Cultures at War: -Hungary 1914-1918 (x-post H-Habsburg). Oxford: Judith Beniston, University College London; Deborah Holmes, University of Kent; John Warren, Oxford Brookes University; Austrian Cultural Forum London; Modern Humanities Research Association; Oxford Regius Professor of History, 13.04.2011-15.04.2011.

Reviewed by Megan Brandow-Faller

Published on H-Soz-u-Kult (October, 2011)

Underwritten by the Austrian Cultural Forum stitutions, German Dialectics and Multi-Cultural London, the Modern Humanities Research Associ‐ Commitments, at a reception hosted by Austrian ation and the Oxford Regius Professor of History, Ambassador Dr. Emil Brix. “Cultures at War: Austria-Hungary 1914-1918” Interdisciplinary fuidity and multi/transna‐ spread new research on the production, dissemi‐ tional perspectives on Austria-Hungary’s war of nation, and reception of culture in the Habsburg culture and ideology constituted one of the con‐ monarchy during and immediately after the Great ference’s major strengths. The strongest, most en‐ War. The conference brought together over thirty- gaging papers, including the majority of those fve scholars from Central Europe, the United presented in the opening and closing plenary ses‐ Kingdom, and the United States presenting to fel‐ sions, spoke across the disciplines rather than to low scholars, students, and the general public. feld-specifc internal dialogues. While the majori‐ Like the diverse lands and peoples of late-Imperi‐ ty of papers tended to focus on Cisleithania, a sig‐ al Austria-Hungary, conference participants nifcant minority of presenters centered their hailed from a variety of disciplines including his‐ talks on wartime culture in the Hungarian, Czech, tory, art history, literature and theater and flm Croatian, and Romanian lands. Further bolstering studies, and harnessed a wide range of textual, the conference’s multinational, interdisciplinary visual, and musical sources. Key themes probed character, “Cultures at War” paired analytical pa‐ included cultural mobilization and the Auguster‐ pers on Austria-Hungary’s cultural front with ses‐ lebnis; tensions between supranational and na‐ sions spotlighting the actual artifacts of wartime tional loyalties as well as elite and popular cul‐ cultural mobilization, such as flm, music and po‐ ture; censorship in literature, art, and theater; etry. On Wednesday evening Dr. THOMAS BALL‐ center and periphery relations; gender, pacifsm HAUSEN (Filmarchiv Austria) introduced a series and the feminist Burgfrieden. Proceedings were of rare flm clips, ranging from footage of the conducted bilingually in German and English, repatriation of the assassinated Archduke’s and with participants switching freely between lan‐ Archduchess’s bodies back to , to shots of guages in the stimulating question and answer civilian internment camps and the Austrian Gen‐ sessions. The conference also marked the launch eral Staf, to selections from the wartime farce of distinguished Kraus biographer Edward “Wien im Krieg” (1916) mentioned in Robert von Timms’ memoirs, Taking Up the Torch: English In‐ Dassanowsky’s paper on Austrian wartime flm. H-Net Reviews

