Publication details
Marxovské rituály a oslavy v Brně v 19. století
| Title in English | Festivities and rituals in order to celebrate Karl Marx in the 19th century Brno |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Forum Brunense 2015. Sborník prací muzea města Brna |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | Czech lands 1848-1914; Brno; social democracy; ceremonies; rituals; political parties and movements; labor; marxism |
| Description | The article reflects specific rituals and memorial actions related to the personality of Karl Marx in Brno´s social-democratic environment in the last quarter of 19th century. In Brno, a kind of self-made socialist culture had formed in mentioned period, establishing its own group of leading personalities and related anniversaries. Karl Marx, as the founder of the officially recognized socialist ideology, was placed on the top of the "socialist pantheon" and linked to celebrations of general character, such as the Labour Day, as well as to specific celebrations of anniversaries regarding his own personality. Thanks to these repeated memorial acts Karl Marx became an inseparable part of socialist year and therefore the social-democratic identity. The article depicts not only the celebrations themselves, it also tries to map the means by which the official circles tried to present the figure of Karl Marx to regular party members. As it represents rather unique probe addressing not only the issue of Marxian cult, but also the social-democratic environment of 19th century in general, it lacks further contextualization. In that regard, its ambitions are meant to be an impulse to further research in this area, rather than diving into deep interpretations that, as explained by tthe above mentioned fact they might carry the risk of erroneous interpretation. The most and most significant source of information used was the contemporary press, the social-democratic newspaper Rovnost, Ženský list, Májový list or contemporary editions of poetry and songbooks. The archives provided only a couple of existing mentions by the police directorate, filed in the Moravian regional archive. |