Stefan Kurz
Stefan Kurz is a military historian, provenance researcher, and reserve officer. Since 2013, he has been involved in various exhibition projects, including as a (co-)curator. In 2020, he assumed responsibility for provenance research at the HGM and has since been its representative on the Austrian Commission for Provenance Research. In addition, he has conducted research on military history topics. In his dissertation, he has examined the history of the Imperial and Royal (k.u.k.) Army Museum during the First World War. His research focuses on the military history of the late Habsburg Monarchy from 1866 onwards, military diplomacy, the history of the Volkswehr and the Austrian Army of the First Republic, as well as provenance research and museum history.
Areas of Research
- Military History of Austria-Hungary (1866/67 – 1918)
- First World War
- Military Diplomacy
- History of the Volkswehr and the Armed Forces of the Austrian First Republic
- Museum and collection history
- Provenance Research
Current research
In the field of provenance research, the 1998 Art Restitution Act requires continuous systematic research and, based on this, the preparation of detailed biographical and collection history case studies, which must be submitted to the Art Restitution Advisory Board and may subsequently lead to restitutions. In this regard, several case studies are already planned for the current and coming years, which will be announced after they have been reviewed by the Art Restitution Advisory Board. In addition, in the coming years, provenance research will increasingly have to take into account the issue of war booty and collection acquisitions during the two world wars. At the same time, research into the Austro-Hungarian military attaché system is continuing, using Greece as an example. The long-term project to research the history of the “k. u. k. Heeresmuseum” (Imperial and Royal Army Museum) was recently completed. For the first time, this project produced a source-based empirical study of the history of the museum from 1903 to 1918, which critically questioned the assumptions previously handed down in the literature and significantly deepened and consolidated the state of research.
Further projects planned for the coming years include a critical examination of the complex of issues surrounding “war booty in armed conflicts” as well as a study on the history of the Vienna Army Museum within the institutional framework of the office of the “Chief of the Army Museums” during the National Socialist period.
Main publications (selection)
Stefan Kurz, Die Kommission zur Sichtung der Archive und Museen in Belgrad zwischen Schutz und Translokation von Kulturgütern, in: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Hg.), Besatzungsregime im Ersten Weltkrieg (=Acta Austro-Polonica, Bd. 16), Wien 2025, S. 51 – 73.
Stefan Kurz, Das Jahr 1917 und die Bemühungen des k. u. k. Heeresmuseums um die zukünftige Erinnerung an den Krieg, in: Petr Matějček – Tomáš Kykal (Hg.), Léta do pole okovaná 1914-1918. Bd. 4: 1917 – revoluce ve válce, společnost v revoluci, Prag 2025, S. 285 – 302.
Stefan Kurz, Le service de l’attaché militaire austro-hongrois et ses performances lors de la guerre russo-japonaise, in: Florian Bunoust-Becques – Gérald Arboit – Markus Pöhlmann (Hg.), Internationalisation des méthodes de renseignement. Le cas des attachés militaires, Paris 2024, S. 273 – 304.
Stefan Kurz, Eine Reservistenpfeife und das Schicksal des Sammlers Hanns Fischl, in: Birgit Kirchmayr – Pia Schölnberger (Hg.), „Restituiert“. 25 Jahre Kunstrückgabegesetz in Österreich (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung, Bd. 9), Wien 2023, S. 376 – 383.
Stefan Kurz, Der Kunsthistoriker Stephan Poglayen-Neuwall und das Heeresmuseum, in: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Hg.), Viribus Unitis. Jahresbericht 2023 des Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums, Wien 2024, S. 9 – 22.
Links
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0585-9196
https://hgm-at.academia.edu/StefanKurz