Page - 278 - in Österreich-Ungarns imperiale Herausforderungen - Nationalismen und Rivalitäten im Habsburgerreich um 1900

© 2020, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847110606 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737010603 nationalgroupsononeside,andbythecentralauthoritiesandthedynastyonthe otherside. It isnoteasy toprove if they reactedaccording totheseperceptions. Attendance at celebrations, demonstrations, signing of petitions, letters to the press andelectoral participationare indicationsof howpeople interpreted the messages. Memory is akeycomponent indiscoursesof identity thatwereconstructed after the demise of theHabsburgmonarchy. Already before 1918 therewas a competitionbetweenmemoriesofnationalpasts andHabsburgmemories.But thelatterwerealsoconstructed.Thememorialserectedinthecitiesbearwitness to this competition and reveal the coexistence of dynastic loyalty along with nationalpride.Henceitseemsthatbothperspectivesdidnotnecessarilyexclude eachother.Nationaldiscoursewasadoptedneither spontaneouslynorquickly, people could not immediately adhere to imagined and distant historicalmo- ments;theessentialismofnationasdiffusedbythenationalist leadersattheend of the 19th century must not mislead our analysis of the perceptions of the contemporaries.More than ‘imagined’, the community that was to become a nationwasconstructedusinghistoricalmemoriesandsymbolsofamythicpast. Thispastwasshownasstaticbutleadingtoagloriousfuture,whereasthesociety of the last decades of the 19th century was extremely mobile and dynamic. Multiple identitiescouldcoexistwithoutgeneratingconflict,andtheycannotbe ascribed to national categories only. In this respect themulticultural city is a paradigmofthisevolutionandananalyticaltoolaswell.Itoffersaconcentration ofactorsandinstitutionsthatarethevectorsofdiscoursesandtheanimatorsof society.Eachtownbecomes thusa laboratory forhistorical inquiry. The loyal city:Memorializing theHabsburg Asdemonstratedby thePoles inLemberg, the dimensionofHabsburg loyalty was crucial in the definition of city patriotism. This is not surprising in the contextofGaliciawherethePolesenjoyednotonlyabettersituationcomparedto their compatriots inGermany andRussia but also hegemonyover the Ruthe- nians. In theabsenceofalternative to the reconstitutionof thePolishkingdom their faithfulness to theHabsburgEmpirewas not questionable. NoPolish ir- redentism could thus exist and the only contestation possible was against measures considered too favorable to theRuthenians. The latter were accord- inglyseenbyViennaasgensfidelissimanotwithstandingtheattractionofRussia forsomeofthem.Onthewholetheyhadverygoodreasonstoexpecteverything fromtheinterventionoftheemperorandthatiswhyhisvisitsortheonespaidby members of his family were occasions to demonstrate loyalty. Here again the irredentist temptationwasnotaseriousalternative.Thesamecouldbesaid for CatherineHorel278