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The Germans as an Integrating and Disintegrating Force

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Erich Zöllner
Erich Zöllner
Affiliation:
Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, University of Vienna
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Extract

In order to evaluate properly the position of the Germansin the Habsburg monarchy during the nineteenth century, certain factors whose roots go back to earlier centuries shouldbe taken into consideration. The explanation for many of theproblems under discussion in this paper can be found byexamining these roots.

Type
The Ruling Nationalities
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , January 1967 , pp. 201 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1967

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References

1 Schüssler, Wilhelm, Die nationale Politik der österreichischen Abgeordneten im Frankfurter Parlament. In Abhandlungen zur mittleren und neueren Geschichte, Vol. LI (Berlin: Rothschild, 1913)Google Scholar.

2 Compare with Leinwather, Ilse, Franz Grillparzer und die österreichische Geschichte (Unpublished dissertation, University of Vienna, 1948)Google Scholar; and numerous older publications, including Weber, Ottakar, “Grillparzer und sein Österreich,” Jahrbuch der Grillparzergesellschaft, Vol. XVI (1906), pp. 1–20Google Scholar; and Kainz, Friedrich, “Grillparzers Stellung im österreichischen Sprachen- und Nationalitatenkampf,” Historische Zeitschrift, Vol. CLXI (1940), pp. 498–531Google Scholar.

3 von Helfert, Joseph Alexander, Über Nationalgeschichte und den gegenwärtigen Stand ihrer Pflege in Österreich (Prague: J. G. Calve, 1853)Google Scholar. For an older study along these lines, see Wustl, Richardis, Der Begriff des Vaterlandes im politischen Denken Österreichs in der Zeit des ausklingenden Barocks bis zum Biedermeier (Unpublished dissertation, University of Vienna, 1940)Google Scholar.

4 See Rauchberg, Heinrich, Der nationale Besitzstand in Böhmen (3 vols., Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1905)Google Scholar; Bohmann, Alfred, Bevölkerungsbewegungen in Böhmen 1847–1947 (Munich: Collegium Carolinum [Selbstverlag], 1958)Google Scholar.

5 The fact that the first three presidents of the Austrian Republic— Renner, Körner, and Schärf—were Sudeten Germans who had moved to Vienna may be looked upon as an after-effect of this exodus to the Habsburg capital. Renner and Schärf were natives of southern Moravia; Körner was born into a military family stationed in the garrison city of Komorn, although the family home was in Kratzau, Bohemia. See Preradovich, Nikolaus, “Die Leistung der Sudetendeutschen in der Donaumonarchie 1848–1918,” Bohemia. Jahrbuch des Collegium Carolinum, Vol. I (1960), pp. 207–220Google Scholar; Hantsch, Hugo, “Die Beziehungen der Sudetendeutschen zu den Hochschulen Österreichs,” Der Donauraum, Vol. IV (1959), pp. 145–153 and 247Google Scholar.

6 Hecke, Wilhelm, Die Verschiedenheit der deutschen und slawischen Volksvermehrung in Österreich (Stuttgart: Enke, 1916)Google Scholar; Till, Rudolf, “Zur Herkunft der Wiener Bevölkerung,” Vierteljahrschrift für Sozialund Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Vol. XXXIV (1941), pp. 15–37Google Scholar; Otruba, Gustav and Rutschka, L. S., “Die Herkunft der Wiener Bevölkerung,” Jahrbuch des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Wien, Vol. XIII (1957), pp. 227–274Google Scholar.

7 von Helfert, Joseph Alexander, Aufzeichnungen und Erinnerungen aus jungen Jahren. Im Wiener konstituierenden Reichstag. Juli bis Oktober 1848 (Vienna: Hölder, 1904), p. 181Google Scholar. Helfert used the Czech way of spelling the Slav names of German representatives. Actually they spelled their names as Giskra, Schuselka, and Klutschak.

8 See, for instance, Weidlein, Johann, Die verlorenen Söhne. Kurzbiographien grosser Ungarn deutscher Abstammung (Vienna: ÜJberreuter, 1960)Google Scholar.

9 See Kann, Robert A., Werden und Zerfall des Habsburgerreiches (Graz: Styria, 1962), p. 22Google Scholar; and Allmayer-Beck, Johann Christoph, “Die Träger der staatlichen Macht. Adel, Armee und Bureaukratie,” in Spectrum Austriae, edited by Otto, Schulmeister, et al. (Vienna: Herder, 1957), pp. 252–286Google Scholar.

