RETURN UNDESIRED. Deportations in the Habsburg Monarchy

Concerning the historiography of the Habsburg empire the submitted work is breaking new ground in respect of deportation. Whereas scholars in the field of Contemporary History tend to view them as merely epiphenomena of totalitarianism, a more closer reconstruction of its "protohistory" reveals it as an instrument of punishment, of demonstration of power and of population policies that were widely and in a rather "modern" way used in the Habsburg Monarchy as early as in the 18th century. The first part of the habilitation thesis is focusing on a synoptic view of the major European powers of the Early Modern Period and their attitudes towards deportation: Portugal, France, Spain, Russia and the Netherlands were experimenting extensively with this new means of shifting people, of whom many over time got institutionalized. The Ottoman empire, on the other hand, with its sürgün-method established a distinct deportation practice, which became a crucial instrument of power during its "golden age". The second part of the habilitation thesis is dealing with all hitherto known deportations in the Habsburg realm of the Early Modern Era as well as with the rekindled debate on it around 1900. The notion that a country without colonies would be uninterested in deportations as well, is untenable. On the contrary, the Habsburg empire with its measures taken against protestants, deviants and losers in the modernisation process was just numerically ranking in a significant position. Spanning a duration of a quarter of a century of continuous deportation activity, the so called Temesvarer Wasserschub (Deportation by Water, 1744 to 1768) nevertheless was the most extended ever on an institutionalised basis in Central Europe. The submitted study is grounded on intense archival research, which brought forth a multitude of essential documents that were hitherto unknown or looked over. The eight case studies comprise different regions of the empire and are situated amongst most diverse social strata: 1) The "dislocations" of the Uskoks in 1601 and 1618; 2) the transport of Spanish pensioners in 1735 and 1736; 3) the "transmigrations" from 1734 to 1737, from 1752 to 1757 and from 1773 to 1776; 4) the Temesvarer Wasserschub (Deportation by Water) from 1744 to 1768; 5) the dispatch of the "Salpeterer" in 1755 6) the deportation of Croatian and Slavonic rebels in 1755; 7) the case of Moravian Protestants in 1777; 8) the dispersion of the "Bohemian Deists" in 1783. These case studies are intended to serve as major building blocks for a "History of Violence in the Habsburg Empire" yet to be written. Furthermore, the habilitation thesis strongly intends to sketch out "lines of connection" between the past and the present in respect of extreme violence, thereby searching for an interweaving of epochs.

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