House of Lords (Austria)

House of Lords Herrenhaus
Lesser coat of arms of Cisleithania (1915–1918)
Type
Type	Upper house of the Imperial Council (Austria)
Leadership
President	Alfred III, Prince of Windisch-Grätz (1897–1918)
Seats	306 (1917)
Meeting place
Debating chamber of the House of Lords Austrian Parliament Building Vienna

The House of Lords (German: Herrenhaus, Czech: Panská sněmovna, Italian: Camera dei signori, Slovene: Gosposka zbornica, Polish: Izba Panów) was the upper house of the Imperial Council, the bicameral legislature of the Austrian Empire from 1861 and of the Cisleithanian (Austrian) half of Austria-Hungary upon the Compromise of 1867. Created by the February Patent issued by Emperor Franz Joseph I on 26 February 1861, it existed until the end of World War I and the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy, when on 12 November 1918 the transitional National Assembly of German-Austria declared it abolished. It was superseded by the Federal Council of the Austrian Parliament implemented by the 1920 Federal Constitutional Law.

First attempts to establish a Reichsrat advisory committee had been undertaken by the 1860 October Diploma. As Emperor Franz Joseph's position was weakened by the Second Italian War of Independence and the loss of Lombardy, the Austrian minister-president Count Johann Bernhard von Rechberg und Rothenlöwen sought for a close alliance with the haute bourgeoisie. However, the liberal-minded citizens demanded a parliamentary constitution which finally was promulgated by the 1861 February Patent. Elaborated under Count Rechberg's successor Archduke Rainer and State Minister Anton von Schmerling, it gave way for the transition of Austria to a constitutional monarchy. The newly established bicameral legislature of the Imperial Council included the House of Lords, meant as a class-oriented council to counterbalance the lower House of Deputies, which were sent by the provincial assemblies (Landtage). The Patent was rejected in the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary demanding an own constitution, which eventually led to the creation of the sovereign Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen in 1867.