Up to the end of the World War the Vienna Burgtheater had
still the ambition of ranking with the Comedie Francaise as the
first theatre of the continent of Europe. The dialect drama, to
which Raimund, Nestrey and Anzengruber had contributed, still
had the reputation of being, as Platen said, a popular form of
comedy which is more comic than the whole of the German
theatre. In the meantime the Burgtheater lost its brilliant doyen
Bernhard Baumeister (1828-1917), and its greatest master of
declamation, the famous emotional actor, Josef Kainz (1858-
1918). Finally Alexander Girardi (1850-1918) died too, the
popular Viennese comedian, whose gift for music and improvisa-
tion showed him no unworthy representative of the Italian
tradition.
See Albert Soergel, Dichtung und Dichter der Zeit (1916) ; Oscar F. Walzel, Die deutsche Dichtung seit Goethes Tod (1919); Alfred Maderno Die deutsch-osterreichische Dichtung der Gegenwart (1920).
(A. B.)
History. During 1910-20 the influence of the work of Theodor von Sickel (1826-1908), and of the Austrian Institute for Historical Research which had been brought by him to a high pitch of excellence, was shown in a marked activity on the part of Austrian historical writers. In the footsteps of Sickel, and also of his great contemporary Julius von Ficker (1826-1902), came their disciples Engelbert Miihlbacher (1853-1903) and Emil von Oltenthal (b. 1855) ; Oswald Redlich (b. 1858), with his Rudolf von Habsburg; Alfors Dopsch (b. 1868), with his Wirt- schaftliche Entwicklung der Karolingerzeit (2. vols., 1912-3) and W irtschaftliche und soziale Grundlagen der europaischcn Kullur- entwicklung (2 vols., 1918-9); Ludo Moritz Hartmann (b. 1865) with his Geschichte Italiens, etc.
A number of the historians who came from the school of Sickel turned to modern history, under the influence of Ottokar Lorenz (1832-1903). Distinguished among them by his gift for vivid exposition was Heinrich Friedjung (1851-1920), notable for his Der Kampf urn die Vorherrschafl in Deutschland (2 vols., nth ed. 1919), Oesterreich, 1848-1860 (2 vols., 4th ed. uncompleted), Das Zeitalter des Imperialisms, 1884-1014 (vol. i., 1919), Gisammelte Aufsatze (1919). A rich literary activity was dis- played by August Fournier (1850-1920), whose biography of Napoleon (3rd ed., 1913, Eng. trans. 2nd ed. 1911) became widely known even beyond the sphere of the German-speaking public. From the pen of A. F. Pribram there appeared, among other works, the second volume of Die englisch-oestcrreichischen Slaatsvertrdge (1913), and Die geheimen politischen Staalsvcrtrage Oesterreich- Ungarns 1879-1917 (1920; English trans, by A. C. Coolidge, 1920).
Worthy of note among the younger historians trained at the Institute were Hans Uebersberger (b. 1877), with Russlands Orientpolitik in den letztcn Jahrhundcrten (vol. i., 1913); H. R. von Srbik (b. 1878), with Wallenstein's Ende (1920); Wilhelm Bauer (b. 1877), with Die ojjentliche M timing auf historischer Grundlage (1917); Viktor Bibl (b. 1870), with Der Tod des Don Carlos ([9tg);H. Kretschmayer (b. 1870), with his Geschichte Vcnedigs (2nl vol. 1920). The methodical research into texts inaugur- ate.l in Austria by Sickel and Ficker produced valuable fruits i.i the sphere of German and Austrian legal and constitutional history. Prominent among the workers in this field were Arnold Luschin von Ebengreuth (b. 1841); H. von Voltelius (b. 1862) and Siegmund Adler (1813-1920).
