Bevölkerungswissenschaft in Österreich in der Zwischenkriegszeit

The main target of the investigation was first of all the complete registration and description of all those persons, institutions and discourses which built up the demographic scientific community in the inter-war period. The question whether population science in Austria contributed to the Holocaust and the National Socialist population policy up to the euthanasia program was a further central point of the investigation. Here the authors came to the following results: The demographic discourse at that time did not contain any sign of anti-Semitism. On the other hand, eugenic ideas were taken over especially from the medical science without critical reflections. The hard core of the scientific community was formed by the two regular population statisticians Wilhelm Winkler and Wilhelm Hecke, the Department of Population Statistics at the Federal Statistical Office and Winkler`s Institute of Statistics of Ethnic Minorities. Winkler and Hecke were responsible for the carrying-out of the population censuses in 1923 and 1934. Besides, several politicians and scientific societies were interested in demography in connection with their activities on the field of social policy and public health. The municipal councillor Julius Tandler and the Austrian Society for Population Policy are such examples. They contributed to the social reform program of "Red Vienna". Also eugenists like Heinrich Reichel, the most active racial hygienist in Austria at that time, took part in these activities. The demographic discourse was dominated by the discussion of the decline of fertility and its negative consequences for society and nation. The regular demographers demanded a governmental family policy which should encourage the upbringing of children. However, the alternative conception of the sociologist and private scholar Rudolf Goldscheid, the "Economy of Human Beings", was ignored by the scientific community. The Austrian demographers also took part in the international demographic discourse on international conferences. They had an independent point of view and did not lean on the German position, not even after 1933.