The textual and visual congruence between the elite and popular cultures and to what extent flm-newsreels and papers, for instance used in were artists and intellectuals co-opted into state Matthew Stibbe’s talk on civilian internment patriotism? As quoted in ANDREW BARKER’s (Ed‐ camps and Lutz Mutzner’s paper on Alice inburgh) paper “Peter Altenberg: Apocalyptic Aes‐ Schalek’s coverage of the Isozno Front, ofered thete,” Altenberg’s text entitled “1915” perfectly participants unique cinematic frames of refer‐ captures the quandary facing artists and intellec‐ ence. Likewise, on Thursday evening, a musical tuals in the wake of the war. “Ich sehe, die program featured patriotic songs from prominent Dichter, die Schriftsteller ergreift ein panischer operetta and Wiener Lieder composers, as well as Schreck: sie fürchten jetzt vergessen zu werden! settings of poems by Richard von Kralik and Rasch eine Kriegshymne oder ein politischer Es‐ Franz Eichert. The evening concert complement‐ say: ‘Wesen des Deutschen!’” The presenters in ed a panel session on wartime music earlier that the opening plenary sessions concurred that, at afternoon: THOMAS STEIERT’s (Bayreuth) paper least initially, the outbreak of hostilities in August on Soldatenlied and Kunstmusik and ANITA MAY‐ 1914 ofered the possibility of transformative cul‐ ER-HIRZBERGER’s (Vienna) arguments on the Au‐ tural regeneration and the overcoming of class, gust Madness and the Wandervogel movement’s national, and political divisions in the civilian collection of folk songs: songs which were origi‐ Burgfrieden. Yet, taking cues from Jefrey Verhey’s nally collected to be sung when hiking but were infuential thesis on the ‘Spirit of 1914,’ partici‐ misused during the war efort in mass concerts pants probed the myth of war enthusiasm. In against the movement’s founding principles. Yet “Loyalty and Legitimacy in the Habsburg Lands, in both cases such initial patriotic euphoria ex‐ 1914-18,” MARK CORNWALL (Southampton) test‐ pressed through music grew thin. EDWARD ed the limits of the August Madness and suprana‐ TIMM’s (Sussex) well-attended presentation, “Mu‐ tional loyalty in certain peripheral regions, in‐ sical Subversions of Militarism in Karl Kraus's Die cluding Galicia, Bukovina, and the South Slavic letzten Tage der Menschheit,” represented a musi‐ lands, focusing on shifting loyalties and state cal performance in and of itself: a performance identities as war euphoria melted away. Ultimate‐ which, as Timms reminded the audience, Kraus ly, despite steady dialogues between center and might have approved of given the way that a pi‐ periphery, Cornwall pointed to front and home‐ ano typically accompanied Kraus’s lectures. front propaganda, for instance nationalistic peri‐ Timms efectively wove his arguments on musical odicals and broadsides, in labeling ethnic groups and textual subversion, particularly the invisible like the South Slavs as ‘traitors in the midst.’ Like‐ line between popular and military music, with wise, in a later panel session, MARTIN MOLL live piano and recorded excerpts of a few of the (Graz) presented accusations of ‘Verrat’ springing one-hundred pieces quoted in Kraus’s cataclysmic up between Styrian Germans and Slovenians im‐ drama. mediately following the declaration of war. More‐ Cultural mobilization and the limits of the so- over, as Moll’s co-panelist JAN VERMEIREN (Lon‐ called ‘Augusterlebnis,’ or August Madness, repre‐ don) argued, even the Dual Alliance was not im‐ sented a major theme problematized across many mune to its share of treachery or perceptions panels. How did the diplomatic missiles fred in thereof: i.e. the idea that some Austrian perceived Summer 1914 shape the production of literature, the Germans as ‘our secret enemies.’ theater, music, and art? Crucially, how did the Following Cornwall in the plenary session, war exacerbate already strained relations be‐ WOLFGANG MADERTHANER (Vienna) and AL‐ tween the Empire’s centrifugal and centripetal FRED PFOSER (Vienna) set the tone with their col‐ forces? Finally, what dialogue existed between laborative presentation “Krieg und kulturelle

