This article refers about painter Leopold Pollak (1806–1880), a native of Bohemia and Roman resident, and it primarily focuses on Pollak’s most significant work — the “Italian Genre Paintings.“ At the time, Italian Genre Paintings was a rather popular form of art across Europe, and Pollak would introduce this style to the people of Prague at annual expositions organized by the local art society Krasoumná jednota pro Čechy. The article uses information now available — still largely scattered in various sources — pertaining to Pollak’s work. Therefore, this text looks to information about Pollak’s art in private collections and galleries, but it also makes use of contemporary publications that covered the public’s reaction to Pollak’s paintings. To best analyze the reception of Pollak’s art in Prague, this article first touches on the following two issues: the specifics and concise history of Italian Genre Paintings in the mid-nineteenth century with an emphasis on the cultural environment in France; and the reception of painted italics and the Italian Genre Paintings at annual art exhibitions in Prague during Pollak’s time. The text then discusses the career of Leopold Pollak, him being the only true Italian genre specialist among painters hailing from Bohemia. The contemporary publications covering the public’s reaction to the paintings Pollak would send to Prague from Italy between 1835 and 1856 (or rather 1869) are also examined. The reception in Prague was at its warmest in the late 1830s and in the 1840s, but cooled down in the mid-nineteenth century. The contemporary publications are compared with Pollak’s works known from public collections and art auctions. The article concludes that Pollak’s oeuvre was at its best during the peak of the Italian Genre Paintings across Europe. Pollak, a pioneer of the genre in Prague, enriched the painting style by adding a new dimension with the local Prague audience in mind.
The two hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the Don Giovanni premiere, in 1787, and the one hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of the foundation, in 1837, of Prague’s Mozart Denkmal, the first ever Mozart Memorial Collection, housed from then until now in Prague’s Klementinum, offer the opportunity to take a look at Mozart’s standing in the early 19th century in Bohemia – through the eyes of press and writing on music of the time (August Wilhelm Ambros, Wenzel Johann Tomaschek, Joseph Proksch, Ed. Murelli), as well as period arrangements of his works and the ways of their interpretation.
The look into the history of Detva’s parish in a „long” century approximates the conditions and factors which significantly influenced the life of the main actors of the local ecclesial community. Population living mainly at scattered mountain settlement was associated by Detva, in which all official, economic, cultural and religion life of the region was focused. Geographical distance between scattered settlements and the centre of Podpoľanie in practice often involved several hours walking pilgrimages of mountain settlers to Detva and back. There was no other way for believers to fulfil all of their religious and national commitments, than to regularly undergo these challenging routes throughout this „long“ century. Currently Roman Catholic parish as the first and basic organizational unit in the region played a major role in the past not only in pastoral care, but also in education, informing, health care and charity. Despite that state was taking over all of these competencies during the „long” century, the position of priest as an honourable authority in the town and at the mountain settlements did not change and remained as a unifying entity in subsequent years of the 20th century.
This study focuses on marches in 19th century Serbian salon music for piano composed by Czech musicians. It deals in particular with piano arrangements of orchestral works. Reference is also made to the contribution of Czech musicians towards the Europeanization of Serbian music in the 19th century as well as to their versatile activities in the roles of conductors of military bands and theatre orchestras, orchestral players, choirmasters, music teachers, and composers.
In the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century Polish scientific and professional communities took action to tighten contacts between compatriots living in the area of the three partitioning powers, and the emigration. This was a response to the unsuccessful attempts at regaining independence by using weapons. Engaging in scientific activity and building relations were supposed to replace the armed struggle. It meant that connections were established between Polish scientific societies, and first of all, conventions were organised. The initiatives taken on this forum served the development of Polish science and helped Poles to act collectively, which gradually assumed an organised form embracing the three partitions. Polish scholars also aspired to establish a common representation on the international forum. Such initiatives taken by scientific and professionalcommunities largely contributed to the restoration of independent Poland.
