Through the Keyhole: Narrated History!
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the First World War
Artstetten, 6 April 2018

The Austrian education and demonstration activities of NETWORLD (WP 6) have been focused on Castle Artstetten as a highly symbolic site related to World War I. Castle Artstetten is the family seat and burial site of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie, whose assassination in Sarajevo triggered off the World War. The descendants of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie still live at Artstetten and run a museum. NETWORLD project partner die Berater, supported by Danube University Krems, facilitated the creation of a new exhibition at Artstetten: „Through the Keyhole: Narrated History! Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the First World War”.

The main focus of this exhibition is on:

• Austria-Hungary before 1914, i.e. the political history of the First World War, the formation of the alliance systems which ultimately faced each other on the battlefields.
• The assassination of Sarajevo itself, its crime-like progress, its fatal political and military consequences. You also get to know the characters in a different way than in history books.
• Then quite deliberately several changes of perspective: the further destiny of the family of Franz Ferdinand is confronted with the everyday realities of other groups of the population: hungry ordinary people, prisoners of war, soldiers…
• And finally, a look at the new political order after the World War: the downfall of the Habsburg Empire, the emergence of the Republic. Another interesting question here is if (or not) Franz Ferdinand's early vision of the "United States of Austria" can be described as a kind of forerunner of the EU.

The exhibition particularly aims at raising young people’s interest in the history of World War I:

• The exhibition concept offers an exciting introduction to the topic through a mixture of personal approach - the family history of the Hohenbergs, who still live here today and run the museum - and "great" political history.
• Project co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF and IPA)
• Designs and learning materials for accompanying peace education workshops were developed with expertise from Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR), Stadtschlaining, on of the most renowned peace research institutes in Austria: They examine the question on how the contemporary press wrote about the Sarajevo assassination and how media play a role in the emergence of warlike conflicts or in their avoidance. So not only pursuit of history is the aim, but also a critical examination of media: Other workshops take up exhibition aspects like war-caused hunger and democracy as a consequence of the War. Cultural facilitators of Castle Artstetten were trained on 5 April 2018 to run these workshops in the future, to ensure sustainability of this educational offer after the end of funding. A frist workshop was held on 6 April 2018.
• A mobile exhibition app was developed which includes not only all exhibition content in digital form and embeds it in a continuous story, but also provides links to other materials if you want to learn more about the topic: www.networld.dieberater.com.

The exhibition was opened through a large scale-event on 6 April in Artstetten, which attracted almost 200 visitors.
The former Austrian President, Dr. Heinz Fischer, officially opened the exhibition and linked it to the other activities in the commemoration year 2018, of which he is the patron. Holger Bienzle of die Berater presented the NETWORLD to the activities in Artstetten, while Dr. Julia-Walleczek-Fritz talked about the NETWORLD database and the architectural war heritage it contains.

The exhibition can be visited until 1 November 2018 and again from 1 April next year.

Photos 

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