From First Republic Vienna to Wartime New York: Political Continuities and the Rupture of Exile Among Austrian Refugees During World War II

Abstract In studying Austrian refugees in the United States during World War II, most scholars have focused on the immediate context of exile and divorced émigrés from their pasts. However, this article foregrounds historical continuities from Austria’s First Republic in a study of the political culture among Austrian refugees. These continuities include the importance of sociability to politics, the siloed nature of exile political organizations, the persistence of interwar debates about monarchy or Anschluss, and a similar set of imperial-era and interwar actors. In returning to interwar Austrian political life, this article juxtaposes the polarization with private cross-party sociability and consociationalism. Continuities are then traced into exile where New York City became a center for Austrian émigré life and where, from 1939, there was a series of Austrian and Austrian-American exile organizations that advocated for refugees, promoted Austrian culture, and hosted social events. Finally, scholars have been perplexed as to why Austrian refugees in the United States never formed a single representative organization or united front until after the liberation of Austria in 1945. This article points to tensions surrounding Otto Habsburg’s high profile and the intransigence of Friedrich Adler as two examples of past Austrian historical debates preventing cooperation.