Antonin Okác: Die Tagebücher des Grafen Egbert Belcredi

During the decades of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia Moravian historian Antonin Okac painstakingly prepared the diaries of Count Egbert Belcredi (1816-94) for an edition in his spare time; unfortunately, only a small part of them could actually be published after the 1968 Prague spring under an assumed name. In contrast, the present edition includes the whole of Okacs work on the diaries plus two introductory biographical essays on Belcredi and Okac. The footnotes have been thoroughly revised. In particular, references to Belcredis correspondence and to scholarly literature unavailable to Okac or published since his death have been added. Egbert Belcredi was the brother of Count Richard Belcredi, the Austrian Prime Minister from 1865 to 1867. Egbert himself never occupied a comparable position but he served as a member of the Moravian diet and the Austrian parliament for more than thirty years. He was also active as a supporter of conservative newspapers and journals. More than almost anybody else, Belcredi combined a commitment to aristocratic conservatism with support for both Bohemian States Rights mixed with Czech national aspirations and political Catholicism in transition from rural traditionalism to Christan Socialism. Belcredis diaries convey a graphic picture of the world view of one of Austrian Liberals most consistent opponents, warts and all; they are also a mine of information on the politics of Old Austria and Moravia in particular. Belcredi was an unusually severe judge of his contemporaries; for all that his diatribes throw a good deal of light on the dynamics of his epoch.