Policies, Principles, and Projects in Central European Ministries of Public Works
In the famous novel The Castle, Franz Kafka outlined a system ruled by “mysterious” authorities that are hardly
accessible and incomprehensible. Kafka’s key protagonist K. strives for access to the Castle, he constantly faces
uncertainty and difficulty in grasping the system defined behind its walls. The Castle’s presence and materiality
contrasts sharply with a lack of comprehension of its meaning and agency.
As Kafka’s K. heads to gain entrance to the Castle to obtain a sense of reality, we aim to explore three “mysterious” ministries in three states that were interconnected in time, space and state in a complex frame of reference. The k. k. Ministerium für öffentliche Arbeiten of the Habsburg monarchy, the Bundesministerium für Handel und Verkehr of the Austrian and the veřejných prací of the Czechoslovak First Republic were responsible (apart from other objectives) for state building matters (“Hochbau”) including street, water and bridge construction.
However, their actual agencies remain mysterious as these are not part of academic scholarship. Therefore, the project’s key objective is to shift the dominant perspective from common interest in architects and styles to institutions like ministries. We will scrutinize initiatives, practices, personalities, and outputs of the Ministries in Austria-Hungary (1908–1918) and the first Czechoslovak and Austrian Republics (1918–1938) as part of a broader understanding of Central Europe at times of dramatic change. The chosen period of investigation brings us methodologically to the specific question of continuity of institutional competence after the change of state configurations and political systems, i.e. the intersection of institutional, political-systemic and architectural-historical categories in both diachronic and synchronic terms. And as Kafka’s novel remained incomplete, we intend our project as a base for future research in this new academic direction.
Understanding architectural history as a transnational heritage, we want to foster cooperative research bilaterally (the
project consists of an Austrian team financed by the FWF and a Czech team with funds provided by the GAČR) by
investigating the relationship and interaction between superior and subordinate authorities (1908–18) and between
ministries of two nation-states (1918–38). Based on proven methods of art history including discourse analytical,
typological, post-colonial and feminist approaches, we will contextualize the objects into transnational frameworks.
Apart from a mid-term conference, the project’s results will be delivered in a digital data collection and a print
publication, which will analyse overarching questions based on case studies.
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The first half of the 20th century was a period of intense activity of Ministries of Public Works in Austria-Hungary and
its successor states. Yet, the dominant discourse in architectural history is deeply anchored in examining styles,
architects and buildings and largely ignores the major actor: to understand architecture more profoundly we shift the
research perspective towards ministries as key commissioners. By situating past and present attitudes to the interaction
of architects and institutions in Central Europe, this project aims to reveal not only state architecture in its
diversity, but also the prejudices which still attend the scholarly discussion. We aim to explore new perspectives on
state commissions and consider how they contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of building production.
Shifting the perspective towards the underexplored field of state institutions opens up a new way of evaluating the
history of modern architecture. Investigating initiatives, practices and personalities of the ministries in
Austria-Hungary and the first Czechoslovak and Austrian Republics leads us to a clearer picture of the quantity,
quality, and range of state tasks in the field of architecture. Examining the official building agenda in different
countries will question the policies in heterogeneous political systems and state priorities in times of radical
transformations. The project aims to shed new light on the relationships of cultural and political elites in times of
key transformations in Europe.
Apart from focussing on ministries and hitherto marginalized building tasks, our bilateral project allows us to gain
critical insights (by transgressing traditions of national historiographies) whether for two different states that build
on a common legacy, continuities and ruptures are the same, similar or different. For future scholarship, our project
structure can easily be expanded far beyond the Habsburg monarchy and translated into different frameworks.