Habsburgs Little Orient. A Post Colonial PDF

HABSBURG’S LITTLE ORIENT
A Post/Colonial Reading of Austrian and German Cultural

Narratives on Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1878-1918*
Clemens Ruthner (Edmonton)
to be published in: Ruthner, Cle- [...] Son of man,

mens/Reynolds, Diana/Reber, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
Ursula/Detrez, Raymond: Wechsel- A heap of broken images, [...]
Wirkungen. The Political, Social (T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land)1
and Cultural Impact of the Austro-
Hungarian Occupation of Bosnia- [...] die Worte Kolonie und Übersee hörte man an wie
Hercegovina, 1878-1918. New York etwas noch gänzlich Unerprobtes und Fernes.
et al.: Peter Lang 2008 (Austrian (Robert Musil: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften)2
Culture Series).
* The author would like to thank Brent Bosnia-Herzegovina has been the epitome of a European periphery for a long time. This is
Holland, Per A. Rudling and Claire a condition that arose from Bosnia’s time as a rebellious borderland of the Ottoman Empire
Johnstone (Edmonton), Raymond
(to which it belonged de facto until 1878 and formally until 1908) through to its subsequent
Detrez and Stijn Vervaet (Gent),
Diana Reynolds (San Diego), and
incorporation into the territorial holdings of Austria-Hungary (1878-1918) and then into
Anna Müller-Funk (Vienna) for their Yugoslavia.3 During this period the region not only served as the economic and cultural
assistance in linguistic and historical fringe for different political centres (Istanbul, Vienna/Budapest, Belgrade/Zagreb), but it
matters. also came to occupy a specific symbolic position within the hegemonic discourses of the
›West‹: to this day, Bosnia’s affiliation with the ›Balkans‹ has led to its stigmatization as
1 In: Eliot, T.S.: The Waste Land and
Other Poems. Ed. by Helen Vendler.
a form of ›the Other within Europe‹,4 a status that has been further entrenched since the
New York: Penguin/Signet Classics devastating Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
1998, pp. 32-59, here p. 33. After all, Bosnia-Herzegovina is the only territory of the Habsburg monarchy that can
be approached through the paradigm of colonialism not only in a figurative sense;5 the rea-
2 Musil, Robert: Der Mann ohne
sons for this inhere primarily in the peculiar arrangement of the region’s cultural, social,
Eigenschaften. Roman. Ed. by Adolf
Frisé. Reinbek: Rowohlt 1978, p. 33.
economic and legal structures.6 My article shall elucidate some of these factors through a
critical discussion of prevailing histori(ographi)cal narratives on Bosnia-Hercegovia; subse-
3 Cf. Malcolm, Noel: Bosnia. A Short quently, it will expand on the cultural repercussions of that colonization by analyzing the
History. New York: Pan Macmillan collective imagery of the region in the hegemonic Austrian and German cultures at the time
2002.
of Habsburg occupation and annexation (with a final side glance at the Bosnian author Ivo
4 Cf. Todorova, Maria: Imagining the
Andrić).
Balkans. New York: Oxford UP 1997;
cf. also Wolff, Larry: Inventing Eastern I. VorGeschichte(n): Bosnia-Herzegovina in the International Historiography of the
Europe. The Map of Civilization on the 20th Century
Mind of the Enlightenment. Stanford:
Stanford UP 1994.
Why Austria-Hungary precisely wanted to occupy Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878, and what
5 For a survey of the ongoing dis- agenda its ›Balkan peace mission‹ actually concealed, are questions not easily answered
cussion among historians, cf. Kolm, even 125 years later;7 one would do well to accept the age of Imperialism in Europe as a signi-
Evelyn: Die Ambitionen Österreich- ficant frame of reference.8 Indeed, in the accepted narrative of historiography the sequence
Ungarns im Zeitalter des Hochimpe-
of events does not deviate substantially from the formulations advocated by the well-known
rialismus. Frankfurt/M. et al.: Peter
Lang 2001, pp. 235ff.
American9 Balkan-historian Barbara Jelavich and other researchers who contributed stan-
dard works on this subject matter:10
6 I have already addressed these In 1875 a revolt broke out in the European territory of the Ottoman Empire. Pitting
topics and will detail them further in dissatisfied Herzegovinian farmers against their Muslim landholders, it was »one of the
the course of the text. Cf. Ruthner,
major guerrilla wars in modern European history«, as Milorad Ekmečić11 writes in the
Clemens: ›K.u.k. Kolonialismus‹ als
Befund, Befindlichkeit und Metapher.
History of Yugoslavia (1974). It produced a large number of casualties and refugees, for
Versuch einer weiteren Klärung. In: Serbia and Montenegro soon supported the uprising against Turkish rule, which by 1876
Prutsch, Ursula/Feichtinger, Johan- had also spread to encompass Bulgaria. While Ottoman government troops remained vic-
nes/Csáky, Moritz (Eds.): Habsburg torious in the ensuing battles, the war was nevertheless accompanied by a political crisis
postcolonial. Machtstrukturen und
in the power centre of Istanbul, which led to a manifold change in leadership and even to
kollektives Gedächtnis. Innsbruck et
al.: Studienverlag 2003, pp. 111-128.
coups d’état.12
Reprint: www.kakanien.ac.at/beitr/ Faced with the instability of the »sick man of the Bosphorus« and with ambitious Rus-
theorie/CRuthner3.pdf [29.01.2003]. sian plans, Austria-Hungary clearly no longer saw itself in the position of sticking to the
double maxim of its Balkan policy, in place since Kaunitz and Metternich: »(1) to keep
7 Even as late as the 1990’s one
Russian presence and influence to a minimum and (2) to maintain the status quo with the
German-Croatian religious historian
maintained that the mandate given
Ottoman administration.«13 Likewise, there is evidence for the view that a new expansionist
Austria-Hungary by the Congress of reorientation of Austria-Hungary’s Orientpolitik was not only the ambition of the Austrian
court and military but also essentially bound up with Count Gyula (Julius) Andrássy, Joint
Minister of the Exterior.14
page 1 22 | 05 | 2008 http://www.kakanien.ac.at/beitr/fallstudie/CRuthner5.pdf
Berlin was »Besetzen und verwalten, In 1877, during the Russo-Turkish War, which followed on the heels of the clashes of 1875/76,
um diese beide Provinzen befrieden the Habsburg monarchy declared its readiness to adopt benevolent neutrality towards the
zu können«. In: Vrankić, Petar: Reli-
Tsarist Empire. The Russians countered the move by offering up Bosnia-Herzegovina to
gion und Politik in Bosnien und der
Herzegowina (1878-1918). Paderborn
the Austrians as an inducement.15 However, on March 3, 1878, this arrangement went by
et al.: Schöningh 1998 [also Habil. the board with the Treaty of San Stefano, but the resultant territorial reorganization of
Univ. Augsburg 1995], p. 24. the Balkans (e.g. the emergence of a large new Bulgarian state) dissatisfied the other great
European powers. In response, the Congress of Berlin was convened on June 13th of the
8 Cf. Holm 2001. Even critics of a
same year, at which the drawing up of the borders was supposed to be discussed anew. One
colonialist interpretation of the occu-
pation and annexation of Bosnia
important outcome of this conference was the ceding of the administration of the Ottoman
accept imperialist motivations. Cf. provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary at the request of the British repre-
Kann, Robert A.: Trends Towards sentative Lord Salisbury. The two provinces were occupied by imperial troops, »Germa-
Colonialism in the Habsburg Em- nically hyphenated«16 and thirty years later, in 1908, annexed to the Habsburg Empire.
pire, 1878-1918. The Case of Bos-
In the characteristic style of the left-leaning British historian A.J.P. Taylor, the aporetic
nia-Herzegovina, 1878-1914. In: Row-
ney, D.K./Orchard,G.E. (Eds.): Russian
stance of the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister to the two Ottoman provinces of Bosnia
and Slavonic History. Columbus/Ohio: and Herzegovina reads as follows:
Slavica Publ. 1977, pp. 164-80, here
p. 166f. Cf. also Suppan, Arnold: Russia had constantly pressed them on Austria-Hungary, to tempt her into setting
Zur Frage eines österreichisch- the example of partition. For this reason Andrássy had tried to avoid the offer; on
ungarischen Imperialismus in Süd- the other hand, he could still less afford their union with the Slav state of Serbia. At
osteuropa. Regierungspolitik und the Congress of Berlin he squared the circle.17
öffentliche Meinung um die Annexion
Bosniens und der Herzegowina. In: Barbara Jelavich, on the other hand, elects to focus on Andrássy’s return home from
Wandruszka, Adam et al. (Eds.): Die Berlin:
Donaumonarchie und die südsla-
wische Frage von 1848 bis 1918.
Despite these great gains Andrássy did not receive a triumphant welcome home.
Texte des ersten österreichisch-jugo-
Francis Joseph among others did not like the terms of the occupation of Bosnia and
slawischen Historikertreffens Gösing
Hercegovina. He would have preferred a direct annexation. In contrast, the Magyar
1976. Wien: ÖAW 1978, pp. 103-131,
leaders were displeased with the acquisition of more Slavic peoples in the Empire.18
here p. 128ff.
The French historian Jean Bérenger also emphasizes the consequences of Andrássy’s suc-
9 In the framework of my account I
do not consider it irrelevant to draw
cess, which he declares a pyrrhic political victory:
the national and/or political back-
ground of the consulted historians [The occupation] provoked demonstrations in Hungary. Public opinion followed
into consideration. with suspicion the Russophile politics of Andrássy which was justified only
by the maintenance of the status quo in the Balkans; the strengthening of the
10 Jelavich, Barbara: The Habsburg smaller Balkan states and the occupation of Bosnia broke this balance. It hurt the
Empire in European Affairs, 1814- Turkophile feelings of the Hungarians, and above all, the occupation of Bosnia
1918. Chicago: McNally 1969 (Europ- increased the number of Slavs living in the Habsburg monarchy. While the political
ean History Series), p. 115ff. Cf. also left expressed its hostility towards a war of conquest, it cost numerous human
Dedijer, Vladimir/Bozić, Ivan/Ćirković, lives. Equally the Austrian liberals expressed their disagreement with respect to
Sima/Ekmečić, Milorad: History of a military operation regarded as potentially disastrous and unnecessary. This
Yugoslavia. Ed. by Marie Longyear, contributed to collapse of the liberal government of Alfred Auersperg, since the
trans. by Kordija Kveder. New York emperor Francis-Joseph did not like the idea that someone violated his stamping
et al.: McGraw-Hill 1974, pp. 393ff.; ground.19
Bridge, Francis Roy: Österreich(-Un-
garn) unter den Großmächten. In: This is the way the historiographical account of Bosnia vacillates between personification
Wandruszka, Adam/Urbanitsch, Peter
(Andrássy as global player) and metonymy (the ›nations‹ and ›political forces‹); but in
(Eds.): Die Habsburgermonarchie
1848-1918. 6 vols. Vienna: ÖAW
its essential points, it is either identical amongst most of the consulted historians or at the
1973-89. Vol. VI/1 (1989): Die Habs- very least compatible.20 Conjecture about the particular motivations for this last – and fatal
burgermonarchie im System der – territorial expansion of the Habsburg monarchy before the First World War is far more
internationalen Beziehungen, pp. 196- diverse and falls into three categories of historiographical argument, which are capable of
373, here p. 249ff. Bérenger, Jean:
being asserted or, at the very least, discussed:
L‘Autriche-Hongrie 1815-1918. Paris:
A. Colin 1994 (Collection Cursus),
p. 115ff.; Hösch, Edgar: Geschichte 1. Strategic grounds. The assumption here is that Austria-Hungary needed to safeguard
der Balkanländer von der Frühzeit bis its own area of rule and/or sphere of influence against Russia and suspected Serbian
zur Gegenwart. Munich: C.H. Beck, expansion plans through the military and infrastructural occupation of the Dalmatian
2002, p. 129ff.
hinterland, as Radetzky had already proposed.21 Admittedly, this explanation is wea-
11 Dedijer et al. 1974, p. 393.
kened by a fact already foreseeable at the time, namely that the addition of more than
a million South Slavs would in the process also potentially exacerbate all the ethnic
12 Cf. e.g. Jelavich 1969, pp. 115-20. tensions that were already extant in the Habsburg monarchy – a situation that could
just as easily have prevented the empire from intervening, as had been the case earlier
13 Pinson, Mark: The Muslims of

