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This essay investigates the unknown episode of the fiscal-financial history of Bohemia during the reign of Joseph I (1705–1711) and considers its disintegrative consequences. These events played out against the background of the – well-known – role of the Jewish "court factors" of Leopold I. At the height of War of the Spanish Succession, the emperor found himself threatened by the French and by the Rákóczi-led Hungarian War of Independence in the east. With empty state coffers, Joseph in 1706/07 turned to the Bohemian diet and proposed to negotiate a loan of 1,333,333 gulden with a consortium of Jewish bankers from Würzburg and Frankfurt am Main, which was to be underwritten by future tax revenues. In exchange the Bohemian diet conferred upon the financiers the right to collect the outstanding sums. This de facto 'outsourcing' of royal prerogatives to a third (foreign) party led to a series of entanglements and disputes, which are investigated from the perspectice of the Eggenberg domains in Southern Bohemia. Reconstructing the interrelated consequences that tied together Prague, Würzburg, and Český Krumlov, this episode offers insights into into the little-known realities of the fiscal-financial activities of the Bohemian diet around 1700.

Recent decades witnessed the 'return' of the state in mainstream historiographic discourse. This development was greatly facilitated by the contemporaneous demise of histories of everyday life and social history in general as well as the seemingly unstoppable emergence of early modern 'fiscal-military state[s]'. In combination, this dual shock reinforced the already-existing biases, i.e., History's focus on the Courts' great men, military and political affairs, and the nascent milieus of the urban bourgeois circles. Given the prevailing foci of Crime History—gender, age, and social status—, theft and punishment, especially so outside the afore-mentioned spatial circumstances, continue to remain blind spots in both 'statist' and crime-related historical inquiries. By contrast, my essay looks at the intersections of these fields of research. Using the large and composite Bohemian possessions of the princes of Eggenberg, centred around Český Krumlov in the present-day Czech Republic, as an example, I am investigating instances of thievery around 1700. The Bohemian Lands, situated both in the heart of Central Europe as well as on the periphery of the Habsburg monarchy (Bohemia was the Emperor's richest crown land yet, in many ways, far away from Vienna), constitute the context for my argument: State integration, understood as elite processes that gradually re-ordered social relations outside the urban centres and milieus, was accompanied by loss of social cohesion and often (in-) directly encouraged the transgression of norms by the majority of people due to economic stress, exploitation, and the struggle for bare survival. Thanks to this approach, certain reciprocities about the two certainties of life, 'death and taxes', with Daniel Defoe and Benjamin Franklin, that are usually overlooked or ignored by both historiographic traditions, become visible once again. By means of carefully analysing the relevant sources such as initial reports by village judges, interrogation protocols, correspondence by princely ...

This study, my professorial thesis, or Habilitationsschrift, focuses on administrative confusion and social disruptions in the Habsburg monarchy from the Thirty Years' War to Charles VI (r. 1711-40). I will demonstrate that these two aspects were the by-product of state formation in early modern composite monarchies. Whereas the advent of the 'fiscal-military state' (Brewer 1989) transformed our understanding of central bureaucracies over the past three decades, these days most studies of early modern state formation apply top-down perspectives. By contrast, my study approaches the Habsburg monarchy's re-emergence after 1648 based on two distinctively different premises: First, individual actions and structural developments entail differing consequences for central institutions and the geographically more remote areas; and, second, by analysing these developments from outside the courtly and urban settings, I am arguing that state integration in the centre was accompanied by increasing state disintegration and loss of cohesion on the lower administrative levels. As the central government tried to cope with war-induced stress, its actions started to tear apart the administrative and social fabric that held traditional society together. By emphasising the crucial role of local actors, regional interlinkages, and the disintegrating consequences that warfare had on state formation, my book offers a counter-narrative to traditional interpretations in the fields of History, IR, and Historical Sociology.

