Central European History by Marina Cattaruzza
Nuova Rivista Storica, 2023
Between November 1917 and March 1918, the Central Empires and their allies
gained a provision... more Between November 1917 and March 1918, the Central Empires and their allies
gained a provisional military superiority over the Entente and the United States of
America: Germany and Austria-Hungary took advantage of Bolshevik Russia retreat-
ing from the conflict while the Italian army suffered defeat at Caporetto. Moreover,
the United States still needed to follow up its declaration of war of April 1917 with
facts. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George assessed the military situation in
the Entente as very serious and considered a victory for his side highly unlikely. us,
he promoted negotiations for a separate peace with Austria-Hungary to weaken the
enemy front.
e United Kingdom attached great importance to such pourparlers; the South
African general Jan Smuts, who belonged to the enormously influential and numeri-
cally restricted war cabinet, was chosen as British envoy. Two crucial (although scarcely
known) editions of sources allow the essay to reconstruct in detail for the first time the
consultations that occurred in Geneva in December 1917 between Jan Smuts and
the Austro-Hungarian emissary, Count Mensdorff. Although the two negotiators did
not reach an agreement, the talks favoured the formulation of peace conditions for
Austria-Hungary and the German Reich by Lloyd George and US President Woodrow
Wilson. e proposals considered the military strength of the adversaries, so they were
adequately moderate. However, in the end, such diplomatic endeavours failed. e
fiasco was due primarily to miscalculations by the Central Powers, the deflagration of
the «Sixtus scandal», and Italy’s turn to support the separatist forces in the Habsburg
empire. erefore, a process was set in motion that finally led to the dissolution of the
Habsburg monarchy just a few months later.
"Il Piccolo", 2024
This paper contributes to the literature by illustrating an early case of anti-Semitic practice b... more This paper contributes to the literature by illustrating an early case of anti-Semitic practice by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs before the official anti-Semitic turn of Fascism in 1936. It also shows the surprising reaction of the University of Breslau in defending its Jewish lecturer.
In occasione della propria nomina a socio corrispondente dell'Accademia austriaca delle Scienze n... more In occasione della propria nomina a socio corrispondente dell'Accademia austriaca delle Scienze nel 1993, Angelo Ara esponeva nei termini seguenti i motivi che lo avevano indotto a rivolgere la propria attenzione di storico all'area della Mitteleuropa, dopo una tesi di laurea sulle riforme costituzionali nello Stato della Chiesa: "In seguito mi sono dedicato a ricerche sulla politica austriaca in Italia nei secoli diciannovesimo e ventesimo, alla storia di Trieste, alla politica italiana in Sudtirolo, al problema delle minoranze nazionali e religiose. Si trattava forse di un tentativo inconscio di approfondire le mie radici e quelle della mia famiglia" 1 .
Sotto i mari del mondo - La Whitehead 1875-1990 , 1990
Historische Zeitschrift, 311/1, 2020
Die hier zu besprechende Veröffentlichung geht zurück auf die Initiative des Histo-rischen Instit... more Die hier zu besprechende Veröffentlichung geht zurück auf die Initiative des Histo-rischen Instituts beim Österreichischen Kulturforum und des Istituto per la Storiadel Risorgimento (beide in Rom). Der Band gliedert sich in vier Sektionen: „Öster-reich-Ungarn und Italien vor dem Krieg“, „Der Krieg“, „Das Bild als Propagandamit-tel“ und „Der Große Krieg in literarisch-historischer Betrachtung“. Die zweiund-zwanzig Aufsätze werden auf Englisch, auf Deutsch oder auf Italienisch (mit Über-setzung in die jeweils andere Sprache) veröffentlicht. Es handelt sich hier insge-samt um einen äußerst lesenswerten Band, dem es gelingt, die jeweilige nationalePerspektive auf den Krieg zu relativieren und der durch seine neuen Akzente für die zukünftige Geschichtsschreibung zum Krieg zwischen Österreich-Ungarn und Italien wegweisend sein wird.
