There's a certain romanticism about the Austro-Hungarian Empire, probably because it was as stagnant as it was for such a long time. It was easy to project an almost Graustarkian Mittel-European aura upon it as if it were something from an opera or an adventure story. In fact, it was as bloody and greedy and as tightly held as any autocracy anywhere. It's ruling class was closed and fought the incursion of the modern world, particularly those aspects of it that could affect its power.
P.S. One of the few works of art that captured this was the movie 'The Illusionist'. The Mayerling in its various forms is mere romanticism, not that that's a bad thing.
But they were somewhat inept and inefficient, and so not as nasty as they could have been; and they were not nationalist-driven, and so not as nasty as they could have been...
There's a certain romanticism about the Austro-Hungarian Empire, probably because it was as stagnant as it was for such a long time. It was easy to project an almost Graustarkian Mittel-European aura upon it as if it were something from an opera or an adventure story. In fact, it was as bloody and greedy and as tightly held as any autocracy anywhere. It's ruling class was closed and fought the incursion of the modern world, particularly those aspects of it that could affect its power.
P.S. One of the few works of art that captured this was the movie 'The Illusionist'. The Mayerling in its various forms is mere romanticism, not that that's a bad thing.
But they were somewhat inept and inefficient, and so not as nasty as they could have been; and they were not nationalist-driven, and so not as nasty as they could have been...
That's true. They could have been a lot worse, and they could have reveled in it. Good pastries too.
:-)
;-)