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Journal of European Periodical Studies, 1.2 (Winter 2016)
ISSN 2506-6587
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21825/jeps.v1i2.385
Content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence
e Journal of European Periodical Studies is hosted by Ghent University
Website: ojs.ugent.be/jeps
Review of Matthias Karmasin and Christian
Oggolder, eds, Eine österreichische Mediengeschichte
Band 1: Von den frühen Drucken bis zur
Ausdierenzierung des Mediensystems (1500–1918)
(2016)
Charlotte D’Eer
To cite this review: Charlotte D’Eer, review of Matthias Karmasin and Christian
Oggolder, eds, Eine österreichische Mediengeschichte Band 1: Von den frühen Drucken
bis zur Ausdierenzierung des Mediensystems (1500–1918) (2016), Journal of European
Periodical Studies, 1.2 (Winter 2016), 129–32
Scholarship on German-language media
history has focused mainly — and perhaps
unsurprisingly — on Germany, while
Austria has been largely ignored. In the
past few years, however, Austria has begun
to appear on the scholarly radar thanks
to digitization projects at the Austrian
National Library (ONB). One such
project is ARIADNE, which provides
information and documentation on women
editors specically (for more information
on ARIADNE, see also Larissa Krainer’s
contribution). Austria deserves more
scholarly attention still. is handbook
on Austrian media history will go a long
way towards apprising researchers of its
tumultuous history, diversied media, and
European connections.
Matthias Karmasin (Prof. DDr
Universität Klagenfurtt) and Christian
Oggolder (Alpen-Adria-Universität
Klagenfurt) co-edited Eine österreichische
Mediengeschichte, Band 1: Von den frühen
Drucken bis zur Ausdierenzierung des
Mediensystems (1500–1918). is title
indicates an ambitious project, aiming
to provide the reader with a hitherto
unprecedented overview of four centuries
of Austrian media history. is handbook
will be the rst of two volumes that should
be considered together as one historical
account of the Austrian media landscape.
e overall structure of the handbook is
easy to navigate and user-friendly, which
makes it accessible for a broad audience,
including students.¹ Each contribution
builds upon the previous period, yet the
book avoids becoming rooted in the kind of
positivist optimism that is typical of most
diachronic handbooks.² ere are eleven
chapters — including the introduction —
each addressing a dierent period and each
dealing with a dierent print medium. e
book takes a transdisciplinary approach
in order to uncover social, discursive, and
cultural change without excluding socio-
economic and industrial contexts.
e fact that the book covers so
much ground may seem overwhelming
at rst, but the editors have managed
to provide the reader with a coherent
and diverse account of media history.
e handbook covers a wide range of
topics including gender, religion, politics,
economics, and sociology. e contributors
focus on historical caesura such as
censorship, war, and intellectual trends, to
provide an accessible overview of dierent
media across dierent periods. In essence,
the book — like any good handbook —
provides a general introduction to Austrian
media as well as extending an invitation
to the reader to dive deeper into the
topics it covers. It includes more general
contributions such as Seidlers essay on the
development of Viennese periodicals in
the second half of the eighteenth century
(‘Andrea Seidler: Zur Entwicklung
des Wiener Zeitschriftenwesens in der
zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts’)
or Christian Oggolders research on
typographical media in the confessional
era (Christian Oggolder: ‘Typographische
Medien im konfessionellen Zeitalter’).
However, the book also provides in-depth
analyses of the multiple aspects and layers
of Austrian media, including case-studies
on the renowned ‘Fuggerzeitungen’
(Katrin Keller: ‘Die Fuggerzeitungen:
Geschriebene Zeitungen und der
Reviews
Matthias Karmasin and Christian Oggolder, eds, Eine österreichische Mediengeschichte
Band 1: Von den frühen Drucken bis zur Ausdierenzierung des Mediensystems (1500–
1918) (Berlin: Springer, 2016). vi + 253 pp. ISBN 978-3-658-11008-6
1 Matthias Karmasin and Christian Oggolder, eds, Eine österreichische Mediengeschichte Band 1: Von den
frühen Drucken bis zur Ausdierenzierung des Mediensystems (1500–1918) (Berlin: Springer, 2016), p. 6.