Bosnia-Hercegovina under Austro- in the 19th century.22

Hungarian Rule, 1878-1918. In: 2. Economic grounds. Bosnia-Herzegovina harboured large deposits of coal and various
Pinson, Mark (Ed.): The Muslims of
ores, so that the region could easily have been transformed into a ›Balkanic Ruhrge-
Bosnia-Hercegovina. Their Historic
Development from the Middle Ages
biet‹, a potential that was only realized (albeit incipiently) under Tito. This potential
to the Dissolution of Yugoslavia. Cam- wealth leads some historians, like Jean Bérenger, to impute certain economic interests
bridge/Mass.: Harvard UP 1994, to Austria-Hungary.23 Given the available historical evidence, however, it is difficult
pp. 84-128, here p. 86. to say to what extent such natural resources – along with the prospect of a new mar-
ket for Austrian goods – actually played a motivational role in the occupation of
14 Cf. Haselsteiner, Horst: Bosnien-
Herzegowina. Orientkrise und die
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Instead, it might well be the case that the Austro-Hungarian
südslawische Frage. Vienna, Cologne, administration either did not recognize the full economic worth of its booty or, con-
Weimar: Böhlau 1996 (Book series of versely, that it was simply not in a position to adequately exploit the area due to the
the IDM 3), pp. 9-30. Cf. also Werth- limitations of its self-imposed administrative structure.24
eimer, Eduard v.: Graf Julius Andrássy.
3. Territorial expansion. This line of argument maintains that, after the founding of the
Sein Leben und seine Zeit. 3 vols.
Stuttgart: DVA 1910-1913, vol. 3;
German Empire in 1871, the only remaining possibility for imperial(ist) expansion still
Kolm 2001, p. 105f. open to Austria-Hungary lay in the South,25 i.e. in the fallback regions of the Ottoman
Empire in the Balkans. This prospect was all the more appealing because of the desire
15 Efforts in this direction certainly of the Habsburg Monarchy to preclude the founding of a large South Slavic state on its
may have been evident even earlier
southern flank and thereby also the resulting ›domino effect‹ on the Croat, Serb and
on the part of Austria-Hungary; advan-
ce talks at least since 1875/76 (with
Slovenian populations already living under Austro-Hungarian rule.26
Russia) and 1878 respectively (also
with Serbia). Cf. Dedijer/Bozić/Ćir- However, massive administrative, if not also financial, disadvantages were arrayed against
ković/Ekmečić 1974, p. 396; Donia, the geopolitical advantages of occupation. Robert A. Kann writes:
Robert J.: Islam under the Double
Eagle. The Muslims of Bosnia and
In financial sense the acquisition was considered not only no gain but a definite loss
Hercegovina, 1878-1918. New York:
[...]. Occupation was considered the lesser of two evils. It would mean bad business
Columbia UP 1981 (Boulder East
economically but it might offer some relief against the threat of Balkan nationalism
European Monographs 78), p. 8ff.;
and Russian-inspired Panslavism.27
Jelavich, Barbara: History of the
Balkans. 2 Vols. Cambridge et al.:
Apart from increasing the South Slavic population within the monarchy, out of which plans
Cambridge UP 1983, p. 59; Hösch,
Edgar: Geschichte der Balkanländer
for Croatian hegemony and for Trialism28 both arose side by side with Serbian nationalism,
von der Frühzeit bis zur Gegenwart. and increased expenditure, it should not be underestimated that with the occupation of
Munich: C.H. Beck 42002, p. 132ff.; Bosnia-Herzegovina, for the first time in the history of the empire, a significant Muslim
Haselsteiner 1996, p. 15ff. population became part of Christian Austro-Hungarian society and culture.29 This new po-
pulation was by no means merely a matter of scattered converts, but also of regional elites con-
16 Pavlowitch, Stevan K.: A History
of the Balkans, 1904-1945. London,
sisting of property owners, Ottoman functionaries, clergymen and merchants.30 The later
New York: Longman 1999, p. 116. increasingly ethnicized religious differences in Bosnia-Herzegovina were interwoven with
social hierarchy, especially since the majority of free peasants and dependent tenant farmers
17 Taylor, A.J.P.: The Habsburg (kmetovi) were of the Christian faith, both Orthodox and Roman Catholic.31 Thus, all Austro-
Monarchy 1809-1918. A History of
Hungarian administrative measures that led to an interfence with the existing (and frankly not
the Austrian Empire and Austria-
Hungary [1948]. Reprint Harmonds-
unproblematic) late-feudal system of cultural, religious and social difference were particularly
worth: Penguin 1990, p. 166. Cf. the delicate politically, even when they may have been adopted, in part, with well-meaning intent.32
depiction of Sugar, Peter F.: Industria- At the beginning, however, Austria-Hungary’s possession of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878
lization of Bosnia-Herzegovina: 1878- was anything but a peaceful Einmarsch as is sometimes suggested, but rather the gory mili-
1918. Seattle: Washington UP 1963,
tary intervention of a major power.33 By the end of the campaign, the Austro-Hungarian
p. 20ff.
occupying forces under the command of the Croatian general Joseph Philippovich (Josip
18 Jelavich 1969, p. 122. Filipović) von Philippsberg were roughly a quarter million men34. Still, this army required
almost three months (from the beginning of August until the end of October 1878) to subdue
19 Bérenger 1994, p. 117: »Elle the territory. Almost everywhere the invaders met with bitter resistance from native forces
[= l’occupation, CR] provoqua des
which contained the remnants of Turkish troops and hastily recruited regional militias, who
manifestations en Hongrie. L‘opinion
suivait avec méfiance la politique
felt abandoned by the Ottomans.35 Thus the military peace mission of Austria-Hungary
russophile d‘Andrássy, qui n‘était ended up claiming thousands of victims36 on both sides and leading to a mass exodus of
justifiée que par le maintien du statu civilians.37 The operation itself can be considered the first and only large military victory
quo dans les Balkans; le renforce- of the Austro-Hungarian army between the German-Danish conflict of 1864 and the First
ment des petits États balkaniques et
World War;38 accordingly, a significant percentage of surviving Austrian texts on Bosnia are
l‘occupation de la Bosnie rompaient
cet équilibre. Elles heurtaient les
narrative depictions of those ›heroic deeds‹, military memoirs, etc.
sentiments turcophiles des Hongrois It is here that a propagandistic colonial tone first becomes perceptible, when, for exam-
et surtout l‘occupation de la Bosnie ple, a Czech soldier describes the heads of Austrian soldiers skewered by »insurgents« (the
accroissait le nombre de Slaves à official term already in use at the time)39 after the capture of Vranduk on August 18, 1878.
l’intérieur de la monarchie, tandis que
Now, the old Balkan cliché about barbaric bandits and cutthroats rises again and positively

la gauche manifestait son hostilité à cries out for new administration:

une guerre de conquête, qui coûta We stood in full battle dress against the ignoble cannibal enemy and it is no exag-
de nombreuses vies humaines. Les geration to say that the Zulus, Bagurus, Niam-Niams, Bechuans, Hottentots and
libéraux autrichiens manifestèrent similar South African bands behaved more chivalrously towards European tra-
également leur désaccord à l‘égard vellers than the Bosnian Turks did towards us. I always recollect with dismay the
d’une opération jugée ruineuse et peoples of the Balkans, where the foot of the civilised European has not trod for
inutile. Elle contribua à la chute du decades, how the Turks, ›native lords‹, probably rule down there!40
cabinet libéral Alfred Auersperg car
François-Joseph n‘aimait pas que l‘on
In 1881/82, new uprisings subjected the Austro-Hungarian occupational forces to a further
empiétât sur son domaine réservé.«
test of their military strength.41 Afterwards the phase of Habsburg civil administration of
20 This would be the ideal juncture Bosnia-Herzegovina began, the evaluation of which still seems to remain a problematic case
to raise several points concerning for international historiography.
the modes of representation applied
to Bosnia-Herzegovina (i.e., focus,
II. NachBereitungen: Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Light of Critical Discourses on
motivation, personalization, agency
etc.) as they are to be observed in Colonialism
international historiography, where
right up to the Yugoslav wars of the The thesis put before us, namely that the administration of Bosnia-Hercegovina
1990’s the area has remained more represented trends of colonialism, is highly problematical. We must first ask whe-
an exotic marginalia. Unfortunately, as ther the concept of colonialism, commonly understood as the rule of European
worthwhile as this task might be, the powers over native colored people on other continents, can be transferred to a mas-
restrictions of space do not permit it. ter-subject relation within Europe, pointing to a system of colonial administration
21 Cf. Sugar 1963, p. 20ff.; Jelavich and exploitation of whites by whites.42
1983, p. 59; Haselsteiner 1996, p.
16ff.; Malcolm 2002, p. 136. It was in the capacity of an apologist that in 1976 the prominent Austrian-American histo-
rian Robert A. Kann43 weighed in on the running debate concerning internal European
22 Cf. e.g. Sugar 1963, p. 26; Pinson
1994, p. 119; Malcolm 1996/2002, colonization. At the time, Austria-Hungary was also viewed, next to Great Britain and the
p. 136; Kraljačić, Tomislav: Kalajev Soviet Union, as a potential field of inquiry.44 For Kann, however, colonialism constitutes
režim 1882–1903. Sarajevo: Veselin »the unholy trinity of imperialism, capitalist exploitation, and oppression on racial grounds,
Masleša 1987. all of them imposed by force«;45 on this basis, he rejects the application of the term to
Bosnia-Herzegovina, albeit with arguments that are scarcely convincing. In the more recent
23 Bérenger, Jean: A History of the
Habsburg Empire 1700-1918. Trans. formulation of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, which proceeds from the protean nature of the
by C. A. Simpson. London, New phenomenon, the accusation of colonialism levelled at Austria-Hungary would, on the other
York: Longman 1997, p. 255: »The hand, seem plausible:
Near East presented the Viennese
bankers and Bohemian industrialists ›Colonizer‹ and ›colonized‹ can be fairly elastic if you define scrupulously. When
with a considerable market and at an alien nation-state establishes itself as a ruler, impressing its own laws and sys-
the time when the great powers tem of education, and re-arranging the mode of production for its own economic
were endeavouring to acquire a benefit, one can use these terms, I think.46
colonial empire, Austria rediscovered
its traditional sphere of economic An examination of contemporary interpretations of the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina,
interest.« Cf. also Malcolm 2002, p.
however, reveals that Austro-Hungarian sources liked to speak of the dual province in terms
136, as well as Kolm 2001, p. 18f.,
p. 105f., p. 244ff. of a »cultural« or »civilizing mission« that must inevitably follow the decline of the Ottoman
regime and the bloody chaos of war in the period between 1876 and 1878.47 It is this rhetoric
24 The emperor and the two parlia- that places the Austro-Hungarian endeavours within the general framework of European
ments decreed that the new province colonial and imperialist discourse. A statement made by the Austro-Hungarian Joint Finan-
had to finance itself with its own
ce Minister Benjamin von Kállay, who from 1882-1903 was responsible for the administra-
income; in this way there were no
substantial subsidies from Vienna tion48 of the »occupied zone«, is one of many textual instances that are symptomatic of this
except for railway building (and even attitude. In an interview with London’s Daily Chronicle he commented: »Austria is a great
then only circuitously). Moreover, Occidental Empire [...] charged with the mission of carrying civilization to Oriental peop-
both the newly established Imperial les«; »rational bureaucracy« would be »the key to Bosnia’s future [...] to retain the ancient
and Royal mines authority as well as
traditions of the land vilified and purified by modern ideas.«49
the Bosna mining corporation proved
inefficient at developing new mineral It appears as if before and after the conquest, Austro-Hungarian sources ›rewrote‹ the
resources; the flow of information history of Bosnia-Herzegovina which one can surely view as the decline of a regime (i.e. the
to private investors either failed or Ottoman Empire), but also just as positively as a gradual process of modernization.50 (And
was omitted completely, and further as Mark Pinson maliciously points out, there were e.g. complaints about the fact that the
planning errors occured. Cf. Sugar
Austro-Hungarian judiciary in the region would work more slowly than its Turkish coun-
1963, p. 105ff., p. 159ff. Cf. also
Wessely, Kurt: Die wirtschafliche terpart51 – despite the fact that, compared with the Ottoman era, the total number of civil
Entwicklung von Bosnien-Herzego- servants engaged in the administration had risen from 120 to around 9,500 by 1908.52)
wina. In: Wandruszka & Urbanitsch However, talk of Austria-Hungary’s »civilizing mission« has led not only Yugoslav53 but
1973-1989, vol. 1, pp. 528-566; also English and American54 historians to extend the critical paradigm of colonialism to
Lampe, John/Jackson, Marvin: Balkan
the Habsburg monarchy. Such is the case with A.J.P Taylor, who writes on the subject of

