In our first Halloween episode, we sink our teeth into the true story of the vampire panic that swept through the Habsburg borderlands during the Age of Enlightenment—because nothing says "reason and progress" like mass fear of the undead. It all begins in 18th-century Serbia, where a shoeless peasant was said to have crawled out of his grave to reclaim his footwear… and maybe a little blood. From there, the hysteria spread across the empire, reaching even the court of Empress Maria Theresia herself. Her response? A vampire decree based on reports by her Dutch physician, Gerard van Swieten—the very man who would later inspire Bram Stoker's legendary vampire hunter, Professor Van Helsing. Join us as we trace how the Enlightenment tried (and mostly succeeded) to drive a stake through superstition—and how bats somehow ended up taking the blame.

For more, check us out on social media at viennapastandpresent or at viennapastandpresent.com. Reach out to us at [email protected]. We love hearing feedback and ideas. Danke!

LINKS

Klenk+Reiter podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/74Ib9NB1WM4KdImJBWaiHD?si=14d7e9ebf36f4258

Arnold Paole - Wikipedia

Petar Blagojević - Wikipedia

The Theological and Esoteric Debate on the Existence of Vampires (17th–19th centuries). 2. An Epidemic of Vampirism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_van_Swieten

https://www.onb.ac.at/mehr/blogs/untot-seit-dem-18-jahrhundert-der-erste-vampirhype

https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=wrz&datum=17250721&seite=11&zoom=33

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369848612000313

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250630-serbian-village-stakes-claim-to-the-first-vampire

https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/sendungen/kalenderblatt/maria-theresia-verkuendet-den-vampir-erlass-100.html

https://www.thegreatprojects.com/blog/bats-associated-with-vampires