Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung / Journal of East Central European Studies (ZfO)
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Bennet Brämer: Das Obergericht der Freien Stadt Danzig und seine Rechtsprechung als Verfassungsgerichtshof
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Jessie Labov: Transatlantic Central Europe. Contesting Geography and Redefining Culture beyond the Nation
Get PDFAnette Löffler: Fragmente nicht-liturgischer Handschriften aus dem Historischen Staatsarchiv Königsberg. Mit ausgewählten Schrifttafeln zum gesamten Fragmentbestand
Get PDFDie multiplen Strategien Zar Peters I. und seines Wiener Gesandten Johann Christoph von Urbich hinsichtlich der Krone Polen-Litauens 1707–1709
No full textThe Treaty of Altranstädt forced Augustus II to renounce the crown of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as well as any cooperation with the Tsardom of Muscovy in the context of the Great Northern War. Now Tsar Peter I was isolated facing the military superiority of Sweden. Looking for diplomatic solutions, Peter I pursued multiple strategies, building a political counterweight to Sweden in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth being one of particular importance. The election of a pretender to the Polish crown by the Sandomierz Confederation under the patronage of Peter I developed into a crucial part of Russian diplomacy. Johann Christoph von Urbich was accredited as a Russian envoy in Vienna at a time when the efforts of the Tsar to enthrone an anti-king to Stanisław Leszczyński stalled. Based on the resources of this experienced diplomat, changes of strategy were discussed. The discrepancy between the Tsar’s high expectations and the limits set by pragmatic politics put the new envoy into a situation in which he had to develop networks for initiatives of his own. His correspondence with the Saxon court and with Jan Szembek, the Polish Vice-Chancellor of Augustus II, show that the diplomat entered into special relations with them. These multiple loyalties only existed for a limited time, but were concurrent with his commitment to Peter I
Václav Smyčka: Das Gedächtnis der Vertreibung. Interkulturelle Perspektiven auf deutsche und tschechische Gegenwartsliteratur und Erinnerungskulturen
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The Moment between Occupation and Freedom: Forms of Collective Violence at the End of World War II in the Czech Lands
No full textThe paper focuses on the violent interactions that occurred in the Czech lands at the end of World War II. By analyzing the structure, forms and causes of acts of collective violence, the author attempts to answer to what extent they were the result of either spontaneous popular anger or targeted state policies. This study is a response to the conventional thesis of Czech historiography about the so-called “wild expulsions,” which has misleadingly stated that, from the immediate post-war days until long into the summer of 1945, spontaneous acts of violence were persisting, for which, however, the Czechoslovak state did not bear responsibility. Unlike most previous studies, therefore, it focuses not only on the period following the liberation of Czechoslovakia, but also in more detail on the links between the waning Nazi terror, the final war operations and the outrageous post-war retaliation. Based on concrete cases of the anti-Nazi uprising and post-war Czech cleansing from Germans, the author uncovers specific actors, their mutual interactions in groups and conditions that allowed the escalation of mass atrocities. He proves that spontaneous acts of violence were associated with transitional rituals and brutalization and occurred only for a limited time of a few post-war days. Thus, at the end of the war, collective violence remained an integral part of state policy in both Nazi and Czechoslovakian rule. These two regimes relied heavily on violence specialists to exercise their power and limited the space for manifestations of spontaneous popular anger. The author stresses that the main factor influencing the dynamics of violence were two simultaneous but uneven processes: the Nazi system of government was collapsing, while the Czechoslovak state power was being restored
