The Legacy of the Habsburg Monarchy in the Successor States (Ruptures and Continuities)

This special volume to be issued in the series ‘Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918’ will deal with the legacy of the Habsburg Monarchy in the successor states (in the narrower and broader sense). It will include an analysis of the time of radical change with an emphasis on the 1920s (until the start of the Great Depression, 1929/30). Analysis will not focus on the turning point of 1918 but will explore this era from a perspective that draws on the binary concept of ‘rupture’ and ‘continuity’: the developments of the 1920s will be linked to the pre-war era and, where applicable, traces of the ‘old’ will be revealed in the ‘new’. Moving beyond the space of Central Europe, the newly created states will be set in a pan-European context.   

Thus, the volume will not present ‘national histories’ in the sense of an interpretation of history centred on the nation-state, but rather aims to investigate the Habsburg Monarchy after the Habsburg Monarchy and to locate it in the changed international order of the post-war era (introductory chapter). The themes dealt with here will therefore not be explored country by country but will be analysed comparatively and discussed in a methodological and theoretical context encompassing broader spaces. This is particularly significant given that the problems of the post-war order certainly proved to be multinational, and political attempts at solutions framed nationally or bilaterally fell short of achieving resolutions.