Oliver Rathkolb

Former Head of Department and Professor emeritus at the Department of Contemporary History of the University of Vienna; chairman of the Vienna Institute of Cultural and Contemporary History (VICCA); chairperson of the Academic Committee for the House of European History in Brussels and as the chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the House of Austrian History in Vienna; fellow of Salzburg Global and the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna; as a visiting professor he taught at the University of Chicago and was Schumpeter-Professor at Harvard University; author of several books focusing on contemporary history as well as editor and co-editor of several studies concerning interdisciplinary questions of contemporary history, european and international history, authoritarianism and democracy, music history and communications/media history; managing editor of the journal Zeitgeschichte (Contemporary History).

Among his prize-winning publications are: The Paradoxical Republic. Austria 1945 – 2005 (2021); Die Paradoxe Republik. Österreich 1945- 2025 (2025); Ökonomie der Angst. Rückkehr des Nervösen Zeitalters, Wien (2025); together with S. Steinbacher (ed.): Authoritarian Trends and Parliamentary Democracy in Europe (2025).