Contemporaneous publication describing the Austro-Hungarian Empire
The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Word and Picture or the Kronprinzenwerk ("Crown Prince's Work") is a 24-volume encyclopedia of regional studies, initiated in 1883 by Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary.
The encyclopedia describes countries, peoples, landscapes and regions of the Austro-Hungarian Crown Lands. It was also published in a 21-volume Hungarian edition ("Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia írásban és képben"). The German edition was edited by the history and geography professor, Josef Weil von Weilen (1830-1889), while the Hungarian edition was edited by the novelist and dramatist Mór Jókai. Only the German edition was financially successful. The Hungarian edition includes some anti-Semitic remarks that are missing from the German edition.
The volumes were issued from December 1885 through June 1902 in 398 installments, from the "k.k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei [de]" (Court and State Printers) and Alfred von Hölder [de], a publisher and bookseller. They contain 587 contributions, totaling 12,596 pages with 4,529 illustrations. The articles were written by 432 contributors, including Crown Prince Rudolf himself.[1][2]
Volumes and dates
Vienna and Lower Austria, 1st section: Vienna (Wien und Niederösterreich, 1. Abtheilung: Wien), 1886
Vienna and Lower Austria, 2nd section: Lower Austria (Wien und Niederösterreich, 2. Abtheilung: Niederösterreich), 1888
Hungary, Part 1 (Ungarn, Band 1), 1888
Upper Austria and Salzburg (Oberösterreich und Salzburg), 1889
Styria (Steiermark), 1890
Carinthia and Krain (Kärnten und Krain), 1891
Hungary, Part 2 (Ungarn, Band 2), 1891
The Littoral (Gorizia, Gradiska, Trieste and Istria) (Das Küstenland (Görz, Gradiska, Triest und Istrien), 1891
Dalmatia (Dalmatien), 1892
Hungary, Part 3 (Ungarn, Band 3), 1893
Vorarlberg and the Tyrol (Tirol und Vorarlberg), 1893
Bohemia, Part 1 (Böhmen, Band 1), 1894
Bohemia, Part 2 (Böhmen, Band 2), 1896
Hungary, Part 4 (Ungarn, Band 4), 1896
Moravia and Silesia (Mähren und Schlesien), 1897
Hungary, Part 5, 1st section (Ungarn, Band 5, 1. Abtheilung), 1898
Galicia (Galicien), 1898
Bukovina (Bukowina), 1899
Hungary, Part 5, 2nd section (Ungarn, Band 5, 2. Abtheilung), 1900
Bosnia and Hercegovina (Bosnien und Hercegowina), 1901
Hungary, Part 6 (Ungarn, Band 6), 1902
Croatia and Slavonia (Croatien und Slavonien), 1902
The volume number corresponds to the list at the end of the 24th volume. Notably, Poland is not mentioned in the encyclopaedia because, at the time, the Imperial partitions of Poland were considered final by the German authorities in the Kingdom of Prussia as well as Austria-Hungary.[3]
Gallery
Selected plates from the Kronprinzenwerk Encyclopedia by Polish artist Zygmunt Ajdukiewicz.