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Nationalities Papers
The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity
Volume 29, 2001 - Issue 3
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Original Articles

Threads intertwined: German national egoism and liberalism in adolf fischhof's vision for Austria

Pages 441-458 | Published online: 19 Aug 2010

References

  • Charmatz , Richard . 1910 . Adolf Fischhof: Ein politisches Lebensbild , 1 – 16 . Stuttgart : Cotta . For a detailed biography of Fischhof
  • Cahnmann , Werner J. 1959 . "Adolf Fischhof and his Jewish Followers" . Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook , 4 : 117 Interestingly, Charmatz did not discuss Fischhof's Jewish background, and indeed barely mentioned that he was Jewish. See also; n. 9, who called attention to Charmatz's omission on this point, but himself offered few details about Fischhof's Jewish background in either of his articles
  • Judson , Pieter . 1996 . Exclusive Revolutionaries: Liberal Politics, Social Experience and National Identity in the Austrian Empire, 1848-1914 , Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press .
  • Walz , Stefan . 1996 . Staat, Nationalität, und Jüdische Identität in Österreich vom 18. Jahrhundert bis 1914 , 49 – 54 . Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang . For a detailed recounting of Fischhof's words and actions on 13 March 1848, see Charmatz, op. cit. pp. 19-21; at the Reichstag in Vienna, pp. 66-75; for his activities in the Reichstag after its move to Kremsier, see pp. 93-110
  • Rath , John . 1957 . The Viennese Revolution of 1848 , New York : Greenwood Press . for a discussion of Fischhof in 1848, and p. 65 for his work in the 1848-49 Reichstag. For a general discussion of these tumultuous events
  • Kann , Robert A. 1950 . The Multinational Empire: Nationalism and National Reform in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848-1918 , Vol. II , 32 – 39 . New York : Columbia University Press . For more on this document, see Judson, op. cit., pp. 64-67, and
  • Ibid., p. 201. In his appendix (see pp. 447-54), Charmatz included a later version of this document that was more precise yet virtually identical in content, found in the Nachlass of the Czech leader Frantisek L. Rieger. According to Charmatz, Rieger mentioned that this version appeared in an early 1868 publication.
  • Fischhof , Adolf . 1869 . Österreich und die Bürgschaften seines Bestandes , Vienna : Wallishauser .
  • Fischhof , Adolf . 1885 . Die Sprachenrechte in den Staaten gemischter Nationalität , 46 Vienna : Mainz . These articles had appeared in the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung in February, March and April 1884 (see Charmatz, op. cit., p. 351). Fischhof praised the 1870-71 agreement, and argued that it merited the attention of anyone interested in solving the nationality question in Bohemia, the province with the most intractable national problems of any in Austria. He included the text in Appendix C, I., pp. 74-78 of Die Sprachenrechte in den Staaten gemischter Nationalität
  • Jszi , Oskar . 1929 . The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy , 113 Chicago : University of Chicago Press .
  • Fischhof , Adolf . 1875 . On the Reduction of Continental Armies , Edited by: Freeland , Humphry William . London : Williams and Norgate . For the one major project during this period that did not deal with nationality issues in Austria, see
  • Beller , Steven . 1996 . Francis Joseph , 148 – 52 . London : Longman . This conflict emerged once again in 1897, during the crisis caused by the issuance of the Badeni language ordinances. These ordinances mandated that the Habsburg bureaucracy in Bohemia and Moravia be fully bilingual, and included a provision that all Habsburg officials in the province speak both Czech and German by 1901. First Germans across the Monarchy began protesting violently until Minister President Badeni withdrew the ordinances, then Czechs rioted to protest their withdrawal. For a more detailed discussion of this crucial affair, one that brought the Reichsrat to a standstill for weeks
  • Fischhof . Die Sprachenrechte in den Staaten gemischter Nationalität 47 – 48 . This publication was a collection of articles that had appeared in the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung in February, March and April 1884 (Charmatz, op. cit., p. 351)
  • Fischhof , Adolf . 1888 . Der österreichische Sprachenzwist , 31 – 32 . Vienna : Manz . These articles first appeared in the Neues Wiener Tagblatt (Nr. 45, 58, 72, 86) in February and March 1888 (Charmatz, op. cit., p. 361)
  • Fischhof . Der österreichische Sprachenzwist 32 – 33 .
  • Ibid.. p. 3.
  • Ibid.. pp. 4-5.
  • For a more complete discussion of the details of this event, including the full text of Fischhof's statement at the Musikvereinsaal, see Charmatz, op. cit., pp. 389-97. Fischhof's written text was actually delivered by Dr Edmund Singer, although Fischhof greeted the crowd and thanked them for attending before turning the floor over to Singer (Ibid., p. 389).
  • Cahnmann , Werner J. 1974 . "Adolf Fischhof als Verfechter der Nationalität und seine Auswirkung auf das jüdisch-politische Denken in österreich" ” . In Studio Judaica Austriaca, Bd. I , Edited by: Häusler , Wolfgang . 90 Vienna : Verlag Herold . Unfortunately, Fischhof and his allies, mostly the ever-shrinking contingent of democratic left-liberals, failed to convince their audience to join in this new political organization and support federalist reforms. After Fischhof and other supporters had delivered their remarks, a group of German nationalists, ironically consisting largely of Jews and led by Heinrich Friedjung, a Jew who was at that time a virulent German nationalist, disrupted the discussion and violently dispersed the gathering. As Austro-German liberals became more openly nationalistic, they had little desire for a compromise position that would, from their perspective, strengthen the Austrian Slavs at German expense. See
