Austrian People Research Articles

'Hitler's First Victim'? — Memory and Representation in Post-War Austria: Introduction

'Hitler's FirstVictim5? ? Memory and Representation in Post-War Austria Introduction JUDITH BENISTON 24 February 2003 saw the publication of the final report of theHistoriker kommission [Historical Commission], an independent body established by the Austrian government in autumn 1998 to carry out a scholarly investigation of6Verm?gensentzug auf dem Gebiet der Republik Osterreich w?hrend der NS-Zeit sowie R?ckstellungen und Entsch?digungen (sowie wirtschaftliche und soziale Leistungen) seit 1945 in?sterreich' [the seizure of property on Austrian territory during the period ofNazi rule, as well as restitution and compensation (and related economic and welfare issues) in Austria since 1945].1 The appointment of the Commission, chaired by eminent lawyer Clemens Jabloner, professor at the University of Vienna and President of the Verwaltungsgerichtshof [Administrative Court], can be seen as a response both to sustained domestic pressure ? from an increasingly assertive Jewish community, from politicians (especially in the ?VP [Austrian People's Party] and Green Party), and from a new generation of historians ? and to developments in the international arena, where since the mid-1990s attention has increasingly focused on the economics of persecution, on bringing to account companies, institutions and individuals who benefited materially from the Nazi policies of confiscation and exploitation.2 In Austria as elsewhere, awkward questions have been asked ofmajor corporations, of banks and insurance companies, several ofwhich have set up their own investigative commissions; protracted disputes over 1 Clemens Jabloner, Brigitte Bailer-Galanda, Eva Blimlinger, Georg Graf, Robert Knight, Lorenz Mikoletzky, Bertrand Perz, Roman Sandgruber, Karl Stuhlpfarrer and Alice Teichova, Schlussbericht derHistorikerkommission derRepublik Osterreich. Verm?gensentzug w?hrend der JVS-^eit sowie R?ckstellungen und Entsch?digungen seit ig4j in ?sterreich. Zusammenfassungen und Einsch?tzungen (Vienna and Munich, 2003). The text was immediately made available online at http:// www.historikerkommission.gv.at. All page references are to the printed version; here p. 15. 2 See Richard Mitten, 'The Price of Historical Responsibility: "Wiedergutmachung" and the Austrian Historians' Commission', Antisemitism Research, 3/1 (1999), 9-15? Recent scholarly interest in the economics of persecution is exemplified by the following: Die politische ?konomie des Holocaust. Zur wirtschaftlichen Logik von Verfolgung und 'Wiedergutmachung', ed. by Dieter Stiefel (Vienna, 2001). 2 Introduction the ownership of looted artworks (for example, paintings by Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt) alerted a broad public to the restitution issue. A further catalyst was the threat of legal action in theUnited States ? the so-called 'class actions' demanding compensation for holders of looted bank accounts and for individuals, including civilians from occupied countries and former concentration camp inmates, who had been used during the period ofNazi rule as forced or slave labourers. The report of theHistorical Commission, which focuses attention squarely on how the victims ofNational Socialism inAustria have been treated, both in the period 1938-45 and subsequently, may also be said to constitute a quasi-official reckoning (and not only in the monetary sense of the word) with the thesis of Austria as 'Hitler's first victim' that, until the 1980s, remained the barely questioned master-narrative of the Second Republic.3 As such, it forms an important backdrop to the articles assembled in the present volume, all of which explore representations and memories of the rise ofNazism and ofNazi rule inAustria that stand in complex and often critical relation to the notion of collective and institutional victimhood. As iswell known, the 'victim thesis' originates in theMoscow Declaration of November 1943, inwhich thewartime Allies identified Austria as 'das erste freie Land, das der typischen Angriffspolitik Hitlers zum Opfer fallen sollte' [the first free country to fall a victim to Hitlerite aggression].4 Declaring the annexation of the country by Nazi Germany on 15March 1938 to be null and void, the signatories announced their intention to reverse it. In the following paragraph, however, theDeclaration warned thatAustria must take responsibility for her subsequent participation in the war on the side of Nazi Germany and that account would be taken of how far the Austrian people liberated themselves. Less than two years later, the Declaration of Austrian Independence (27 April 1945) incorporated the complete text of theMoscow Declaration with only minor changes in wording; but the sense of ambivalence was weakened by detaching the caveats from...

