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THE RED VIENNA SOURCEBOOK
Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture
 Copyright © 2020 by the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft

All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation,

no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

First published 2020

by Camden House

Camden House is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Inc.

668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
and of Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-57113-355-7 (Hardcover)

ISBN-13: 978-1-64014-067-7 (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78744-610-6 (ePDF)

Cover design by Frank Gutbrod

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McFarland, Robert B., editor. | Spitaler, Georg, editor. | Zechner, Ingo, editor.
Title: The Red Vienna sourcebook / edited by Rob McFarland, Georg Spitaler, and Ingo Zechner.
Description: Rochester, New York : Camden House, [2020] | Series: Studies in German literature,
linguistics, and culture ; 204 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020002978 | ISBN 9781640140677 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781571133557
(hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Vienna (Austria)—History—20th century—Sources. | Popular culture—Austria—
Vienna—History—20th century—Sources. | Vienna (Austria)—Social policy—Sources.
Classification: LCC DB855 .R445 2020 | DDC 943.6/13051—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002978
.

The Red Vienna Sourcebook was made possible by the generous support of the Cultural
Department of the City of Vienna (Stadt Wien Kultur).

Printed with support from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History (LBIDH).
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgmentsxxiii

Permissions and Credits xxv

A Note on the Structure of This Book xxix

Introduction1
Rob McFarland, Georg Spitaler, and Ingo Zechner

Part I. Foundations
Chapter 1: Constitution, Legislation, and Jurisdiction 15
Vrääth Öhner

1. Hans Kelsen, The Constitution of German Austria (1920) 17

2. Karl Kautsky, Democracy and Democracy (1920) 20

3. Karl Renner, The Free State on the Danube (1922) 22

4. Robert Danneberg, The German-Austrian Financial Constitution (1922) 23

5. Oskar Trebitsch, Jurisdiction and Class Struggle (1923) 25

6. Friedrich Austerlitz, The Murderers of Schattendorf Acquitted! (1927) 27

7. Therese Schlesinger, Criminal Justice and Psychoanalysis (1930) 29

Chapter 2: Finances and Taxes 33

Veronika Duma

1. Robert Danneberg, Finance Politics in the City of Vienna (1921–22) 35

2. Hugo Breitner, Capitalist or Socialist Taxation? Who Should Pay Tax?

The Rich or the Poor? (1926) 37

3. Viktor Kienböck, Foundations of Financial Policy (1927)  39

vi  Contents

4. Anonymous, On the Tax Policy of the City of Vienna (1930) 41

5. Gabriele Proft, No! From the Finance and Budget Board of the National
Council (1931) 42

6. Anonymous, In the Sign of Austerity. Meeting of the Vienna Municipal

Council (1931) 43

7. Otto Bauer, The Budget Restructuring Law: A Speech given on October 9,

1931 by Dr. Otto Bauer before the Delegates of the Postal Union (1931) 44

8. Anonymous, The Financial Demands on Vienna (1933) 46

Chapter 3: Consumption and Entertainment 49

Marie-Noëlle Yazdanpanah

1. Anton Kuh, The Soda-and-Raspberry Existence (1919) 51

2. Margarete Hilferding, Black Market (1919) 52

3. Ludwig Hirschfeld, The Paper Calf: Valuta Miniatures (1919) 54

4. Julius Klinger, The Holy Every Day (1923) 56

5. György Bálint, Jazz Band (1929) 57

6. Neon, Revue (1929) 59

7. Anonymous, Dance around the World: The GÖC Revue (1929) 61

8. Ernst Fischer, I Am Conducting an Economic Study on Myself (1931) 62

9. Anonymous, The Discovery of the Housewife (1931) 64

Part II. Philosophies

Chapter 4: Empirical Social Research 69
Ingo Zechner

1. Käthe Leichter, The Housing Situation (from How do the Viennese

Homeworkers Live? A Survey on the Working and Living Conditions of 1,000
Viennese Homeworkers) (1928) 71

2. Käthe Leichter, Housework (from This Is How We Live: 1320 Women Workers
in Industry Report about Their Lives) (1932) 73