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Transformation.” Maderthaner and Pfoser framed title refers to the fact that, at least while Emperor the Ringstraße as particularly important to an ex‐ Franz Josef was alive, the Monarchy shunned ap‐ plosion of war hysteria and Germanic sentiment pearance in any possible patriotic flm projects. bridging societal divisions. Though Sigmund Yet, with the 1913 de-facto lifting of the ban of Freud and the Arbeiterzeitung editor Friedrich Burgtheater actors from appearing in flms, both Austerlitz were not immune to this war psychosis the military command and the new Emperor Karl at frst, soon Austerlitz and Freud joined Karl eventually awakened to the transformative power Kraus in vehement opposition to the war. A rather of newsreels and propaganda flm. Paul Stirton’s diferent perspective on Austerlitz’s Arbeit‐ paper also addressed the slippery slope between erzeitung was provided the next morning by DEB‐ elite and popular culture maintained by Das‐ ORAH HOLMES’ (Kent) interesting study of the co- sanowsky regarding the postwar integrality of opting of the particularly Viennese journalistic flm and literature. Stirton’s presentation, based form, the feuilleton, for the war efort. While such on visual and material evidence, shifted the 2-3 page feuilletons had typically played promi‐ methodological emphasis from the mostly text- nent yet subordinate roles to front-page headline based papers. Tracing connections between com‐ news, Holmes argued that a certain harmony both merce (including advertisements for heroic beers, above and ‘unter dem Strich’ ensued during soaps and war bonds) and government propagan‐ wartime by pointing to coverage of important mo‐ da, Stirton used visual evidence to suggest the ments during the war, including the June 1914 as‐ war’s profound efect on Hungarian avant-garde sassinations. art and design as Hungarian artists turned their Two additional papers from the opening ple‐ backs on Germanic Central European visual cul‐ nary sessions—PAUL STIRTON’s (New York) “Com‐ ture for more dynamic modern styles such as merce, Modernity, and Cosmology: Hungarian Vis‐ Cubo-Futurism, Dada, or Constructivism. The war, ual Culture Durng the First World War” and Stirton maintained, was the fnal stage in divorc‐ ROBERT VON DASSANOWSKY’s (Colorado Springs) ing Hungarian artists and designers from the infe‐ “‘Seine Majestät wünschen überhaupt nicht, dass riority complex that haunted the late 19th centu‐ ein solcher Film zustande kommt:’ The Tacit ry. On a later panel, similar themes on mass pro‐ Transformation of Austrian Film in the First paganda and the commodifcation of the visual World War’”—approached the Augusterlebnis arts were found in JOACHIM BURGSCHWENTER’s from diferent angles. A common leitmotiv in both (Innsbruck) paper on the role of state-produced papers was the complex relationship between picture postcards in what he termed the ‘mental popular and elite forms of culture, as well as how war.’ Burgschwenter’s analysis revealed how the the outbreak of war presented new opportunities 600 war-postcards produced by the Kriegshilfs‐ for cultural production: in Dassanowsky’s paper, büro— sent out to the general public with pay‐ the prospect of schwarz-gelb flmic reportage, in ment slips for donations to support war welfare— Stirton’s case, a fundamental shift of gravity triggered discussions as to whether such fundrais‐ among the Hungarian avant-garde away from for‐ ing risked trivializing the war and if money were eign (i.e. Austrian or French) models. Dovetailing not better spent on direct donations. with the flm screening later that evening, Das‐ Finally, in the context of the Czech avant- sanowsky presented a fascinating paper tracing garde, ThOMAS ORT (North Carolina) traced the the history of Austrian cinema and reportage dur‐ war’s transformative efects on avant-garde art ing the war, focusing on the competing Sascha- and philosophy, for instance how the totalizing ef‐ Filmfabrik and Wiener Kunstflm silent flm com‐ fects of the war led Karel Capek, a founding mem‐ panies. The formal, courtly language of his paper ber of the Cubist SVU (Visual Artists Group) and