Historische Zeitschrift, 2019
This article aims to analyse the process of dissolution of the Habsburg Empire during the First W... more This article aims to analyse the process of dissolution of the Habsburg Empire during the First World War. When the war broke out, only a few non-governmental actors favoured the destruction of this multinational empire. They were: a) a small cadre of British and French intellectuals and journalists, and b) the nationalist Czech and Southern Slav committees, made up of a small number of émigrés living mostly in Great Britain and France. Both groups propagated the principle of „self-determination“ for the „oppressed nationalities“ of the Habsburg Empire and the establishment of „Czechoslovakia“ and „Yugoslavia“ as autonomous states. In 1917, the Entente powers found themselves in a difficult military situation, due principally to two factors: a) the outbreak of the Russian revolution and the coming into power of the Bolsheviks, who immediately signed an armistice with the central powers and exited the war; b) the catastrophic defeat of the Italian army in Caporetto against joint Austrian and German forces. The new military scenario induced the British war cabinet to actively promote a separate peace with Austria on the basis of the restoration of the pre-war situation. In this uncertain circumstances, a network of Italian politicians and journalists relaunched the slogan of „self-determination for the oppressed nationalities“, utilizing it as a non-conventional weapon adopted to overcome their country’s military weakness. The programme of self-determination was solemnly proclaimed in Rome in April 1918, in the presence of the Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, delegates of the Entente powers, the United States, and, of course, self-declared representatives of the „oppressed nationalities“. This congress signed the death sentence of the Habsburg monarchy: from then on, the Entente powers and the USA progressively backed the formation of the new „national” states“ of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Ironically enough, the principle of self-determination was not a decisive factor for the outcome of the war. The victory of the Entente was determined much more by the failure of the German offensive on the Western front and – even more crucially – by the American intervention on the side of the French and British troops. Consequently, we may consider the dissolution of the Habsburg monarchy a side effect of a failed propaganda campaign aimed at regaining the upper hand over the enemy.
Scienza e Politica, 2019
In November 1917 Lenin proclaimed the immediate end of war operations, the start of negotiations... more In November 1917 Lenin proclaimed the immediate end of war operations, the start of negotiations with the Central Powers and the right of the people of Czarist Russia to self-determination, even extended to the right to secede from the multinational Russian state. American President Woodrow Wilson reacted to the Bolshevik initiative with the proclamation of similar “universal” principles, such as the end of secret diplomacy, the peaceful settling of international tensions, free trade and free navigation and the implementation of governments based on the “will of the people”. As is well known, Wilson’s dream of a war to end all wars was doomed to fail. Its failure was evident already in 1921, when the United States refused to enter the League of Nations. But, the “right of self-determination” survived the fiasco of the ambitious Wilsonian visions, and was coherently claimed by the defeated states pursuing revisionist aims. The most prominent advocate of self-determination was not surprisingly Germany. After WW2 the United Nations were extremely cautious in their implementation of“self-determination”. This principle gained a new legitimation during the anti-colonial wars in the Sixties and was at least acknowledged as a fundamentalright in 1966.
L'Italia e la questione adriatica Dibattiti parlamentari e panorama internazionale (1918-1926), 2014
Journal of Modern European History, 2008
Der Beitrag nimmt sich vor, stärker als es bisher der Fall gewesen ist, das Phänomen der Massenau... more Der Beitrag nimmt sich vor, stärker als es bisher der Fall gewesen ist, das Phänomen der Massenaussiedlungen („Vertreibungen“) im Ostmitteleuropa a.) einheitlich zu betrachten; und b.) auf die Nationalisierungsprozesse ab der Jahrhundertwende und auf die „Minderheitenfrage“ in der Zwischenkriegszeit zu beziehen. Das Endergebnis der kollektiven Entfernung der Zugehörigen zu den ehemaligen „master nations“ (Louis Namier) und anderer nationalen Gruppen wird nicht als Summe nationalstaatlicher Entwicklungen dargestellt sondern als Resultat einer Wechselwirkung von nationsübergreifenden Faktoren, zu denen die Niederlage der revisionistischen Staaten (in erster Linie Deutschland und Ungarn), die (z.T. berechtigte) Wahrnehmung der Minderheiten als „trouble makers“ und die Expansionsstrategie der Sowjet Union nach Ostmitteleuropa zählen. Das Hauptanliegen des Beitrags besteht aber darin, auf die besondere Art und Weise der Nationalisierungsprozesse in den Gebieten der Habsburger Monarchie, des zaristischen Russlands und in den Randgebieten des deutschen Kaiserreichs hinzuweisen. Hier führte nämlich die politische Mobilisierung breiterer Bevölkerungsschichten zur konfliktträchtigen Nationalisierung von Teilgesellschaften. Die Gründung der Nachfolgestaaten der Habsburger Monarchie ging mit einem radikalen Elitenwechsel einher, der einerseits die Revanchegefühle der enteigneten und deklassierten Gruppen hervorrief. Andererseits war die Verdrängung der nationsfremden Eliten ein Aspekt des nation building in den neuen Staaten gemäß de Art und Weise, in der hier die Modernisierung der Gesellschaft und die Ausdehnung der Partizipation an der politischen Macht stattfand.
