BB: Slovenes and Germans in Maribor/Marburg an der Drau (1895-1941/48)

The talk delves into the communal life of Slovenes and Germans in the town of Maribor – or Marburg from the late Habsburg period to the Second World War. The rise of nationalism in the 19th century made the largest town of Lower Styria a special apple of discord between Slovene/Yugoslav and German/Austrian nationalism in the Habsburg monarchy and beyond. While national chauvinism grew ever more violent between the two groups in the first half of the 20th century and culminated in WWII, the talk will focus not so much on the national conflict itself, but rather on the importance of national conflict for the life of Maribor's inhabitants and their personal relations. 

Aaron Zidar is an associate fellow of the DFG funded RTG 2571 »Empires – Dynamic Change, Temporality and Post-Imperial Orders« based in Freiburg, Germany where he is also writing his doctoral thesis on the relations of Slovenes and Germans in the town of Maribor from the late Habsburg period to WWII that is supervised by Prof. Dietmar Neutatz and Prof. Jörn Leonhard. Before the start of his doctoral programme, he finished his M.A. in Comparative Modern History with a thesis on Slovene visions of the Habsburg imperial and Slovene national future from 1911 to 1918 and his B.A. in History with a thesis on the Celje school dispute in the Austrian parliament at the University of Freiburg