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AUSTRIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER Vol CENTER FOR AUSTRIAN STUDIES AUSTRIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER Vol. 14, No. 1 Winter 2002 John Boyer to give Kann Lecture by Daniel Pinkerton Distinguished Habsburg cultural and political historian John W. Boyer will be at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus on Thursday, May 2, to deliver the 18th Annual Kann Memorial Lecture. The title of Boyer’s presentation will be “Silent War and Bitter Peace: The Austrian Revolution of 1918.” The lecture will be held in the Wilkins Room, 215 Humphrey Institute, at 3:30. After a question and answer period, a reception will follow. Boyer is Martin A. Reyerson Distinguished Service Professor of History at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on politics and society in Central Europe (particularly the Habsburg Empire) from 1700-1918. He is internationally renowned for a pair of books, Political Radicalism in Late Imperial Vienna: Origins of the Christian Socialist Movemement, 1848-1897 (1981) and Culture and Political Crisis in Vienna: Christian Socialism in Power, 1897-1918 (1995). Both books explore the interplay between cultural communities and the fin-de-siècle politics of the imperial capital city. He is presently completing a book, Austria, 1867-1985, for the Oxford History of Modern Europe series. Boyer is also coeditor of the Journal of Modern History, a post he has held since 1980, and has been dean of The College, the University of Chicago’s undergraduate college, since 1992. Other publications include articles in Central European History, the Journal of Modern History, and the Austrian History Yearbook (“Religion and Political Development in Central Europe around 1900: A View from Vienna,” vol. 25, 1994). The Kann Memorial Lecture is open to faculty, students, staff, and the public. It honors the late Robert A. Kann, who, along with his wife Marie, fled his native Vienna in 1938 after the Anschluß. After finding refuge in the U.S., he devoted himself to studying and teaching Aus- trian history. As a scholar, Kann became the leading authority on the evolution of ethnic tensions within the Habsburg Empire. Among his most important works are The Multinational Empire: Nationalism and John W. Boyer (photo © Matthew Gilson) National Reform in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848-1916 and A His- tory of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918. In his personal life and in his work, he artfully blended both Austrian and American themes and In This Issue perspectives. In its 17 previous years the Kann Lecture has featured Letter from the Director 2 prominent Austrian and North American scholars and public figures Minnesota Calendar 3 such as Bruno Kreisky, Carl Schorske, Gerald Stourzh, István Deák, ASN Interview: Peter Moser 3 Helmut Konrad, Dennison Rusinow, and Anton Pelinka. The Kann Memorial Lecture will be immediately preceded by the ASN Interview: Gale Stokes 6 presentation of the 2001 Austrian Cultural Forum (ACF) prizes for Jaroslav Pánek: A Life 8 Best Book and Best Dissertation in Austrian Studies. These give res- New Publication: Vienna 1900 Revisited 11 idents of North America who publish outstanding monographs or Publications: News and Reviews 12 defend superior dissertations funds for further travel and research. This Hot off the Presses 15 year’s ACF winners are Evan Bukey, for the book Hitler’s Austria: News from the Field 16 Popular Sentiment in the Nazi Era, 1938-1945, and Christa Gaug, for In Memoriam: Harry Zohn 17 the dissertation “Situating the City:The Textual and Spatial Construc- In Memoriam: Sir Ernst Gombrich 18 tion of Late Nineteenth-Century Berlin and Vienna in City Texts by Habsburg Happenings 19 Theodor Fontane and Daniel Spitzer.” We invite all of our ASN readers to join us for a wonderful afternoon Rose Ausländer: An Appreciation 20 with an outstanding historian of Central Europe. v Announcements 22 College of Liberal Arts v AUSTRIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER WINTER 2002 Letter from the Director In the last issue of the Austrian Studies Newsletter, I wrote about 2000, including members of the populist, right-wing Freedom Party, issues of transition at the Center for Austrian Studies in Minnesota. member states in the European Union responded with sanctions and In the intervening months, I have been reminded repeatedly of the demands that Austria continue to adhere to international standards manifold changes of the last ten or fifteen years in Austria and in its on human rights. Austrian President Thomas Klestil and the Schüssel relations with other European countries. The end of the Cold War and cabinet quickly offered affirmations of Austria’s commitments to lib- the processes of European integration have changed much in Austria’s eral democracy and human rights and the goals of European integra- relations with its neighbors and in its own politics. Neutrality and non- tion. alignment were the foundation of Austria’s foreign policy after World Soon after the Schüssel government took office, it moved to get a War II. With strong popular support, however, the Republic of Aus- quick resolution to the long outstanding questions of Austria’s