Die böhmischen Länder in den Wiener Zeitschriften und Almanachen des Vormärz (1805–1848)

The scientific achievements in the Habsburg monarchy during the first half of the 19th century have been under-illuminated for a variety of reasons. A systematic inventory of scholarly journals and periodicals published during this period in Vienna lays the groundwork for unearthing this “lost continent”. The Viennese Vormärz-periodicals, which aimed to be interdisciplinary, reveal a hidden treasure of historically relevant scientific material; they also illustrate the close and productive scientific relationship between Vienna and the Bohemian lands. While part I (2011) covered the thematic areas of “literature and writing”, part II of the four-part volume systematically covers materials related to: linguistics; philosophy, aesthetics and rhetoric; history; and educational institutions. Due to the book and media science approach of the project, those works which were reviewed or advertised are included in the critical inventory. Written in either German or Czech language and usually printed in Prague, the Vormärz-periodicals disseminated scholarly literature of authors from the Bohemian lands. Biographical notes on 210 scholars and 80 medical doctors of rank, as well as reports on academic societies and fellowships, museums and collections, confirm, from a media perspective, that the Bohemian lands must be acknowledged as having played a leading role in science and education. The Vienna papers also shed light on the way in which the history of the Bohemian lands was handled per se, as reflected in advertisements for historiographical writings as well as in historical treatises and journalistic texts of all sorts, for example historical sketches and notes and memory jogs. Additionally, the large number of “intelligence updates” on school and educational systems of the Bohemian lands that were generated until circa 1820 are included as well. These “non-political” periodicals (as classified by Metternich censorship) gave due attention to the processes of emancipation (“rebirth”) of the Czech language and culture, often “sine ira et studio without any national ideological bias” (Moritz Csáky). Existing connections at that time to the University of Vienna as well as to the press and publishing industries in the capital and imperial city can be identified.