Provincial Spaces of Loyalty and Contestation during the First World War

• In Event: Politics of Urban Space in the Late Habsburg Bohemian Lands

Abstract

While many studies of the home front during the First World War have examined capital cities or provincial capitals, this paper focus on small towns and villages in Morava. It will compare the use of space with major cities, mainly Vienna and Brno, addressing the themes of loyalty to the Habsburg Monarchy and of contestation. To address the former, it will examine the wartime phenomenon of the Wehrmann in Eisen and other Nagelobjekte. Communities across the provinces copied this practice of nailing wooden monuments that originated in the imperial capital. They subsequently unveiled these monuments with public ceremonies and displayed them in prominent public locations that marked these spaces as loyal to the Habsburg Monarchy. This paper will also address spaces of contestation. In particular, it will address sites of food demonstrations or other conflicts over food that directly challenged the authority of local and imperial officials. Like residents of major cities, those in small towns also targeted public officials at their places of employment, but conflict in small towns also spread to officials’ homes, which local residents could easily identify. Overall, while the use of space in smaller towns and villages often mirrored what happened in major cities, there were variations based on location.

Author

• Kathryn E. Densford, U of Nevada, Reno