Re: Austria Vienna, Poland and Hungary

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Leslie Weinberg wrote: "It is interesting that
although my grandfather came from Tyczyn, Poland,he
would never say he was from Poland, he was "from
Austria-Hungary".

As I am steeped in Habsburg genealogy and my maternal family was centred in
Vienna since the mid-1800s, I do not find that at all surprising. Many today
may have forgotten the importance of the Habsburg Empire and the Dual Monarchy.
A visit to Vienna will remind you what a mighty Empire this must have been.
Vienna is a true Imperial capital city - a real anachronism in the context of
the tiny country today. Of course there was dissent but, by and large, there was
allegiance to this Monarchy and especially to the Emperor Franz Joseph, who
ruled as Emperor from 1848-1916 [yes, that is correct!]. Sadly, there was
discrimination in the Monarchy and to say you were from Poland [Austrian-
controlled regions] would not have the cachet as to say [correctly] that you
were from Austro-Hungary. Tragically, many hundreds of thousands of men [and
many Jews] fell in World War I fighting for their Kaiser. And that was the end
of the Empire, yet the nostalgia continued, as indeed it represented for many
[including Jews] a glorious intellectual and prosperous period. The very large
Jewish population came from Austria & Hungary, Bohemia & Moravia [now Czech
Republic] and many far-flung regions including Trieste, former Yugoslavia,
Romania, Galicia, Transcarpathian Ruthenia; even Venice was only ceded to
Italy in 1866 see:
http://www.bartleby.com/65/au/AustroHu.html

"The strength of the Dual Monarchy lay in its vastness, its virtual economic
self-sufficiency, .. opportunities for commercial intercourse from the Swiss
border to the Carpathians. Its weakness was less in its ethnic diversity than
in the unequal treatment ... in the spirit of ... "Divide and rule."

Celia Male [U.K.]
---
Sender: Celia Male <celiamale@xxxxxxxxx>
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