The Austrian politician Karl Renner * 14th December 1870 † 31st December 1950 Karl Renner joined the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAP) in 1896. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Renner was involved in the Provisional and the Constitutional National Assemblies of *Cisleithania which was the predominantly German speaking part of the dissolved Empire. *Cisleithania (this side of the river Leitha) is a reference to the northern and western part of the Austro