The Lower Austrian parliament dates back to the medieval meetings of the estates, the so-called Landtaidinge. These were the prelates (ecclesiastical nobility), the lords (high secular nobility), the knighthood (low secular nobility) and the status of the princely towns and markets. The constitutions and draft constitutions of the following years regularly provided for a state parliament for Lower Austria, but it only became reality in 1861 with the
February Patent. According to the "Landes-Ordnung für das Erzherzogthum Oesterreich unter der Enns", which was issued by this patent and was valid until 1918, the Landtag should consist of 66 members, namely: the
Archbishop of Vienna, the
Bishop of St. Pölten, the Rector of the
University of Vienna, furthermore 15 members of the Großgrundbesitz, 28 members of the towns and markets as well as of the chambers of commerce and trade and twenty members of the rural communities. As a result of this
curia system, the right to vote was extremely unequal and, moreover, limited to about 7% of the population due to a census voting law in place for towns and rural communities, i.e. eligibility to vote was subject to a certain tax payment by the voter. A remarkable step backwards was taken in 1888 with the explicit abolition of the previously upright right to vote for women. On 20 March 1919, a new electoral law was enacted which introduced universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage for all citizens residing in Lower Austria without distinction of sex. Moreover, Lower Austrian farmers did not want to be governed by the social democratic Viennese, and the social democratic Viennese did not want to be hindered in left-wing politics by conservative Lower Austrians. For this reason, the separation of Vienna and Lower Austria was agreed in the Grand Coalition and adopted by the Constituent National Assembly on 1 October 1920. which came into force on 18 November 1920. The new Lower Austria without Vienna adopted the Constitution of the Land of Lower Austria on 30 November 1920. In order to coordinate the division of the previous state property, the joint Lower Austrian parliament, if necessary divided into the two curia Vienna and Lower Austria Land, was formally preserved until the end of 1921, On February 12, 1934, the Dollfuss dictatorship banned Austrian social democracy, thus depriving the Lower Austrian parliament of its democratic basis. On 1 July 1934, the Landtag was dictatorially transformed into a Parliament of Estates, consisting of 36 mandataries sent in by the professions. With the
Anschluss in 1938, the state parliament was dissolved. The administration of the
Reichsgau Niederdonau was headed by a
Gauleiter appointed by Adolf Hitler. As a result of the vote on its own state capital, the Landtag moved to St. Pölten on 21 May 1997. Subsequently, the building in Vienna, which for centuries had been known as a Landhaus, was renamed to Palais Niederösterreich to facilitate the use of the building for non-political purposes. ==References==