  • Bloch , Joseph Samuel . 1923 . My Reminiscences , Vol. I , 58 – 59 . Vienna : R. Lowit . n. 16. The Neue Freie Presse condemned the new party, and mocked the gathering's inauspicious conclusion in the paper's lead article on 18 July 1882. Other pro-centralist German liberal institutions and leaders dismissed it as well as a conservative, pro-Slav party (Charmatz, op. cit., pp. 397-98). When the new party failed, most of the older leaders of the Viennese democratic movement retired
  • As quoted in Ibid., p. 254. Charmatz reprinted this as well as numerous other letters.
  • Fischhof, Österreich und die Bürgschaften seines Bestandes, p. 26. One could see these remarks as Fischhof simply trying to make the best of Austria's exclusion from the soon to be unified German Empire. His positive attitude, however, does correspond with his vision of Austria as a German-led, yet basically pluralistic state.
  • Ibid., pp. 28-29.
  • Fischhof , Adolf . 1866 . Ein Blick auf Oesterreichs Lage , 21 Vienna : Wallishauser .
  • Ibid., pp. 23-24.
  • Ibid.. p. 24.
  • Fischhof . Österreich und die Bürgschaften seines Bestandes 33
  • Fischhof . Ein Blick auf Oesterreichs Lage 25
  • Fischhof . Österreich und die Bürgschaften seines Bestandes 36
  • Ibid.. pp. 36-37.
  • Ibid., p. 142. Ironically, he compared such a development to the tragedy that befell Europe when German barbarians overran the Roman Empire.
  • Fischhof . Die Sprachenrechte in den Staaten gemischter Nationalität 12
  • Fischhof . Öterreich und die Bürgschaften seines Bestandes 142 – 43 .
  • Ibid.. p. 143.
  • Ibid., p. 141.
  • Ibid.. p. 61.
  • Ibid.. p. 143.
  • Ibid.. p. 137.
  • Ibid., p. 143.
  • As quoted in Ibid.
  • Ibid., p. 33.
  • Ibid., p. 148.
  • Ibid., pp. 148-49.
  • Ibid., p. 63.
  • Ibid., p. 60.
  • Ibid.
  • Ibid., pp. 26-27.
  • Ibid., p. 28.
  • Ibid., p. 30.
  • Ibid., p. 43.
  • Ibid., p. 4.
  • Palacky , FrantiSek . 1866 . Oesterreichs Staatsidee , 83 Prag : n.p. . Appendix A. This appendix reprinted a letter Palacky wrote in which he rejected an invitation to join the Frankfurt Parliament as a delegate from Bohemia, which had been a part of the German Confederation. Fischhof worked with Palacky during the 1848-49 Reichstag, and referred to the Czech's writing on more than one occasion
  • Fischhof . Österreich und die Bürgschaften seines Bestandes 67 – 68 . In describing the citizens of a national state as related by blood, Fischhof seems to be making a case for a racial definition of nationhood that would have excluded him, as well as all Jews, from the German Volk. This statement is odd, to say the least, in light of his Jewish faith and self-identification as a German. He did not explain where his Judaism fit into his identification as a German or Austrian, or how it fit into his identity at all in his public political writings (see below for further discussion)
  • Ibid., p. 6.
  • Ibid., p. 30.
  • Ibid.
  • Silber , Michael . 1986 . "The Historical Experience of German Jewry and Its Impact on HaSkalah and Reform in Hungary" ” . In Toward Modernity: The European Jewish Model , Edited by: Katz , Jacob . 107 – 58 . 107 New Brunswick , NJ : Transaction Books .
  • Beller , Steven . 1996 . "Patriotism and the National Identity of Habsburg Jewry" . Leo Baeck Institute Year Book , XLI : 237
  • Singer , Sigmund (Fischhofs nephew) . 1903 . "Erinnerungen an Adolph Fischhof zu seinem 10. Todestage" . Neue Freie Presse , 22 March
  • Cahnmann . "Adolf Fischhof and his Jewish Followers" ” . 121 n. 18
  • For an alternate interpretation, see Cahnmann, "Adolf Fischhof als Verfechter der Nationalität und seine Auswirkung auf das jüdisch-politische Denken in Österreich," p. 82. Cahnmann argued that Fischhof "implied" that he considered Jews one of the nationalities that should be recognized and given autonomy. Cahnmann stated that Fischhof only mentioned Jews directly one time, and quoted a passage from p. 38 of österreich und die Bürgschaften seines Bestandes, in which Fischhof compared the plight of Jews and Slavs. However, I did not find the quotation Cahnmann cited anywhere on or near page 38, and I found no statement by Fischhof that either implicitly or explicitly recognized Jews as one of the Austrian nationalities on that page or in any other section of his writings.
  • Katz , Jacob . 1973 . Out of theGhetto: The Social Background of Jewish Emancipation, 1770-1870 , 60 179 Cambridge : Harvard University Press . The push to involve more Jews in agriculture reflected the hope that they would assimilate as they received emancipation and legal equality
  • Fischhof . Österreich und die Bürgschaften seines Bestandes 141
  • Namier , Lewis B. 1944 . 1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals , London : Geoffrey Cumberlege . Namier condemned the German liberal revolutionaries of 1848 for their blatant national egoism. Presaging Judson, he traced Germany's twentieth century barbarity back to German liberalism rather than Bismarck's Prussian militarism, and referred to the German liberals as "forerunners of Hitler" (p. 33)

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