ABSTRACT
In later life Alan Taylor tended to play down the influence of other scholars on his career. In the case of Friedjung's book he was influenced by both the two most substantial mentors of his early career: A.F. Pribram (1859-1941) and Lewis Namier (1888-1960). Alfred Pribram, Professor of History at the University of Vienna, supervised his research in Vienna, 1928-30, while Lewis Namier arrived at the Department of History at Manchester University as Professor of Modern History (1931-51) one year after Alan Taylor. In taking up Friedjung's work he was emulating Pribram, a friend and successor of Friedjung, who had completed some of Friedjung's work after Friedjung's death in 1920. The abridged translation of the tenth edition (1916-17) of The Struggle for Supremacy in Germany 1859-1866 (1897) was prepared for a series of books 'Studies in Modern History' edited by Namier for Macmillan. Alan Taylor's own second book, Germany's First Bid for Colonies 1884-5 (1938) also appeared in the same series. Alan Taylor later observed that his view of German history had been influenced by the fact that his researches had begun with a Vienna perspective. In his essay written as an introduction to Friedjung's book Alan Taylor commented, 'His account is impartial ... it springs from the fact that Friedjung sympathised with both sides, as he was both an Austrian and a German'. Alan Taylor did acknowledge Friedjung's influence on his writing in his autobiography, When I came to write, my model was Friedjung's Struggle for Supremacy in Germany and not anything of Pribram's. I do not claim that I came up to my model (A.J.P. Taylor, A Personal History, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1983, p. 91) Alan Taylor dated his introductory essay 3 January 1935, that is after the Nazi assumption of power in Germany in January 1933 (referred to in the essay as 'present uncivilised system of rule') but before the Anschluss of 1938 (the unification of Austria with Germany). The essay was followed six years later by the first version of his history of the Austrian Empire and Austria–Hungary, The Habsburg Monarchy 1815-1918 (London, Macmillan, 1941), and then by a substantially rewritten volume, The Habsburg Monarchy 1809-1918 (London, Hamish Hamilton, 1948). In the 1941 version Alan Taylor simply wrote, 'The diplomatic and military history of the war of 1866 has been written once and for all by Heinrich Friedjung and it is unnecessary to repeat his work' (p. 140). In the second version he removed suggestions made in the first version and in his introductory essay to Friedjung (printed here) that there were 'lost opportunities', 'that the Habsburg monarchy might have survived if only this or that statesman or people had been more sensible'. In this essay Alan Taylor mentions many leading figures in the Habsburg monarchy. The Emperor from 1848-1916 was Francis Joseph. His principal 52ministers mentioned in the essay were Prince Clemens Metternich (1809-48), Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg (1848-52), Alexander Bach (1852-59), Anton von Schmerling (1861-65), Baron Frederich von Beust (1867-70), Count Eduard Taaffe (1870-71 and 1879-93) and Count Casimir Badeni (1895- 97). Foreign ministers in the period included Count Karl Ludwig de Ficquelmont (Metternich's successor), Count Karl Buol (1852-59), Johann Bernhard von Rechberg (1859-64), Count Alexander von Mensdorff (1864-66), Frederich von Beust (1865-68), Julius Andrassy (1871-79), and Count Alois von Aehrenthal (1906-12). Maurice Esterhazy, a Hungarian, was an influential conservative Minister without Portfolio in the pre-1865 government. General L. Benedek was the Austrian general defeated at Sadowa in 1866; Helmuth von Moltke was the victorious German general. Hofrat von Biegeleben was a diplomat and assistant to Rechberg. Richard Belcredi was minister of state, 1865-67. Joseph Baernreither was minister of commerce in 1898. Georg von Schonerer, a German Austrian, was a co-author with Victor Adler, the future socialist leader, and Henrich Friedjung of the radical programme drafted at Linz in 1882. Professor Joseph Rediich was a major historian of the Habsburg monarchy who was involved in the politics of its last years.
