• Skip to content (access key 1)
  • Skip to search (access key 7)
FWF — Austrian Science Fund
  • Go to overview page Discover

    • Research Radar
    • Discoveries
      • Emmanuelle Charpentier
      • Adrian Constantin
      • Monika Henzinger
      • Ferenc Krausz
      • Wolfgang Lutz
      • Walter Pohl
      • Christa Schleper
      • Anton Zeilinger
    • scilog Magazine
    • Awards
      • FWF Wittgenstein Awards
      • FWF START Awards
    • excellent=austria
      • Clusters of Excellence
      • Emerging Fields
    • In the Spotlight
      • 40 Years of Erwin Schrödinger Fellowships
      • Quantum Austria
    • Dialogs and Talks
      • think.beyond Summit
    • E-Book Library
  • Go to overview page Funding

    • Portfolio
      • excellent=austria
        • Clusters of Excellence
        • Emerging Fields
      • Projects
        • Principal Investigator Projects
        • Principal Investigator Projects International
        • Clinical Research
        • 1000 Ideas
        • Arts-Based Research
        • FWF Wittgenstein Award
      • Careers
        • ESPRIT
        • FWF ASTRA Awards
        • Erwin Schrödinger
        • Elise Richter
        • Elise Richter PEEK
        • doc.funds
        • doc.funds.connect
      • Collaborations
        • Specialized Research Groups
        • Special Research Areas
        • Research Groups
        • International – Multilateral Initiatives
        • #ConnectingMinds
      • Communication
        • Top Citizen Science
        • Science Communication
        • Book Publications
        • Digital Publications
        • Open-Access Block Grant
      • Subject-Specific Funding
        • AI Mission Austria
        • Belmont Forum
        • ERA-NET HERA
        • ERA-NET NORFACE
        • ERA-NET QuantERA
        • ERA-NET TRANSCAN
        • Alternative Methods to Animal Testing
        • European Partnership Biodiversa+
        • European Partnership ERA4Health
        • European Partnership ERDERA
        • European Partnership EUPAHW
        • European Partnership FutureFoodS
        • European Partnership OHAMR
        • European Partnership PerMed
        • European Partnership Water4All
        • Gottfried and Vera Weiss Award
        • netidee SCIENCE
        • Herzfelder Foundation Projects
        • Quantum Austria
        • Rückenwind Funding Bonus
        • Zero Emissions Award
      • International Collaborations
        • Belgium/Flanders
        • Germany
        • France
        • Italy/South Tyrol
        • Japan
        • Luxembourg
        • Poland
        • Switzerland
        • Slovenia
        • Taiwan
        • Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino
        • Czech Republic
        • Hungary
    • Step by Step
      • Find Funding
      • Submitting Your Application
      • International Peer Review
      • Funding Decisions
      • Carrying out Your Project
      • Closing Your Project
      • Further Information
        • Integrity and Ethics
        • Inclusion
        • Applying from Abroad
        • Personnel Costs
        • PROFI
        • Final Project Reports
        • Final Project Report Survey
    • FAQ
      • Project Phase PROFI
        • Accounting for Approved Funds
        • Labor and Social Law
        • Project Management
      • Project Phase Ad Personam
        • Accounting for Approved Funds
        • Labor and Social Law
        • Project Management
      • Expiring Programs
        • FWF START Awards
  • Go to overview page About Us

    • Mission Statement
    • FWF Video
    • Values
    • Facts and Figures
    • Annual Report
    • What We Do
      • Research Funding
        • Matching Funds Initiative
      • International Collaborations
      • Studies and Publications
      • Equal Opportunities and Diversity
        • Objectives and Principles
        • Measures
        • Creating Awareness of Bias in the Review Process
        • Terms and Definitions
        • Your Career in Cutting-Edge Research
      • Open Science
        • Open Access Policy
          • Open Access Policy for Peer-Reviewed Publications
          • Open Access Policy for Peer-Reviewed Book Publications
          • Open Access Policy for Research Data
        • Research Data Management
        • Citizen Science
        • Open Science Infrastructures
        • Open Science Funding
      • Evaluations and Quality Assurance
      • Academic Integrity
      • Science Communication
      • Philanthropy
      • Sustainability
    • History
    • Legal Basis
    • Organization
      • Executive Bodies
        • Executive Board
        • Supervisory Board
        • Assembly of Delegates
        • Scientific Board
        • Juries
      • FWF Office
    • Jobs at FWF
  • Go to overview page News

