Inaug.-Diss.--Bern. / Bibliography: p. 65-67.

This thesis investigates the different kinds of extra-marital fertilities present in the Gurk valley, in the north of the province of Carinthia, in southern Austria. The parishes of this valley have a long history of high illegitimacy, partly produced by the restrictions placed on peasant marriage prior to 1868. However, the focus of this research is on ,~hy it was twenty years after the national abolition of such restrictions that illegitimate births reached their zenith in this region. In the 1890s, in the westerly parishes of the Gurl( valley, ninety per cent of all births were born outside wedlock. This figure made the Gurl( valley highly unusual in Europe in its attitudes to marriage and to fertility inside and outside institutional sanction. It was a place where extramarital births were so common as to make a reassessment of illegitimacy as a category essential. This thesis is therefore an exploration of the Gurl( valley's demographic and courtship regime, one so different to those on which the existing theorisations of alpine illegitimacy's social and historical meaning rely. A range of qualitative and quantitative methods are employed, spanning statistical analysis of parish records to narrative analysis of oral history interviews to build up a picture of the Gurk valley as a place where extra-marital fertility was embedded in social life in all strata of the community. It is argued that illegitimacy in this context should not be understood as deviant, but rather as an adaptation to local circumstance that in many cases served the interests of single mother, extra-marital child and farming household. Indeed, it was only when the gaze of the National Socialist state fell upon Austria in 1938 that illegitimacy began to be framed as a threat to the German race, in need of remedy. In earlier decades, however, births outside wedlock were far from confined to a bastardy-prone sub-society. They formed a part of the reproductive strategies undertaken by unmarried women, whether they were maids in service or the daughters of farmers, and their perdurance was aided by the evolution � of social structures that in part ameliorated the stigma associated with illegitimacy.

No description available.

No description available.

The phenomenon of princely and scientific collections that proliferated in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has become an important focus for modern historical analysis. These collections provide a microcosm of contemporary political, economic and philosophical ideas, often characterized by geographical and cultural differences. The mid-seventeenth century Kunst- and Wunderkammer studied here, instituted by the archbishops of Salzburg, brings forward themes sometimes neglected in the literature. The archbishops' collection was part of broader efforts to reinvent the city of Salzburg as a representation of both sacred and secular authority. Strategies for significant display were derived from religious and imperial ritual, drawing on the potential of objects as signifiers. In this context, I also examine some of the debates within the literature on princely and scientific collections, where the study of wonder and science begins to merge in cross-disciplinary scholarship. Finally, I highlight the role of transformation and materiality in these collections to argue that the act of collecting objects and the act of making were imbricated in the process of self-definition. Within themes of technology and process, I investigate the pursuit of creating Kunstkammer objects, as well as the business of their display and use in diplomacy.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Wien, 1961. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 424-438) and index.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Wien, 1961. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 424-438) and index.

No description available.

No description available.

This examination explores the Viennese cultural milieu at the turn of the century in an effort to show the commonality of backgrounds and interests among those who created the culture during that period. In this the study aims at illustrating the similarities among those artists, intellectuals, and politicians in spite of the fact that their ideas helped lay the basis for the breakdown in integration of twentieth century culture which was illustrated by Carl E. Schorske in his Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture. All this is in pursuance of the overall issue of the origin of the ideas which have dominated this century, an issue dealt with only tangentially in this study.