This essay, a brief overview in English of the main findings of my recently completed professorial thesis, focuses on the crucial role of the lordship in Habsburgs' attempts of state formation from the Thirty Years'War to Charles VI. During these decades, Austria became a great power, mostly from accident, helped by the unintended consequences of an ill-conceived Ottoman assault on Vienna in 1683. This essay focuses on the usually overlooked by-products of state formation in early modern composite monarchies, administrative confusion and social disruptions. Using the example of Bohemia and contrary to most books available, which employ a top-down perspective, my approach is based on two different premises: first, individual actions and structural developments convey different-and differing-consequences for central institutions vis-à-vis those occurring contemporaneously in more remote areas. And, second, state integration, understood as an elite-driven process emanating from a centre, is accompanied by countervailing and at times opposing trends whose consequences only increased with geographical distance. War thus gives rise to a certain kind of state formation, which was accompanied by the contemporaneous disintegration and loss of cohesion outside the centre. This essay explores, how, as the government tried to cope with war-induced stresses, its actions started to tear apart the administrative and social fabric that held society together.

Der Beitrag hat das Militär und seine Einbettung in die venezianische Gesellschaft im Stato da mar während des 16. Jahrhunderts zum Thema. Als Herrin großer Besitzungen im östlichen Mittelmeerraum (Dalmatien, Kreta, Zypern) befand sich die Markusrepublik direkt an der Grenze des Christentums und des Osmanischen Reiches. Eine Reihe kriegerischer Auseinandersetzungen mit der Hohen Pforte führte nach dem Fall Konstantinopels (1453) zu einer kontinuierlichen Militarisierung der venezianischen Besitzungen. Die Konsequenzen dieser Entwicklungen bis auf den heutigen Tag im Adriaraum deutlich sichtbar. Neben den imposanten Befestigungsanlagen lassen sich die militärische Mobilisierung und ihre Auswirkungen auf das tägliche Leben in diesem Grenzraum anhand der reichhaltigen Archivbestände nachvollziehen. Die zweite venezianische Herrschaft über Dalmatien erstreckte sich vom 15. Jahrhunderts bis zum Untergang der Markusrepublik (1797). Zur Absicherung ihrer Herrschaft und zur Verteidigung gegen die Osmanen wurde eine Reihe an Gegenmaßnahmen ergriffen. Zum einen bedeutete dies die Stationierung leichter, mobiler Kavallerieeinheiten (stradioti) zur Verteidigung des Hinterlandes; zum anderen bewirkte dies den massiven Ausbau der Befestigungsanlagen, was wiederum höhere Truppenstärken, aber auch signifikante Investitionen in die lokale Wirtschaft bedeutete. Der Beitrag geht demnach besonders den folgenden Fragen nach: Wie lassen sich die (temporären) Migrationsprozesse der Soldaten, Handwerker und Kommandanten innerhalb des "venezianischen Kommunikationsraums" (Oliver Schmitt) im Adriaraum nachvollziehen? Welche Ressourcen standen den lokalen Befehlshabern zu Verteidigungszwecken zu Verfügung, woher kamen diese Gelder und wie wurden diese eingesetzt? Welche konkreten Auswirkungen hatte die durch die osmanische Expansion hervorgerufene Militarisierung zum einen auf das Alltagsleben der städtischen Gemeinwesen? Und wie wirkten sich diese Entwicklungen zum anderen auf die Institutionen und Mobilitätsprozesse innerhalb des venezianischen Herrschaftsbereiches aus?

