Notes on turbulent relations: Austro-Serbian relations 1836–1914

  • Location: The Residence of Princess Ljubica, Kneza Sime Markovića 8
  • Date: September 8 - October 5, 2014
  • Organisation:

    Belgrade City Museum, Institute for Contemporary History, University of Wienna
  • Impressum:

    Vladimir Tomić, Hannes Leidinger and Danilo Šarenac, exhibition and catalogue authors; Aleksandar Leko, exhibition design; Dragana Lacmanović, publication design.

The concept underlying the exhibition Notes on Turbulent Relations seeks to throw light on the complexity, diversity and intensity of relations between Austria and Serbia, which are usually observed merely in the context of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when these relations reached the lowest point in their history.

Actually, their history did not begin in 1836, when Austria was the first among the great powers to dispatch an official diplomatic representative to the Principality of Serbia. It spans a long chronological period that began in the early decades of the 16th century, with the invasion of the Ottoman Turks into Central Europe, the migrations of the Serbs towards the north, the partial expansion of the Habsburg Empire into the areas inhabited by Serbs and the establishment of the Military Frontier – a sort of rampart against the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.

During the centuries to follow, the migrations of the Serbs would continue and they would be massively involved in all wars between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires in the Balkan Peninsula, until the end of the 18th century, earnestly hoping for the liberation from Ottoman rule with the help of the Austrian Empire.

It is precisely this dimension of densely interwoven, close, but at the same time complicated relations between the two nations, that the authors seek to highlight through the exhibition and a very detailed catalogue, not disregarding the political differences that eventually led to war.

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