Project Details
Projekt
Between Reflection and Projection: Romani Studies in the Danubian-Carpathian Region (1880-1930)
Applicant
Professor Dr. Thomas Bohn
Subject Area
Modern and Contemporary History
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 463005852
The Romani Studies of the Habsburg Empire, situated in the context of imperialism and colonialism, is subject to a tension between projection and cultural transfer. It was essentially concerned with the Banat and Transylvania as well as Wallachia and Moldavia, areas that belong to present-day Romania and were considered the "homeland of the Gypsies" at the time. From the point of view of today's antiziganism research, the ethnological descriptions of the Habsburg private scholars and administrators were problematic. The depictions of the "travelling people" were projections of elites of a multicultural society in an imperial context. All discourses of alterity were about a polarization between progress and civilization on the one hand and backwardness and wilderness on the other. Among the so-called "Gypsy friends" were Archduke Joseph Karl Ludwig of Austria (1833-1905), the university lecturer Anton Herrmann (1851-1926), and the autodidact Heinrich von Wlislocki (1856-1907). Their publications still influenced the German ethnologist Martin Block (1891-1972). In view of the biographies and academic curricula vitae of the Habsburg "Gypsy friends", the question arises as to why it was primarily authors from the milieu of the German-speaking minorities who spoke out on this topic. Why did scholarly reflections on so-called "Gypsies" include only the exotic, but not assimilation into socioeconomic milieus and confessional communities, as well as integration into ruling organizations and administrative structures? While the project leader aims at a concise synthesis in essay form to answer these questions, the research assistant will present a scholarly biography of the Transylvanian folklorist Heinrich von Wlislocki. Wlislockis‘ extensive publishing activities are to be located in the context of the nationality policy of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, which was characterized by Magyarization. Up to now, about 200 publications by Wlislocki have been documented. In 1883, Wlislocki, who had a doctorate in philology, accompanied the so-called "Wandering Gypsies" for several months as a participant observer through Transylvania and the southeastern parts of Hungary. By focusing on Wlislocki, the process from the genesis of knowledge (field research) to the narrativization of knowledge (documentation) to the circulation of this knowledge in and through society (discourses) will be explored. With regard to stereotype formation, which is a central problem for the research group, landscape is relevant in addition to ethnicity. Under this premise, in the interest of the research group, fictional projection surfaces of "Gypsy" representations can be contrasted with historical sites or real life worlds in Southeastern Europe.
DFG Programme
Research Units