3 H-Net Reviews leading cultural critic in the Czech pre-war mod‐ as problematized by TAMARA EHS’s (Vienna) pa‐ ernist movement, to reconsider key tenets of pre- per on women’s postwar admission to legal stud‐ war modernism. (On a side note, it was somewhat ies and MEGAN BRANDOW-FALLER’s (George‐ surprising that no paper explored Jaroslav town)presentation on the women’s movement in Hasek’s classic satire of bumbling batman The the arts and the postwar female Secession. Again Good Soldier Švejk, as duly noted by Ort). Regard‐ showing the contested nature of the feminist ing the discipline of art history itself, GEORG VA‐ Burgfrieden, JILL LEWIS (Swansea)argued that SOLD’s (VIENNA) paper on Max Dvorak, one of the war played a profound role in attracting the most prominent practitioners of the Wiener Käthe Leichter to socialism and anti-war agita‐ Schule of art history, resisted the temptation to in‐ tion. terpret Dvorak’s concept of Kunstgeschichte als Overall, the present conference was a very Geistesgeschichte as a direct outgrowth of his stimulating one, expanding new directions in the wartime experience, instead arguing that the war historiography: for instance, the comparative, in‐ exacerbated already-present fssures in the way terdisciplinary approach of Aviel Roshwald’s and art history was conceived of and taught. Yet, simi‐ the late Richard Stites’ edited volume European lar to the other papers’ conclusion on the war’s Culture in the Great War: The Arts, Entertainment transformative efects on the visual arts, Vasold and Propaganda, and the emphasis on contested contended that the war endangered the transna‐ loyalties in Laurence Cole and Daniel Unowsky’s tional, cosmopolitan categories of analysis that The Limits of Loyalty. Nonetheless, as the majori‐ the Viennese school had formerly privileged. ty of papers handled high culture or the relation‐ The war’s transformative impact on the Aus‐ ship between elite and popular culture, fascinat‐ tro-Hungarian women’s movement was another ing topics relating to the history of everyday life important theme shared across several panels. and the material realities of the home/battlefront Like other sectors of civilian society, the state remained under-represented in the present gath‐ hoped to tap the strength and unity of Austro- ering. Food and the total war of starvation, chil‐ Hungarian women in support of the war efort. dren’s experiences, and the growing encroach‐ Ideological, class, and nationalistic squabbles ment of the state on the daily lives of individuals were to be laid aside in this feminist Burgfrieden. —topics explored in groundbreaking studies such However, recent research has shown across Eu‐ as Maureen Healy’s Vienna and the Fall of the rope (for instance, The Women’s Movement in Habsburg Empire: Total War and Everyday Life in Wartime, edited by Alison Fell and Ingrid Sharp) World War I or Belinda Davis’s Home Fires Burn‐ that the August Madness could not mask the wom‐ ing: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in World en’s movement’s deep divisions, despite certain War I Berlin— received short shrift here. A groups’ enthusiastic war service. Based on metic‐ stronger emphasis on material factors would ulous research in the Mayreder Nachlass and di‐ have been welcome. Nonetheless, a number of pa‐ aries, ULRIKE TANZER’s () presentation pers considered the everyday experience of war, on Rosa Mayreder’s pacifst writings revealed that in particular censorship and how the declaration Mayreder’s attitude towards the war was any‐ of war mandated strict monitoring of all forms of thing but enthusiastic. Rather, Mayreder consid‐ communication, including the press, theater, flm, ered the war the fnal stage of destructive male and personal letters. In drawing attention to the hegemony. This became a familiar argument used little-know genre of war plays referencing current by Austrian feminists, in combination with chari‐ events, MARION LINHARDT’s (Bayreuth) paper on table relief performed during the war, to justify Vienense wartime theater (“‘Anno 14’: War and women’s sufrage and access to higher education, Popular Culture in Vienna”) aptly demonstrated

4 H-Net Reviews how a controversial play referring to events to the Lisa Silverman (Milwaukee, WI): Yiddish Lit‐ eastern front had to be transposed into the erature and First-World-War Vienna: Abraham Napoleanic era. The conversation on Austria-Hun‐ Mosche Fuchs gary’s cultural mobilization will continue in the Eszter Gantner (Budapest): ‘Gibt es in Ungarn projected publication of the conference papers (to eine Judenfrage?’ Die Krise des Assimilationsmod‐ appear in Austrian Studies) and, no doubt, at fu‐ ells in Ungarn während des Ersten Weltkriegs ture gatherings as the 100th anniversary of the Session A outbreak approaches. Chair: Deborah Holmes Conference Overview: Matthew Sibbe (Shefeld Hallam University): Welcome and Introductions The Internment of Italians in Austria during the Plenary Session First World War: The Katzenau Camp, 1915-1918 Chair: Robert Evans Brian Moloney (Hull): ‘Was will der dumme Mark Cornwall (Southampton): Loyalty and Kerl hier?’ Italo Svevo and Ettore Schmitz in Legitimacy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 wartime Trieste Wolfgang Maderthaner (VGA, Vienna) and Al‐ Session B fred Pfoser (Vienna): Krieg und kulturelle Trans‐ Chair: Robert Vilain formation Geofrey Chew (Royal Holloway London): Mu‐ Plenary Session sica in tempore belli: Janácek’s Wartime Sym‐ Chair: Judith Beniston phonic Poems Andrew Barker (Edinburgh): Peter Altenberg - Austrian War Poetry: round table discussion Apocalyptic Aesthete? led by Robert Vilain (Bristol) Paul Stirton (Bard College, NY): Commerce, § Modernity and Cosmology: Hungarian Visual Cul‐ Session A ture during the First World War Chair: Lisa Silverman Robert von Dassanowsky (Colorado): ‘Seine Megan Brandow-Faller (Georgetown): Tenu‐ Majestät wünschen überhaupt nicht, dass ein ous Mitschwestern: Mobilizing Vienna’s Women solcher Film zustande kommt’: The Tacit Transfor‐ Artists and the Splintering of Austrian Frauenkun‐ mation of Austrian Film in the First World War. st, 1914-20 First World War Film introduced by Thomas Ulrike Tanzer (Salzburg): Schreiben gegen Ballhausen (Filmarchiv Austria) den Krieg. Die Pazifstin Rosa Mayreder Session A Session B Chair: Jon Hughes Chair: Wolfgang Maderthaner Deborah Holmes (Kent): The Kriegsfeuilleton Jill Lewis (Swansea): Käthe Leichter and the in Vienna: Arbeiterzeitung versus Neue Freie First World War Presse Tamara Ehs (Vienna): (Studium der) Rechte Lutz Musner (IFK, Vienna): Dem Krieg eine für Frauen? Eine Frage der Kultur! gefällige Form geben – Alice Schalek an der Ison‐ Session A zo-Front Chair: John Warren Session B Chair: Peter Pulzer

