Central European History Convention, 17–19 July 2025

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the Central European History Convention, held on 17–19 July 2025, at the University of Vienna. The program included one roundtable, two keynotes, nine research labs, twenty-five poster presentations, and fifty-five panels. The objective of the Convention was to provide a platform for emerging scholars and topics, as well as to highlight the influence of Pieter Judson’s work on contemporary historiography. The keynote lecture by Peter Haslinger focused on the applicability of Jan Křen’s concept of the “community of conflict” to Austro-Hungarian relations between 1867 and 1914. Tara Zahra, meanwhile, addressed the significance and historical context of Pieter Judson’s monographs Exclusive Revolutionaries… (1996), Guardians of the Nation… (2006), and The Habsburg Empire: A New History (2016), along with his upcoming publications. Topics from the research labs included the international series The Habsburg Monarchy 1848–1918, the Austrian television documentary Austria — A Full History, and various historical sources. Several papers focusing on Czech history are also presented in the article. Regarding the late Habsburg period, these papers explore topics such as dog-keeping practices in Prague, Karel Klostermann’s writings on the Šumava Mountains in connection with a bark beetle outbreak in the 1870s, the evolution of forms and messages of public festivities, and a comparative context encompassing both the dissemination of information about the “discovery” of the forged Dvůr Králové Manuscript and the activities of the “Protective associations” of Bohemian Germans. The interwar period was covered in papers on the involvement of Sudeten Germans in building fortifications on the Czechoslovak-German border and on portrayals of the Ottoman Empire and Kemalist Turkey in the works of Eurasianist thinkers from the Russian émigré community. Both periods were addressed in presentations on the image of Tahiti in Czech and Slovak cultures and on the Czech (later Czechoslovak) convalescent “children’s colony” in Crikvenica.