“Disintegration – Resurrection”? Catholic Conservative Conceptions of a Post-Imperial Order in (German-)Austrian Tyrol
With the end of the First World War, the Crownland of Tyrol—occupied and soon to be divided between Italy and German-Austria—came loose from the empire to which many of its strident patriots had long proclaimed their undying loyalty. As answers to questions of both high political questions and everyday life remained elusive, feeling of helplessness abounded. As one priest recalled, what seemed to matter was not Tyroleans’ choices, “but rather what will the enemies do with us?” Nevertheless, even during the chaos of November 1918, Tyroleans worked to implement their vision of the future for post-war Tyrol. In part they did so by shaping notions of their immediate and more distant past. In this presentation, I focus on interrelated strands of Catholic conservative discourses concerning the post-imperial transition in Austrian North Tyrol. First, I examine the reaction of a class of socially influential Catholics, local parish priests, to the new republic. As a group, the Tyrolean clergy looked on with trepidation at the social and political changes unfolding around them. Although they proved adaptable to their new conditions, their experiences of upheaval left behind a lingering mistrust. Next, I turn to early post-war historical works that responded to imperial collapse and Tyrol’s division. While these supported notions of a historically privileged German Tyrol and called for the extension of its prerogatives, they paid little heed to local initiatives that emerged throughout Tyrol amid imperial collapse and did not focus on the sanctity of provincial integrity. Finally, I consider changing public attitudes toward the Habsburg monarchy in North Tyrol as the interwar years advanced. If Habsburg symbols became unwelcome immediately after the war, by mid-decade a reevaluation was underway that granted the former imperial house renewed public legitimacy. In all, I mean to show how, as Tyrol became part of post-imperial Austria, attitudes and ideas that underlay the former status quo were translated into the “new era.”