Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe

by Winder, Simon

  Larry Silver, Marketing Maximilian: The Visual Ideology of a Holy Roman Emperor (Princeton, 2008)

  Brendan Simms, Europe: The Struggle for Mastery, 1453 to the Present (London, 2013)

  Brendan Simms, The Struggle for Mastery in Germany, 1779–1850 (Basingstoke, 1998)

  Alan Sked, The Decline and Fall of the Habsburg Empire, 1815–1918 (Harlow, 1989)

  Alan Sked, The Survival of the Habsburg Empire: Radetzky, the Imperial Army and the Class War, 1848 (London, 1979)

  Yuri Slezkine, The Jewish Century (Princeton, 2004)

  Pamela H. Smith, The Business of Alchemy: Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire (Princeton, 1994)

  Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569–1999 (New Haven and London, 2003)

  Martin Sonnabend and Jon Whiteley with Christian Rümelin, Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape (Oxford, 2011)

  Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions, 1848–1851 (Cambridge, 1994)

  Sybille Steinbacher, Auschwitz: A History, trans. Shaun Whiteside (London, 2005)

  Zara Steiner, The Lights That Failed: European International History 1919–1933 (Oxford, 2005)

  Rolf Steininger, South Tyrol: A Minority Conflict of the Twentieth Century (New Brunswick and London, 2009)

  David Stevenson, 1914–1918: The History of the First World War (London, 2004)

  Adalbert Stifter, The Bachelors, trans. David Bryer (London, 2008)

  Adalbert Stifter, Brigitta and Other Tales, trans. Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (London, 1990)

  Adalbert Stifter, Indian Summer, trans. Wendell Frye (Bern, 2009)

  Adalbert Stifter, Rock Crystal, trans. Elizabeth Mayer and Marianne Moore (London, 1999)

  Richard Stokes (editor and translator), The Book of Lieder (London, 2005)

  William Stolzenburg, Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators (New York, 2008)

  Norman Stone, The Eastern Front, 1914–1917 (London, 1975)

  Hew Strachan, The First World War, Volume I: To Arms (Oxford, 2001)

  Peter F. Sugar, South-Eastern Europe under Ottoman Rule 1354–1804 (Seattle, 1977)

  Italo Svevo, The Nice Old Man and the Pretty Girl, trans. L. Collison-Morley (Brooklyn, 2010)

  Franz A. J. Szabo, The Seven Years War in Europe 1756–1763 (Harlow, 2008)

  Marcus Tanner, The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of His Lost Library (New Haven and London, 2009)

  A. J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848–1918 (Oxford, 1954)

  Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England (London, 1971)

  Mark Thompson, The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915–1919 (London, 2008)

  John Tincey, Blenheim 1704: The Duke of Marlborough’s Masterpiece (Oxford, 2004)

  H. R. Trevor-Roper, The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Harmondsworth, 1969)

  Walter Ullmann, Medieval Political Thought (Harmondsworth, 1975)

  Arminius Vambéry, The Life and Adventures of Arminius Vambéry (London and Leipzig, 1883 – Elibron digital reprint)

  David Vital, A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789–1939 (Oxford, 1999)

  John Watts, The Making of Politics, 1300–1500 (Cambridge, 2009)

  Geoffrey Wawro, The Austro-Prussian War: Austria’s War with Prussia and Italy in 1866 (Cambridge, 1996)

  C. V. Wedgwood, The Thirty Years War (London, 1938)

  Joachim Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, two vols. (Oxford, 2012)

  Andrew Wheatcroft, The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe (London, 2008)

  Carolinne White (trans.), The Rule of Benedict (London, 2008)

  Christopher Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 (London, 2009)

  Peter H. Wilson, Europe’s Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War (London, 2009)

  Peter H. Wilson, German Armies: War and German Politics, 1648–1806 (London, 1998)

  Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire 1495–1806 (Basingstoke, 1999)

  Simon Winder, Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern (London, 2010)

  Larry Wolff, The Idea of Galicia: History and Fantasy in Habsburg Political Culture (Stanford, 2010)

  Larry Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment (Stanford, 1994)

  Adam Zagajewski, Two Cities: On Exile, History, and the Imagination, trans. Lillian Vallee (New York, 1995)

