Page - 321 - in Wien und die jüdische Erfahrung 1900-1938 - Akkulturation - Antisemitismus - Zionismus

From White Terror to Red Vienna 1 “German student nation.” The resolution was struck down by Austria’s Constitu- tional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof) on June 23, 1931, unleashing “three days of the worst academic violence in the history of the First Austrian Republic.” With the strengthening of the Austrian Nazi Party in the early 1930s, the electoral success of the German Nazi Party in 1932, and Hitler’s seizure of power in Germany in January 1933, anti-Semitic violence became a regular feature at Austria’s universi- ties. This violence was often reported in Hungary’s Jewish newspapers. Serious anti- Jewish violence erupted at the University of Vienna in May and October 1932, then again in March and May 1933, leading Die Stimme to label the University of Vienna “the stronghold of National Socialism” (die Hochburg des Nationalsozialismus). To make matters worse, the age-old university autonomy (Hochschulautonomie) denied the police the right to enter the university to quell the anti-Jewish violence, making university autonomy a kind of “flogging autonomy” (Prügelautonomie). (University autonomy was lifted by the May Constitution of May 1, 1934, thereby enabling the police to suppress rioting at the university in 1935.) Abschluss und „Anschluss“, 1933–1938 Austria faced a string of crises between 1933 and 1938, beginning with the suspension of the Austrian Parliament by Engelbert Dollfuß in 1933 and the outbreak of civil war in 1934. Combined with the Great Depression and the looming threat of Hitler- ism, these political crises made Austria a rather precarious place to live, especially for university students and the ever-growing “intellectual proletariat.” Already in August 1933, the Austrian Foreign Ministry sought to make life easier for Austria’s students by taking steps against the “overcrowding of Austrian universities” (Überfüllung der österreichischen Hochschulen). Naturally, these steps were aimed at limiting the num- ber of foreigners studying in Austria. As the Austrian Foreign Ministry informed the Hungarian Foreign Ministry on August 12, 1933 : “In the last decade, the number of students at the Austrian uni- versities has increased from year to year, and it has reached a level that should be of Bruce F. Pauley, From Prejudice to Persecution : A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism, Chapel Hill & Lon- don 1992, pp. 125–127 ; Maria L. Marcus, “Austria’s Pre-War Brown V. Board of Education,” Fordham Urban Law Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2004). Bruce F. Pauley, From Prejudice to Persecution : A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism, Chapel Hill & Lon- don 1992, p. 126 ; “Die österreichische Hochschulschande”, in : Die Stimme, June 25, 1931, p. 1–2. See “A diák, ” Egyenlőség, November 22, 1930, p. 15. „Schluss mit der Wiener Universitätsschande !“ Die Stimme, May 11, 1933, p. 2.