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Records of Empire, Monarchy, Or Nation? the Archival Heritage of the Habsburgs in East Central Europe

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Records of Empire, Monarchy, Or Nation? the Archival Heritage of the Habsburgs in East Central Europe Please do not remove this page Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? The Archival Heritage of the Habsburgs in East Central Europe Niessen, James P. https://scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/discovery/delivery/01RUT_INST:ResearchRepository/12643381710004646?l#13643549140004646 Niessen, J. P. (2007). Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? The Archival Heritage of the Habsburgs in East Central Europe. Ab Imperio, 2007(3), 265–290. https://doi.org/10.7282/T3GF0RX4 This work is protected by copyright. You are free to use this resource, with proper attribution, for research and educational purposes. Other uses, such as reproduction or publication, may require the permission of the copyright holder. Downloaded On 2021/09/25 19:22:13 -0400 Ann Laura Stoler, The Pulse of the Archive Ab Imperio, 312007 "~CT~CTB~HHOTO~H~HMII", Hnu xa6ki~yca B k~~nep~~~fiCPiTJ'aUklkl. C~oyJIep PaCCMaTpHBaeT H 3~0~~0~anb~b1fiaCneKT 3TOrO "~H~HHx",AeMOHCTpH- pyx COOTBeTCTByIo~HeBO3MOXHOCTEI IIpOYTeHHR AOKJ'MeHTOB EIMIIePCKklX ~JIac~efi.CT~T~R 3aBepIlIaeTCII pa3MbILUJIeHHRMkl 0 npOH30LUeAIlIeM B aHT- pononoruu, n~~eparypsoiiTeopuu s Hcropue "~~XHBHOMno~opo~e", ze. Jim NIESSEN 06 OTXOAe OT IIOHllMaHEIII apXHBa KaK HCTOYHHKa B nOnb3y FIOHHMaHHR apXHBa KaK CY~S~KT~,Pi 0 nOTeH~kiaJIbHOM 3HaYeHHH 3TOr0 IIOBOpOTa AJBI HMIIePCKIlX II KOnOHkianbHbIX HCCJI~AOB~HI?~~. RECORDS OF EMPIRE, MONARCHY, OR NATION? THE ARCHIVAL HERITAGE OF THE HABSBURGS IN EAST CENTRAL EUROPE" Germany, Austria, and greater (pre- 1918) Hungary existed for centuries in a relationship that we may call imperial: they were held or brought into connection by various dynasties' ambitions. In the modem era, however, this ambition took on a new, national light as subject peoples asserted their rights. Hungarians led the way in contesting Habsburg absolutist rule in Hungary, inspiring in turn the self-emancipation of its peoples who came to see Hungary itself as a multinational empire. In speaking of imperial archives in the region between the Alps and the Carpathians one must immediately define terms. For most of the modem era this region was not an empire at all, if by that we mean that its ruler exercised authority over the entire region by virtue of the title of emperor. Until 1806 the head of the Habsburg house was Holy Roman Emperor, but * I would like to thank the forum's editors for their encouraging comments on the initial text, and Al's anonymous reviewer for helpful suggestions as well as valuable informa- tion and his own recent articles provided by Imre Ress. In addition to the sources I cite below, my knowledge of the subject derives from years of research in the archives of the former Habsburg region and the preparation of two archival studles on Hungary (co- authored by Ress) and Romania for the volume edited by Charles W. Ingrao, A Guide to East-Central Archives. Minneapolis, 1998 (=Austrian History Yearbook. 1998. Vol. 29. Pt. 2). Pp. 43-8 1 and 105-121. J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Imperio, 312007 most of this empire was to the west and north of our region in what we ment of archives was often practiced by archivists in the eighteenth and would today call Germany proper. As we will see, this empire had archives nineteenth century, but by the eve of World War I provenance had officially that would come under the administration of its Austrian successor state. become the dominant principle in the archives of Austria-Hungary. Today After 1804 there arose an Emperor of Austria with formal title over the archivists see original order as an important aspect of archives' value for entire intrarnontane region, but then after 1867 this emperor's realm was research. This theoretical distinction had dramatic implications for Hab- merely the Austrian half of the Dual Monarchy west of the Leitha River, sburg archives in the modern era. Cisleithania or "the kingdoms and lands represented in the imperial coun- cil." The individual lands had their own systems of government ("constitu- Archives of Empire tions"), ruling classes, and archives that we might call royal or provincial The fundamental raison d'ttre of medieval and early modern archives rather than imperial. Legally Hungary was a kingdom, only rarely and col- was the assertion of rights of succession, ownership, and rule. For centuries loquially using the term Hungarian empire (magyar birodalorn) for its own the monasteries were the chief repositories of these charters or privileges, assemblage of crown lands. followed by the royal treasuries, noble landowners, and city halls. The sem- So much for formal titles. The historian of political ideas and move- inal event in the prehistory of modern Austrian archives was the effort of ments still speaks, as did contemporaries, of the old German empire or of Emperor Maximilian (ruled 1493- 15 19) to consolidate his far-flung do- the Austrian imperial idea or simply "Austrian idea," the latter two con- mains and dynastic