Nazism and the Working Class in Austria: Industrial Unrest and Political Dissent in the 'National Community' PDF
Preview Nazism and the Working Class in Austria: Industrial Unrest and Political Dissent in the 'National Community'
The image of Hitler as a demagogic ‘pied piper* leading astray the ‘little people* of Austria is as misleading as it is powerful. Nazism and the working class in Austria is a case study of the ambiguous relationship between state and society under the Nazis. It places the experience of Austrian industrial workers in the Third Reich in a broader historical context, from the origins of the earliest ‘national socialist’ movements in the backwaters of the Habsburg empire to the end of the Second World War. Workers did not seriously attempt or even expea to overthrow the Nazi regime in the face of unprecedented surveillance and terror; but neither were they won over, and their oppositional strategies and disgruntled political opinions reveal a truculent workforce, rather than one which was contented and converted. Nazism and the working class in Austria Nazism and the working class in Austria Industrial unrest and political dissent in the ‘national community * Tim Kirk University of Northumbria, Newcastle g g | C a m b r id g e ^j|jF UNIVERSITY PRESS Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 irp 40 West 20th Street, New York, ny 10011-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1996 First published 1996 Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Kirk, Tim, 1958- Nazism and the working class in Austria: industrial unrest and political dissent in the ‘national community’ / Tim Kirk, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN o 521 47501 5 (hardback) i. Working class-Austria-History-20th century. 2. National socialism- Austria. 3. Austria-Economic conditions-1918-1945. 4. Austria-History- 20th century. I. Title. HD8410.K57 57 1996 305.5/62/0943609043-dc20 95-48269 en» ISBN 0521 47501 5 hardback For my parents Contents List of tables page xi Acknowledgements xii Maps ‘Alpine and Danubian Reichsgaue*, 1939 xiii Greater Vienna, 1939 xiv Introduction 1 Peculiarities of Austrian historiography 1 Fascism and the working class 4 Resistance and society 9 The First Austrian Republic: society and economy 12 Aims, methods and sources 15 1 Austrian fascisms, ‘Austrofascism’ and the working class 19 Austrian politics 19 The radical Right before 1914 20 Austrian fascisms and the working class in the First Republic 26 The working class on the defensive: economic and political crisis and the rise of fascism 1927-1933 30 Civil war and the establishment of dictatorship 1932-1934 40 Dictatorship and opposition 1934-1938 43 2 Economic integration and political opposition between the Anschluss and the war 48 Problems of political resistance 1938-1939 50 Unkept promises and incipient disaffection: problems of economic integration 56 Popular disappointment and developments in labour discipline 61 3 The war economy and the changing workforce 1939-1945 68 Securing a supply of foreign labour 71 Women 77 4 Work discipline in the war economy 86 War economy measures 88 Refusing to work: insubordination and breach of contract in the war economy 93 ix x Contents Work discipline among foreign workers 99 Sabotage and resistance 102 5 Popular opinion and political protest in working-class communities 109 Anti-Nazi propaganda and dissenting opinion 112 Führerbeleidigung lèse-majesté in the Third Reich 116 The litde Hitlers: people, party and protest 118 Hitler, the war and the workers 121 The standard of living and civilian morale 128 Towards demoralisation and defeat 130 A National community’? 132 Conclusion 135 Notes 142 Select bibliography 171 Index 185
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