Naturwissenschaftler im Triest der späten Habsburgermonarchie

Eine national indifferente Insel im Getöse der zeitgenössischen Politik?

Abstract

Between 1874 and 1914, natural scientists from Trieste operated under the umbrella of the Adriatic Society of Natural Sciences (Società Adriatica di Scienze Naturali). Despite the ever-increasing importance of competing national projects in the course of the nineteenth century, this particular association and its members did not express sympathies with any kind of nationalism, nor did they identify with any other kind of political affiliation. These naturalists were a kind of scholarly in-betweens or, as they themselves repeatedly said, belonged to the translocal “Republic of Science” (“Repubblica della Scienza”). This article argues that the Adriatic Society of Natural Sciences was a unique setting in the increasingly nationalized everyday life of Trieste, proving that even immediately before the Great War there were important social spheres that were impervious to national projects.