AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM NEW YORK INVITATION

THE AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM NEW YORK PRESENTS WHAT CAUSED THE BREAK-UP OF THE HABSBURG MONARCHY? The Dietrich W. Botstiber Series FRIDAY OCTOBER 10th, 2008 6:30 PM With GERALD STOURZH (University of Vienna) and ISTVÁN DÉAK (Columbia University) In the fall of 1918, in the final months of World War I, the Austrian-Hungarian empire disintegrated - its various nationalities would go on to form independent states or were absorbed by neighbouring countries. What exactly caused this swift break-up of a once great European power? Was the empire's collapse the inevitable result of a decades-long decline or would Austria-Hungary have survived in some form in the absence of military defeat? Was the Habsburg Monarchy a despotic and increasingly obsolete state or was its multi-ethnic set-up a model for a future united Europe? Two prominent historians, Gerald Stourzh from Vienna and István Déak from New York (one Austrian, the other with Hungarian roots), will take a look at what happened 90 years ago, and what we can learn from it in a new Europe. Gerald Stourzh, Austrian historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Vienna, was born in Vienna in 1929. Stourzh has written the standard history of the Austrian State Treaty of 1955 as well as important studies of constitutional rights and nationality in the Habsburg Monarchy. He has recently published "From Vienna to Chicago and Back: Essays on Intellectual History and Political Thought in Europe and America" (University of Chicago Press) István Deák, who is Seth Low Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, was born in 1926 in Hungary. His publications include, The Lawful Revolution: Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians, 1848-1849 (Columbia University Press, 1979), as well as Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848-1918 (Oxford University Press, 1990). VENUE Austrian Cultural Forum New York 11 East 52nd Street New York, NY 10022 RESERVATIONS Free admission. Reservations required. For reservations, please call ACF's reservation line at (212) 319 5300 ext. 222 or email reservations@acfny.org. Please leave your name, telephone number, the day of the performance you want to attend and number of tickets requested.