3.1 The jour-fixe system from 1982 till 2000 and the activities afterwards

From 1982 till 1989 up to 41 lectures on a variety of research fields were organised[29]. The scholars came mainly from Austria, but also representatives from Oxford[30], Berlin[31], Budapest[32] or Munich[33] were invited to speak in Vienna. The jour fixes, held on the second Monday of each month, took place in the rooms of the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna mostly during the term. The chosen topics had been loose and mostly suggested by the members in the 80s. The very first five presentations in 1982/1983 had been on “Music and society” by the musicologist Theophil Antonicek (Vienna), “Research and new results to the travel of the pope in the year 1782” by the historian Elisabeth Kovács (Vienna), “The importance of Austria for the history of the Greeks in the 18th century” by New Modern Greek Professor Gunnar Hering (Vienna), “The source critical analysis of the economical thinking of Josef von Sonnenfeld” by historian Hildegard Kremers (Graz), and on “Austrian Enlightenment and identity” by specialist for German Studies Leslie Bodi (Monash University/Australia).

An exception to the content related and disciplinary variety of the 41 lectures were four out of seven lectures in 1983/1984 as they were combined under the common heading “Love of one’s country and patriotism for one common state in the Habsburg Monarchy in the 18th century” which prepared the ground for the first ÖGE 18 congress of the same name in 1985.

The jour-fixe system was kept until 2000 and it was a Vienna based event. In the 90s it became slowly an obsolescent model. Between 1993 and 2000 only 17 jour fixes were held. The quantity of the jour fixes during the presidency of Gunnar Hering is unknown due to lack of records. One aspect is known, however, that in the general assembly on November 30th, 1992 the monthly jour fixe were abandoned in favour of two lecture afternoons each term[34]; in 1994 with the change in management the jour fixe were always held on the third Thursday of every second month[35]. The afternoon lectures contained mostly two lectures (rarely three). In 1993/1994 they were summarized by one general topic like “Austrian-Italian relations”, “Education” and “Patronage”. Generally the attendance of the jour fixe by the members was a major problem. In 1996 Harald Heppner scrutinized the jour-fixe system for the first time when he wrote “Das Jour-Fixe-System erweist sich offenbar als nicht solide genug, denn das Echo ist höchst unterschiedlich; dennoch meine ich, wäre es ein Fehler, wenn wir dies Art der Begegnung aufgäben, denn sie dient allemal dem unverzichtbaren Kontakt und ist auch ein gewisser Ausdruck des Kontinuums”[36]. The interval of the jour fixes was reduced to twice a year. In their last two years they only took place once a year. The attempt was started to revive the interest of the members in the jour-fixe system by focusing more strongly on theme afternoons. Until 2000 the general topics of the jour fixes were “Travel” (1996), “The literary discourse in Austria” (1996), “Literature” (1997), “Collecting” (1997), “Observations” (1998), “Venetian encounters” (1998)”, “Education of rulers” (1999), and on “Historiography” (2000). But lastly also the wake-up call of Harald Heppner in October 1999, where he sent out a “Pastoral letter”[37] to the members, died away without echo.[38] In this letter he pledged the members to attend more the events planned by the society. Starting with the new millennium the jour fixes initiated and carried out by the board were completely abandoned in favour of lectures depending entirely on the initiative of individual members. The only remainder of these theme afternoons are the presentations on the occasion of the annual general assembly. During its first term the board, headed by Wolfgang Schmale, implemented the idea of the annual “Day of the 18th century”. Not the combination of lectures or debates and general assembly was a novelty, but new was the naming and marketing of this event, taking place once a year and with special emphasis on the Eighteenth Century Studies. The day is also always reserved for the Francis-Stephen Prize ceremony every other year.

Beyond that the expected drop in activities did not happen. Parallel to the end of the jour-fixe system smaller excursions to the Schallaburg (2000) and Melk (2004) as well as guided tours through the Menagerie at Schönbrunn (2002), through the Albertina on the occasion of its reopening (2003), from the “Jesuiterplatzl zum Universitätsplatz”[39] with the visit of the roof pavilion of the Austrian Academy of Science (2005) and through the Mozart exhibition in the Albertina (2006) were offered by various members. This expansion of activities offered started already during Heppner’s presidency. One of his objectives when he headed the society was the strengthening of the team spirit among the members.[40] Thus he asked the members in a survey at the beginning of his presidency what other activities they would prefer. Although only 14.7 % of the members actually returned the survey, the suggestion was made to offer excursions.[41] In 1997 the board took up this suggestion and stroke new paths by introducing the concept of “Foci of the 18th century”. The plan was to organise three to four day excursions in various parts of the Habsburg Monarchy. The first one took place from May 8th till 10th, 1997 and the destination were the castles of the 18th century in the southern part of Moravia. The acceptance was so good that another excursion was offered to Slovenia in 1998. However, the one of 1997 should remain the only one as the Slovenian trip was cancelled due to lack of interest.

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^{[27] Interview with Irène Montjoye on November 6th, 2010 in her apartment in Vienna.}

^{[28] Csáky, Gesellschaft, 8.}

^{[29] An register of all jour fixes can be found online <https://oege18.org/tagungen/archiv> (14.02.2010).}

^{[30] Robert J.W. Evans (Oxford) „Über die Ursprünge der Aufklärung in der österreichischen Monarchie“ (26.3.1984).}

^{[31] Hazel Rosenstrauch (Berlin) „Ergebnisse ihrer Forschungsarbeit zur Diskussion: Buchhandelsmanufakturen und Aufklärung“ (11.3.1985).}

^{[32] Eva Ring (Budapest) „Die nationalen Vorstellungen der ungarischen Jakobiner“ (1988/1989).}

^{[33] Gernot Gruber (Munich) „Mozart und Wien“ (1988/1989).}

^{[34] See ÖGE 18 newsletter 3/1993.}

^{[35] See ÖGE 18 newsletter Spring/1995.}

^{[36] See letter from Harald Heppner to the board on October 30th, 1996.}

^{[37] See ÖGE 18 newsletter October/1999.}

^{[38] „Die Reaktionen auf meinem Hirtenbrief vom letzten Herbst waren sehr gering“, in: Letter of Harald Heppner to the board on April 11th, 2000.}

^{[39] See Karner, Jesuiterplatzl, 397–412.}

^{[40] See Internal paper „Gedanken zur Tätigkeit der Österreichischen Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts“ by Harald Heppner in Graz on December 27th, 1994.}

^{[41] See evaluation of survey by the society’s secretary Christian Benedik on June 13th, 1995.}

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