JOSEPH II

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Joseph II
(Vienne, 1741 — id., 1790). Empereur germanique (1765-1790).

Fils aîné de François Ier et de Marie-Thérèse, disciple des philosophes, il voulut gouverner selon les principes de la raison et être le type parfait du despote éclairé. Lorsqu'il devint seul maître de l'Empire, à la mort de sa mère (1780), il entreprit d'unifier ses États en imposant partout la même langue, l'allemand, et la même organisation administrative centralisée. Il proclama l'égalité de tous devant la loi, abolit le servage, favorisa l'accès de la paysannerie à la propriété et établit un impôt foncier payable par tous, nobles compris. Cependant, certaines de ces mesures suscitèrent de profondes résistances et la fin du règne fut difficile, marquée notamment par des revers dans la guerre contre les Turcs (1788) et par la révolte des Pays-Bas (1789).

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Réforme de l'administration sous Joseph II (1784)

Joseph II, fils aîné de François Ier et de Marie-Thérèse, devint seul seul maître de l'Empire, à la mort de sa mère (1780). En despote éclairé, il voulut rationaliser et moderniser le gouvernement de ses États.

Pour faire fonctionner cette machine administrative qu'était devenu l'État centralisateur, le dévouement des fonctionnaires n'était pas suffisant ; il fallait une langue commune.

C'était une affaire politique et technique, non une affaire nationale, mais le choix de l'allemand comme langue administrative commune eut de graves répercussions culturelles. Les progrès de cette langue en Bohême et en Hongrie pouvaient bien faire augurer de la suite, d'autant qu'il ne s'agissait pas d'éliminer les cultures nationales -- Joseph II pensait même leur donner une vigueur nouvelle. Dès 1784, l'allemand devint langue administrative unique ;tous les futurs fonctionnaires devaient l'apprendre, les écoles de Bohême, de Hongrie et de Galicie seraient pourvues de professeurs d'allemand. L'empereur se référait au modèle français, anglais ou russe.

La germanisation des cadres demeure sous Joseph II un phénomène complexe. Elle correspond au prodigieux essor de la culture allemande dans les États protestants du Reich. L'empereur, contemporain de Goethe et de Schiller, autorise les jeunes gens doués à suivre les cours de l'université de Göttingen. En même temps qu'il impose l'allemand comme langue administrative unique, il favorise une renaissance culturelle tchèque et aide les cultures nationales. C'est lui qui crée le théâtre national allemand de la Cour, le célèbre Hofburgtheater, promis à un bel avenir, afin de briser, à Vienne, le monopole culturel de l'italien. 

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born March 13, 1741 , Vienna
died Feb. 20, 1790 , Vienna

Holy Roman emperor (1765–90), at first co-ruler with his mother, Maria Theresa (1765–80), and then sole ruler (1780–90) of the Austrian Habsburg dominions. An “enlightened despot,” he sought to introduce administrative, legal, economic, and ecclesiastical reforms—with only measured success.

Early years.

Joseph, the eldest son of Maria Theresa and Francis Stephen of Lorraine (the future emperor Francis I), was strictly and thoroughly educated. When Maria Theresa appointed him to the Council of State, he exhibited unusual intelligence and an intense interest in politics. Joseph's first marriage in 1760 to the Bourbon princess Isabella of Parma, whom he loved passionately, …

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1741–90, Holy Roman emperor (1765–90), king of Bohemia and Hungary (1780–90), son of Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, whom he succeeded. He was the first emperor of the house of Hapsburg-Lorraine (see Hapsburg). 1

Early Reign
From the death of his father (1765) to the death of his mother (1780) Joseph ruled the Hapsburg lands jointly with his mother but had little authority. As a young man he had been profoundly impressed by the subhuman conditions of the peasantry that he saw while touring the provinces. Joseph was impatient with the slowness of Maria Theresa’s reforms and on her death he was ready with a full revolutionary program. 2

Reforms
After his mother’s death Joseph instituted far-reaching reforms that were more the result of his personal philosophy and principles than of the philosophy of Enlightenment. He contemplated nothing less than the abolition of hereditary and ecclesiastic privileges and the creation of a centralized and unified state administered by a civil service based on merit and loyalty rather than birth. He planned a series of fiscal, penal, civil, and social laws that would have established some measure of social equality and security for the masses. A strong exponent of absolutism, he used despotic means to push through his reforms over all opposition in order to consolidate them during his lifetime. 3
Although Joseph was a faithful Roman Catholic, he also instituted a series of religious reforms aimed at making German Catholicism independent of Rome. He forbade religious orders to obey foreign superiors, suppressed all contemplative orders, and even sought to interfere with the training of priests. A personal visit (1782) of Pope Pius VI to Vienna did not halt these measures. The Patent of Tolerance (1781) provided for extensive, although not absolute, freedom of worship. 4
Joseph’s main piece of legislation was the abolition (1781) of serfdom and feudal dues; he also enabled tenants to acquire their own lands from the nobles for moderate fees and allowed peasants to marry whom they wished and to change their domicile. Joseph founded numerous hospitals, insane asylums, poorhouses, and orphanages; he opened parks and gardens to the public; and he legislated to provide free food and medicine for the indigent. In judicial affairs Joseph liberalized the civil and criminal law codes, abolishing torture altogether and removing the death penalty. 5

Opposition and Failure
In fiscal matters Joseph was influenced by the physiocrats. He ordered a general reassessment of land preparatory to the imposition of a single land tax. This reform met with widespread opposition. Still more unpopular, however, was his attempt to abrogate local governments, customs, and privileges in his far-flung and multilingual dominions, which he divided into 13 circles centrally administered from Vienna. He even sought to impose German as the sole official language; a multilingual administration seemed irrational to him. 6
Revolts broke out in Hungary and in the Austrian Netherlands (see Netherlands, Austrian and Spanish); these were subsequently halted during the reign of Leopold II, Joseph’s brother and successor, who rescinded Joseph’s reforms in these lands. Most of Joseph’s reforms did not outlive him. His failure to make them permanent was largely caused by his lack of diplomacy, by his untimely death, by the reaction produced by the French Revolution, and by his unsuccessful foreign policy. Moreover, his scattered and varied lands offered poor conditions for reform. 7

Foreign Problems
Joseph’s plan to annex Bavaria to Austria and thus to consolidate his state was frustrated in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–79); his project to exchange the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria was thwarted (1785) by King Frederick II of Prussia, who formed the Fürstenbund [princes’ league] for that purpose. Joseph allied himself with Czarina Catherine II of Russia (whom he accompanied incognito on her Crimean journey), hoping to share in the spoils of the Ottoman Empire. Austria joined Russia in the war of 1787–92 against the Ottoman Empire, but was unsuccessful. 8

Assessment
Obsessed with his social responsibility, Joseph found only occasional time to interest himself in any but the utilitarian arts. With the exception of the pliable Kaunitz, Joseph’s ministers found it difficult to collaborate with him. Joseph was hated and ridiculed by the clergy and nobles, but he was the idol of the common people. Judgments on Joseph II vary widely, but it is certain that he left a socially freer state on his death than he had found on his accession. 9

Bibliography
See S. K. Padover, The Revolutionary Emperor, Joseph II (rev. ed. 1967); P. P. Bernard, Joseph II (1968). 10


The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2002 Columbia University Press

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