Franz Ferdinand d’Este – das „Leitbild einer konservativen Revolution“? Zum Bild des Thronfolgers in der deutschsprachigen Literatur und Historiographie der Böhmischen Länder
Franz Ferdinand d’Este – the „Role Model of a Conservative Revolution“? On the image of the archduke in German literature and historiography of the Bohemian lands

Summary/Abstract: The personality of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro Hungarian throne, already divided opinion during his lifetime: reviled by his opponents as a future autocrat who would subju gate the peoples of the monarchy, celebrated by his supporters as the only possible saviour of the ‘ailing’ dual monarchy. The assassination of the archduke in Sarajevo symbolically charged his image by linking his death to the outbreak of the ominous ‘seminal catastro phe’ of the 20th century. Characterising Franz Ferdinand’s personality, impact and plans thus meant, not least, interpreting the long and short roads to the First World War. The following article will discuss the image of the heir to the throne in German literature and historiography of the Bohemian Lands, with special emphasis on the connection of Franz Ferdinand’s plans to conservative thinking on the one hand, and on alternative historical moments in the analysed texts on the other.

• Details
• Contents