Women’s right to work or, more widely, challenging the established social role of women was not a brand-new topic in the Kingdom of Poland during the 1860s. It had been discussed before on the public forum. However, after the fiasco of the January Uprising (1864), those issues were vigorously discussed in press polemics. It mostly emerged due to altered social and economic conditions. On the one hand, the Polish community learned about the development of the women emancipation movement in Western Europe and the United States, on the other hand, much of the gentry went bankrupt being unable to bear the post-Uprising repressions. Many women from that milieu had to face the necessity of earning their living. That issue was addressed in the press at the time and, considering the frequency of such publications and their tenor, it must have sparked many emotions. This article discusses solutions proposed by both those who supported progress and attempted to add new occupations to the women’s labour market and to help women with reformed education, and by defenders of traditional values. The latter protested the very idea of women working out of home as an affront to that gender’s calling – being a wife and a mother. They were not only concerned that work might prejudice women’s ability to take care of home or children, but the fact of eroding the traditional social order in which men were destined to the public sphere while women should reduce their ambitions to the private, domestic sphere. Accordingly, in the second half of the 19th century, we can perceive that the Polish press of that time tended to add more value to work done by women at home. Attempts were made to present it as a mission, not only on the home but also the social front. They tried to turn it into a science by proposing a new branch of science called the “national economy of women”. Another argument raised by those against the emancipation of women was the inherent “nature” of women who were allegedly predisposed to those tasks that are related to the role of wife, mother, housekeeper, to the exclusion of everything else. There was also a “compromise” option that if some women are forced to work because of unhappy wheels of fortune, they should choose jobs that would benefit from female characteristics such as compassion and taking care of details. However, the emotional nature, so typical of women, allegedly affected their view of the world and prevented them from working in such fields where objectivity was essential (medicine, law).
The contribution is focused on the history of the Benešov brewing industry after 1872. It seeks a context for the failure of the joint-stock company which in Benešov in 1872 established a large malting plant that was later partially converted into a brewery. Its operation is viewed from the broader perspectives of the transformation of society in the second half of the 19th century, including development of the brewing sector. The first aspect to be described is the origin of the joint-stock company, the mechanisms of its operation and a breakdown of the motivation behind its management’s actions. Also examined is the context of the local characteristics given by the development of the relationship between the once servile Benešov and the nobility at the nearby Konopiště Castle, including the complicated relationship between the city’s elites and the lord of Konopiště. In the second part, the background of the personnel and institutional linkages between the company and the local Civic Credit Union is revealed in detail. The credit union’s operation in the period under review is immediately connected with the operation of the joint-stock company and, in the end, led to its definitive downfall. The contribution does not end with the decision to sell the failing enterprise to the new lord of Konopiště, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, 1887, but it rather focuses on the subsequent years, when the definitive bankruptcy of the Civic Credit Union and the joint-stock company itself occurred.
The submitted study looks at the opinions and acts of the nobility, in particular Karl Chotek, during the 1848 Year of Revolution. Before the spring revolutionary period, the Czech nobility enjoyed an exclusive status, but the revolutionary summer changed all that. Although some noblemen had already endeavoured to reform relations with their serfs before the revolution, had founded the Union to Encourage Industry in Bohemia and declared the ability to purchase freedom for serfs, during the revolution they signed a petition to avoid sudden revolutionary change and keep their current status as political representatives of the country, and they were confronted with the Herder-inspired Czech nationalist movement. They could not find a common voice with this movement because amongst other things, their reforms arose not from the language-profiled concept of the nation as declared by the Czech nationalist movement, but rather from the Enlightenment. Although the nobility were not passive and endeavoured to play a part in political events, they remained alone in their endeavours, with even the state itself drawing away from them and abolishing serfdom on 7 September 1848 independently of their demands, and through this also abolishing the whole of the previous patrimonial administration.
The Evangelical Reformed Parish in Warsaw in the 19th century was organised on the basis of the regulations from 1777 and 1839. The Community also showed a large autonomy in relation to the sovereign authorities of the Polish Reformed Church, which was connected with the specifics of Calvinist denomination. The subject of the article is the analysis of the division competences between the main organisational units: the College Church, the Assembly of Members and the pastors.
