„INS GRÜNE“. DIE HERAUSBILDUNG DER FREIZEITRÄUME DER STÄDTISCHEN UMGEBUNG IN DER HABSBURGERMONARCHIE IM 18. UND 19. JAHRHUNDERT
“Green merry-making”. The creation of recreational spaces around urban areas in the Habsburg Monarchy in the 18th–19th centuries

Summary/Abstract: “Green merry-making”. The creation of recreational spaces around urban areas in the Habsburg Monarchy in the 18th–19th centuries. – My investigation is focused on a special phenomenon of urbanisation of the way of life in the 18th to 19th centuries: the functional and symbolical transformation of the immediate environs of the town, in the course of which the previously unconquered surrounding countryside or land used for agricultural purposes became the venue for urban leisure customs (excursions, May Day festivities, summer holidays). The period covered in the research is from the last third of the 18th century to the mid-19th century: this is sufficiently long to allow a comparison of areas of investigation having different source bases (towns within the Habsburg Monarchy of different sizes and with different traditions) and to trace changes in the various urbanisation phenomena examined. Nature in the urban environs as a recreational space is interpreted according to the aesthetic requirements of urban-dwellers. These nearby excursion places can be seen not only as compensation for increasingly unpleasant urban life, but also as a kind of cultural pattern, a symbolic expression of urbanity: the big city lifestyle pattern also appears in the smaller, barely urbanised towns. The phenomenon examined appears with differing emphasis in the leisure time of the different social groups. The petty bourgeoisie and the poorer social groups are encountered in these micro spaces mainly in connection with festive use, while visits to the green areas in and around the town are practically an everyday practice among the middle classes. Certain traditions dating from the period before the urbanisation in the Modern Age – such as church fetes in the vicinity of towns, and student traditions – play an important role in the emergence of the new customs. In addition, the social composition of the individual towns, the nature of their trend-setting strata, the denominational tradition, the existing educational or other institutions, in short the differing urbanisation histories also had a substantial influence in shaping leisure spaces in the urban environs. Where an important Protestant school operates in a town, middle-class townsfolk, intellectuals and officials are found in considerable numbers and if the urban elite and leaders are supporters of innovation, green leisure spaces appear earlier and in greater number. In towns with a strong Catholic tradition, the profanization of green fetes also contributes to leisure use of the urban environs, but at times Catholic customs can also be found in a Protestant environment.

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