Pressburg/Bratislava
Pressburg/Bratislava
Etymology
Pressburg was first mentioned in a document in the Salzburg Annals (Annales Juvavenses maximi) in the year 907 as Brezalauspurc. The castle probably took its name from one of its rulers or administrators. It may have been the Slavic prince Braslav (d. 897), who ruled the town in the 9th century, or a man named Predslav, who is listed in the register of Great Moravian magnates; however, neither of these two possibilities is sufficiently substantiated.[1]
The present-day name Bratislava, which was established as the official designation by the Czechoslovak government on 16 March 1919, probably dates back to 1837, when the poet and scholar Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–1861) saw the Slovak form *Bracislaw/*Brecislaw and mistakenly assumed that the city had been founded by the Bohemian Duke Břetislav (c. 1005–1055). In 1843, following the introduction of the new linguistic standard, the variant Braťislava (nad Dunajom) was first attested; however, in general usage at that time, the form Prešporok or corresponding variants continued to be predominantly used.
Location
Bratislava lies at 48° 9′ north latitude and 17° 7′ east longitude on Slovakia’s south-western border, at the tri-border area with Austria and Hungary. Bratislava is the only capital city in the world that borders on more than one neighbouring country. The Czech border is also only 62 kilometres away.
The Austrian capital, Vienna, lies only about 60 kilometres further west, making the two capitals among the closest in the world. Bratislava and Vienna have for some time been referred to as ‘twin cities’, linked by the concept of planning the development of both cities jointly or in a coordinated manner.
Topography
Bratislava lies on both banks of the Danube (Slovak: Dunaj) at the foot of the Little Carpathians (Malé Karpaty). The city covers a total area of 367.58 square kilometres. In addition to the Danube, which flows through the city from west to south-east, the riversMorava andVydrica, both of which flow into the Danube, run through the city. The Morava forms the north-western boundary of the city.
The Carpathian mountain range, known as the Little Carpathians, has its origins within the city limits. The March floodplains (Záhorie) and the Danube lowlands extend westwards and eastwards respectively as far as Bratislava. The lowest point in the city is the water level of the Danube at 126 metres above sea level; the highest point is the Thebener Kogel (Devínska Kobyla) at 514 metres. The average altitude of the city is 140 metres.
Political and administrative affiliation
Bratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of 437,725 (as at the end of 2019), the country’s largest city. As the capital, Bratislava is the seat of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (Národná rada Slovenskej republiky), the President, the ministries, the Supreme Court (Najvyšší súd) and the National Bank of Slovakia (Národná banka Slovenska). Bratislava is also the capital of the Bratislavský kraj region, with a population of 618,380, as well as the administrative centre for the districts of Bratislava I–IV and home to many diplomatic missions.
Common symbolism
The town’s coat of arms dates back to 1436, when Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368–1437) granted the town the right to bear its own coat of arms. It depicts, on a red field, a silver fortification with three towers and an archway in the centre. Above each tower are two golden balls, and the gate features a golden portcullis, raised halfway. Contrary to popular belief, the coat of arms does not depict Pressburg nor any of the four medieval city gates. Rather, it is a general representation of a medieval town.
The flag is a bicolour, consisting of two horizontal stripes of equal width, white at the top and red at the bottom. The ratio of height to length is 2:3.
The seal features the city coat of arms and the inscription‘pečať mesta Bratislavy’(Seal of the City of Bratislava) in Slovak and Latin.
In addition, a logo introduced in 2004, which stylisedly depicts Pressburg and the Danube, is also used for marketing purposes.
Common or historical nicknames
In Slovak colloquial speech, there is the slightly pejorative name ‘Blava’ – a short form of Bratislava – and the corresponding derogatory term for its inhabitants, ‘Blaváci’.
Archaeological significance
Settlement in the area dates back to the Neolithic period. From the 5th millennium BC onwards, it was selected as a settlement site primarily because of its favourable geographical location. In ancient times, the Amber Road – which ran from the Baltic region to the Adriatic – intersected with an east-west trade route in the area of present-day Bratislava, establishing the city as a trading metropolis with a long-standing tradition by the late Middle Ages.
