Habsburg Monarchy Research Articles

‘Under a Just King Every Soldier Is a Citizen’: Acclaiming Military Honour and Mobilizing Civic Action in the Habsburg Monarchy during the Coalition Wars

Abstract This article highlights the regular soldier’s place in political rhetoric that urged the Habsburg Monarchy’s inhabitants to view support for the war against Revolutionary and Imperial France as a moral imperative. It establishes how military honour as a system of sociality and social disciplining, founded on contemporary ideals of virtue and natural law, promoted acts of selfless citizenship within a newly formed standing army that supported Habsburg state-building in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The article then shows how regular soldiers of the Monarchy’s army were continually represented by the government and its supporters as selfless servants of the state, eliciting acts of loyalty in different places from those untouched by mandatory wartime demands. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which the educated middle class (Bürgertum) contributed to the Habsburg war effort through decades of localized wartime philanthropy. This article argues these people were motivated to do so through social and cultural changes that made self-identifying with the conscripted poor possible. By participating in civic society in this way, a generally progressive prewar segment of the population actively placed their view of the world within the constraints of the reactionary wartime Habsburg state by meeting military exigencies.

The Vlachs in Ottoman Borderlands: The Sanjak of Klis in the Middle of the 16th Century

The paper proposes the study of the Vlach population of the Ottoman Dalmatian hinterland in the middle of the 16th century, as described in the tax register (defter) of the sanjak of Klis from 1550, a document that allows for a better understanding of the social and economic history of southwestern Bosnia and the Herzegovina and parts of Lika, Krbava and Dalmatia, which all formed this administrational unit since 1537. The analysis outlined in the case study includes the problem of cross-border migrations, the specificity of transhumant economy, and the functioning of the “Vlach law” as well as the general status of the Vlach community in the Ottoman Empire, which can be also traced thanks to the abovementioned register. This document testifies that Vlachs were used to populate borderland areas, as it mentions that they settled in some deserted territories. Their migrations, which were sometimes caused by the colonization initiated by the authorities of the states (Venice, Habsburg Monarchy and Ottoman Empire) were partially facilitated by the internal social connections that characterized the Vlach community. The register clearly indicates that transhumance pastoralism practiced since the Early Middle Ages remained the main activity of the Vlachs in 16th century. Some of them also cultivated the land, although agriculture never became their main economic activity.

Issue of the Holy Trinity and Marian columns in the Habsburg Monarchy in the 17th–18th centuries (with particular reference to Polish lands) – the state of studies and research demands

Celem artykułu jest zestawienie stanu badań dotyczącego problemu kolumn Trójcy Świętej i maryjnych, powstających w XVII i XVIII w. Przyjęto podział na historiografie narodowe, współczesnych państw wchodzących w skład byłej Monarchii Habsburgów: Austrii, Czech, Słowacji, Węgier, Polski ( Śląsk i Ziemia Kłodzka), Niemiec, Słowenii, Chorwacji, Rumunii oraz badaczy ze Stanów Zjednoczonych. Pomimo licznych publikacji ( w szczególności czeskich), do tej pory niedostatecznie opracowano zagadnienie wpływu wczesnonowożytnych epidemii na fundacje kolumn Trójcy Świętej i maryjnych. Na pierwszym planie są stawiane raczej walory artystyczne oraz ideowy program kontrreformacyjny. Warto, więc szerzej zainteresować się kwestią środowiska fundatorów, lokalizacją monumetów oraz społecznym wymiarem całego zjawiska.

“The Cause of our Poverty is Colonia.” The Colonate System in the County of Gorizia and Gradisca during the Austro-Hungarian Empire

The paper examines the colonate system – a specific form of land dependency that persisted for almost a century following the abolition of feudal relations in 1848. It was a civil law relationship that involved mostly poor peasant families who did not own property, leasing land, a house, or an entire estate based on a contract, most often from noble families or wealthy rural landlords. The system resembled serfdom and was passed down from generation to generation between the coloni. It pushed colonate families to the margins of society and into poverty. The system persisted in the Habsburg monarchy, notably in the region of Gorizia and Gradisca, especially in the western parts. This paper will present the general features of the system, as it existed at the turn of the 19th century, as well as the attempts of the authorities to formally regulate it.

