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Heinrich Ritter von Srbik and “Gesamtdeutsch” History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Ronald J. Ross
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Extract

Heinrich Ritter von Srbik, the foremost Austrian historian in the interwar period, made important contributions to knowledge of the materials and the facts of nineteenthcentury Germany history as well as to the interpretation of that period. No historian of Germany can properly ignore his interpretation of that period. Yet no serious attempt has been made to evaluate his historical thinking and to appraise his extensive contributions to German historical literature. The one exception to this neglect followed his death in 1951 which occasioned the customary obituary notices of his career and work.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 1969 , pp. 88 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1969

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References

1 Of these, the three which have been most useful are: Bauer, Wilhelm, “Heinrich Srbik (1878–1951),” Neue Österreichische Biographie ab 1815. Vol. XII: Grosse Österreicher (Zurich, 1957), 171–193Google Scholar; Wandruszka, Adam, “Heinrich Ritter von Srbik,” Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, LIX (1951), 228–236Google Scholar; and Näf, Werner, “Heinrich Ritter von Srbik,” Historische Zeitschrift, CLXXIII (1952), 95–101Google Scholar. Bauer's article originally appeared as an obituary notice in 1951 in the Almanack der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

2 In chronological order his pre-1918 books in social and economic history are: Die Beziehungen von Staat und Kirche in Österreich während des Mittelalters (Innsbruck, 1904)Google Scholar; Der staatliche Exporthandel Österreichs von Leopold I bis Maria Theresa: Untersuchungen zur Wirtschajtsgeschichte Österreichs im Zeitalter der Merkantilismus (Vienna, 1907)Google Scholar; Wilhelm von Schroeder: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Staatswissenschaften (Vienna, 1910)Google Scholar; and Studien zur Geschichte des Österreichischen Salzwesens (Innsbruck, 1917)Google Scholar.

3 von Srbik, Heinrich Ritter, Deutsche Einheit: Idee und Wirklichkeit vom Heiligen Reich bis Königgrätz, 4 vols. (Munich, 1935–1942), IV, 468Google Scholar.

4 von Srbik, Heinrich Ritter, Mitteleuropa: das Problem und die Versuche seiner Lösung in der deutschen Geschichte (Weimar, 1937), p. 5Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., p. 39; Deutsche Einheit, I, 339 and 373; and especially Srbik's, “Zur gesamtdeutschen Geschichtsauffassung: ein Versuch und sein Schicksal,” Historische Zeitschrift, CLVI (1937), 232–237Google Scholar.

6 von Srbik, Heinrich Ritter, Geist und Geschichte vom deutschen Humanismus bis zur Gegenwart, 2 vols. (Munich, 1950–1951), II, 238Google Scholar; von Srbik, Heinrich Ritter, “Die Reichsidee im Wandel der Geschichte,” Das grössere Reich: Grossdeutschland am Anfang des IX. Jahres Nationalsozialistische Staatsführung (Berlin, 1943), p. 5Google Scholar; and Kohn, Hans, “AEIOU: some Reflections on the Meaning and Mission of Austria,” The Journal of Modern History, XI (12, 1939), 516Google Scholar.

7 Srbik, wrote a biography of his grandfather entitled Ein Schüler Niebuhrs: Wilhelm Heinrich Grauert (Vienna, 1914)Google Scholar.

8 Wandruszka, , “Srbik,” 230Google Scholar.

9 Ibid.

10 Srbik, , “Reichsidee,” pp. 5–6Google Scholar. This same idea is expressed even more harshly in Deutsche Einheit, IV, 483.

11 Deutsche Einheit, IV, 482.

12 Srbik, , Mitteleuropa, p. 38Google Scholar; Meyer, Henry Cord, Mitteleuropa in German Thought and Action, 1815–1945 (The Hague, 1955), p. 82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 (Vienna, 1920).

14 Metternich: der Staatsmann und der Mensch, 2 vols. (Munich, 1925)Google Scholar.

15 Ibid., I, 43 and 46.

16 Ibid., II, 542–543.

17 , H. W., “Der Grazer Historikertag,” Historische Zeltschrift, CXXXVII (1928), 416–417Google Scholar; Hammen, Oscar J., “German Historians and the Advent of the National Socialist State,” The Journal of Modern History, XIII (06, 1941), 180–181Google Scholar.

18 This address was published under the title “Gesamtdeutsche Geschichtsauffassung” in Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, VIII (1930), 1–12Google Scholar

19 The first two volumes appeared in 1935 while volumes III and IV were published in 1942.

20 These materials were gathered together in Die auswärtigen Politik Preussens, 1858–1871, 9 vols. in 10 (Oldenburg i. O., 1933–1939)Google Scholar and Quellen zur deutschen Politik Österreichs, 1859–1866, 5 vols. in 6 (Oldenburg, i. O., 1934–1938)Google Scholar. Srbik himself edited the Austrian series of documents.

21 “Gesamtdeutsche Geschichtsauffassung,” pp. 9–10.