In the area around the castle hill, archaeological finds from the Celts dating from the 5th to the 2nd century BC and from the Romans up to the 4th century AD have been identified. As early as the end of the 2nd century BC, a significant settlement had emerged in the area that would later become the Old Town. In the early years of the 1st century AD, the Romans had several military camps built on the right bank of the Danube to repel the invading Germanic tribes of the Marcomanni and Quadi.
Middle Ages
Presumably as early as the 5th–6th centuries AD, in the wake of the Great Migration, settled along the Danube and founded the Slavic Great Moravian Empire (Velká Morava), which dominated the whole of western and central Slovakia in the 8th–9th centuries but came under increasing threat from raids by Hungarian troops towards the end of the 9th century. Following the Battle of Bratislava in 907, the city, along with large parts of the Great Moravian Empire’s territory, came under Hungarian rule from the 10th to the 11th century.
After the Hungarian King Andrew III (c. 1265–1301) had granted town privileges to the rapidly growing settlement in 1291, Bratislava was elevated by Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368–1437) to the status of a royal free town with all the associated privileges. It was also Sigismund of Luxembourg who, in response to the unrest caused by the Hussites, had the town and the castle fortified, so that later, following an extension of the castle fortifications between 1423 and 1436, a castle palace could be built within the walls to serve as the seat of the Hungarian king. During the battles against the Hussites, the citizens of Pressburg supported the king both economically and militarily, whereupon he granted further privileges in 1430 in favour of the city and some of its suburbs (e.g. temporary exemption from taxes and duties).
Modern times
In 1536, Pressburg became the capital of the Habsburg part of Hungary and the coronation city of the Hungarian kings. Although Ofen/Buda became the imperial centre in 1783, the Estates Parliament continued to sit in Pressburg until 1847. Following the conquest of Ofen by the Turks, Pressburg also became the seat of the central Hungarian administration and developed into a major economic centre, where the German, Jewish, Slovak and Hungarian communities lived side by side in peace.
In the 18th century, particularly during the reign of Maria Theresa (1717–1780), who had been crowned in Pressburg, the city experienced an economic and cultural heyday. It became the largest city and one of the most important centres in the entire kingdom. The population tripled and numerous new palaces, monasteries and country estates were built. Cultural and public life became increasingly vibrant, but under Maria Theresa’s son, Joseph II (1741–1790), the city began to lose its significance, particularly following the transfer of the crown jewels to Vienna in 1783 and the relocation of the administration to Ofen.
On 26 December 1805, France and Austria brought the Third Coalition War to an end with the Peace of Pressburg. Between 1825 and 1848, the Hungarian Diet sat in the city.
Contemporary History
At the end of the First World War, Pressburg was assigned by the Allies to the newly founded Czechoslovakia and became the de facto capital of the Slovak part of the country.
From October 1938, Pressburg was the seat of the Slovak government and, from 14 March 1939, the capital of the First Slovak Republic, a state with ‘pseudo-sovereignty under German protection and German control’.[2]
Despite a belated attempt by the Nazi regime to fortify the city against Soviet attacks in the spring of 1945, it was captured by the Red Army on 4 April 1945.
In 1944 and 1946, Pressburg – which by then was inhabited almost exclusively by Slovaks and was part of Czechoslovakia – expanded through several municipal annexations. At the beginning of 1968, Bratislava was formally declared the capital of Slovakia, one of the two constituent states within the federative Czechoslovak state. In the late 1980s, Bratislava was one of the centres of the so-called ‘Velvet Revolution’, which led to the fall of the communist regime. Since 1 January 1993, Bratislava has been the capital of independent Slovakia.
Administration
The current structure of the city administration has been in place since 1990 and consists of the Mayor (primátor), the City Council (Mestská rada), the City Council (Mestské zastupiteľstvo), the City Council committees (Komisie mestského zastupiteľstva) and the City Administration (Magistrát). The Mayor, the head of the executive, has his office in the Primatial Palace (Primaciálny palác) and is elected for a four-year term of office.
