The Day of Annexion of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1908) in the Periodicals of Austria-Hungary

Abstract

The article explores the ways in which the day of annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was commemorated in the press of the Habsburg monarchy. The choice of German-language newspapers from various parts of Austro-Hungary was determined by the fact that the German language can be considered one of the key unifying factors within the empire. German-language newspapers and other periodicals were published all over Cisleithania, in the Hungarian part, for instance in Zagreb and Budapest, and in Bosnia itself. The analysis of publications from 1908–1918 shows that while commemoration of the event was relatively widespread during the first two years of the period, after 1911 the annexation of the formerly occupied provinces was largely forgotten. The author suggests the possible reasons why a commemorative event never became a tradition, namely that the annexation itself was not particularly notable for the Austro-Hungarian society since Bosnia and Herzegovina had already been controlled by Austro-Hungary for nearly 30 years and were de-facto a part of the empire. Other possible reasons include the annexation crisis and the military threat of 1908–1909, the international conflicts of 1911–1913 and also the proximity of the annexation date to a state holiday, that is Francis Joseph’s Name Day, 4 October.