| Professor Tibor FRANK | Office: SIPA #1209 |
| Deák Chair, | Office Hours: Tu-Th 2-3 p.m. |
| History Department and | Phone: (212) 854 0619 |
| East Central European Center, | E-mail: tf2014@columbia.edu |
| Columbia University | www.franktibor.hu |
| Spring 2007 |
This course offers a critical examination of the history of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, once one of Europe’s largest military powers which disappeared from the map after World War I. A restructured version of the Habsburg Empire, the Monarchy was a lasting, authoritarian framework of Central European ethnic groups which, however, gave rise to modernism in the field of arts and sciences.The juxtaposition of authority and modernity provides the focus of this survey which includes the study of the Monarchy as the birthplace of both Zionism and modern anti-Semitism. Nurturing a pioneering culture and a pre-modern society, Austria-Hungary is an exciting case of pioneering spirit and decadence, experimentation and dissolution, novelty and decay. The “disintegration of Austrian political culture” is particularly relevant today when presented as the “seedtime for fascism” (George V. Strong).
Background in 19th and early 20th century European history.
Class participation (10%), midterm exam (30%), 12-15 page term paper (30%); final exam (30%). Attendance is mandatory.
| Week I |
Geography and Geopolitics of Central Europe The nature of Central Europe — The “Lands Between”: East vs West — The Danube Valley, the Alps and Carpathians — Borders, frontiers — Powers, great and small Reading: Johnson 3-12 |
| Week II |
The Habsburgs and Their Empire The origins of the Habsburg family — Transformations of the Habsburg Empire — “Tu felix Austria” — The Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire — The Habsburgs and Hungary, the Habsburgs and the Czechs — The nature of Habsburg domination Reading: Kann 1-24, Johnson 85-102 |
| Week III |
The German Question in 19th Century Europe The struggle for mastery in Central Europe — The Parliament of Frankfurt — Prussia vs Austria: “Kleindeutsch” (Smaller German) or &rlquo;Grossdeutsch” (Greater German)? The rise of the second Reich: Count Otto von Bismarck and King William I of Prussia — The impact of the Austro-Prussian War, 1866 Reading: Johnson 149-170 |
| Week IV |
From Empire to Monarchy: 1848 to 1867 The revolutions of 1848 in France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Germany — The War of Independence in Hungary — Lajos Kossuth and Hungarian independence — The political program of 1848-49: the abolition of serfdom and national sovereignty — Retribution and reconciliation Reading: Sked 8-136, Deák (Kossuth) 311-351 |
| Week V |
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise and the Dualist System Makers of the Compromise: Ferenc Deák, Count Gyula Andrássy, Baron Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust — Two parliaments, two governments, two capital cities — “K. u. K.:” Imperial and Royal — “Kakania” — The K.u.K. Army Reading: Sked 187- 238, 273-284, Deák (Army) Ch. 2 |
| Week VI |
Austria-Hungary and its Multicultural Empire The national problem — German-Hungarian domination — National minorities — The languages of the Monarchy — Multiculturalism — Imperial unity vs nationalism — The Austrian idea Reading: Kann 521-566, Pauley 1-31, Strong 68-85 |
| Week VII | *Review and Mid-Term Exam |
| Week VIII |
Fin-de-Siecle Vienna, Budapest and Prague The city as a work of art: architecture, layout, design — The Ringstrasse: model from Paris, impact on Budapest — Urban splendor, urban misery — High culture and low culture — The politics of urban vs rural — Working class and middle class — New forms of communications: journalism, salons, coffeehouses, theaters — Womanhood, sexuality, prostitution Reading: Janik-Toulmin 33-66, 67-91, Schorske 24-115, Hofmann 101-198, Lukacs 29-107 |
| Week IX |
The Birth of Modernism I: New approaches to the human mind: Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis, Ernst Mach and his critique of science, Ludwig Wittgenstein and the critique of language — The birth of modern personality and theory Reading: Janik-Toulmin 120-166, 202-238, Schorske 181-207 |
| Week X |
