Balkans Commission
The Balkan Commission was an institution of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . It was closed on December 31, 2011; until then it was part of the Center for Linguistics, Image and Sound Documentation. According to their activity profile, the Commission's academics deal in the broadest sense with the cultures, languages and literatures of the Balkan Peninsula . Her main activity consisted of linguistic work and text editions.
history
Foundation and tasks
On February 3, 1897, the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna decided to set up a commission for historical, archaeological and philological research into the Balkan Peninsula . Previously, researchers like Vatroslav Jagić , who is considered to be one of the founders of modern Slavic studies, argued the need for such a commission, among other things, with the "insufficient linguistic research" of the region. Otto Benndorf was chairman of the commission for the first ten years. From the beginning, language and dialect research and the financing of corresponding trips were one of the most important fields of activity. Examples are the research into Bulgarian by Ljubomir Miletitsch 1897–1989 or the studies on civilization vocabulary in southeastern Europe that have been ongoing since 1998. Archaeologists and ancient scholars also worked on the commission. The aim was to secure epigraphic documents as well as excavations, especially Roman and early Christian remains on the Balkan Peninsula. In 1907 the commission was divided into a linguistic department (chairman: Vatroslav Jagić) and an antiquarian department (chairman: Friedrich von Kenner ). In 1997, the tasks of the antiquarian department were finally transferred to the Academy's Research Center for Archeology. When the Balkan Commission was founded, there was also talk of a research into folklore conditions . However, this ethnographic aspect remained secondary, especially alongside the linguistic studies.
First World War and the interwar period
From 1914 at the latest, the Balkans Commission also organized and financed scientific research trips. The focus was on geography and geology, but also undertakings such as the botanical exploration of northern Albania carried out by Ignaz Dörfler in 1914–1916 or zoological studies. During the First World War, the commission tried to continue research trips in the occupied countries of Southeast Europe in cooperation with the Austrian army. Expeditions were carried out using military infrastructure, covering (“exploring”) regions from various disciplines. For example, an art historian, an ethnographer, a Slavist, an Albanist and an archaeologist were involved in an expedition to Serbia, Montenegro and Albania in May 1916. During this time, under the direction of Franz Steiner, a comprehensive census was carried out in occupied Albania, the results of which were published in 1922. These expeditions came to an end with the war. Like the entire academy, the Balkan Commission was confronted with a lack of funds and new frontiers. In the 1920s, the company was busy re-establishing contact with pre-war members and their projects and securing collections and findings. Paul Kretschmer became chairman of the linguistic department in 1923 , Emil Reisch chairman of the antiquarian department in 1923 . In 1935, when Carl Patsch - the former director of the Balkan Institute in Sarajevo - was elected chairman of the antiquarian department, there was talk of resuming work . This happened, among other things, with the financing of a trip to explore the Bulgarian Danube Limes in cooperation with the Academy of Sciences in Copenhagen. The linguistic department carried out editing work, for example the publication of “Albanian Fairy Tales” by Maximilian Lambertz in 1932.
World War II and post-war period
The Commission's publication activities came to a standstill during the war. From 1940 the commission was expanded to include both classes of the academy, and in 1942 an additional scientific department was set up. In 1943, based on corresponding models in the German Reich, it was renamed the Southeast Commission. The Southeast Research or East Research had an important propaganda value in the Nazi regime. The new commission had a humanities and a natural science department, but in 1948 it was reassigned to the philosophical-historical class. There is still no systematic review of the scientific and ideological orientation of the Balkan Commission during the Nazi era or of the personal continuities after the war. In 1950 the research group, now part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, was given the name Balkan Commission, which is still in use today. The heads of the antiquarian department were Rudolf Egger (1950) and Hermann Vetters (1966); the chairmen of the linguistic department Wilhelm Havers (1956), Heinz Kronasser (1961), Josef Hamm (1966) and František Václav Mareš (1982). In 1989 the linguistic department was renamed to philological department. On January 1, 1993, the two departments of the commission were merged, Radoslav Katičić became chairman . In 1997, the tasks of the antiquarian department were assigned to the Academy Research Center for Archeology. From 2002 to 2007 Johannes Koder was chairman of the commission, from 2008 to 2011 Michael Metzeltin . On December 31, 2011, the traditional commission of OeAW General Secretary Arnold Suppan and Chairman Michael Metzeltin was closed.
Publications
The Balkans Commission has published the publications of the Balkans Commission since it was founded . Until 1999 these were divided into an antiquarian and a philological section. Since 1987 she has been editing the Vienna Slavic Yearbook together with the Institute for Slavic Studies at the University of Vienna .
swell
- Richard Meister : History of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna 1847-1947 . Holzhausen, Vienna 1947.
- Mathias Beer and Gerhard Seewan (eds.): Southeast research in the shadow of the Third Reich. Institutions - content - people. Oldenburg, Munich 2004.
- Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (AÖAW): holdings of the Balkan Commission.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated August 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. March 15, 2009.
- ^ "Proposal for the establishment of the Commission" to the management of the academy in the protocol book of the Balkan Commission AÖAW, inventory Balkan Commission, 1B1.
- ↑ Meister, p. 154
- ↑ See the corresponding correspondence: AÖAW, Balkan Commission, 1B5
- ↑ See minutes of the meeting: AÖAW, Balkan Commission, 1B6
- ↑ see Beer