Population
In the Middle Ages, the town was inhabited mainly by Slovaks. However, as early as the 12th century, the first German settlers had already established themselves below the castle hill. The town charters of 1291 regulated, amongst other things, the right to free immigration and settlement in Pressburg, thereby opening up the area to an influx of further German settlers. These settlers came from Württemberg, Baden, Saxony and Prussia, from Silesia and Moravia, but above all from the nearby Bavarian-Austrian regions. Alongside these immigrants, there was an influx of settlers from Hungary, Poland and other European countries, who settled in the west of present-day Slovakia, on the Austrian border, in Pressburg or in smaller villages nearby.
Whilst the German settlement of the area initially consisted primarily of farmers and mountain farmers, towards the end of the Middle Ages – in tandem with the city’s economic expansion – an increasing number of middle-class immigrants also came to Pressburg. In the period that followed, German craftsmen, merchants, farmers and miners exerted a dominant influence on the city’s economy, culture and social structure well into the 19th century.
Although the Germans, in relation to the territory of present-day Slovakia, constituted a minority at all times – their numbers presumably never exceeding the threshold of around 300,000 people or five per cent of the total population – it can be assumed that, in the city of Pressburg, they already constituted the largest demographic group and dominated the entire administration at the time the city was granted its charter. According to general estimates, Germans still represented the largest group within the city’s population in the mid-19th century, accounting for nearly 60 per cent. For the year 1850, a total of 42,238 inhabitants were recorded: 31,509 Germans, 7,586 Slovaks and 3,154 Hungarians.[3] For centuries, Slovaks and Hungarians accounted for no more than a third of the city’s population. This ethnic diversity stemmed not least from the city’s location on the border. The changes in the composition of the population are illustrated by the results of the censuses conducted between 1852 and 1910. Although the total population rose, the number of Germans remained almost constant because, amongst the upper middle classes, a great many who wished to belong to so-called ‘high society’ became Hungarians. The statistics should be treated with caution, as the questions asked were partly politically motivated and it is no longer possible to ascertain exactly what was being asked:[4]
| Year | Total | German | Hungarians | Slovaks |
| 1852 | 36,742 | 30,682 | 2,266 | 3,713 |
| 1880 | 48,006 | 31,492 | 7,537 | 5,521 |
| 1890 | 52,441 | 31,404 | 10,433 | 8,709 |
| 1900 | 65,867 | 32,202 | 20,102 | 10,715 |
| 1910 | 78,223 | 32,790 | 31,705 | 11,673 |
After the First World War, many Hungarian residents left Pressburg because they were no longer needed as civil servants or teachers, or because they rejected the Czechoslovak state. Following the establishment of the Slovak Republic in the late 1930s, the Slovak government expelled most of the Jews living in Bratislava and handed them over to the Nazi regime in the German Reich. From late November 1944 to late March 1945, there was a camp for Jewish forced labourers in the suburb of Engerau (also known as Audorf)/Petržalka, which at that time belonged to the German Reich. Many German-speaking residents were evacuated from the city by the German authorities even before the end of the Second World War; the remaining Germans were later expelled under the Beneš Decrees.[5]
Today, Bratislava has a population of approximately 432,864 (as at 31 December 2018).[6]
Economy
From the 13th century onwards, the Danube increasingly became the most important transport route in Central Europe and, above all, opened up the increasingly significant trade routes to South-Eastern Europe. Pressburg’s favourable geographical location, as well as a relatively well-developed road network in and around the city, had an extremely positive impact on its economic development. The right of staple, granted in 1402, ensured that all goods passing through Pressburg had to be offered for sale publicly for a specified period. Consequently, this meant that, on the one hand, an infrastructure had to be created for the numerous traders and merchants now residing in the city and, on the other hand, the increased supply of goods helped the city’s citizens to achieve greater prosperity and wealth. This laid the foundations for significant economic growth in the 15th century, which transformed the city into one of the most important commercial centres in Central and Eastern Europe. Pressburg gradually became a leader in transit trade – particularly towards the east and south-east, and especially in the overall flow of goods to Hungary – and brought an end to Vienna’s previous dominance, whilst economic and, consequently, political relations with Vienna intensified.
