In 1809, after divorcing his wife Josephine because she was no longer able to bear children, Napoleon set about finding ...

In the nineteenth century Vienna continued to consolidate its reputation as the ‘city of music’, an image still used to ...

During the Vormärz period Viennese theatrical life experienced a heyday, despite the fact that theatre and literature were subject to ...

Little commemorates the people who populated the Habsburg Monarchy – in contrast to those who ruled over them. The power ...

In the Habsburg Monarchy the people had been vigorously demanding a constitution, or regulated body of laws, since 1848. But ...

The two decades either side of 1800 saw a large part of Europe in a state of emergency. European politics ...

Under Maria Theresa and Joseph II large-scale restructuring took place in the field of education. According to the edict on ...

One of the political goals of the Enlightenment – known primarily as an intellectual and artistic movement in the eighteenth ...

‘It is my will …’: on 20 December 1857 Emperor Franz Joseph signed the decree that was to give the ...

Concern for the welfare of subjects was also a concern for the functioning of the state, which was supposed to ...

A story of high-flying success and bitter disappointments: today a household name all over the world, as a child prodigy ...

The Habsburgs were no exception when it came to the allure of the exotic or foreign. Many things were brought ...

The many reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II affected not only the economic, educational and socio-political domain but also ...

The emperor hovering over a microscope, the crown prince in his study? These would not have been unusual sights in ...

Nowadays Christmas is regarded as the epitome of the family celebration. The customs and rituals associated with it are often ...

‘See and be seen’ was the motto: whether at an audience or at court festivities – many people sought proximity ...

The Habsburgs led a lively existence outside the confines of Schönbrunn and the Hofburg. In some locations, they appear to ...

The world of the Habsburgs was a vast one – both geographically and metaphorically. The Habsburgs ruled over a great ...

The eighteenth was a century of many wars, in which the Habsburgs were heavily involved – for around sixty per ...

It was not really a matter of pure philanthropy when Maria Theresia had some high customs tariffs abolished – more ...

Every age has its ideas about the economy: the Habsburgs liked the mercantilist theories because they promised power and affluence. ...

Workshops (or ‘manufactories’, as they were known) and cottage industry were promoted by Maria Theresa and opposed by craftsmen. In ...

‘… shoemaker, tailor, linen-weaver, baker, merchant, gravedigger’. This children’s counting rhyme – still popular today – reflects the hierarchical society ...