Economic History, 1550-1950. From Bosnia-Herzegovina:

Imperial Borderlands to Developing The two provinces were the ›white man’s burden‹ [!] of Austria-Hungary. While
Nations. Bloomington: Indiana UP other European Powers sought colonies in Africa for the purpose, the Habsburg
1982, esp. pp. 264-322; Malcolm Monarchy exported to Bosnia and Hercegovina its surplus intellectual production
2002, p. 141. – administrators, road builders, archeologists, ethnographers, and even remittance-
men. The two provinces received all benefits of Imperial rule: ponderous public
25 Cf. e.g. Pinson 1994, p. 87. buildings; model barracks for the army of occupation; banks, hotels, and cafés;
a good water supply for the centres of administration and for the country resorts
26 Cf. ibid.; Sugar 1963, p. 20. where the administrators and army officers recovered from the burden of Empire.
The real achievement of Austria-Hungary was not on show: when the Empire fell in
27 Kann 1977, p. 168. 1918, 88 per cent of the population was still illiterate.55
28 Cf. Jelavich 1983, p. 60. Taylor’s ironic tone here takes on polemical dimensions when discussion turns to the high
rate of illiteracy and social/economic ›underdevelopment‹ even after the Austro-Hungarian
29 Cf. Pinson 1994, p. 91.
period (in researching these potential side effects of colonization, economic historians were
30 Cf. the standard works of Donia more sober than their British colleague, without falsifying his findings, though56). It thus
1981; Pinson 1994; as well as seems reasonable to suspect that the »civilizing mission« of the Habsburg monarchy was in
Neweklowsky, Gerhard: Die bosnisch- fact only a half-hearted pretext for a geopolitical gambit in the Dalmatian hinterland that
herzegowinischen Muslime. Geschich-
was not even remotely capable of achieving the »cultural« goals it had set for itself.
te, Bräuche, Alltagskultur. Unter
Mitarb. v. Besim Ibišević und Žarko While later Yugoslav historians may admittedly be suspected themselves of having propa-
Bebić. Klagenfurt, Salzburg: Wieser gandistically rewritten the imperial prehistory of Bosnia-Herzegovina from the perspective
1996 (Austrian-Bosnian Relations 1). of their own multi-ethnic state, the socio-economic and cultural implications, which Taylor,
albeit exaggeratedly, cites, cannot be so easily invalidated. In 2004 the American historian
31 Cf. Donia 1981; Pinson 1994,
Ian Sethre subsumes:
p. 117f.
32 Of course, this begs the ques- Many analysts have come to regard the relatively short period of Austro-Hungarian
tion as to what criteria adjudge an administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina [...] as one of considerable progress and
occupation to be an act of colonia- prosperity. Indeed communications, industry and the transportation network were
lism. Is it perhaps the externally all noticeably upgraded in the region, but results of Austria-Hungary’s ›moderni-
applied – and failed – attempt at the zation‹ campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina were uneven at best. Their administra-
standardization and centralization of tive strategies failed to facilitate any real or lasting semblance of ethnic cohesion
Bosnia-Herzegovina, or rather the and the most significant development [...] was the political awakening of the three
accommodating stance of Austria- largest ethnic groups [...].57
Hungary concerning cultural diffe-
rence as an instrument of foreign
In 1976 the Viennese economic historian Kurt Wessely has already established that, in his
rule? It was likely the clumsy mix of
both approaches that brought about discipline, the assessment of Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia-Herzegovina is conflicting
the specific situation in Bosnia- (»zwiespältig«); big achievements on a infrastructural level contrast with economic shortco-
Herzegovina. mings and political failures:
33 Pavlowitch 1999, p. 116 writes [G]roßen Leistungen auf wirtschaftlich-kulturellem Gebiet [...] stehen eine ungleich-
laconically: »the occupation almost mäßige Entfaltung der Produktivkräfte, eine zögernde und ungenügende finanzielle
turned into a conquest«. Unterstützung der Landeserfordernisse und ein Verkennen der wirtschaftlichen
und politischen Wechselwirkung der Kmetenfrage gegenüber, welche den Erfolg
34 Malcolm 2002, p. 135 counts only des wirtschaftlichen Aufbauwerkes in Frage stellen mußte [...]58
82,000 troops in service on the side
of the Austro-Hungarian army and
Of course, the Austro-Hungarian administration may credit itself with the will to construct
40,000 fighters on the Bosnian side.
However, in the middle of October social institutions and infrastructures such as a judicial system, transport routes and also, in
1878 official Austrian sources part, educational facilities. On the other hand, the construction of structures of political and
speak of something like 200,000 or religious representation took place only after the Muslim, Orthodox (Serbian) and Croatian
280,000 deployed soldiers respec- (Catholic) sections of the population mounted a fierce defence of their rights.59 Fateful
tively and estimate the strength of the
mistakes are likewise to be noted, such as the fact that the foreign administrators never
opponent at 93,000 men; cf. Militaria
Austriaca 12 (1993), p. 34. decisively relinquished the late feudal principles relinquished the late feudal principles of
land propriety and dependent tenant farming (the kmetovi issue);60 instead, they merely
35 Malcolm (ibid.), however, contra- modified and instrumentalized this manorial system for their own political ends.
dicts this widely held portrayal: »given Within the framework of the Colonialism debate, the aforementioned dispatch of offi-
the appalling state of most of the
cials becomes a point of some significance as well. The Yugoslav-British Balkan historian
roads, it is barely an exaggeration to
say that the Austrian army conquered Stevan Pavlowitch, for instance, writes of the end of the military administration: »a much
Bosnia in the time it took to walk improved civil service was put in place, [...] ›colonial‹ [in the sense] that it was generally
through«. staffed by officials from all over the Monarchy.«61 We might further qualify this point with
the following statement by the Yugoslav historiographer Ekmečić: »employment in the admi-
36 Vrankić 1995/98, p. 24f. counts
nistration was also subject to discrimination.«62 (In 1904 only 26.5% of all officials with
178 dead Imperial and Royal offi-
placements in Bosnia-Herzegovina were natives, the majority of them being Catholics with
a further 3% being Serbs and 5% Moslems.63)
cers (commissioned and non-com- Similar to British rule over India, the Austro-Hungarian occupiers also established their
missioned) and 5,000 soldiers; rule over a majority of the population with the participation and gradual ›reformation‹ of
Bérenger 1994, p. 116 speaks of
already existing elites, in this case the Bosnian Muslims. But there are further pertinent
4,000 casualties, Malcolm 2002,
p. 135 merely of 946. The casualty
points, which support the argument for colonialism. In the first place, Bosnia-Herzegovina
numbers for Austria-Hungary report- was kept in a questionable no man’s land status between national and international law for
ed in Militaria Austriaca 12 (1993), thirty years; even in 1908, with its annexation, it was not afforded the status of a »crown-
which speaks of 983 dead and land« (Kronland), but of a Reichsland instead (in essence belonging to neither of the two
3,984 wounded (pp. 27, 36f.), are
halves of the empire). Accordingly, Bosnia-Herzegovina had no state assembly until 1910
likely the most precise. No numbers
are available for the Bosnian-Herze-
(being governed in the interim by the Joint Finance Ministry), and even after annexation
govinian losses (cf. p.41). it could not send any elected representatives either to the Viennese Reichstag or to the
parliament in Budapest; it is precisely in this context that the American historian William
37 The refugee count from Bosnia- McCagg, borrowing from the example of the Soviet Union, speaks of a »satrapy«.64 Besides,
Herzegovina at the time of Austro-
the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century also saw the usurpation
Hungarian rule lies between 50,000
and 300,000 depending on the
of other Turkish territories, as for example that of Egypt by England (1882) and Tunis by
source. Cf. Pinson 1994, p. 92ff.; France (1881) – events which historians do indeed view within the context of a European
Malcolm 2002, p. 139. colonialism.65 Thus, though no ocean separated Austria-Hungary in 1878 from its territorial
acquisition, the Habsburg monarchy can absolutely be regarded as colonial trendsetter in
38 Cf. Bérenger 1994, p. 116f.
this respect.
39 Cf. Pinson 1994, p. 98; Malcolm
In Austro-Hungarian texts of the time, however, the term colonialism is strictly avoided,
2002, p. 134f. and to the present day this still applies to a majority of Austrian historiography. Ironically,
it is frequently the imperial German observers of the Austrian presence in the Balkans, who,
40 Chaura, E.: Obrazky z okupace in the phase of Wilhelminian expansion to Africa, also employ the term when referring to the
bosenske. Prague 1893, p. 38. Qutd.,
Austro-Hungarian occupation. Ferdinand Schmid, head of the Office of Statistics in Bosnia
transl. and commented by Jezernik,
Božidar: Wild Europe. The Balkans
and later a university professor in Leipzig, furnishes an interesting example of this when he
in the Gaze of Western Travellers. discusses colonialism (in a broader sense) in his principally affirmative 1914 monograph and
London: Saqi/Bosnian Institute 2004, applies the term to the dual provinces:
p. 139.
Man hat in der deutschen und westländischen Literatur viel über den Begriff
41 Cf. Malcolm 2002, p. 138f. der Kolonien gestritten und darunter häufig nur überseeische, vom Mutterlande
wirtschaftlich oder auch staatsrechtlich beherrschte Gebiete verstanden. In die-
42 Kann 1977, p. 164. sem Sinne besitzt Österreich-Ungarn keine Kolonien und in diesem Sinne hat
es – wenigstens in der neueren Zeit – niemals Kolonialpolitik getrieben. Faßt
43 Robert Adolf Kann, b. 1906 in man dagegen den Begriff der Kolonien etwas weiter, so kann kaum ein Zweifel
Vienna, emigrated in 1938 to the US. darüber bestehen, daß Bosnien und die Herzegovina von Österreich-Ungarn
als Kolonialgebiete erworben wurden und solche in der Hauptsache bis heute
44 Cf. e.g. Hechter, Michael: Internal geblieben sind.66
Colonialism. The Celtic Fringe in
British National Development, 1536- Though essentially more florid, the fairytale description formulated some twenty years ear-
1966. London: Routledge & Kegan lier by the Berlin journalist Heinrich Renner is similar in tenor and likewise expresses the
Paul 1975; about the debate cf. also
hope that the Austro-Hungarian administration can serve as a model for other colonial
Nolte, Hans-Heinrich/Bähre, Klaas
(Eds.): Innere Peripherien in Ost und
regimes:
West. Stuttgart: Steiner 2001.
Dem grossen Publikum blieben [...] diese Gefilde gänzlich unbekannt; das bosni-
45 Kann 1976, p. 164. sche Dornröschen schlief noch den jahrhundertelangen Zauberschlaf und fand
seine Auferstehung erst, als die kaiserlichen Truppen die Grenzen überschritten
46 Quoted in: Ulbandus 7 (2003): und die neue Aera einleiteten. Jetzt wurde das Dickicht, das um Dornröschens
Empire, Union, Center, Satellite. Schloss wucherte, gelichtet und nach rastloser und schwerer Arbeit von nicht zwei
The Place of Post-Colonial Theory Jahrzehnten steht Bosnien bekannt und geachtet vor der Welt. Was in diesem Lan-
in Slavic/Central and Eastern Euro- de geleistet wurde, ist fast beispiellos in der Kolonialgeschichte aller Völker und
pean/(Post-)Soviet Studies, p. 15. Zeiten [...].67
However, this definition is partially
problematic, since only few colonizing [...] auch den in Europa jetzt so zahlreichen Kolonialpolitikern ist ein Besuch
empires (such as Great Britain, Bel- zu empfehlen; in Bosnien wird praktische Kolonialpolitik [!] getrieben und was
gium, etc.) are nation-states; Spivak geleistet wurde, stellt den leitenden Personen und Oesterreich-Ungarn im Allge-
obviously refers here to states in a meinen das höchste Ehrenzeugniss aus. Einst gänzlich zurückgeblieben, reiht sich
more general sense. heute die bosnische Schwester europäischen Ländern als würdige Genossin an.68
For their part, however, the Germans do not only employ the term colonialism affirmatively
47 This discourse has been uncriti-
cally taken up by historians in part
and, at times, even panegyrically, but also as a critical tool. The travel writer Hermann Wendel,
right up to the present, as for e.g. for example, writes in 1922: »[D]as österreichisch-ungarische Bosnien war eine Kolonie,
when the Viennese Arnold Suppan ein Stück Orient, künstlich von den Wiener Machthabern gehütet.«69 With this statement
laconically notes in 1978: »Im the social democrat Wendel, who hails from another occupied territory, namely German
wesentlichen bestand eine Kultur-
Lorraine, accuses the Austro-Hungarian administration of engaging in a ›disneyfication‹
und Missionsaufgabe« (p. 128).

