Vienna School of History

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The Vienna School of History is an influential school of historical thinking based at the University of Vienna. It is closely associated with Reinhard Wenskus, Herwig Wolfram and Walter Pohl. Partly drawing upon ideas from sociology and critical theory, scholars of the Vienna School have utilized the concept of ethnogenesis to reassess the notion of ethnicity as it applies to historical groups of peoples such as the Germanic tribes. Focusing on Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, the Vienna School has a large publishing output, and has had a major influence on the modern analysis of barbarian identity.

Contents

Theories

The origins of the Vienna School of History can be traced to the works of the German historian Reinhard Wenskus. During the 1960s, there was as reaction against previous scholarship on Germanic tribes. Drawing upon studies on modern tribes, Wenskus posited that the Germanic tribes of antiquity did not constitute distinct ethnicities, but were rather diverse alliances led by a dominant elite continuing "core-traditions" (Traditionskerne). [1] Wenskus argued that members of the Germanic tribes were not necessarily related to each other by kin, but rather believed themselves to be. [2]

More recent scholars associated with Wenskus in the Vienna School are Herwig Wolfram and Walter Pohl. [3] Drawing on theories drawn from sociology and critical theory, [4] scholars of the Vienna School introduced the concept of ethnogenesis (Stammesbildung) to deconstruct the ethnicity of Germanic tribes, [3] proceeding from concept of ethnicity as a political unit and emphasizing the situationality of tribal ethnicities centered around a core of tradition. [5] These scholars also emphasize that the influence of Germanic history extends beyond northern and western Europe. Wolfram points out the contribution of Germanic tribes to the histories of regions such as the Balkans and southern Europe in general, extending even to North Africa, in order to counter the view that Germanic history ought to be identified only with the Germans. [lower-alpha 1]

The ethnogenesis theories of the Vienna School have initiated a "revolution in historical approaches to early medieval ethnicity" and "overturned the foundations of earlier research into the ethnic groups of the early medieval period". It has since become the model with which "barbarian" ethnicity is analyzed. [2] They have had an immense publication output. [7] English-language scholars that have been influenced by the Vienna School include Patrick J. Geary, Ian N. Wood and Patrick Amory. However, Geary, Wood and Pohl approach the theories in "a more flexible manner" than Wenskus and Wolfram. [8] Guy Halsall notes the favorable effect of these approaches on the study of late antique ethnicity, pointing out that Pohl's views on the mutability of ethnic identity run counter to prewar notions of ethnic essentialism which survive in some other modern scholarship. [9]

Criticism

Toronto School

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the issue of early medieval ethnic identity was hotly contested between the Vienna School and the so-called Toronto School, [10] of whom Walter Goffart is a leading member. [8] While the Vienna School considers Old Norse literature and works such as Getica by Jordanes to be of some value, this is completely rejected by the Toronto School. They consider these works to be artificial constructions entirely devoid from oral tradition. [8] While neither of the schools are entirely homogeneous in their approach, discussions between the two schools have been characterized by an unusually intense passion and highly polemic dialogue. [8] This has included accusations and insinuations by members of the Toronto school that members of the Vienna school relied on scholarship and ideas from the Nazi period or sympathized with ethnonationalists; such accusations were particularly strong in the 2002 volume On Barbarian Identity, containing essays by members of the Toronto School. [11] As of 2020, however, the polemic has died down. James Harland and Matthias Friedrich write that "[b]roadly speaking, advocates of both camps have shared goals, and oppose the racist and ethnonationalist agendas which draw upon interpretations of the late antique world as an ideological resource". [12]

British historians

British historian Peter Heather disagrees with both the core-tradition theory pioneered by the Vienna School, and the theories of the Toronto School. [13] Heather contends that it was a freemen class between slaves and nobles who constituted the backbone of Germanic tribes, and that the ethnic identity of tribes such as the Goths was stable for centuries, being held together by these freemen. [14] He traces the Fall of the Western Roman Empire to external migration triggered by the Huns in the late 4th century. [15]

