AC- Directories- 2002

2002

AC -- Directories

Die österreichische NS-Presse 1918–1933: Bestandsaufnahme und Dokumentation [The Austrian National Socialist Press, 1918–1933: Inventory and Documentation]. Ed. Wolfgang Duchkowitsch. Wien: Literas-Universitätsverlag, 2001. 315 p. ill. 21 cm. (Schriftenreihe des Ludwig-Boltzmann-Instituts für Neuere Österreichische Kommunikationsgeschichte, 2). ISBN 3-85429-172-8: ÖS 240.00 [02-2-207]

Until now Austria has lacked an overview and inventory of its National Socialist (NS) press equivalent to Germany’s Die NS-Gaupresse 1925–1933 [The National Socialist Gau Press, 1925-1933] by Peter Stein (München, 1987). Unlike Stein, Duchkowitsch did not work alone, but compiled bibliographical data, historical details, and political background information with the aid of a student work group.

After an introduction about the current state of research, Bernd Beutl gives an overview of the “Caesuras and Structures of National Socialism in the First Republic,” describing political predecessors, nationalistic roots, social conditions, and the anti-Semitic alignment of the National Socialist German Workers Party of Austria (NSDAP). He then concerns himself with ideological and power-oriented arguments, particularly with respect to the German NSDAP. The history of the Austrian NS movement and press is divided into three phases: 1918–1926/27, 1926/27–1930/ 31, and 1930/31–1933 (when the party was banned by the Dollfuss government). Ninety-three NS press titles are documented; each is given one to two pages containing the following information: subtitle, time period of publication, place of publication, frequency, circulation, owner, publisher, chief editor, extent of each issue, format, illustrations, price, political sympathies, confiscations, printer, remarks on the layout, and call numbers for the Austrian National Library, the University Library of Vienna, and occasionally other libraries. The volume concludes with an index of chief editors and printers, comments about methodology and definitions, an extensive bibliography of literature and sources, and an illustrative section with facsimiles of letters, memorandums, and proclamations.

Duchkowitsch and his work group have not only produced an exemplary bibliography, but they have also enriched the history of the Austrian NS movement and its press. Remaining areas for research include the failed Putsch of 1934 and the relationship between Austria and the German Reich of 1938. [wub/rm]

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