Trotz dieser Modellkarriere im Dritt en Reich gelang Fussenegger "mühelos die Integration in die ... more Trotz dieser Modellkarriere im Dritt en Reich gelang Fussenegger "mühelos die Integration in die Literaturszene der Zweiten Republik" (212) und man möchte hinzufügen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Sie veröff entlichte Prosawerke, Lyrik, Hörspiele, Dramen, sie wurde Mitglied des pen-Clubs und Ehrenmitglied des Österreichischen Schrift stellerbundes, saß mehrmals in der Jury des Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preises in Klagenfurt und erhielt zahlreiche Literaturpreise und Auszeichnungen. Im Gegensatz zu Fussenegger enthält das Handbuch auch Autoren, für die aus Mangel an Informationen ein biographischer Abriss nicht erstellt werden konnte. So heißt es lapidar bei "huber Franz J[osef] * 05.01.1909 in Linz, Österreich ob der Enns [öu] unbekannt" (244). Allerdings war es in solchen Fällen möglich, eine Liste von Publikationen anzuführen.
PS: the downoloaded version is more comfortable to read!
represents a welcome addition to the existing scholarship on nationalism in Central and Eastern E... more represents a welcome addition to the existing scholarship on nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe, and there is much that scholars of the region can learn from the essays included in this anthology. It is well researched, and many of the authors make provocative, substantiated claims about the nature of territorial acquisition in the mid-twentieth century. This is a text that will be most useful to specialists on World War II or anyone with an already extensive knowledge of the rise of nationalism and its expressions in the region. " · Journal of Austrian Studies " An impressive work of original and documented scholarship, [this book] provides an insightful history of a previously overlooked aspect of German expansionism as a specifically intended outcome of the Nazi government and military forces of World War II. A remarkably informed and informative study, [it] very highly recommended. " · Midwest Book Review " …richly deserve to be read by experts in the field as it provides an excellent survey of the latest work on Eastern, Central, and Southern European history in the modern period. " · H-Soz-u-Kult " Timely on so many fronts, this book offers scholars, students, and informed readers an instructive regional exposition of how territorial revisionist projects overcame petty nationalist regimes and impoverished the culture of a continent. " · European History Quarterly " Enhanced with the inclusion of a List of Abbreviations, Maps, Notes on Contributors, a Select Bibliography, and a comprehensive Index, [this volume] is an original body of impressive scholarship and a highly recommended addition to academic library World War II era German History reference collections and Central European History supplemental reading lists. " · World History Shelf A few years after the Nazis came to power in Germany, an alliance of states and nationalistic movements formed, revolving around the German axis. That alliance, the states involved, and the interplay between their territorial aims and those of Germany during the interwar period and World War II are at the core of this volume. This " territorial revisionism " came to include all manner of political and military measures that attempted to change existing borders. Taking into account not just interethnic relations but also the motivations of states and nationalizing ethnocratic ruling elites, this volume reconceptualizes the history of East Central Europe during World War II. In so doing, it presents a clearer understanding of some of the central topics in the history of the war itself and offers an alternative to standard German accounts of the period and East European national histories.
Holocaust Studies by Marina Cattaruzza
Historische Zeitschrift , 2017
Timothy Snyder, Black Earth. Der Holocaust und warum er sich wiederholen kann. München, Beck 2015... more Timothy Snyder, Black Earth. Der Holocaust und warum er sich wiederholen kann. München, Beck 2015. 487 S., € 29,95. Es ist nicht einfach, ein eindeutiges Urteil über ein Buch zu fällen, das auf der einen Seite beachtliche konzeptionelle und empirische Erträge vorweist, auf der anderen Seite aber in manchen seiner Prämissen und Schlussfolgerungen befremdlich und zuweilen verstörend wirkt.