3. Paul F. Lazarsfeld, On the Career Attitudes of the Young Working Class (1931) 78
 Contents  vii

4. Lotte Radermacher, On the Social Psychology of the Popular Education

Centers’ Students (A Survey of 21,749 Course Participants) (1932) 80

5. Marie Jahoda, Life Fulfillment (from Anamneses from the Poorhouse) (1932) 83

6. Marie Jahoda, Meal Plan and Budget (from Marienthal: The Sociography of
an Unemployed Community) (1933) 85

Chapter 5: Logical Empiricism 91

Gernot Waldner

1. Anonymous, Magic and Technology (1931) 93

2. Philipp Frank, On the Intuitive Nature of Physical Theories (1928) 95

3. Rudolf Carnap, Hans Hahn, and Otto Neurath, The Vienna Circle’s
Scientific Conception of the World (1929) 97

4. Rudolf Carnap, Overcoming Metaphysics through the Logical Analysis of

Language (1931) 99

5. Edgar Zilsel, The Intellectual State of our Time? (1932) 102

6. Otto Neurath, Ideology and Marxism (1931) 106

7. Otto Neurath, Protocol Statements (1932–33) 108

Chapter 6: Austro-Marxism 113

Vrääth Öhner

1. Max Adler, Bourgeois or Social Democracy (1919) 115

2. Karl Renner, What Is Class Struggle? (1919) 117

3. Otto Bauer, The Austrian Revolution (1923) 119

4. Hans Kelsen, Otto Bauer’s Political Theories (1924) 122

5. The Struggle for State Power (from Program of the Social Democratic
Workers’ Party of German Austria, Enacted at the Party Convention at
Linz on November 3, 1926) (1926)  124

6. Leon Trotsky, The Austrian Crisis and Communism (1930) 126

7. Käthe Leichter, The Best Defense (1933) 128

viii  Contents

Chapter 7: Freudo-Marxism and Individual Psychology 133

Rob McFarland, Nicole G. Burgoyne, and Georg Vasold

1. Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1922) 135

2. Wilhelm Reich, Dialectical Materialism and Psychoanalysis (1929) 137

3. Siegfried Bernfeld, Socialism and Psychoanalysis: Basic Ideas from a

Presentation Held at the Society of Socialist Doctors (1926) 139

4. Alfred Adler, The Significance of the Social Feeling for the Development
of Character (1927) 141

5. Alice Rühle-Gerstel, Marxism and Individual Psychology: The Revolutionary

Science (1927) 143

6. Sofie Lazarsfeld, Raised by a Family or Educated by a Community? (1926) 145

7. Karl Bühler, The Will to Form and the Desire for Function in Children’s
Games (1927) 147

Part III. Identities

Chapter 8: Post-Empire 153
Kristin Kopp

1. Anonymous, Inside and Outside our Borders (1918) 155

2. Directive of the Ministry of Education and the Interior and of the Ministry
of Justice in Consultation with the Involved State Ministries on April 18,
1919 Regarding the Implementation of the Law Abolishing Nobility and
Certain Titles and Honors (1919) 156

3. Julius Deutsch, The Property of the Habsburgs (1925) 157

4. Alfred Polgar, Imperial Furniture (1920) 159

5. Anonymous, German Austria: Bankruptcy Asset and Colony (1919) 161

6. Karnute, How Should Carinthia Orient Itself? (1919) 163

7. Friedrich Austerlitz, Abandon Vienna! (1919) 165

8. Anton Kuh, Vienna by the Mountains (1923) 167

9. Otto Bauer, Three Groups in the Anschluss Camp (1927) 169

 Contents  ix

Chapter 9: Demography 173

Kristin Kopp and Werner Michael Schwarz

1. Anonymous, New Guidelines for the Ranking of Apartment Applicants (1922) 175

2. Edmund W. Eichler, The Foreigners in Vienna: Of Conspirators, Emigrants,

Dreamers, and Harmless Tradesmen (1924) 177

3. Anonymous, Expulsion of Refugees (1919)  179

4. Bruno Frei, Jewish Suffering in Vienna (1920)  182

5. Anonymous, Foreigners in our Labor Market (1925) 184

6. Anonymous, Czech Provocations in Vienna (1920) 185

7. Anonymous, The Czech School System in Vienna and the German School
System in Czechoslovakia: A Speech by Otto Glöckel (1926) 186

