Visualizing Waldheim: Mediale Schlüsselbilder der “Affäre Waldheim”

Abstract

This paper focuses on visualizations of the “Waldheim Affair” of 1986 and 1987 in several Austrian media. Although Waldheim and his wartime biography have been at the heart of several seminal works on Austrian politics of memory, the visual history of this paradigmshift ing event has not yet been examined. This article therefore aims at analyzing important “key images” and their functions and uses within the context of the “Waldheim Affair” and the process of Austria’s “coming to terms” with its past. However, Waldheim and the subsequent medial uproar have to be analyzed against the backdrop of previous “critical discourse moments” that have contributed to setting the course for a thorough reexamination of Austria’s role in wwii. This paper also explores the Kreisky- Wiesenthal confl ict in 1975 and the Reder- Frischenschlager handshake of 1985.