“You Do Everything for the Emperor, While He Leaps on His Wife All by Himself!”
Insults to Franz Joseph in the First Decade of His Imperial Career
Keywords:
Franz Joseph, 19th century, insult to the authorities, criminal law, agrarian reformAbstract
The ever-popular practice of insulting the authorities and their highest representatives has been prosecuted and penalized in different ways at different times. The article presents examples of penalties for disrespectful talk about the Emperor Franz Joseph in the 1850s, when the 1852 Penal Code applied. One particularly interesting case is that of a slanderer who was sentenced to the maximum punishment available, i.e. five years of close arrest. The case is extraordinary owing to the length of the penalty because usually the insulters of His Majesty were sentenced to a few months behind bars.
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