Research

234 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pietas Austriaca? The Imperial Legacy in Interwar and Postwar Austria

by Dieter A. Binder

Religions 2017, 8(9), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8090171 - 29 Aug 2017

Viewed by 4376

This paper aims to outline the specific Habsburg character of Austrian Catholicism through a study of Pietas Austriaca, the supposed Habsburg tradition of Catholic piety, and its role in the First and Second Austrian Republics. It analyzes the narrative of Austrian history [...] Read more.

This paper aims to outline the specific Habsburg character of Austrian Catholicism through a study of Pietas Austriaca, the supposed Habsburg tradition of Catholic piety, and its role in the First and Second Austrian Republics. It analyzes the narrative of Austrian history presented by the Heldendenkmal, or Heroes’ Monument, which was erected in Vienna in 1934. Further, it argues that Pietas Austriaca was linked in the postwar period to a notion of Heimat (Home, Homeland) and served the needs of Austrian political Catholicism, which was seeking to recruit former National Socialists. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

281 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Between Toleration and Emancipation: The Self-Empowerment of Jewish Intellectuals in the Habsburg Monarchy

by Louise Hecht

Religions 2017, 8(6), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8060113 - 16 Jun 2017

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4743

Abstract

Analyzing a sample of prominent Jewish intellectuals from the Bohemian lands, this article explores Jewish networks as well as cultural and political activism in the Vormärz period and during the 1848 revolution. It seeks to answer the question of whether Joseph II’s ‘Edicts [...] Read more.

Analyzing a sample of prominent Jewish intellectuals from the Bohemian lands, this article explores Jewish networks as well as cultural and political activism in the Vormärz period and during the 1848 revolution. It seeks to answer the question of whether Joseph II’s ‘Edicts of Toleration’ had, unintentionally, generated a new group within Jewish society that was determined to fight for their rights. Already during the Vormärz period, these Jewish intellectuals enjoyed a high level of social integration, but also fought the repressive structure of the Metternich regime. After the removal of legal discriminations in 1867, the majority felt a deep sense of loyalty to the state and significantly enriched the cultural and political life of the Monarchy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

219 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘Nicht jüdeln’: Jews and Habsburg Loyalty in Franz Theodor Csokor’s Dritter November 1918

by Lisa Silverman

Religions 2017, 8(4), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8040060 - 06 Apr 2017

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4150

Abstract

This article argues that Franz Theodor Csokor’s three-act drama, Dritter November 1918: Ende der Armee Österreich-Ungarns (Third of November 1918: End of the Army in Austria-Hungary) reveals how Jewish difference played an important—if often unrecognized—role in the shaping the terms of Austrian patriotism [...] Read more.

This article argues that Franz Theodor Csokor’s three-act drama, Dritter November 1918: Ende der Armee Österreich-Ungarns (Third of November 1918: End of the Army in Austria-Hungary) reveals how Jewish difference played an important—if often unrecognized—role in the shaping the terms of Austrian patriotism in the years leading up to 1938. Portrayals of Habsburg loyalty as “Jewish” or “not Jewish” helped articulate how nostalgia for Austria-Hungary would figure in a new sense of Austrianness, a project that took on even more urgency under the authoritarian censors of the Ständestaat. While the play’s portrayal of a Jewish doctor as level-headed, peace-loving, and caring countered some egregious antisemitic stereotypes about disloyal and sexually perverted Jews, it also suggested that Jews were overly rational, lacking in emotional depth, and, ultimately, unable to embody a new Catholic, spiritual, Austrian patriotic ideal. Considered in its broader political context, and along with Csokor’s earlier unpublished drama Gesetz, the play reveals how labelling Habsburg loyalty as Jewish helped to clarify and critique the nature of what it meant to be Austrian under an authoritarian regime that promoted a pro-Catholic, anti-Nazi vision of Austrian patriotism. It also offers a prime example of how even anti-antisemitic authors like Csokor perpetuated negative stereotypes about Jews, even as they aimed to present them in a more positive light. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

206 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

“One Should Have Two Homelands”: Discord and Hope in Soma Morgenstern’s Sparks in the Abyss

by Kata Gellen

Religions 2017, 8(2), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8020026 - 15 Feb 2017

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3900

Abstract

Soma Morgenstern’s three-part novel Sparks in the Abyss, written between 1930 and 1943, exudes a spirit of serenity and optimism at the same time that its narrative is structured by repeated scenes of conflict and violence. This paper seeks to account for [...] Read more.

