Marie Macková
19th century war reporting – a tribute to the heroes or mystification?
During the 19th century the nature of war reporting underwent changes. Initially, official reports were sufficient to inform the population. They primarily attempted to be positive with regard to presenting the state and to be sympathetic towards the fallen. A separate category of perception applied to the wounded. Their situation was too negative for official reporting, but then the broad public had to be made to provide help, primarily material. War reporting in the Habsburg Empire during the 19th century is characterized by a permanent endeavour to find and present a hero for the readers. His form changed over time and according to the situation on the battlefields, but the principle remained the same. In each war that was fought, finding such a hero was complicated to varying extents. Of course, it was the instinct of journalists to seek a victorious hero, who was, however, not always to hand. It was only possible to make a hero out of a defeated soldier when the war stopped being primarily the exclusive affair of a small group of people and a broader public could be made to concern themselves. Whatever the reason, not even in the context of the rather unsuccessful Habsburg army was it too difficult for a journalist to find a loyal and militarily proficient hero. If the conscious presentation of an untruth and of events that did not take place is to be thought of as a mystification then it might not be possible to consider war reporting in the Habsburg Empire newspapers to be a perfect or a good mystification. If a space still remains under this term for the conscious creation of myths or legends based on selecting from available information, then successful mystifications arising in this manner can certainly be found in 19th century Habsburg Empire wartime reporting. With the passage of over a hundred years this is possibly no longer clearly evident, but the Habsburg Empire army created its heroes and commemorated them, not only within its own ranks, but also with external presentations targeting an ever broader public.
Army – Habsburg Empire – 19th century
design by Bedřich Vémola