Microfinance Providers and Rural Lending in the Province of Carniola Before 1914: a Case Study of the District Credit Cooperative Litija

The study provides new insights and compares two different types of microfinance intermediaries and their role and impact on the economic and financial situation of the rural population before the beginning of World War I. The abolition of serfdom in the Habsburg monarchy in 1848 had a significant impact on traditional life in the second half of the 19th century. Peasants became landowners, and their participation in the market and monetary economy became crucial. The development of microfinance intermediaries, such as savings banks and credit cooperatives, was essential for the financial inclusion of the rural population. The article shows the development of credit operations in a rural environment using the example of the District Credit Cooperative Litija.

Zakonšpirované Slovensko 1938 – 1945. Niekoľko úvah nad tvárami neviditeľného spiritus movens ľudáckeho režimu

The paradigm of Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party (HSĽS) regime, as well as the persecutory measures implemented against fabricated “enemies of the nation” during its reign (October 1938 – April 1945), were based on conspiracy theories. This essay identifies the main ones, pointing out their genesis, intentionality, and ways of operating with them in political practice. The analysis shows that although many conspiracy frames used in wartime Slovakia correlated with narratives in other countries of the fascist Axis, they cannot be considered copypastes of rhetoric popularized mostly by Nazi Germany. The text promotes the idea that the conspiratorial thinking of the HSĽS already formed in the late Habsburg monarchy at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the changes in international politics in the 1930s only had an effect on their firmer establishment in the political culture of the party and political preferences of its supporters. The basis of this conspiratorial thinking was the fear of liberalism, of the threat to the Christian faith and the Slovak nation by a group of highly sophisticated interconnected “pests” with destructive intentions. Until 1918, it primarily included the Marxist left, capitalists, freemasons, and liberals in general, and after the creation of Czechoslovakia, Czechs, and Jews to an increased extent. The essay emphasizes that precisely the argumentation of conspiracy theories (“imperialism of Prague against Slovakia/Slovaks”, “Jewish Bolshevism”) provided the legitimizing platform for the repressive policy of the HSĽS regime and authorized violence against entire groups of the population that did not belong to the “ingroup”.

Collecting empires: Dominik Bilimek and early subterranean zoology between politics and field research

The Moravian Cistercian monk and collector Dominik Bilimek (1813–1884) is considered one of the earliest European naturalists to conduct zoological research on subterranean fauna in Latin America. During the second French invasion of Mexico, from 1861 to 1867, he accompanied Maximilian of Habsburg, the newly enthroned emperor of Mexico, to the region. There, he explored the Grutas de Cacahuamilpa near Taxco de Alarcón, comparing its fauna to his earlier discoveries in Postojnska jama in Carniola (Slovenia). After the victory of the Mexican republican forces and Maximilian’s execution, Bilimek retained his role as curator of the emperor’s collections, which he took back with him to Europe and exhibited at Miramare Castle near Trieste. Prior to his Mexican venture, Bilimek had embraced the imperial goals and intellectual agendas of the Viennese central administration while teaching at the monarchy’s military institutes. Following the revolutions of 1848/49, extensive research undertakings—including geoscientific, biological, and archaeological surveys—were initiated to preserve the Habsburg monarchy as a supranational entity amidst internal and external crises, and to legitimize its territorial framework as both a natural and cultural unit. These developments coincided with the initial surge of zoological interest in Carniolan caves, which spurred efforts to gather similar findings in other karst regions of the monarchy. Drawing on historical sources, this article explores the intersection of political concepts and fieldwork practices in the early study of cave biology. Special attention is given to the sites, networks, and modes of collecting during this transformative period.