ENZO TRAVERSO? Nel promuovere e coordinare quest'opera i curatori e il comitato scientifico si so... more ENZO TRAVERSO? Nel promuovere e coordinare quest'opera i curatori e il comitato scientifico si sono proposti tre obiettivi principali: a.) collocare la Shoah nel contesto più ampio della storia moderna europea ed extra-europea; b.) fornire un bilancio critico sullo stato delle conoscenze e delle interpretazioni di questo accadimento centrale del XX secolo e, infine, c.) svolgere una riflessione articolata sulle tracce e sui segni che la Shoah ha lasciato nella memoria, nella cultura e nelle espressioni artistiche dell'occidente. Gli autori sono stati scelti tra gli specialisti a livello internazionale ed hanno fornito quasi tutti contributi originali sugli argomenti loro affidati. Tra gli oltre cinquanta studiosi italiani e stranieri che hanno collaborato all'impresa, vorrei menzionare almeno Christopher Browning, Anson Rabinbach, Emilio Gentile, Ian Kershaw, David Bankier, Giovanni Miccoli, David Bidussa, István Deák.
The paper is an attempt to give a comprehensive appraisal of Aly's work. On the one side, it emph... more The paper is an attempt to give a comprehensive appraisal of Aly's work. On the one side, it emphasizes the fruitful and provocative insights, which characterize the entire production of this German scholar. On the other side, it draws attention to the weaknesses of Alys' opus: the historian tends in fact to privilege purely economic explanations for the crimes of National Socialism and strongly favours explanations based on a single (mostly economic) factor. Despite the broad documentary evidence, such shortcomings also affect "Hitlers Volksstaat, Raub, Rassenkrieg und nationaler Sozialismus". The book contains many important observations on the Nazi Welfare State and on the German war economy during WW2. Regardless such merits, the core thesis of the book is untenable, as Aly does not consider the large number of German victims and the massive destructions suffered by Nazi Germany during the war. Consequently, it is not possible to focus only on "Raubkrieg" and on the advantages, which such a criminal war brought to the civil population. The paper also comments on previous work by Aly on National Socialist Germany. Aly's achievements on this topic are recognized, but caution is suggested in interpreting a widely quoted passage of Werner Conze's in the abstract written for the World Congress of Sociology in Bucarest. In conclusion, the paper pleads for a stronger differentation between the involvement of Theodor Schieder and, respective, Conze in die murderous politics of Nazism in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe.
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Central European History by Marina Cattaruzza
gained a provisional military superiority over the Entente and the United States of
America: Germany and Austria-Hungary took advantage of Bolshevik Russia retreat-
ing from the conflict while the Italian army suffered defeat at Caporetto. Moreover,
the United States still needed to follow up its declaration of war of April 1917 with
facts. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George assessed the military situation in
the Entente as very serious and considered a victory for his side highly unlikely. us,
he promoted negotiations for a separate peace with Austria-Hungary to weaken the
enemy front.
e United Kingdom attached great importance to such pourparlers; the South
African general Jan Smuts, who belonged to the enormously influential and numeri-
cally restricted war cabinet, was chosen as British envoy. Two crucial (although scarcely
known) editions of sources allow the essay to reconstruct in detail for the first time the
consultations that occurred in Geneva in December 1917 between Jan Smuts and
the Austro-Hungarian emissary, Count Mensdorff. Although the two negotiators did
not reach an agreement, the talks favoured the formulation of peace conditions for
Austria-Hungary and the German Reich by Lloyd George and US President Woodrow
Wilson. e proposals considered the military strength of the adversaries, so they were
adequately moderate. However, in the end, such diplomatic endeavours failed. e
fiasco was due primarily to miscalculations by the Central Powers, the deflagration of
the «Sixtus scandal», and Italy’s turn to support the separatist forces in the Habsburg
empire. erefore, a process was set in motion that finally led to the dissolution of the
Habsburg monarchy just a few months later.
