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The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 was not seen as having contributed to the building of the state, not even during the existence of the Habsburg monarchy. This was probably due to its unfavourable outcome for Austria. However, it had major significance for subsequent pan-European developments. Moreover, the image of this war has been purposefully misinterpreted within the anti-Aus trian myth. This paper aims to unpack the contemporary image of this war based on the testimonies of participants involved, as captured in their memoirs, and to compare it with the image of the war promoted during the First Czechoslovak Republic.

By the end of the 19th century, the central government in Cisleithania was experiencing significant challenges in maintaining control over mass movements and riots. This was primarily due to the insufficient number of police and gendarmerie forces and the politicization of local governments. The army was repeatedly called up, yet encountered similar challenges as the civil authorities. Moreover, it still operated in the spirit of absolutism, which rendered it incapable of responding effectively to the demands of modern times. The military thus often faced criticism. This became fully apparent during the 1897 riots.

The paper discusses the regimental music bands of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. It focuses mainly on their tasks, functions and importance. Attention is also paid to the fact that the legionary bands combined elements of Russian and Austro-Hungarian military music. The text addresses the question of which cultural influence ultimately prevailed.

The fighting between Czechoslovak legionaries and Red Army soldiers in Penza in May 1918 generated and continues to generate various historical narratives, especially about alleged war crimes. How did legionary and communist sources interpret the outcome of the fighting and what losses were attributed to the defenders of the city in general and the 1st Czecho-slovak Revolutionary Regiment in particular? This paper analyses the number of deaths, cites various historical sources, and critically examines the myth of prisoner executions, arguing that the numbers and the account of the events in contemporary literature are likely distorted.

The aim of the paper is to provide details on the Czechoslovak Scouting organisation in exile during the Second World War, especially in relation to what is known as the Czechoslovak Foreign Action. The purpose of the text is to point out the role that Junák (the organization of Scouts and Guides in the Czech Republic) was supposed to play from the point of view of the government in exile and which was also constructed by its leading figures. In doing so, it also reveals some elements of the survival strategy pursued by the official Czechoslovak Scouting Organisation during the war years as well as certain features of post-war Scouting in Czechoslovakia.

This paper provides a Czech translation of the introductory chapter of Lost Illusions. Russian Policies towards Bulgaria in 1877–1887 (1988) by the Czech historian Karel Durman, who lived in exile in Uppsala, Sweden, since 1980. The translation is preceded by a commentary written by the translator, which introduces the reader to the most important moments in Durman’s life and work and the historical background of the text and its contemporary reception.

The study deals with the cult of St. Denis, bishop of Paris and the French “national” patron saint, in medieval Bohemia and Moravia. It attempts to provide answers to the questions about the meaning, character and spread of the veneration of St. Denis in Czech society.

The text explores the views of the Czech immigrant community in the US on the 1929 New York Stock Exchange crash through Czech newspapers from Chicago, Nebraska, and Texas, using a comparative approach to analyse the publications.

This paper examines official negotiation methods behind the renovation and simultaneous use of the Staré Hrady castle between 1949 and 1993, as an example of the rescue of a cultural monument in communist Czechoslovakia. It is concerned with the mechanisms of actor-institutional communication at regional level at work within the broader circumstances prevailing in then Czechoslovakia, arguing that this negotiation was in fact the driving force behind the successful reconstruction of this castle after many years of expert-led volunteer work.

The paper focuses on the issue of air pollution in the industrially important Most region in the 1960s. It analyses how society and government responded to increasing environmental degradation in the region within the evolving political and economic context by examining the media and changes in legislation. Inspired by Donald Worster’s environmental history framework, the paper aims to illustrate the dynamic interplay between the expansion of industry, environmental concerns and policymaking during this crucial period. By investigating the nuances of media discourse and legislative reforms, it explores how air pollution was perceived and what actions were taken to tackle it in the region, contributing to a deeper understanding of the interconnections between society, state, and ecology in environmental contexts.

Finds of early medieval Schlingen-type swords are mostly concentrated in present-day southern Germany, where they are known from a number of graves dating to the end of the late Merovingian period. On the contrary, these swords are completely absent in contexts of the early Carolingian and Great Moravian periods. This paper presents a new find of Schlingen-type sword from Vlčí Pole in the northeastern part of Central Bohemia and its archaeometric analysis. We consider the sword from Vlčí Pole to be the only unambiguous find of a fully preserved long-bladed weapon of the late 7th to 8th century in Bohemia. As it is one of the few late Merovingian swords to have been examined using X-ray computed tomography and metallography, it also contributes to a general understanding of phenomena such as the development of the use of pattern-welded marks and blades with cutting edges of hardened steel.

