page_title: President of Austria
section_title: Commander-in-chief
hierarchical_section_title: President of Austria / Powers and duties / Commander-in-chief
caption_attribution_description: English: Austrian President becomes commander in chief
context_page_description: The president of Austria is the head of state of the Austrian Republic. Though theoretically entrusted with great power by the Constitution, in practice the president is largely a ceremonial and symbolic figurehead.
  The president is directly elected by universal suffrage every six years and can continuously remain in office for twelve years. The president is – along with the ministers, state secretaries and members of state cabinets – a supreme executive organ. One of the best known and most important presidential tasks is the appointment of the chancellor and, upon his advice, the other members of Cabinet.
  The president ranks first in Austria's order of precedence, being ahead of the president of the National Council and the chancellor. Presidential workplaces are located in the Leopoldine Wing of the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna.
  The office of President was formed by the Constitution on 1 October 1920. The constitutional amendment of 1929 established that the president was to be elected by the people. Nevertheless, the re-election of President Wilhelm Miklas in 1931 was conducted by the Federal Assembly. Even Karl Renner was still elected by the Federal Assembly in 1945.
context_section_description: The president is the commander-in-chief of the Austrian Armed Forces, a role the president derived from the constitutional amendment of 1929. While there is no unanimous juridical or scholarly consensus regarding the amendment's interpretation, the role is widely considered a very powerful reserve right.
  Article 80 of the Constitution establishes how the military is to be governed. Clause 1 of that article states "the President shall hold Supreme Command over the Armed Forces", Clause 2 states "if not the President has disposal authority over the military, as established by the Defense Law, the minister responsible [Minister of Defense] shall have disposal authority within a scope of responsibility defined by the Cabinet", and Clause 3 states that "command authority over the military shall be exercised by the minister responsible [Minister of Defense]".
  The Constitution therefore distinguishes between three different types of military authority: "disposal authority" (=Verfügungsgewalt), which entails one to define the structures, tasks, and missions of the Armed Forces or individual military units; "command authority" (=Befehlsgewalt), which grants one the plain right to issue verbal or written military orders; and "supreme command" (=Oberbefehl), which elevates one to the peak of military hierarchy. The latter one (which Clause 1 grants exclusively to the president) has particularly been ambiguous and inconclusive. However, the majority of constitutional scholars – including Constitutional Court president Ludwig Adamovich – believe that the president in this capacity, outranks the minister of defense and all military personnel.
  Since no president has ever made use of this power, legal precedents were never established. The military's day-to-day operations are overseen and administered by the minister of defense, who serves as the chief military officer of the armed forces and is broadly recognized as the de facto highest authority. Key decisions on the use of the armed forces are usually made by the Cabinet.
  As commander-in-chief, the president succeeds the emperor in his capacity as supreme commander of the Austro-Hungarian Military. Ensuing the end of the Habsburg monarchy in 1918, the Principal Committee of the National Council functioned as paramount decision-making authority of the then-newly established Bundesheer. In 1929, the Christian Social Party transferred supreme military command from the Principal Committee to the president through a constitutional amendment, in order to advance fascism in Austria.
  The president can definitely issue exceptional recruitment measures and possesses the right to be comprehensively informed.
caption: Newspaper Das Interessante Blatt reporting on the constitutional amendment of 1929
exif: {}