This paper introduces the agricultural interest structures of Germans in Austrian Silesia in the latter half of the 19th century as an element of modernisation of the countryside which significantly contributed to its economic, class and political emancipation, from the point of view of their gradual organisational construction and the principles of peasant association. It can be surmised that the milieu of agricultural associations, which were connected with other agricultural-economic structures in terms of their membership and interest, had the potential to advance the ideological elements of the nascent German agrarian movement at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The paper focuses on the key agricultural non-political associations along with their developmental trends which created this base in the region of Austrian Silesia. The author primarily relies on printed sources, because although the archive material devoted to agricultural associations in the region may seem very rich, it does not provide the necessary amount of relevant data. Given the current state of research, when the interest structures of associations are not given attention considering their role in the development of rural areas, this article seeks to enrich the professional discourse surrounding the issue.
The aim of the study is to analyse Austro-papal relations in the period 1838–1848 in the context of the Italian liberal-national movement. The reactionary, backward, absolutist regime of the papal government had often been the cause of the crises in the Papal States in the pre-March period, with the most significant one being in 1831, when it was only through Austrian military intervention that the papal regime survived. The papal government was unwilling to change the course of its internal policy and transform the Papal States for the sake of both its subjects and its government. Therefore, when it came to reforming the papal regime, Metternich’s lifelong advising of the Pope was like beating a dead horse. Austria’s readiness to intervene militarily whenever requested by the Pope was the most important part of Metternich’s diplomatic passivity within his papal policy during the 1840s, although none of the local uprisings in this period required the intervention of Austrian troops The change in the Austrian chancellor’s approach to Rome emerged because of the reform course of Pius IX, who was elected Pope in the summer of 1846. The Pope’s utter disinterest and opposition to Austria after 1846 eventually resulted in the ultimate fall of Metternich’s papal policy.
In the late 19th century, Argentina, a country with great economic potential, finally solved most of the political problems that had hampered its development and started to fully exploit its capabilities. Stabilization of the country, along with the willingness of European merchants and banks to invest, was the main reason for the rapid development in the production of raw materials. Grain, meat and land became the main sources of prosperity during the 1880s as well as the prerequisite for a carefree government policy. Although Argentina’s disdain during the Baring crisis backfired, its development and prosperity at the turn of the century increased once again. This paper researches the consequences of the development of the Argentine export policy at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, its essential characteristics and the most important events that took place during the defined period that affected Argentine exports.
The purpose of this study is analysis of Austrian Chancellor Metternich’s approach towards the civil war in Switzerland, which ensued in 1847 between the Catholic and Protestant cantons, and evaluation of the consequences of Metternich’s diplomatic defeat, for him personally and also for Austria and its relationship with the German Confederation. Eruption of the conflict itself, its progress and its consequences will be discussed. Metternich considered the dispute in Switzerland to be an issue for Austria, because he believed that the radical (Protestant) cantons’ efforts to create a unified federal state could act as an impulse for the increased involvement of German nationalists who would finally trigger a revolution in Germany. He made all possible effort to prevent this development, however, his intention this time was not just to use diplomatic means, but also armed intervention by Austria and France and he also considered using military assistance from the states of the German Confederation. But his efforts failed, the Sonderbund, a military defensive alliance of the seven Catholic conservative cantons created for the purpose of protecting the sovereignty of the cantons, was defeated in the civil war and a new federal constitution was adopted in Switzerland. The Prince’s fears were realised when the victory of the Swiss radicals became one of the impulses for a revolution in Germany and Italy in 1848.
This article deals with American travels of Čeněk Paclt (1813–1887), who was born in the town of Turnov. Č. Paclt belongs to the half-forgotten travelers of the nineteenth century, although in professional circles, his name is known. Among Czech adventurers and travelers, however, he has an important position, because he holds one primacy. Č. Paclt is also the first Czech, who has provably traveled through all five inhabited continents and has left written evidence about his journeys. He came to the American land in the year 1846. Č. Paclt traveled over Mexico, Brazil and large part of the East Coast of the United States of America. He went through Mexican territory during the Mexican- American War (1846–1848) as an American soldier. After that Č. Paclt travelled along the East Coast of the USA, where he visited many major cities (Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc.). He was on the American continent in the years 1846–1857. Then he sailed to Australia. Č. Paclt later undertook journeys to New Zealand, India and the last seventeen years of his life he spent in South Africa.
