This article discusses the Enlightenment concept of theatre as formulated in the work of the Viennese playwright Paul Weidmann, who was active in the reign of Joseph II (1765-90). In Weidmann’s conception, theatre has two main functions: one is to provide a theoretical basis (the idea of a national theatre; theatre as a school of moral educational); the second is to delineate a socio-historical context. The themes explored by Weidmann are civil war and wars of religion, and the question of how to level social differences - problems that still very much beset the modern world. In the face of current religious, political and economic conflicts, Weidmann’s stage plays still carry a powerful message., Joanna Giel., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
On March 12, 1781, the lodge "Zur wahren Eintracht" ("True Concord"), which was originally a secession of the lodge "Zur gekrönten Hoffnung" ("Crowned Hope"), was initiated - a lodge that would show itself to be paramount for the further development of Freemasonry in Austria. It supported the establishment of new masons’ guilds in the provinces of the Habsburg monarchy and actively contributed there. The deputized Grand Master and ducal Saxe‐Weimar resident at the Viennese Court, Christian Bernhard von Isenflamm, envisaged the construction of an elite lodge, which could indeed be built. While at first, aulic surgeon Ignaz Fisher assumed the titular administration of the lodge - Isenflamm had refused a function due to his public status - later privy councilor Ignaz Edler von Born, who as Master of the Chair would soon advance the lodge to an elite association with a literary‐scientific inclination, joined with his circle. Born did not publicly support the establishment of an imperial academy in Vienna, because he wanted to realize the academic thought within Freemasonry. The lodge "Zur wahren Eintracht" especially lent itself to the achievement of this goal, because it had been headed from the beginning by men of the sciences. Under Joseph II, the Freemasons used the press well in order to gain a broader base of influence. However, because the Freemasons were not willing to be politically instrumented by Joseph II, Joseph II issued an imperial hand billet which reduced the number of lodges and with which the emperor hoped to bring the Freemasons under his control. The imperial hand billet resulted in a veritable flood of brochures which had already started in 1781 and now received fresh impetus. The disappointment of the Freemasons was immense and the imperial decree led to the demise of the lodges in Austria., Helmut Reinalter., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Minor intelligentsia, significantly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the policy and practice of the church before 1848, included the bishopric priests. The authors show not only their gradual formation, but on concrete examples they prove their mutual relationships, influences and individual activities. The fates of butcher’s, miller’s, farmer’s or weaver’s boys show, on the one hand, the social and professional variety of these representatives of future small town and village elites, on the other hand they point out to important relationships between centres such as Prague or Vienna and the periphery which, in the early nineteenth century, included Budweis and other cities not just in the South of Bohemia., Miroslav Novotný a Tomáš Veber., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy