ABSTRACT

Liberalism, Nationalism and Design Reform in the Habsburg Empire is a study of museums of design and applied arts in Austria-Hungary from 1864 to 1914. The Museum for Art and Industry (now the Museum of Applied Arts) as well as its design school occupies a prominent place in the study.

The book also gives equal attention to museums of design and applied arts in cities elsewhere in the Empire, such as Budapest Prague, Cracow, Brno and Zagreb. The book is shaped by two broad concerns: the role of liberalism as a political, cultural and economic ideology motivating the museums’ foundation, and their engagement with the politics of imperial, national and regional identity of the late Habsburg Empire.

This book will be of interest for scholars of art history, museum studies, design history, and European history.

chapter |12 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|26 pages

‘For the Encouragement of Industry’

The Founding of the Museums of Design and Applied Arts

chapter 3|22 pages

Rise of a New Discipline?

Design Museums and the Writing of Art History

chapter 4|33 pages

Semperian Trajectories

Architectural Development of Design Museums

chapter 5|27 pages

Educating the Public

Schools of Design and Applied Arts as Educational and Reform Institutions

chapter 6|24 pages

The Programme of Design Reform

Rise and Fall of a Project

chapter |10 pages

Epilogue

Design Museums after the Age of Design Museums