"Eine Revolution des Films": The Third Man (1949) , The Cold War and Alternatives to Nationalism & Coca-colonization in Europe

Scholz I "Eine Revolution des Films" "Eine Revolution des Films77: The Third Man (1949), The CoId War and Alternatives to Nationalism & Coca-colonization in Europe Anne-Marie Scholz "Shelved and safe" as a twentieth century film classic, it is probably difficult for most filmgoers today to imagine the hope and enthusiasm that greeted the release ofCarol Reed's The Third Man in Europe in 1949. Based upon a story by Graham Greene, The ThirdMan, set in a post war ally-occupied Vienna, tells the story of the naive American writer, Holly Martins (Joseph Corten), who discovers the corrupt activities ofhis allegedly murdered friend Harry Lime(Orson Welles), and reluctantly helps the British police (Trevor Howard, Bernard Lee) apprehend Lime. A romantic subplot turns on his unrequited infatuation for his friend's former lover, Anna Schmidt(Alida Valli). Reed added to the basic "melodrama" of the plot by filming on location in Vienna, casting a distinguished collection ofAmerican, Italian, British, German, Austrian, and Russian players; using a multi-lingual script (English, German and some Russian ); adding a striking score by the zither player Anton Karas, which became perhaps the best known tune in the world in the 1950's; and employing exceptional camera work. The film won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival that year, and thousands of filmgoers all over the world flocked into the theatres to see it. The film was of particular interest to German speaking audiences because it was actually filmed on location in the city ofVienna and cast a number ofrespected and popularAustrian and German stage actors, such as Paul Hoerbiger, Ernst Deutsch, Erich Ponto, Siegfried Breuer, and Hedwig Bleibtreu.1 Special emphasis was placed in the press upon the fact that the film would open in Germany at the same time as in other West European countries, even before the opening in the U.S., very likely suggesting a gesture of reconciliation toward Germanspeaking audiences.2 When the dubbed version of the film opened in Germany's major theatres in January 1950, the reThe actor Siegfried Breuer (Popesco) along with Paul Hoerbiger (the porter) and Ernst Deutsch (Baron Kurtz) figure prominently in this German publicity collage. sponse was overwhelming. In Hamburg, in addition to very large audiences, there were even public requests that the film be screened in the original, English-language version. The Filmblaetter, Berlin, for example, reported that by March 17, 1950, "every tenth Berliner," an audience of350,000, had seen The ThirdMan. And when the film opened in East Berlin, 22,000 advance tickets were sold in the first two days.3 During the shooting ofthe film in early 1949, entire sections of Vienna were closed to the Austrian public, as Isa Hohmann noted in the Buehne und Film, Berlin, but Austrians were excited ratherthan resentful, proud that theircity had been chosen by Reed as the ideal setting for his nextfilm, andpleased that "the Austrian people in the film would be played by Austrians." As if to underline the diplomatic significance of the filming, Hohmann begins the article by giving the entire plot ofReed's suspense thriller away and focuses upon the cooperation between Austrians and English : "das duerfte heut am hohen Markt sein, wo die Englaender drehen!" ("The British should be filming at the High Market today!") Reed's decision to shoot on location had significant meaning to Austrians, as the presence of the British was interpreted as a gesture of cultural exchange, even as Hohmann's article relied on metaphors of occupation, with Reed as a kind of military leader with an excellent command of his film "crew." From the outset, Carol Reed's The ThirdMan was understood to be more thanjust another movie.4 Indeed, the image of postwar European cooperation marked German discussions of The Third Man. "The Filmblaetter recognized in the film the first work of an explicit European spirit." "This was a significant example of a European community production," noted the Frankfurter Neue Presse. The Schwaebische Zeitung referred to it as "a truly international film." Austrian press promoters for London Films 44 I Film & History Anne-Marie Scholz | Special In-Depth Section gave producer Alexander Korda credit for being "the first foreigner who did not...