Der Beitrag hat das Militär und seine Einbettung in die venezianische Gesellschaft im Stato da mar während des 16. Jahrhunderts zum Thema. Als Herrin großer Besitzungen im östlichen Mittelmeerraum (Dalmatien, Kreta, Zypern) befand sich die Markusrepublik direkt an der Grenze des Christentums und des Osmanischen Reiches. Eine Reihe kriegerischer Auseinandersetzungen mit der Hohen Pforte führte nach dem Fall Konstantinopels (1453) zu einer kontinuierlichen Militarisierung der venezianischen Besitzungen. Die Konsequenzen dieser Entwicklungen bis auf den heutigen Tag im Adriaraum deutlich sichtbar. Neben den imposanten Befestigungsanlagen lassen sich die militärische Mobilisierung und ihre Auswirkungen auf das tägliche Leben in diesem Grenzraum anhand der reichhaltigen Archivbestände nachvollziehen. Die zweite venezianische Herrschaft über Dalmatien erstreckte sich vom 15. Jahrhunderts bis zum Untergang der Markusrepublik (1797). Zur Absicherung ihrer Herrschaft und zur Verteidigung gegen die Osmanen wurde eine Reihe an Gegenmaßnahmen ergriffen. Zum einen bedeutete dies die Stationierung leichter, mobiler Kavallerieeinheiten (stradioti) zur Verteidigung des Hinterlandes; zum anderen bewirkte dies den massiven Ausbau der Befestigungsanlagen, was wiederum höhere Truppenstärken, aber auch signifikante Investitionen in die lokale Wirtschaft bedeutete. Der Beitrag geht demnach besonders den folgenden Fragen nach: Wie lassen sich die (temporären) Migrationsprozesse der Soldaten, Handwerker und Kommandanten innerhalb des "venezianischen Kommunikationsraums" (Oliver Schmitt) im Adriaraum nachvollziehen? Welche Ressourcen standen den lokalen Befehlshabern zu Verteidigungszwecken zu Verfügung, woher kamen diese Gelder und wie wurden diese eingesetzt? Welche konkreten Auswirkungen hatte die durch die osmanische Expansion hervorgerufene Militarisierung zum einen auf das Alltagsleben der städtischen Gemeinwesen? Und wie wirkten sich diese Entwicklungen zum anderen auf die Institutionen und Mobilitätsprozesse innerhalb des ...

Abstract
This essay examines the roles of notaries as intermediaries between the ecclesiastical and temporal spheres in Zadar, then the capital of Venice's Adriatic possessions. My focus is on the economic and social relationships between notaries and urban society during the middle of the century. The essay's main emphasis is not on the city's archbishops, exclusively Venetian patricians as they were, but instead on notaries and their ecclesiastical customers. By utilising the rich archival holdings of the Croatian State Archives in Zadar, I investigate the interactions of members of the cathedral chapter and examine their membership status, economic activities, and their formal and informal processes of exchange, as well as various linkages between these functionaries and the city's inhabitants.

This study examines the economic, geographical, and social mobility in the early modern Adriatic using the example of the urban elites of Zadar (Zara) between the two naval battles of Preveza (1538) and Lepanto (1571). Based upon the protocols of fifteen public notaries, preserved in the Croatian State Archive in Zadar, the present thesis combines both unpublished primary and published secondary sources – the Venetian relazioni as well as the city's statutory laws, codified in 1563/64 – to provide for a vivid images of past times. Methodically, the present study applies a three-pronged approach: an introductory chapter is followed by the first major part. By means of analysis of more than 900 individual procura contracts, the geographical range of Zadar's urban elites are surveyed. So far this source type has attracted little scholarly attention despite its advantages of both qualitative and quantitative analysis potential to reconstruct pre?modern communication. The subsequent part surveys the interactions among Zadar's various urban elites along ecclesiastical, economic, and political lines; the intricate relationship of clergy and nobility is of particular interest in this context. While the first segment of this part focuses on the analysis of the interrelationships of the elite groups, the second segment is a case study examining the real estate market. Thorough analysis of more than 1,700 individual contracts sheds new light on the developments of the economic foundations of an early modern frontier society. Zadar's various urban elites' nobility, elite commoners, Croats, and Jews' and their marriage behaviour, material culture and, more general, interactions are the main topics of the final part. Based upon marriage contracts, dowry quitclaims, and testaments, colourful images of life in Venice's maritime state in the 16th century emerges.

This study examines the economic, geographical, and social mobility in the early modern Adriatic using the example of the urban elites of Zadar (Zara) between the two naval battles of Preveza (1538) and Lepanto (1571). Based upon the protocols of fifteen public notaries, preserved in the Croatian State Archive in Zadar, the present thesis combines both unpublished primary and published secondary sources – the Venetian relazioni as well as the city's statutory laws, codified in 1563/64 – to provide for a vivid images of past times. Methodically, the present study applies a three-pronged approach: an introductory chapter is followed by the first major part. By means of analysis of more than 900 individual procura contracts, the geographical range of Zadar's urban elites are surveyed. So far this source type has attracted little scholarly attention despite its advantages of both qualitative and quantitative analysis potential to reconstruct pre?modern communication. The subsequent part surveys the interactions among Zadar's various urban elites along ecclesiastical, economic, and political lines; the intricate relationship of clergy and nobility is of particular interest in this context. While the first segment of this part focuses on the analysis of the interrelationships of the elite groups, the second segment is a case study examining the real estate market. Thorough analysis of more than 1,700 individual contracts sheds new light on the developments of the economic foundations of an early modern frontier society. Zadar's various urban elites' nobility, elite commoners, Croats, and Jews' and their marriage behaviour, material culture and, more general, interactions are the main topics of the final part. Based upon marriage contracts, dowry quitclaims, and testaments, colourful images of life in Venice's maritime state in the 16th century emerges.