  Stefan Zweig, Amok and Other Stories, trans. Anthea Bell (London, 2006)

  Stefan Zweig, Beware of Pity, trans. Phyllis and Trevor Blewitt (London, 1982)

  Stefan Zweig, The Invisible Collection/Buchmendel, trans. Eden and Cedar Paul (London, 1998)

  Illustrations

  The title page shows one small detail from the sprawling and wonderful Triumphal Procession of the Emperor Maximilian I. This section was created by Hans Burgkmair the Elder in 1515 (Scala, Florence/BPK, Berlin). Chapter one: another Burgkmair – a spectacular woodcut from 1507 of the Imperial eagle, creaking with allegory and allusion and with Maximilian enthroned above a sort of giant bird-bath filled with the Nine Muses (Scala, Florence/BPK, Berlin). Chapter two: Maximilian in full wizard mode, with the Order of the Golden Fleece around his neck – a seventeenth-century engraving after Lucas van Leyden’s 1515 original (akg-images). Chapter three: Heavy cavalry armour in the Graz Armoury (akg-images/Erich Lessing). Chapter four: Sour Orange, Terrestrial Mollusc and Larkspur. In an inspired bit of cultural vandalism Georg Bocskay’s immaculate pages of calligraphy for Maximilian II were invaded a generation later by Joris Hoefnagel’s fruit, flowers and creatures for Rudolf II. This is a fine example (as well as one of the best titles given to any image) but I can only urge everyone to look at the others on the Getty Museum website – there is one extraordinary work of ‘night script’ with the black page filled with a sort of lemur or sloth (Script 1561–62, Illumination 1591–96. Watercolours, gold and silver paint, and ink on parchment. 16.6 x 12.4 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 20, fol. 33). Chapter five: The Rescue of Slavata and Martinez by the Mother of God, votive painting, c. 1620, Jindřichův Hradec Castle, Czech Republic. Mary and her minions come to the rescue of the defenestrated Imperial representatives. Just looking at this picture one can understand the rugged nature of the forces the Protestants were now up against. Text illustration here: Demonstration that the Tower of Babel could not have reached the moon by Athanasius Kircher, from his Turris Babel (Amsterdam, 1679) (Wellcome Library, London. Photo: Wellcome Images). Chapter six: The Empress Margarita Teresa in fancy dress by Jan Thomas, c. 1667, Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck (akg-images/Erich Lessing). Chapter seven: Interior of the Court Library, Hofburg, now known as the State Hall (Bildarchiv Monheim/akg-images). Chapter eight: The Polish Plumb Cake, c. 1772, an English cartoon by John Lodge, with Russia, France, Prussia and Austria about to tuck in, the devil under the table, with Poland in tears and Turkey indignant (The Bridgeman Art Library). Chapter nine: An engraving from the 1830s of Archduke Charles at the Battle of Aspern-Essling (Universal History Archive/UIG/The Bridgeman Art Library). Chapter ten: Hungarian patriots being executed by Habsburg troops, an engraving from 1849. These sorts of images circulated widely and, in conjunction with the tireless work of the two great, roving anti-Habsburg orators Kossuth and Garibaldi, made the Habsburg Empire appear irredeemably brutal and backward to much European and American opinion (Roger-Viollet/Topfoto). Chapter eleven: a famous photo of the four Habsburg brothers from the early 1860s, exuding what proved to be a misplaced dynastic confidence. From left: Karl Ludwig, the father of Franz Ferdinand and grandfather of Karl I; Franz Joseph I, whose son and heir would commit suicide in 1889; Maximilian, shortly to take the catastrophic decision to accept the crown of Mexico, resulting in his execution in 1867; and Ludwig Vikt
or, a homosexual transvestite who was ultimately expelled by Franz Joseph from Vienna and lived much of his life monitored closely by Habsburg agents in Salzburg. Ludwig Viktor survived the end of the dynasty by a few days, dying in January 1919. Chapter twelve: The Škoda Engineering Shop, 1890, with some workers just visible (State Regional Archives, Plzeň). Chapter thirteen: Erdődy’s Jump by Karlo Drašković, 1895. I include this picture simply because I have always loved it. Drašković was a member of a Croatian noble family and in his short life made a number of experimental photographs trying to capture movement. István Erdődy, whose athleticism is here preserved for ever, was a member of a family of Hungarian landowners in what is now northern Croatia (Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb). Chapter fourteen: Franz Ferdinand and Wilhelm II on a hunt near the German town of Springe, 1912 – I think readers can draw their own conclusions from this photo about the steady impressiveness or otherwise of Europe’s rulers in this period (Ullstein/Topfoto). Chapter fifteen: Antonio Marchisio’s painting The Epilogue, issued as a postcard. A fine example of the sheer wackiness of nationalism in full cry: the condemned, treacherous, sordid eagle of Austria-Hungary tumbles from its Tyrolean crag, to be replaced by … an identical eagle, but with its feathers in better order and backed by a pretty flag. The new nationalist regimes that marched into the Empire’s ruins in 1918 and 1919 spread little but misery – the South Tyrol being a small, sad instance (Castello Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra, Rovereto/De Agostini/akg-images).

