Robert A. May

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Robert Adolf Kann (born February 11, 1906 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; † August 30, 1981 there ) was an Austrian-American lawyer, historian and academic author who mainly dealt with the history of the Habsburg Monarchy .

Life

His father Leo Kann was an executive in the textile industry. Robert A. Kann studied law at the University of Vienna and obtained his doctorate in 1930. He joined the judiciary as a trainee lawyer and began studying history at the same time. His teachers were Srbik , Bibl and Přibram . In 1937 he married Marie Breuer (* 1907), the granddaughter of Josef Breuer . Kann and Marie Breuer-Kann, a lawyer herself, lost their jobs after the “Anschluss” in March 1938, had to emigrate and in July 1938 flew to London via Zurich and Paris . In January 1939, Kann and his wife traveled by ship to the United States thanks to an affidavit from Sigmund Freud .

Honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery

In New York , Kann attended a librarianship course. He taught from 1941 at the historical school of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton , New Jersey , wrote his first scientific papers and received his doctorate in history from Columbia University in 1946 . In 1947 he lectured at Rutgers University and became a full professor at that university in 1956. The children Peter (* 1942) and Marilyn (* 1948) were born in Princeton. Funded by the banker Max Warburg , he published his first important work The Multinational Empire in 1950 . In 1950 he came back to Vienna for the first time to analyze Franz Ferdinand's correspondence in the house, court and state archives . He became a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and took up a visiting professorship in Vienna in 1974/75.

With its multinational view of the Habsburg Monarchy, Kann's work left the German-centralist perspective prevalent in Austrian historiography at the time.

In 1972 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Salzburg . In 1975 Robert A. Kann was awarded the City of Vienna Prize for Humanities .

His grave of honor is at the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 40, number 144).

Fonts (selection)

English

  • The Multinational Empire. Nationalism and National Reform in the Habsburg Empire. Volume 1: Empire and nationalities. Volume 2: Empire reform. Columbia University Press, New York 1950.
  • The problem of restoration. A study in comparative political history. University of California Press, Berkeley (Cal.) 1968.
  • A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918. University of California Press, Berkeley (Cal.) 1980, ISBN 0-520-04206-9 .
  • Stanley B. Winters (Ed.): Economic Growth and the impact of the dual alliance in the Habsburg monarchy: essays honoring Robert A. Kann on his 75th birthday. Tempe (Arizona) 1980 (= East Central Europe, 7.2).
  • with Zdeněk V. David (ed.): The peoples of the Eastern Habsburg Lands, 1526–1918. University of Washington Press 1984, ISBN 0-295-96095-7 .
  • Stanley B. Winters (Ed.): Dynasty, politics and culture. Selected essays. Social Science Monographs, Boulder (Col. 1991), ISBN 0-88033-223-9 . (With a bibliography Kanns pp. 407–419.)

German

  • The nationality problem of the Habsburg monarchy. History and ideas of the national endeavors from the Vormärz to the dissolution of the Reich in 1918. Volume 1: The Reich and the Peoples. Volume 2: Ideas and Plans for Reich Reform . Böhlau, 2nd edition, Graz / Vienna 1964.
  • (Ed.): Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Josef Breuer: A letter exchange 1889–1916. Bergland-Verlag, Vienna 1969.
  • The restoration as a phenomenon in history. Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-222-10779-3 .
  • (Ed.): Germany and Austria. A bilateral history book. Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-7141-6551-7 .
  • History of the Habsburg Empire 1526 to 1918. Translation by Dorothea Winkler. Böhlau, 3rd edition, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-205-98178-2 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Richard Georg Plaschka : Robert A. Kann for his 70th birthday. In: Richard Georg Plaschka, Horst Haselsteiner (Ed.): Nationalism, State Authority, Resistance: Aspects of National and Social Development in East Central and Southeastern Europe. Celebration for the sixtieth birthday. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-486-52831-9 , p. 421ff.
  2. ↑ Katharina Breuer-Mautner
  3. ↑ Johannes Feichtinger: Science between cultures. Austrian university professors in emigration 1933-1945. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3593365847 , p. 280f.
  4. ↑ Genealogy
  5. ↑ Karl Vocelka: The Habsburg Empire as the subject and task of Austrian historical research ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 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. (PDF; 879 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.univie.ac.at
  6. ↑ Graves of honor at the Vienna Central Cemetery , PDF, 10.5 MB
  7. ↑ DDr., Prof. Robert Adolf Kann
personal data
SURNAME Can, Robert A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Can, Robert Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 30, 1981
Place of death Vienna