Fatih Ekim, M.A.

Forschungsschwerpunkte

Türkei

osmanischen Reich

Erinnerungskultur

Promotionprojekt

Remembering and Forgetting the Ottoman/Turkish Past: Memorial Cultures in Budapest and Vienna

Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Mehmet Hacısalihoğlu

This doctoral research examines how the Ottoman/Turkish past has been remembered, represented, transformed, and forgotten over time in Budapest and Vienna, two important Central European capitals. Taking into account their distinct historical experiences, from the nearly 145 years of Ottoman rule in Buda to the sieges of Vienna in 1529 and 1683, the study explores the numerous sites and forms of memory through which these historical encounters continue to be remembered and represented.

The study also focuses on how the historical Muslim presence in the region was remembered and forgotten following the end of Ottoman rule, and examines how violence, displacement, and processes of erasure shaped its representation in historical memory. Particular attention is given to how the meanings attributed to the Ottoman/Turkish past changed from the period of the Holy League and Habsburg-Ottoman rivalry, through nineteenth-century Hungarian nationalism, Orientalism, and political transformations, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and the emergence of modern nation-states, to present-day Austria, Hungary, and Türkiye.

The place of this past in collective memory is comparatively examined through monuments, sites of memory, museums, school textbooks, place names, and public and urban narratives. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews, and observations, the study investigates which aspects of the Ottoman/Turkish past are commemorated, overlooked, or forgotten, and how the meanings attributed to them have changed across different historical and political contexts. In this context, it also considers the place of this historical heritage within contemporary memory cultures, cultural heritage, and historical education.