48 Immediate local authority for (avant la lettre) and of perpetuating the »Sklavinnenrolle der muselmanischen Frau«.70
the occupied zone belonged to the The Russian count Leo Tolstoy is even sharper in his criticism when, after the annexation
military commander of the 15th Army
of 1908, which caused a severe international crisis, he referred to the Habsburg monarchy
Corps in Sarajevo, at whose side a
civilian »assistant« was placed. Cf.
simply as a »nest of thieves«.71 Reports submitted by British diplomats in 1890 and quoted
Pinson 1994, p. 92; Vrankić 1995/98, by the American-Hungarian economic historian Peter Sugar in 1963 take a similar line:
p. 27ff.; Sugar 1963, p. 25ff.
[...] the trade of the native merchants had been ruined by the immense influx of
49 Quoted in: Donia 1981, p. 14. Austrian speculators, mostly men without capital or substance [...] who become
bankrupt a few months after their arrival. But this does not seem to deter others
50 Cf. Pinson 1994, p. 123. from coming.72
51 Alongside the existing Islamic Everything is provisional here [in B-H, CR], and consequently few good employees
law courts, the Austro-Hungarian will accept posts in the civil administration. With very few exceptions [...] we have
administration created a parallel nothing here but the scum of the Austrian official world, and bribery is as impor-
secular system after its own model, tant a factor as ever in the arrangement of any matter with the Government.73
consisting of municipal and district
courts as well as a regional court Eventually, in the 1990s, the Croatian-German historian Petar Vrankić summarized matter-
(Bezirks-, Kreis- and Landesgericht). of-factly that one has to diagnose »dass Österreich-Ungarn, obwohl es viel für die Moder-
On this topic cf. for example Sugar nisierung, Sicherstellung und Durchführung der neuen Staatsideen getan hat, Bosnien
1963, p. 31f.
und die Herzegowina auch weiterhin als Kolonialland behandelt hat.«74 Contained in this
52 Cf. Pinson 1994, p. 119f.
statement is a claim that holds exemplary validity for our present historical view of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, for it reveals a portrait of the Francisco-Josephinian epoch that is, particularly
53 Cf. Dedijer/Bozić/Ćirković/Ekme- in its most southerly periphery, Janus-headed – fluctuating between the discursive poles
čić 1974, p. 448, where the discus- of colonialism and modernization. One need not even go as far as Robert Kann did in 1977
sion centres on »semicolonialism«. Cf.
with his apology:
also Detrez, Raymond: Colonialism
in the Balkans. Historic Realities
and Contemporary Perceptions. In:
[...] we have to come to the conclusion that colonial trends had no significant place
Kakanien revisited, www.kakanien.
in history of the administration from 1878 to 1914 unless one considers the Habs-
ac.at/beitr/theorie/RDetrez1.pdf
burg Empire as a whole a residuum of the age of colonial administration. To do so
[15.05.2002]; further the research
would clearly transcend the mandate which the topic of this report intends to com-
report on the Yugoslav historiography
ply with.75
on Bosnia in Vervaet, Stijn: Some
Historians from Former Yugoslavia A decade and a half later, the Viennese historian Peter Stachel wrote: »Definiert man
on the Austro-Hungarian Period in ›Kolonisierung‹ vorläufig sehr allgemein als ein hegemoniales Konzept der zwangsweisen
Bosnia and Herzegovina (1878-1918). Vereinheitlichung kultureller Differenzen, so erscheint es durchaus zweckentsprechend,
A Reality of Imperialism versus the
sich mit dieser Konzeption auch der Geschichte der Habsburgermonarchie zu nähern.«76
Golden Years of the Double Eagle?
In: Kakanien revisited, www.kakanien.
Stachel, however, thinks that the Austro-Hungarian self-image of a »unity in diversity« or,
ac.at/beitr/fallstudie/SVervaet1.pdf respectively, a »family of peoples« counteracted a compulsory centralist standardization of
[18.04.2004]. the periphery – which does not exclude the heuristic benefits of a ›postcolonial‹ take, but
rather refines this approach to a »microlevel«:
54 Aside from the quoted Taylor there
are Donia 1981, p. 12ff. and Pinson
Damit ist jedoch keineswegs behauptet, dass die Habsburgermonarchie von jenen
1994, p. 113, amongst others.
Strategien der kulturellen Zwangsassimilation, wie sie für Kolonisierungsprozesse
typisch ist, völlig frei gewesen wäre: An die Stelle eines dominanten, zentralisti-
55 Taylor 1948/90, p. 166.
schen und reichsübergreifenden ›Kolonisierungsdiskurses‹ traten vielfach miteinan-
der verschränkte regionale ›Mikrokolonialismen‹.77
56 In 1908, there were only 350
primary schools for 15% of the child-
ren, 12 high schools and no university
(Sugar 1963, p. 202). Assessing III. VorBilder: Prolegomena to an Austrian Imagology of the Bosnian Other
the numbers is, however, a matter
of conception; thus Malcolm 2002 The remainder of this essay presents the groundwork for a research project78 that focusses
defends the Austro-Hungarian educa-
on the cultural construction of otherness in Austrian (and German) texts dealing with Bos-
tional policy with the words: »[...] no
government which builds nearly 200
nia-Herzegovina between 1878 and 1918. The approach is in keeping with the conceptual
primary schools, three high schools, framework of Edward Said, Maria Todorova, and other postcolonial theorists, along with
a technical school and a teacher- Robert Musil‘s famous term for the k. und k. Habsburg Monarchy.79 The aforementioned
training college can be described argument for colonialism can namely be substantiated by examining not only Austro-Hun-
as utterly negligent in its education
garian administrative measures or Bosnia-Herzegovina’s problematic special legal status,
policy« (p. 144). Nevertheless, the
fact remains that the high rate of illite-
but also by analyzing the narratives and discourses within the hegemonic Austrian culture
racy continued even after the end of during the occupation. They projected, insinuated and indeed even imposed their own ima-
the Habsburg monarchy. gery and conceptual worlds on Bosnia-Herzegovina – symbolic forms, which circulated be-
tween occupier and occupied during the forty year span of the Habsburg period, in some
cases even much longer.

57 Sethre, Ian: The Emergence and As the secondary works on French literature have amply demonstrated through the famous
Influence of National Identities in journeys of Napoleon, Chateaubriand, Nerval, Flaubert and Du Camp, etc.,80 the ›Orient‹
the Era of Modernization. Nation-
is a very special space for the projection of European phantasms – to such an extent that
Building in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
1878-1914. In: Kakanien revisited,
it actually exists only as a historical plurality,81 with a multitude of stock, transnational,
www.kakanien.ac.at/beitr/fallstudie/ controversial, but also ultimately interchangeable, stereotypes. Quite naturally, this poses
ISethre1.pdf [25.01.2004], p. 1. the question as to which Orient Austria-Hungary thought to find in Bosnia-Herzegovina. As
an initial thesis, one could formulate that with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire,
58 Wessely 1973, p. 566. In compari-
former arch-enemy of the Habsburg monarchy, the self-stylized protector of Christianity in
son, Pinson 1994, p. 118, writes:
»Austrian rule left the province with
Central Europe and the Balkans,82 Bosnia became the imagological plaything of the occu-
some significant physical assets pying forces – and with this also the site of symbolic occupations (Besetzungen).
(mainly railroad lines and roads), little Thus, the main goal of the research project in question is to investigate the »cultural
in the way of an industrial base or semantics of the [Bosnian] Orient«83 in Austro-Hungarian texts, which is basically a dis-
adequate financial services, and the
course marked by a certain inventory and tradition(s), as well as disparities, contradictions
legacy of a customs duty policy that
had been inappropriate for fostering
and aporias. For reasons of limited space, the present contribution has to restrict itself:
economic growth.« For his part, firstly, to furnishing an approximate sketch based on random sampling and, secondly, to
Lampe suggests that »the Habsburg developing a set of theses, which admittedly still require vetting. By the same token, it will
borderlands, like the Balkan states, preliminarily forego in-depth theoretical and/or methodical discussions, such as those con-
thus found themselves on the war’s
nected with Maria Todorova’s Balkanism thesis84 and the topic of imagology as a problema-
eve with a set of modern financial and
industrial sectors. They approached
tic organon.
European best practice and had Aside from the aforementioned memoirs of Austro-Hungarian officers, the corpus of
recorded rapid rates of growth since texts on Bosnia85 in German contains, above all, travelogues, ethnographic texts, remini-
1900. Despite differences between scences of officials and their family members, not to forget political essay writing. In the
them, both sets were less dependent
canonized Austro-German belles lettres the Bosnian adventures begun in 1878, which may
on foreign capital and management
than colonial counterparts in, say,
be said to have paralleled the Oriental creations of Karl May (his novel In den Schluchten des
British India or French Indochina« In: Balkan e.g. appeared in 1885-88),86 has left behind astonishingly few traces. The Austrian
Lampe & Jackson 1982, p. 322. author Robert Michel (1876-1957), on whom important studies87 have already been pub-
lished elsewhere (as well as useful preliminary studies on Bosnian travel literature88), is
59 Cf. e.g. Donia 1981, Pinson 1994,
likely of most importance here.
p. 91ff. and Vrankić 1995/98.
The research project makes a similar claim as Vesna Goldsworthy has already put for-
60 Cf. also Katus, László: Hauptzüge ward in her own exemplary study of English travel literature dealing with the Balkans.
der kapitalistischen Entwicklung der Indeed, it seems as if the Austro-Hungarian occupiers, too, preferred to speak secretly to
Landwirtschaft in den südslawischen and of themselves in their texts on the Bosnian foreign land rather than describe the ›exter-
Gebieten der Österreichisch-Unga-
nal world‹. Or, in Goldsworthy’s words:
rischen Monarchie. In: Sándor,
Pál/Hanák, Péter (Eds.): Studien
zur Geschichte der Österreichisch-
The concept of imaginative, textual colonisation, as suggested by this examination
Ungarischen Monarchie. Budapest:
of literary exploitation of the Balkans, shows the way in which an area can be
Akadémai Kiadó 1961, pp. 113-163,
exploited as an object of the dominant culture‘s need for a dialogue with itself.89
p. 136ff.
61 Pavlowitch 1999, p. 117.

