Karl von Vogelsang, portrait drawing

The conflicting interests of the different social classes and of the different nationalities meant that the political and ideological movements that were developing within the Habsburg Monarchy in the second half of the 19th century were extremely heterogeneous. This was also reflected in the party landscape. However, two major lines of development can be distinguished, conservatism and liberalism.

The beginnings of the Christian Social Party are to be found firstly in the Catholic Social Reform movement of a certain Freiherr Karl von Vogelsang, and secondly, in the Vienna small trades movement, whose aim was to maintain the competitiveness of small businesses against large-scale industry.