By the end of the 19th century, Pressburg was the second most industrialised city in the kingdom after Budapest. Hungary’s first railway was the (initially horse-drawn) line from Pressburg to Sankt Georgen/Svätý Jur, which opened in 1840, and rail links to Vienna and Pest were added as early as 1848 and 1850.
After the Second World War, Bratislava was modernised both architecturally and economically, partly at the expense of its historic built heritage, and the city expanded through a series of municipal mergers. During the socialist era, large prefabricated housing estates were built, particularly in Engerau (Audorf/Petržalka).
Today, the Bratislava district is arguably the most prosperous and economically significant region in Slovakia, generating almost 25 per cent of Slovakia’s gross domestic product (GDP). In 2011, GDP per capita stood at 46,600 euros, representing 186 per cent of the EU-27 average, making Bratislava the leading region among the new member states.[7] The car manufacturer Volkswagen has been producing vehicles in Bratislava since 1991; more than 5.5 million vehicles have been manufactured there since then, with 377,750 produced in 2019 alone.[8] In the Ružinov district, the company Slovnaft operates a large oil refinery and also produces plastics and fertilisers.[9] Since the beginning of the 21st century, the service and high-tech sectors in particular – owing to their proximity to Western European markets, a well-educated workforce and the comparatively high density of research institutions and universities – have experienced a significant upswing, and a number of internationally significant corporations, such as Accenture, AT&T, Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo and SAP, have since opened or planned to open service centres.
Tourism is also an important economic sector for the city. In 2017, Bratislava had 153 commercial accommodation establishments with a capacity of 16,737 beds.[10] In 2019, there were approximately 2.85 million overnight stays and the city recorded almost 1.4 million visitors.[11]
History of Religion and the Church
According to the 2011 census, 214,341 residents (52.12 per cent) were Roman Catholic, 21,744 (5.29 per cent) were Lutheran and 3,736 (0.91 per cent) were Greek Catholic. In addition, there were 1,863 Orthodox Christians, 1,828 Calvinists, 1,413 Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1,046 Methodists, 597 Jews and 572 Baptists. A total of 5,054 residents belonged to other denominations not included in the statistics, and almost a third of the population, 126,799 (30.83 per cent), described themselves as atheists. No data is available for 28,891 residents (7.03 per cent).[12]
The city is the episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bratislava, with St Martin’s Cathedral as its cathedral. The second most common church in the city is the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession; the Greek Catholic Church is represented by an eparchy.
As a result of persecution under National Socialism, the Jewish community has declined sharply over the past 75 years. In 1938, there were approximately 15,000 Jews in the city; by 2000, the figure had fallen to just 750.[13] A synagogue dating from 1926 has been preserved, whereas the Orthodox and Neolog synagogues were demolished in 1961 and 1969 respectively.[14]
Of particular significance is the restored section of the Jewish cemetery – formerly at ground level, now underground – at the foot of the castle hill, where, as a place of pilgrimage for Jews from all over the world, – the mausoleum of Moses Sofer, also known as Chatam Sofer (1762–1839), one of the most eminent rabbis of the 19th century, stands today.
Special cultural institutions
The Slovak National Museum (Slovenské národné múzeum), whose headquarters are situated on the banks of the Danube, was founded in 1961 and comprises a total of 18 specialist museums throughout the country. In Bratislava, these include, amongst others, the Natural History Museum (Prírodovedné múzeum), the Archaeological Museum (Archeologické múzeum), the Museum of Jewish Culture (Múzeum židovskej kultúry) and the Museum of Carpathian German Culture (Múzeum kultúry karpatských Nemcov).
The City Museum (Múzeum mesta Bratislavy), founded in 1868 and thus the oldest existing museum in the country, focuses on the history of the city.
Most of the city’s written records, accumulated over the centuries, are now held in the centrally located Bratislava City Archives (Archív mesta Bratislavy), which ranks among the richest in Central Europe both in terms of the variety of text types and the number of late medieval manuscripts.
