Lecture and Discussion:
Michael Wedekind, Continuities and Discontinuities: Late Habsburg Rule in the Alpine-Adriatic Borderlands and its Aftermath

‘Alpine-Adriatic region’ is a hazy notion. Common historical experiences, shared cultural imprints and conditional factors are said to overarch the region's geographic, ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity, giving place to connections generally attributed to the legacy of two great powers and their centuries-long reign over the region: The Republic of Venice and Habsburg Austria. Soon after 1918, when the latter was swept off the stage of world history, a posthumous mythicization of, and nostalgia for, Habsburg’s rule began to emerge. It spread among ethnic minorities and those who considered the new governance being invasive, oppressive, or at least detrimental to their own aspirations. It was, and sometimes still is, a longing for, or an immersion into, a ‘better past' as avoidance and rejection of what was perceived as a disappointing present. The lecture intends to trace events and changes that have influenced this process, paying attention to how these transformations affected everyday life.

Michael Wedekind was born in Bremen (Germany). He studied History, Romance philology, and Education at the Universities of Münster, Perugia, Bologna and Bucharest. He obtained his PhD with distinction in Modern and Contemporary History from the University of Münster where, subsequently, he was a postdoctoral researcher. He has been a research assistant at the University of Trento and an assistant professor at the Universities of Münster and Vienna, where he taught Contemporary History. He was a visiting professor in Trento and a guest professor at the Universities of Bucharest. In 2016, he became a senior researcher at the Central Institute of Art History in Munich.

Organiser: Post-Yugoslav Area Research Center (University of Warsaw)


21.10.2024 (Mo.), 6:00 p.m. 
Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw
ul. Próżna 7/9
In English
Free admission