Imperial Council (Austria)

Imperial Council

Reichsrat
Imperial Council ; Reichsrat
	Lesser coat of arms of Cisleithania (1915–1918)
Type
Type	Bicameral
Houses	House of Lords; House of Deputies
History
Founded	26 February 1861
Disbanded	12 November 1918
Preceded by	Imperial Diet
Succeeded by	Provisional National Assembly
Leadership
President of the House of Lords	Alfred III (last)
President of the House of Deputies	Gustav Groß (last)
Elections
Last election	1911
Meeting place
	Parliament Building; Vienna

The Imperial Council^[a] was the legislature of the Austrian Empire from 1861^[b] until 1918. It was a bicameral body: the upper house was the House of Lords (German: Herrenhaus), and the lower house was the House of Deputies (German: Abgeordnetenhaus). To become law, bills had to be passed by both houses, signed by the government minister responsible, and then granted royal assent by the Emperor. After having been passed, laws were published in the Reichsgesetzblatt (lit. Reich Law Gazette). In addition to the Imperial Council, the fifteen individual crown lands of Cisleithania had their own diets (German: Landtage).

The seat of the Imperial Council from 4 December 1883 was in the Parliament Building on Ringstraße in Vienna. Prior to the completion of this building, the House of Lords met in the Estates House of Lower Austria, and the House of Deputies met in a temporary wooden building designed by Ferdinand Fellner on Währinger Straße. The Imperial Council was dissolved on 12 November 1918, following Austria-Hungary's defeat in the First World War.
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[a]

[b]