The diary of Leo Thun-Hohenstein (1825–1842)

How did a nobleman in the early 19th century experience his teenage years? Leopold Graf von Thun und Hohenstein, born in April 1811 in Tetschen/Decn in todays Czech Republic, started at the age of thirteen with keeping a diary in which he described his everyday life as an adolescent: Ice skating and swimming courses, summer hikes in the forest and collecting plants, trips with the family, birthday parties and Christmas presents were just as much a part of it as school lessons, colds and illnesses, a strict upbringing and living by religious rules. A new phase in the young adult`s life began in 1828 when he attended the University of Prague and studied law. After graduation Thun-Hohenstein travelled through Europe before he had to face the tough daily routine at work. He was first employed as a trainee at the Prague criminal and civil law administration, then as an intern at the local tax office. Since in the years he was serving as district commissioner in the Bohemian district offices of Kourm, Rakovnk and Hradec Krlové time was running short, the diary breaks off in 1842. It was not yet foreseeable that seven and a half years later little Leo would become the first Austrian minister to be in charge of the agendas of spiritual and secular education at the same time, and thus to co-determine the fortunes of the Habsburg monarchy. Yet the diary, which he kept for more than 17 years, allows a glimpse into the world of a politically and above all socially committed nobleman as well as at the characteristics of a time that was characterized by upheavals in many respects: relationship difficulties, encounters with important personalities of his time (including Bernard Bolzano, Franz Exner and Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky), the drafting of his first political writings and the first harbingers of the revolutions of 1848 become tangible through Thun-Hohenstein`s memories. This work not only contains a biography of Leopold Graf von Thun und Hohenstein and a detailed analysis and source criticism of the diary, but also invites those interested to experience the early years of the reformer in his own words. Comments on the edition help to understand the connections and offer additional information on the experiences described, the attached index and a place name concordance make it easier to search for the people, societies, institutions, places and countries mentioned in the diary.