The Life and Professional Wanderings of Advocates and Physicians in Moravia and Silesia at the Turn of the 20th Century

Abstract

The submitted study presents particular conclusions as for the life style and professional careers of attorneys and doctors in the second half of the 19th and 20th century. Its objective is not to provide the reader with a quantitative development of chosen socio-professional groups but it covers by means of the careers of selected personalities first and foremost possibilities of the social mobility in the analysed period, family strategies when choosing a profession and behavioural models in relation to education. Presently the study is focused on everyday life of the secondary school and university students, i.e. their life conditions and cultural activities. The civic commitment of educated men at the beginning of their professional careers has been also outlined, including their involvement as for all- society networks which had a significant impact upon their potential success when doing their profession. The key topic of the study is mentality, behavioural models and life strategies that had lead not only to win recognition in their profession but also to a considerable social status in the urban society at the turn of the 19th and 20th century.