In Austria Samson Hirsch held the office for the province of Moravia from 1847 to 1851. He was elected according to the complicated method prescribed in the law issued by Maria Theresa. At the time of his resignation the legal position of the Jewish communities was in a state of chaos owing to the events of 1848, which had played havoc with the principles on which the legislation rested. The government then appointed as substitute Abraham Placzek of Boskowitz, who in his last years had his son Baruch Placzek of Brünn appointed as his assistant. An attempt made by Baron Moritz Königswarter, who was a member of the House of Lords, to introduce into the law of 1890 regulating the legal status of the Austrian Jewish congregations a clause reestablishing the office of "Landesrabbiner" of Moravia was defeated in the lower house of the "Reichsrath" (Löw, ""Das Mährische Landesrabbinat"", in ""Gesammelte Schriften"", ii. 215–218, Szegedin, 1890; D'Elvert, ""Zur Gesch. der Juden in Mähren und Oesterreich. Schlesien"", pp. 209–211, Brünn, 1895; Willibald Müller, ""Beiträge zur Geschichte der Mährischen Judenschaft"", pp. 157–165, Olmütz, 1903). Baruch Placzek is, however, officially addressed by the government authorities as ""Landesrabbiner""; he recently appointed Solomon Funk, rabbi of Boskowitz, as his substitute, an appointment which the government confirmed (""Oesterr. Wochenschrift"", 1904, p. 190). The office existed also in Siebenbürgen early in the 19th century.