22 Deutsche Einheit, I, 147.

23 Srbik, , Metternich, I, 50Google Scholar. This idea is more fully elaborated in “Gesamtdeutsche Geschichtsauffassung,” pp. 5 and 8ff.

24 “Gesamtdeutsche Geschichtsauffassung,” p. 6.

25 IV, 462ff.

26 Ibid., 464.

27 Ibid., 468.

28 Ibid., 480–481; Srbik, , Mitteleuropa, 34Google Scholar.

29 Deutsche Einheit, IV, 483.

30 “Gesamtdeutsche Geschichtsauffassung,” p. 5.

31 Ibid., p. 3.

32 Ibid., p. 6.

33 Ibid., p. 5.

34 Sweet, Paul, “Recent German Literature on Mitteleuropa,” Journal of Central European Affairs, III (04, 1943), 15–16Google Scholar.

35 Ritter, Gerhard, “Die Fälschung des deutschen Geschichtsbildes im Hitlerreich,” Deutsche Rundschau, LXX (03, 1947), 19Google Scholar.

36 Bauer, , “Srbik,” p. 181Google Scholar.

37 Frank's, address was printed under the title “Zunft und Nation” in the Historische Zeitschrift, CLIII (1935)Google Scholar. See p. 16.

38 Bauer, , “Srbik,” p. 184Google Scholar.

39 Gesamtdeutsche Vergangenheit: Festgabe für Heinrich Ritter von Srbik zum 60. Geburstag am 10. November 1938 (Munich, 1938)Google Scholar.

40 These lectures appeared in print under the title Österreich in der deutschen Geschichte. I have used the third edition (Munich, 1938)Google Scholar.

41 Published as Mitteleuropa: das Problem und die Versuche seiner Lösung in der deutschen Geschichte (Weimar, 1937)Google Scholar.

42 Meister, Richard, Geschichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, 1847–1947 (Vienna, 1947), p. 182Google Scholar. Meister, while stressing Srbik's opposition over other issues, is curiously silent about his behavior in this important affair.

43 “Mitteleuropa unter deutscher Führung” (Berlin edition), March 19, 1939, p. 9.

44 For the details of these disputes, see Meister, , Akademie der Wissenschaften, p. 182Google Scholar; Wandruszka, , “Srbik,” pp. 232–233Google Scholar. In the summer of 1944, after the failure of the officers’ attempt to kill Hitler, Srbik's home was searched by the Gestapo. Certain documents falling into the hands of the secret police indicated that Carl Goerdeler had visited Srbik in 1938. See Bauer, , “Srbik,” pp. 186–187Google Scholar.

45 Benedikt, Heinrich, ed., Geschichte der Republik Österreich (Munich, 1954), 414Google Scholar.

46 See, for example, his Wien und Versailles, 1692–1697: Zur Geschkhte von Strassburg, Elsass und Lothringen (Munich, 1944)Google Scholar.

47 Näf, , “Srbik,” p. 95Google Scholar.

48 (Munich, 1950–1951).

49 Srbik, , Geist und Geschichte, II, 347Google Scholar.

50 In 1949 Srbik published Aus Österreichs Vergangenheit: von Prinz Eugen zu Franz Joseph (Salzburg), a collection of essays. With but one exception, all these essays had been published previously. That Srbik permitted their republication, unrevised, is evidence that his historical views remained unchanged.

51 For a classic example of the kleindeutsch view, see Marcks, Erich, Der Aufstieg des Reiches: Deutsche Geschichte von 1807–1871/78, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1936)Google Scholar. Deutsche Einheit is much the better account.

52 Srbik has frequently been criticized for his style which also contributes to the metaphysical spirit that pervades much of his writing. Deutsche Einheit, like all of his work, is abstract, diffuse, and complex. But if Srbik's style is involved, it is capable of conjuring up vivid images. In describing such a prosaic task as the examination of documentary evidence, for example, Srbik wrote of viewing “die Strömungen der Vergangenheit auf ihre Quellgriinde hin” (“Gesamtdeutsche Geschichtsauffassung,” 6). The imagery in these few words is striking, for Srbik does not employ the customary word, Quellen, for documents. Instead, he coins the word Quellgründe by combining the word Quelle, meaning both “source” and “well” or “spring” with Grund which means both “basic” and “ground.” Hence Srbik, consciously striving for literary affect, calls forth the vision of the past as a stream of time emanating or welling up from a spring in the ground. At its best, then, Srbik's style is poetry, at its worst it becomes overly abstruse leaving an obscure and turgid impression.

53 See Brandenburg, Erich, “Deutsche Einheit,” Historische Vierteljahrschrift, XXX (1936), 757–770Google Scholar and Hartung, Fritz, “Preussen und die Deutsche Einheit,” Forschungen zur Brandenburgischen und Preussischen Geschichte, XLIX (1937), 1–21Google Scholar for criticisms of Deutsche Einheit and the gesamtdeutsch concept. Nettled by their remarks, Srbik retorted in his “Zur gesamtdeutschen Geschichtsauffassung.”

54 Näf, , “Srbik,” p. 95Google Scholar.