Considering Goldsworthy’s concept is a major reason why our research project in question
focuses almost exclusively on hegemonic discourses originating with the occupiers, and thus
62 Among others, cf. Dedijer/Bo- on the construction of an Austrian rather than Bosnian identity.90 This has already incited
zić/Ćirković/Ekmečić 1974, p. 449. the ire of early (and hasty) readers for, in their eyes, this approach perpetuates the unequal
power relationships between Austria and its »Other«. Thus, for the sake of completeness,
63 Cf. ibid. and Jelavich 1983, p. 60.
it should be added here that a cooperative partnership has been established with the Gent
64 McCagg, William O.: The Soviet Slavist Stijn Vervaet, who has dedicated himself solely to examining the Bosnian and/or
Union and the Habsburg Empire. Yugoslav perspective of the period of Austro-Hungarian occupation (1878-1918), and with
Problems of Comparison. In: Rudolph, young Bosnian scholars working on similar topics.91
Richard L./Good, David F. (Eds.):
However, scholarship on Bosnian literary sources is not without problems of its own.
Nationalism and Empire. The Habs-
burg Empire and the Soviet Union.
If one rephrases Gayatri Spivak’s famous question – »Can the Subaltern Speak?«92 – in
New York: St. Martin‘s Pr. 1992, this context, it quickly becomes clear that any research, looking for contemporary native
pp. 45-63, here p. 50f. accounts, finds itself confronted with the lack of first-person documents from both the Otto-
man and the early Austro-Hungarian era, as the Harvard historian Mark Pinson has pointed
65 Cf. Hösch 2002, p. 137.
out:93
66 Schmid, Ferdinand: Bosnien und
die Herzegovina unter der Verwaltung
In studying Ottoman attitudes and changes in attitudes, one quickly comes up
Österreich-Ungarns. Leipzig: von Veit
against the almost total absence of first-person literature – diaries, collected letters,
1914, p. 1 [emphasis i.o.].
and autobiographies – even from highly placed officials. [...] Not surprisingly, since
the Bosnian notables of the Austrian period were largely products of that same cul-
ture, there is little such first-person literature from them either.94

67 Renner, Heinrich: Durch Bosnien The emergence of an extensive body of native literature95 is not very likely to have occurred
und die Hercegovina kreuz und quer. until after the occupation (also on account of the high illiteracy rate), especially in the
Wanderungen von H.R. Berlin: Reimer
phase of the ›national awakening‹ of the Serbs, Croats and Muslims.96 Here it is necessary
1896, p. V. [spelling as i.o.].
to consider the category of ruling authority, or hegemony, respectively, as the power of
68 Ibid., p. 480. For other German definition: allowing any individuality, regardless of type, to emerge from among the native
and American examples, cf. Kolm population, for instance, was certainly not part of the identity policy of the occupying forces.
2001, p. 238. Instead, the aim was to ›format‹ them exogenously,97 if not yet as ›Bosnians‹, then at least
as new Austro-Hungarian subjects. The development of the respective political and literary
69 Quoted in: Okuka, Miloš/Rehder,
Petra (Eds.): Das zerrissene Herz. movements of the Bosnian Croats, Serbs and Muslims was a reaction to this process that
Reisen durch Bosnien-Herzegowina took manifold forms, ranging from civil protest, resistance and redrafting98 to consent to
1530-1993. Munich: C.H. Beck 1994 and even collaboration with, or at least adoption of, the symbolic forms of Central and Wes-
(BR 1053), p. 95. tern European modernity introduced by the invaders.
Thus, it is out of the question to repeat the ›silencing‹ of South Slav voices by Austrian
70 As quoted in ibid., p. 94.
academia; the central problem of all the research projects mentioned is rather to encounter
71 Tolstoi, Count Leo N.: Die Anne- the specific cultural situation of inequality between 1878 and 1918 with means suitable to the
xion Bosniens und der Herzegowina. task, i.e., with a dialogically functioning, decentralized, comparative network which works
Trans. Edmund Rot. Berlin: Hermann transnationally. This approach could effectively realize the desideratum of Larry Wolff, who,
Walther 1909, p. 7.
at the end of his influential work Inventing Eastern Europe, proposes an intellectual history
72 Quoted in: Sugar 1963, p. 46. of the reaction of ›Eastern Europe‹ to the imposed images of the ›West‹:
73 Quoted in: ibid., p. 30f.
My book is about the intellectuals of Western Europe, inventing Eastern Europe.
74 Vrankić 1995/98, p. 48. As Miłosz suggests, the intellectuals of Eastern Europe have had to respond to
the imposed images and formulas devised in Western Europe. The intellectual
75 Kann 1977, p. 178. history of that response would be another book, an account of the complex cultural
strategies of resistance, appropriation, deference, complicity, and counterattack
76 Stachel, Peter: Der koloniale Blick pursued in the different lands of Eastern Europe.99
auf Bosnien-Herzegowina in der
ethnographischen Populärliteratur der The imagological problems, however, already inhere in the very designation of the ethnic
Habsburger Monarchie. In: Feichtin-
groups to be found in Bosnia-Herzegovina before and after 1878, and it is a difficulty that
ger/Prutsch/Csàky 2003, pp. 259-
288, here p. 260. does not occur only in texts written in German. The question is therefore not only, whether
one really can/should simply label all Catholics as »Croats«, all Orthodox Christian believers
77 Ibid., p. 261. as »Serbs«, and all Muslims as »Bosniaks«, as is customarily done to the present day100
– and indeed they are all Bosnians, too. Equally salient in this respect is the construction
78 Konstruktionen des Fremden:
of an accentuated Herzegovinian identity, which, wherever it occurs, is frequently situated
Bosnien-Herzegowina in deutschspra-
chigen Texten 1878-1918, financed by topographically and also subjected to a process of gendering. As a case in point, Johann
the Special Research Fund (SFO) of (János) von Asbóth (1845-1911), civil servant of the Austro-Hungarian Joint Ministry of the
the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Exterior and elected member of the Hungarian parliament, writes on the Herzegovina:
79 »Kakania« (Kakanien) is Musil‘s All das, die schweren, soliden, fast befestigungsartigen Häuser, ebenso wie die
nickname for Austria-Hungary derived Gegend selbst, gibt der ganzen Land-schaft einen trotzigen, drohenden Charakter,
from the acronym k.uk. (kaiserlich und der sich bis auf die Einwohner selbst erstreckt. Trotzige, stolze, mächtige Männer
königlich, or Imperial and Royal). mit entschieden südlichen Zügen, fast alle brünett, während in Bosnien viel blondes
Haar zu sehen ist. Die Volkstracht steht hier schon näher der montenegrinischen,
80 Cf. Stoll, André: Afterword to: als der türkischen, die in Bosnien die herrschende ist. Auch die Weiber stehen über
Flaubert, Gustave: Reise in den den Bosniakinnen. Auch diesen Letzteren fehlt es keineswegs an Schönheit, ja man
Orient. Ed. and trans. by Reinhold findet in Bosnien auffallend viele edle Gestalten und Physiognomien, die dortigen
Werner and André Stoll. Frankfurt/M.: Frauen aber sind meist flachbrüstig, während die hiesigen mächtig entwickelt
Insel 1996, pp. 363-414. sind.101
81 Stoll 1996 identifies a number of Then as now, ›western‹ authors in Bosnia-Herzegovina, who come from outside, frequently
various discourses on the Orient that
see themselves confronted by a complexity that refuses to fit into their ›modern‹ category
were circulating within French culture
at the time: There was, for example, of nation – for which reason the discourse of cultural ›lack‹ is immediately invoked again.
the cultured Orient in Montesquieu’s In his 1889 volume on Bosnia-Herzegovina in the series Die Länder Österreich-Ungarns in
socially critical Persian Letters, roman- Wort und Bild, Moriz Hoernes opines:
tic Greece in the struggle for libera-
tion of the 1820’s, the India of the Das Band der Nationalität, welches die überwiegende Masse der eingeborenen
German Romantics and their fledgling Einwohner Bosniens und der Herzegowina einigt, [...] wird von den Trägern selbst
attempts at Orientalism, the »modern nicht empfunden. Sie sind culturell noch nicht genügend fortgeschritten, um sich
Orient« of Napoleon (Egypt), which der Sprache wegen [...] als ein besonderes Ganzes, als ein Volk zu fühlen. Die Stelle
became an on-site field of scientific der Sprache als einigendes Band [...] vertritt die Confession; sie antworten, wenn
inquiry, the Orient as site of an ana- man sie nach ihrer Abstammung fragt, nicht wie der Westeuropäer, der da sagt:
chronistic (read ›despotic‹) society, ich bin ein Engländer, ein Franzose, ein Deutscher; sondern bei ihnen heißt es: ich

but also of unsuspected decadent bin ein Türke, ein Rechtgläubiger (griechisch-Orthodoxer), ein Lateiner (römischer
freedom (Flaubert’s eroticism) etc. Katholik).102
82 To this motif of the ›protector

of Balkan Christians‹, which plays Judging by the fact that, at the time, even exonymic and endonymic terms were scarcely
a role in the political discourse of to be reconciled with one another, the task of determining the ethn(ograph)ic condition in
both Austria and Russia and which, Bosnia-Herzegovina seems to have been even more complex in the 19th century than it is
together with the ›pacification of
today. In German language texts of the period, for example, the Muslim population is often
the land‹, becomes an important
pretext for the occupation of Bos- carelessly generalized as »Turkish«,103 creating the impression that the converted South
nia-Herzegovina in Andrássy’s docu- Slavs of Bosnia-Herzegovina had actually immigrated to the region, just as the former elite
ments, cf. e.g. Haselsteiner 1996, of Ottoman officials and functionaries had done. A similar situation occurs in some older
p. 11 und Vrankić 1995/98, p. 17. works, which readily labels all orthodox Bosnians/Herzegovinians as »Greeks« or »Vlachs«,
Cf. also Reber, Ursula: Concerns of
just as, conversely, the new Austro-German rulers, in the region as elsewhere in South Eas-
the Periphery / Peripheral Concerns.
Tempting Territories of the Balkans. tern Europe, are dubbed »Swabians«104 on account of their language. In textual documents
In: Spaces of Identity 2.3 (Dec. 2002), of the Serbian (Orthodox) and Croatian (Catholic) populations, there are, in turn, frequently
www.spacesofidentity.net extensive argumentations to convince the Bosnian/Herzegovinan Muslims of the fact that
they do not possess their own independent (cultural) identity, but rather are merely Isla-
83 Formulation by Stoll 1996, p. 375.
mized Croats and/or Serbs;105 this intent is also plainly evident in the following passage
84 Cf. Todorova 1997; Sundhaussen, from an anonymous German text:
Holm: Europa balcanica. Der Balkan
als historischer Raum Europas. In: Die ein und eine Drittelmillion Menschen, welche heute die Provinzen Bosnien und
Geschichte und Gesellschaft [Göttin- die Herzegowina bewohnen, gehören (bis auf ein paar tausend Mohammedaner,
gen] 25 (1999), pp. 626-653, here deren Vorfahren im Laufen der Jahrhunderte theils aus Asien, theils aus Afrika ein-
p. 628. gewandert sind, und die 3000 ›spagnolischen‹ Juden) zu einer Rasse und sprechen
eine Sprache: die kroatisch-serbische.106
85 For the moment, the investigative
corpus consists – pragmatically The complex and disparate set of problems associated with the nomenclature of ›ethnic
defined – of the existing materials on groups‹ is not the only issue of great interest for discourse analysis. There are, in addition,
Bosnia in German language at the
also those stereotypes, which, from the Austrian and German viewpoint, seek to legiti-
Austrian National Library; this will be
supplemented in a later study by the mize the Habsburg monarchy’s presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina through narrative and
collections of other Central European argumentation. As was already pointed out, virtually no German-speaking author refrains
libraries (Budapest, Munich and from adducing the »cultural mission«107 of Austria-Hungary, which is frequently accom-
Zurich among others). In the process, panied by an imagery of fairy tale purity. In the previously cited 1896 work of the Berlin
a contrastive reading of Austro-Ger-
journalist Heinrich Renner, for instance, Bosnia becomes a kind of oriental Sleeping Beauty
man and imperial German sources
has proven illuminating and not that must be awakened by the kiss of Europe, or more properly, by the Habsburg prince
only in regard to the contemporary (the use of gendering108 in these cases is no more accidental than the ›westernizing‹ figura-
colonialism discourse. Possible tiveness which, so to speak, relocates Bosnia from 1001 Nights into a Grimm Brothers’ fairy
differences between Austrian and tale).
Hungarian authors would also have
Bosnia-Herzegovina is constructed in most of the texts analyzed as the extreme case of
to be examined when the opportunity
presents itself, and further, the, in a periphery, which is in need of a new centre, the more so because the old one was unable
part, very lively and independent to fulfil its ›duties‹. The justifications for this are stereotypical: Ottoman ›decadence‹ (the
contemporary Balkan discourse in decline of the ›sick man of the Bosphorus‹) and the ›oriental despotism‹ of the Turks to
Czech – for even the ›established‹ name only two. The periphery as an area remote from civilization is fixed not only in images
peripheries of the Habsburg monar-
of wild landscapes, but also in the catalogue of characteristics attributed to its inhabitants,
chy seem to react to the occupation
of Bosnia-Herzegovina in specific a catalogue which is virtually rewritten in the cultural memory after the Austro-Hungarian
ways. occupation. A Historisch-Topographische Beschreibung von Bosnien und Serbien, for
instance, which appeared anonymously in Vienna in 1821, states:
86 Cf. Sudhoff, Dieter/Vollmer,
Hartmut (Eds.): Karl Mays Orient- Die Bosnier sind ein starker, kühner Menschenschlag, der vorzüglich zum Soldaten-
zyklus. Paderborn: Igel 1991 (Karl- dienste taugt [...] Wenn der Bosnier in Hinsicht auf Ackerbau, Gewerbe, Handel,
May-Studien 1). kurz in Bezug auf Industrie aller Art, das nicht leistet was er könnte, so ist hiervon
einzig die Politik des herrschendem Volkes, nähmlich [sic] der Türken, Schuld.109
87 Cf. Concetti, Ricardo: Muslimische
Landschaften. Hugo von Hofmanns- That the Bosnian would be strong, brave and industrious were it not for his subjugation
thals Auseinandersetzung mit der
and exploitation at the hands of the Ottomans,110 is a form of argumentation that is large-
Prosa Robert Michels. In: Kakanien
revisited, www.kakanien.ac.at/ ly abandoned in the German and Austrian sources after Austria-Hungary assumed the
beitr/fallstudie/RConcetti1.pdf administration of the area. Henceforth, one reads primarily pejorative classifications, which
[13.12.2002]. Another article by Anna also refuse to conform to the image of the Sleeping Beauty painted by Renner: the Bosnian
Babka (Vienna) is under way. is supposedly characterized by his »kindlich naïve Denkungsweise«, as Count Attems, Kaval-
leriegeneral der Reserve, writes in 1913.111 Moreover, in the native inheres »etwas von der
88 Cf. Stachel 2003, who has
utilized the travel and ethnographic