Bratislava is home to the Slovak National Theatre (Slovenské národné divadlo), which, spread across two buildings, presents drama, opera and ballet. The older building, constructed in 1885–1886 in the Neo-Renaissance style, is situated on Hviezdoslav Square in the Old Town, whilst the new building was opened in 2007 on the banks of the Danube.
Bratislava is also home to the Slovak Philharmonic (Slovenská filharmónia), and several music festivals take place there every year, including the Bratislava Music Festival (Bratislavské hudobné slávnosti), the Bratislava Jazz Days (Bratislavské jazzové dni) and the Wilsonic Festival.
The first cinema in Bratislava opened in 1905, and the first short films were produced as early as the Habsburg Monarchy. Today, Bratislava is the centre of the Slovak film industry, home to the Koliba film studio and the Slovak Film Institute. Several film festivals take place in the city, such as the International Film Festival (since 1999).
Education and Science
The first university in what is now Slovakia, and at that time the only university in the Kingdom of Hungary, was the Universitas Istropolitana in Pressburg, founded in 1465 by Pope Paul II (1417–1471) at the request of the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490); however, it was closed again following Corvinus’s death. The university building, which still stands today, houses the Academy of Performing Arts (Vysoká škola múzických umení v Bratislave), founded in 1949.
Today, Bratislava is home to several universities and higher education institutions. Comenius University (Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave), founded in 1919, is the oldest Slovak-speaking university and, with around 20,000 students, also the largest in the country. The Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (Slovenská technická univerzita v Bratislave), founded in 1937, is the largest technical university in Slovakia, with approximately 18,300 students and 3,200 academic staff.
Other institutions include the University of Economics in Bratislava, founded in 1940 (Ekonomická univerzita v Bratislave), the Slovak Medical University (Slovenská zdravotnícka univerzita v Bratislave), founded in 2002, and, since 2004, the private Pan-European University (Paneurópska vysoká škola).
Furthermore, the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovenská akadémia vied) (SAV), founded in 1942, is based in Bratislava as Slovakia’s central scientific organisation.
As of 2017, there are 149 nursery schools, 87 primary schools, 37 grammar schools, 48 vocational schools, four conservatoires, 43 special schools and 29 art schools in Bratislava.[15]
Art History
Most of Bratislava’s historic buildings are located in the Old Town, such as the Old Town Hall (Stará radnica), which consists of three buildings dating from the 14th/15th century and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city. St Michael’s Gate (Michalská brána) is the only one of the four gates of the medieval city walls still standing. The University Library building, constructed in 1756 and renovated in the early 2000s, housed the Diet of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1802 to 1848.
Particularly characteristic of the city centre are the numerous Baroque-style palaces, such as the Grassalkovich Palace (Grasalkovičov palác), built around 1760, now the residence of the President of Slovakia, and the neighbouring Archbishop’s Summer Palace (Letný arcibiskupský palác), built a few years later, which is now the seat of government. The Primatial Palace (Primaciálny palác), built in 1781 and now the mayor’s office, was the site where the Treaty of Pressburg was signed in 1805.
One of the best-known religious buildings is the Gothic St Martin’s Cathedral (Katedrála svätého Martina), dating from the 13th to the 16th century, where the Hungarian kings were crowned from 1563 to 1830. In the Franciscan Church (Františkánsky kostol), dating from the late 13th century, selected individuals were knighted as part of the coronation ceremonies. St Elizabeth’s Church (Kostol svätej Alžbety), also known as the ‘Blue Church’ due to its exterior colour scheme, was built in the Art Nouveau style in 1907–1908. Other religious buildings in the centre include the 14th-century Gothic Church of the Poor Clares (Kostol klarisiek) – which now serves as a concert and theatre hall – with its five-sided tower; the 18th-century Baroque Church of the Trinitarians (Kostol trinitárov) from the 18th century with Rococo decorations, and the Modernist-style synagogue on Heydukova Street, built between 1923 and 1926. Particularly at the beginning of the 20th century, the architectural character of Pressburg changed with the construction of department stores and financial institutions around the ‘Manderla Tower’ on the old main market square. Between 1973 and 1985, the Engerau district (Audorf/Petržalka) was developed into a large socialist planned city with prefabricated blocks and green spaces. A significant part of the old town was demolished to make way for the newly constructed transport routes and the Danube bridge with its distinctive pylon.