The Threat of Fascism in Austria

For the first time since the Second World War, the extreme right is a major component in a national European government. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) has half of the posts and the Deputy Chancellorship in its coalition with the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), sworn in on February 4, 2000. The only consistent features of FPÖ politics since 1986 have been racism and the determination of Jörg Haider, its most prominent figure, to take power in Austria. Haider is best known for his favorable comments about Nazi Germany, the honorable nature of members of the SS, and the role of the German army under Hitler in defending civilization.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Party organisation and party competitiveness: The case of the Austrian People's Party, 1945–1992

Abstract. This article links party organisation to party performance, examining their relationship over almost half a century in an in‐depth case study of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). It proceeds from the assumption that party organisation does matter for party performance, at least indirectly, and that the adaptation of the party organisation to a changing environment is, in the long run, the only viable strategy for party goal achievement. While the ÖVP's environment was subject to important changes, all of which worked against the party, it has failed to adapt to them. This, in turn, has reduced the competitiveness of the ÖVP. Consequently its record in achieving most of its party goals has been rather poor since 1970. The reconstruction of the intra‐party discussions reveals that the party leadership had access to analyses identifying the structural weaknesses of the party organisation since the late 1950s. The ÖVP's failure to adapt is explained by using the ‘nested games’ approach of Tsebelis (1990). In order to enhance the understanding of organisational dynamics of parties in a more general sense, the case of the ÖVP is related to the work of Panebianco (1988) and Janda (1990).

Christian democracy in Europe: a comparative perspective

Introduction - overview of current position of CD movement in both halves of Europe. Part 1 The nature of Christian Democracy. Part 2 Christian Democracy in national context: the DCI the CDU/CSU the Austrian People's Party the French CDS the Christian People's Party of Norway the case of the UK. Part 3 Comparative and transnational studies: voters and parties Christian Democracy in Scandinavia CD and European security.

The National and Social Origins of Parish Priests in the Archdiocese of Vienna, 1800–1870

Under The Influence of Enlightenment ideals of rational administration and cameralist notions of increasing the productivity and welfare of the populace, Joseph II and his ministers embarked on an aggressive program of reform for the Habsburg monarchy in the late eighteenth century. Their view as to what needed change was wide-ranging, but among their chief concerns was the desire to restructure the relationship between the Catholic church and Austrian society. As the largest and most powerful religious denomination in the Habsburg monarchy, the Catholic church possessed immense human and material resources, which could possibly be exploited to benefit the Austrian people and state. For Joseph II, the process whereby Catholicism could best be put to use in Austrian society necessarily involved seizing partial administrative control over the Catholic church. The Catholic church, he believed, did not distribute material and moral benefit to the Austrian people evenly, and changing this situation required the active intervention of the Austrian government.

Further Studies on the Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) Polymorphism in Austria1

Abstract. In extended examinations of the ADA polymorphism in the Austrian population, 47 families with 171 children and 317 mother‐child pairs were investigated. The results showed full agreement with the postulated Mendelian way of inheritance. The gene frequencies, evaluated from 674 unrelated Austrian people are ADA1 — 0.9317 and ADA2 — 0.0682. One rare phenotype ADA 4‐1 (frequency 0.0015) was observed during this investigation. The use of a high voltage electrophoresis apparatus for starch gel electrophoresis is described.

Bitte Liebt Österreich. Christoph Schlingensief y la inmunidad del espectador

Este artículo versa, a través del análisis de la acción vienesa Bitte Liebt Österreich de Christoph Schlingensief, sobre los dispositivos de inmunidad (nacional) que posibilitan la construcción de una mirada distanciada sobre el otro. Dicha mirada permitió, en la performance, activar una problemática capacidad de decisión sobre la vida (efectiva) del refugiado extranjero. Mediante una controvertida acción expandida en el espacio público, a modo de Gran Hermano, donde los límites entre lo auténtico y lo ficticio se diluyen, el autor alemán consiguió evidenciar los mecanismos de generación de la identidad nacional y del sentido de pertenencia del pueblo austríaco –y por analogía, de todos los demás.