10 See Novotny, Alexander, “Kaiser Franz Joseph und die Nationalitatenfrage,” Österreich in Geschichte und Literatur, Vol. IV (1960), pp. 208–218Google Scholar.

11 In his Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este (Brünn: Rohrer, 1943), Georg Franz at times put too much emphasis on Francis Ferdinand's “German orientation,” but he always drew the right conclusions. See Kiszling, Rudolf, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este (Graz: Böhlau, 1953)Google Scholar.

12 Bihl, Wolfdieter, “Erzherzog Wilhelms austroukrainische Tätigkeit 1918,” Jahrbuch für Geschichte Osteuropas, Vol. XIV (1966), pp. 51–57Google Scholar.

13 Rutkowski, Ernst, “Aehrenthal fiber die innenpolitische Lage Österreich-Ungarns im Sommer 1899,“ Südostforsehungen, Vol. XXIII (1964), pp. 284–297Google Scholar.

14 Brunner, Otto, “Das Haus Österreich und die Donaumonarchie,” Südostforschungen, Vol. XIV (1955), pp. 122–144Google Scholar. Also in a special edition published in Munich in 1955 in honor of Harold Steinacker.

15 The role played by the monarch has been evaluated in a great variety of ways in the literature dealing with the subject. Gerda Bauer has shown how the appraisals made in England depended on the nature of foreign relations and the global situation at a given moment. See her Kaiser Franz Joseph I. im Spiegel der Geschichtsschreibung und Publizistik Englands (Unpublished dissertation, University of Vienna, 1966).

16 Prince-Bishop Georg von Kopp, of Breslau, was perhaps an exception. His diocese extended into Austrian territory. He championed the interests of the Germans in national disputes among the clergy in the Sudeten lands.

17 See Kann, Robert A., Das Nationalitätenproblem der Habsburgermonarchie (2 vols., Graz: Böhlau, 1964), Vol. II, pp. 210–224CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Rumpler, Helmut, Hussarek, Max. Nationalitäten und Nationalitätenpolitik in Österreich im Sommer des Jahres 1918 (Graz: Böhlau, 1965)Google Scholar.

18 Whitman, Sidney, Das Reich der Habsburger (Berlin: Carl Ulrich, 1892), p. 24Google Scholar. The book appeared simultaneously in London under the title The Realm of the Habsburgs.

19 Steed, Henry Wickham, Through Thirty Years (2 vols., Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1924), p. 390Google Scholar. Steed added that the Jews had made even stronger efforts to maintain the monarchy.

20 A clear exposition of this development can be found in Broszat, Martin, “Von der Kulturnation zur Volksgruppe. Die nationale Stellung der Juden in der Bukowina im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert,” Historische Zeitschrift, Vol. CC (1965), pp. 542–605Google Scholar. For the German-speaking Jewry, see also Kann, Robert A., “Hungarian Jewry during Austria- Hungary's Constitutional Period (1867–1918),” Jewish Social Studies, Vol. VII, No. 4 (October, 1945), pp. 357–386Google Scholar.

21 Among other works, see Olesker, Israel, Der Anteil der Juden an den Nationalkämpfen in Bohmen im 19. Jahrhundert (Unpublished dissertation, University of Vienna, 1934)Google Scholar.

22 See Preradovich, Nikolaus, Die Führungsschichten in Österreich und Preussen (180b-1918) (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1955)Google Scholar; Preradovich, Nikolaus, “Die politisch-militärische Elite in ‘Österreich’ 1526–1918,” Saeculum, Vol. XV (1964), pp. 393–420Google Scholar; and von Gschliesser, Oskar, “Die Träger der politischen Macht im alten Österreich,” Südostforschungen, Vol. XIV (1955), pp. 144–166Google Scholar. Some of the details in these studies need to be supplemented and others corrected.

23 In regard to this change in stature, see Brunner, Otto, Adeliges Landleben und europdäscher Geist (Salzburg: Otto Müller, 1949), pp. 313–339Google Scholar.

24 As Preradovich, for instance, does when he also lists the Habsburg- Lotharingians among the “Germans from the empire” because they had not come to Austria before 1736. It is quite acceptable, of course, to differentiate between residents of long standing and families who came later. For our problem, however, it is more important to know to which nationality each family or individual claimed to belong.

