Die blinden Flecken der Geschichte: Österreich 1927-1938

by Gudula Walterskirchen

Die Zwischenkriegszeit ist in Österreich auch heute noch eine ideologische Kampfzone. Berichte über den „Schattendorf-Prozess" und den folgenden Brand des Justizpalastes 1927 sind oft fehlerhaft, wichtige Fakten werden ausgelassen und Ereignisse einseitig dargestellt. Ähnliches gilt für die Februarkämpfe 1934, in denen die Gewalt zwischen den verfeindeten Lagern eskalierte. Die Historikerin Gudula Walterskirchen präsentiert die unterschiedlichen Sichtweisen, Widersprüche, Lücken bzw. Unrichtigkeiten, analysiert die Quellen und fördert auch völlig Neues zutage. Brisant ist auch die Zeit des Dollfuß- und Schuschnigg-Regimes. „Ständestaat" wie Sozialdemokratie zielten auf den falschen Feind. Statt gemeinsam gegen den Terror des Nationalsozialismus zu kämpfen, bekämpften sie einander, mit fatalen Die politisch geschwächte österreichische Politik hatte Hitlers Einmarsch nichts entgegenzusetzen. Die blinden Flecken der Geschichte prägen den Diskurs bis Es gibt keine gemeinsame Gedenkkultur zu den damaligen Ereignissen, Gedenkveranstaltungen sind immer auch politisch eingefärbt.

Hardcover

Published March 17, 2017

Reviews

[Pelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected a lot from this book, as the Austrian history between the end of the Hapsburg monarchy and the end of second world war is still very controversial and polarizes Austrian society. I was hoping this book could give me an objective view on the historical developments. Unfortunately, the views are in my opinion very one-sided and in favor of the conservatives and Christian-social party. The first part is the more interesting one, as the role of the social-democrats is critically reviewed and the events of 1934 are (allegedly) demystified. The second part is about the years before 1938 during the so-called "Ständestaat" or "Austro-fascism", which gives a rather positive and less-critical view about Dollfuß and its regime. Walterskirchen shows them as patriots, who were defending Austria against Nazi Germany, and justifies the dictatorship with the claim that social-democrats would have striven for a socialist system rather than a democratic one, hence they were none the better than Dollfuß. Finally, Walterskirchen writes some pages about the discussion whether Austria was a victim of Nazis or rather part of the system and a collaborator. The latter being the official view of Austria after war until the mid 80s, this view has been substituted with the view that Austria was part of the Nazi system and Austrians were overproportionally represented among Nazis who had committed war crimes. Walterskirchen criticises this 180 degrees turnaround and sees the truth here somewhere in the middle.

All in all, I expected much more from this book as such a delicate topic needs a more objective view on things. It might be possible that many things are actually facts and represent the truth, but one cannot get rid of the feeling that the author had some very clear opinion about the history and tries to fit here observations and research in archives into this rather than starting from scratch and investigating the developments more objectively.