Democracy and Cultural Modernity in Vienna

A preliminary, brief historical analysis of the development of parliamentary democracy and culture in Vienna shows that as a consequence of technological innovations and the rapid industrialization of the 19th century, such urban centers not only became large cities, but also central arenas for citizens to negotiate rights and fundamental rights, as well as for direct, genuine parliamentary participation (the struggle for suffrage, etc.).

This course builds on new research into the causes and effects of Viennese Modernism around 1900 and conducts an initial comparative assessment of democratic processes and the interrelationships between the development of parliamentary democracy and modern art.

The central question is what significance the urban environment and culture in Vienna has for the development of a democratic system in Austria and what authoritarian counter-movements manipulate or prevent these developments. As a first concrete question, the development of suffrage since the failed revolution of 1848 will be analyzed and the role of art in stimulating political reform in the late 19th century.

Case studies will analyze the development and conflicts within the arts in the Vienna Secession and the Künstlerhaus based which include the negative effects of Antisemitism pre-1918.

The second part of the course focuses on the period of Social Democratic dominance in Vienna 1919 up to 1933/34 and the strengths and weaknesses of "Red Vienna." Here, too, the interplay with a new, broader cultural movement (workers' culture) is examined and contrasted with political developments in Europe and Austria. The analysis of the consequences of the 1929 global economic crisis, the high levels of long-term unemployment, and the political radicalization appears particularly important as well as the effects on artists and cultural institutions in Vienna like opera or theatre.

The end of Viennese modernity and parliamentary democracy already starts during the authoritarian regime 1933/1934-1938 with growing tendencies in the field of arts to assist the National Socialist ideology. Because of expulsion and persecution policies and the brutal expulsion of Viennese Jews by the Nazi regime the remnants of the Viennese revolution of 1900 were nearly destroyed 1938-1945.

Fragmented biographical analyses will discuss the impact of Austrian artists in exile on culture in the US and Great Britain in the fields of music, photography, design, architecture and painting.

The diverse positions in the arena of cultural policy and concrete initiatives taken by the four Allies (France, GB, Soviet Union and the USA) after the defeat of National Socialism by the Anti-Hitler-Coalition between 1945 and 1955 had a strong influence on the art scene. Never before had so many Viennese been confronted so intensively with international cultural influences as they were after liberation in April 1945.

Till the 1970s recourse was very rarely made to the multiculturalism of the Habsburg monarchy and the cultural revolution of Vienna 1900; on the contrary, all scientific and cultural achievements of the “melting pot” of Austria-Hungary were Austrianized and dominated by very conservative and partly strictly anti-modern aims. “Modernity” remained nearly entirely excluded or marginalized, and had to be reimported into Austria in foreign publications such as those of William Johnston and Carl E. Schorske. It was not until the Bruno Kreisky years 1970-1983, with his strong affinity – though a Social Democrat – for the broad territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, that these Catholic-conservative and imperial constructs broke down, and there came a slow, gradual opening in the direction of the moderns from around 1900 and thereafter.

Requirements: Attendance and participation in class discussion constitute 30%, reading the required literary texts 30% and a written final (essay-type) 40% of the grade.

Literature: John W. Boyer, Austria 1867-1955, Oxford University Press (2022); Richard Crockett, Vienna. How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World, Yale University Press: Yale (2024); Oliver Rathkolb, The Paradoxical Republic. Austria 1945-2020, Berghahn Books: New York- Oxford (2020); Carl E, Schorske, Fin-de-siècle Vienna, Vintage: (1979).