Archduke Johann of Austria

The main character

Our story focuses on Archduke Johann (John) of Austria (Erzherzog Johann Baptist Josef Fabian Sebastian von Österreich, 20.1.1782, Florence – 11.5.1859, Graz, buried in Schenna), whose progressive, cutting-edge attitude and interests had a tremendous impact on everyday life during his time since he set the foundations for a lot of developments and innovations in various areas, not only in Graz, but also in Styria. His creative spirit can still be seen and felt in a lot of places, like for instance FH Joanneum (University of Applied Sciences, Graz) or Montanuniversität Leoben as well as Joanneum Research Graz, famous for its various museums throughout Styria.

Like his father, Archduke John was a modern and enlightened character interested in areas such as history, geography as well as foreign cultures. During his travels he got a lot of insight in different cultures and lifestyles. Yet, he enjoyed the Austrian alpine regions the most, which led him to spend most of his life in these areas. Owing to the sympathy for these specific regions of Austria and his innovative personality, Archduke John initiated a wide range of developments in the fields of industry and agriculture.

Moreover, he set the foundations for a variety of educational institutions. In 1811 the Technical University Graz was founded by Archduke John. Joanneum Graz, an educational institution and museum, the provincial archive Graz and the provincial library of Styria were established by him as well.

In 1818 “Brandhof”, an impressive farming estate, whose history dates back as far as the year 1390 without interruption was bought, renovated and extended by Archduke John who then used to spend his summers there.

In 1820 Archduke John bought the first blast furnace for the village of Vordernberg in order to enhance and support steel production in the region.  Today the area is still renowned for the global steel and technology group, VOEST-ALPINE, located in Donawitz/Leoben.

From 1850 to 1859 Archduke John was mayor of the Styrian city of Stainz, where he got to know and soon fell in love with Anna Plochl (1804 – 1885). The couple got married in the year 1829. Life and marriage were not easy for them, though. Due to the fact that Anna was not of royal descent, it was a so-called morganatic marriage and at the beginning not approved of by John’s relatives. Yet, this could not keep John from marrying her, which again reflects his modern attitudes and personality. The couple had one son, Franz von Meran (1839 Vienna – 1891 Opatija).

As already mentioned before, Archduke John’s manifold interests, enlightened thoughts and ideas together with his farsighted investments brought about a lot of innovations, changes and reforms in education, steel production, manufacturing and trading as well as agriculture that still have an unbelievable impact on business and educational life in Styria and Graz especially.

Therefore, it is our objective to portray and showcase major milestones of Archduke John’s life, marriage, his attitudes, cutting-edge innovations and extensive inheritance in our story. The milestones will be recreated by several groups of students and of course teachers in ways reflecting and depicting the talents found in our school’s five branches: Music, Arts, IT, Science and Drama. Naturally, to guarantee the project’s success, multi-level cooperation and mutual support within the school are necessary. This is why staff involved work together and regularly meet for creative discussions and exchange.

The storyline

The project was started by developing community maps with two of our Science classes comparing and contrasting changes in our school’s neighbourhood, an area that has been under constant development in recent years. Owing to the establishment of FH Joanneum the whole area has gained a completely new atmosphere. In a field study the students had to opportunity to find out about recent years’ shifts and alterations, which were presented to their peers through power point presentations and perfectly well depicted in our community maps. While working students even designed “talent/skills boats” analyzing and selecting intelligences (according to Howard Gardner) found and used during group work.

As already mentioned above, our objective was telling and staging the story of John’s extraordinary life, initiatives and marriage in various ways that express and combine our school’s unique atmosphere and characteristics.

Therefore, historical and modern musical pieces together with art choreographies, chemical experiments and dramatic sequences were designed to be acted out on stage and put together in a scenic performance aiming to depict biographical highlights to complete the storyline. Music performed and recorded by our students was added to create unique elements and rhythm. Pullovers and T-shirts designed by students add and spread a specific atmosphere during the certain. Students are already designing costumes and objects in connection to Archduke John’s life which will be worn and/or showcased on stage.

To get a deeper insight into the Archduke’s life and to gain a feeling for his time and age, an excursion to Stainz Museum including a guided tour through the exhibition and the church was organized for the students. The teenagers highly appreciated the information they got, were excited to see miniature models of farming machines and equipment as well as to hear about the history of the famous “Steirische Käferbohne”. The excursion really succeeded in pointing out connections and relations between the past and the present in Graz and in some other parts of Styria.

Source (both pictures):  https://www.grawe.at/blog/anna-plochl-und-erzherzog-johann-eine-liebesgeschichte/