25 For further information, see Darthe, Eva Maria, Ludwig Graf Lebzeltern (1774–1854) (Unpublished dissertation, University of Vienna, 1966)Google Scholar.

26 It goes without saying that Georg “Ritter von” Schonerer was not a member of the aristocracy. His father, who was of lower middle class origins, had been knighted because of his accomplishments in railway construction.

27 See the table in Kann, Das Nationalitätenproblem der Habsburgermonarchie, Vol. II, p. 398.

28 See the lists in Preradovich, Die Führungsschichten in Österreich und Preussen, pp. 46–58. The reader should, however, always keep in mind the uncertainties in the author's terminology when Preradovich differentiates between “Austrians” and “Germans from the empire.” There is no work on the Austrian army that is comparable with Demeter's, KarlDas Deutsche Offizierskorps in Gesellschaft und Staat 1650–1945 (4th ed., Frankfurt: Bernard & Graefe, 1965)Google Scholar. However, the reader's attention is called to Allmayer-Beck, “Die Träger der staatlichen Macht. Adel, Armee und Bureaukratie;” and Kiszling, Rudolf, “Das Nationalitätenproblem in Habsburgs Wehrmacht 1848–1918,” Der Donauraum, Vol. IV (1959), pp. 82–91Google Scholar.

29 Winkler, Wilhelm, Die Totenverluste der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchic nach Nationalitäten (Vienna: L. W. Seidl, 1919), pp. 7–10Google Scholar; Winkler, Wilhelm, Statistisches Handbuch des gesamten Deutschtums (Berlin: Verlag Deutsche Rundschau, 1927), pp. 300–303Google Scholar.

30 See Benedikt, Heinrich, “Die Anfänge der Industrie in Mähren,” Der Donauraum, Vol. II (1957), pp. 38–51Google Scholar; and Benedikt, Heinrich, Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung der Franz-Joseph-Zeit (Vienna: Herold, 1958)Google Scholar.

31 See Mechtler, Paul, “Streiflichter auf das Nationalitatenproblem bei den österreichischen Eisenbahnen,” Mitteilungen des österreichischen Staatsarchivs, Vol. XV (1962), pp. 424–451Google Scholar.

32 I cannot accept Fran Zwitter's interpretation in regard to this point. See his Les problèmes nationaux dans la monarchie des Habsbourg (Belgrade: Comité Nationale Yougoslave des Sciences Historiques, 1960). See also Forst-Battaglia's, Otto review of Zwitter's book in Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Vol. LXIX (1961) pp. 433–436Google Scholar.

33 See Kann, Das Nationalitätenproblem der Hababurgermonarchie, Vol. I, pp. 193–197; and Jenks, William A., Austria under the Iron Ring 1879–1898 (Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia Press, 1965), pp. 239–274Google Scholar.

34 See Mommsen's, Hans critical and informative work on Die Sozialdemokratie und die Nationalitätenfrage im habsburgischen Vielvölkerstaat, Vol. I (Vienna: Europa Verlag, 1963)Google Scholar.

35 See ibid., especially p. 264.

36 In regard to this see Schnee's, Heinrich recent article on “Bismarck und der deutsche Nationalismus in Österreich,” Historisches Jahrbuch, Vol. LXXXI (1962), pp. 123–151Google Scholar. Schnee makes reference to the older pertinent literature. In regard to the most radical group, see Whiteside, Andrew G., Austrian National Socialism before 1918 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In any event, this movement was still veryweak and only of regional significance.

37 See Veiter, Theodor, Die Italiener in der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie. In Reihe Österreich-Archiv (Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 1965), pp. 28–36Google Scholar.

38 See Sutter, Berthold, Die Badenischen Sprachenverordnungen von 1897 (2 vols., Graz: Böhlau, 1960–1965)Google Scholar.

39 As cited in Kann, Das Nationalitatenproblem der Habsburgermonarchie, Vol. I, p. 422.

40 See my article on “Die kulturelle Ausstrahlung Wiens,” which will be published in the near future by Berger Verlag in Vol. V of the Rapports du XIIe Congrès International des Sciences Historiques 1965. See also various references in Valjavec, Fritz, Geschichte der deutschen Kulturbeziehungen zu Südosteuropa, Vol. IV (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1965)Google Scholar.