    • News
    • Press
      • Logos
    • Calendar
      • Post an Event
      • FWF Informational Events
    • Job Openings
      • Enter Job Opening
    • Newsletter
  • Discovering
    what
    matters.

    FWF-Newsletter Press-Newsletter Calendar-Newsletter Job-Newsletter scilog-Newsletter

    SOCIAL MEDIA

    • LinkedIn, external URL, opens in a new window
    • Twitter, external URL, opens in a new window
    • Facebook, external URL, opens in a new window
    • Instagram, external URL, opens in a new window
    • YouTube, external URL, opens in a new window

    SCILOG

    • Scilog — The science magazine of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
  • elane login, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Scilog external URL, opens in a new window
  • de Wechsle zu Deutsch

  

The Language Question in Habsburg Army (1868-1914)

The Language Question in Habsburg Army (1868-1914)

Tamara Scheer (ORCID: 0000-0003-0954-6109)
  • Grant DOI 10.55776/T602
  • Funding program Hertha Firnberg
  • Status ended
  • Start April 1, 2013
  • End September 30, 2016
  • Funding amount € 211,830
  • Project website
  • E-mail

Disciplines

History, Archaeology (100%)

Keywords

    Modern History, Austria-Hungary, Habsburg Studies, Ethnicity, Military History, Nationalism

Abstract Final report

In the course of the reform of 1868/69 a system was introduced that took into account the diversity of languages within the multi-ethnic k.(u.)k. army. Thus the Austrian constitutional principle from 1867, that the linguistic diversity of the nationalities was to be considered in administrative matters, was taken account. In addition to the command and administrative language of German it was decided that if a unit or regiment had a share of ethnicity of over 20 % that this language has to be used in both training and communication. With few exceptions this system was valid until the beginning of the First World War in 1914. In 1914 one could look back on a permanent political and public debate on the question of ethnicities and languages. This project will evaluate of the extent to which the language question of the army interacted with local and national political events. The project draws on concepts, such as local incidents influenced the situation much more than parliamentary debates did. When introducing the system hopes were raised for a possible integration and increase of the "we-feeling" within the ethnic groups. Although the project draws on concepts, such as nation and language are constructs, in the army the different ethnicities had to be standardized and thus they attained, thanks to the decisions of the military elite, a social and public reality. In the end the system led to further divergence and contributed to the ongoing process of identification of the various ethnicities of the Habsburg monarchy. Expectations, debates and adaptations to the system are analyzed above all from the perspective of the military leadership, the General Staff and the Military Office of His Majesty. The attitude of the army leadership in 1914, above all its expectations concerning the reactions of individual ethnic groups, shows one of the influences of the language issue. The project aims to reconstruct of how the years of this experience contributed to the threat scenarios, the conviction that the Hungarians rejected any common ground, or the supposition that neither the South Slavs nor the Czechs were loyal? Some ethnicities by contrast, such as Muslim Bosnians and Germans, were regarded as such. Apart from the use of source materials from the Military Office of His Majesty and the General Staff the public debate will be studied with the help of influential military journals in German and Hungarian. Complementary sources, like ego-documents of leading personalities, and army regulations and their new editions, should supplement the administrative perspective. The research project is linked to the Ludwig Boltzmann-Institute for Social Science History, and will cooperate with the Historical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Centre for War Studies (Trinity College Dublin).

