Wessen Feind? Die Wiederbelebung des politischen Antisemitismus im postimperialen Wien

Abstract

This study deals with the significance of antisemitism in Austria, especially in Vienna, under the changed political conditions immediately after World War I. It strives for a new perspective, focusing not solely on antisemitic images of “the Jew”, but rather on the self-perception of antisemites and, to a certain extent, on their mutual accusations of abetting “Jews”. At the same time, the antisemitic milieu is by no means viewed as a fixed völkisch entity: following the typology of sociologist Jan Weyand, the contribution emphasizes the dynamic tension between post-imperial religious and radical nationalist or racist self-images of Viennese antisemites. The analysis shows how two notorious and influential Viennese antisemites, the rightwing Catholic Anton Orel and the National Socialist Walter Riehl, fought each other between 1919 and 1921. Their disputes came to a head in the runup to the Congress of Antisemites of March 1921, which, for similar reasons, was unable to bring about an Antisemitic International.