literature of Moritz Hoernes, Milena südslawischen Indolenz, gemischt mit mohammedanischem Fatalismus«, a point at which
Preindlsberger-Mrazović and Ćiro the category of power and coercion comes into play:
Turhelka, amongst others, for which
reason I will rely upon other textual
Dem Bosnier imponieren nur zwei Sachen: die Macht im Form von Bajonetten
examples, in order to avoid the risk of
und das Geld in Gestalt eines Automo-bils. Gegen alles andere ist er von einer
repetition.
imponierenden Gleichgültigkeit. Der Bosnier sagt: ›Unser Kaiser‹, ›Der Landes-
chef‹, ›Der Herr Gendarm‹.112
89 Goldsworthy, Vesna: Inventing
Ruritania. The Imperialism of the
In a chapter portentously entitled Ethnic Types and Ethnic Character, the aforementioned
Imagination. New Haven, London:
Yale UP 1998, p. 211. Moriz Hoernes pronounces a similar judgement on the attitude of the »Slavic Mohammedan«,
whom he describes as follows:
90 In addition to Goldworthy’s study,
Hall’s exemplary work proceeds [Das] ewige Zuwarten und Herbeisehnen unter lange dauernder Bedrückung hat
from a similar set of problems: ihn ängstlich, energielos gemacht: es hat ihn auch gelehrt, sich brünstig an seinen
Hall, Catherine: Civilising Subjects. Glauben anzuschließen [...].113
Metropole and Colony in the English
Imagination, 1830-1867. Cambridge: For his part, the previously cited anonymous author, who in 1886 expresses concern for
Polity 2002. »Bosnia’s Present and Near Future«, assesses the Bosnian Muslim as follows: »selbst den
Boden zu bearbeiten, dazu hat der echte Türke weder Lust noch Verständniß; er weiß zu
91 Cf. his existing preliminary work
genießen, aber nicht zu schaffen.«114 After its political decline, the Ottoman Empire, the once
(Vervaet 2004) and his contribution to
this antyhology. Vervaet’s PhD project mighty adversary, resides, so to speak, only in its ethnic remains, which are disparagingly
is being financed by the Flemish looked down on; the »lethargy« of the locals does not require merely the intercession of a
Research Fund (FWO). fairy tale prince, but rather ›encouragement‹ by a stronger hand.115
In this regard, only the so-called Kronprinzenwerk represents an exception. In the
92 Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty: Can
›political correctness‹ of its propagandistically patriotic, ›holistic‹ approach to the Habs-
the Subaltern Speak? In: Nelson,
Cary/Grossberg, Lawrence (Eds.): burg monarchy, this anthology of edited ethnographic essays, like the aforementioned ano-
Marxism and the Interpretation of nymous text of 1821, also acquires a taste for the locals, and not surprisingly so, given the
Culture. Urbana: U of Illinois Prs. background of some of the authors. Here, as for example the Osijek-born Croatian archeo-
Reprint in: Chrisman, Laura/Williams, logist Ćiro Truhelka writes in his contribution, the Bosnian is endued with »eine bewun-
Patrick (Eds.) Colonial Discourse
dernswerte Auffassungsgabe«, »eine präcise, logische Ausdrucksweise«, »eine natürliche
and Post-Colonial Theory. New York:
Columbia UP 1994. Einfachheit« and »ein ausgeprägtes Wahrheits-, Rechts- und Ehrgefühl.«116 The Bosnian’s
checked »energy« or, »creative enthusiasm«, however, comes at the expense of the Turkish
93 Correspondingly, it is incumbent oppression. Consequently, the claim, »[den] Arbeitstrieb erweckt zu haben«, is here as well
upon Stijn Vervaet not only to evalu- »ein nicht genug hoch zu schätzendes Verdienst der [k.u.k.] Occupation«.117
ate those few early first-person
At any rate, the predominantly negative characteristics, which have been taken up again
accounts but also to consider, for
example, the journalism of the indi- from the old European stereotypes of the so-called »Table of Peoples« (Völkertafeln)118
vidual population groups in the later and other reservoirs (e.g. the cliché of the »effeminate« Oriental), are meant to justify that
period of the occupation, the migra- civilizing mission which a previously cited anonymous119 text from the year 1886 formulates
tions of Bosnian-Herzegovinian intel- in a particularly crass fashion:
lectuals to Vienna (for the purpose of
study etc.), as well as other indicators.
Denn hier stellt sich uns zum ersten mal ein Beispiel vor Augen, wie eine ›europäi-
sche Macht‹ das Werk der Reorganisirung eines ›asiatischen‹ Landes in Angriff
94 Pinson 1994, p. 122.
nimmt, in welcher Weise sie mit den Mitteln unsers modernen Staates eine rohe,
beinahe noch urwüchsige, jedenfalls ›von der Cultur noch unbeleckte‹ Masse
95 The antecedent oral literary tra-
von 1 1/3 Millionen Menschenmaterials bearbeitet, um daraus ein europäisches
dition, which was still alive at the
Staatswesen, ein Culturvolk herauszubilden, mit einem Worte: um aus Asiaten
time of the occupation, holds its own
Europäer herauszuformen.120
problems. For example, who are the
authors that record the songs and
epic poems and who canonizes them This Europeanisation is also seen as the task of German-speaking colonists, who are to
(and to what purpose)? Frequently, serve the native population as role models of rural modernity, as is extolled in the text of
they come from outside, from Aus-
a church newspaper penned by a certain Trappist Father named Franz as well as in other
tria, Serbia, Croatia. Sometimes it
is Franciscan monks. These are contributions; it is after all a question of providing the desirable settlers from Austria and
questions that Stijn Vervaet will also Germany with a clarion call to immigrate.121
pursue. Frequently the contrast between ›Orient‹ and ›Occident‹, which is here intensified into
the polarity between ›Europe‹ and ›Asia‹, is shown in the texts by using examples from
96 Cf. Džambo, Jožo: Buchwesen in
architecture; the splendid new Austro-Hungarian buildings of the narrated present stand in
Bosnien und der Herzegowina (1800-
1878). Zum Problem der Lesersozio- contrast to the quaint but ›primitive‹ and ›dirty‹ oriental house of the Ottoman past. The
logie. Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang 1985 following is a quote from an automobile travel guide of 1908, which praises how »safe« the
(Arbeiten und Bibliographien zum Balkans have become under the governing hand of Austria-Hungary:
Buch- und Bibliothekswesen 22).

97 The failed venture of the Joint Wir fuhren durch zahlreiche verträumte türkische Dörfer. Meist waren sie schmut-
Finance Minister Benjamin von Kállay, zig und bestanden hauptsächlich aus Lehmhütten. Obgleich ein gewöhnlicher
administrator of Bosnia from 1882- Wochentag, saßen die Türken in süßem Nichtstun unter den Türen ›ihrer Häuser‹.
1903, is briefly worth mentioning Der Ausdruck ihrer Gesichter verriet beim Anblick des Automobils nicht die gerings-
here. Through the banning of national te Bewegung. Auch wenn wir anhielten und nach der Straße fragten, kamen sie
designations and/or organizations, nicht näher.122
and the imposition of a Bosnian iden-
tity (bošnjaštvo), he sought to conduct
Another stock motif that circulates in the travelogues and other textual documents of the
a ›homogenization‹ of the populace
that went beyond religious creed.
time centres on the »mystery« of the oriental woman in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which seems
The anticipated land reform, which again and again to incite the fantasy of the Western male from Austria, Germany or Switzer-
never occurred, also strengthened land,123 and to release a syntax fashioned from gendering. On the other hand, »Filius« [!],
the ethnic difference, which was at the pseudonymous author of the aforementioned automobile travel guide, conducts himself
the same time a social one. Burian
in his account with an amazing serenity that verges on self-reflexivity when he writes:
was the first to allow the existence of
political and religious organizations
for the Serbs, Croats and Muslims. Cf.
Anders die Türkinnen. Die Harems sind leicht kenntlich an den vergitterten oder
for e.g. Pinson 1994 and others.
mit einem Vorhang versehenen Fenstern. Ich glaube, der Grad der Schüchternheit
der Türkinnen steht in umgekehrtem Verhältnis zu ihrer Schönheit, denn diejeni-
98 The situation of the Bosnian Mus-
gen, die sich für mehr als Augenblick unverhüllt zeigten, waren zumeist hübsch.
lims and Serbs in this regard is well
Wie merkwürdig es doch mit der Neugierde der Menschen bestellt ist! Läge nicht
documented, as is the emancipation
der Zauber des Geheimnisvollen über dem Haremsleben und seinen Bewohnern,
movement of the individual national
die Türkinnen würden gewiß nicht mehr Interesse erregen als die Frauen irgend
churches. Cf. further Šehić, Nusret:
eines anderen Landes.124
Autonomni pokret Muslimana za vrije-
me austrougarske uprave u Bosni i
Yet it is precisely the veiled, forbidden and invisible nature of the »Turkish« (read: Mus-
Hercegovini. Sarajevo: Svjetlost 1980;
Madžar, Božo: Pokret Srba za vjersku-
lim) woman that is capable of sending some of the authors into veritable raptures. The
prosvjetnu samoupravu. Sarajevo: description, though, does not offer up that which is seemingly obvious about the ›Oriental‹,
Svjetlost 1982. but rather, on the contrary, that which no one may see, perhaps not even the author himself.
It is here that the phantasma manifests itself.
99 Wolff, Larry: Inventing Eastern
It is striking, for instance, how Western texts often describe the fascinating and eroti-
Europe. The Map of Civilization on the
Mind of the Enlightenment. Stanford:
cising ›primitiveness‹ of the foreigner through the use of a bathing scene as a thematic
Stanford UP 1994, p. 373. connection between race, gender and water, while the country itself appears ›dirty‹ on its
surface. This applies to fin de siècle African ethnography as it does to the North German
100 On this cf. also Malcolm 2002, Bernard Wieman, who at the time traveled to Bosnia-Herzegovina at the invitation of an
p. 148f.
Austrian friend. Analyzing Wieman’s text, it is possible to demonstrate its »scopic regime«
101 Asbóth, Johann v.: Bosnien und
(Martin Jay), i.e. the principle by which the narrative directs the reader’s gaze – a process
die Herzegowina. Reisebilder und that involves the transfer of the (erotic) curiosity of the beholder onto his sexual object:
Skizzen. Vienna: Hölder 1888, p. 242.
Other authors such as Moriz Hoernes Es naht die Zeit der Abendwaschung; die türkischen Mädchen kommen mit
und Robert Michel emphasize the den schlanken Kannen an den Fluß, und wenn wir nahen, fliehen sie in holdem
»melancholy« of the Herzegovinians, Schrecken und in Schamhaftigkeit; mir, dem Fremden, der ich alles mit staunen-
cf. Okuka/Rehder 1994, p. 45 and den Augen und empfänglich sehe, kommt es so vor; es mag Gewohnheit sein und
p. 72. Sitte, mich kümmert das nicht; es hat einen zauberhaften Reiz, diese schlanken
Gestalten [...] flüchten zu sehen, zu sehen, wie sie sich hinter den Pflaumenbäumen
102 Hoernes, Moriz: Bosnien und und den Zäunen verbergen und doch staunend aus ihrem Versteck heimlich mit
die Herzegowina. Vienna: K. Graeser den Blicken uns verfolgen. Und wenn dann keine Giauren mehr auf der Veranda
1889, p. 106f. On Hoernes cf. Stachel sitzen, dann werden die türkischen Mädchen [...] an das dunkle Ufer auf jener
2003. Seite zum Baden kommen, und die jungen Burschen werden sich an jenes Ufer
schleichen und lockende Liebeslieder singen.125
103 A century later the renowned
historian Robert A. Kann 1977, p. 177 However, no travel account of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be complete without a descrip-
still stumbles into this conceptual
tion of the bazaar, especially of the Baščaršija in Sarajevo. Here, the Bosnian merchant, in
trap when he categorizes Bosnian
Muslims in general as »Turkish
his narratively emphasized indolence, can more often reckon with a higher popularity rating
speaking«. by the narrator than the overzealous Sephardic Jew. Renner raves:
104 E.g. Schmid 1914, p. 247f., also Die Mohammedaner hegen noch immer keinen Concurrenzneid und wenn die ver-
makes reference to this. langte Ware nicht vorhanden ist, wird der Käufer freundlichst an den Nachbar ver-
wiesen. [...]126
105 Cf. Malcolm 1996/2002, p. 152.
[...] erst nach und nach breitet der Mohammedaner seine Schätze aus, ein Stück
106 [anonymous]: Bosniens Gegen- nach dem andern holt er aus irgend einem Versteck. Er ist auch nicht unwillig,
wart und nächste Zukunft. Leipzig: wenn kein Kaufabschluss erfolgt. Er wartet ruhig weiter, während die Spaniolen mit
Brockhaus 1886, p. 1 [emphasis i.o.]. lautem Geschrei Kunden anzulocken versuchen.127

