Moravian Diet

The Moravian Diet (Moraviae generali colloquio; Moravský zemský sněm; earlier Moravský stavovský sněm; Mährisch-ständische Landtag) was the legislature of Moravia, the Diet, or general assembly, of the Estates of the Margraviate of Moravia. It emerged from earlier informal assemblies, known as the Moravian corporate Diet (or Diet of estates of the Moravian Lands).

History
The first session of the Moravian Diet took place in 1254. It was convened in Brno, the then-capital city of Moravia, by King Přemysl Otakar II. Regular sessions started in 1288 and met alternately in Brno and Olomouc (both cloisters of the Dominican Order). After 1663, it met only in Brno.

The Liberal Constitution
In the Year of Revolution 1848 (Spring of Nations), from May 31, 1848, until January 21, 1849, a Moravian constitutional assembly was held. On September 19, 1848, this assembly adopted the Moravian Constitution (German: Der Ferfassung für das Markgrafthum Mähren, Czech: Zřízení pro Markrabství Moravské). This complies with the principles of the Federal Constitution, state representative government, and civil liberties. Later this proposal was not ratified by Emperor Francis Joseph I.

Moravian Compromise
On November 27, 1905, leading members of the Moravian Diet from both the Czech-speaking and German-speaking communities in Moravia agreed to a political compromise that divided power in the provincial diet between Czechs, Germans, and members of the landowning and ecclesiastical aristocracy. The Moravian Compromise was one of the few positive examples of an approach to a fair solution in the field of nationalities policies. Despite the deadlock in the language dispute between Czechs and Germans, a compromise acceptable to both sides and allowing a harmonious coexistence was found here.

The Moravian Compromise of 1905 was a compromise over what national equality of rights meant. The Czech and German understanding of it and the compromise between them even found numerical expression — in the proportions set by the compromise for staffing nationally shared public institutions, such as Crownland legislation and administration, and for funding nationally partitioned ones, such as schools.

The electoral conditions were altered so as to include, in addition to the three electoral classes of the great landowners, the taxpayers in urban areas, and the taxpayers in rural districts, a fourth universal electoral class consisting of every qualified voter; separate German and Czech electoral districts were established according to the national land registers; and curia of the separate nationalities were instituted to settle all disputes involving the question of nationality. The question of language in the case of the autonomous national and district authorities had been settled on a bilingual basis, and the division of the school board according to nationality was accomplished. Although, by the acceptance of this franchise reform, the Germans lost their previous majority in the Diet, they gave their consent to the changes in the interests of public peace. Politically speaking, the Margraviate of Moravia was an Austrian crown land, with the highest administrative authority being vested in the governor at Brno. The Diet consisted of 149 deputies: 2 members with individual votes, the Archbishop of Olomouc and the Bishop of Brno; 30 members of the landed interests (10 German, 20 Czech); 3 deputies from the Chamber of Commerce of Brno and from that of Olomouc; 40 representatives of the towns (20 German, 20 Czech); 51 representatives of the rural communities (14 German); 20 deputies from the electoral curia (6 German). In the Reichstrat (Imperial Parliament in Vienna) of the Austrian Crownlands, Moravia was represented by 49 deputies.