Most accounts of the First World War closely follow events and the main protagonists as the struggle to control a situation that is quickly spiralling out of control. By contrast, the essays in this volume, based on the papers presented at the eponymous international conference at the Municipal Archivs in Karlsruhe, Germany, from November 22-24, 2016, approach the Great War from the point of view of urban history and contains a number of case studies from Germany, Austria-Hungary, and France. Articles are in German, French, and English, including English-language abstracts a well. ; Proofs, please visit the publisher's website and buy the book: https://www.thorbecke.de/staedte-im-krieg-erlebnis-inszenierung-und-erinnerung-des-ersten-weltkriegs-p-2169.html?cPath=310_138_263

Es greift gewiss zu kurz, in den historischen Prozessen, die für Mittel- und Osteuropa im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit kennzeichnend waren, eine Abweichung bzw. Rückentwicklung des westeuropäischen Modells zu sehen und damit die Rückständigkeit jener Regionen zu betonen. Die jüngsten Forschungen schaffen die Voraussetzungen, dieses dualistische Bild von den beiden Teilen des Kontinents zu überwinden. Vergleichende Studien erhellen nicht nur die Momente der Gleichartigkeit, sondern auch die Spezifika, welche die politischen, wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse im mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Europa auszeichnen. Im vorliegenden Band werden neuere Forschungsergebnisse vorgestellt, die in ihrer Fokussierung auf bestimmte Territorien und deren ökonomische, gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Beziehungen zur italienischen Halbinsel zu weiteren Überlegungen anregen sollen. ; Definire i processi storici che caratterizzarono l'Europa centro-orientale in epoca medievale e moderna come deviazione o involuzione a partire dal modello e dai risultati dell'Europa occidentale, ovvero come palese arretratezza della prima rispetto alla seconda, appare riduttivo. Le più recenti indagini consentono di superare una visione dualistica delle sorti politiche, economiche e sociali delle due parti del Continente. Gli studi di carattere comparativo possono mettere in luce non solo le similitudini, ma anche le particolarità che definirono le relazioni politiche, economiche e sociali nell'Europa medievale e moderna. Questo volume ha l'obiettivo di presentare alcuni risultati delle più recenti ricerche, focalizzando l'attenzione su alcuni territori e i loro rapporti economici, sociali e culturali con la Penisola italiana, e di offrire nuovi spunti di riflessione. It appears reductive to define the historical processes that characterised central and eastern Europe in medieval and modern times as a deviation or involution from the starting point of the western European model and outcomes, or as patent ...

Es greift gewiss zu kurz, in den historischen Prozessen, die für Mittel- und Osteuropa im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit kennzeichnend waren, eine Abweichung bzw. Rückentwicklung des westeuropäischen Modells zu sehen und damit die Rückständigkeit jener Regionen zu betonen. Die jüngsten Forschungen schaffen die Voraussetzungen, dieses dualistische Bild von den beiden Teilen des Kontinents zu überwinden. Vergleichende Studien erhellen nicht nur die Momente der Gleichartigkeit, sondern auch die Spezifika, welche die politischen, wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse im mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Europa auszeichnen. Im vorliegenden Band werden neuere Forschungsergebnisse vorgestellt, die in ihrer Fokussierung auf bestimmte Territorien und deren ökonomische, gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Beziehungen zur italienischen Halbinsel zu weiteren Überlegungen anregen sollen. ; Definire i processi storici che caratterizzarono l'Europa centro-orientale in epoca medievale e moderna come deviazione o involuzione a partire dal modello e dai risultati dell'Europa occidentale, ovvero come palese arretratezza della prima rispetto alla seconda, appare riduttivo. Le più recenti indagini consentono di superare una visione dualistica delle sorti politiche, economiche e sociali delle due parti del Continente. Gli studi di carattere comparativo possono mettere in luce non solo le similitudini, ma anche le particolarità che definirono le relazioni politiche, economiche e sociali nell'Europa medievale e moderna. Questo volume ha l'obiettivo di presentare alcuni risultati delle più recenti ricerche, focalizzando l'attenzione su alcuni territori e i loro rapporti economici, sociali e culturali con la Penisola italiana, e di offrire nuovi spunti di riflessione. It appears reductive to define the historical processes that characterised central and eastern Europe in medieval and modern times as a deviation or involution from the starting point of the western European model and outcomes, or as patent ...

