A Digital Geoportal of the History of the Serbs in Vienna (1741-1918)

Ein digitales Geoportal der Geschichte der SerbInnen in Wien (1741-1918)

Project Leader:

Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr. Mihailo Popović (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Vienna)

Description:

This research project focuses on one of the aspects of the history and presence of Orthodox Christians, and in particular of the Orthodox Serbs, in Vienna. Quite often the opinion emerges in the contemporary public discourse that the Orthodox Christians have come to Austria for the first time in the wake of the so-called "Gastarbeiterbewegung" of the 1960s and 1970s. However, their history and presence in Austria dates well back to the 17th century. In fact, according to the Austro-Hungarian population census of 1910, more than 2,000,000 Serbs lived in the Habsburg monarchy: in Hungary a total of 1,106,471, in Bosnia and Herzegovina 825,338 and in Dalmatia 105,000.

This research project uses biographical data on the Orthodox Serbs in Vienna in the period from 1741 until 1918 in order to illustrate how the Orthodox began to migrate to the Habsburg Empire, how Orthodox merchants settled in Vienna and how they integrated into Viennese society of that time. On the basis of meticulously researched data in Austrian archives the life of famous Serbs in Vienna is reconstructed. Their places of dwelling and action are localised and embedded into a customised OpenAtlas database with an online Geoportal, which will be open to the interested public at the end of the project.

This project aims to gain a better understanding of contemporary developments and future trends in Orthodox Christianity based on scholarly research on famous Serbian personalities of the 18th and 19th centuries in detail, which were already integrated into Austrian society at that time in Vienna as well as in Austria in general.

Download the project description in german or serbian/српски