Projects

The First World War on a Local/Regional Level: Graz and the Crown Land of Styria

Nicole-Melanie Goll / Werner Suppanz (eds.): Der Erste Weltkrieg auf lokaler/regionaler Ebene: Graz und das Kronland Steiermark (working title), publication scheduled for 2016

A topical area in the research on the First World War, which has been largely neglected until now, is the local and regional level, especially in those territories which have not been directly affected by the hostilities, but as “home(front)” became part of the wartime society. This applies, opposed to the metropolises, especially to the “centers of second order” and their regions. The volume therefore focuses its perspective on this field of social changes. In the process, the transition from – already militarized – peace society to war society also implicates sensible changes in the political culture as well as the political systems in the longer term. Besides other core areas, the projected publication examines specifically the politico-cultural circumstances and processes of change on the local and regional level using the example of Graz and Styria in the years from 1914 to 1918. The focus is therefore lying on continuities relevant for the 20^th century and on the First World War as origin of the political conditions during the interwar period, but also beyond that.