The Austrian Party Press and the First Republic: a Study in Political Journalism

THE MOST LOGICAL dividing line in Austrian history since 1918 is the year of the merger with Germany. Closing a chapter in her history which was at once historically distinct and politically disastrous, Austria in 1938 entered into her seven lean years of Nazi occupation and war, which were followed by ten years of Allied control. Not until 1955, the year of the state treaty, was Austria free to turn a new leaf in her historical career by putting behind her the painful experiences of Nazi annexation, war, and wardship to four military powers. The story of Austrian history between the end of World War I and her union with Germany has been written and rewritten in numerous publications and need not be repeated here. We may also pass over the wellremembered episode of German occupation and war. Beginning with the Allied occupation, Austria was governed by a coalition of her two major parties. The life and death struggle between the Social Democrats and the far right in the First Republic had given way to co-operation between the two parties which are heirs to the Social Democrats and the Christian Socials respectively: the Socialist Party of Austria (S.P.Oe.) and the Austrian People's Party (Oe.V.P.). The historian is delighted to see an instance of man's having learned a lesson from the past. But before we rejoice too much in the reasonableness of man, let it be remembered that the presence of Communist power in Austria from 1945 on had more to do with the establishment of this collaboration than the sensible judgment of postwar politicos, and that if it had not been for this clear and present peril of communism, which both parties of the coalition detest, there might have been (it is fair to assume) almost as much party strife in postwar Austria as there had been between 1918 and 1934. Before an analysis of newspaper sampling is made, a profile of the coalition must briefly be drawn so that party press reflexes may be better understood. It should be remembered that one of the two parties, which together command today the confidence of roughly 85 per cent of the enfranchized citizenry, the Austrian People's party, is now more democratic than was its ancestor, the Christian Social party; that is to say, the present heir to the Christian Socials, still bourgeois-clerical-peasant in orientation and social philosophy, has come a long way from the fascist-dominated days of 1933 when the old party in effect opened the door to the Heimwehr before folding up itself. The lineal descendants of the Christian Socials have to a large extent purified themselves of nonand anti-democratic forces from

Austria's Socialists in the Trend Toward a Two-Party System: an Interpretation of Postwar Elections

eral President, took over the executive offices in the Hofburg of Vienna, he was succeeding his friends and mentors Karl Renner and Theodor Koerner. Thus the Socialist party of Austria (SPOe) has retained the Presidency since the first elections, November, 1945, in the Second Republic. In one of the four parliamentary elections it secured the largest number of popular votes, but failed by one seat to gain the greatest bloc in the Nationalrat (lower house of parliament). Its chief opponent, the Austrian People's party (OeVP), has thrice attained the most popular votes in a Nationalrat election, has consistently held the largest number of seats, once had an absolute majority of them, and currently lacks only one of that majority. An over-all view of the six appeals to the electorate four general and two1 (Koerner and Schaerf) presidential elections supports the proposition that Austria is moving, slowly and hesitantly, toward a two-party system.2 To prevent misunderstanding, I emphasize that I see the development as only a trend or long-term drift. As will be shown, there have been countercurrents that for a time appeared to presage a threeor multi-party system. The election of 1951, when Koerner became the first popularly selected President, foreshadowed the re-emergence of forces favorable to a two-party pattern. They came into sharper focus in the Nationalrat election of 1956 and the presidential contest of 1957. From the beginning of the

The Survival of an Independent Austria

HE important role of Austria in the economic and political development of Europe remains unchanged even by war and a divided continent. Unfortunately, her location in one of Europe's most strategic areas (Fig. i), which no power is willing to have dominated by another power, robs the country of her right to determine her own future. But the experience of the last I3 years has, it is hoped, given the Austrian people a raison d'etre for their country and replaced defeatism and lack of confidence with a healthy and constructive nationalism. The present domestic political stability, in spite of external political and internal economic difficulties, is a hopeful sign for a new Austria.2 In the past, Austria's mission, German culture, and German economic were constantly stressed. During the last few years, however, government statements and actions have indicated clearly and unmistakably the desire for a strong and independent country. Austria's mission as a link between East and West, but also between the free-enterprise system and state-controlled economy, was the hope of leading Austrian statesmen as long as a treaty and the departure of all occupation troops seemed probable.3 With the probability of a treaty in the near future becoming less, government and party leaders have expressed themselves as being in favor of closer ties with the Western nations and are resigned to rebuilding the economy under the watchful eyes of four occupation powers. Although the people's belief in the vitality of their country is a major

Elections and Parties in Austria

Of the six medium-sized or small states which in 1918 succeeded the Austro-Hungarian Empire, only Austria with her seven million inhabitants has retained government which is democratic in the Western sense. The others Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Roumania, and Yugoslavia-have all become people's democracies and have fallen into the orbit of the East. On October 9, 1949, national elections took place in Austria for the second time since the collapse of Hitler's Greater Germany.' At the time of the elections the cabinet which held office was supported by coalition of both the (conservative) Austrian People's Party and the Austrian Socialist Party. In the elections the voters again gave both these parties together an overwhelming majority in the National Council.2 This result was interpreted by the head of the Austrian cabinet, Federal Chancellor Leopold Figl, as a clear and unmistakable proof that Austria is an outpost of the Western democratic world.3