107 On this topic cf. also Stachel What lies concealed behind this German critique of Capitalism is closet anti-Semitism. Also
2003, p. 265. Wieman openly voices his preferences when he describes the inhabitants of Banjaluka:
»[...] zur Hälfte sind es Mohammedaner; aber das sind sehr gute, brave Leute, die keinem
108 On national gendering cf. also
the forthcoming publication by
ein Unrecht tun, sie haben hier 40 Moscheen; sind sehr fromm, glaube ich, und sie gefallen
American historian Diana Reynolds mir besser als die Serben und die Spaniolen.«128 Approbation and disapprobation are
(San Diego): Manufacturing Mother thus expressed from the perspective of the ›superiorly civilized‹ German observer, who
Austria: Arts and Crafts Reform is bolstered by the knowledge that the cultural hegemony of the Austro-Hungarian occu-
and Austrian Identity in the Age of
pation force is behind him. The point of view ossifies into a scopic regime that is supposed
Imperialism (1878-1918).
to work as ›reading glasses‹ that try to direct the recipient’s opinion.
109 [anonymous]: Historisch-Topogra- Narrative contact with the Other in Bosnia represents a type of exoticism129 that is typical
phische Beschreibung von Bosnien at the turn-of-the-century; here, however, it serves not only the colorful import of foreign
und Serbien. Vienna: Schrämbl 1821, images, but also the justification of Austro-Hungarian rule and political disenfranchisement.
pp. 8 and 12.
But still, the very periphery that is to be civilized is also worth protecting. As is frequently the
110 Cf. also Reber 2002.
case in the European imagination since the 18th century, the foreigner becomes something
of an ambiguous amalgam. At times s/he is the poor barbarian, whom it is necessary to
111 Attems, Moriz Count: Bosnien ›civilize‹, at others, the noble savage, who lives in a lost paradise.130 Sometimes, though,
einst und jetzt. Vienna: L.W. Seidel s/he even appears eerily similar to oneself, a kind of mirror image without the ›degeneration‹
1913, p. 27f.
of the West.131 Heinrich Renner comments along these lines »dass auch die Moslims trotz
112 Ibid., p. 30.
der Polygamie und der Abgeschlossenheit der Frauen Fleisch von unserem Fleisch sind,
dass sich bei ihnen alles findet, was wir in unserem Volksleben beobachten. Nur ein grosser
113 Hoernes 1889, p. 108. Teil der Laster mangelt und das ist entschieden kein Fehler.«132
The inscrutable ethnic complexity of Bosnia propels one either to the maintenance of the
114 Anonymous 1886, p. 13.
official Austro-Hungarian equipoise towards all cultural groups or to partisanship. Where
115 Cf. the examples in Stachel 2003,
the Berliner Renner can feel enthusiastic about the Muslims in a style which reminds one of
p. 270. the descriptions of North American natives, Austrian texts, particularly those of anonymous
origin, would rather demand the removal of the potential danger. In the process, arguments
116 Truhelka, Ćiro: Volksleben. such as »the Turkish resentment« and a reticent attitude towards the modern age are
In: Die österr.-ungar. Monarchie
brought into play when it comes to denouncing the Muslims.133 As one source text quite
in Wort und Bild. vol. 12: Bosnien
und Hercegovina. Vienna: Hof- u.
openly opines: »[E]s lässt sich ja doch die orientalische Frage in populärer Weise nicht
Staatsdruckerei 1901, pp. 290-371, anders ausdrücken als ›hinaus mit den Türken‹. Nirgends wird man daraus Oesterreich
here p. 290. einen Vorwurf machen.«132 The author of this self-published text is a certain Dr. Josef Neu-
pauer, who, incidentally, not only suggests the expulsion of the Muslims but also the conver-
117 Ibid., p. 291.
sion of whole Bosnia-Herzegovina into a kind of corporation (»Aktiengesellschaft«) in the
118 Cf. Stanzel, Franz: Europäer. Ein
interests of better economy.
imagologischer Essay. Heidelberg: C. Admittedly, the Bosnian Serbs make out even worse. With their alleged national pride
Winter 21998. actually attributed not only to their women,135 they generally find even less approval in the
texts than the Muslims, who are ambivalently coded all the same. For instance, it is said
119 The number of anonymously
that
published textual documents one
encounters in connection with
Bosnia-Herzegovina is striking.
Allein bei dem Serbenthum bestehen manche andere Hemmnisse, welche es
bedenklich erscheinen lassen dürften, dasselbe zum herrschenden Staatselement
120 Anonymous 1886, p. IV.
zu erheben. Da ist vor allem die verhältnißmäßig niedere Kulturstufe, auf welcher
das bosnische Serbenthum bis zur Stunde steht, namentlich in den höhern Volks-
121 Frater Franz: Bosnien, ein Land
schichten, dem handeltreibenden und besonders dem geistlichen Stande.136
für Ansiedlung. In: Weckstimmen für
das katholische Volk 9/11 (1878), p. The Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina, on the other hand, are backed by a strong lobby. This
4. On the subject of the colonists cf. can be seen not only in the case of Milena Preindlsberger-Mrazović, a Viennese of Croatian
also Schmid 1914, p. 247f.; Renner descent and editor of the Bosnian Post, who writes in her Bosnisches Skizzenbuch (1909) of
1896, p. 441ff.; Malcolm 2002,
Kreševo and its Franciscan monastery:
p. 142f.
122 Filius [pseud.]: Eine Automo-

In den schmalen Tälern dieser Berggebilde lebt ein scheues, dunkelgekleidetes,
bilreise durch Bosnien, die Herze-
ungeheuer gutartiges Volk, die Katholiken, gleichsam in Verstecken.[...] Diese
gowina und Dalmatien. Reiseschil-
Streiter für ihren Gott und ihr Volk nötigten selbst ihren Verfolgern, den Muhame-
derung für Automobilisten. Vienna: F.
danern, Ehrerbietung ab. Nicht selten suchen Muhamedaner bei den Fratres Rat
Beck s.a. [1908], p. 26.
und Hilfe in Unglücks- und Krankheitsfällen.137
123 Even the young Swiss writer An examination of the texts of the Austro-Hungarian administration reveals that they sug-
Max Frisch muses in his 1933 Brief gest, time and again, the strengthening of the Croatian element of the population on account
aus Sarajewo (in: Okukua/Rehder of its ›occidental‹ transparency and, more importantly, its religious and political loyal to
1994, p. 102-106): »Wenn aber alles
the Empire. Then there are also Croatian politicians like Ferdinand von Šišić, a university

vermummt ist, so gibt sich der Mann professor and member of the regional parliament in Zagreb, who, after the annexation in
mit dem Wenigsten zufrieden« 1908, attempts to demonstrate with much historical misrepresentation that Bosnia had
(p. 105).
always been Croatian;138 his argument is directed principally against the hegemonic power
124 Filius [1908], p. 26f.
ruling the Croatians, i.e., the Kingdom of Hungary, which thinks itself capable of asserting
its historical rights on the basis of Bosnia’s belonging to its domain of state in the Late Midd-
125 Wieman, Bernard: Bosnisches le Ages. According to Šišić, however, the Croatian on Bosnian soil ought to win his indepen-
Tagebuch. Kempten, Munich: Kösel dence as well as a new position of supremacy.
1908, p. 44.
126 Renner 1896, p. 50f.

IV. NachBildungen: Appropriations and Incorporations of the Other
127 Ibid., p. 55. All narratives that have been sketched here,139 as disparate as they may seem in places, are
overarched by the discourse of civilization and culture, which is supposed to be implanted,
128 Wieman 1908, p. 19.
as it were, in the Balkans. The symbolic incorporation of Bosnia-Herzegovina follows in
129 Cf. for e.g. Jacobs, Angelika:
the wake of its military occupation and administrative affiliation. In this context might
›Wildnis‹ als Wunschraum westlicher considered (mutatis mutandis) what Catherine Hall writes in her exemplary study on the
Zivilisation. Zur Kritik des Exotismus relationship between ›white‹ homeland (England) and ›black‹ colony (Jamaica):
in Peter Altenbergs Ashantee und Ro-
bert Müllers Tropen. In: Kakanien revi- Marking differences was a way of classifying, of categorising, of making hierarchies,
sited, www.kakanien.ac.at/beitr/ of constructing boundaries for the body politic and the body social. Processes of dif-
fallstudie/AJacobs1.pdf [30.03.2002]. ferentiation, positioning men and women, colonisers and colonised, as if these divi-
130 Stachel 2003, p. 263, outlines sions were natural, were constantly in the making, in conflicts of power. The most
the imagery applied to the »Balkans« basic tension of empire was that ›the otherness of colonised persons was neither
with the attributes ›oriental‹, ›foreign‹, inherent nor stable: his or her difference had to be defined and maintained‹. This
›backward‹, ›effeminate‹, ›infantile‹, meant that ›a grammar of difference was continuously and vigilantly crafted as
›immature‹ – these can, however, people in colonies refashioned and contested European claims to superiority‹. The
also be understood as »naturalness«, construction of this ›grammar of difference‹ was the cultural work of both coloni-
as exotically delightful; in any event, sers and colonised.140
these stereotypes signal a »Hand-
lungsbedarf von außen«. This brings us to the problem of representation at a meta-level as well. If it is suppsoed to
be more than simply a ledger list of the textual constructs of a »grammar of difference«, a
131 The discourse of degeneration
booms around 1900 and, looked
serious imagological analysis like the presented research project cannot but pay heed to the
at in this way, may certainly also be methodological crisis it encounters when dealing with the (stereotypical) images. By the
considered as a further formative same token, however, it ought also to resist the temptation of wanting to ›correct‹ these
stamp on European popular Orien- images in reference to a ›reality‹: After all, there is no ›real‹ escape from the maelstrom of
talism.
the images. For the researcher, there remains only the reference to their projected phantas-
132 Renner 1896, p. 75.
matic nature, which is immanent in all these images and formations, and to the political
instrumentalization of the discourses, which they take up – without being able to dismiss the
133 Cf. anonymous 1886. affective power of the images completely. In his latest book, the Anglicist Graham Huggan
has pointed to a further »dilemma« by asking:
134 Neupauer, Josef: Wie könnte
die europäische Cultur nach Bosnien
[...] is it possible to account for cultural difference without at the same time mys-
verpflanzt werden? Viribus Unitis.
tifying it? To locate and praise the other without also privileging the self? To
Vienna: publ. by the author 1884,
promote the cultural margins without ministering the needs of the mainstream?
p. 21.
To construct an object of study that resists, and possibly forestalls, its own com-
modification? The postcolonial exotic is the name that one might give to this
135 So, for e.g., Wieman 1908, p.
dilemma, a name that accompanies the emergence of postcolonial studies as an
119: »Schöne Frauen gehen neben
institutional field.141
ihm [= a cart, CR] her; sie tragen
weite schwarze Hosen und auf dem
Kopfe die rote Serbenmütze mit dem Huggan’s reproach would thus be that Postcolonial Studies, with its self-ascribed political
leuchtend roten, hinten geknoteten mission of changing perspectives and/or properly adjusting viewpoints, does not really
und herabfallenden Tuch. Sie schrei-
undermine exoticism as such, but rather re-inscribes it in a politically correct format and, in
ten sehr stolz und königlich, und
über ihren Stirnen glänzt ein reicher
doing so, makes it socially palatable. Nevertheless, a ›postcolonial‹ critical imagology seems
goldener Schmuck. Es kommt mir sensible where an egregious political imbalance of the images is notable. The stereotypes
ungewohnt vor, wieder ungeniert in may in fact reflect nothing ›real‹, but they do achieve something in the Lebenswelt of social
das Gesicht eines Weibes schauen realities.
zu können nach meiner Wanderung
In symbolic practice, however, Austrian exoticism vis-à-vis Bosnia-Herzegovina, i.e.,
durch die Türkendörfer.«
the fiction of otherness and of a periphery in dire need of civilization, always turns out to
136 Anonymous 1886, p. 16. be inherently threatened by the potential heterogeneity and presumed decadence of its own
culture, i.e. the Habsburg Monarchy. As a foreigner in the oriental Balkans, fixed as they are
137 Qutd. in Okuka/Rehder 1994, by inscrutable inner differences between Serbs, Croats and Turks, on the one hand, and Mus-
p. 65f.
lims, Christians and Jews, on the other, the Austrian intruder encounters, in this opaque