Among the city’s best-known artists is Adam Friedrich Oeser (1717–1799), born in Pressburg in 1717, who worked as a painter, sculptor and book illustrator, primarily in Dresden and Leipzig. Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832) was one of his pupils from 1765 to 1768.
A notable figure from the 20th century is the painter, graphic artist, bookplate and stamp artist Albín Brunovský (1935–1997) is particularly noteworthy; he taught as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava and, amongst other things, designed Czechoslovakia’s final series of banknotes.
Music
For Pressburg, the 18th century in particular was a golden age of music, closely linked to nearby Vienna. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) first visited Pressburg at the age of six; other famous composers such as Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Franz Liszt (1811–1886) and Béla Bartók (1881–1945) all made guest appearances in the city. The composers Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) and Franz Schmidt (1874–1939) were born here.
Manuscripts
The council minutes of Pressburg, recorded under the title *Actionale Protocollum*, constitute a particularly important source of (German-language) urban written records. These are catalogued in the City Archives under reference number I.2.a. nos. 1–221 and provide a continuous account, in 221 handwritten volumes, of the most significant events in the city’s history from 1402 to 1942. From 1402 to 1938, these minutes were kept in German; they thus represent one of the most valuable sources, both for the history of the city of Pressburg and for the documentation of the German language as written there.
Media and Literature
From the mid-18th century onwards, the city’s cultural life was gradually fostered by the work of figures such as Karl Gottlieb Windisch (1725–1793), particularly through the numerous periodicals he founded and to which he made a decisive contribution. As co-founder and long-standing editor-in-chief of the *Preßburger Zeitung* (1764–1929), he progressively transformed what had been the first periodical news sheet in the Danube region into a journal with a focus on cultural matters. The *Ungrische Magazin*, published by Windisch in Pressburg, was the most important German-language journal and, until the turn of the century, one of the finest scholarly publications in Hungary, in which almost all the country’s leading (German) writers published their work.
The Society of Friends of Science, also founded by Windisch, was an association of German-speaking writers and poets from across the territory of present-day Slovakia.
Until 1848, political and cultural discourse was largely confined to the various supplements of the *Preßburger Zeitung*; it was only with the advent of parliamentarianism after 1867 and the associated revival of political life in Hungary that a number of new newspapers were founded.
Of national significance was the famous Pressburg educator and writer Tobias Gottfried Schröer (1791–1850), whose son Karl Julius Schröer (1825–1900) was one of the most eminent professors of German studies and literary historians from Slovakia in the 19th century. His mother, Therese Schröer (1804–1885), also gained renown as a writer beyond the borders of Slovakia.
As a result of Magyarisation, ‘German culture’ was increasingly supplanted by Hungarian culture, and in Pressburg, as in most towns, Hungarian-language newspapers now appeared in place of German-language ones. From the mid-19th century onwards, bilingual newspapers were also published, initially only sporadically, but from the 1870s onwards with increasing frequency, and in the final quarter of the 19th century, many German-language newspapers were eventually converted into bilingual or Hungarian-language publications.
From the 1870s onwards, the assimilation of German-speaking citizens increased, though it did not take hold entirely. Many citizens saw themselves as local patriots, fluent in German, Hungarian and Slovak. Their identity depended on the situation at hand and the socio-cultural environment. This flexibility, but also opportunism and a certain conservative provincialism, were particularly characteristic of the German inhabitants of Pressburg. In popular parlance, and later in the Hungarian press, they were given the ironic nickname ‘Kraxelhuber’.
Today, the capital, Bratislava, is also the centre of the Slovak media, and the most important television channels, radio stations and newspapers are based here: the public broadcaster Slovak Television (Slovenská televízia), the private channels TV Markíza, TV JOJ and TA3, and the public broadcaster Slovenský rozhlas. The most important newspapers today include SME, Pravda, Nový čas, Hospodárske noviny (a business newspaper) and the Slovak Spectator (an English-language newspaper). In addition, two news agencies are based in Bratislava: the state-run Tlačová agentúra Slovenskej republiky (TASR) and the private Slovenská tlačová agentúra (SITA).
