Between Lower Austria and Moravia: displaced local elites and the Feldsberg/Valtice agricultural school

ABSTRACT

Since its founding in 1873, the Lower Austrian Regional Agricultural, Pomiculture and Viniculture School in Feldsberg, Lower Austria – today Valtice, Czech Republic – has played an important role in the local community. This secondary school has educated agricultural workers as well as provided continuing education for people in the region and beyond. Picture postcards from the turn of the twentieth century show the school with other notable town landmarks, reflecting its importance in the small, predominantly German-speaking border community. The Paris Peace Conference awarded Feldsberg/Valtice, a historically Lower Austrian town, to Czechoslovakia after the First World War. Analysis of this agricultural school provides a way to examine post-war borderlands from a regional perspective. The secondary educational institution became a point of conflict as the new Czechoslovak state transformed it from a German-speaking Lower Austrian school to a Czech-speaking one in Moravia. The Czechification of the agricultural institution in Feldsberg/Valtice was part of a larger effort to build a Czechoslovak national state. The author examines the life of the Lower Austrian school’s last German director, Matthias Arthold, who first studied at the school and then worked at other institutions across Lower Austria and Moravia, before becoming the Feldsberg/Valtice school’s director in 1908. Analysis of the alumni associations, one German, founded in 1913, and the other Czech, founded in 1924, illuminates the legacy of local elites and institutions that the provincial-turned-international border transformed.

KEYWORDS:

• Agriculture
• Austria
• borderlands
• Czechoslovakia
• Feldsberg
• Valtice

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the two anonymous reviewers for their comments. Orel Beilinson graciously scanned some of the sources needed to finish this project. Thanks also to Hugh Agnew, Gábor Egry, Daniel Morse and Nancy Wingfield for reading earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Except when standard English place names exist, I use both German and Czech place names to acknowledge multiple claims to this region between the wars. When I quote a contemporaneous source, I employ the place name the source used.

2. Mitteilungen des Verbandes der Absolventen, March 15, 1923, 13.

3. For examples of institutions that moved owing to Hungary’s redrawn borders, see Ablonczy, “It is an Unpatriotic Act to Flee,” 75. On educators, see Ablonczy, “Bleiben oder Gehen?” On civil servants, see Ablonczy, “Mortification, Legal Continuity, Frustration.”

4. Khan, “The Sociology of Elites,” 362–3.

5. Cohen, Education and Middle-Class Society, 9.

6. On the Czech case, see Cohen, Education and Middle-Class Society, 240–6; and Moore, Teaching the Empire, 2, 38–45.

7. Zahra, Kidnapped Souls. See especially chapters one and two.

8. For universities and the Habsburg Monarchy, see Surman, Universities in Imperial Austria. For transitions after the Second World War, see Connelly, Captive University.

9. On Czechoslovak state-building, see Orzoff, Battle for the Castle.

10. Beneš, “Czechoslovak Democracy,” 63–4; and Miller, Forging Political Compromise.

11. Bruegel, “The Germans,” 185–6; and Glassheim, Noble Nationalists, 62–76.

12. Cornwall, “National Reparation?” 265–8. On land reform, see also Beneš, “Czechoslovak Democracy,” 89–92; Doležalová, “A Stolen Revolution,” 278–300; Huebner, “The Multinational ‘Nation-State’”; Jančík, “Pozemková Reforma,” 275–337; and Miller, Forging Political Compromise, 51–7.

13. Miller, “Colonizing,” 303, 306–7.

14. Little of the historiography analyses the Czechoslovak occupation of non-historical parts of the Bohemian Lands.

15. Among the schools founded was the Landes-Winzer und Obstbauschule in nearby southern Moravian Nikolsburg/Mikulov in 1903, which remained a German-speaking institution after the First World War. See, XI. Jahresbericht, 7–8. On the expansion of education in the nineteenth century, see Cohen, Education and Middle-Class Society.

