PhD thesis: Between Reporting and Commentary. Jewish Periodicals and the Formation of a Political-Jewish Public Sphere in the Late Habsburg Empire, 1867–1914.

This doctoral project aims to describe the significance of the Jewish press for the genesis of Jewish public spheres in the Austrian Empire. Its reporting and commentary on the focal points of political action – such as legislative processes in the Imperial Council and Imperial Council elections – provided an opportunity to inform the Jewish population across the empire about these events from a Jewish perspective. The various Jewish movements are reflected in the diversity of the Jewish press landscape, suggesting that the way topics were covered and the issues raised varied considerably. Against this background, the central question is whether Jewish periodicals nevertheless – or precisely because of this – succeeded in influencing the formation of an independent Jewish political public sphere, and what opportunities for shaping and exerting influence were available to them in the context of political debates. The aim of this doctoral project is therefore to paint a comprehensive picture of factual and opinion-based articles on legislative activities and Reichsrat elections, and to examine the potential for influence through and on the press (parliamentarians, Reichsrat debates) at both the structural and individual levels.

Short CV

After completing her Abitur in 2010, Kristin Obländer attended an international language school in Boston, USA, before studying History, Political Science and English and American Studies at the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 2014. She then undertook a Master’s degree in History, specialising in ‘Transcontinental European History in the Modern Era’, at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, which she successfully completed in 2017. As part of her Master’s programme, she spent a semester at Univerzita Karlova v Praze in the Czech Republic. She is currently working on her doctoral thesis on ‘Jewish Public Spheres in the Habsburg Monarchy’, supervised by Prof. Dr Malte Rolf at the University of Oldenburg.