Edition of Hermann Bahr´s Diaries (1909-1917)

The core aim of this research project is the scientific edition of Hermann Bahr`s (1863-1934) handwritten "diaries, sketch-books and note-books " from the years 1909 to 1917. These books have not been available for scientificc research untill now. So this project will close the gap between the edition of the earlier diaries - that was also funded by the FWF - and the beginning of Hermann Bahr regularily published articles called "Diary" in the press. The diaries substantiate the work of a man who was one of the main thinkers of the literary and historical discourses of the time. They are of interest and importance for the history of civilization: as a manifest of the European modernity - not only that they discuss cultural topics but they also provide rich materials for discourse and research. The diaries are of great importance for the literature and the dramatic arts: as productive- and aesthetic fund for the genesis and contemparary reception of Bahr`s works. They are revealing new biographical details - Hermann Bahr`s biography is mainly unknown - and they focuse on his activity during World War I. The diaries are an important and unique document presenting and describing the history of the Austrian intellectuals on the evening and during World War I. Bahr`s development during these years is characterized by his gaining distance from the emphatic announced European modernity and the looking for new models of identification. In this connection the breaking of civilisation caused by world War I played a deciding role in Bahr`s thinking. He combines earlier ideas and trains of thoughts in order to develop a construction of an Austrian identity. This identity is mainly based on two topics - on the one hand the Baroque and on the other the ethnic distinctiveness of the Austrian existence. Even more: the latter becomes an indispensible condition of the Austrian existence. This supranational federation of equally entitled nations - it is Bahr`s ideal vision of the country - should become a model for the future Europe. Bahr was an early advocate of the benefits of transnationalism and multiculturalism and the diaries are unique documents that trace all the stations of this construction and the efforts to confer a sphere of effective influence on it.