Matthias Widhalm

Main research areas: (Early) modern history; 17th, 18th and 19th centuries; Austrian, German and French history; history of ideas; cultural history; history of German literature; court history; history of the nobility; absolutism; history of Political Catholicism in Austria; history of students; history of historiography; genealogy; theories of political legitimacy

Biography:

2014-2017: University of Vienna
Bachelor of Arts (History) / Bachelor of Arts (German Studies)

2017-2020: University of Vienna
Master of Arts (history) with distinction, 2020; Thesis: ‚Genealogie als Mittel der Herrschaftslegitimation? Dynastienahe Historiographie des Hauses Habsburg von Leopold I. bis Karl VI. (1658-1740)‘. Advisor: Univ. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Thomas Winkelbauer

2018-2020: University of Vienna
Bachelor of Education (History / German)

2021-2023: University of Vienna
Master of Education (History / German), 2023; Thesis: Zwischen politischem
Katholizismus, bürgerlichem Liberalismus und ideellem Konservativismus? Die
Christlichsoziale Partei und ihre ideengeschichtliche Ausrichtung im Alten
Österreich’. Advisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Peter Becker

Since 2024: University of Vienna
Doctoral programme. Topic: ‚Das monarchisch-dynastische Selbstverständnis im
Wandel? Herrschaftsverständnis und Regierungspraxis Franz II. (I.) zwischen
aufgeklärtem Absolutismus, Französischer Revolution und Restauration'

Research interests: Theories of political legitimacy in early modern society; Austrian administrative history; Habsburg Studies; Ancien Régime; French Empire; German literature; court history from the 17th to the 19th century; history of ideas

Current research project: ‚Das monarchisch-dynastische Selbstverständnis im Wandel? Herrschaftsverständnis und Regierungspraxis Franz II. (I.) zwischen aufgeklärtem Absolutismus, Französischer Revolution und Restauration’
The reign of Francis II. (I.) (1792-1835) has received a highly ambivalent assessment in Austrian historiography. This may seem surprising at first glance, since he ruled the Habsburg Monarchy for more than 40 years, which made him one of the longest-reigning monarchs of his house. At the same time, his reign can by no means be described as
uneventful; on the contrary, it was a phase of numerous drastic upheavals: He was the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1792-1806), the founder of the Austrian Empire (1804) and the ruler who was mostly associated with the transition from the so-called 'reform era' to the era of ‘restoration’. But despite his extraordinarily long and eventful reign, can be noticed that his era fades into the background both in collective memory and in scholarship. The 'Franciszean era' has often been dismissed as a kind of 'intermediate phase', framed and outshone by the age of the 'reform emperor', Joseph II. (1780-1790), and the long reign of his grandson Francis Joseph I. (1848-1916). In the common understanding of history, the 'Franciszean era' is better known as the 'Metternich era', the 'Biedermeier period' or the 'Vormärz'.
This Dissertation-project aims to look closely at the reign of Francis II. (I.), which has been ignored in historiography for so long. Based on the minutes of the State Council, the Imperial Cabinet Chancellery and the 'Kaiser-Franz-Akten' in the sense of an historic policy-field-analysis and a qualitative-comparative interpretation of memoirs and diaries of his contemporaries – such as for example the famous diaries of Kübeck von Kübau – will be offered a new look at the emperor's understanding of power and government practices. It will be shown that he was not just a passive monarch at his advisors side, but also a ruler that actively set political priorities. Following this thesis, the reign of Francis II (I) can be seen less - as is so often expressed in historiography - as an 'insignificant transitional period' in the history of the Habsburg Monarchy, but on the contrary as an essential and formative 'bridging period'’. He was not the so often mentioned 'end point' of an enlightened type of ruler, but rather a link from the 'enlightened absolutism' of the 18th century, in whose ideals he had ultimately been raised, to the bourgeois-bureaucratic type of a ruler in the 19th century.

List of Publications:

Genealogie als Mittel der Herrschaftslegitimation? Dynastienahe Historiographie des Hauses Habsburg von Leopold I. bis Karl VI. (1658-1740). Berlin: WVB 2020.

Zwischen politischem Katholizismus, bürgerlichem Liberalismus und ideellem Konservativismus? Die Christlichsoziale Partei und ihre ideengeschichtliche Ausrichtung im Alten Österreich. Wien: Universität Wien 2023 (MA-Arbeit).