The Land Register of Francis I (1817 – 1861) is a comprehensive cartographical and statistical documentation of the natural, economic and social circumstances surrounding the Habsburg monarchy in the first half of the 19th century. The measurement, soil assessment and earning power of all crown lands and the arrangement in tax districts and 30,556 land registry districts was a great technical and cultural-political achievement at a time after the Napoleonic Wars in which the Austrian monarchy had reached a new low. Since January of 2008 the Universities of Klagenfurt and Innsbruck have been working on a research project (funded with the support of the Austrian Scientific Fund – FWF) whose aim is to scientifically develop and examine the maps and records of the states of Carinthia and Bukovina. [...]
The layout of the Land Register of Francis I (with its fiscal, judicial and political objectives) sought to bring together the provinces of the union of states into a uniform jurisdiction regarding soil assessment and taxation. As a basic part of the development of a more or less unified economic area, the “Franziszeische Surveying Unit” in conjunction with the “land registry” and the “soil assessment” had the goal of viewing the “tax assessment” (which did not take place) as an undertaking to reshape a large region economically, administratively and judicially. For this reason the “land registry” was an important step towards a “modern state” – in the case of the Habsburg monarchy this was definitely without and against the ideological support of nationalism taking place during the start of the 19th century. In its political meaning the research into the land registry has up until now been largely ignored. There has been almost no adequate consideration for the land registry in the overall view of the Austrian management, economic and social history. The missing editorial coverage of the land registry as a source for comparison studies is a drawback whose elimination should provide new impulse to the research with a middle European perspective.
Courtesy: OAPEN Open Access
Abstract: This dissertation revisits the meaning of Soviet expansion and sovietization during and after World War II, the effects of the war on a multiethnic Central-Eastern European city, and the postwar construction of a national identity. One of several multiethnic cities acquired by the USSR in the course of World War II, modern pre-Soviet Chernivtsi can be best characterized as a Jewish-German city dominated by acculturated Jews until the outbreak of World War II. Yet Chernivtsi emerged from the war, the Holocaust, and Soviet reconstruction as an almost homogeneous Ukrainian city that allegedly had always longed for reunification with its Slavic brethren. Focusing on the late Stalinist period (1940–1953) but covering earlier (1774–1940) and later (1953–present) periods, this study explores the relationship between the ideas behind the incorporation; the lived experience of the incorporation; and the historical memory of the city’s distant and recent past. Central to this dissertation is the fate of the Jewish residents of Czernowitz-Chernivtsi. This community was diminished from an influential plurality to about one percent of the city’s population whose past was marginalized in local historical memory. This study demonstrates a multifaceted local experience of the war which was all but silenced by the dominant Soviet Ukrainian myth of the Great Patriotic War and the 'reunification of all Ukrainian lands.' When the authors of the official Soviet historical and cultural narratives represented Stalin’s annexation as the 'reunification' of Ukraine, they in fact constructed and popularized a new concept of 'historical Ukrainian lands.' This concept—a blueprint for the Soviet colonization of the western borderlands in the name of the Ukrainian nation—tied ethnically defined Ukrainian culture to a strictly delineated national territory. Applied to the new borderlands and particularly to their urban centres characterized by cultural diversity, this policy served to legitimize the marginalization and, in several cases, the violent displacement of ethnic minorities, bringing to an end Jewish Czernowitz."
Courtesy: Dr. Svitlana Frunchak
History of the J.N.A.V. Hasmonaea in Czernowitz by Adolf Koenig (Tel Aviv): "On July 14, 1891 Hasmonaea was founded in Czernowitz. The founding preceded a meeting of several Jewish academicians. In a small room in the dwelling of Chief Rabbi, Dr. Lazar Igel on Landhausgasse, the so-called Boxwood House, opposite the elementary school, a small group of 10 or 12 students, inspired by the Jewish national spirit meet to form a Jewish academic association. The students were: Mayer Ebner, who already as a high school student was the leader of a group which fought against the ruling stream of assimilation, Isak Schmierer who later was chosen as one of the leaders, Philipp Menczel, Julian Sternberg from Suceava and his brother Adolf, Paul Rieber who already at that time was a deep thinker, Blum, Leonhard Gerbel who later studied medicine, Nachum Feuerstein, later a doctor in Czernowitz, Michael Feuerstein who was later know as a 'man of letters' in Austria, Burstyn, the son of the Siret Rabbi, Reinisch Ebner who became a lawyer, Josef Bierer and Siegmund Neuberger who both became doctors in Czernowitz.
