A National “Struggle for Survival”? – The Badeni Crisis of 1897 in Cisleithania’s German-language Press Cover Image

A National “Struggle for Survival”? – The Badeni Crisis of 1897 in Cisleithania’s German-language Press
A National “Struggle for Survival”? – The Badeni Crisis of 1897 in Cisleithania’s German-language Press

Author(s): Victor Jaeschke
Subject(s): Language studies, Media studies, Nationalism Studies, 19th Century
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Badeni Crisis; Habsburg Empire; Cisleithania; German nationalism; language and nationalism; Vienna; Prague;

Summary/Abstract: This article observes the role of Cisleithania’s (i.e. the Austrian “half” of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy) German language press in the so-called Badeni Crisis of 1897 which was triggered by the issuance of two language ordinances designed to make Czech, together with German, an equally valid language in the inner administration of the Crownlands of Bohemia and Moravia. By comparing the reporting style of two newspapers from different regions – the Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Presse and the Bohemian newspaper Prager Tagblatt–this essay explores how interpretations of this serious political crisis differed in the periphery and the centre of the Habsburg empire. The author shows that, even though the Badeni Crisis directly affected mainly German-speaking Bohemians, the reporting style of the Prager Tagblatt was less sensationalist and its choice of words less nationalistic and militaristic than the coverage of the same events by its Viennese counterpart, the Neue Freie Press. In a second step, reasons for this surprising discrepancy are traced.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 49
  • Page Range: 0-0
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English