Over the last three hundred years, the Habsburg Empire and the republic of Austria repeatedly experienced situations in which in a very short time a large number of refugees sought temporary or permanent asylum in the country. Certainly, the numbers of people arriving as well as the frequency of refugee crises have tremendously increased during the twentieth century. Still, some reactions and policy measures have remained astonishingly unchanged.

For results in English refer to my article “Changes and Continuities in Austria’s Coping with Refugee Crises over Three Centuries,” Journal of Austrian-American History, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2018), pp. 116–141. Download

In order to get a better understanding of how state, society and public opinion dealt with refugee crises in the past, I organised a workshop in 2016 (conference programme; Conference report on H-Soz-Kult, 2 Dec. 2016)

The results of the conference were published in German in a peer-reviewed collective volume in 2017, entitled Country of Arrival. How Austria has dealt with refugees since the Eighteenth Century. Download table of contents & introduction.

Book reviews: Austrian History Yearbook 2019. Wiener Geschichtsblätter 2019. H-Habsburg, August 2018. H-Soz-Kult, July 2018.

Press coverage:

Radio broadcast on Österreich 1, Betrifft Geschichte, 14 – 18 May 2018
Der Standard, 21 April 2018
Die Presse, 30 March 2018
ORF Niederösterreich, 6 March 2018
Austrian Press Agency, APA, 28 Feb. 2018

ORF Science, 30 Sept. 2016
Die Presse, 30 Sept. 2016 (Zeitreise)
Austrian Press Agency, APA Science, 30 Sept. 2016
Wiener Zeitung, 30.9.2016

Radio broadcast on  Österreich 1,  Journal Panorama, 17 Oct. 2016
Krankenkasse Zentrale, Germany, July 2017