  Acknowledgements

  Countless hoteliers, fellow train passengers, museum guides, passers-by, waiters, ticket clerks and incredulous bus drivers have made this book possible. Whenever I realized I was totally and fundamentally lost, somebody kind would materialize as though by magic and help me on my way. I finish this book with a sense of utter sadness that I cannot hope ever to return to places which I now know to be exceptionally and often crazily interesting. I cannot enlarge on this without being tiresome, but so often while wandering about Central Europe I would find myself grinning or skipping with excitement in what on the face of it were the simplest of circumstances and can only urge others to go and do the same.

  For their invaluable and sometimes cruel comments on some or all of the text I am grateful to Nicholas Blake, Tim Blanning, Christopher Clark, R. J. W. Evans, Christine Jones, Marina Kemp, Tony Lacey, Thomas Penn, Adam Phillips, Norman Stone and Barnaby Winder. For essential help, purloined ideas, encouragement and forbearance I would also like to thank Paul Baggaley, Tracy Bohan, Emma Bravo, Malcolm Bull, the late Peter Carson, Sarah Chalfant, Penny and David Edgar, Niall Ferguson, Helen Fraser, Jonathan Galassi, Eleo Gordon, Jim and Sandy Jones, Barry Langford, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Stefan McGrath, Cecilia Mackay, Mark Mazower, Stuart Proffitt, John Seaton, Brendan Simms, Carole Tonkinson, Adam Tooze, Tom Weldon, Peter Wilson, Stephanie Winder, Elizabeth and Christopher Winder and Andrew Wylie.

  My enthusiasm for Central Europe really began at the beginning of 1992 when Christine Jones and I spent our honeymoon in a shockingly cold Vienna and Prague. The last part of the research for this book was done in Kraków and Przemyśl in the company of our now nineteen-year-old son, who could not be a more congenial companion when it comes to examining Jan III Sobieski’s tomb sculptures or chained-up remnants of a dragon in the Wawel Cathedral. My family have been tangled up in Habsburg issues therefore for as long as we have been a family and the children – Barnaby, Felix and Martha – continued throughout to be as patient, entertaining and surprising as ever. Christine Jones has been the only person I have wanted to impress for some twenty-three years now. I have gone about this in odd ways – not least through at irregular intervals disappearing to Cluj-Napoca or, worse, sitting in the kitchen listening to folk tunes scored for rustic flute and hoping that somehow she would not mind. I am sure the Hungarians must have a word which would express how much I owe her – there is certainly nothing sufficiently fevered or all-encompassing in English – but as usual I do not know what it is.

