Die böhmischen Länder in den Wiener Zeitschriften

The memory of cultural processes in Central Europe is intimately connected to the evolution of literary language, national literatures and the preservation of national identity in the first half of the 19th century. This development was of lasting importance also for the self-image of Slavic cultures in Central Europe. Traumatic collective experiences of wars, totalitarianism and economic coercion the young nation states had to cope with in the 20th century, triggered mechanisms of cultural exclusion and dissociation. The commemoration of shared cultural tenets was suppressed and strategies for constructing national identity were pursued. The Viennese Vormärz-Slavica Project encompasses a study of Metternich-era Viennese-issued non-political periodicals of scholarly nature and for entertainment, focusing on the collection of references to Slavic countries and cultures. So far four volumes have been published: 1990: References to Russia in Viennese Vormärz- Periodicals (1805-1848); 1992: References to Poles and Ruthenians in Viennese Vormärz-Periodicals (1805-1848); 1994: References to the South Slaves in Viennese Vormärz-Periodicals (1805-1848); 1998: Supplement to Vol. I; 2004: References to Upper Hungary (Slovakia) in Viennese Vormärz-Periodicals (1805-1848); the material in these volumes is arranged in the form of a critical inventory, according to the topics Literature and Writing, Linguistics, History, Educational Institutions, Religion, Law, Political Economy, and Natural Sciences. The volume to follow covers the references to the Bohemian lands (present day Czech Republic) and their cultural ties with Vienna. In Part I the material of the first chapter (Literature and Writing) is to be published. It offers a bibliography of the references to writers from the Bohemian lands who wrote in Czech and/or in German and published in Viennese periodicals, or whose books were reviewed. Many of them came to Vienna to study, or settled permanently in Vienna, earning a living as journalists. The volume contains the references to activities of publishing houses in Prague or Brno, the coverage of the Forged Manuscripts case (Rukopisy krlovédvorsk a zelenohorsk), an account of legends, short stories, poems, libretti, using Bohemian historical plots, news items concerning the Czech and German language press, translated literature, remarks and essays concerning the literary scene of the Bohemian capital. The study evaluates these sources as repositories of memory, compiling a critical survey and inventory of the relevant material, and shedding light on the German-Czech cultural coexistence that was later viewed in a one- sided or even negative way. It shows for the first time how extensive the contribution of writers from the Bohemian lands to Viennese media was in the pre-1848 period and it also documents the interest of the Viennese public in Czech culture.