According to some authors, the traditional geopolitics can be seen as a tool to legitimize the expansion of powerful states. Tsarist Russia was in the 19th century undoubtedly one such powerful state. This paper deals with the geopolitical ideas that originated in Russia before the 19th century and its aim is to analyze the ways in which the expansion of the state in the 19th century can be interpreted, using the ideas of geopolitics.
Heinrich Eduard Herz (1785–1849) was once recognized as one of the most successful Jewish merchants in Prague. Conclusions are made on the basis of research of archival sources in the Czech Republic and in Vienna, Austria, and of related literature. The article deals not only with a personal biography of Herz and details from his private life, but also with his professional career, his public activities and the philanthropic legacy of his whole family. Short summaries of blood-related merchant and 19th Century Prague noble families are also a part of this thesis.
The article asserts that it is very difficult to understand the development of relations between European countries and nations from 1815 to 1914 without an appreciation of the strong but hitherto overlooked perception of diplomatic affairs by people who, regardless of their nationality, political affiliation, gender or social status, desired stability and fairness in Europe generally acknowledged as a common security space. It introduces a new thesis that the 19th century witnessed an important but as yet unknown process whereby the abuse of power by stronger states in as well as outside Europe gradually eroded the Europeans’ faith in the international security ensured by treaties and launched their search for greater security in material force. This transition from institutionalism to realism in international affairs between 1815 and 1914 was an important outcome as well as factor of the decline of the European states system during one hundred years, a process that began in the first half of the century and later resulted in a widespread security dilemma. The rise of Realpolitik, nationalism, imperialism and colonialism for example, much like a more normative approach in the peace movement, must thus be seen as the components of a complex process beyond simply the actions of the governing elites: they resulted from the people’s deep interest in and response to supranational affairs.
At the turn of 1850s and 1860s there was a serious discussion inside the Bulgarian Church Movement, which had fallen apart into four parties: national, pro-Turkish moderates, pro-Russian moderates and pro-Uniate. One of the most fervent debates took place between the journals “The Danubian Swan” (edited by Georgi Sava Rakovski, connected with the national party the Church Movement) and “Bulgaria” (published by the leader of pro-Uniate party Dragan Tzankov). The discussions focused on the topics pivotal for the Bulgarian national case: the relation of the Church Movement to the Ottoman Empire, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Catholic Church and the Great Powers (especially Russia and France), the problem of the Bulgarian cultural model, the medieval heritage and Christian dogmas. One of those topics concerned the relation of the Church movement to the Ottoman Empire – in general both journals declared loyalty to the Sultan, but the problem mainly concerned the Turkish censorship. “Bulgaria” and “The Dunabian Swan“ agreed that the Patriarchate of Constantinople is the main enemy of Bulgarian interests. Liberating the Bulgarian Church from Greeks was their primary goal. Tzankov wanted to realize this goal in cooperation with the Catholic Church, for Rakovski, instead, the Church Union would lead to the new enslavement of the Bulgarians, who would fall under the “yoke of Jesuits”. That problem was also connected with the search for an ally between the Great Powers: “Bulgaria” wanted to cooperate with France, which was the main patron of Catholicism in the World, whereas “The Dunabian Swan” tried to gain Russian support. The activists of the Church Movement realized that the Union will have a significant impact on the future of the Bulgarian culture. Tzankov was a proponent of the modernization of the Bulgarian society according to Western standards. Rakovski warned that the Union will be the beginning of the collapse of the Bulgarian nation and a betray of its age-old connection with the Orthodox Church. They proved these visions with historical examples – during the discussion the editor of “Bulgaria” created an alternative and false version of the Medieval history of Bulgaria, in which he tried to prove the existence of deep relations between Bulgarians and the Catholic Church. Another important part of the discussion between the journals revolved around Christian dogmas and was based on the old polemics about dogmas lasting since the 9th century between the Western and Eastern Christianity. The arguments used in the articles about the Church Movement by Rakovski and Tzankov only very rarely had a rational character, they were usually based on emotions, stereotypes and the Bulgarian sense of pride.
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