The Realm of the Habsburgs
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE GERMANS Auch fiber die Hiinge der Alpen kreist Keine Schranke kennend der deutsche Geist Rob. Hamerling The Germans?at all events those of distinct German race and language?form in Austria-Hungary between nine and ten millions out of the total of forty-one million inhabitants. Thus, numerically, they only take a secondary place among the races of the Empire. On the other hand, the Austrian Empire is itself a German product. The Habsburg history of the last six hundred years is essentially the history of a German Roman Catholic family and of German Roman Catholic civilisation. Vienna, the capital, was always a German city, from which German university life, laws, institutions, sciences, arts, and customs were promulgated, spread and took effect throughout the Habsburg dominions. The aristocra
...cy, the army, the official world?in one word,the governing influences of the country?were almost entirely German in character, if not also in race. The spirit of Germany hovers even over the slopes of the Alps, despising all restraint. If Bohemia was once a Slavonic kingdom, so too were large tracts of what now is Prussia qnce Slavonic in character, even as they are still racially. Bohemia became German by the right of conquest, and remained so unchallenged for centuries. If the Magyars first constituted Hungary as a State, if Lntin was the language of culture and officialdom, the Germans founded the towns of Hungary, the social life of her citizens, their commerce and industry. The German origin of many towns in Hungary is shown by their German names : Oedenburg, Stuhlweissenburg, Punfkirchen, etc. Even the old name of the capital, Pesth, is not a Magyar name, but one of Slavonic root. Indeed, we are told, that as early as 1240, Pesth was known as a very w...
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