Au tournant du XIXe siècle, Teplitz est une ville thermale renommée à la frontière de la Bohême du Nord et de la Saxe. Il s’agit aussi de la seigneurie des Clary-Aldringen, une maison noble de la monarchie des Habsbourg élevée au rang princier en 1767. Durant la décennie révolutionnaire, les mobilités familiales entre Vienne, Prague et Teplitz se déroulent en même temps que la circulation d’un nombre croissant de baigneurs, parmi lesquels les fonctionnaires de la monarchie, les vétérans des armées de Prusse, de Saxe et d’Autriche ou les nobles francophones en exil. Les correspondances et les journaux comme ceux de Charles-Joseph de Clary-Aldringen (1777-1831) contiennent de précieuses informations sur la manière dont cette grande famille vécut le temps des révolutions et des restaurations en Europe centrale. Avec les comptabilités et les documents administratifs, les Clary-Aldringen ont également laissé de riches sources iconographiques qui présentent un regard original sur le monde de la « première société » au tournant du XIXe siècle. Leurs archives éclairent une période où le théâtre, la peinture et la littérature de société répondent à une quête identitaire née au moment des émigrations comme celle du prince de Ligne accueilli par sa belle famille à Teplitz en 1794. Cette thèse propose d’examiner le fonctionnement de cette maison princière pour mieux comprendre les transformations de la culture aristocratique qui accompagnent les transformations du pouvoir juridique et politique de la noblesse à l’échelle des seigneuries comme dans le concert des nations du XIXe siècle.Quels sont les enjeux d’une vie construite à Teplitz et dans le monde, alors que les bouleversements de la fin de l’époque moderne entraînent la recomposition de l’Europe des dynasties ? Les aspects éducatifs, les mobilités dans la monarchie et à l’étranger ou l’usage du français et de l’allemand sont des éléments essentiels pour aborder une période de refondation de la légitimité aristocratique avec la disparition du Saint-Empire Romain Germanique et la politique des congrès menée après 1815. Les recherches dans les archives de cette grande famille francophone visent ainsi à interroger la conception aristocratique d’une « Europe des Habsbourg » entre la Révolution française et le Printemps des peuples. / At the turn of the 19th century, Teplitz was a well-known spa at the border between North Bohemia and Saxony. It was also part of the seignorial estates of the Clary-Aldringen family who had been promoted to Princely House in 1767. The first Princes of Clary- Aldringen led an aristocratic way of life in their palaces in Vienna and Prague and in their castle in Teplitz. The letters and diaries written by Charles Joseph of Clary-Aldringen provide essential information to understand how this aristocratic family faced the challenges of the revolutions and restorations in Central Europe. Those were unstable times when political and social powers became questioned while new nations were emerging in central Europe.What is at stake then in their lives when the revolutionary upheavals unbalance the dynastic order in Europe? This research aims to analyse how this princely House managed to face the transformations in aristocratic culture at the end of the Holy Roman Empire and in the first decades of the Austrian empire. Indeed the Clary-Aldringen left a hoard of visual documents also with financial and administrative records, all showing the striking features of the “First Society” in the Habsburg monarchy. The archives lead us back to a period when amateur theatre, paintings and writings were given pride of place. The exceptional variety of the documents found allows us to better apprehend how the aristocrats of the Habsburg monarchy conceived their roles and their legitimacy in Europe during the period of revolutions and just before the Spring of the Peoples. One decisive key lies in the fact that this family kept travelling over Europe after 1792.

This thesis concerns military invalids, deserters and delinquents in the Imperial-Royal Army during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Its essence lies in the research of documents originated from the activity of the Representations and Chambers, the supreme representative offices in Bohemia and Moravia. The elementary methodological approach comes from a positivist conception, therefore it interprets the information found within the sources as a story (in a certain sense of word) based on the reality which is recorded by them. The theoretical part is enhanced by the outcomes of study of auxiliary books called Elenchs that provide information even about such sources that have not been preserved till today. Thus, I try to answer the question to which extent it is still possible to use them. The main component of the work is formed by three chapters which are dedicated to particular categories of the military persons in an order stated above. Within them, I present the results of the source research that, in the case of the invalids, concern notably their economic security and utilization for the Habsburg Monarchy's war effort. The chapter about the military deserters continues my previous research and amends it (among else) with newly found facts within the sphere of the enlightened-absolutist...

1 Mgr. Hana Králová Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN FOREIGN SERVICE BETWEEN 1868-1918 Abstract Emerging from the reforms of the second half of the 18th century, the body of loyal civil servants gradually transformed itself into an efficient bureaucratic machine, which fully ensured the operation of the multinational Habsburg Monarchy until its disintegration. For many, a position within the civil service went hand in hand with attaining a certain prestige and rank within society, although the financial situation of lower and even mid - ranking civil servants was problematic at best. The foreign service, especially its diplomatic and central administration branch, undoubtedly ranked among the most prestigious parts of the civil service. Candidates, apart from being required to have the necessary level of educational attainment, were subject to a rigorous selection process focusing especially on their language skills. The diplomatic service also maintained its exclusivity by requiring candidates to provide proof of sufficient income, which limited access to candidates from among the wealthy elite, that is especially from among the traditional and new nobility a s well as from among the well-off individuals of bourgeois descent. The research has, however, also shown that...

This master's thesis examines the influence of a Czech newspaper, the Worker's Papers, that was published in Vienna. The daily paper was targeted at Czech citizens living in the Austrian capital in the times of political changes, between 1918 and 1919. First, the thesis employs the method of a quantitative analysis of articles from selected front pages of the Worker's Papers. I overview the major topics that the newspaper most often reported on: the world politics and the situation of Czechs living in Vienna. Then, I engage in a qualitative content analysis, analyzing key issues of Czechs that were often publicly discussed in the Austrian capital. Regarding the world news reporting, only articles that directly influenced Germany and Hungary are considered, since the Worker's Papers paid a special attention to this region. Using the quantitative, as well as qualitative, content analysis, I examine the extent to which the reporters in the Worker's Papers influenced their readers in terms of their audience's decision making and in terms of shaping the collective identity of the Czech minority in Vienna. The thesis discloses the topics that the Worker's Papers frequently reported on. Additionally, the thesis reveals the role of the newspaper in shaping the way Czech minority perceived themselves in the...

The dissertation deals with the literature of the Czech lands on the background of the social change. The project follows the development of literature, from the enlightenment reforms at the end of the 18th century to the later phase of the Czech National Revival in the middle of the 19th century. The analysis of chosen texts is particularly focused on the role of the florilegia, written in German: collections of literary works and almanacs. The exploration is interested in tendencies, which this literary genre reflects: educative, reviving and mediating.

The thesis Political Programmes of the Czech Representation in the Second Halve of the 19th Century focuses on both programme documents and actual work of Czech political parties, whether more or less institutionalized, between the years 1848 (March Revolution) and 1918 (the downfall of Austria-Hungary). At first it summarizes the historical development in the respective period (Chapter 1), next, it analyses programmes of political parties in three broadly defined topics: 1) Organisation of the empire, question of the Czech State Right (Chapter 2); 2) Constitutionalism, civil rights and role of a citizen (Chapter 3) and 3) National matters (Chapter 4). The attitudes about each of these areas of the following political parties are defined: Bohemian nobility, National Party (till 1874) or Old Czechs (since then), Young Czechs, Social Democrats, Agrarians, Catholic parties, National Socialists, Progress parties and parties of the Radical State Right, Realists and Anarchists. For the conclusion, the author of the thesis attempts to characterise and evaluating the Czech political representation, as well as its importance for the development since 1918.