Linz program

Linz program, expression of German nationalist radicalism within Austria-Hungary, named after its town of origin in Upper Austria (Oberösterreich). It was drafted in 1882 by the extreme nationalist Georg Ritter von Schönerer and subsequently by Victor Adler, Engelbert Pernerstorfer, Robert Pattai, and Heinrich Friedjung. Their main hope was to centralize the administration under German leadership while removing Slavic areas from the Austrian Empire. They demanded autonomy for Galicia (the northeasternmost part of the empire) under its Polish inhabitants and for Dalmatia (in part the coastal territory of modern Croatia) under its Italian minority, though they were ready to add the two to Hungary if the Magyars, many of whom disliked the Dual Monarchy, supported the Germans in Austria. The program degenerated into anti-Slav sentiment, specifically a dispute over the administrative partition of Bohemia. Other demands of the Linz program were for extended franchise, progressive taxation, and protective legislation for the poorer sections of the community.