Notes

  1. ↑ "The Germanic peoples have left traces in large areas of Europe and around the Mediterranean, even where their languages have long ceased to be spoken. [...] The present-day Germans have as much a Germanic history as do the Scandinavians, British, Irish, French, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Hungarians, Romanians, Slavic nations, Greeks, Turks, and even the Tunisians and Maltese... By naively equating Germanic peoples with the Germans... one loses not only the subject of "Germanic peoples" and their history but also history as such, and eventually oneself. The goal of the present book is to prevent this from happening." [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germanic peoples</span> Historical group of European people

The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era Germani who lived in both Germania and parts of the Roman empire, but also all Germanic speaking peoples from this era, irrespective of where they lived, most notably the Goths. Another term, ancient Germans, is considered problematic by many scholars since it suggests identity with present-day Germans. Although the first Roman descriptions of Germani involved tribes west of the Rhine, their homeland of Germania was portrayed as stretching east of the Rhine, to southern Scandinavia and the Vistula in the east, and to the upper Danube in the south. Other Germanic speakers, such as the Bastarnae and Goths, lived further east in what is now Moldova and Ukraine. The term Germani is generally only used to refer to historical peoples from the 1st to 4th centuries CE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ostrogoths</span> 5th–6th-century Germanic ethnic group

The Ostrogoths were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populations who had settled in the Balkans in the 4th century. While the Visigoths had formed under the leadership of Alaric I, the new Ostrogothic political entity which came to rule Italy was formed in the Balkans under Theodoric the Great.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visigoths</span> Germanic people of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages

The Visigoths were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the command of Alaric I. Their exact origins are believed to have been diverse but they probably included many descendants of the Thervingi who had moved into the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had played a major role in defeating the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Relations between the Romans and Alaric's Visigoths varied, with the two groups making treaties when convenient, and warring with one another when not. Under Alaric, the Visigoths invaded Italy and sacked Rome in August 410.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rugii</span> Ancient Germanic people

The Rugii, Rogi or Rugians, were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity who are best known for their short-lived 5th-century kingdom upon the Roman frontier, near present-day Krems an der Donau in Austria. This kingdom, like those of the neighbouring Heruli and Scirii, first appears in records after the death of Attila in 453. The Rugii, Heruli, Scirii and others are believed to have moved into this region from distant homelands under pressure from the Huns, and become part of Attila's Hunnic empire which also moved and came to be based in this region. The Rugii were subsequently part of the alliance which defeated Attila's sons and the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Nedao in 454, giving their kingdom independence. In 469 they were part of a similar alliance who lost to the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Bolia, weakening their kingdom significantly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Migration Period</span> Period from the fourth to the sixth centuries

The Migration Period, also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman kingdoms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sciri</span> Ancient Germanic people in Eastern Europe

The Sciri, or Scirians, were a Germanic people. They are believed to have spoken an East Germanic language. Their name probably means "the pure ones".

The Balt dynasty or Balth dynasty was the first ruling family of the Visigoths from 395 until 531. They led the Visigoths into the Western Roman Empire in its declining years.

Ethnogenesis is the formation and development of an ethnic group. This can originate by group self-identification or by outside identification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Heather</span> British historian

Peter John Heather is a British historian of late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Heather is Chair of the Medieval History Department and Professor of Medieval History at King's College London. He specialises in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Goths, on which he for decades has been considered the world's leading authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Pohl</span> Austrian historian

Walter Pohl is an Austrian historian who is Professor of Auxiliary Sciences of History and Medieval History at the University of Vienna. He is a leading member of the Vienna School of History.

Walter Andre Goffart is a German-born American historian who specializes in Late Antiquity and the European Middle Ages. He taught for many years in the history department and Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of Toronto (1960–1999), and is currently a senior research scholar at Yale University. He is the author of monographs on a ninth-century forgery, late Roman taxation, four "barbarian" historians, and historical atlases.

