Monsignor Ignaz Seipel was one of the most important Austrian politicians of the 20th Century. In the last days ofthe monarchy, he became minister for social affairs in the last imperial-royal government and played an active roleduring the collapse of the monarchy. After the proclamation of the republic in 1918, Seipel worked in the ConstitutionalCommittee and presented its draft to the Constitutive National Assembly, which adopted the text on 1st October1920. Later, Seipel became head of the Christian-Social Party and Federal Chancellor. The present article dealsparticularly with the substantive positions of Seipel on the problems of nationalities and estates, on monarchy andrepublic and most of all, on Seipel’s thinking on democracy. It turns out that Seipel was not a friend of a Westernunderstanding of democracy.