8. Anonymous, German to the Core—with a “Háček” (1931) 187

9. Anonymous, The Persecution of Gypsies in “Red” Vienna (1932)  189

Chapter 10: Jewish Life and Culture 191

Rob McFarland, Nicole G. Burgoyne, and Gabriel Trop

1. Eugen Höflich, Bolshevism, Judaism, and the Future (1919)  194

2. Moshe Silburg, What I Have to Say to You (1920) 196

3. Melech Ravitch, Preface (from Naked Songs) (1921) 197

4. Anitta Müller-Cohen, The Return of the Jewish Woman to Judaism (1923) 200

5. J. L. Benvenisti, Arthur Schnitzler Foretells Jewish Renaissance (1924) 202

6. Felix Salten, New Humans on Ancient Ground: A Trip to Palestine (1925) 203

7. Max Eisler, On the New Spirit of Jewish Architecture (1926) 205

8. Josef Löwenherz, The Cultural Duties of the Viennese Jewish Community

(1928)  207

9. Leo Goldhammer, Weary of Life: A Warning to the Jews (1931) 209

x  Contents

Part IV. New Values

Chapter 11: Religion and Secularism 213
Gabriel Trop and Rob McFarland

1. Religion and Church (from Program of the Social Democratic Workers’

Party of German Austria, Enacted at the Party Convention at Linz on
November 3, 1926) (1926)  215

2. Jakob Reumann, Dedication Speech for Vienna’s Crematorium: “Vienna’s

Crematorium Opens, In Spite of Everything!” (1922) 216

3. Cardinal Friedrich Gustav Piffl, Shepherd’s Bulletin (1923) 218

4. Max Winter, The Living Mummy: A Look at the Year 2025 (1929) 219

5. Sigmund Freud, Future of an Illusion (1927) 222

6. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) 225

7. Franz Werfel, Realism and Inwardness (1932) 227

8. Otto Bauer, Religious Socialism (1927) 229

Chapter 12: The New Woman and Women’s Rights 233

Marie-Noëlle Yazdanpanah and Veronika Duma

1. Therese Schlesinger, Women and the Revolution (1921) 235

2. Anonymous, Mass Protest against the Murder Clause, Article 144 (1927) 237

3. Marianne Pollak, From Crinoline Dress to Bobbed Hair: Revolution and

Fashion (1926) 240

4. Stefan Zweig, Confidence in the Future (1929) 242

5. Bettina Hirsch, The Housewife and the Single-kitchen Building: Experiences

Living on Pilgerimgasse (1927) 244

6. Liesl Zerner, The Young Working Woman (1930) 246

7. Käthe Leichter, Epilog (from This Is How We Live: 1320 Women Workers in
Industry Report about Their Lives) (1932) 248
 Contents  xi

Chapter 13: Sexuality 253

Katrin Pilz

1. Josef Karl Friedjung, Sex Education: A Guide for Parents, Teachers, and
Doctors (1924)  255

2. Karl Kautsky Jr., Marriage Counseling as a Welfare Service (1925) 256

3. Therese Schlesinger, On the Evolution of Sexuality (1923) 259

4. Marianne Pollak, Women’s Issues at the Sexual Reform Congress (1930) 261

5. Sofie Lazarsfeld, Gynophobia (from How a Woman Experiences a Man:

Thoughts from Others and My Own Observations) (1931) 263

6. Grete von Urbanitzky, The Wild Garden (1927)  264

7. Ernst Fischer, Crisis of Sexuality (from Crisis of Youth) (1931) 265

8. Wilhelm Reich, Politicizing the Sexual Problem of Youth (from The Sexual
Struggle of Youth) (1932)  268

Part V. Social Engineering

Chapter 14: Health Care and Social Hygiene 273
Birgit Nemec

1. Adele Bruckner, At the Tuberculosis Care Station (1925) 275

2. Alois Jalkotzy, The Children Accuse Us: Letters from Children on Corporal
Punishment (1925) 276

3. Philipp Frankowski and Rosa Liederer, The City of Vienna’s Kindergartens

(1932)279

4. Paul Kammerer, Organic and Social Technology (1921) 283

5. Otto Neurath, The Viennese Method of Social Enlightenment (1933) 285

6. Margarete Hilferding, Motherhood (1922) 287

7. Julius Tandler, Dangers of Inferiority (1929) 289

Chapter 15: Welfare 293

Katrin Pilz

1. Adele Bruckner, Welfare Services (1925) 295

xii  Contents

2. Heinrich Holek, The Schmelz Neighborhood (1926) 298

3. Julius Tandler, Social Democratic Welfare Services (1924) 300

4. Karl Honay, The New Vienna for Its Youth (1932) 302

5. Anonymous, Who Is Smarter, a Monkey or an Infant? 700 Children

“Tested”—Significant Advances at the Research Center for Child Psychology
in Vienna (1930) 304

