History
Memory in Dialogue. Descendants of Jewish Families from Steyr in the United States The Museum of the Working World (Museum Arbeitswelt) and the Mauthausen committee Steyr create together a permanent exhibition in the former Synagogue of Steyr to commemorate the Jewish life of the region before and after the Second World War. The Oral-History project…
by Henry Blood. In studying the development of railroads in the Habsburg Empire, I initially had no idea there would be any link between Europe and the United States of America. However, while doing archival research, I learned that in the neighborhood of Meidling in Vienna’s twelfth district there is a bridge, the Philadelphiabrücke. It’s…
“Introduction: Highlighting Austria’s Migration History” 2015 marked the culmination of the so-called “European immigration crisis,” which was, at that time, the largest increase of displaced persons seeking asylum in Europe since the end of World War II.1 Located between two major refugee routes, Austria received around 90,000 asylum requests that year which was the third…
Selling ‘Kleinkrieg’. Austrian-American military-industrial entanglements 1960–1979. Austria was among the first countries to adopt a newly designed rifle in the innovative U.S. 5.56×45mm caliber in 1977. We argue that this marked more than just a technical innovation—it reflected a profound transformation in the country’s military doctrine, geopolitical orientation, and societal imaginaries. The new caliber not…
Gerda Lerner: Film, Politics and Activism. Gerda Lerner (1920–2013) is widely recognized as a pioneering feminist historian, yet her contributions to film remain largely understudied. This project addresses a critical gap by examining her involvement in independent filmmaking, political activism, and the intersection of Jewish and Black civil rights alliances during the McCarthy era and…
Permanently Temporary: The Austro-Hungarian Consular Colonies in New York City and Rio de Janeiro, ca. 1900–1920s. Ever since its foundation in the late 1860s, the Austro-Hungarian Empire established so-called consular colonies around the world. These state-sponsored communities were meant to support migrants abroad and keep them tied to the motherland. My research focuses on the…
The Vienna Black Market, 1943-1948. During and especially following the Second World War, official food rationing in Vienna guaranteed an equal distribution of supplies, but left many hungry and wanting for more. Hungry Viennese men and women turned to a flourishing black market in order to purchase extra food and other goods unavailable to them.…
Relations between the United States and Austria-Hungary during the Taft Administration. Before World War I, Austria-Hungary and the United States were linked by commercial interests or immigration. However, very little is known about the political dimension of their relations.The aim of the research is therefore to determine to what extent the policies of the two…
Railroads and the Transformation of State and Society in the Habsburg Empire. In the 1830s and 1840s, engineers from the Habsburg Empire, such as Matthias von Schönerer, Franz Anton von Gerstner, and Karl Ghega all travelled to the United States of America to learn about the development of railroads in America. Why did Austrians travel…
Gendered pay inequality continues today as a major issue in Austria (and the U.S., as well as the rest of the world). The immediate post-war period of the WWII era was a period in which the military governments had the power of law and force to eliminate or impose unequal pay against women and girls. “Answers to…