Among historians unconnected with the above-mentioned movement, Josef Freiherr von Helfert (1820-1910) was distin- guished by a rare devotion to work; a man of great talents, he crowned his life-work by a history in two volumes of the Austrian Revolution of 1848. Ludwig von Pastor (b. 1854) continued his widely read Geschichte der Pdpste (5th vol., 1920); Eugen Guglia (1855-1918) published a book on Maria Theresa (2 vols., 1917). In the sphere of Slavonic history the unfinished Geschichte Serbiens of J. Jirecek (1857-1918) is also worthy of note. As an economic historian Karl Grunberg (b. 1891) established his reputation during the decade.
The eminent Viennese professor of constitutional law, Josef Redlich (b. 1869), widely known abroad through his masterly
works on English local government and English parliamentary procedure, published in 1920 the first volume of Das oestcr- rcichische Staats- und Reichsproblem, a history of the internal policy of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1848 to the break-up of the empire. This first volume brings the account down to 1861.
(A. F. PR.)
FOREIGN POLICY, 1909-18'
Austro-Hungarian foreign policy in the crucial decade which, through the World War, led to the downfall of the empire, can only be understood by recalling the main historical problem that confronted the old monarchy.
Since the foundation of the German Empire and the kingdom of united Italy an extension of Austria-Hungary towards the S. and W. of Europe had become impossible. Only in the Klvalry S.E. could she still count on an expansion of her W nh RUS- territory and power. Thus from the seventies of the sla '" the igth century onwards the policy of the leading Austro- Hungarian statesmen had taken the direction indicated by geographical conditions. In this Austria had to reckon with the opposition of Russia, which, with the pressing back of Turkish influence, had become her great rival in S.E. Europe. In order to maintain herself as a Great Power, make her frontier secure against hostile attacks, and suffer no restriction on her further development, she could not allow another Great Power to com- mand the Danube and its mouths, and arrogate to itself the hegemony of the Balkan peoples. This political and economic opposition between the Habsburg Monarchy and Russia was reenforcedby opposition of an ethnical and cultural nature. In view of this struggle against a competitor far superior in popula- tion and military strength, Austrian statesmen had sought an alliance or understanding with those European states whose interests appeared to run parallel with their own. It was to the benevolent attitude of Germany and England that Austria had owed the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the right of maintaining garrisons in the Sanjak of Novibazar the door to the Near East and the first step towards an expansion of Austria- Hungary's sphere of influence in the Balkans, which pron-.ised rich prospects, but at the same time an increase in Russian hostility.
From the early eighties of the igth century Andrassy's successors did indeed try to arrive at a modus vhendi with Russia, and were zealously seconded in this effort by Prince Bismarck, who wished to hold the balance between his two allies. Numerous crises were successfully overcome, but the conflict of interest remained, and was especially heightened after the Russo- Japanese War (1904-5) had ended unfavourably for Russia. Russian statesmen renounced the policy, which they had followed for a time, of getting to the "warm ocean" in the Far East, and returned to the one which had been followed by Peter the Great and Catherine and never entirely given up, the goal of which had been the conquest of Constantinople and the command of the Dardanelles. The constantly increasing differences between Germany and the Western Powers, and the advances made by the latter towards friendship with the court of the Tsar, led in 1907-8 to a close entente between Russia and England, and hence to the development of the long-standing alliance between Russia and France into a Triple Entente.
Baron Aehrenthal, who from the autumn of 1906 had directed the foreign policy of the Habsburg Monarchy, recognized the threatening danger, which became greater and Aehreo- greater as the internal affairs of the Turkish Empire thai s assumed a more and more critical aspect. This empire he wished to preserve, if it could by any means be done ; but in the event of its final liquidation he was firmly determined to safeguard the interests of Austria-Hungary. It was above all necessary to make sure of the possession of the occupied prov-
J The article under EUROPE, written from a British historian's point of view, should be read for a somewhat different perspective of the European situation which resulted in the World VVar. See also SERBIA. The account given here naturally reflects^ in various aspects, the point of view of an Austrian historian. (Ed. E. B.)
