There is something nerdy about conducting research on government employees. In this new series of blogposts I will advance some reasons why my research project is relevant:
- As of now, there is no comprehensive social and cultural history of Austrian government employees in the interwar period. There are several monographs on government employees in the Habsburg monarchy (1), survey articles (2), studies about (3) and autobiographies of (4) elite civil servants and some diploma theses and dissertations on specific areas of administration in the interwar period (5).
- Government employees are a multifaceted, relevant socio-professional group. In my project all areas and hierarchies of civil government employment (on the federal, provinicial and municipal level, postal and telegraph service, railways, state enterprises …) will be included. Due to their specific employment relationship they represented the state, who was at the same time their employer. They were obliged to fulfil their official duties and conduct oneself in a way appropriate to their position – in the office as well as in private life. The state provided them with a suitable income for themselves and their dependants, a life-long employment with an inbuilt career structure and entitlement to an old-age pension. This relationship became imbalanced in a time of high inflation and the reduction of the number of government employees for the purpose of the restoration of the national finances which affected government employees’ loyalty to the state in a negative way. Statistical analyses of elections in the late 1920s and early 1930s have substantiated government employees’ affinity towards the NSDAP (as voters and party members) before 1933 (6).
- There are some similarities between the phenomena investigated in the project and contemporary problems. International donor organizations demand a reduction of the state apparatus as one conditions for loans: this is a problem Greece is facing today, whereas Austria had to deal with it in the 1920s. People who are affected by (or afraid of) socio-economic descent tend to lose trust in government and lean toward radical right-wing parties (7): This is widely discussed in the media and in social research today, and it has been an issue in interwar Austria, likewise.
To be continued…
(1) Deak, John (2015), Forging a Multinational State. State Making in Imperial Austria from the Enlightenment to the First World War, Stanford.Megner, Karl (1985), Beamte. Wirtschafts- und sozialgeschichtliche Aspekte des k. k. Beamtentums (= Studien zur Geschichte der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie 21), Wien. Heindl, Waltraud (1991), Gehorsame Rebellen. Bürokratie und Beamte in Österreich 1780 bis 1848, Wien. Heindl, Waltraud (2013), Josephinische Mandarine. Bürokratie und Beamte in Österreich, Band 2: 1848 – 1914, Wien.
(2) Heindl, Waltraud (1995), Bürokratie und Beamte, in: Emmerich Tàlos/Herbert Dachs/Ernst Hanisch/Anton Staudinger (Ed.), Handbuch des politischen Systems Österreichs. Erste Republik 1918 – 1933, Wien, 90-104. Goldinger, Walter (1983), Verwaltung und Bürokratie, in: Erika Weinzierl/Kurt Skalnik (Eds.): Österreich 1918-1938. Geschichte der Ersten Republik. Bd. 1. Graz et al., 195 – 207.
(3) Enderle-Burcel, Gertrude/Michaela Follner (1997), Diener vieler Herren. Biographisches Handbuch der Sektionschefs der Ersten Republik und des Jahres 1945, Wien.
(4) Loewenfeld-Russ, Hans (1986), Im Kampf gegen den Hunger. Aus den Erinnerungen des Staatssekretärs für Volksernährung 1918–1920, Ed. by Isabella Ackerl, Wien. Schüller, Richard (Jürgen Nautz, Hg.) (1990), Unterhändler des Vertrauens. Aus den nachgelassenen Schriften von Sektionschef Dr. Richard Schüller, Wien. Robert Ehrhart, Im Dienste des alten Österreich, Wien 1958
(5) Hafner, Herta (1990), Der sozio-ökonomische Wandel der österreichischen Staatsangestellten 1914 – 1924, Unveröffentlichte Dissertation, Universität Wien. Sedlak, Eva-Maria (2004), Politische Sanktionen gegen öffentliche Bedienstete im österreichischen “Ständestaat”, Unveröffentlichte Dissertation, Universität Wien.
(6) Hänisch, Dirk (1998), Die österreichischen NSDAP-Wähler. Eine empirische Analyse ihrer politischen Herkunft und ihres Sozialprofils, Wien u.a., Gerhard Botz, Strukturwandlungen des österreichischen Nationalsozialismus (1904 – 1945), in: Isabella Ackerl et al. (eds.), Politik und Gesellschaft im alten und neuen Österreich, Wien 1981, 63 – 193.
(7)See e.g.: Lazaridis, Gabriella/ Campani, Giovanna (2016), Understanding the Populist Shift: Othering in a Europe in Crisis, London/NY