A Revolutionary's “Stravaganza”: Police and Morality in the Habsburg Empire (1780–1830)

Abstract During the era following the Enlightenment, the police became the main institution to oversee the maintenance of public order in many European cities. Their activities also shaped the idea of public order and public morality. The police were important in the context of political change and perceived “threat of revolution” but also in other areas, including the control of movement and residence. From the end of the eighteenth century, criminal codes were changing, and in the Habsburg monarchy, these changes included the definition of a new category of less grave “police delicts.” This study compares police norms and practice in the period of 1790–1830. Using several concrete examples, the author investigates whether the approach of the police and the authorities to moral offenses changed in connection with social and political developments (reaction to revolutions, restoration, changes in the influence of the Church). The aim of the study is to analyze whether the Habsburg police, in an era of more liberal legislation, played a similar restrictive role in the area of moral offenses as they did in controlling political activities.