The Familien-Fideikommissbibliothek of Habsburg-Lorraine

In 1921 the Habsburg-Lothringische Familien-Fideikommissbibliothek was incorporated into the new founded National Library of the Republic of Austria, the successor of the Imperial Court Library of the Austrian Monarchy. The Fideikommissbibliothek is a rare example of a dynastic family library that has been largely preserved as a whole containing a variety of all types of documents (such as manuscripts, books, drawings, paintings, graphic arts, photography and maps, donations and dedications to the Emperor, extensive archival sources and documents on the Imperial Family). In the course of its history this library underwent various transitions: from a unique private book and arts collection into a new legal entity (Fideikommiss); subsequently the transformation into a memory space for the Austrian Empire and its ruling dynasty with close relations to major political, social and cultural events between 1835 and 1918; and finally the treatment of the Imperial heritage as a national treasure. The forthcoming project intends to study in depth this transition process. It therefore aims to make significant contributions in different scientific fields: library history, library and information science, the history of art and architecture, the history of Austria and the House of Habsburg as well as the cultural and political history of Europe. In introducing the field of visual history and content analysis in library history the project will broaden the scope of library history and try to close the gap between a classical approach of library history focused on reconstruction and collection development and a more social and cultural oriented approach focused on the usage and social relevance. The overall research objective is based on a concept of transition, which has the potential of significantly modifying the history of princely and national libraries and their relation to the history of national identities and collective memory spaces. The history of national libraries so far has been based on the concept of the nation-state emerging in the 19th century. Evidently this concept is in conflict not only with the multinational Habsburg Empire and the collections of its Court Library, but also with the concept of dynastic identity the Habsburg Family tried to impose as the common ground of the House of Austria and their Family Library. To study the Transitions of princely libraries which have been incorporated or transformed in National libraries rather than asking for their origins aims at creating a new research field on National libraries research. The project will foster co-operations and create a broad international network of experts and research institutions many of which have already accepted to contribute in proposed research workshops and in the dissemination of results.

In the period 1835 to 1918, the private libraries of the three successive Emperors Franz I, Ferdinand I and Franz Joseph I combined to become the Familien-Fideikommissbibliothek (Family Fideikommiss Library) of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The study of this development within the framework of the present project has led to the fundamental realization that this was not only accompanied by changes in the collection`s inventory, legal status and organization, but also entailed a profound change in the meaning attributed to it and its use. From the detailed analysis of the sources, this change was also a consequence of the changes that were taking place in the society of the Habsburg monarchy. It can be divided into three phases. 1) Stagnation and transition. After 1853, the testamentary decision of Franz I to declare his private library a Fideikommiss led to a phase of intensive library-related measures, which also extended to the book collections of his successors Ferdinand I and Franz Joseph I. The librarian Leopold Joseph von Khloyber, who was active during this period, not only lacked integration within the imperial court, but also failed to developed any visions or strategies to align these collections to/with the social currents of the time beyond their function as imperial-private knowledge repositories. 2) In the second period, which begins with the appearance of a new library director (1869) and the taking over of the Fideikommisses by Emperor Franz Joseph (1878), the actual change takes place. Due to increasing public pressure, the holdings of the Fideikommissbibliothek are gradually being opened up for public use: for study purposes and research, as loans for exhibitions or as picture templates for photographic reproductions and sculptures of the Ringstrasse. Private use by members of the imperial family, however, is rapidly declining. In a kind of overcompensation for this shift, which is at the same time an alienation process, the idea arises around the turn of the century to turn the Fideikommissbibliothek into a pure Habsburg collection or a Habsburg museum - a kind of memory space for the dynasty. The basis for this was the fact that in the course of manifold increases throughout the preceding decades, the Fideikommissbibliothek had become a hoard of memorabilia and works of and in the possession of members of the imperial family. The Habsburg Museum, however, was never realized; the fact that the project was run neither by the imperial family nor by the court, but arose from the initiative of a library official, was indicative of the situation at the time. 3) The end of the Habsburg monarchy is accompanied by the end of the collection and its incorporation into the directorate-general of the supreme private and family funds owing to its foundation in the imperial court. The nationalization leads to a structural change towards a collection of a purely public character, which in the republican era of Austria functions as a memorial space for the Habsburg monarchy and its ruling dynasty. The significance of this memory space is increased by the fact that the collection has remained in the historic premises of the Hofburg in the holdings of the Austrian National Library to this day.