(Mittel-)Europa-Konzepte

(Mittel-)Europa-Konzepte in der deutschen, österreichischen und ungarischen Literatur des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts

Tandem-Fellowship des Clusters "Asia and Europe in a Global Context"; gemeinsam mit Prof. Dr. Magdolna Orosz, Eötvös-Loránd-Universität Budapest (ELTE).

Projektbeschreibung:

At the beginning of the 20th century, Mitteleuropa is a highly disputed concept. It is understood rather differently by the deputy of the German Reichstag, Friedrich Naumann (Mitteleuropa [1915]), than in Austro-Hungarian contexts. When the Habsburg and Wilhelmine Monarchy collapsed at the end of the First World War, the ambiguous idea of Mitteleuropa became a compensation strategy to mediate between a failed multinational-state model and an outdated nation-state model, and was intensely discussed among many Austrian as well as Hungarian authors (e.g. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Stefan Zweig, Oszkár Jászi). 

As the uncertainty of what is actually meant by Mitteleuropa continues in today's research, the HCTS Tandem Fellow project "Conceptions of Mitteleuropa in early 20th century German, Austrian and Hungarian literature" aims to examine how writers who grew up in Wilhelmine Germany and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire conceptualise Mitteleuropa in times of political turmoil. 

The main focus lies on authors of Viennese and Budapest Modernism who suit the research design perfectly in terms of their origin and socialisation. These poets are predestined for a transcultural study as they were part of what could be called a "Middle-European Modern Age,", and, even though they all met in the Austrian capital, came from very different parts of the Habsburg Monarchy. Their biographies and social networks dissolve the dividing lines of the Empire’s regional borders. Felix Salten, for instance, came from Budapest in Hungary, and Richard Schaukal from Brno in Moravia.

Veranstaltungen:

Internationale Forschungswerkstatt

"(Mittel-)Europa im frühen 20. Jahrhundert"
Leitung: Prof. Dr. Barbara Beßlich

HCTS Lecture by Prof. Barbara Beßlich
Europa als Ersatz. Vielvölkerstaatsverlust und kontinentale Kompensations-Ideen bei Hugo von Hofmannsthal
24.05.2018, 18:00 Uhr, Karl Jaspers Center
 

HCTS Lecture by Magdolna Orosz
"(Mittel-)Europa" als Erinnerung und Hoffnung. Die Suche nach einer verlorenen Welt bei Stefan Zweig und Sándor Márai
12.07.2018, 18:00 Uhr, Karl Jaspers Center