Psychology in the "Ostmark". Between Ideology and Collaboration

Up to the present day, a systematic historical analysis of the social and theoretical ruptures within academic psychology during and after the annexation of Austria in March 1938 has not been written. The events that took place in Austria after the Anschluss of the Ostmark, especially at the Psychological Institutes in Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck and the military-psychological testing laboratories in Vienna and Salzburg, have not been systematically researched and presented in a uniform publication so far. This project provides a systematic reconstruction and contextualization of theories and practices, which evolved in academic psychology from 1938 to 1945 and shaped the discipline for many decades, based on a historical analysis of primary and secondary literature, archival sources and private correspondence, and the conduction of interviews with contemporary witnesses. During times of rapid and profound political changes, the dynamic relationship and mutual dependency of science and politics become visible and are often openly discussed by historical actors. This study focuses on three levels of this relationship between academic-psychological and political- military interests: (1) theoretical developments and their relationship to the national-socialist worldview, (2) the scientific-political and social strategies of historical actors, and (3) the practical expertise and technical forms of knowledge that were developed at the three Psychological Institutes of the Ostmark in Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck. These three levels constitute the historiographical framework of this investigation. It enables us to gain a deeper understanding of the mutual influence and dependency of scientific knowledge, political directives, and how strategies of individual actors who shifted between these spheres can be understood in their respective contexts. The key research questions of this project are as follows: Which science-political changes characterize the development of academic psychology after the annexation of Austria in 1938? Which actors were successful in retaining their academic positions, despite rising political pressure and the militarization of academic life? Which rhetorical strategies proved to be successful in appeasing and influencing political decision makers? Which roles did psychological knowledge play in connection with national- socialist biopolitics and racial policies, such as mass deportation, the systematic murder of worthlessness life and the mobilization of the masses in times of war? Which conclusions can be drawn from the history of academic psychology in the Ostmark in regard to the question of continuity and discontinuity in the history of science in Austria? Which contribution can be made concerning current debates about the general relationship between science, politics and the social consequences of scientific practice? These questions guide this project towards an enhancement of our knowledge of the interaction and mutual dependency of science and politics during the Second World War and a reassessment of the joint responsibility of academic psychology in national-socialist war crimes and mass murder.

During National Socialism, applied psychology flourished: National Socialists used psychological findings in the deportation and extermination of individuals they deemed 'unworty of living' and the mobilization of the masses. Until recently, the history of Austrian psychology after the Anschluss in 1938 has not been systematically explored. The FWF project " Psychology in the 'Ostmark'" has now closed this gap. Previous studies on the history of psychology under National Socialism (e.g., by Ulfried Geuter), which were already conducted in the 1980s and have remained pivotal to this day, have shown on the basis of a wealth of archival materials that psychology experienced an enormous surge in professionalization before and during World War II. Scholars interpreted the commissioning of psychology as part of the selection of officers in the Wehrmacht as the main driving force behind this development. However, the results of this project point to local peculiarities: The application of psychological knowledge was more widespread outside the military than previously assumed: for then annexed Austria, this can be seen, in practical psychological work in youth prisons, in the war industry, and also in the health and welfare system. The question of psychology's involvement in crimes against humanity arises anew: e.g., in connection with the mass aptitude testing of prisoner-of-war laborers in large armament factories in the south of Vienna and in the context of the newly established cooperation between child psychiatry and child psychology in the mass murder of 'handicappe'' children and adolescents from 1939 onward. Assessing the extent and nature of the use of psychologists under National Socialism depends on available archival material, which is inadequate in this case due to large-scale destruction of files. The focus of previous research on military psychology was made possible by the fact that large collections of files, which had been preserved from destruction, were accessible in the former FRG. For other fields of work or institutions (e.g., in connection with the use of psychology in the German Arbeitsfront), the archival situation is difficult. Here, as a result of the systematic destruction of files, only fragments or individual traces have been preserved, which have to be followed up in painstaking detail. An important result of the research project "Psychology in the 'Ostmark'' is the collection of archival materials, a selection of which will be annotated and made available to the public on a dedicated archive page of the Faculty of Psychology at Sigmund Freud Private University. At the Faculty itself, follow-up projects have created a research focus on the history of science, which has meanwhile also received much international attention and in which the role of science and research in the context of totalitarian systems of rule is examined.