Holocaust Studies by Marina Cattaruzza
gained a provisional military superiority over the Entente and the United States of
America: Germany and Austria-Hungary took advantage of Bolshevik Russia retreat-
ing from the conflict while the Italian army suffered defeat at Caporetto. Moreover,
the United States still needed to follow up its declaration of war of April 1917 with
facts. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George assessed the military situation in
the Entente as very serious and considered a victory for his side highly unlikely. us,
he promoted negotiations for a separate peace with Austria-Hungary to weaken the
enemy front.
e United Kingdom attached great importance to such pourparlers; the South
African general Jan Smuts, who belonged to the enormously influential and numeri-
cally restricted war cabinet, was chosen as British envoy. Two crucial (although scarcely
known) editions of sources allow the essay to reconstruct in detail for the first time the
consultations that occurred in Geneva in December 1917 between Jan Smuts and
the Austro-Hungarian emissary, Count Mensdorff. Although the two negotiators did
not reach an agreement, the talks favoured the formulation of peace conditions for
Austria-Hungary and the German Reich by Lloyd George and US President Woodrow
Wilson. e proposals considered the military strength of the adversaries, so they were
adequately moderate. However, in the end, such diplomatic endeavours failed. e
fiasco was due primarily to miscalculations by the Central Powers, the deflagration of
the «Sixtus scandal», and Italy’s turn to support the separatist forces in the Habsburg
empire. erefore, a process was set in motion that finally led to the dissolution of the
Habsburg monarchy just a few months later.
"The breakup of Yugoslavia was simply the last act of a long play. But the plot of that play – the disaggregation of peoples and the Triumph of ethnonationalism in modern Europe – is rarely recognised, and so a story whose significance is comparable to the spread of democracy or capitalism remains largely unknown and unappreciated." (Jerry Z. Muller 2008).
–national clash between ‘Italians’ and ‘Slavs’.
Focussing on the diplomatic struggle about the drawing of the new boundaries between Italy and Yugoslavia and Italy and Austria, the article aims to illustrate how and with which results “self-determination” was applied as a political tool by states and national groups.Yugoslavs succeeded in settling a new state thanks to the appeal to self-determination and to the backing of the victorious Serbian Kingdom. The German-speaking population of South Tyrol tried to appeal to self-determination as well in order to avoid being incorporated to Italy, but they failed. In this case the Peace Conference acknowledged the necessity for Italy to obtain a “strategical border” at the Brenner Pass, fully disregarding the right of self-determination of the populations involved. In the port town Fiume/Rijeka both the Italian majority and the Croatian minority appealed to self-determination, claiming the right to join respectively Italy and Yugoslavia. Unlike in the case of South-Tyrol, Italy supported here the requests of the majority of the inhabitants of Fiume, referring to the democratic principles propagated by Wilson. After a confused phase when the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio occupied Fiume with some thousands of volunteers, the port town was declared a “free State” with the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920. In conclusion, as these few examples illustrate, at the end of World War One the principle of self-determination displayed on international public opinion a huge suggestive power which did not correspond to the logic of the real assets handled over at the Peace Conference or in following arrangements.
«statolatry» meant that ltaly was incapable of maintaining control ove r the territo
ries and which explains the disastrous military failures in the Second World War. The relationship between the centre (Rome) and the eastern periphery also helps to explain the rise to power of the Fascist movement and the failure of two attempts at a diplomatic detente with Yugoslavia, made by Fascist lta ly in 1925 and 1937.
Trieste in the second half of the “long” nineteenth century, when the city
became one of the most important European ports. Based on a large amount
of statistical sources, it contributes mainly to the illustration of the following
social and demographic phenomena: a.) the increasing polarization between
Cittavecchia and San Giacomo as proletarian districts with completely
different features; b.) the urbanisation of the external districts, due to the
progressive immigration to Trieste from the surrounding areas; c.) the
striking cleavage between the “bourgeois” and proletarian districts, displaying
contrasting patterns regarding child mortality, life expectancy, morbidity
and other factors affecting their inhabitants. The article concludes with a
glimpse into the present, where the most degraded district of Trieste, namely
Cittavecchia, has become somewhat paradoxally a successful example of
“gentrification”.
keywords: Triest 1875-1913; port cities; urban history, demography; socia
Commemorazione del Giorno del Ricordo presso il Consiglio del Comune di Bologna riunito in Seduta Solenne.