Es greift gewiss zu kurz, in den historischen Prozessen, die für Mittel- und Osteuropa im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit kennzeichnend waren, eine Abweichung bzw. Rückentwicklung des westeuropäischen Modells zu sehen und damit die Rückständigkeit jener Regionen zu betonen. Die jüngsten Forschungen schaffen die Voraussetzungen, dieses dualistische Bild von den beiden Teilen des Kontinents zu überwinden. Vergleichende Studien erhellen nicht nur die Momente der Gleichartigkeit, sondern auch die Spezifika, welche die politischen, wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse im mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Europa auszeichnen. Im vorliegenden Band werden neuere Forschungsergebnisse vorgestellt, die in ihrer Fokussierung auf bestimmte Territorien und deren ökonomische, gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Beziehungen zur italienischen Halbinsel zu weiteren Überlegungen anregen sollen. ; Definire i processi storici che caratterizzarono l'Europa centro-orientale in epoca medievale e moderna come deviazione o involuzione a partire dal modello e dai risultati dell'Europa occidentale, ovvero come palese arretratezza della prima rispetto alla seconda, appare riduttivo. Le più recenti indagini consentono di superare una visione dualistica delle sorti politiche, economiche e sociali delle due parti del Continente. Gli studi di carattere comparativo possono mettere in luce non solo le similitudini, ma anche le particolarità che definirono le relazioni politiche, economiche e sociali nell'Europa medievale e moderna. Questo volume ha l'obiettivo di presentare alcuni risultati delle più recenti ricerche, focalizzando l'attenzione su alcuni territori e i loro rapporti economici, sociali e culturali con la Penisola italiana, e di offrire nuovi spunti di riflessione. It appears reductive to define the historical processes that characterised central and eastern Europe in medieval and modern times as a deviation or involution from the starting point of the western European model and outcomes, or as patent ...

Es greift gewiss zu kurz, in den historischen Prozessen, die für Mittel- und Osteuropa im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit kennzeichnend waren, eine Abweichung bzw. Rückentwicklung des westeuropäischen Modells zu sehen und damit die Rückständigkeit jener Regionen zu betonen. Die jüngsten Forschungen schaffen die Voraussetzungen, dieses dualistische Bild von den beiden Teilen des Kontinents zu überwinden. Vergleichende Studien erhellen nicht nur die Momente der Gleichartigkeit, sondern auch die Spezifika, welche die politischen, wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse im mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Europa auszeichnen. Im vorliegenden Band werden neuere Forschungsergebnisse vorgestellt, die in ihrer Fokussierung auf bestimmte Territorien und deren ökonomische, gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Beziehungen zur italienischen Halbinsel zu weiteren Überlegungen anregen sollen. ; Definire i processi storici che caratterizzarono l'Europa centro-orientale in epoca medievale e moderna come deviazione o involuzione a partire dal modello e dai risultati dell'Europa occidentale, ovvero come palese arretratezza della prima rispetto alla seconda, appare riduttivo. Le più recenti indagini consentono di superare una visione dualistica delle sorti politiche, economiche e sociali delle due parti del Continente. Gli studi di carattere comparativo possono mettere in luce non solo le similitudini, ma anche le particolarità che definirono le relazioni politiche, economiche e sociali nell'Europa medievale e moderna. Questo volume ha l'obiettivo di presentare alcuni risultati delle più recenti ricerche, focalizzando l'attenzione su alcuni territori e i loro rapporti economici, sociali e culturali con la Penisola italiana, e di offrire nuovi spunti di riflessione. It appears reductive to define the historical processes that characterised central and eastern Europe in medieval and modern times as a deviation or involution from the starting point of the western European model and outcomes, or as patent ...