The Bronze Age (BA) in Central Europe witnessed significant transformations in various aspects of human activities. This study focuses on changes in subsistence strategies during the BA, represented by the assortment of edible plants. We examined charred macroremains from 39 archaeological sites in the Czech Republic. Our aims include providing an overview of crop records, determining the dating of new crop introductions, and identifying spatial patterns of the assortment changes. The results indicate a complex agricultural transformation. Emmer and einkorn dominated in the Early Bronze Age (EBA), while the broomcorn millet was widespread in the Middle Bronze Age (MBA). The Late Bronze Age (LBA) saw increased cereal and pulse diversity, whereas the Final Bronze Age (FBA), characterised by coexisting cereals, represented a terminal stage of the process of gradually evolving subsistence strategies. The study highlights the sudden introduction of broomcorn millet in the MBA and expanding the range of crops, which allowed more flexible responses to local conditions and a better distribution of field work throughout the year.

After the disappearance of the Linear Pottery culture (LBK) in the area now known as the Polish Lowlands, we observe a heterogeneous cultural situation. The Late Band Pottery culture (LBPC) and the Stroke-Ornamented Ware culture (SBK) are distinguished here. Generally, none of these communities used grog (ground potsherds, ‘chamotte’) as the main type of clay temper. However, there are exceptions to these production rules. In this article, the presented pottery materials from sites in the Polish Lowlands allow us to conclude that grog temper was important for some of these communities. An attempt to interpret the addition of fragments of other vessels to the pottery clay does not point to the technical advantages of the chamotte itself, but rather to its symbolic meaning – the use of fragments of burned vessels to produce new forms. A great deal of ethnographic data justifies this approach, which is sometimes used in archaeological interpretations. The proposed hypothesis allows us to consider an alternative concept of the origin of some post-LBK communities in the Polish Lowlands.

During rescue excavations at a rural cemetery in Dolany (NW Bohemia) dating to the 11th-12th century, the skeleton of a young male featuring numerous wounds (n=10) of perimortem sharp force trauma was excavated. Nine of the injuries were localised to the postcranial skeleton and one to the skull. An analysis and interpretation of the wounds showed that at least eight blows were inflicted with a slashing weapon, which could have directly contributed to his death. The observed pattern is most consistent with injuries inflicted during armed conflict. Based on historical sources, it is known that there was no warfare in the immediate vicinity of Dolany during the period under review. Therefore, it has been suggested that the male may have been the victim of a fight or battle, and his body was transported and buried in the place where he probably came from. The discovery provides new information on the funerary practices of victims of early medieval armed conflicts in Bohemia.

This exploratory archaeometric study investigates pottery from a Großromstedt culture associated with a significant migratory wave from the north into the Bohemian Basin at the transition from the Late La Tène to the Roman periods. The analysis of ceramics from the Mlékojedy settlement reveals evidence of technological discontinuity in two key chronological transitions. The first and more significant transition between the Late La Tène period and the Early Roman period (LT D/R A) is characterised by a change in the pottery forming method, with a turn away from the use of the potter's wheel. New pottery shapes and a new range of ornamentation are also introduced in this period, potentially indicating cultural import or/and population migration. However, the technological changes in pottery production were not absolute, as certain processes persisted. The second technological discontinuity was found between phases R A and R B1 of the Roman period. It appears as a natural evolution of the ceramic technology, which was accelerated by the social changes. The findings suggest that the vast majority of pottery could have been produced from local sources.

During the Late La Tène period in the first century BC, Central Europe witnessed significant shifts in settlement structures and material culture. Understanding these changes necessitates an examination of LT D1b phase settlements, particularly in Bohemia, where such sites are rare. This study extends beyond conventional stylistic analysis of pottery, incorporating material and manufacturing perspectives to reveal production organisation, distribution, and community interactions. Through a comprehensive examination of the settlement pottery from the feature 27/1986 from Křinec using X-ray fluorescence, thin section analysis, and computed tomography, we have gained a better understanding of the settlement's position in the regional socio-economic network within which ceramic vessels or raw materials were transported over distances of more than 20 km. The presented approach offers a deeper comprehension of the La Tène period's end in Bohemia and underscores the value of multifaceted pottery research in archaeological studies.