Strategies of the “civilizing mission” of the Habsburg government in Galicia after the First Partition of Poland

The article is devoted to analysis of the “civilising mission” element in plans and strategies of the Habsburg Monarchy in the “Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria” during the first years after the First Partition of Poland. The imperial administration created an ambitious plan of reforms and transformations in Galicia, aimed at bringing the population of the province to progress and prosperity in the “Habsburg” sense of these terms and making them model citizens of the empire. In order to examine these plans, the reasons for their creation, and their short-term implementation, the texts of the first patents and orders of the Habsburg government, as well as reports of Habsburg officials employed in Galicia, will be analyzed, with particular emphasis on the “civilizing mission” element of these documents. Since the annexation of Galicia coincided with the popularity of the Enlightened Absolutism philosophy and the implementation of reforms in its spirit throughout the entire monarchy, the influence of this philosophy on the planned transformations in Galicia will also be studied.

Masterminded Choreographies

Austrian political culture is rooted in counter-reformation, in a specific Catholic-baroque theatricality. With its marches, parades, pageants, Dionysian art and populist politics, a very distinctive form of showmanship or staging already characterised the last decades of the Habsburg Monarchy. After 1918, the new republic picked up this thread—with less of the ‘Dionysian’ at the fore than the more sublime and solemn. From the mid-1920s onwards, all political camps focused on involving masses in their political manifestations, thus the structured amorphous crowds involved participants marching in rank and file and in military attire and unified mass bodies engaged in choreographed movement, forming images (and messages). However, the authors and organisers of such events often seemed to be more impressed by these performances than the audience or even the participants themselves. Although the ‘mass’ in contemporary phrasing was a ‘feeling’, an ‘experience’, or an ‘emotion’, it still had to be controlled: stadiums and arenas became architectural means of social control, accompanied by a plethora of security and policing measures. But with the advent of new media, the crowd organised itself differently and anew. As a result, both the social democratic, pan-German and Christian-conservative mass festivals in the late 1920s and early 1930s and the staged Austrofascist ‘Tributes to the Youth’ after 1934 quickly lost their appeal, while their audiovisual reproduction in radio or newsreels had no effect either. Even enormous logistical efforts and bureaucratic pressure could not prevent the mass stagings from becoming outdated.

Count Leopold I Berchtold and his contacts with Great Britain as a source of inspiration for his philanthropic activities

This paper deals with the British contacts made by Count Leopold I Berchtold (1759–1809), a prominent philanthropist from the Czech lands, as well as examining how these contacts influenced his activities and the spread of scientific knowledge to the Czech lands and presenting a rather unusual kind of cultural transfer between Britain and the Habsburg Monarchy involving philanthropism and medical science. The paper is based on the analysis of the sources stored in the Moravian Provincial Archive in Brno relating to Leopold’s life as well as on the analysis of some of his writings.

FIRST RESULTS OF SPATIAL PLANNING IN THE HABSBURG MILITARY FRONTIER: FRONTIER REGIMENTS, NUCLEATED SETTLEMENTS AND CADASTRAL SURVEY (C. 1745–1785)

There are numerous examples of spatial planning on the periphery of the Habsburg Monarchy, which was organised within the regiments of the Military Frontier in the second half of the 18th century. Our focus was on the territory of the Slavonian-Syrmian Military Frontier, the Šajkaš Battalion, and the Banat Military Frontier, where flat landscapes enabled various forms of state spatial intervention, approximately at the same time – around 1770. This paper presents some aspects important for understanding this complex topic, such as the influence of militarisation and centralisation, colonisation and spatial planning of settlements (following the nucleated settlement model), as well as the tight structuring of rural areas and parcelisation of arable land, and their final results in the form of land and tax reforms (cadastral surveying).

