A look into the past: Our intern John Beattie reports on a find from our image archive that takes him back into the history of Prague

By its very nature an archive is meant to preserve, it takes documents from history and stores them in a safe accessible environment for the enlightenment of future generations. This storage is something that is done indiscriminately, irrespective of time, irrespective of outside influence, irrespective of the thoughts and feelings of the past or present.

The information contained within an archive is meant to last for all of time. As a result, an archive is a uniquely valuable tool for offering a way to look at different historical perspectives irrelevant or marginalized within the current climate.

From curiosity to discovery

As part of my research for my master’s paper, I wanted to understand the political history of East Central Europe. I’ve always been interested in Propaganda posters, and so using the online catalogue the Herder Institute’s image archive, I decided to look up images related to Prague.

The galleries of the online catalogue were mostly filled with appealing colourful postcards, but then I noticed one particular image that took me by surprise. It seems like a perfectly normal postcard showing a simple illustration of the Charles Bridge. Containing a simplified crest of the city and the Czech word “Praha” or Prague spelled out in middle, there was only one thing seeming peculiar to me: on the right-hand side it held a decorative illustration of the Emperor Franz Joseph.

Just an unremarkable postcard?

All at once I realized what I was looking at, this was a postcard from 1901 at a time when Prague was still a part of the Austrian Empire, the Emperor being displayed in his capacity as King of Bohemia. What struck me about it was the casualness of the image, the nonchalance with which the figure of the Emperor was placed.

I hadn’t thought about this very much, but at the time of the early 20th century, the royal family would have been kings of Bohemia for several centuries. It was a reminder for me of a different time and a different political atmosphere that I had not been properly aware of, and all at once I began a quest to search through for evidence of old monarchist bohemia.

Searching for traces of the old Bohemia

I ended up finding dozens of different images in the image archive of the Herder Institute, there was a post card proudly celebrating the marriage of Franz Ferdinand to his Czech Wife Sophie, an illustration proudly displaying the “Bohemian Coronation Jewels” for all to see,  there was even one image showcasing a certain “Franz Joseph Bridge” across the Danube, which surprised me because I had never heard of this bridge, until I realised it was renamed “Štefanik” bridge in 1919.

All of this felt profoundly strange, the longer I searched the more I felt like I had been transported into a different world, a place where authority was derived from an old-fashioned piece of headgear, and where it was perfectly normal for a German Emperor to also be the Bohemian King.

A look into a past that has become alien

This was an environment that was utterly divorced from modern society, and as a result it had largely been forgotten. All of these postcards were products of their time, and they could only have been crafted during their time.

Even though this was a state that Czech society had existed in for several centuries, the political circumstances were so divorced from the modern day that he wouldn’t even think of them. Even so, preserved in the archive, this physical evidence of this time remained for all those who would search to find it.

Experience history through images

Looking through the pictures of the Herder Institute archive was like a journey into the past for me, it took of the blinkers of my modern perception and allowed me to see the different phases of the city of Prague  not through the lens of the present, but from a more antiquated perception unique to the time it was made.

When looked at objectively, there was nothing particularly strange about displaying the Emperor’s face on postcards whose dynasty had ruled Prague for several hundred years. This postcard was not government made propaganda but rather came from a private company, at the time it was made, it was perfectly common to see the reigning monarchs face on postcards from Germany or Russia. The strange thing came form my modern perception of Czechia as an independent state, this post card forced me to acknowledge its historical connection to an Empire that no longer exists.

The Herder Institute, by its nature as an institution is able to give a uniquely broadening experience of the history of people’s societies. As a preserver of information, it does not just reflect one perspective on how we view the past, but acts as a time capsule for the various different conceptions of society throughout history.

Different perspectives of the same city

During the time I spent looking through this image archive, I was able to catch a glimpse of a different world. I remember reading memoirs from a Czech aristocrat who took part in putting down the military insurrection in Hungary during the 1848 revolutions. I was surprised because if it wasn’t for how his name was spelt on the cover, I wouldn’t have known he was Czech because he did not mention it in the near 200 pages of the account. To him, Prague was merely a single city part of a much larger imperial whole. This is not the only perspective on the city, but it is a perspective, and one that has largely been forgotten to the sands of time.

Looking through these postcards, I felt I was able to catch a glimpse of a world view 100 years divorced from the era I live in. The time I spent at this archive was a very informative experience and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get an understanding of history directly from the source.