I investigated to what extent the goals and expectations of implementing the Habsburg army regimental language system- or taking into account the linguistic diversity of the soldiers - differed from its influence and results. A language was classified as a regimental language as soon as 20 percent of the soldiers in a regiment spoke that language. There were eleven regimental languages: Croat, Czech, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Ruthenian (Ukrainian), Slovak, Slovene and Serbian. Unofficially, Bosnian/Serbo-Croat was used, which added a twelfth language. This system meant that the soldiers were allowed to use their language when serving in the army. By taking into account the eleven languages of Habsburg nationalities, military bureaucrats between 1868 and 1914 hoped to increase the soldiers loyalty towards the army, the emperor and the state, and to train them more efficiently. The regimental languages added another facet to the so called Habsburg national and language question (Nationalitäten- und Sprachenfrage) to which it contributed regularly in media debates, and parliamentary discussion in Vienna and Budapest. Paradoxically, the system of regimental languages contributed the same way to multiethnic soldiers feelings of loyalty and gratitude to the Empire while the experience of using their native languages in the Army enhanced their sense of national identity. My project was carried out institutionally at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social Science History (2013-2016). My cooperation with the University of Vienna/Institute for East European History, in particular Professor Philipp Ther, the War Studies Centre at the Trinity College Dublin, in particular with Professors John Horne and Alan Kramer, and the History Department at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, in particular Dr. Imre Ress, helped to strengthen my arguments and to contribute to ongoing international scholarly debate. In the course of the project I (co-)organized seven academic meetings which took place in Ireland, Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in Austria, as well as I presented my research at institutions such as Columbia University in New York, Cambridge and Oxford University as well as at the European University Institute in Florence. Four peer reviewed articles and book chapters are another result, and a monograph/habilitation entitled "From Language to Nation: Language Diversity and Nationalisms in the Imperial Habsburg Army, 1868-1914/8" is well under way.

Research institution(s)
  • Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft - 100%
International project participants
  • Alan Kramer, University of Dublin - Trinity College - Ireland

Research Output

  • 71 Citations
  • 5 Publications
Publications
  • 2016
    Title Habsburg Languages at War
    DOI 10.1057/9781137550309_4
    Type Book Chapter
    Author Scheer T
    Publisher Springer Nature
    Pages 62-78
  • 2018
    Title Ethnic boxes: the unintended consequences of Habsburg bureaucratic classification
    DOI 10.1080/00905992.2018.1448374
    Type Journal Article
    Author Stergar R
    Journal Nationalities Papers
    Pages 575-591
    Link Publication
  • 2017
    Title Denunciation and the decline of the Habsburg home front during the First World War
    DOI 10.1080/13507486.2016.1257577
    Type Journal Article
    Author Scheer T
    Journal European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire
    Pages 214-228
  • 2017
    Title Habsburg home fronts during the Great War
    DOI 10.1080/13507486.2016.1257579
    Type Journal Article
    Author Scheer T
    Journal European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire
    Pages 171-175
  • 2014
    Title Die k.u.k. Regimentssprachen: Eine Institutionalisierung der Sprachenvielfalt in der Habsburgermonarchie (1867/8-1914).
    Type Book Chapter
    Author Niedhammer

Discovering
what
matters.

Newsletter

FWF-Newsletter Press-Newsletter Calendar-Newsletter Job-Newsletter scilog-Newsletter

Contact

Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Georg-Coch-Platz 2
(Entrance Wiesingerstraße 4)
1010 Vienna

office(at)fwf.ac.at
+43 1 505 67 40

General information

  • Job Openings
  • Jobs at FWF
  • Press
  • Philanthropy
  • scilog
  • FWF Office
  • Social Media Directory
  • LinkedIn, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Twitter, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Facebook, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Instagram, external URL, opens in a new window
  • YouTube, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Cookies
  • Whistleblowing/Complaints Management
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Data Protection
  • Acknowledgements
  • Social Media Directory
  • © Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF
© Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF