The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History: From the Enlightenment to Anschluss

Tracing Austrian intellectual life from Maria Theresa to Hitler’s annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, this innovative book offers a precise and engaging account of Austrian intellectual history since the Enlightenment. Here, David S. Luft begins by locating his narrative in the region known as Cisleithanian Austria, the area to the west of the Leitha River that was the basis for the modern Austrian state after 1740. Chapter 2 provides a history of the German-speaking intellectual life of these central lands of the Habsburg Monarchy (Austria and Bohemia) from the Enlightenment to annexation by Nazi Germany. Chapters 3 to 5 identify the most important philosophers, writers, and social thinkers who contributed to Austrian intellectual life in the period between 1740 and 1938/1939 and address the intellectual significance of their work. Elegantly written and meticulously researched, Luft’s book brings out the contributions of major figures such as Wittgenstein, Hofmannsthal, Musil, Kafka, Rilke, and Freud, but also draws attention to less well-known figures such as Bolzano, Brentano, Grillparzer, Stifter, Broch, and Hayek.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction 1. Austria and Bohemia before the Austrian State 2. The Development of Austrian Intellectual Life 3. Philosophy in Austria 4. German Literature in Austria 5. The Human Sciences in Austria Afterword: After Cisleithanian Austria Bibliography Index

About the Author :
David S. Luft is Horning Endowed Chair in the Humanities (Emeritus) at Oregon State University, USA. He is the author of Eros and Inwardness in Vienna: Weininger, Musil, Doderer (2003) and Robert Musil and the Crisis of European Culture: 1880-1942 (2nd Ed. 1984). He is also the editor and translator for the volume, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the Austrian Idea: Selected Essays and Addresses, 1906-1927 (2011), as well as being on the editorial board for the Journal of Austrian Studies/Modern Austrian Literature and Culture. Luft was also president of the Austrian Studies Association (2012-2014) and Executive Secretary of the Society for Austrian and Habsburg History (2006-2009).

Review :
Luft’s book is one of unusual breadth and truly interdisciplinary scope. It will appeal most immediately to graduate students and fellow scholars of Central Europe. The thematically and geographically uninitiated ... will find themselves on a steep and rewarding learning curve—and may be well-advised to spend time pondering the historical maps included in the introductory chapters—on two hundred beautifully argued pages. The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History is an impressive attempt to explore different perspectives in the formulation of cultural and social values between German intellectuals and writers and their Austrian counterparts, from the late eighteenth century to the twentieth centuries. Not only will this comparative study of German and Austrian liberal culture in the modern period be very useful to Habsburg historians and to students of modern European intellectual history, but it should find a welcome audience among scholars and students of modern German history and culture. The book will also be valuable for scholars of contemporary Austrian nation-building and national identity, since it seeks to draw out the self-perceived distinctiveness of Austrian intellectuals writing in the context of the larger German linguistic realm. A wonderfully ambitious book. In this eminently readable book David Luft, a leading American expert on modern Austrian cultural history, succeeds in moving beyond the established praise of Austria’s artistic and musical achievements, especially of Vienna at 1900, and the accompanying neglect of its intellectual legacy. It is Luft’s magnum opus of his life-long pursuit of clarifying the place of Austrian creativeness within the larger culture of German-speaking Central Europa. He moves with authority between the Austrian enlightenment of the eighteenth century, the underappreciated intellectual contributions of philosphers like Bolzano, Brentano, Mach, Wittgenstein and the achievements of Austrian social scientists and economists like Hayek and Schumpeter and, of course, Freud. Clarifying the concept of Austrian culture also means an extensive reckoning of its deep roots in Bohemia and Moravia and the centuries-old ties between Vienna and Prague. Luft’s “Austrian dimension” is indispensable for an understanding of the intellectual history of German-speaking Central Europe. The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History, convincingly written by one of the most prominent scholars of Austrian cultural history, is a fascinating story on Austrian thinking in the context of the German speaking world in Central Europe (esp. in Vienna and Prague). Its novelty lies in the description and interpretation of mostly Jewish thinkers in philosophy, the human sciences, economics, and literature from the Enlightenment to the Anschluss, on the one side, as well as in the geographical focus on the Austrian core land together with Bohemia/Moravia as part of Cisleithanian Habsburg Monarchy, on the other. This book is expected to become another milestone of comparative Austrian intellectual history up to Fin de siècleliberalism andmodernity, thereby complementing the pathbreaking books of William Johnston, Allan Janik/Stephen Toulmin, Carl Schorske, and Steven Beller.