16. Hohenbruch and Zimmerauer, eds, Der land- und forstwirtschaftliche Unterricht, 13, 26, 42. For an overview of these Ackerbauschulen, see “Ackerbauschulen und Wanderlehrer” in Ernst Bruckmüller, “Vom ‘Bauernstand’ zur ‘Gesellschaft das ländlichen Raumes’,” 478–81. For an overview of technical education in Silesia, see Kadlec, Vzdělání – Společnost – Hospodářství.

17. Lízler, Sto let, 5–6; and Mitteilungen des Verbands der Absolventen, December 15, 1973, 8–9.

18. Lízler, Sto let, 5–6.

19. Programm und Bericht 1882–83, 13.

20. Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1892–1893, 22.

21. Programm und Bericht 1882–83, 8–9, 14–15.

22. Bartoš, Schulz, and Trapl, Historický Místopis Moravy a Slezska, 310.

23. For example, on the battle for a Czech-language university in Moravia at the turn of the century, see Wingfield, Flag Wars, Chapter 3.

24. Programm und Bericht 1882–83, 42–6; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1883–84, 30; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1884–85, 38; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1885–86, 24; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1886–87, 38; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1887–88, 37; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1888–89, 26; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1889–90, 34; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1890–1891, 37; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1892–1893, 29; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1894–1895, 28; Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1895–1896, 28; and Jahres-Bericht 1898–1899, 33–4.

25. Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1892–1893, 22, 25.

26. For example, see Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1892–1893, 24.

27. Lízler, Sto let, 9; and Jahres-Bericht 1898–1899, 52.

28. Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, April 12, 1916, 3.

29. Znaimer Wochenblatt, May 19, 1917, 7.

30. Österreichische Land-Zeitung, August 19, 1915, 2; and Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, April 12, 1916, 3.

31. See note 22 above.

32. See Densford, “Feldsberg/Valtice,” 290–312.

33. Československý zemědělec, September 12, 1930, 585; and Sto let, 11.

34. Československý zemědělec, September 12, 1930, 585; and Sto let, 13.

35. See Wingfield, Flag Wars, Chapter 5.

36. Venkov, August 12, 1924, 7; see also Československý zemědělec, September 12, 1930, 585.

37. Judson, Guardians of the Nation, 23.

38. Zahra, Kidnapped Souls, 13.

39. Československý zemědělec, September 12, 1930, 585.

40. Venkov, August 12, 1924, 7.

41. Sto let, 67–71. Many cohorts were much smaller; the average graduating class had 18 students.

42. Československý zemědělec, September 12, 1930, 587.

43. Fintajsl, Valtice a okolí, 19.

44. Sto let, 10–12, 21–3, 27–8.

45. Venken, Peripheries at the Centre, 8–10.

46. Landheimat, October 20, 1934, 9. Böhmischkrut changed its name to Großkrut in 1922, because some people mistakenly believed that it was a town in Czechoslovakia, and as a result mail was being sent abroad. See Reichspost, March 1, 1922, 4.

47. Sikora, ed., Programm und Bericht 1892–1893, 29.

48. Surman, Universities in Imperial Austria, 1.

49. Znaimer Tagblatt, October 9, 1898, 3; Znaimer Wochenblatt, October 1, 1898, 6; and Znaimer Wochenblatt, February 19, 1908, 4.

50. Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, February 19, 1908, 4; and Znaimer Wochenblatt, February 19, 1908, 4.

51. Sto let, 11.

52. Mitteilungen des Verbandes der Absolventen, March 15, 1923, 13.

53. Sto let, 11.

54. Arthold, Eine Studienreise in Wein- und Obstbauangelegenheiten; Arthold, Wichtiges über die Weinlese und Weinbearbeitung; Arthold, Österreichs Weinbau und Weinbaustätten: ein Führer durch das österr. Weinland; Arthold, Handbuch des Weinbaues, Arthold, Handbuch der Kellerwirtschaft (Subsequent editions included those published in 1935, 1942 and 1950); Arthold, Anleitung zur rationellen Lesegutverbesserung und Haustrunkbereitung; Arthold, Die Weinbaugebiete und Weine der Ostmark; and Arthold, Kurze (Subsequent editions include those published in 1946 and 1949.)

