Urban Community at War: Olomouc/Olmütz as a Case Study of the First World War Home Front, 1914-1919

Project Description

The aim of the project is to use the city of Olomouc as a case study to look at how the First World War transformed the relationship of the people of the Habsburg Monarchy, regardless of language and religion, to local, regional, and state authorities. The project shows that although Olomouc did not have a large working-class community and thus did not experience a major radicalisation due to the hardships of war, nor the accompanying phenomena of protest and related conflicts, society was nevertheless sensitive to the change in conditions during the war. There can be traced both a growing weariness with the demands of the state and the war effort and a gradual shift from accepting the discourse of sacrifice to its rejection, manifested in disillusionment and increasing social conflict as well.

The infrastructure of the city, overcrowded with multitudes of troops, refugees, and the wounded, could not cope with the situation as time passed, while the city authorities, fiercely loyal to the monarchy, which they perceived as a guarantee of German linguistic dominance, found themselves caught between the rock and the hard place of the demands of the state, and of the dissatisfied society, respectively. With the end of the war, the Habsburg monarchy was being abandoned not just by Czech politicians or a radicalized public seeing the end of the war as the beginning of something new and beautiful, but also by the city elites themselves, completely disillusioned by the actions of the state to which they sacrificed their legitimacy and ultimately their political power as well.

The paradox remains, however, that the accession of the new power at the end of 1918 did not result in a fundamental change in the functioning of the community. The inhabitants, in spite of the revolutionary national and political pressure, were often aware of this paradox and often reflected upon it critically with the sign that there was actually little difference between the monarchy and the republic. In the end, many felt that it was even administered by the same people, according to the same rules.

Investigator

• doc. Mgr. Jiří Hutečka, Ph.D. (Philosophical Faculty UHK)

Collaboration

• Faculty of Arts UPOL

Timeframe

• 2022–2024

Identification

• GA22-01907S

Outputs