138 Šišić, Ferdinand v.: Nach der alterity, his own unfathomable heterogeneity and hybridity; themes that are constantly
Annexion. Erörterungen geographi- revisited in literary texts, as for example in the form of the Czech gendarmes on border
scher, ethnographischer, historischer
patrol in Herbert Wieman’s Bosnisches Tagebuch.142 The journalist Renner furnishes an
u. staatsrechtlicher Fragen Herzeg-
Bosnien betreffend. Ein Vortrag
even more curious example when he describes the inns of Konjic in Herzegovina from the
gehalten zu Laibach am 14. Novem- outside perspective of an imperial German:
ber 1908. Zagreb: Kroatische
Rechtspartei 1909. Es haben sich in diesem einst durch den Fanatismus seiner Bevölkerung berüch-
tigten Orte eine Menge Fremde niedergelassen und mehrere Gasthäuser (›Ele-
139 Further analysis will have to phant‹, ›König von Ungarn‹, ›Kaiser von Oesterreich‹ und besonders die Bahn-
reveal, to what extent these ›long hofsrestauration) bieten eine ganz gute Verpflegung. Als ich im Jahre 1885 einmal
wave‹ conceptual worlds, which in Konjica übernachtete, genoss das Gasthaus ›zum Kaiser von Oesterreich‹ durch
are provisionally presented here as seine dicke Wirtin, die ›Schmauswaberl‹, in der ganzen Herzegovina einen wohl-
synchronic, change or do not change verdienten Ruf. Nicht etwa durch die Schönheit der Wirtin, denn diese war sehr
along the path of their historical negativer Natur, sondern durch die vorzügliche Küche.143
development.
140 Hall 2002, p. 17f. In the quote The gastronomy seems positively predestined for cultural hybridity. The example of an East
reproduced above, Hall, for her part, Galician Jewess who operates a (Viennese) hotel café amidst Serbs and Muslims even found
quotes from Cooper, Frederick/Stoler, its way into the work of the Croatian-Bosnian author Ivo Andrić (1892-1975).144
Ann Laura: Tensions of Empire. Colo-
With his famous, oft-quoted and oft-misused 1945 novel Na Drini ćuprija (The Bridge
nial Cultures in a Bourgeois World.
Berkeley: Univ. of California Pr. 1997,
over the Drina), the Yugoslav Nobel Prize laureate certainly provides more than just
p. 3f. and p. 7. standard reading fare for the knapsacks of later crisis tourists, where several centuries of
Bosnian history parade by in compact episodes. In his depiction of the period of Austro-
141 Huggan, Graham: The postcolo- Hungarian occupation, Andrić nurtures a point of view that casts an eye at both shores of the
nial Exotic. Marketing the Margins.
river Drina, a fitting complement to the central cultural symbol of the bridge with which the
London, New York: Routledge 2001,
p. 31f.
text posits Bosnia as the link between East and West, Occident and Orient.145 In a narrative
constrution typical of the novel, the narrator, who stands above time, and the bridge over
142 Cf. Wieman 1908, p. 94ff. the waters practically merge into one, as if to suggest that the edifice itself reports the story.
The result is the emergence of a stereoscopic, hybrid optic, which criticizes the Austrian
143 Renner 1896, p. 230.
invaders’ obsession with civilization and »cleanliness«146, without, however, falling prey to
144 Andrić, Ivo: The Bridge over the
a nationalistic counter-discourse of naïve ›nativeness‹, which would view an insistence on
Drina. Trans. by Lovett F. Edwards. ›tradition‹ as truly desirable. In the swaying bridge arch of his irony, so to speak, the narra-
London: Harvill 1994., p. 177ff. Cf. tor dismisses both extremes. He wonders, amongst other things, what restlessness drives
also Antić, Marina: Living in the Sha- the Austro-Hungarian occupiers:
dow of the Bridge. Ivo Andrić‘s The
Bridge over the Drina and Western
The newcomers were never at peace; and they allowed no one else to live in peace.
Imaginings of Bosnia. In: Spaces of
It seemed that they were resolved with their impalpable yet ever more noticeable
Identity 3.3 (2003),
web of laws, regulations and orders to embrace all forms of life, men, beasts and
www.spacesofidentity.net.
things, and to change and alter everything, both the outward appearance of the
town and the custom and habits of men from the cradle to the grave. All they did
145 The threshold between Orient
quietly without many words, without force or provocation, so that a man had
und Occident is a frequent motif and
nothing to protest about. [...]
metaphor in texts on Bosnia.
This continual need of the newcomers to build and rebuild, to dig and to put
146 Andrić 1945/94, p. 141.
back again, to put up and to modify, this eternal desire of theirs to foresee the
action of natural forces, to avoid or surmount them, no one either understood or
147 Ibid., p. 135, p. 139.
appreciated.147
148 It would be incorrect to assume
that the Habsburg myth had only It is as if the arches of the bridge also connect the national stereotypes and with that the
been an instrument of Austro- ambivalence invested in them. The disapproval of the hectic bustle of the Austro-Hungarian
Hungarian rule and that the Bosnian invaders contains at once a hint of praise for their civilization as well as an admonishment of
intelligentsia rejected it; this would
the ›lazy‹ ›Oriental‹. The desire to attach a general message to the construct of the text, how-
mean misjudging the logic of rule,
which exists precisely in the assertion
ever, represents an impracticable task, for the perspective of the story frequently remains
and internalization of the hegemonic uncertain; it is not clear who speaks here, the figures or the omniscient bridge-narrator who
symbolism of culture. A rather crass strategically constructs this intermediate position. At the same time, the narrator develops
example of this is a book from the a very odd, self-reflexive variant of the Habsburg myth,148 one which remains cognizant of
respected Bosnian social scientist
the principle of foreign rule and which places the narrative of k.u.k. Civilisation and Pax
Smail Balić, who, against the back-
ground of the Yugoslav wars of the
Austriaca squarely in the dubious light of irony and illusion, thereby tracing the myth of
1990s, naively views the Austrians civilization back to its own phantasmatic structure:
as historic »Ordnungs- und Kultur-
träger« in Bosnia-Herzegovina: »Die Such were those three decades of relative prosperity and apparent peace in the
bosnischen Muslime verdanken Franz-Josef manner, when many Europeans thought that there was an infallible
formula for the realization of a centuries-old dream of full and happy development
page 22 | 05 | 2008 http://www.kakanien.ac.at/beitr/fallstudie/CRuthner5.pdf
by Clemens Ruthner (Edmonton)
Österreich ihre weitgehende Euro- of individuality in freedom and progress [...]. But to this remote Bosnian township
päisierung, durch die sie ihren only broken echoes penetrated of all this life of the nineteenth century, and those
Anschluß an die moderne Welt only to the extent and in the form in which this backward oriental society could
gefunden haben.« (Balić, Smail: Das receive them and in its own manner understand and accept them.149
unbekannte Bosnien. Europas Brü-
cke zur islamischen Welt. Cologne et The people found order, work and security. That was enough to ensure that here
al.: Böhlau 1992 [Kölner Veröff. zur too life, outward life at least, set out ›on the road of perfection and progress‹. Every-
Religionsgesch. 23]). thing else was flushed away into that dark background of consciousness where live
and ferment the basic beliefs of individual races, faiths and castes, which, to all
149 Andrić 1945/94, p. 173. appearances dead and buried, are preparing for later far-off unsuspected changes
and catastrophes, without which, it seems, peoples cannot exist and above all the
150 Ibid., p. 173f. peoples of this land. The new authorities, after the first misunderstandings and
clashes, left among the townspeople a definite impression of firmness and of perma-
151 Ibid., p. 136. nence (they were themselves impregnated with this belief without which there can
be no strong and permanent authority). They were impersonal and indirect and for
152 Ibid., p. 174. that reason more easily bearable than the former Turkish rulers.150
153 Cf. Bhabha, Homi: The Location In this ›illusionistic‹ process of narrative irony certain ethnic stereotypes nevertheless
of Culture. London, New York: remain in place as does the myth of the ›just‹ Austro-Hungarian rule; they are, however, in
Routledge 1994.
quotation marks, as it were, and are deferred, so to speak, in light of the utopia of a meta-
morphosis, which Andrić develops. Nothing and no one keeps its form – not even the rule
of Austria-Hungary. Against the problematic civilizing task of the Austrian texts, which fan-
tasize about education and development, Andrić sets the hybridity of a conglomerate as both
a combination and, in a further step, a transformation of the heterogeneous:
Old ideas and old values clashed with the new ones, merged with them or existed
side by side, as if waiting to see which would outlive which.151
On the other hand, after a certain time, even these newcomers were unable to avoid
completely the influence of the unusual oriental milieu in which they had to live.
[...] It is true that the local people, especially the Christians and Jews, began to look
more and more like the newcomers in dress and behaviour, but the newcomers
themselves did not remain unchanged and untouched [...].152
Andrić shows here the beginning undecidedness of an intermediary state of colonial exis-
tence, a state of ›de-automatizing‹, as to which image of the Orient is meant and precisely
what cultural position Austrians and Bosnians occupy within it. This could be more than
just the loss of one’s ›roots‹ and, on the other hand, even transcend Bhabha‘s concepts
of mimikry and hybridity.153 Perhaps, in the hope for a future ›uncommon‹ Oriental or
Westerner (who thus resists stereotyping), and in the idea of the transitory nature of every
rule and the permanent metamorphosis of culture/s, there also exists that small residual uto-
pia. Those who research stereotypes might accept it as a possible solution to their aforemen-
tioned dilemmas, at least on a (retrospective and individualistic) literary level. It remains
uncertain, however, if this is of any general comfort for those who were actually – as social
groups – exposed to the ambivalent political and economic practices of a patronizing k.u.k.
colonialism, and its aftermath.
Dr. Clemens Ruthner, born 1964 in Vienna, where he studied German Language and Literature, Philo-
sophy, and Journalism. ÖAD assistant at the Univ. Budapest/ELTE, 1991-1993, and at the Univ. Antwerpen,
1993-2003; since 1999 director of the Austrian Research and Cultural Center OCTANT in Antwerpen.
2000-2003 FWF research project Herrschaft, ethnische Differenzierung und Literarizität in Österreich-
Ungarn. 2003-2008 visiting professor for German Literature and Cultural Studies at the Univ. of Alberta,
Edmonton (Kanada). In 2008 hired as permanent lecturer at the School of European Studies, Trinity College
Dublin, Ireland. Research interests: Literary texts and cultural narratives of the19. and 20. centuries, concepts
alterity, and cultural theory.
Contact: clemens.ruthner@gmail.com

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HABSBURG’S LITTLE ORIENT

A Post/Colonial Reading of Austrian and German Cultural

to be published in: Ruthner, Cle- [...] Son of man,

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Bosnia-Hercegovina under Austro- in the 19th century.22

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la gauche manifestait son hostilité à cries out for new administration:

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Economic History, 1550-1950. From Bosnia-Herzegovina:

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61 Pavlowitch 1999, p. 117.

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82 To this motif of the ›protector

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122 Filius [pseud.]: Eine Automo-

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126 Renner 1896, p. 50f.

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