Grenzkatholizismen

The Vormärz can be read as a phase of profound change: enforcement of the central government, media innovation, economic change, new political ideas and religious revivals fundamentally changed Europe’s society. Border regions were particularly affected, as was Tyrol, a crownland in the western part of the Habsburg Monarchy, where the “German” and “Italian” catholic cultures clashed as a result of their starkly different reactions to the “impositions of modernity” (R. Schlögl). German-speaking Ultramontanes in northern Tyrol and liberal Catholics in the Italian-speaking south had diverging relationships with the modern state and pursued different models of society. For both branches of Catholicism religion was the central link to their respective nationalities. The study combines the core approaches of borderland studies with religious and media history and shows how historical studies of Catholicism can benefit from transnational perspectives.