Die Habsburger in der frühneuzeitlichen tschechischen Geschichtsforschung
The Habsburgs in early modern Czech historical research

Summary/Abstract: This study deals with the transformation of Czech historical science’s view of the ruleof the Habsburgs in the lands of the Czech Crown at the beginning of the modern era.Firstly, the author briefly describes the opinions of historians who from the 19th centuryonwards criticized the Habsburgs for their notable detachment from Czech national interests.This negative evaluation of them as a hostile dynasty which caused social, national,and religious oppression in the lands of the Czech Crown, especially after the Battle ofthe White Mountain, was prevalent in Czech historical science well into the 20th century.The difference in the views of Western European and Czech historians about the historicalrole of the Habsburgs in Central Europe became still more pronounced in the 1950sto 1980s. The framework of ideologically distorted viewpoints was transcended only bythe work of Josef Janáček and later of Jaroslav Pánek, who in the early 1990s was the firstto adopt a programmed critical approach to evaluating the rule of the Habsburgs withoutideological, moralizing and above all emotionally patriotic prejudices and stereotypes. Thefailure of his project was influenced by a complete absence of case studies which wouldpermit comparative research into the political, religious and cultural history of the CzechCrown Lands in the early modern Habsburg monarchy. Next, the author of this studyfollows the research journeys of Czech historians who over the past thirty years have investigatedtopics relating to the political power of the Habsburgs, their Catholic faith anddynastic representation in the Czech lands in the 16th and 17th centuries. Their scientificefforts are presented within the broad international context of research into the historyof the Habsburg dynasty in Central Europe. Despite case studies and the most recentlypublished two-volume work on the Habsburgs, modern Czech historical science has not yet been able to get to grips in the fullest sense with the rule of this dynasty in the CzechLands. In future years, the long-awaited climax of the journey towards the fulfilment ofa conceptually demanding scientific aim should be a “Czech” view of the history of theHabsburg monarchy - of the Habsburgs’ rule within the Central European monarchy andthe representation of their power and piety.

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