55. Illustrierte Kronen Zeitung, June 6, 1928, 7. For examples of other talks, see Der Abend, October 14, 1930, 7; and Neue Freie Presse, August 28, 1932, 28.

56. Der Tag, September 16, 1935, 4.

57. Reichspost, August 30, 1906, 4.

58. Reichspost, November 11, 1911, Afternoon Edition, 2.

59. Deutsches Volksblatt, September 26, 1920, 6. See also Deutsches Volksblatt, October 18, 1920, 4; and Der Bauernbündler, October 6, 1923, October 2 and 20, 1923, 2.

60. Československý zemědělec, March 12, 1937, 87; Sto let, 21; and Znaimer Wochenblatt, October 15, 1913, 4.

61. Private citizens were also affected by the push to replace German-speaking employees with Czech-speaking ones. Max (Prince) Lobkowicz wrote to Masaryk about the pressure he faced to replace his German estate manager and forester with Czechs. See Glassheim, Noble Nationalists, 80.

62. See for example, Wingfield, Flag Wars and Stone Saints, 140–4.

63. Čas, October 20, 1922, evening edition, 1.

64. Illustrierte Kronen Zeitung, February 14, 1941, 7.

65. On the food crisis in Austria and Czechoslovakia during and immediately after the First World War, see see Dagmar Hájková’s forthcoming article in Austrian History Yearbook, ‘Promoting the State through Food Scarcity: Czechoslovakia and the United State after the First World War’ ; Healy, Vienna and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire, Chapter 1, 31–86; Konrád and Kučera, Paths out of the Apocalypse, 243–4, and Kučera, Rationed Life, Chapter 1, 12–56.

66. Sto let, 66.

67. On veterans’ associations, see Cole, Military Culture and Popular Patriotism, 126–9. On nationalist organizations in the Habsburg Monarchy, see Wingfield, Flag Wars, 53–4. On the interwar period, see Wingfield, Flag Wars, 234–40. On school associations, which were intertwined with nationalist activists, see Judson, The Habsburg Empire, 302–9.

68. Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, January 8, 1913, 4.

69. Reichspost, February 5, 1913, 12.

70. Der Bauernbündler, May 1, 1913, 3.

71. Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, March 11, 1914, 5.

72. Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, March 18, 1914, 6.

73. Neuigkeits Welt Blatt, March 19, 1914, 16.

74. See note 71 above.

75. Niederösterreichsiche Volks- und Vereinzeitung, June 19, 1915, 3.

76. Mitteilungen des Verbandes der Absolventen, March 15, 1923, 1–4, 8, 17–31; and Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, April 7, 1923, 4–5.

77. Die Neue Zeitung, September 16, 1923, 3.

78. Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, February 23, 1929, 4.

79. Landheimat, February 16, 1935, 103–4.

80. On Eichinger, see https://www.parlament.gv.at/WWER/PAD_00259/index.shtml#tab-Ueberblick.

81. Der Bauernbündler, February 12, 1938, 4.

82. Sto let, 16, 19.

83. On Fintajsl, see Fintajsl, Valtice a okolí, 25–6.

84. Ibid., 28.

85. Venkov, July 25, 1930, 4.

86. Venkov, June 27, 1932, 6.

87. Mitteilungen des Verbandes der Absolventen, March 10, 1969, 13; and December 15, 1973, 7.

88. Sto let, 71.

89. Neues Österreich, October 31, 1945, 3.

90. Sto let, 10.

91. Mitteilungen des Verbandes der Absolventen, December 15, 1973, 3–4; and Sto let, 10.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Central European History Society and the University of Nevada, Reno.

Notes on contributors

Kathryn E. Densford

Kathryn E. Densford received a Ph.D. in history from George Washington University. She is currently a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Core Humanities at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is completing her first monograph, entitled ‘Beyond Vienna: The Provincial Austrian Home Front during the First World War’. She also recently published ‘Feldsberg/Valtice and the Lower Austrian Towns that Became Czech, 1918–1920’ in Postwar Continuity and New Challenges in Central Europe, 1918–1923: The War that Never Ended, edited by Tomasz Pudłocki and Kamil Ruszała.