Moving in, through, out: a comparison of representations

This study will for the first time supply historical insights into how the issue of migration was dealt with in the public spheres of the Central European metropolises Vienna and Berlin. From a comparative and cultural-historical perspective, the project will consider mass media representations of migration - immigration (moving in), transmigration (moving through), and emigration (moving out) - in the metropolises of Vienna and Berlin during the first Austrian and German republics (1918 - 1933/34). It will enquire as to what kind of knowledge about the social-historical phenomenon "migration" was disseminated in the public sphere of both metropolises through the daily press over an extended period of time. The project will also examine how the mass media representation of migrants in Berlin and Vienna changed in line with political and socioeconomic developments. More precisely, it will examine which migration phenomena were considered most important by the press of the time. It will be asked which links were drawn between the daily representation of migration and the development of these two Central European metropolises. The study focuses specifically on which newspapers chose to evaluate these phenomena and in addition which if any, migrant groups were able to participate in this representation and what form this took. This comparative study thus focuses on an area in which the history of Austrian and German migration, metropolis and media intersect. By taking a cultural history approach, it will combine the classical social and structurally- oriented works on European migration history and the cultural-historical research on the history of memory of migration.