Czech, German, and Noble This page intentionally left blank Czech, German, and Noble rita krueger Status and National Identity in Habsburg Bohemia 1 2009 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Krueger, Rita. Czech, German, and noble : status and national identity in Habsburg Bohemia / Rita Krueger. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN978-0-19-532345-0 1. Nationalism—Czech Republic—Bohemia—History. 2. Nationalism—Social aspects—Czech Republic—Bohemia. 3. Nobility—Czech Republic—Bohemia—History. 4. Social status—Czech Republic—Bohemia—History. 5. Language and culture—Czech Republic—Bohemia—History. 6. Public institutions—Czech Republic—Bohemia—History. 7. Bohemia (Czech Republic)—Politics and government. 8. Bohemia (Czech Republic)—Social conditions. 9. Bohemia (Czech Republic)—Intellectual life. I. Title. DB2167.K782009 320.5409437109'034—dc22 2008021652 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For my parents This page intentionally left blank acknowledgments I have accumulated many intellectual and personal debts in the course of writing this book. Most recently, my editor at Oxford University Press, Susan Ferber, has been a model of startling effi ciency and stylistic clarity. Her input into the fi nal text has been invaluable. I am also grateful to the copy editor, Mary Anne Shahidi, and to Stephanie Attia and the other staff who have been so dedicated in the preparation of the manuscript. Oxford Uni- versity Press’s two external reviewers provided thoughtful and constructive comments on the manuscript and contributed tangibly to its improvement. There are many who have helped me over years of research and writing. I wish fi rst to recognize the debt I owe my graduate school advisors, Roman Szporluk and Charles Maier, for the steady interest, intellectual support, and personal encouragement they have given me over the years. Roman Szporluk’s enduring interest in the theories of nationalism and its consequences gave my own intellectual development many of its early contours. Charles Maier’s limitless interest in critical historical questions has always been an inspira- tion. Olwen Hufton deserves special thanks for being the fi rst to encourage this topic, when I had barely formulated it myself. Many readers of parts or the whole of the manuscript have given me untold help in sharpening its focus. Hugh Agnew, Catherine Albrecht, Gary Cohen, David Blackbourn, Cathleen Giustino, Eagle Glassheim, Miroslav Hroch, Jeremy King, and Larry Wolff all encountered early versions and/or parts of the manuscript, and I have gained enormously over the years from their work and their com- ments. Ian McNeely and Lisa Wolverton were fi rst to read and critique the whole manuscript. Beyond their intellectual insightfulness, their friendship has sustained me over the years. In the Czech Republic, I owe a large debt to Zdeneˇk Hojda and Barbara Bouzková, who shared their knowledge and research on this period so generously. The late Jan Havránek was unparalleled in his willingness to discuss a vast number of topics and share his extensive knowledge of history and experience of the archives, and I regret only that he did not see the end product. The librarians and archivists in the Czech Republic were an invaluable source of information, and I benefi ted from the expertise of the staff of the National Library, the State Central Archive in Prague, the State Regional Archives in Trˇebonˇ/Jindrˇichu°v Hradec, Plzenˇ, and Prague, the Archive of the National Gallery, and the Archive of the Academy of Sciences. I am most particularly indebted to the staff of the Archive of the National Museum, especially Jaroslav Cˇechura and Milena Beˇlicˇová, who endured my presence, questions, and endless material and reproduction requests for months on end and invited me for innumerable lunches and coffees. They are the standard bearers for conviviality. More than one institution has provided shelter for this project. Research for the book was completed with assistance from the Fulbright Foundation, the Krupp Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, and the European University Institute. I am indebted to the European University Institute for postdoctoral support, to the faculty of the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who supported my leave of absence, and to Temple University, where I fi nished the revisions for the manuscript. My Temple col- leagues have been wonderfully supportive, reading parts or the whole of the manuscript and its prospectus. There are many friends and family who have been with me throughout the long road to publication. Hanka Ripková was a rock through my years of research trips to the Czech Republic, and I value her friendship enormously. In Madison, Kathie Hendley is one of the best and most encouraging people I know. Priya Joshi and Orfeo Fioretos have been a constant source of support and sociability. I am not sure that I have the words suffi cient to thank my husband Mark. It is unthinkable that this book would have been completed without his unfl agging support and patience, or without his willingness to make sacrifi ces that afforded me the opportunity to do this work. He is sim- ply the best of men. My children Cameron and Fiona have faced more than one moment of motherly distraction with aplomb, and I hope that they will someday understand how grateful I am not just for the time they gave me to write, but for the amazing people they have become. I am proud of them beyond measure. I am absolutely indebted to Lynn Krueger, whose generos- ity and sense of purpose in the face of my father’s illness is humbling. Frank viii | acknowledgments Knobloch has shared in countless intellectual and political discussions, con- stantly reminding me how much I value him not just as a member of our family, but as a public intellectual. My sister Linda has always been an inspi- ration to me, now more than ever. I fi nd it diffi cult to reduce my parents to the black and white of print. Together and separately, they have faced such hardships, not least of which was the loss of my brother, whose amazing scientifi c mind and outsize personality are missed by all of us. My parents’ courage, who they are, and the way they have lived, makes me proud to be their daughter. This book is dedicated to them. acknowledgments | ix