Migrations and mobility are key issues within archaeological research. The La Tène culture of Central Europe (450–20 BC) underwent deep transformative processes in the 4th and 3rd century BC, traditionally named as the ‘Celtic migrations’ and attested by written sources, and the spread of La Tène culture across Europe, which is explicitly conceived here as a phenomenon in its own right. Is it possible to corroborate one with another? In this article, I propose three models which may help to explain the main processes behind the archaeological phenomena of the ‘Celtic migrations’. These explanatory models and new results are based on long-term research of the La Tène societies of the 4th/3rd century BC, which were deeply rooted in the ideals and behavioural norms of the ‘princely’ elites of the 5th century BC.

The Sauersack/Rolava POW camp from World War II is the first archaeologically investigated site of its kind in Bohemia, and thanks to its highly authentic state of preservation it can be considered one of the best archaeologically known internment facilities in Europe. Nevertheless, new findings continue to emerge, including information from illegal treasure hunters. In 2022, the main settlement waste dump was identified and due to the threat to the site from illegal excavations, pre-emptive archaeological testing was immediately undertaken. The research has resulted in the documentation of a remarkable structure suited to waste disposal and the recovery of an assemblage of artefacts and ecofacts that complement and extend our knowledge of the communities that inhabited the POW camp.

This report presents the aims and ongoing progress of the ERC-funded project “Re-Evaluating the Eleventh Century through Linked Events and Entities” (Grant #101002357). We introduce the rationale for the project and the innovative solution for recording historical data that we have developed, known as the STAR model. We then give details of the four case studies undertaken in the project, which will shed new light on the movement of people, the understanding of place and space, and the production of texts within and among Christian societies of the eleventh century. Through the work of this project, we hope to be able to represent, examine, and illustrate the multiplicity of perspectives and interpretations that arise in the history of a century that was so pivotal to the development of the modern Near East and Europe.

This paper aims to enhance our knowledge about late-medieval epidemic outbreaks in specific parts of Eastern Central Europe. The first part on modern-day Eastern Germany discusses narrative evidence and its use in the current research on plague history, before bringing in municipal records on testaments and conveyances from Görlitz and Stralsund for the reconstruction of seasonality and mortality rates, as well as funeral inscriptions and pictorial evidence from Erfurt as indirect indicators of plague waves. After a brief discussion of the scarce narrative sources, the second part of the paper concerning Bohemia works with the evidence of the Libri Confirmationum, a source originating from the chancellery of the archbishops of Prague. Every new appointment to a benefice was supposed to be approved by one of the vicars general of the archbishop, and this confirmation usually gives the reason for the vacancy. Expanding on Eduard Maur’s research, death statistics and their frequency are analyzed statistically. The paper provides insight into new evidence for the reconstruction of plague waves, mortality rates and seasonality, and thereby highlights the characteristics of the plague in Eastern Central Europe.

History writing has already processed the political history of the Principality of Transylvania, clarifying many of its details. Nevertheless, the way state administration functioned, including the judiciary, is still very much a mystery, although understanding the framework of everyday life is vital in investigating past ages.

The study examines contemporary perceptions of the emergence and spread of the plague in Central and Eastern Europe following the Battle of Belgrade in 1456. On one hand, the Battle of Belgrade represents a significant Christian victory in the conflicts with the Ottomans during the fifteenth century. Consequently, it was utilized in crusade-related propaganda discourse and perceived as a divine blessing for the anti-Ottoman crusade. On the other hand, some prominent figures such as John Hunyadi, John of Capistrano, and Serbian Despot George Branković died shortly after the event due to the outbreak of the plague during the battle. The research aims to explore how contemporary historical sources handled this duality between the sense of triumph and the plague outbreak. It provides an overview of the areas affected by the plague due to the movement of armies and the political and economic connections between different parts of East and Central Europe. The study investigates whether and to what extent reports of the plague from the region link the Battle of Belgrade to the outbreak of the disease. Additionally, it analyses fifteenth-century sources related to the battle itself. This segment of the research examines representations of the plague outbreak, particularly the infection and death of the aforementioned Christian leaders. The research focuses on how the discourse on the plague is interpreted in relation to narratives of heroism, martyrdom, and sainthood, addressing aspects of adaptation, marginalization, and the complete omission of mentions of the plague in these interpretations.

The paper briefly describes the basis of the constitution of the Principality of Transylvania, the union of Estates. Among the antecedents, it reviews the late medieval alliances of the Estates that were made by the nations (nationes) living in Transylvania, highlighting that the three ‘political nations’ were not nations or ethnicities in the modern sense, but rather were separated by their privileges and legal status. Based on Latin and Hungarian sources, the author reveals the covenants as renewed in the Articles of Law and emphasized that the concept of Union was broadened in the seventeenth century so that it no longer served only to support the unity of the state but also guaranteed the maintenance of the privileges of the Estates. The most precise interpretation of the Union was set out in the Approbatae Constitutiones, a collection of laws compiled in 1653.

