A.3 Foreigners of the Habsburg Monarchy

This symposium deals with the subject of “foreigners” in the Habsburg Monarchy. The approach will be chronological and comparative. The phenomenon of Fremdsein (the English words foreignness, alienation or otherness capture the meaning of the German word only partially) is nothing new: it is an integral part of European history, resulting from the basic human experience of encounter. At the same time, it has international relevance and is one of the most challenging concepts of today’s world. Otherness can be interpreted in many senses. It can be seen positively – there are cases in which the host society welcomes the foreigners – and it can be seen negatively; the foreigner can be met with rejection and ideologically justified anxiety. In the framework of the symposium, different kinds of reactions will be discussed. The focus will be on the Kingdom of Hungary – which is only understandable considering its embeddedness in the Habsburg Monarchy.

Thematic fields for discussion:

1. Theoretical introduction: Otherness in Central Europe in historical perspective

2. The Renaissance, as under King Matthew Corvinus numerous Italian humanists arrived in Hungary and contributed to the formation of a Hungarian identity model with their works on the historiography of Hungary.

3. The 16th century, characterized by confessional plurality and as a consequence the establishment of colleges for education under the particular participation of German intellectuals

4. The Ottoman invasion of Central Europe

5. German migration into regions populated by Germans to this day in the former Upper (Scepusium), East (Transylvania) and South-East (Banat) regions of Hungary.

6. The era of Enlightenment with its extremely productive migration inside (in both directions between Austria and Hungary) and from beyond the Monarchy.

7. The historical situation of the tolerated Jewry in the Habsburg Monarchy with special consideration of the situation in the Kingdom of Hungary

8. The establishment of modern national states during the 19thand 20th centuries and the associated ethnic conflicts

9. Migration in the early 20th century – the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy and the parallel or the following, partly politically-motivated emigration from Hungary.

Organizers: Andrea Seidler, Károly Kókai
Contact: Károly Kókai (karoly.kokai@univie.ac.at)