Administrative Reforms; the German Language Decree

The Josephinist attempts to reorganize, on a more rational basis, Transylvania's government and local administration encountered considerable difficulty. Reform at the centre was comparatively easy. Joseph II took a gradual approach to the unification of the Hungarian and the Transylvanian court chancelleries. On 7 May 1782, he charged the Hungarian court chancellery with the task of administering the Transylvanian Cameralia; then, on 27 May, he announced that he had decided to unify the two chancelleries.

The Staatsrat had misgivings about the change. It feared that combining the chancelleries would lead to the reunification of Hungary and Transylvania; if the Transylvanian chancellery was to lose its separate status, the state councillors would have preferred {2-720.} to subordinate it to the chancellery for Austria and the Czech lands. The Gubernium's main objections were of a constitutional nature; it also argued that there were religious differences between Transylvania and Hungary, and deplored that the Transylvanian estates would lose some chancellery posts and the income that went with them.

The interim head of the Transylvanian chancellery, György Bánffy, was joined by the Hungarian chancellor, Ferenc Esterházy, in proposing a compromise: the Transylvanian chancellery would come under the authority of the Hungarian chancellor, but the latter should be seconded by a Transylvanian vice-chancellor, and there should be separate sessions to deal with Transylvanian affairs. Having committed himself to unifying the chancelleries, Joseph II gave Esterházy free rein to work out how the combined council should function. As a result, the chancelleries were managed through a kind of 'personal union' until 1784, when they were full amalgamated.

In early 1786, the various branches of Transylvania's government became more closely integrated. This change caused less excitement, in part because it did not involve relations with Hungary, and also because it reflected a general pattern of government reform (similar steps were taken in Hungary). Pursuant to the reforms of 1699 and 1704, the Gubernium's jurisdiction had been limited to administrative and judicial affairs. Now, the Gubernium in Politicis et Camerabilus took over the former Gubernium's administrative functions as well as some of the treasury's responsibilities, while a Gubernium Judiciale was formed to serve as the high court of appeal. The Treasury, under the rather nominal supervision of the governor, was left with authority over the mint as well as the metal and salt mines; in spring 1787, these functions were taken over by the mining directorate at Zalatna. The inspiration for these changes could be found in the reforms of central government that Friedrich Haugwitz initiated in 1749 and which involved consolidation of public administration and of the Cameralia.

{2-721.} The reform of local government, and the attendant demarcation of territorial boundaries, presented more complex problems. One glance at Transylvania's administrative map was enough to persuade anyone that reform was overdue. Counties stretched east-west across the entire country, narrowing in places to the breadth of a couple of municipalities; Felső-Fehér County had been fragmented as a consequence of the formation of Saxon széks; and some Székely and Saxon széks, consisting of but a few villages, were no larger than a small district. This pattern was clearly incompatible with a modern administrative system, but there were obstacles to change. One was the powerful resistance of the local nobility (and, among Saxons, the patrician class), who did not want to lose their grip on the offices of local government, with the attendant status and emoluments. An even greater problem was the fragmentation of local government among three 'nations', each with its own communal and municipal rights, for, at least theoretically, the reform of the country's administrative-territorial system should not have to take into account ethnic distribution.

Even before launching its administrative reform, the Josephin-ist central government took some measures that weakened one of the pillars of the structure of 'nations': the privileges of the Saxons. The first step was to acknowledge the civil rights of Romanians in the Királyföld, the so-called concivilitas. As early as 1779, Michael von Heydendorf had voiced the fear (which was no doubt widely shared) that the future emperor would grant civil and national rights to the Romanians, and this 'to the great disadvantage of Transylvania's other nations'.[18]18. Heydendorf's diary, p. 29. The concivilitas decree was promulgated on 4 July 1781, but the enforcement of the new rights would not be easy. The next blow was more direct. On 22 April 1782, Joseph II summarily assigned the Saxon nation's assets to the Treasury, on the grounds that the Királyföld was a crown estate; the Fogaras domain, which was held in mortgage by the Saxon nation, was to be put out on lease, and the Treasury was to pay the salaries of {2-722.} Saxon officials. In the event, only the latter two clauses of the ordinance were implemented, but the Saxons were much perturbed by these developments.

On the eve of the reform, Transylvania was divided into eleven Hungarian counties, two Hungarian regions, five Székely széks (not counting the constituent, minor széks), nine Saxon széks, and two Saxon regions. The first reorganization, on 26 November 1783, divided Transylvania into ten counties, but this was amended to eleven counties the following year. The nation-based structure was thus abolished. In June 1786, the counties were grouped into three 'districts' (kerület); the seats of the district commissioners were at Szeben, Fogaras, and Kolozsvár.

Linked to these reforms was the designation of German as the language of administration. This was, and remains, one of the most controversial aspects of Joseph II's policy. The choice owed partly to the recognition that Latin was losing its utility, and partly to a wish to harmonize the governance of the empire. Since German was gaining ground as the administrative language in the empire's central government, it seemed logical to extend the practice to Hungary and Transylvania as well. The logic was less impressive from the perspective of Transylvania, where people of German extraction accounted for no more than 12–15 percent of the population; they were largely outnumbered by Hungarians, and the clear majority of the population was now Romanian. Latin, the former administrative language, may have become an anachronism, but it had the advantage of not being the mother tongue of any of the national groups in the country; to replace it with the language of the smallest national group did not particularly appeal even to the sober-minded Saxons.

Nevertheless, the language decree was promulgated on 11 May 1784. German was to become the official language of the Hungarian–Transylvanian court chancellery (apart from the Juri-dica, where the change was delayed for a year) on 1 November {2-723.} 1784. In Transylvania, German became the official language of communication in the central government and with the chancellery on the same date; lower levels of government were allowed to communicate in Latin for one more year, until 1 November 1785, when urban and other local authorities were also required to adopt German. After 1786, German would have become the official language of parliament as well, only the emperor did not convoke any diets.

On the dates specified above, knowledge of German became a condition of employment at the various levels of government and administration. In the case of lower ecclesiastical and civil posts, the same requirement came into effect in 1787. To ensure future proficiency, students were not to be admitted to secondary school after 1 November 1784 until they could demonstrate reading and writing ability in German. The language regulations were applied in a rather uneven fashion; until 1790, the Gubernium would circulate its decrees in two languages, German and Hungarian (or, occasionally, Latin). The introduction of German as the official language evidently caused severe problems, particularly at the lower levels of administration. The most enduring consequence of the reform was a considerable strengthening of Transylvanian–Hungarian nationalism. The Romanians were less affected, for their language had not been used for official written communication, and in places where officials communicated with the public in Romanian, the practice was continued. The Saxons, for their part, were mindful of the injunction Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos (Beware of Greeks bearing gifts) and prudently abstained from exploiting the situation.