Hugo Portisch, born in Bratislava in 1927, became one of Austria’s most prominent journalists after the Second World War thanks to his ability to explain complex political and economic issues in a way that was accessible even to the layman.
The writer and journalist Michal Hvorecký (born 1976), who still lives in his home town, is one of the best-known authors of his generation; his essays and short stories have appeared in publications including the FAZ and Die Zeit.
Bibliography
- Ernst Hochberger: The Great Book of Slovakia. 3,000 entries on culture, art, landscape, nature, history and the economy. 5th, revised and expanded edition. Sinn 2017.
- Štefan Holčík: Coronation Ceremonies in Pressburg/Bratislava 1563–1830. Bratislava 1992.
- Vladimír Horváth, Darina Lehotská, Ján Pleva (eds.): Dejiny Bratislavy [History of Bratislava]. 3rd ed. Bratislava 1982.
- Anton Klipp: Pressburg: New Perspectives on an Old City. Karlsruhe 2010.
- Wynfried Kriegleder, Andrea Seidler, Jozef Tancer (eds.): The German Language and Culture in the Pressburg Region. Bremen 2002 (Press and History – New Contributions 4).
- D[arina] Lehotská, D. Handzová, V[ladimir] Horváth, Z[oltán] Hrabuššay, N[esti] Merglová (comp.): Bratislava City Archives. Inventory of Medieval Charters, Letters and Other Related Documents [Archive of the City of Pressburg. Findbook of Medieval Charters, Letters and Other Related Documents]. Prague 1956.
- Richard Marsina (ed.): Cities in the Danube Region. Bratislava – Pressburg 1291–1991. A collection of papers from the symposium held in Smolenice, 30 September–3 October 1991. Bratislava 1993.
- Jörg Meier: German-language literature of the 19th and 20th centuries from Pressburg/Pozsony/Bratislava. In: brücken. German Studies Yearbook Czech Republic – Slovakia, New Series 15 (2007). Berlin, Prague, Prešov 2007 (DAAD. German Studies Series), pp. 231–248.
- Jörg Meier: Pressburg as a Place of Remembrance for Germans and Austrians. In: Burkhard Olschowsky, Ivan A. Petranský, Attila Pók, Andrzej Przewoźnik, Matthias Weber (eds.): Places of Remembrance in East-Central Europe. Experiences of the Past and Perspectives. Munich 2011 (Publications of the Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe 43). pp. 23–48.
- Jörg Meier, Ilpo Tapani Piirainen, Klaus-Peter Wegera (eds.): German-Language Manuscripts in Slovak Archives. From the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. Vol. 1: Western Slovakia. Berlin, New York 2009.
- Rudolf Musik, Kurt Hofer: Pressburg and its Surroundings. Stuttgart 1990.
- Emil Portisch: History of the City of Pressburg – Bratislava. A Popular Account in 2 Volumes. Pressburg – Bratislava. 2 vols. 1933/1935.
- Ladislav Šášky: Artistic Monuments in Slovakia. An Illustrated Guide. Bratislava 1988.
- Roland Schönfeld: Slovakia. From the Middle Ages to the Present Day. Regensburg, Munich 2000 (Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. History of Countries and Peoples).
- Anton Špiesz: Bratislava v stredoveku [Bratislava in the Middle Ages]. Bratislava 2001.
- Jozef Tancer: In the Shadow of Vienna. On the German-language press and literature in Pressburg in the 18th century. Bremen 2008 (Press and History – New Contributions 32).
- Juraj Žáry, Anton Bagin, Ivan Rusina, Eva Toranová: St Martin’s Cathedral in Bratislava. Bratislava 1990.
- Arne Ziegler: *Actionale Protocollum*. The Oldest Town Register of Bratislava/Pressburg from the Years 1402–1506. Bratislava 1999 (Acta Carpatho-Germanica 4).
