Habsburg myth

{{Short description|Political myth in Central and Eastern Europe glorifying Habsburg rule}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}

File:Growth of Habsburg territories.jpg]]

The Habsburg myth ({{langx|de|Habsburgischer Mythos}} or {{lang|de|Habsburgmythos}}; {{langx|it|Mito asburgico}}) is a political myth present in the historiography and literature of some Central and Eastern European countries, particularly in Austria, according to which the past rule of the Habsburg monarchy led to an era of prosperity in the region to look back on.{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/30050153|title=Another Europe: remembering Habsburg Galicja|first=Luiza|last=Bialasiewicz|author-link=Luiza Bialasiewicz|journal=Cultural Geographies|publisher=Department of Geography, Durham University|volume=10|issue=1|pages=21–44|year=2003|doi=10.1191/1474474003eu258oa|bibcode=2003CuGeo..10...21B|s2cid=96459850|hdl=10278/5080682|hdl-access=free}} The concept was coined by the Italian Germanist Claudio Magris in his 1963 thesis Il mito asburgico nella letteratura austriaca moderna ("The Habsburg myth in modern Austrian literature").{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/austrianstudies.28.2020.0148|title=Claudio Magris's "Habsburg Myth": A Response to Hermann Broch's Reading of Hofmannsthal and Kraus|first1=Norbert Christian|last1=Wolf|first2=Victoria|last2=Martin|first3=Deborah|last3=Holmes|journal=Austrian Studies|publisher=Modern Humanities Research Association|volume=28|pages=148–165|year=2020|doi=10.5699/austrianstudies.28.2020.0148|jstor=10.5699/austrianstudies.28.2020.0148|s2cid=235027290|url-access=subscription}}

Some important novelists that helped the emergence of what is nowadays referred to as the Habsburg myth were Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth.{{cite book|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344620103|title=Europe's Malaise: The Long View|editor-first1=Francesco|editor-last1=Duina|editor-first2=Frédéric|editor-last2=Merand|chapter=The Habsburg Myth and the European Union|chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345783516|first=Helen|last=Thompson|author-link=Helen Thompson (political economist)|series=Research in Political Sociology|publisher=Emerald Group Publishing|volume=27|pages=45–66|year=2020|isbn=978-1-83909-042-4|issn=0895-9935|doi=10.1108/S0895-993520200000027005|s2cid=224991526}} A possible correlation has been made between the Habsburg myth and the rise of fascism in parts of Europe in the 20th century.{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44968556|title=The Habsburg Myth and the rise of fascism|first=Steven|last=Beller|journal=The German Quarterly|publisher=Wiley|volume=90|issue=3|pages=351–353|year=2017|jstor=44968556}} It has also been related to the current European Union (EU), as some early proponents of European integration and a pan-European identity were inspired in the supranational multiethnic Habsburg Monarchy.