STEINBACH, EMIL

STEINBACH, EMIL (1846–1907), Austrian lawyer and politician who became minister of finance. Born in Vienna, Steinbach practiced and taught law until 1874 when he was appointed an official in the Ministry of Justice under julius glaser . Following his baptism in 1886 he was made a department head in the Ministry of Justice and pioneered legislation in social reform and workers' insurance. On becoming minister of finance in 1891 Steinbach introduced tax reforms and a new currency, the crown in place of the florin, basing it on the gold standard. After the fall of the government following the defeat of his electoral reform bill, Steinbach became a supreme court judge. He was president of the Supreme Court from 1904 until his death. His publications include Die Moral als Schranke des Rechtserwerbs und der Rechtsausueb ung (1898); Zur Friedensbewegung (1899), Der Staat und die modernen Privatmonopole (1903). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Spitzmueller, in: Neue Oesterreichische Biographie 1815 – 1918, 2 (1925), 48–62, incl. bibl.; L. Wittmayer, in: Jahrbuch fuer Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft (1907), 553–75. (Josef J. Lador-Lederer)