2 Karmasin and Oggolder, p. 4.
Reviews
Beginn der periodischen Presse’)
and editor and publisher Michael
Hermann Ambros (Andreas Golob,
‘Frühes Korrespondenzwesen. Michael
Hermann Ambros und sein Grazer
Zeitungsunternehmen’). e thematic
overlap between case-studies and
contextual framework fosters the
handbook’s transdisciplinarity.
Moreover, the book’s scope
includes lesser known media such as
calendars [Almanachen], and women’s
periodicals [Frauenzeitschriften] are
discussed as well. Especially Almanachen
are under-researched, as they are not
generally considered to be part of the
same discourse as periodicals. With the
exception of the last chapter, the editors
have chosen to keep the focus on print
culture more generally rather than zooming
in on visual culture. e last chapter
(Hannes Leidinger: ‘Österreichische
Medien und Medienpolitik 1914–1918
– Ein internationaler Vergleich unter
besonderer Berücksichtigung visueller
Kommunikationsformen’), which deals
with authenticity and truthfulness of
photography during WWI, gives the reader
a taste of what the second volume will
probably focus on: visual and spoken media.
In the introduction, the editors
address their decision to use ‘Austria’’ as a
demarcated frame of reference within the
book. Karmasin and Oggoder reason that
since historical research has constructed
the past by way of more ‘national’ discourses
[die Vergangenheitskonstrukte], this
Austrian perspective is justied by that
dominant discourse which focuses on
the development of a historical Europe
as ‘Nationalstaatlich’, with nation states
as discreet political and cultural entities.
This creates a discrepancy between
the emphasis on nation states in the
introduction and the clear transnational
approach of the contributors. The
handbook does not underestimate the
importance of a larger international public
sphere across Europe. For instance, the
editors reect on industrial growth as
fundamental to discussions of media
history. In addition, the contributions
make assumptions about the German
public sphere [den deutschsprachigen
Raum] or focus on intercultural exchange
of periodicals, calendars, or newspapers
between cities. An interesting example
is Keller’s aforementioned article about
‘Fuggerzeitungen’ in which she mentions
Prague, Turkey, and the south Slavic states,
or Golob’s contribution which dives deeper
into the international networks of Ambros
as an editor and publisher. Additionally,
Golob zooms in on editorial strategies
(p. 132) and the importance of editors,³
rather than focusing on the materiality of
newspapers an sich.
e editors make it clear that the
handbook revolves around a historical
project, and that its ultimate goal is to give
an account of Austrian media from 1500
to 1920. is makes for a very descriptive
and detailed analysis of the historical
context which aected several media. e
focus is very much on societal changes that
allowed certain newspapers or periodicals
to exist (e.g.: ‘soziale und ökonomsiche
Voraussetzungen für die Entwicklung
der Presse’). However, where the book
gets truly interesting is when it invites
the reader to go beyond the scope of
the overall research question, which is
a descriptive overview of media history,
and to take a look at political, social, and
cultural changes [Wandel] that dierent
media initiate. For example, in Oggolder’s
analysis of the confessional context of
newspapers, he discusses how the religious
context takes on a political dimension
through these newspapers. As such,
Oggolder draws attention to the agency
of media. Rather than undergoing their
context, media and its content create new
ways to deal with the past. e handbook
3 Andreas Golob, ‘Frühes Korrespondenzwesen: Michael Hermann Ambros und sein Grazer
Zeitungsunternehmen’, in Karmasin and Oggolder, eds, pp. 113–38 (p. 132).
4 Andrea Seidler, ‘Zur Entwicklung des Wiener Zeitschriftenwesens in der zweiten Hälfte des 18.
Jahrhunderts’, in Karmasin and Oggolder, eds, pp. 139–66 (p. 140).
Journal of European Periodical Studies 1.2
is at its best when it moves away from the
medium as an artefact, and focuses instead
on the medium as an active agent that is
able to change discourse.
Eine östenreichische Medien-geschichte
oers considerable insight into Austrian
media history from the seventeenth to
the early twentieth century. e book not
only anticipates further research, but it also
seeks to introduce readers to a new segment
of media history. is makes the handbook
an essential read for anyone interested
in (Austrian) media history. e editors
demonstrate a thematic heterogeneity
and a structural homogeneity which every
great handbook should have. Hopefully, an
English translation will be published soon.
Charlotte D’Eer
Ghent University