Country problem.

Filling in CK for Gerhard Stenzel I discover that he was born in Vápenná, currently in the Czech Republic, but then (1914) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. How should that be entered? Currently I have just left the name of the town.

Side note: The Dutch CK said he was German, which is wrong, as he was Austrian. I entered the English correctly, and deleted the Dutch.

It looks like people are using Austro-Hungarian Empire: https://www.librarything.com/commonknowledge/search.php?f=44&q=austro-hungar...

I believe the practice is to enter the name of the country at the time for birthplace. The issue of nationality and country for map can get trickier

Austro-Hungarian Empire maps to Austria. Which I guess is right enough for an author MarthaJeanne considers "Austrian", even if he was born outside modern Austria.

His first few decades may have been somewhat mixed, as borders and he moved around, but he lived the rest of his life in Austria, died in Austria, and wrote several books on Austria. Wikipedia: "war ein österreichischer Schriftsteller."

Yes, entering what it was at the time is my understanding, too.

I've had some stumpers recently myself, entering places from the early colonial period of North America. But also - Ferrara in Italy, 1620s, long before the unification.

I hesitate about French towns of the same period, too, before the département changes in the 20th century. Sometimes the name matches the historic region, and that's a bit easier.

Spare a thought for classicists! Is Caesar Italian? Pomponius Mela Spanish? Homer Turkish?

>7 AndreasJ: You don't even have to be a classicist. Is Chaucer British? What about Shakespeare? Or the Provençal troubadours French? For that matter, is Marie de France French, Breton, British, or English?

I'm sure we can find more than enough examples to make everyone throw rotten fruit at us. :-)