Abstract
In 1922, Julius Deutsch, one of the leading Viennese Social Democrats, spent a weekend in the Strudengau in Upper Austria. In a local inn, he was insulted by a right-wing alpinist, who accused him of being a traitor to the Emperor. The man claimed that Deutsch, along with other “Jewish Revolutionaries”, played a part in overturning the old order and helping to “stab” the Empire’s army “in the back”. Deutsch brought his opponent to trial, in an attempt to present his actions both in the World War and as a State Secretary for Military Affairs in the new Austrian Republic in a better light. However, the provincial courts acquitted the defendant on appeal, following the anti-Semitic arguments of his defending lawyer. Like other trials in the interwar years, the lawsuit unfolded into a “court of injustice”, with contested concepts of “Jewish difference” being performed. In the courtroom, Deutsch, who left the Jewish religious community as a young man, was forced to engage with his Jewish family background. The article focuses on Deutsch’s retrospective narration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in his courtroom speech and the insights that can be gained about Jewish difference and the antagonistic political arena of the new nation-state of (Deutsch-)Österreich.
Highlights
On Pentecost Sunday, in June 1922, in the tourism resort St
Like other trials in the interwar years, the lawsuit unfolded into a “court of injustice”, with contested concepts of “Jewish difference” being performed
Sits with a group of likeminded right wing companions in a local garden inn. There he laments about the book Aus Österreichs Revolution [2], which was published the year before by one of the current Social Democratic leaders, Julius Deutsch
Summary
On Pentecost Sunday, in June 1922, in the tourism resort St. Nikola in the Strudengau in Upper. Since Deutsch was “at least partly of Jewish descent”, the verdict said, describing his deeds in this way was just the claim that he would act for “his” nation to the disadvantage of other nations, a behavior that could not be considered dishonorable on the grounds of the penal law [12] Both parties filed an appeal, but in November 1923, the regional court trial in the town of Linz would proceed even less favorably for Deutsch. I will focus on Deutsch’s retrospective narration of the old Empire in his courtroom speech, the insights that can be gained into performances of Jewish difference and the antagonistic political arena of the new nation-state of (Deutsch-)Österreich, (German)-Austria, in which the claim of Julius Deutsch, as a Social Democrat, to represent the “the (working) people” (“das arbeitende Volk”) was challenged by “racial” and ethnic concepts of the German Volk, that were articulated by his Catholic and right-wing political opponents
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