The Polish Reason Of State In Austria

The monograph describes the history of the Polish diaspora in the Habsburg monarchy in the historical, institutional, legal, political, and organizational context. The main object of study is the Poles' active involvement in the Austro-Hungarian parliamentary life and state administration.

In the aftermath of the Polish-Hungarian Conference held in Cracow in 2007 there has been published the present volume. It is exponential of the cooperation between the legal historians of the Cracow and Pecs Universities. The participants of the Conference discussed at length the topics concerned with the constitutional developments in the Austro-Hungarian empire in the final era of its existence. A series of articles published in the volume are illustrative of the Rechtsstaat tendencies as detectable in the functioning of the Austro-Hungarian administration and the judiciary, and also in the field of Church-State relationships. Against that background there is also discussed the liberalism of the Austro-Hungarian regime in the area of emigration as well as the grass-roots initiative of the Poles in laying the foundations of Polonia restituta at the time when World War I had not yet come to its end. Last but not least, some authors present fairly-individual topics such as the role of the fidei-comissuni in promoting the preservation of cultural legacy in the Hungarian part of the empire, or the survival of Hungarian serfdom tradition in the area of Poland controlled post-war Spisz and Orawa.

Notwithstanding the advantages of physical power, the struggle for survival among societies is not merely a matter of serial armed clashes but of the nation's spiritual resources that in the end always decide upon the victory. In Europe, there indeed exist independent countries, insignificant from the point of view of the entire civilization, and born by sheer coincidence, yet, this coincidence, this fancy, or diplomatic ploy that created them can just as easily bring them to an end---the nations that count in the political calculations are only the enlightened ones. Therefore, our nation should not merely grow in power, strengthen its character, and foster in people the feeling of love for homeland, but also---inasmuch as it is possible---breath the fresh breeze of humanity's general progress, feed it to the nation, absorb its creative energy. Until now, we have trusted and lived only in the weary conditions, conditions devoid of health-giving elements---now, as a result the nation's heart beats too slowly and its mind works too tediously. We ought to open our windows to Europe, to the wind of continental change and allow it to air our sultry home, since as not all health comes from the inside, not all disease comes from the outside.

The collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy at the end of World War I ushered in a period of radical change for East-Central European political structures and national identities. Yet this transformed landscape inevitably still bore the traces of its imperial past. Breaking with traditional histories that take 1918 as a strict line of demarcation, this collection focuses on the complexities that attended the transition from the Habsburg Empire to its successor states. In so doing, it produces new and more nuanced insights into the persistence and effectiveness of imperial institutions, as well as the sources of instability in the newly formed nation-states.

An illuminating history of state-building, nationalism, and bureaucracy, this book tells the story of how an international cohort of Austrian officials from Bohemia, Hungary, the Hapsburg Netherlands, Italy, and several German states administered Galicia from its annexation from Poland-Lithuania in 1772 until the beginning of Polish autonomy in 1867. Historian Iryna Vushko examines the interactions between these German-speaking bureaucrats and the local Galician population of Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews. She reveals how Enlightenment-inspired theories of modernity and supranational uniformity essentially backfired, ultimately bringing about results that starkly contradicted the original intentions and ideals of the imperial governors.

Presents a short history of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia from the Renaissance to the present followed by an A to Z dictionary of important people, a chronology, maps, and more.