Die Aehrenthals. Eine Familie in ihrer Korrespondenz 1872 - 1911

The edition offers a selection of the family correspondence of the German-Bohemian baronial family Lexa of Aehrenthal from the years 1872 to 1911, taken from the Aehrenthal family papers in the Czech regional archive of Litomerice. The starting point is the study abroad of the elder sons Felix and Alois in the fall of 1872, which inaugurated through the permanent absence of some children from home an almost continuous correspondence. The closing point is the death of the mother, Maria Aehrenthal, in the fall of 1911, which ends the correspondence as it is preserved in the archive. The majority of the included letters originate from Alois Aehrenthal who, as a diplomat and later (since 1906) foreign minister, lived - with the exception of visits during vacations - permanently away from his parents. His letters, complemented by those from his (since 1902) wife Paula, are an excellent source to understand the political and social ideas Of this important representative of the Austro-Hungarian foreign office, seen from a personal and intimate point of view. The correspondence between his parents and siblings widens and complements these aspects through insights into the world of the Bohemian nobility in the late 19th century, into the world of noble officers, into the life of the German-Bohemian upper class, and much more areas, always broken through the social and economic change. The edition spans a wide arch - chronologically from the early 1870s into the second decade of the 20th century, by subject from the study abroad of young noble students in Bonn to the life of the foreign ministers family in Vienna. In this framework both the acting persons and the social environment changes. Family problems overlap with social developments, economic processes and political change. Therefore, the interaction of private correspondence and public life is the major value of the edition. The selection of the letters is based upon these premises. Included are those pieces which allow above the description of personal impressions reflections on the attitude of the writer towards social and political developments, or which - based on an incident - debate and judge general phenomena on an individual level. If possible, the topics of the correspondence are shown in their chronological development and in the different approaches of the family members, either by including whole letters or by citing relevant passages in footnotes. Only criteria of content were responsible for including letters, therefore periods of very dense coverage of different length, caused by political, social, personal or family developments and incidents alternate with times where only few letters were included.