Abstract: Political Career and Social Advancement. Conservative and Christian Social Politicians from Vorarlberg as an Example (1860-1918/19). As far as the political developments in Vorarlberg were concerned, Martin Thurnher and Johann Kohler have lived in a time of rapid changes. Many of the newly elected deputies to the provincial parliament in 1870, and later also to the Imperial Council, now came from a petty or lower middle-class milieu. For them, political involvement, supported by structural factors such as the successive extension of voting rights to lower social strata, and the increasingly professional self-organization of the Catholic-conservative camp, provided an opportunity for social mobility. Martin Thurnher and Johann Kohler are just two examples of how political engagement enabled social advancement. Further quantitative and qualitative research would provide important insights into the social processes set in motion by the emergence of modern mass parties and the expansion of political participation.

Keywords: social mobility, parliamentarism, Habsburg Monarchy, Imperial Council