"Description of Bukovina following its previous and existing consistency together with the non-binding proposal on how its state constitution up to now may be improved both politically and economically" from the year 1775 was the first account available on the situation the Austrians encountered after their incorporation into the Empire of the area they called Bukovina.
From H. F. van Drunen's thesis "A Sanguine Bunch" we learn as follows: "The author [Baron Gabriel Splény of Miháldy], a high-ranking military official of Magyar noble descent, born in Kassa153 (now Košice, Slovakia) in 1734, was assigned to Bukovina from 1 September 1774 until 6 September 1778. Previously, he had earned an outstanding reputation in the Austrian army, was promoted major in 1759 and major general in 1773. In that same year, Splény accompanied Emperor Joseph II on a trip to Galicia and his knowledge impressed the Emperor to such extent that he was assigned to supervise the occupation and administrative organisation of northern Moldavia, the later Bukovina. [...] The structure of Splény’s report is traditional: the first part is dedicated to the description of the geographical, economical and social circumstances. In this context this is the most relevant part, especially the third chapter which deals with the population. [...] Although they indicated a predominantly Romanian character of the area (Romanians 11,000 families, Ruthenians 1,261, Jews 526, Gypsies 294 and Armenians 58), other sources claim that the majority was indeed Romanian speaking, but that the census simply qualified every Orthodox as Romanian. The debatable results of Splény’s census in comparison to those of Splény’s successor Enzenberg’s efforts are at times attributed to Splény’s alleged lack of knowledge of the region and its inhabitants. More likely, the puzzling results of Splény’s census are the product of a lack of criteria, definitions and terminology. [...] The merit of Splény’s writing in the light of this study lies in the fact that it is the first written account on the state of affairs at the very beginning of Austrian rule over the territory.
Courtesy: Internet Archive • Bielefeld University
- Honorary doctors, doctors and graduates of the Greek Orthodox Faculty of Theology [121-124]
- Honorary doctors, doctors and graduates of the Faculty of Law and Political Science [124-131]
- Honorary doctors, doctors and graduates of the Faculty of Philosophy [131-133]
Courtesy: Internet Archive
Summary (University of Wisconsin-Madison): "Bucovina was an integral part of Habsburg Empire since 1775. Starting from a pure political construction on the European map of power at the end of 18th century this small area developed into a well integrated Austrian crown land. A crown land, which succeeded to form a certain regional identity - conform to the Habsburg state ideology. Till the outbreak of First World War national rivalries played a certain role for regional politics in the county but were moderate in general. Especially this situation was grounded in a direct liaison of this small province situated on the Eastern slopes of Carpathians with Vienna as imperial centre. A development which aimed towards steadily improving inner consolidation and balance in comparison with the other crown lands of the Empire. Only the outcome of the First World War, as Bucovina became part of the Romanian kingdom, loosing its geo strategic position as a bridge between East and West, showed in its consequences the former importance of this organic exchange with Vienna, shaping the provinces society and cultural landscape. The genesis of Bucovina region at the periphery of a European Empire from the end of 18th up to the beginning of 20th century as well as the structural persistence of the cultural landscape's characteristics is centrally focussed in this study. The analyses of spatial processes as well as their genesis, shaped by a changing geopolitical situation, were of main interest for the research. Since the midst of 19th century a serious and existential national tension within the Bucovina was growing which could only partially be influenced by the province politics itself. A tension in between a search for a distinguished political position, the new idea of nation state and a overall-covering ideology of Commonness, a tension between growing regional identity, of beeing Bucovina and increasing national claims. The study tries to draw a knew, integral and less known picture of this variously shaped cultural landscape - apart from common nationalistic and segmented analyses."
Courtesy: Böhlau OpenAccess
