MULTICULTURAL CITIES OF THE HABSBURG EMPIRE, 1880 -1914 : imagined communities and conflictual ... encounters

Catherine Horel has undertaken a comparative analysis of the societal, ethnic, and cultural diversity in the last decades of the Habsburg Monarchy as represented in twelve cities: Arad, Bratislava, Brno, Chernivtsi, Lviv, Oradea, Rijeka, Sarajevo, Subotica, Timișoara, Trieste, and Zagreb. By purposely selecting these cities, the author aims to counter the disproportionate attention that the largest cities in the empire receive. With a focus on the aspects of everyday life faced by the city inhabitants (associations, schools, economy, and municipal politics) the book avoids any idealization of the monarchy as a paradise of peaceful multiculturalism, and also avoids exaggerating conflicts. The author claims that the world of the Habsburg cities was a dynamic space where many models coexisted and created vitality, emulation, and conflict. Modernization brought about the dissolution of old structures, but also mobility, the progress of education, the explosion of associative life, and constantly growing cultural offerings. Cover Front matter Title page Copyright page Contents List of Figures List of Tables Note on the spelling of city names Introduction CHAPTER ONE: Midsize Cities in Austria-Hungary Municipal law in Austria and Hungary and the status of cities Twelve cities of Austria-Hungary: twelve different situations and many similarities Urban growth and city development, 1848–1914 CHAPTER TWO: Austro-Hungarian Tower of Babel:The City and Its Languages Defining the languages of the empire Statistical approach to multilingualism Multilingualism and professional mobility Literacy and language practice The Jews: a multicultural group par excellence? Signs of multilingualism The language of the city CHAPTER THREE: Bells and Church Towers: The Confessional Diversity A fragmented confessional landscape The Roman Catholics The Greek Catholics The Greek Orthodox Evangelical and Reformed Protestantism Judaism The Muslims: newcomers to the scene of confessional diversity Mobile communities: mixed marriages and conversions Religion and national politics Building the multiconfessional city: churches, temples, and synagogues CHAPTER FOUR: Schools: Places to Learn Multiculturalism or Factories of The Nation? The framework of instruction and school systems in Austria-Hungary Languages in school curricula National struggle in Brünn, Trieste, and Lemberg The gender issue: educating “the mothers of the nation” Sharing schools in Czernowitz Troublesome student associations The struggle for the university CHAPTER FIVE: Cultural Institutions: Multiculturalism and National Discourse Cultural associations as political actors The song of the nation: choirs The politics of singing National institutes Women’s associations: new ways of action Jewish associative life: coming out of the ghetto The city as a stage: nationalizing the theater The press: actor and enemy of multiculturalism CHAPTER SIX: Spaces and Landscapes of the City Modernizing the city The appropriation of public space Uses of and struggles for the public space: building a home for the nation Going beyond the nation: social contest CHAPTER SEVEN: Politics in the City Inside the city hall Turbulent Czernowitz The experimental city: Sarajevo Political parties Women and political emancipation CHAPTER EIGHT: Sharing the City The dimensions of city patriotism Celebrating the city The loyal city: memorializing the Habsburgs Two cases of “constructed” Habsburg cities: Czernowitz and Sarajevo. A colonial project? Conclusion Appendix Statistics Polyglossia in Hungarian towns Bibliography Index Back cover This book offers a comparative analysis of the societal, ethnic, and cultural diversity of twelve cities in the last decades of the Habsburg Monarchy. The following cities are discussed (by their current names): Arad, Bratislava, Brno, Chernivtsi, Lviv, Oradea, Rijeka, Sarajevo, Subotica, Timioara, Trieste, and Zagreb. This selection aims to counter the disproportionate attention that the largest cities in the empire receive. By focusing on everyday lifeassociations, schools, economy, and municipal politicsthe book escapes from the idealization of the monarchy as a paradise of peaceful multiculturalism as well as from the exaggeration of the conflicts. The author claims that the world of the Habsburg cities was a dynamic space where many models coexisted and created vitality, emulation, and conflict. Modernization brought about the dissolution of old structures but also mobility, the progress of education, the explosion of associative life, and a constantly growing cultural offering.