The Historical Writing of Heinrich von Srbik

Of all the Austrian historians of this century, Heinrich von Srbik made the greatest impression upon his contemporaries.' During a productive period spanning the years 1904-1951, his work went through various phases, but a main trend was toward self-conscious identification with the tradition of German idealism and toward Geistesgeschichte (generously interpreted) as the frame for the treatment of political and historiographical themes. In the years of resurgent German nationalism, 1928-1945, he was the outstanding spokesman for the so-called all-German (gesamtdeutsche) point of view, and his four-volume work, Deutsche Einheit, is the classic expression of this historical conception. He had previously become widely known for a biography of Metternich, a product of his middle years, published in 1925. At the end of his life he produced a third major work, Geist und Geschichte, a history of German historical writing from the Middle Ages to his own day. Srbik died at Ehrwald in Tirol on February 16, 195 1, at the age of seventy-two. He had left Vienna early in 1945 when frequent air raids made it impossible for him to continue his lectures at the University. After the war he had not been permitted to resume his professorship because of earlier ties with the National Socialists; for the same reason he was denied a pension. He was arrested briefly by the French during their occupation of Tirol, and for some time thereafter he was required to report regularly to the police. During these last bitter years Leopold von Ranke was much on his mind -Ranke who even as a young man during the War of Liberation against Napoleon already felt an inner compulsion to observe what went on in the world as from a free, high watchtower.2 In Srbik himself the tension had been greater. He too had felt the urge for the high tower, and he had an exceptional sense of vocation as an historian, but he could not ignore the

Art · Literature · Central European national history · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Philosophy

• Complicity in Vienna

  Open Access•Elizabeth Ann Danto•Ethics Medicine and Public Health•2020

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