Concordance Democrats? The ALHR and the Civil Society

The project, paradigmatically titled Concordance democrats? The Austrian League of Human Rights and the Civil Society (1926-2006), analyzes the history and the activities of the association. By the help of the thereby gained research results, the project will point out the interrelation between the Austrian League of Human Rights (ALHR) and the Austrian and international civil society. This research work is focused on the principle question whether the ALHR represented in its different fields of activities through the years a mere Austrian `concordance democracy association` or a transnationally acting self-organized part of the Civil Society. By using this approach and as the history of human rights organizations, especially before 1945, is thus far very badly researched, the project proves to be a desideratum of scientific historical and political research. The topics, taking center stage in the project, are constituted by the following key aspects of ALHR`s activities: personnel and organizational structure of the ALHR, pedagogy and education, especially on human rights (with a focus on social aspects as, for example, homosexuality), information, international and national co-operations in peace initiatives, legal and social assistance, ethnic groups and minorities in Austria and Italy (South Tyrol), cultural activities as well as women`s rights. The central source of information for this research study is the archive of the ALHR, located in the 7th Viennese municipal district. Led with meticulousness and extended continually, the archive provides a profound and nearly complete insight into the history of the ALHR in the Second Republic, starting from the reestablishment of the league in 1945. Among other things, it contains all minutes of general assemblies and board meetings as well as nearby complete alphabetical collection of all members since 1945. A very important amendment to all these sources is constituted by the personnel experiences and holdings of former members of the ALHR`s leadership. Admittedly, as many former members of the directorate have already died, the use of this oral source is solely possible starting up from the middle of the sixties. Acting on this assumption, five directorate members were chosen by the project director, each as an expert in one of the above mentioned central areas of activities of the League. In contrast, the archive of the League nearly does not contain any material on the history of the ALHR from its establishment in 1926 to its liquidation in 1938. Therefore, correspondence and personal remains of members of the ALHR`s directorate in this period have to be analized. This material can be found in archives in Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck and Moskwa. Particularly the so-called Special Archive of the intelligence service in Moskwa, strictly clandestine and barred for the period of the Cold War, offers a huge amount of material on the history of the ALHR, which has not been sifted yet. The final intention of the project is to publish the research results in a monograph.

The intention of the project was to portray the history of the Austrian League of Human Rights (ALHR). The League was established in 1926 in Vienna under the leadership of the Viennese sociologist Rudolf Goldscheid (18701931) as a national committee of the International League for Human Rights (ILHR). The organisation was voluntarily dissolved after the "Anschluss" in 1938 and was re-established by a new executive committee in 1945. The project`s most significant findings regarding the ALHR`s history during the First Republic rest on the fact that its archives were confiscated by the National Socialist authorities in 1938. For a long time, these materials were believed to have been lost or even destroyed. However, as our research has shown, they had in fact been taken to Berlin in order to be evaluated by a special Auswertungskommando, an evaluation commando working for the National Socialists. While assessments made by the Auswertungskommando could be obtained in the German Federal Archives, the stolen documents themselves had been taken to Moscow at the end of World War II and stored in a so-called "Special Archive" of the Soviet intelligence service. In this secret archive, which did not even officially exist until the 1990s, we were able to access the documents which contained important material on the League`s hitherto little known beginnings. Together with further research in Austrian, Swiss, and French archives, this revealed the freemasonic influences on the League`s foundations, as well as the association`s interconnections with other bodies of the civil society in Austria and elsewhere in Europe. Especially close ties were maintained with the German League for Human Rights and the parent organization, the French Ligue pour la Défénse des Droits de l`Homme et du Citoyen, founded back in 1898. One can therefore speak of a European civil society network. European interconnectedness could also be established as an integral part of the League`s post-war history. Based on its comprehensive archives from the times after 1945, we could retrace the various spheres of action (e.g. individual legal and social assistance, information about and education on human rights, advancement of civil peace) as well as the League`s personnel and organizational structure. In addition, a communist influence during the first years after the war could be established. This was also the time when the League was regarded an "instrument of denazification", as new members were required to prove that they had not been involved in National Socialism before they were permitted to join. Regarding the later years it could be shown that, in spite of its professed party independence, the ALHR`s links with the leading political parties of the Second Republic were indeed close. It provided a sort of informal communication platform across party lines and can thus be called a consociational body. As the traditionally little organized civil society of Austria strengthened since the Seventies, the League had to reposition itself within a newly formed field of civil-societal actors. This was accompanied by a generational change within the League itself. Today, the ALHR remains a considerable force within the Austrian civil society.