6. D. R., Visiting Young Mothers (1932) 307

7. August Aichhorn, The Training School (from Wayward Youth) (1925) 309

Chapter 16: Education for Everyone 313

Marie-Noëlle Yazdanpanah

1. Gina Kaus, Sex and Character in the Nursery (1925) 315

2. Lili Roubiczek, The Kinderhaus: Montessori Principles and Architecture

(1926)317

3. Otto Felix Kanitz, Class Pedagogy Part 1 (1921) 319

4. Otto Glöckel, The Gateway to the Future (1917) 322

5. Otto Glöckel, Drill Schools, Learning Schools, Work Schools (1928) 324

6. Max Lederer, Why Do We Demand Nonselective Schools? (1919) 325

7. Joseph Buttinger, The Viennese Workers’ College (1930) 327

8. Ludo Moritz Hartmann, Democracy and Popular Education (1919) 329

Part VI. Vitality

Chapter 17: Labor and Free Time 333
Vrääth Öhner

1. Julius Braunthal, The Eight-Hour Law (1919) 335

2. Adelheid Popp, The Double Burden of Women (1922) 336

3. Ida Foges, Weekend: A New Viennese Practice (1922) 339

4. Anonymous, Time! What Do I Do in My Free Time? (1929) 340

 Contents  xiii

5. Ernst Fischer, The Work Ethos and Socialism (1931) 343

6. Marie Jahoda, Time (from Marienthal: The Sociography of an Unemployed

Community) (1933) 346

Chapter 18: Sports and Body Culture 351

Georg Spitaler

1. Willy Meisl, Sports at a Crossroads (1928) 353

2. Stephanie Endres, Rhythm and the Proletariat (1930) 355

3. Julius Deutsch, Sports and Politics (1928) 357

4. Roch, Hakoah Wins the League (1925) 360

5. Jacques Hannak, Only a Soccer Match . . .? (1932) 361

6. Marie Deutsch-Kramer, Rise (1931) 364

7. Ernst Fischer, Crisis of Ideology (from Crisis of Youth) (1931) 365

Chapter 19: Nature 369

Cara Tovey

1. Robert Winter, Socialism in Nature (1919) 371

2. Gustav Harter, Back to Nature (1923) 373

3. Gustav Müller, The Mountains and Their Significance for the Rebuilding
of the German People (1922) 375

4. Franz Kleinhans, On the Question of the Aryan Clause (1924) 377

5. Theodor Hartwig, The Political Impact of Our Apolitical Action (1929) 379

6. Karl Renner, On the Friends of Nature (1931) 380

7. Anonymous, The Sunday Fleet (1931) 382

8. Adele Jellinek, The Children’s Crusade (1931) 383

xiv  Contents

Part VII. Housing

Chapter 20: Urban Planning  389
Aleks Kudryashova and Werner Michael Schwarz

1. Otto Neurath, Urban Planning and the Proletariat (1924) 391

2. Anonymous, My Skyscraper (1924) 393

3. Franz Siegel, What Does the Municipality of Vienna Build? Sunny and
Healthy Homes (1924) 395

4. Adolf Loos, The Day of the Settlers (1921) 396

5. Anonymous, Was the Program of 25,000 Public Homes in the Form of a

Garden City Really Possible? (1926) 398

6. Werner Hegemann, Critical Remarks on the Housing Projects in the City

of Vienna (1926) 400

7. Anonymous, The Ring Road of the Proletariat (1930) 402

Chapter 21: Architecture 405

Georg Vasold and Aleks Kudryashova

1. Franz Schuster and Franz Schacherl, Proletarian Architecture (1926) 407

2. Anton Brenner, Settlement House and Tenement Building—Mutual

Influences (1928) 409

3. Ernst Toller, In an Apartment Building in Socialist Vienna (1927) 411

4. Gustav A. Fuchs, The Fuchsenfeldhof (1923) 413

5. Anonymous, A Short Guide for Tenants in People’s Apartment Buildings

(1928)416

6. Otto Neurath, Single-Kitchen Building (1923) 417

7. Adolf Loos, The Grand Babylon Hotel (1923) 420

8. Josef Frank, The Public Housing Palace: A Speech Not Delivered on the
Occasion of a Groundbreaking (1926) 421
 Contents  xv

