Ivo Cerman, Lubos Velek. Adelige Ausbildung: Die Herausforderung der Aufklärung und die Folgen. München: Martin Meidenbauer Verlag, 2006. 305 S. EUR 44.00, cloth, ISBN 978-3-89975-057-7.

Reviewed by J. Trygve Has-Ellison

Published on H-German (July, 2008)

Ivo Cerman and Lubos Velek's edited volume Schwarzenberg, Lobkowicz, and Windischgrätz. evaluates the Enlightenment-infuenced educa‐ The contributors to this volume conclude that tional strategies of some central European aristo‐ many members of the central European aristocra‐ crats during the transition from the early modern cy received the Enlightenment, particularly the to the modern era. This is the frst volume in what writings of Rousseau, favorably. Even so, the aris‐ promises to be a series of studies on nobles in tocracy applied the theories of Enlightenment greater central Europe with a particular emphasis writers in a way that reinforced pre-existing ideas on . The overarching theme of the sym‐ about the state, society, and the family. In other posium (held in in November 2004) and words, the extent of the aristocratic reception of this volume is twofold: the Enlightenment should the Enlightenment was the same as that of the not be construed as exclusively anti-feudal in ide‐ middle class, but the two groups' interpretation ology, nor should the be considered as and transmission of these ideas difered consider‐ implacably hostile to the Enlightenment. ably. The volume is divided into four sections on Overall, this collection of essays is a starting the role of education in Enlightenment theory; point for further research rather than a detailed aristocratic educational institutions informed by analysis of aristocratic families' reception of the the Enlightenment; the practice of education in Enlightenment in the lands of the Habsburgs. The aristocratic families, with special attention given general focus of this volume on Catholic families to the role of Enlightened ideas; and aristocratic may skew the sample used for its general argu‐ participation in the republic of letters. With a few ment, insofar as the eighteenth-century Catholic exceptions, these essays focus on the small group Church tended to react negatively to the Enlight‐ of noble families who both dominated Habsburg enment, accusing it of descending from the court society at Vienna, and were the greatest Protestant Reformation. Considering the almost landowners in the provinces, such as the exclusive focus of this volume on Catholic aristo‐ H-Net Reviews crats in Habsburg lands, one wonders how this di‐ Straka left explicit orders for the creation of an chotomy appeared to them. Were their religious academy based on Enlightenment educational attitudes far more laissez-faire than we have pre‐ principles to be reserved exclusively for agnates viously considered? And, how do the arguments from old Bohemian noble families. Bezecny does about religious identity and milieu that have not address the implicit questions this bequest arisen in the wake of the confessionalization the‐ raises about leftover resentments after the Thirty sis ft with the enthusiasm in many strongly Years War, even among families who had made Catholic aristocratic families for the writings of their peace with the Habsburgs and the Counter- Rousseau and Condorcet? None of these questions Reformation. It is interesting that the administra‐ are explicitly answered, and in fairness to the au‐ tors of the Straka academy focused on educating thors these questions do not matter as much as descendants of Bohemian-Czech noble families the overall thesis that Habsburg aristocrats were that had been derogated after the war (Pisecky receptive to the ideas of the Enlightenment. von Kranichfeld, Ruzek von Rovny, Trmal von A few of the essays are particularly thought- Toussitz, Hubka von Cerncitz). Their actions sug‐ provoking. Olga Khavanova's article on the educa‐ gest that the Bohemian aristocracy was well tional strategies of the Hungarian as‐ aware of many families that were no longer to sumes that to be Hungarian meant limited to full live in the style to which their aristocracy had en‐ integration into the Catholic cultural sphere of the titled them after surviving the religious and civil Habsburgs. Certainly Khavanova is correct to as‐ conficts of the seventeenth century. This possibili‐ sume that ambitious Hungarian nobles had to ac‐ ty, if true, calls for a complete reinterpretation of commodate themselves to the culture of the Vien‐ R. J. W. Evans' discussions of the uses and misuses nese court in order to compete for court, military, of the battle of White Mountain. In The Making of and bureaucratic positions with the Bohemian, the : 1550-1700 (1979), Evans Austrian, and Italian families. However, Khavano‐ argued that the destruction of Czech liberties in va implicitly ignores the signifcant (in numbers the wake of a vengeful German and Counter-Re‐ and literary output) Protestant nobility (bene pos‐ forming dynasty was a legendary construction of sessionati) of eastern Hungary and Transylvania. Czech nationalists in the nineteenth century. As Only a few of these families had a limited rela‐ Evans noted, the same families that dominated tionship with the Viennese court (Banfy, Bethlen, the political and cultural landscape of Bohemia Teleki); nonetheless, it seems self-evident that and before 1620 and the battle of White Hungarian nobles had trouble competing with Mountain were still dominating this same land‐ their Austrian, Bohemian, and Italian counter‐ scape after 1620. What had changed was the im‐ parts, as Khavanova notes but does not explain, poverishment, emigration, or derogation of many because they were neither trusted in Vienna, nor lower noble families whose existence had become did they trust the Habsburgs, whom they regard‐ precarious before 1620 and were therefore more ed with deep-seated antagonism. If it was Kha‐ willing to embrace radical solutions to their prob‐ vanova's intent to exclude this group, she should lems--not fundamentally diferent from the radi‐ make this explicit at the beginning of her other‐ cal choices made by impoverished nobles in wise excellent contribution. Pomerania and Prussia in the 1930's, with much the same result. Conceivably, in its eforts to re‐ Zdenek Bezecny's thought-provoking essay on dress the perceived wrongs of White Mountain, the educational bequest of the last of Straka the state of Czechoslovakia should have carried is another contribution that raises a number of out land reform in the name of derogated families further questions. As Bezecny details in the essay,

2 H-Net Reviews that would have provided the core of a nationalist Czech nobility--a literal return of the living dead. Ultimately, this volume does not present groundbreaking new insights, but it does revisit some old questions in novel ways. More impor‐ tantly, it brings the reception of the Enlighten‐ ment by the traditional Habsburg elite into focus. Hopefully, future volumes in this series will at‐ tempt to answer some of the questions raised by this monograph.

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Citation: J. Trygve Has-Ellison. Review of Cerman, Ivo; Velek, Lubos. Adelige Ausbildung: Die Herausforderung der Aufklärung und die Folgen. H-German, H-Net Reviews. July, 2008.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14745

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