The court and judicial proceedings in the villages of Galychyna (between the end of the XVIIIth and the first half of the XIXth century)

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the functioning of the judicial system and the peculiarities of the judicial proceedings in the rural communities of Galicia between the end of the XVIIIth century and the first half of the XIXth century. The development of legal institutions following the annexation of Galicia to the Habsburg Monarchy is examined, particularly the introduction of the Austrian judicial system, which replaced traditional forms of rural adjudication. The primary focus is on the changes in the structure of courts, the jurisdiction of judges, the process of case hearings, and the participation of peasants in judicial proceedings. The article also characterizes the influences of political, social as well economic factors on judicial procedures and decisions. Special attention is given to the role of peasant self-governance and its integration into new legal norms. The article highlights a significant contribution to understanding the evolution of judicial proceedings in the rural areas of Galicia, which will foster a deeper comprehension of the processes of legal modernization in the Austrian Empire. It describes the impact of the Austrian administration on the judicial system, including a series of reforms aimed at unifying judicial proceedings and implementing Austrian law. This led to significant changes in the structure of the courts, their jurisdiction, and the procedures for implementing their decisions, as the peasants of Galicia had their own traditional legal customs and norms, which often conflicted with Austrian legislation. The integration processes associated with the introduction of the new justice system substantially affected the unique legal culture of the peasants, as rural courts had specific characteristics compared to urban and district courts. The article analyzes legislative acts and reforms introduced by the Austrian authorities in the field of judicial proceedings, their role, and their impact on judicial practice. It identifies the specific features of courts and judicial proceedings in the villages of Galicia during the period under study. The importance of researching this issue lies in understanding the evolution of legal norms, judicial practice, and their impact on the lives of the rural population. The study of the declared problem allows for a better understanding of the legal and social processes that took place in this part of Europe during the specified period. This not only supplements the general picture of the history of law but also helps to identify the roots of contemporary legal traditions and issues.

Book Review: Women, Nationalism, and Social Networks in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848–1918

Book Review: Women, Nationalism, and Social Networks in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848–1918

Enlightenment and Freemasonry in the Life and Work of the Physician Joannis Baptistae Lalangue

Data on the educational and Freemasonry activities of Doctor Joannis Baptistae Lalangue have been relatively modestly represented in the scientific literature until now. Based on recent research, we have come to the realizations that give us a new context for the life and work of Lalangue, especially from the aspect of his social activity. All of the above had very significant repercussions on his entire public health work and especially on his journalistic and publishing work. John the Baptist Lalangue was a successful physician. During his medical studies in Vienna, he was recognized by Baron van Swieten, the first name in medicine of the Habsburg Monarchy. Recent knowledge speaks of his very notable Enlightenment and Freemasonry work, which largely determined his life and work. Lalangue has created a truly impressive literary work, which is closely related to his active Enlightenment and public Masonry engagement. The mentioned progressive Enlightenment engagement is also responsible for the fact that thanks to Lalangue, we already had printed medical original professional literature in the Croatian language in the second half of the 18th century. This directly changed the conditions in society, primarily in the field of public health, for the better, not only in Croatia but also throughout the Habsburg Monarchy.

Prints and miniatures made by Donat Hübschmann in Vienna for clients from Hungary

Originating from Leipzig and active in Vienna, the printmaker and painter Donat Hübschmann (†1583) had clients from Hungary who were close to the joint Hungarian and Bohemian royal and imperial court in Vienna of the composite Habsburg Monarchy, to which the Kingdom of Hungary belonged. Miklós Oláh (Nicolaus Olahus), humanist prelate and Archbishop of Esztergom, and head of the Hungarian Court Chancellery based in Vienna, commissioned him to make a copy of his etched portrait. János Zsámboky (Johannes Sambucus), who entered court service as a humanist, ordered two works from him. In 1564–65 Zsámboky had an illustrated broadsheet made to commemorate the coronation in Pozsony (now Bratislava, Slovakia) as King of Hungary of Archduke Maximilian II of Habsburg in 1563, which was decorated with a woodcut by Donat Hübschmann: a veduta of Pozsony. Further, in 1566 he assigned Donat Hübschmann to produce a copy of the earliest surviving printed map of Hungary (Lazarus secretarius, Tabula Hungariae, 1528). Other Hungarian-related works can be found among the master’s prints, such as a woodcut portrait of Hans Francolin the Younger, Hungarian Herald of Ferdinand I. It is likely that Donat Hübschmann was also responsible for the painted decoration on five letters patent, which were commissioned by Hungarian noblemen and issued by the Hungarian Court Chancellery in Vienna. In every case, the miniature coats of arms were signed with the monogram “DH”. The calligraphic decoration of these can be attributed to the noted calligrapher György (George) Bocskay and his workshop.

