Viennese Völkerkundler and the `Altreich´ (1933-1945)

The project "Professional Networking and Connections of the Viennese `Völkerkunde` Institute with the `Altreich`" should be viewed as an addition to the on-going FWF-project "Upheavals Collaborators, Defectors and Outcasts: Socio-Cultural anthropology at the University of Vienna during the Nazi period", which is carried out under the supervison of Prof. Andre Gingrich at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology in Vienna. Within the scope of the project about the Networking and Connections of the Viennese "Völkerkunde" Institute with the "Altreich", it will be determined how the various relationships between Viennese and German scholars and researchers of Völkerkunde and the corresponding German institutes and museums developed during the Nazi period, both before and after 1938. Interactions of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Anthropological Association (DGV) are also included in the research. Völkerkunde in Austria was limited to Vienna apart from a temporary chair in Graz so it is legitimate to focus on the capital within the project. The study of the mutual relations of scholars and scientists in both countries is an explosive subject: On the one hand Austria and Germany shared a common language and the socio-cultural anthropological trends in the German speaking countries developed by no means independently from each other; on the other hand the relationship between Austria and Germany at that time (i.e. on the eve of occupation up to 1938, and as an internalized occupied part of the Third Reich after that) was highly specific and complicated, not only between high public officials. How all these affected the interaction of Völkerkundler in both countries is an issue of the project. Furthermore, it should be considered that frequent interactions generally had a system-stabilizing impact not least during the National Socialism. Against the background of the changing political parameters, and taking into account individual biographies, respective theoretical positions and personal attitudes, this study investigates as to what extent and under which circumstances individual Austrian and German Völkerkundler cooperated with each other, avoided one another, or were even defamed under certain conditions. Furthermore, it is to clarify to what extent the Viennese Völkerkundler sought DFG support and how far they were actually promoted by this institution, especially with regard to the Austrian-German Academic Assistance, a sub-organization of the DFG. The project`s guiding question is, therefore, to what extent were there contacts between Viennese Völkerkundler, German colleagues and the named institutions, and how did these contacts develop? This project also establishes a direct connection between studies on the role of socio-cultural anthropology during the Nazi period in Austria on the one hand, and in Germany on the other.

Thanks to the FWF-Scholarship (Lise Meitner-Program) it was possible to gain numerous new findings on the Professional Networking and Connections of the Viennese Völkerkunde Institute with the Altreich (1933-1945). Obviously, a clear distinction needs to be drawn between the period 1933 to 1938 and the period 1938 to 1945. It was noted that in the first period many contacts between German and Austrian Völkerkundler (ethnologists) remained largely uninfluenced by the political or racial background of Austrian academics whereas within Nazi-Germany there was only a limited academic interaction with persecuted colleagues. It became clear that in regard to contacts between emigrants overseas the connecting element was the common destiny rather than the professional direction. By comparison, it seems that in Germany and regarding the contacts to Austrian colleagues before 1938 the respective theoretical approach had been more important. Only one of the better known ethnologists emigrated from Germany to Austria before 1938 (and after the Anschluss to the USA), but several Austrian ethnologists came to Nazi-Germany until 1938. Some of them were supported by the NSDAP-Flüchtlingshilfswerk, a hitherto hardly covered institution, which helped Austrian illegal NSDAP-party-members to flee to Germany. Already before as well as after 1933 some Austrian academics who worked in the area of Völkerkunde obtained support from the Österreichisch-Deutsche Wissenschaftshilfe, a section of the German Research Foundation.After Austrias Anschluss to the Third Reich contacts between German ethnologists and persecuted Austrian colleagues also ceased, except in a few cases. It turned out that the connections between ethnologists in Vienna and in Frankfurt were of higher intensity in many ways compared to contacts to colleagues in museums and departments of other German cities. The main reason for this continued contact was undoubtedly the cultural historical approach which was primarily represented in Vienna as well as in Frankfurt even though with different and also changing paradigms.The results of the project Professional Networking and Connections of the Viennese Völkerkunde Institute with the Altreich (1933-1945) are also very instructive for other disciplines and their history, e.g. human biology, prehistory, folklore studies, to name but a few, and in general to all academic disciplines in Austria and Germany and their studies about their cooperation during the National Socialist period.