Аннотация:This article aims at investigating how 18th century Imperial Aulic counsillors came to enjoy salaries and old-age pensions in an era before these were legally standardized. As functionaries in the emperorâs service, they were not only the addressees of supplications, but would also act as petitioners themselves. In order to receive recompense for their professional tasks, they had to submit written appeals which then would be graciously granted by the emperor. In the course of 18th century processes of bureaucratization, salaries and old-age pensions were increasingly disassociated from the emperorâs lifetime and would no longer expire upon the emperorâs death. This process culminated in the first Pensions Act (Pensionsnormale) decreed by Joseph II in March 1781, thus ensuring better pension benefits for state servants and their family members.