The Elements of Democracy

“As for democracy, why should we discuss acknowledged madness?” Today numerous clever writers and some serious students are asking the same question that Alcibiades asked some twenty-three centures ago. Yet at the very time when democracy is attacked from all sides, and when Mussolini can speak of trampling on the putrid corpse of liberty, Mussolini himself has the temerity to proclaim that Italian Fascism is the realization of “true democracy.” The Nazis, speaking through Herr Goebbels, present the National Socialist state as “the most ennobled form of a modern democratic state.” And, not to be outdone, Stalin announces that the Soviet constitution of 1936 is “the only constitution that is democratic to the limit.” Two points, then, appear very clear at the outset. First, a theoretical defense of democracy is made more complicated by the unscrupulous license with which the enemies and critics of democracy use the term; and second, “democracy” as a vague, meaningless symbol still has a propaganda value for those who repudiate or disdain any real meaning that the symbol may have.It is not my purpose to examine in detail the criticisms of democracy, but rather to indicate which of the numerous criticisms are relevant to a discussion of democracy. What is it that is under attack? Is it the basic assumptions of democratic theory, or the machinery of democratic government, or both? To put such a question means, of course, to reopen the old question: What are the essential elements of democratic theory?Consent is an essential element of democratic theory, but not a distinguishing element. The important test is not whether a major portion of the adult population accepts or approves a government or its policies, but the manner in which this consent is secured. Both Napoleon I and Napoleon III secured the consent of the French people to their imperial dictatorships, and Hitler secured the formal consent of the German people to his puppet parliament and to his own dictatorship. Schuschnigg was about to secure the consent of the Austrian people to the continuance of a non-Nazi, clerical, native dictatorship, but instead Hitler secured the consent of the Austrian people to a Nazi dictatorship.

The Surface of the Earth

THE varied attainments of geographers have enabled them to express emphatic views on the scope of their subject. Each in turn has augmented knowledge of the earth's surface till it has become difficult to distinguish the contributions of mathematician and astronomer, physicist and physical observer, geologist and naturalist. Many geologists have been eminent as geographers, and Lyell and Humboldt gave the subject an enduring scientific importance by teaching the effects of geological causation in shaping the earth's surface. Every geologist is aware how the light of geological structure illuminates the problems of mountain form, position, and relation to surrounding land; but never till now has an author attempted to narrate the geographical story and history of the earth's surface from a geological point of view. Prof. Suess has brought to the subject the qualifications of a great teacher, who realizes that science has a duty to make itself available to the unlearned, no less than to aid the researches which are yet to be made; and he has conceived of the earth's surface in a new, forcible way, which stimulates alike imagination and thought, and lays before the reader a wide knowledge of fact. This work, which we know has occupied the author for the past twelve years or more, can scarcely be judged of as a whole, because the third volume, whose subject gives a title to the treatise, is unpublished; but we may say that a more luminous and profound endeavour to place the elements of scientific geography before the general reader has not been made. We may perhaps think,the subjects discussed need the aid of more figures to enable the reader to think as the author thinks, and attain a similar command of his facts. The aim of the work is to lead the reader through a consideration of the movements in the outer layers of the earth's crust which are manifested at the present day, and in the first half of the first volume the more striking phenomena are narrated, which are associated with volcanic disturbance and earth movements. The second part of the volume examines the structure and construction of mountain chains. The author naturally takes the Alpine system first, as nearest to the Austrian people, and then treats of the depressions, like the Adriatic and Mediterranean, associated with the prolongations of the Alpine system. Successive chapters tell the story of the mountain structure of Southern Africa and the Sahara, of Central Asia and the Malay Islands, and of the mountain systems of America and the West Indies. Thus, by raising the mountain chains, the author leads up, in the final chapter of the first volume, to a discussion of the nature and origin of continents, no less than of their relations to the seas from which they emerge. Das Antlitz der Erde. Von Eduard Suess. Mit Abbildungen und Kartenskizzen. Erste Abtheilung, 1883: Zweite Abtheilung (Schluss des 1. Bandes), 1885. (Prag: F. Tempsky. Leipzig: G. Freytag.) Zweiter Band. Mit 42 Text-Abbildungen, 1 Tafel, und 2 Karten in Farbendruck. (Prag: Wien. Leipzig: F. Tempsky, 1888.)