- Martin Zückert/Michal Schvarc/Jörg Meier (eds.): Migration – Centre and Periphery – Cultural Diversity. New Approaches to the History of Germans in Slovakia. Munich 2016 (DigiOst 7).
Web links
- www.bratislava.sk; www.visitbratislava.com/ (Capital City of Slovakia)
- www.difmoe.eu/; www.difmoe.info/ (Digital Forum for Central and Eastern Europe)
- www.snm.sk/ (Slovak National Museum)
- www.herder-institut.de/bildkatalog/wikidata/Q1780 (Images of Pressburg/Bratislava in the image archive of the Herder Institute, Marburg)
Notes
[1] See Pavol Žigo: Bratislava – Braslauespurch / Pressburg (Prešporok) / Pozsony. In: Österreichische Namenforschung 29 (2001), issues 1–2, pp. 219–223.
[2] Schönfeld: Slovakia, p. 99.
[3] See Hochberger: The Great Book of Slovakia, p. 306; Richard Marsina: Pressburg Through the Ages. In: Ibid. (ed.): Cities in the Danube Region, pp. 10–15.
[4] Emil Portisch: History of the City of Pressburg – Bratislava. A Popular Account in 2 Volumes. Vol. 2. Pressburg/Bratislava 1935, p. 593.
[5] See Richard Marsina: Pressburg/Bratislava. Capital of the Slovak Republic. In: Harald Heppner (ed.): Capitals between the Sava, the Bosphorus and the Dnieper. History – Function – National Symbolism. Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 1998, pp. 31–50, here pp. 48ff.; Detlef Brandes: The Road to Expulsion 1938–1945. Plans and Decisions Regarding the ‘Transfer’ of Germans from Czechoslovakia and Poland. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Munich 2005 (Publications of the Collegium Carolinum 94).
[6] Regional Statistical Yearbook of Slovakia 2019: slovak.statistics.sk (accessed 1 December 2020).
[7] See the figures from the Statistical Office of Slovakia: slovak.statistics.sk/wps/portal/ext/home/!ut/p/b1/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfGjzOIDzT0tnJwMHQ0s_IJcDTxDHAPcg7xMDA1MTIEKIoEKDHAARwNC-sP1o8BKnN0dPUzMfQwMLHzcTQ08HT1CgywDjY0NHI2hCvBY4eeRn5uqX5AbYZBl4qgIAL9TbiU!/dl4/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/ (accessed 18 August 2020).
[8]www.webnoviny.sk/volkswagen-slovakia-s-rekordnymi-cislami-zisk-automobilky-sa-zvysil-o-133-percent/ (accessed 24 August 2020)
[9]ekonomika.sme.sk/c/20845399/slovnaft-zacne-s-vyrobou-hnojiv-pre-polnohospodarstvo.html; SME, 8 June 2018 (accessed 24 August 2020).
[10] Statistical Yearbook of the Capital of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava 2018. In: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. (Accessed 24 August 2020).
[11]cestovanie.pravda.sk/mesta/clanok/543598-rekordne-cisla-o-bratislavu-rastie-zaujem-najma-u-zahranicnych-turistov/. In: Pravda, 27 February 2020 (accessed 24 August 2020).
[12] Resident population by religious denomination: web.archive.org/web/20061129153406/http://www.statistics.sk/webdata/english/census2001/tab/tab4a.htm (accessed 24 August 2020).
[13] Ján Lacika: Visiting Slovakia – Bratislava. Bratislava 2000, p. 43.
[14] Synagoga Slovaca: www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org/bratislava-synagogue.html?&L=0 (accessed 24 August 2020).
[15] Statistical Yearbook of the Capital of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava 2018. In: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (accessed 24 August 2020).
Citation
Jörg Meier: Pressburg/Bratislava. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2020. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32516 (as at 30 July 2021).
Terms of use for this article
Copyright © University of Oldenburg and the Federal Institute for the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE), all rights reserved. This work was produced as part of the project ‘Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe’ and may be reproduced and published provided the rights holders’ consent has been obtained. Please contact:
If you have any specialist comments or additions to the text, please contact the editorial team, citing relevant literature and source references.