HIST 300
HIST 300: Shaping Modern Austria
*3 (3-0-0)
Fall 2024Instructor: Annemarie Steidl
T TR 930 - 1050
Location: TBD
Did you know that Hedy Lamarr, often called “The Most Beautiful Woman in Film”, was an Austrian migrant, born in Vienna and moved to Hollywood in the 1930s or that Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, had to leave Vienna because of Austria’s annexation to the Third Reich and died in his London exile in 1939?
To understand Austrian society, culture, economy and politics one has to start by discussing its history as one of the large European empires in early modern times. What is Austria? Who are its people, how do they see themselves and what is Austria’s position in an European context? Starting in the 18th century we will explore the Habsburg Empire as home of various religious and ethnic groups, shaped by local, regional, and in the 19th century, by global migrations. By analyzing the history of Habsburg and Austrian migrants, those coming and going, from the early modern to present times you will be introduced to keystones of its society and culture.
The lecture course will provide students with inside into various documents such as narrative source (letters, diaries), literary texts, individual life stories, and its influence on Austrian culture. You will further learn to understand the symbolic value and the mechanisms of how migration and culture contributes to the construction of (national)
identities.
identities.