Nataša Mišković

Housing shortage and communal politics in European cities around 1900: the cases of Basel 1889 and Belgrade 1906.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, European cities faced a problem well known in postindependence India: the population escalated due to immigration from the rural areas causing rapid and considerable housing shortage. This forced large parts of the poorer classes into miserable living conditions. Lack of space, money and hygiene facilitated the epidemic spread of diseases such as tuberculosis and diarrhoea. The town authorities were called upon to stop speculation and to launch state financed housing projects. However, in reality the situation was very different depending on the place, political aims and financial possibilities arising out of the particular crisis. This article discusses the issue in two continental European cities of around 100,000 inhabitants. The Swiss town of Basel was a hub of trade in Central Europe, while Belgrade was the capital of the Southeastern European kingdom of Serbia.

Marriage and household in the Belgrade elite at the beginning of the 20th century: The Novaković family

After centuries of Ottoman dominance, the emergence of a Christian elite in 19th century Serbia was a new phenomenon. The princedoms administrative, court and military staff mostly assembled Serbians from both Ottoman and Habsburg territories, joined by Tsintsar (Aromunian), German, and other minorities. This staff grew into a small urban upper class until 1900, presenting itself in a gentrified, Western-oriented, but nationally conscious manner. This article explores its marriage and household patterns in a case study. It is based on the rich collection of family letters preserved in the estate of former prime minister Stojan Novaković. The Serbian rural family has attracted a lot of attention among family historians (Halpern, 1972; Hammel, 1972; Todorova, 1993, 2006; Kaser, 1995, 2000). However, the capitals urban elite emerging in the nineteenth century has not been studied under this aspect until recently. As it had its firm roots in the countryside, it makes sense to first look at its origins and analyse its differences and similarities with rural families. This article starts with a survey on Belgrades political, urban, and demographic development, followed by a discussion of the capitals elite and a summary of the rural Balkan family household. With all this in mind, it proceeds to explore the Novaković family letters, analysing information on household and relationship patterns in connection with the theories and facts given above. 1 1 This article is based on my Ph.D. thesis Basare und Boulevards: Belgrad im 19. Jahrhundert (Mišković, 2008).