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Thomas Steiert (Bayreuth): Soldatenlied and Irina Marin (SSEES/UCL): The Perils of Ar‐ Kunstmusik. Interrelations from quotation to at‐ chaeology: National Culture and Espionage in the mospheric adaptation Cena Case Anita Mayer-Hirzberger (Vienna): Volkslied Session A und Lagerfeuerromantik im Weltkrieg Chair: Martin Liebscher Session B Jan Vermeiren (UCL): ‘It’s not only for Aus‐ Chair: Paul Weindling tria’s Banner’: The Dual Alliance at War and the Landry Charrier (Clermond-Ferrand): Die In‐ Politics of Austro-German Identity ternationale Rundschau (1915-1918), ein österre‐ Martin Moll (Graz): Augusterlebnis in der ichisches Instrument kultureller Demobil‐ österreichischen Provinz: Inklusion und Exklu‐ machung sion am Beispiel der Verfolgung angeblich ‘ser‐ Werner Suppanz (Graz): Zeichen einer bophiler’ Slowenen ‘Großen Zeit’. Politische und ästhetische Diskurse Ekkehard Haring (Nitra): ‘Unglaubliche Ver‐ um die Errichtung von Kriegerdenkmälern in wandlungen – aber wahr!’ Mobil‐ Österreich-Ungarn 1914-1918 isierungsprozesse der Prager deutschen Literatur Pre-dinner drinks in the presence of the Aus‐ im 1. Weltkrieg trian Ambassador, Dr Emil Brix, to celebrate the Session B publication of Edward Timms' autobiography - Chair: Ritchie Robertson Taking up the Torch. English Institutions, German John Warren (Oxford Brookes): Stefan Zweig’s Dialectics and Multi-Cultural Commitments Jeremias in the Context of Expressionist Anti-War Introduced by Christian Glanz (Vienna): Der Drama Weltkrieg und die Wiener Musikproduktion Edward Timms (Sussex): Musical subversions Witwen und Waisen of militarism in Karl Kraus's Die letzten Tage der Session A Menschheit Chair: Gilbert Carr Plenary Session W. E. Yates (Exeter): The Burgtheaterdirektion Chair: Florian Krobb in the War Years Werner Michler (Vienna): Im (literarischen) Marion Linhardt (Bayreuth): ‘Anno 14’ – War Feld: Weltkrieg und Avantgarde bei Robert Müller and Popular Culture in Vienna und anderen Judith Beniston (UCL): Hans Müller's War John Paul Newman ( University College ): Miroslav Krleža, The Croatian God Mars, Session B and the Habsburg War Chair: Robert Knight Thomas Ort (North Carolina State University): Georg Vasold (Vienna): Krieg und ‘Krisis’. Max Karel Capek, the First World War, and the Czech Dvorak und die Erfndung der Kunstgeschichte als Prewar Modernist Movement Geistesgeschichte Closing Session Joachim Burgschwentner (Innsbruck): Zwis‐ chen sozialer und mentaler Kriegsfürsorge. Die Round-table discussion in the Jacqueline du staatliche Produktion von Bildpostkarten in Öster‐ Pré Hall. Panelists will include Robert Evans, reich (1914-18) Mark Cornwall, Andrew Barker, Judith Beniston and Deborah Holmes

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Citation: Megan Brandow-Faller. Review of Cultures at War: Austria-Hungary 1914-1918 (x-post H- Habsburg). H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews. October, 2011.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=34340

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