Dynastic Celebrations as a Tool of Civic Patriotic Education in the Habsburg Empire

The article analyzes the calendar of school festivities in the Habsburg Empire in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century. The author argues that during the reign of Franz Joseph I involving schoolchildren in festive events became a significant tool for civic patriotic education of the future generations of Austrian subjects. Celebrations marking the birthdays and name days of the emperor and empress, weddings, jubilees of the emperor’s reign, and mourning events commemorating the death of a member of the imperial family were mandatory for schools. These celebrations instilled in schoolchildren the idea of the empire as their common great homeland and of the reigning emperor as a wise and merciful father, tirelessly caring for and sacrificing all his efforts for the good of all his subjects, regardless of their ethnicity or religious affiliation. Participating in the festivities, school youth, for their part, were given an opportunity to express their unconditional love and devotion to the emperor. Thus, school festivities contributed to the formation of dynastic patriotism and the phenomenon of Kaisertreue, the sustained loyalty of the population to Franz Joseph and nostalgia for the empire after its collapse.
Details of school celebratory events, their organization, and course are shown using the example of the children’s ceremony held at Schönbrunn on May 21, 1908 on the occasion of the 60th Crown Jubilee of Franz Joseph’s reign. The same example demonstrates how such school events turned out to be the center of political struggle, as political parties tried to establish their control over schools and competed for the right to influence the minds of the younger generation. The author of the article concludes that political rivalry could significantly reduce the effectiveness and diminish the significance of activities on civic patriotic education of schoolchildren. That negated the efforts of the state and local authorities to foster a common Austrian self-awareness, dynastic patriotism, and supranational identity among the population of the empire, which were intended to help relieve social tension in the era of aggravated national contradictions and overcome the separatist sentiments that threatened the stability and the very existence of the multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire.

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