The Nobility in State and Society: Administrative and Public Ways of Defining and Conceptualising the Nobility in the Late Habsburg Empire (1849–1914)

This study deals with the definition of the aristocracy in the late Habsburg Monarchy (1848-1916). It attempts to grasp this phenomenon in the “bourgeois age” from two perspectives: firstly, it is assumed that the state - with the establishment of a centralised administration—also ‘bureaucratised’ membership of the nobility in the nineteenth century. In the Habsburg administrative apparatus, there were therefore structures that regulated entry and advancement in this social class and established categories that defined and standardised the nobility from a state perspective. Social mobility was made primarily dependent on the achievements of the applicants. On the other hand, the social implications of the institutional decisions of the nobility and the policy of ennoblement are analysed. This form of honour was, as it were, worthless—for the applicant as well as for the state—if it did not receive public attention and recognition. It is therefore also necessary to ask from the opposite side how the public identified and defined the nobility and how those wishing to be ennobled tried to assert their claims with the help of official and informal channels.

Book Review: Larry Wolff: The Shadow of the Empress: Fairy-Tale Opera and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy

Book Review: Larry Wolff: <i>The Shadow of the Empress: Fairy-Tale Opera and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy</i>

Food Preparation and Cookbooks as a Medium of Everyday Contact between Jews and Christians in the Habsburg Monarchy and Imperial Germany

Abstract In the early nineteenth century, Jewish cookbooks appeared on the Central European book market for the first time. So far, these manuals have been studied primarily from the perspective of the preservation of Jewish identity, that is, as a marker of the extent to which kashrut could be preserved in the face of increasing acculturation to non-Jewish society. Little attention was paid to aspects of transfer or entanglement between Jewish and non-Jewish foodways despite the central role of food in everyday life. In my paper, I try to map possible encounters between Jews and Christians in the area of food preparation and eating outside one’s home before analyzing several Jewish and general cookbooks appearing in the Habsburg Monarchy and Imperial Germany. The fact that also non-Jewish cooking manuals integrated dishes perceived as Jewish indicates mutual influence and makes it evident that there was more Christian interest in Jewish foodways than assumed.

Food Preparation and Cookbooks as a Medium of Everyday Contact between Jews and Christians in the Habsburg Monarchy and Imperial Germany

Abstract In the early nineteenth century, Jewish cookbooks appeared on the Central European book market for the first time. So far, these manuals have been studied primarily from the perspective of the preservation of Jewish identity, that is, as a marker of the extent to which kashrut could be preserved in the face of increasing acculturation to non-Jewish society. Little attention was paid to aspects of transfer or entanglement between Jewish and non-Jewish foodways despite the central role of food in everyday life. In my paper, I try to map possible encounters between Jews and Christians in the area of food preparation and eating outside one’s home before analyzing several Jewish and general cookbooks appearing in the Habsburg Monarchy and Imperial Germany. The fact that also non-Jewish cooking manuals integrated dishes perceived as Jewish indicates mutual influence and makes it evident that there was more Christian interest in Jewish foodways than assumed.

Neporočene matere med normami in prakso

In the Habsburg Monarchy, the civil rights of illegitimate mothers and children were primarily regulated by the Austrian Civil Code of 1811. Under this code, illegitimate children did not enjoy the same rights as legitimate ones. Nevertheless, the illegitimate father was obligated to provide for them. The extent to which this progressive principle in Austrian law was practically implemented remains uncertain. This study investigates the frequency with which illegitimate mothers pursued legal recourse when fathers refused financial responsibility for their children. Additionally, it examines how often these mothers successfully obtained paternity recognition. The paper addresses these inquiries by analysing one hundred preserved custody court files from the District Courts in Rakek, Lož, and Cerknica between 1899 and 1945, alongside other relevant civil law documents.