Soma Morgenstern’s three-part novel Sparks in the Abyss, written between 1930 and 1943, exudes a spirit of serenity and optimism at the same time that its narrative is structured by repeated scenes of conflict and violence. This paper seeks to account for the place of discord in the trilogy. Morgenstern uses the interwar Galician homeland as a site to articulate the possibility of traditional Jewish life in modern Europe. By inhabiting two homes—East and West, Galicia and Vienna, secularism and piety—Jews will be able to negotiate the inevitable discord and occasional brutality that they face in the world. The lessons learned by a Western secular Jew in pluralist Galicia create hope for the negotiation of difference, if not for the complete overcoming of violence, on the eve of World War II. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

880 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

The Lost Honor of Julius Deutsch: Jewish Difference, “Socialist Betrayal”, and Imperial Loyalty in the 1923 Deutsch-Reinl Trial

by Georg Spitaler

Religions 2017, 8(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8010013 - 18 Jan 2017

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 5573

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 [...] Read more.

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. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

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216 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Beggar-Thy-Neighbour vs. Danube Basin Strategy: Habsburg Economic Networks in Interwar Europe

by Andreas Weigl

Religions 2016, 7(11), 129; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7110129 - 03 Nov 2016

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 5241

Abstract

After the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire, leaders in successor states were eager to become economically independent from the former capital Vienna. They therefore quickly implemented a set of neomercantilistic measures, especially nationalization programs. Nevertheless, the 1920s saw a reestablishment of the common [...] Read more.

After the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire, leaders in successor states were eager to become economically independent from the former capital Vienna. They therefore quickly implemented a set of neomercantilistic measures, especially nationalization programs. Nevertheless, the 1920s saw a reestablishment of the common market in the former territories of the Habsburg Empire in terms of interregional trade and interlocking directorates, mainly because of the business strategy of international financial syndicates that were based on the traditional Viennese commercial relations with the successor states. The international credit of Jewish bankers like Louis Rothschild, Rudolf Sieghart, and Max Feilchenfeld and others mattered. After the “Big Bang” at Wall Street in 1929, the industrial holdings of the Viennese banks and the maturity problem (short-term borrowing, long-term lending) in their relations to East European debtors and Western financiers caused the Creditanstalt-crisis of 1931 and put an end to Vienna’s position as a financial hub in East Central Europe. However, even during the crisis of the 1930s, the share of the successor states in the bilateral balances of trade indicates path dependency on a smaller scale. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

200 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Self-Assertion in the Public Sphere: The Jewish Press on the Eve of Legal Emancipation

by Dieter J. Hecht

Religions 2016, 7(8), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7080109 - 19 Aug 2016

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4555

Abstract

Jews like Adolf Fischhof and Ludwig August Frankl were prominent participants in the revolution of 1848. Their speeches, poems, and portraits circulated in Vienna and throughout the Empire. With the suppression of the revolution, most of these prominent Jews had to either leave [...] Read more.

Jews like Adolf Fischhof and Ludwig August Frankl were prominent participants in the revolution of 1848. Their speeches, poems, and portraits circulated in Vienna and throughout the Empire. With the suppression of the revolution, most of these prominent Jews had to either leave Vienna or retreat to the private sphere. Only in the late 1850s did Jews regain their public presence, starting with the opening of the Leopoldstaedter Tempel in 1858 and the building of the Ringstrasse from 1860 onwards. Many Jews hoped that the new liberal era would grant them civil rights and legal emancipation. Jewish intellectuals and journalists supported this struggle from within and outside the growing Jewish community. An important weapon in their struggle were Jewish newspapers. These newspapers not only provided information, but also served as mouthpieces for different Jewish movements. They featured biographies with portraits (in words and images) of distinguished Jewish leaders (mostly men and a few women), which were supposed to present the social achievements of a certain group within Jewish society to a broader audience. In fact, these portraits served as a form of self-assertion for the publisher as well as for the audience. It projected the message that Jews not only merited emancipation, but also struggled for it on various levels. The paper therefore addresses questions of biography and the (Jewish) identity these portraits at once reflected and shaped. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

167 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

The Empire in the Provinces: The Case of Carinthia

by Helmut Konrad

Religions 2016, 7(8), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7080099 - 05 Aug 2016

Viewed by 4008

Abstract

This article examines the legacy of the Habsburg Monarchy in the First Austrian Republic, both in the capital, Vienna, and in the province of Carinthia. It concludes that Social Democracy, often cited as one of the six ingredients that held the old Empire [...] Read more.