marriages through governmental reform and propagan- cepts meaning an aspiration to establish a uniform system of rule over the da. His ambition to create an imperial archive at his court in Innsbruck lands in personal union with the Habsburg dynasty - or more idealistically failed, but he did manage to centralize the preservation of Tyrolean records to propagate a dominant ethos that would cement the ties of the subject there as well as to enlist documents for somewhat fanciful accounts of his peopIes to the ruling house or at least make their coexistence within a com- personal exploits and descent from the emperors of Rome. His grandson mon state seem more desirable than its dissolution. The goal of Austrian and successor as Austrian archduke, Ferdinand I, took time out from the political uniformity within a greater Germany or Austrian empire had only contest for Habsburg dominance in Germany and Hungary to order that an evanescent success, but the later ideal gained supporters not only among official named Wilhelm Putsch collect and create an inventory for the ar- civil servants but also increasingly among historians. Like everywhere, the chives in Innsbruck and Vienna. Ferdinand and his successors had recourse first imperial archives arose here out of the rulers' efforts to buttress their to these archives for official purpose^.^ claims. We will see that they later became workshops for historical research The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were not conducive to the cen- in the modern sense, open not only to adherents of the Austrian idea but tralization and ordering of records. Not only did the Protestant states in also to apostles of the incipient national states. Germany, the Ottoman Turks, and Christian dynastic rivals in Hungary The meaning of archives is also less than obvious. In the simplest sense contest the dominance of the senior Habsburg, but within Austria in its they are buildings or repositories for records or documents. Archival pro- narrower sense the junior lines of the ruling family also insisted upon their fessionals then distinguish them from office files by the requirement that separate courts and archives. Bohemia and Moravia at least recognized archives must be organized and staffed to facilitate access and research by Habsburg kingship, but their estates and diets maintained separate laws and outsiders. Finally, archives are distinguished from manuscripls as consti- institutions. The Peace of Westphalia at the end of the Thirty Years War tuting the product of the normal activity of an organized institution. Mod- ern archival theory expresses a preference for the preservation of original Walter Goldinger. Geschichte des iisterreichischen Archivwesens. WienEIorn, 1957; order and institutional integrity of archives (respect de fonds, the principle Mitteilungen des Osterreichischen Staatsarchivs. Erganzungsband 5. S. 11- 13. The most of original order or provenance) rather than the thematic arrangement of thorough histories of the three central Austrian archives are the introductory studies to records of varying provenance.' The purposeful assemblage and arrange- their published inventories: Ludwig Bittner, Lothar Gross, and Fritz Reinohl. Gesamtin- ventar des Wiener Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, aufgebaut auf der Geschichte des Ar- chivs und seiner Bestande. Bd. 1-5. Wien, 1936-1940; Inventar des Kriegsarchivs Wien. ' James M. O'Toole. Understanding Manuscripts and Archives. Chicago, 1990. Pp. 55- Bd. 1-2. Wien, 1953; and Inventar des Wiener Hofiammerarchivs Wien, 195 1. 58; LevCltari ~smeretekkkzikonyve. Budapest, 1980. Pp. 220-225. 266 J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Zmperio, 312007 forced the emperor to renounce his most ambitious pretensions in Germany an occupation of Bucovina and Galicia in 1775-95, but the archives of and seek consolidation of power in his hereditary lands as an alternative. Austrian provincial administration remained in Chernivtsy and Lviv re- The crackdown on Bohemian-Moravian separatism after the Battle of White spectively, and survive today in Ukraine. Mountain in 1618, the reunification of Habsburg Austrian lands in 1665, Below the level of the three imperial archives, Austrian administrative then the repulse of the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 and ensuing recon- reform had a decisive impact on record keeping outside Vienna. Beginning quest of Hungary opened the way to this consolidation. in 1756 a series of regulations directed offices to record all incoming corre- The eighteenth century was the birth hour of Austrian imperial state- spondence and associated records under a unique number in annual register hood. The foundation of the new state and its first imperial archives was the books. This innovation, called Nova Mnnipulntio, broke with the earlier series of brilliant military victories by Prince Eugen of Savoy. To organize practice whereby offices often separated material according to subject mat- access to the records of his Court War Council (Hofkriegsrat) since the ter, and as a result greatly facilitated the coherency and integrity of the time of its creation in 1556 and provide access to maps and reports of his historical record.
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