The Birth of Modernism II: (1) New approaches to the human body: Gustav Klimt, Oscar Kokoschka, Adolf Loos — Innovation in visual representation, form, and color — Function as ornamentation — Struggle against ornament — The cult of death (2) New approaches to sound: towards atonality — Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg, Béla Bartók — The origins of the twelfe-tone system — The use of ethnic heritage in classical music — The operetta: Johann Strauss, Franz Lehár, Emerich Kálmán Reading: Janik-Toulmin 92-119, Schorske 208-278, Waissenberger (ed.), 109-240 |
| Week XI |
The Birth of Modernism III: New approaches to language and the human psyche: Robert Musil, Franz Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke, Endre Ady — New literary techniques, forms and ambitions — Symbolism and decadence — The writer and social reponsibility — The Man Without Qualities — Bridges between art forms: Duke Blue Beard’s Castle Reading: Waissenberger (ed.), 241-262, Lukacs 137-208 |
| Week XII |
Crime, Suicide, Emigration The loss of the village, the growth and solitude of urban centers — The rich and the poor — The rise of violence — Reasons of high suicide rates — Mass emigration to the United States 1880-1914 Reading: Janik-Toulmin 33-66, Puskás 18-35 |
| Week XIII |
Jews and the Rise of Antisemitism “Old” Jews and “New” Jews in the Monarchy — The migration of Jews towards Vienna and Budapest — Theodor Herzl and the birth of Zionism — The Emperor Franz Joseph and Vienna mayor Karl Lueger — Young Hitler in Vienna Reading: Berkley 1-58, 101-131, Beller 1-70, McCagg 161-229, Patai 403-428 |
| Week XIV |
World War I and the Paris Peace Treaties Critics of the Monarchy: R. W. Seton-Watson, Henry Wickham Steed, H.W.V. Temperley — The foreign policy of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy — Central Powers vs Entente Powers — Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sarajevo — The Austro-Hungarian conduct of the Great War — The Paris Peace Conference 1919-20 — The Treaties of St. Germain and Trianon Reading: Sked 239-272, Kann 468-517, Pauley 32-99 |
| Week XV | ***Review and Final Exam |
Beller, Steven. Vienna and the Jews 1867-1938. A cultural history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, repr. 2000.
Berkley, George E. Vienna and its Jews. The Tragedy of Success, 1880s-1980s. Cambridge, MA: Abt Books; Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1988.
Deak, Istvan. The Lawful Revolution: Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians 1848-1849. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.
Deák, István. Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848-1918. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Frank, Tibor. “Hungary and the Dual Monarchy, 1867-1890.” In: Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák, Tibor Frank, eds. A History of Hungary. Bloomington — Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990, pb. 1994. pp. 252-266.
Hofmann, Paul. The Viennese: Splendor, Twilight and Exile. New York: Doubleday, 1988.
Janik, Allan and Stephen Toulmin. Wittgenstein’s Vienna. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973.
Johnson, Lonnie R. Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends. New York — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Kann, Robert A. A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526-1918. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974, repr. 1977.
Lukacs, John. Budapest 1900. A Historical Portrait of a City and Its Culture. New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988.
McCagg, William O. The History of Habsburg Jews 1670-1918. Bloomington — Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989.
Patai, Raphael. The Jews of Hungary: History, Culture, Psychology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996.
Pauley, Bruce F. The Habsburg Legacy 1867-1939. Malabar, FL: Robert E. Krieger, 1972, repr. 1987.
Puskás, Julianna. Ties That Bind, Ties That Divide. One Hundred Years of Hungarian Experience in the United States. New York — London: Holmes & Meier, 2000.
Schorske, Carl E. Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture. New York: Vintage Books, 1981.
Sked, Alan. The Decline and Fall of the Habsburg Empire 1815-1918. London — New York: Longman, 1989.
Strong, George V. Seedtime for Fascism. The Disintegration of Austrian Political Culture, 1867/1918. Armonk, NY — London: M. E. Sharpe, 1998.
Taylor, A.J.P. The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918. A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary. Chicago — London: University of Chicago Press, 1948, repr. 1976.
Waissenberger, Robert (ed.). Vienna 1890-1920. Secaucus, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 1984.