ABSTRACT

This article investigates the formation of a transnational secret police corps in the Habsburg Empire in post-Napoleonic Europe. It shows that widespread anxieties in imperigal Austria following several nineteenth-century revolutions (1830, 1848) led to the recruitment of secret police agents, who operated across Europe. These agents were used to keep track of revolutionaries and radical organizations beyond the empire’s borders, who – in the authorities’ perception – might be detrimental for state security. The article uses a microhistorical approach to analyse this state institution and follows closely the lives and careers of several such agents. It thus delivers a transnational and ‘from below’ perspective on nineteenth-century Austrian state formation. This perspective, the paper argues, underlines the blurred and complex relations between state and society, and highlights the personal agency of obscure figures such as secret agents and police informers.¹¹ I would like to thank Alexander Maxwell, Christopher Clark, Brendan Simms, Frank Lorenz Mueller, and the two anonymous reviewrs for their insightful comments during the preparation of this article.

摘要

本文调查了拿破仑时代后欧洲哈布斯堡帝国跨国秘密警察部队的形成。它表明，十九世纪几次革命（1830 年、1848 年）后，奥地利帝国普遍存在焦虑，导致招募了在欧洲各地活动的秘密警察特工。这些特工被用来追踪帝国境外的革命者和激进组织，在当局看来，这些人可能对国家安全有害。本文采用微观历史的方法来分析这个国家机构，并密切关注几位这样的特工的生活和职业生涯。因此，它提供了关于十九世纪奥地利国家形成的跨国和“自下而上”的视角。该论文认为，从这个角度来看，¹¹我要感谢 Alexander Maxwell、Christopher Clark、Brendan Simms、Frank Lorenz Mueller 以及两位匿名审稿人在准备本文期间提供的富有洞察力的评论。