The relationship between Austrians and Jews in the twentieth-century has been tragic. In the age of Franz Joseph, Jews achieved a degree of security, although their position was already being undermined by antisemitism, ethnic conflicts and nationalism. This book examines the relationship between Austrians and Jews which culminated in the 1938 Anschluss and the Holocaust. It also shows how antisemitism survived the War and how the ground was prepared for the international isolation of Austria during the Waldheim Affair.

Assessing the impact of fin-de-siècle Jewish culture on subsequent developments in literature and culture, this book is the first to consider the historical trajectory of Austrian-Jewish writing across the 20th century. It examines how Vienna, the city that stood at the center of Jewish life in the Austrian Empire and later the Austrian nation, assumed a special significance in the imaginations of Jewish writers as a space and an idea. The author focuses on the special relationship between Austrian-Jewish writers and the city to reveal a century-long pattern of living in tension with the city, experiencing simultaneously acceptance and exclusion, feeling "unheimlich heimisch" (eerily at home) in Vienna.

These fourteen essays by leading Austrian historians and political scientists serve as a basic introduction to a small but sometimes trend-setting European country. They provide a basic up-to-date outline of Austria's political history, shedding light on economic and social trends as well. No European country has experienced more dramatic turning points in its twentieth-century history than Austria. This volume divides the century into three periods. The five essays of Section I deal with the years 1900-1938. Under the relative tranquility of the late Habsburg monarchy seethed a witch's brew of social and political trends, signaling the advent of modernity and leading to the outbreak of World War I and eventually to the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. The First Austrian Republic was one of the succession states that tried to build a nation against the backdrop of political and economic crisis and simmering civil war between the various political camps. Democracy collapsed in 1933 and an authoritarian regime attempted to prevail against pressures from Nazi Germany and Nazis at home. The two essays in Section II cover World War II (1938-1945). In 1938, Hitler's "Third Reich" annexed Austria and the population was pulled into the cauldron of World War II, fighting and collaborating with the Nazis, and also resisting and fleeing them. The seven essays of Section III concentrate on the Second Republic (1945 to the present). After ten years of four-power Allied occupation, Austria regained her sovereignty with the Austrian State Treaty of 1955. The price paid was neutrality. Unlike the turmoil of the prewar years, Austria became a "normal" nation with a functioning democracy, one building toward economic prosperity. After the collapse of the "iron curtain" in 1989, Austria turned westward, joining the European Union in 1995. Most recently, with the advent of populist politics, Austria's political system has experienced a sea of change departing from its political economy of a huge state-owned sector and social partnership as well as Proporz. This informed and insightful volume will serve as a textbook in courses on Austrian, German and European history, as well as in comparative European politics.

The relationship between Austrians and Jews in the twentieth-century has been tragic. In the age of Franz Joseph, Jews achieved a degree of security, although their position was already being undermined by antisemitism, ethnic conflicts and nationalism. This book examines the relationship between Austrians and Jews which culminated in the 1938 Anschluss and the Holocaust. It also shows how antisemitism survived the War and how the ground was prepared for the international isolation of Austria during the Waldheim Affair.

What an extraordinary chronicle of upheaval, sorrow, and achievement is the story of the Jews in the twentieth century--and who better to narrate it than the renowned British historian Sir Martin Gilbert, whose lifework has been the study of the events and personages of our time. In this richly illustrated volume he vividly describes the individuals, the historic movements, the watershed moments, and the horrific years that so profoundly changed the world and the Jewish people. In a text interwoven with and illuminated by more than 400 fascinating photographs, many of them never before published or long forgotten, we meet the widely dispersed turn-of-the-century Jewish communities of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Then we encounter, with startling immediacy, the impassioned Zionists who set out to reclaim Palestine and the immigrant waves that poured out of Eastern Europe in search of a better life in America--among them, the brilliantly creative writers, composers, actors, and comedians who enthralled millions; and the scientists, judges, legislators, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals whose numbers can hardly be counted but whose thoughts and deeds shaped the modern world. There is tragedy in this history: the twentieth century saw many dark years during which the Jewish people suffered pogroms, persecution, and mass murder. But the century also saw the renewal and flourishing of the Jewish community, in America, in Israel, and throughout the Diaspora. The observant, the secular, the people gathered from the ends of the earth--all figure in the vivid portrait of the Jews at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Sir Martin relates this astonishing and deeplymoving story with the erudition and empathy that have always distinguished his writing, and with a masterful eye for the key point, the telling anecdote, the human detail that makes history come alive. While our memories are still fresh, he has fixed them indelibly in a volume that will be treasured, pored over, and passed down as the rich and definitive record of Jewish life in the twentieth century.

This book is an ethnography of Central European modernity in the form of a comparative study of Jews and queers in late twentieth-century Vienna.

Assessing the impact of fin-de-siècle Jewish culture on subsequent developments in literature and culture, this book is the first to consider the historical trajectory of Austrian-Jewish writing across the 20th century. It examines how Vienna, the city that stood at the center of Jewish life in the Austrian Empire and later the Austrian nation, assumed a special significance in the imaginations of Jewish writers as a space and an idea. The author focuses on the special relationship between Austrian-Jewish writers and the city to reveal a century-long pattern of living in tension with the city, experiencing simultaneously acceptance and exclusion, feeling “unheimlich heimisch” (eerily at home) in Vienna.