Page - 339 - 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 extremely tightkinshipnetworks.Thisnobility–againmulti-lingualandmulti- religious – had amonopoly on the county and local administrations, a strong presence in the judiciary, while the personnel of the education and the local organsofthecentralgovernmenthadmorediverseorigins.Whilethenobleclans established a firm hold on the political representation in the county organs (county congregations, executive committees, city councils, etc.), these in- stitutionswereimportantchannelsofco-optationintothisclosedelite.Thiswas especially true for education. Professors of the local law school (a Calvinist, college-level institution), and the high schools were readily invited into the political bodies andwere offered leadership positions in themost important civicassociations.20 Thesecondexample,T.rguMures‚ (Marosv#s#rhely,NeumarktamMieresch) wasthehistoricalcenteroftheSz8kelyland,onceoneofthethreefeudalestatesin Transylvania.Itwasanadministrativeandeducationalcenter,andastheSz8kely people became thebasis of theHungarianwarof liberation inTransylvania in 1848–49, it gained symbolic importance, too. Around the turn of the century industrial development started due to the city’s advantageous location, and it gradually changed the social composition of the local society, adding a new stratumof industrialworkers.But the ruralhinterlandofT.rguMures‚ and the wholeSz8kely region further to theEast remainedhopelesslybackward.21With the intensifying Romanian-Hungarian national conflict in the background,22 local politicians and the government initiated a series of so-called ‘Actions’ aimed at giving impulses to economic and social development. Industrial in- vestment, better agriculturalproductiontechniques, andcheapcreditwere the maintoolsof this attempt. At a first glance, the city of Bras‚ov (Brasj, Kronstadt) represented aworld apart fromMaramures‚ or theSz8kelyland. Itwas amodern, thriving city,with factories, tramlines, pavedroads, street lighting,modernadministrativebuild- ings, andnumerouscivic associations.But its societywasdividedalongethnic lines,adivisionthatoriginatedfromitsfeudalpast,whenonlySaxoncitizenshad politicalandproperty rights.Afewdecadesofcivicequalitycouldnoterase the resulting social differences andhierarchy, and,with the help of the restrictive electoral census, Saxonseasily retained theirdominanceover localpoliticsand administration,althoughby1910theywerenumerically theweakestamongthe 20 Andr#sCieger,Prdekek 8s strat8gi#k: ahelyi politikai elit 8rdek8rv8nyes&t8si leheto˝s8gei a k#rp#taljair8gijv#rmgy8bienadualizmusido˝szak#ban,in:Korall13(2003),p. 87–105,esp. p. 90, 92–94, 100. 21 JuditP#l,V#rosfejlo˝d8saSz8kelyföldön1750–1914,Cs&kszereda2003. 22 Keith Hitchins, A nation affirmed: The Romanian national movement in Transylvania, 1860–1914,Bucharest1999. RegionalElites,NationalistPolitics, LocalAccommodations 339