Maria Theresa and Schonbrunn

The Schonbrunn palace was a particularly interesting and valuable experience to our class as it gave us an opportunity to realize how many of the baroque foundations of Maria Theresa’s rule manifested in her summer residence. Maria Theresa was born in 1717 and served as a transitional figure for both the Habsburg dynasty and the baroque paradigm in Austrian and greater European history. Theresa was the first female ruler of the Habsburg dynasty as allowed by the Charles VI’s Pragmatic Sanction that ensured the Habsburg line of Holy Roman Emperors would continue. The reign of Theresa was marked by educational and judicial reform amidst a diplomatic revolution that was occurring across Europe. While Theresa was well liked by her people and represented a move towards the new “enlightened despots” that were beginning to dominate European politics she was still committed to the baroque through her devout Catholic beliefs and by the Schonbrunn palace that she occupied in the summers.

The Schonbrunn estate has a long history dating back to the rule of Maximilian II who purchased the land the palace now resides on as a hunting area for the court until Leopold I decided to transform the land into an estate the caliber of Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles. The palace does not resemble much of its originally intended form because Maria Theresa, who was given the palace as a gift from her father, had the palace remodeled in the Rococo style. While Schonbrunn on the surface was simply a summer home and residence for many of the Habsburgs during their final centuries of rule, Maria Theresa’s impact on the palace says a lot about her as a ruler.

While Maria Theresa instituted many new reforms and policies, she was still committed to some of the foundations of Catholicism and the baroque. Maria Theresa strengthened the power of her state with the education and judicial reforms that centralized power in her empire that coincided with the growing trend towards state building throughout Europe. Maria Theresa did not completely abandon the tradition of her Habsburgs descendents, as she was still extremely conservative in her religious beliefs. This can be seen when she expelled the Jews from Prague in 1741. I feel that more of this continuity and change in the Habsburg ruling style manifests in the manner in which Maria Theresa had Schonbrunn maintained.

It’s clear that Theresa acknowledged the paradigm change in art and architecture from baroque to Rococo. She had her summer palace, Schonbrunn, converted to the Rococo style yet the palace itself still reverts to traditional absolutist pomp and excess. The practice of having a huge and excessive palace with a large garden and overall grounds area was an element of the absolutists of the previous eras. The accompanying gardens also complimented this adherence to traditional palaces of absolute monarchs such as the lavish gardens at Versailles. While Theresa attempted to veil her commitment to many traditional customs and values of previous Habsburg rulers through many reforms during her rule, she was still loyal to some of the traditional values upon which the Holy Roman Empire was built and how the Habsburgs ruled it. Theresa’s reign was truly a period of continuity and change for both the Habsburg ruling style and the empire they ruled.

The German word of the day is Autobhan and it means ‘highway’