  Simon Winder

  Sequim, Wandsworth Town

  2009–13

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Aachen

  Abdul Pasha,

  Abyssinians

  Aeneas

  Africa

  Agilolfing family

  Agnes

  Ahmed I

  Alba Iulia

  Albania

  Albanian nationalists

  Albanians

  Albert II of Germany

  Albert VII, Archduke of Austria

  Albert of Prussia

  Albert of Saxony

  Albrecht, Duke

  alchemy

  Aloysius Gonzaga, St

  Alpár, Ignác

  Alps

  Alsace

  Alsace-Lorraine

  Altdorfer, Albrecht

  Altenburg

  Am Hof, Vienna

  Ambras condition

  American bullion

  Americas

  Spanish

  Anatolia

  ancestor worship

  Andrew Church, Debrecen

  Anna, Empress of Russia

  Anna, Queen of the Romans

  Anna, Queen of Spain

  Anna of Tyrol

  anti-pagan campaigns

  anti-Semitism

  Anton Ulrich, Duke

  Antwerp

  Aosta, Duke of

  Appelfeld, Aharon

  Aquitaine

  Arad

  Aragon

  Arcimboldo, Giuseppe

  Ark, Noah’s

  Armenians

  Arthur, King

  Asiatic Society, Calcutta

  Aspern-Essling, battle of

  Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People (ASTRA)

  Athabascans

  Augsburg

  Augustinian church, Vienna

  Augustinians

  Augustus III

  Auschwitz, Duchy of

  Austerlitz, battle of

  Austria

  censorship system

  church designs

  and the Crimean War and France

  and the German Confederation

  origins

  and Poland

  and Tyrol

  see also Further Austria; Lower Austria; Upper Austria

  Austria, Republic of

  Austria-Hungary

  arts of

  British views on

  Cisleithania (west)

  and the First World War

  industrialism

  Poles of

  Transleithania (east)

  Austrian army

  Austrian government

  Austrian Littoral

  Austrian Monument, Bukovina

  Austrian navy

  Austrian Netherlands

  Austrian Silesia

  Austrian Succession, war of the

  Austrians

  Austro-Hungarian army

  Avars

  Aztecs

  Babenberg family

  Baby Exit Festival

  Bach, Johann Sebastian

  Baden

  Baden, Grand Duke of

  Badeni Decrees (1897)

  Balázs, Béla

  Balkan Wars

  second (1913)

  Balkans

  Bamberg

  Banat

  Bánffy, Miklós

  Banja Luka

  battle of

  Barcelona

  Barit, George

  Bartók, Bela

  Bartók, Péter

  Basel, Peace of (1795)

  Batavian Republic

  Bauer, Herbert

  Bautzen

  Bavaria

  Bavarians

  Bay of Bengal

  Be
ar Pits of Bern

  bear-moats

  Beethoven, Ludwig van

  Belgium

  Belgrade

  fall of (1521)

  and the First World War

  siege of (1456)

  Benczúr, Gyula

  Benedek, Ludwig von

  Benedict XVI, Pope

  Benedictines

  Benešov

  Berg, Alban

  Berlin

  Berlin–Vienna–Budapest axis

  Bernardo III Clesio, Prince-Bishop

  Bertali, Antonio

  Bessarabia

  Bethge, Hans

  Bethlen Gábor

  Bezruč, Petr

  Biber

  Bible

  see also New Testament; Old Testament

  ‘Biedermeier period’

  Biertan

  Bismarck, Otto von

  Black Church of Braşov

  Black Forest

  ‘Black Man of Debrecen’

  Black Sea

  Blenheim, battle of

  Bohemia

  see also German Bohemia

  Bohemians

  Bolko the Small

  Bologna

  Bolzano

  Bon, Bartlmä

  Bosch, Hieronymus

  Bosnia

  Bosnia-Hercegovina

  Bosnian War (early, 1990s)

  Bosnians

  Bosnian Muslims

  Boxer Rebellion

  Boyneburg, Konrad von

  Bragadino, Marko

  Brahe, Tycho

  Brahms, Johannes

  Brandenburg

  Braslav, Prince

  Braşov

  Bratislava

  Braun, Werner von

  Breda

  Bregenz

  Bremen

  Brenner Pass

  Britain

  and the ‘balance of power’

  and the Crimean War

  and the First World War

  and Maria Theresa

  military borders

  views on Austria-Hungary

  see also England

  British

  British India

  Brixen

  Brno

  Brno crocodile

  Bruckner, Anton

  Brueghel, Pieter the Elder

  Bruges

  Brumaire coup

  Brusilov, Aleksei

  Brussels

  Bucharest

  Buda

  Buda Castle

  Buda Hills

  Budapest