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ix Acknowledgments This book began as a doctoral dissertation at Lund University, Sweden, and was finished in 2002. During the years in which I worked on the original dissertation, I received help and advice from many people, too many to enumerate here. However, I incurred a special debt to Professor Sven Tägil of Lund University, who supported my work during its early years, when few people in the Swedish historical profession could see the point of studying a long defunct Central European empire. My doctoral adviser, Professor Rune Johansson, of Linköping University, was also crucial for the continuing work on my dissertation. There were many others at the Department of History in Lund who during these years commented on and discussed my seminar papers with me. I thank them all. During that time I worked extensively in archives in Vienna, and to some extent in Germany. In Vienna, Professor Fritz Fellner supported my work in many ways, always ready to read my drafts and discuss them with me. Dr. Peter Urbanitsch was also an important discussion partner. And a special thanks is extended to Dr. Franz Adlgasser, who often spent time discretely enlightening me on the peculiarities of Austrian society and culture, which my Scandinavian world view made me blind to. I also thank Dr. Ulrich Weinzierl, who generously spent time with me to read and comment on the part of my book concerning Hugo von Hofmannsthal. There were many others in Vienna to whom I owe thanks for their friendliness and willingness to give help and advice. A special thanks to Marianne de Maré, who during all my visits to Vienna and the two prolonged stays in which I was accompanied by my family helped me in numerous ways to settle in and to solve all the practical problems of daily life in a foreign country. In the Hofmannsthal-Archiv in Frankfurt am Main, Ellen Ritter helped me find my way in the scholarship and archival materials on Hofmannsthal. I thank her also for reading and commenting on the part of my work concerning Hofmannsthal. And I extend a special thanks to Luboš Velek, of Prague, who helped me to locate relevant materials from the archives of this old Habsburg city, and also for copying and sending this information to me. I am very grateful for all the help and advice I received at the archives in Vienna. The staff of the Staatsarchiv, including its library, the Haus-, Hof-, und Staatsarchiv and the Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek, all helped me during the several years of my work there. Also many thanks are extended to the staff of the archive of the x ◆ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS German Foreign Ministry, where I worked during its last few months in Bonn, and to members of the German Bundesarchiv in Berlin. I also thank members of the staff of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, who over the years have become like longtime acquaintances. During the years since finishing my dissertation, I have revised and extensively reworked the original text. This has been a lonely job and was carried out in my own time. This also means that all the remaining mistakes are my own. Also, unless otherwise stated, all translations from German into English are my own. However, I must thank Professors Gary Cohen and Charles Ingrao, editors at the Purdue University Press, for encouraging me and giving me important suggestions on how to proceed with the revision. I also thank them for their patience. Many thanks to James Keating for improving the language of the book, and Carol Bifulco for preparing the manuscript for publication. I also want to thank the Frankfurt Goethe-Museum (Frankfurt am Main), the Austrian National Library (Vienna), the Kreisky-Archiv (Vienna), and Professor Fritz Fellner (Vienna) for permission to publish the pictures included in this book. The main financial support for this project came from the Department of History at Lund University, which financed my Ph.D. studies. I also received substantial support from the Erik-Philip Sörensen Foundation. Several foundations were essential for financing my many trips to Austria and Germany: the Crafoord Foundation; Lars Hierta Foundation; the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities; the Letterstedt Foundation; the Per Westling Memorial Foundation; and the Uno Otterstedt Foundation. I express my gratitude to all these institutions. ...

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