Michael Kulikowski is an American historian. He is a professor of history and classics and the head of the history department at Pennsylvania State University. Kulikowski specializes in the history of the western Mediterranean world of late antiquity. He is sometimes associated with the Toronto School of History and was a student of Walter Goffart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herwig Wolfram</span> Austrian historian

Herwig Wolfram is an Austrian historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Vienna and the former Director of the Institute of Austrian Historical Research. He is a leading member of the Vienna School of History, and internationally known for his authoritative works on the history of Austria, the Goths, and relationships between the Germanic peoples and the Roman Empire.

Guy Halsall is an English historian and academic, specialising in Early Medieval Europe. He is currently based at the University of York, and has published a number of books, essays, and articles on the subject of early medieval history and archaeology. Halsall's current research focuses on western Europe in the important period of change around AD 600 and on the application of continental philosophy to history. He taught at the University of Newcastle and Birkbeck, University of London, before moving to the University of York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbarian kingdoms</span> Kingdoms established by barbarian tribes in the former Western Roman Empire

The barbarian kingdoms were states founded by various non-Roman, primarily Germanic, peoples in Western Europe and North Africa following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century. The barbarian kingdoms were the principal governments in Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. The time of the barbarian kingdoms is considered to have come to an end with Charlemagne's coronation as emperor in 800, though a handful of small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms persisted until being unified by Alfred the Great in 886.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early Germanic culture</span> Early culture of the Germanic peoples

Early Germanic culture was the culture of the early Germanic peoples. The Germanic culture started to exist in the Jastorf culture located along the central part of the Elbe River in central Germany. From there it spread north to the ocean, east to the Vistula River, west to the Rhine River, and south to the Danube River. It came under significant external influence during the Migration Period, particularly from ancient Rome.

John Hugo Wolfgang Gideon Liebeschuetz was a German-born British historian who specialized in late antiquity.

Concerning the origin of the Goths before the 3rd century, there is no consensus among scholars. It was in the 3rd century that the Goths began to be described by Roman writers as an increasingly important people north of the lower Danube and Black Sea, in the area of modern Romania, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine. They replaced other peoples who had been dominant in the region, such as especially the Carpi, and Germanic-speaking Bastarnae. However, while some scholars, such as Michael Kulikowski, believe there is insufficient evidence to come to strong conclusions about their earlier origins, the most commonly accepted proposal is that the Goths known to the Romans were a people whose traditions derived to some extent from the Gutones who lived near the delta of the Vistula in what is now Poland. More speculatively, the Gutones may have been culturally related to the similarly named Gutes of Gotland and the Geats of southern Scandinavia, known from much later historical periods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roland Steinacher</span> Austrian historian

Roland Steinacher is an Austrian historian who is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Innsbruck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reinhard Wenskus</span> German historian (1916–2002)

Reinhard Wenskus was a German historian who was Professor of Medieval History at the University of Göttingen. His theories on the identity of Germanic peoples have had a major influence on contemporary research by historians of late antiquity.

References

  1. ↑ Liebeschuetz 2015, p. 87-88.
  2. 1 2 Hakenbeck 2015, pp. 19–20.
  3. 1 2 Liebeschuetz 2015, p. 314.
  4. ↑ Halsall 2007, pp. 15–7.
  5. ↑ Roymans 2004, p. 3.
  6. ↑ Wolfram 2005, p. 12.
  7. ↑ Hakenbeck 2015, p. 21.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Ghosh 2015, pp. 16–21.
  9. ↑ Halsall 2014, pp. 517 n. 12.
  10. ↑ Harland 2021, pp. 26–27.
  11. ↑ Harland & Friedrich 2020, pp. 5–7.
  12. ↑ Harland & Friedrich 2020, p. 7.
  13. ↑ Kulikowski 2002, pp. 71–73.
  14. ↑ Halsall 2007, pp. 19–20.
  15. ↑ Heather 2018, pp. 80–100.

Sources

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