This article examines the legacy of the Habsburg Monarchy in the First Austrian Republic, both in the capital, Vienna, and in the province of Carinthia. It concludes that Social Democracy, often cited as one of the six ingredients that held the old Empire together, took on distinct forms in the Republic’s different federal states. The scholarly literature on the post-1918 “heritage” of the Monarchy therefore needs to move beyond monolithic generalizations and toward regionally focused comparative studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

192 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Between Socialism and Feminism: Charlotte Glas (1873–1944)

by Siegfried Mattl

Religions 2016, 7(8), 97; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7080097 - 02 Aug 2016

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4285

Abstract

This article explores how Charlotte Glas, a founding member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and a leading figure in the public sphere during the late imperial period, attempted to advance the cause of workers’ rights and women’s emancipation. Charged with lèse-majesté following [...] Read more.

This article explores how Charlotte Glas, a founding member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and a leading figure in the public sphere during the late imperial period, attempted to advance the cause of workers’ rights and women’s emancipation. Charged with lèse-majesté following a public rally in 1893, and tried before a Viennese court, Glas was forced to confront both the repressive policies of the Habsburg state and the patriarchal practices of her society and her party. Ultimately, Glas chose to subordinate the fight for women’s suffrage to the broader socialist campaign for universal male suffrage. Her dilemmas as a woman, Jew and socialist were captured in the character of Therese Golowski in Arthur Schnitzler’s Der Weg ins Freie. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

180 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Empire, Nationalism and the Jewish Question: Victor Adler and Otto Bauer

by Wolfgang Maderthaner

Religions 2016, 7(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7010002 - 24 Dec 2015

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5458

Abstract

This paper uses the life and thought of two important figures in the history of Austrian socialism—Victor Adler and Otto Bauer—as a prism through which to examine the complex relationship between German nationalism, the Jewish Question and pro-Habsburgism among the early leadership of [...] Read more.

This paper uses the life and thought of two important figures in the history of Austrian socialism—Victor Adler and Otto Bauer—as a prism through which to examine the complex relationship between German nationalism, the Jewish Question and pro-Habsburgism among the early leadership of the Austrian Social Democratic Party. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

235 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Social Democrats of Scholarship: Austrian Imperial Peripheries and the Making of a Progressive Science of Nationality, 1885–1903

by Thomas R. Prendergast

Religions 2015, 6(4), 1232-1248; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel6041232 - 21 Oct 2015

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4756

Abstract

To what extent and in what ways did the intellectual climate of Austria’s often ethnolinguistically heterogeneous borderlands contribute to the formation, institutionalization and diffusion of emerging social scientific discourses during the final decades of the 19th century? Investigating the intellectual exchange between two [...] Read more.

To what extent and in what ways did the intellectual climate of Austria’s often ethnolinguistically heterogeneous borderlands contribute to the formation, institutionalization and diffusion of emerging social scientific discourses during the final decades of the 19th century? Investigating the intellectual exchange between two early proponents of folklore studies (Volkskunde)—the Slavonian-German-Jewish Friedrich Salomon Krauss (1859–1938) and Bukovinian-German Raimund Friedrich Kaindl (1866–1930)—this paper argues that imperial peripheries, while traditionally overlooked as sites of knowledge production, in fact played a pivotal role in the development of an important brand of “progressive” social scientific research, one defined by a critical stance toward the prevailing historicist paradigms of the time. These self-described “social democrats of scholarship” collaborated, both formally and informally, on a number of related theoretical projects aimed at disrupting the exclusionary narratives of the academic establishment and re-focusing scholarly attention on the sociological, rather than historical, character of ethnonational difference. In this way, the nationalities question spurred, both in the center and at the margins of the monarchy, the development of new sciences of nationality intended to sustain Austria’s imperial structure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empire, Socialism and Jews: Writing the Monarchy Back into Austrian History)

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