europäische Staatsmann (Frankfurt a. M. 1932). h. benedikt, ed., Geschichte der Republik Österreich (Munich 1954). a. m. knoll, Neue österreichische Biographie, v.9 (Vienna 1956) 113–129. a. diamant, Austrian Catholics and the First Republic (Princeton 1960). a. wandruszka, Staatslexikon, ed. Görres-Gesellschaft, 8 v. (6th, new and enl. ed. Freiburg 1957–63) 7:23–24, j. a. tzÖbl, in Gestalter der Geschicke Österreichs, ed. h. hantsch (Innsbruck 1962) 579–609.

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