Das Rote Wien

A Panorama of a Great Reform Project

After the First World War the former imperial city of Vienna elected a stable Social Democratic majority. Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, "Red Vienna" (as it was derisively called by its critics) became the site of successful large-scale experiments in public housing, hygiene, and education, while still maintaining its world-class contributions to music, literature, art, culture, and science. Though Red Vienna eventually fell victim to fascist violence, the era left a rich legacy that has the potential to influence our own tumultuous time.

Red Vienna Sourcebook will provide scholars and students with original documents from the interwar period with thorough introductions and commentaries. The book’s thirty-six chapters include primary works from canonical names such as Sigmund Freud and Arthur Schnitzler but also introductions to lesser-known figures such as sociologist Käthe Leichter or health policy pioneer Julius Tandler. These documents will appeal to researchers in such diverse areas as economics, architecture, music, film history, philosophy, women’s studies, sports and body culture, and Jewish studies.

• Das maßgebliche Quellen-Lesebuch zum Roten Wien
• Eine legendäre Epoche im umfassenden Überblick
• Sorgfältige Auswahl und Kommentierung

Ingo Zechner is a philosopher and historian who earned his Dr. in philosophy at the University of Vienna in 2002. He has been the director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for History and Society (LBIGG) in Vienna since 2015. As an academic staff member at the Jewish Community Vienna (2000–2008), he was head of the Community’s Holocaust Victims’ Information and Support Center (2003–2008) and, after developing this project for years (2003–2008), he was the Founding Business Manager of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) (2009). Since 2010 he has been a project manager and participant of several research projects at VGA and LBIGG, including the project "Ephemeral Films: National Socialism in Austria" (2011–2016). Dr. Zechner served as associate director of the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna (2013–2016). He has been a member of the Berkeley/Tübingen/Wien/Harvard Research Network (BTWH) since 1999 and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (2003) and a fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC (2013). Dr. Zechner has published two books (on philosophical aesthetics and post-structuralist philosophy), co-edited an exhibition catalogue, two volumes, and two journals, and written on film, literature, music, archival theory and practice, and Holocaust Studies, i.a.: Bild und Ereignis, Vienna 1999 (Image and Event), Deleuze. Der Gesang des Werdens, Munich 2003 (Deleuze. The Chant of Becoming); Die helle und die dunkle Seite der Moderne, Vienna-Berlin 2014 (The Bright and the Dark Side of Modernity, ed. with Werner Michael Schwarz); Abenteuer Alltag. Zur Archäologie des Amateurfilms, Vienna 2015 (Everyday Life as an Adventure. Amateur Film Archeology, ed. with Siegfried Mattl et. al.). www.ingozechner.net | www.lbigg.org

Georg Spitaler, is a researcher at the Austrian Labor History Society (VGA) in Vienna. He studied political science and history at the University of Vienna and was a Junior Fellow at the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna (2002–2003) and Duke University (2004). He held a post-doctoral position at the Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna (2008–2014) and serves as a lecturer at several Austrian Universities. Dr. Spitaler has been a member of the Berkeley/Tübingen/Wien/Harvard Research Network (BTWH) since 2014. He has published several books, edited volumes and articles on labor history, political aspects of sport and political theory, i.a.: Friedrich Adler vor dem Ausnahmegericht. Das Attentat gegen den Ersten Weltkrieg, Vienna 2016 (Friedrich Adler’s special court trial. A call against the First World War); Julius Deutsch. Kriegserlebnisse eines Friedliebenden. Aufzeichnungen aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg (Wartime Experiences of a Peace-Lover. Notes from the First World War, both ed. with Michaela Maier), Fußball unterm Hakenkreuz in der "Ostmark" (Soccer under the Swastica in the "Ostmark", ed. with David Forster and Jakob Rosenberg); Theoriearbeit in der Politikwissenschaft (Doing Theory in Political Science, ed. with Eva Kreisky and Marion Löffler). www.GeorgSpitaler.at | www.vga.at

Rob McFarland earned his Ph.D. in German at the University of California, Berkeley in 2000. He has been a Professor of German Literature, Film and Culture at Brigham Young University since 2001, and was promoted to full professor in 2017. He is currently a Steuber-Veinz Fellow of the BYU College of Humanities, and he held the BYU General Education Professorship from 2012–2015. Prof. McFarland was the head of the German Section of the BYU Department of German and Russian from 2011–2017. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Women in German (WiG) and has served for 17 years as the Co-Director of Sophie: A Digital Library of Works by German-Speaking Women. (sophie.byu.edu). He is a founding member of the Berkeley/Tübingen/Wien/Harvard Research Network (BTWH). Recent Books: Red Vienna, White Socialism and the Blues: Ann Tizia Leitich’s America (2015), Sophie Discovers Amerika: German-Speaking Women Write the New World (2014, ed. with Michelle Stott James). Prof. McFarland has written regular academic articles over the last 18 years about film, literature, architecture history, representations of cities, and the European reception of America.

"Mit Das Rote Wien. Schlüsseltexte der Zweiten Wiener Moderne bietet ein Kollektiv von Historikern ein intellektuelles Flanierbuch mit vielerlei Anknüpfungen an Probleme der Gegenwart. Es ist, ohne Umschweife, das historische Buch des Jahres." David Mayer, Tagebuch 12/1, 30.11.2020

"Als die Sozialdemokratie 1919 in Wien die Macht übernahm, stand ihr ein Repertoire an Vorfeldorganisationen zur Verfügung, der nahezu jeden Lebensbereich der Bevölkerung umfasste. Wie weit gefächert diese Institutionen – von den Naturfreunden bis zu den Arbeiterhochschulen – waren, dokumentiert ein neuer Sammelband, der auf knapp tausend Seiten Schlüsseltexte der zweiten Wiener Moderne 1919–1934 versammelt. Die Herausgeber, eine internationale Forschungsgemeinschaft, verstehen das Rote Wien nicht bloß als ein sozialpolitisches Reformunternehmen, sondern als ein Projekt der Spätaufklärung zur Modernisierung, Ästhetisierung und Rationalisierung der Gesellschaft. In 36 Kapitel gliedert das Kompendium das Weltbild des Roten Wiens, das von konkreter Finanz- und Gesundheitspolitik über Migration bis hin zu Stilfragen in Architektur, Musik oder Filmkunst reicht. [...] Die Errungenschaften des Roten Wiens sind aus der Donaumetropole nicht wegzudenken – bloß werden sie nicht mehr als Errungenschaften wahrgenommen." Joachim Riedl: Soviel Zukunft war schon einmal. In: DIE ZEIT vom 28. November 2020

"Was für ein phantastisches Buch. Große Empfehlung." Florian Klenk, Der Falter, Facebook-Post vom 5.12.2020