respon- tria became a full member of the European Union in 1995, de facto sibility to compensate slave and forced laborers who worked in Aus- abandoning its long-cherished nonalignment. In the meantime, the fall trian enterprises under Nazi control and others who lost residential of communism at the end of the 1980s opened Austria’s borders with properties in Austria due to Nazi racial policies. The Austrian govern- its Central European neighbors and made possible closer relationships ment’s agreement to pay compensation to surviving victims evoked with all the formerly communist countries. relatively little domestic debate. Ambassador Hans Winkler, the head Within Austria the moves toward political and economic union with of the legal division of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, led the Austrian Western Europe along with pressures from the global market economy negotiating team. The Foreign Ministry sent Dr. Winkler on a brief have hastened the end of the postwar welfare state and much of the lecture tour in the United States this fall to explain the negotiations corporatist policies of the “social partnership.” The two major parties and resulting settlement. One of his stops was at the University of that dominated Austrian politics for most of the fifty years after World Minnesota in early October, where he drew a good audience and also War II, the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Austrian Socialists met with representatives of the local Jewish community. Austria’s con- (SPÖ), have faced growing challenges to revitalize themselves and tinuing commitment to full and active membership in the European make their programs relevant to the new conditions. The Greens and and international communities was also the theme of the presenta- the Freedom Party (FPÖ) have won support from growing numbers of tions made in Minnesota later in October by Dr. Peter Moser, Vienna’s formerly “black” and “red” voters. While the issues faced by Austrian ambassador to the United States. voters have changed radically in recent years, the three largest par- The end of the communist governments in Central Europe and the ties—the ÖVP, SPÖ, and FPÖ—still retain their historic roots in the opening of their borders with Austria to trade and tourism has changed three camps which defined Austrian politics during the First Repub- much in everyday life for Austrian citizens. Austrian and West Euro- lic, as one of Austria’s leading political scientists, Anton Pelinka, pean commerce with the former communist countries has grown since reminded a Minnesota audience when he gave the annual Robert A. 1989, and the transportation and communication links between Austria Kann Memorial Lecture in April 2001. Prof. Pelinka’s wide-ranging and her Central European neighbors have had to be renovated. Envi- and trenchant address will be published in the next issue of the Aus- ronmental concerns have long transcended national borders in Central trian History Yearbook in spring 2002. Europe, but with the end of the communist governments and the fall of The Austrian governments since the mid-1990s, whether led by the Iron Curtain, bilateral and multilateral efforts have grown to deal Social Democratic chancellors or now by the People’s Party’s Wolf- continued on page 10 gang Schüssel, have eagerly pursued the country’s new role as a mem- ber of the European Union. Austria continues to fulfill significant political, legal, and economic obligations to the new Europe, even AUSTRIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER while some of the Austrian electorate, as elsewhere in Western democ- Volume 14, No.1 • Winter 2002 racies, fear the growing impact of the global economy or the arrival Editor: Daniel Pinkerton of more immigrants. When Schüssel formed his cabinet in February Editorial Assistants: Kenneth Marks, Leo Riegert Austrian Correspondent: Nicole Slupetzky Special thanks to Barbara Krauss-Christensen for her assistance. EDITOR’S NOTE ASN is published three times annually (January, April, and September) and distributed free of charge to interested subscribers as a public service of the Center for Austrian Studies. A two-part interview of Jaroslav Pánek by Stanley B. Winters Director: Gary B. Cohen Executive Secretary: Barbara Krauss-Christensen begins in this issue and will continue into the next issue. It is an Editor: Daniel Pinkerton abridged version of the full length interview which will be pub- lished as a Working Paper in Austrian Studies. Still, it is the lon- Subscription requests or contributions for publication should be sent to: Center for Austrian Studies gest article ever to be published in the Austrian Studies Newsletter. Attn: Austrian Studies Newsletter We feel the length is justified not merely because of Pánek’s prom- 314 Social Sciences Building, 267 19th Avenue S. Minneapolis MN 55455 inence among Czech historians, but also because it gives a vivid Phone: (612) 624-9811 Fax: (612) 626-9004 picture of what education, scholarship, and the politics of aca- website: http://www.cas.umn.edu demia were like before, during, and after both the Prague Spring of Editor's e-mail: [email protected] Subscriptions: [email protected] 1968 and the end of Soviet domination in 1989.
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