The paper discusses the changes in Székely society during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The topic is presented from a legal historical perspective because the scholarly literature has either paid no substantial attention to the legal framework of the early modern era or failed to utilize the sources relevant for Székely society. By re-examining already known sources and analyzing new ones, i.e., judicial proceedings, testimonies, contract and personal letters, it appears that the main turning points of the history of Székely society have been misinterpreted in some aspects, and a series of new questions have emerged that are yet to be answered.

The paper describes the organization of the independent Transylvanian central court of law, the so-called Royal/Voivodal/Princely Table (Tabula) and its court of appeal, the court of personal presence (personalis presentia), in the light of the modest secondary literature, dietary decisions, and archival sources. Manuscript and published sources of law referred to in the course of litigation in the Transylvanian Royal/Voivodal/Princely Table (Tabula, Curia) in the second half of the sixteenth century are also presented. Based on the analysed archival sources—mainly the various allegationes lawyers made—it may be concluded that different sources provided the grounds that were frequently given for the court decisions. The analysis of available sources shows that, besides the Tripartitum, which was mostly referred to, during the litigations lawyers generally used the laws of the Hungarian Kingdom, and that the Decreta of the Transylvanian diets and the Table judged some cases according to their own custom.

Western scholarship has studied the mid-fourteenth-century cataclysm of the Black Death for centuries. In contrast, due to the limited number of contemporary narrative sources, in East Central Europe, until recently historians discussed it only marginally. In the past decades, not independent of the emergence of new methods, such as archaeogenetics and palynology, and novel approaches to studying the Black Death such as climate and environmental history, scholars have increasingly turned to the analysis of the multiple waves of the second plague pandemic in this region. Recent studies have drawn attention to the apparent lack of data on the Black Death in the region while pointing to the potential role of the later waves, such as the pestis secunda and tercia, as well as later medieval and early modern recurrences of the epidemic in the historical demography of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. The paper provides an overview of the written evidence of the Black Death in Hungary and publishes in extenso some of the most important documentary evidence of the episodes of the epidemic in the Kingdom of Hungary. It argues that, unlike in the case of Bohemia and Poland, the first wave of the plague can be relatively well pursued by a critical analysis of the written evidence.

The word ‘Székely’ or ‘Szekler’ was formed from the Hungarian verb szökik (jump, move fast, escape, run away) using the suffix ‘-l/ly’ creating deverbal nouns. The original meaning of the word is fast-moving (person), fugitive, or runaway. The formation of the social group began in the eleventh century. The process was brought about the establishment of the landlord system and frequent wars which led to the escapes and ‘wanderings’ of slaves and free people coerced into bondage. The refugees mainly settled in the sparsely populated border region, where the institutional vacuum offered them favourable conditions to avoid the control of the feudal state. Here, the groups of different ethnic origins acquired a unified identity. We can understand the process of the formation of the community by using the conceptual frameworks of ‘unintended consequences, self-organization, spontaneous order, and exaptation.’ The spontaneous process may have been replaced by the conscious organizational efforts of the Hungarian kings only around 1100. This was followed by the first mention of the Székelys in the Battle of Olšava in 1116.

In the summer of 1604, the Transylvanian Council of Government, which had been formed shortly before, submitted a longer report to King Rudolf I of Hungary. They reported on the administration and financial situation of the newly pacified province of Transylvania. The most pressing issue, however, was the pay and maintenance of the mercenary corps stationed in Transylvania. Accordingly, the bulk of the report is devoted to discussing problems relating to the army. The report gives us an idea of how a Council of Government (Regiment) that had already been ‘tried and tested’ in the Austrian hereditary provinces functioned in Transylvania, and introduces the challenges members of the Council had to face.

While there is no direct evidence of epic singers in the Hungarian Conquest period, their presence and activity can nevertheless be posited on the strength of indirect evidence. Epic songs in Hungarian are known from the later fifteenth century, while the chronicles mention certain epic songs from the late twelfth century. Some of these epic songs celebrated the Conquest period and its events, and it seems unlikely that these songs were inspired by written sources and were, in this sense, secondary. The Hungarian expression énekmondás [song-speaking] is expressly archaic and has its parallels in Turkic languages. Cobza, the name of the musical instrument used by epic singers as accompaniment (Hung. koboz) is likewise rooted in the Turkic world and is a legacy of the pre-Conquest period, similarly to the designation of the performers as fiddlers.