Blog2022-08-01T14:11:25+00:00

BLOG

The BIAAS blog series features posts by junior and senior scholars in the field of Austrian-American studies. The views and opinions expressed in these blogs are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BIAAS.

American Red Cross aids Italian civilians caught in the WWI Austrian German advance on the Swiss-Austrian frontier, ca. 1918.

BIAAS Austrian-American Blog

Researching US Intelligence Organizations in Austria at the End of the Second World War

By Duncan Bare

While much is already known about what US intelligence did in Austria between 1945 and 1955, relatively little has been written to date about their structure(s) or personnel, except to add ‘flavor’ and depth to stories of their operational exploits or specific projects. In some way, the task I set myself was to write organizational ‘biographies’ of OSS, SSU, and CIG in Austria. To accomplish this as accurately and comprehensively as possible, I would also need to reconstruct their organizational ‘family trees’, with branches stretching back to Washington...

A Life in the Service of Women's and Peace Movements: Rosika Schwimmer

By Dóra Fedeles-Czeferner

Rosika Schwimmer is probably the most established Hungarian women’s movement activist from the first half of the 20th century. In November 1918, she even stepped onto the international political stage when the government of Count Mihály Károlyi (1875, Fót, Hungary-1955, Vence, France) made her Hungarian envoy to Switzerland.

Excerpt: "Saving Freud: The Rescuers Who Brought Him to Freedom"

By Andrew Nagorski

Dr. Sigmund Freud, no less, with his gleaming violet eyes, his hard carved beard, his note of tense and even exasperated superiority, was advancing gravely to host and hostess. A hush came over the room as he moved forward like a boat through bulrushes; guests crammed to watch, but were bent back by the force of his slow, majestic passage. “Freud!” people whispered. The whole assembly became silent in awe...

Wide Awake and Worlds Away: Percy Lavon Julian's Scientific Education in Vienna

By Kristina E. Poznan

Percy Lavon Julian became the third African American to earn a Ph.D. in Chemistry when the University of Vienna awarded him his doctorate in 1931. Julian had been born in Alabama and educated at the Lincoln Normal School, DePauw University, and Harvard University. He subsequently taught at Fisk University, West Virginia State College, and Howard University, educating a host of black students in chemistry...

The American Revolution and the Habsburg Monarchy | Grantee Publication & Webinar

By Jonathan Singerton

In 1783, the Peace of Paris treaties famously concluded the American Revolution. However, the Revolution could have come to an end two years earlier had diplomats from the Habsburg realms—the largest continental European power—succeeded in their attempts to convene a Congress of Vienna in 1781.

Mountain Rescue in Translation

By Mark S. Weiner

Why does the honor guard of the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA), the umbrella organization for all mountain rescue in America, carry Austrian ice axes when it stands in respect at memorials for fallen search-and-rescue personnel? For the past two years, I have been making a documentary film about the Austrian mountain rescue service, the Bergrettung, supported by seed funding from BIAAS.

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