Chapter 22: Interior Design 425

Aleks Kudryashova

1. Adolf Loos, Learning to Live (1921) 427

2. Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven, Simple Household Goods: On the Exhibition

at the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry (1920) 429

3. Ernst Lichtblau, Aesthetics Based on a Spirit of Economy (1923) 431

4. Josef Frank, Kitsch for Fun and Kitsch as a Problem (1927) 432

5. Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Efficiency in the Household (1927) 434

6. Else Hofmann, A Residence and Workspace for a Professional Couple:

A Design by the Architects Liane Zimbler and Annie Herrnheiser (1929) 437

7. Franz Schuster, A Furniture Book: A Contribution to the Problem of

Contemporary Furniture (1932) 439

8. Fritz Czuczka, Ten Commandments for Furnishing a Home (1933) 441

Part VIII. Cultural Politics

Chapter 23: Fine Arts 445
Georg Vasold

1. Stella Kramrisch, Sofie Korner (1920) 447

2. Lajos Kassák, Foreword (from Book of New Artists) (1922) 448

3. Leopold W. Rochowanski, The Contemporary Will to Form in the Applied

Arts (1922) 451

4. Hans Tietze, Municipal Policy and Modern Art (1927) 453

5. Eduard Leisching, Municipal Policy and Modern Art: A Response (1927) 456

6. Josef Luitpold and Otto Rudolf Schatz, The New City (1927) 458

7. Otto Pächt, The End of Illustrative Theory (1930–31) 460

Chapter 24: New Music 465

Wolfgang Fichna

1. August Forstner, The Transport Workers at the First Workers’ Symphony

Concert (1928) 467
xvi  Contents

2. David Josef Bach, Why Do We Not Have a Social Democratic Art Policy
(1929)468

3. Paul A. Pisk, Can the Worker Find a Close Relationship to Contemporary

Music? (1927) 471

4. Anton Webern, The Path to New Music, II. Lecture (1933) 473

5. Elsa Bienenfeld, Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire (1922) 475

6. Theodor W. Adorno, On the Anbruch: Exposé (1928) 476

7. Anonymous, The Young, the Old, and Us: The Bourgeois Youth of the
Postwar Period (1928) 478

Chapter 25: Literature 483

Richard Lambert and Gernot Waldner

1. Rudolf Brunngraber, The Greatest Possible Order (from Karl and the
Twentieth Century) (1933) 485

2. Hermynia zur Mühlen, The Ally (1924) 486

3. Else Feldmann, Dandelion—A Childhood (1921) 488

4. Anton Kuh, Bettauer (1925) 489

5. Joe Lederer, Type-moiselle (1925) 491

6. Josef Luitpold, The Return of Prometheus (1927) 492

7. Josef Weinheber, The Crowd (1935) 494

8. Stefan Zweig, Trip to Russia (1928) 495

9. Ernst Fischer, The Man without Qualities: A Novel by Robert Musil (1930) 497

10. Hermann Broch, The Unknown Quantity (1933) 498

Chapter 26: Theater 503

Richard Lambert

1. David Josef Bach, The Arts Council (1923) 505

2. Ingenieure der Werkstatt für Massenform, Theater of the Future (1924) 507

3. Gina Kaus, Toni: A Schoolgirl Comedy in Ten Snapshots (1927) 509

 Contents  xvii

4. Elisa Karau, On the Speaking Choir Movement (1927) 510

5. Ernst Fischer, Red Requiem (1927) 512

6. Oscar Pollak, Why Do We Not Have a Social Democratic Art Policy (1929) 515

7. Jura Soyfer, Political Theater (1932) 518

8. Neon, Agitation Theater (1929) 519

9. Rudolf Holzer, The Rejuvenated Theater in der Josefstadt (1924) 520

10. Ödön von Horváth, Tales from the Vienna Woods (1931) 521

Part IX. Mass Media

Chapter 27: Film and Photography 527
Joachim Schätz

1. Siegfried Weyr, The Photo as a Weapon (1931) 529

2. Fritz Rosenfeld, Social Democratic Film Politics (1929) 531

3. Hugo Huppert, Kulturfilm, Revisited (1927) 534

4. Béla Balázs, The Masses (1926) 536

5. Max Frankenstein, The Market of the Masses … (1925) 538

6. Wolfgang Born, Photographic World View (1929) 540

7. Lothar Rübelt, The Work of the Sports Photographer (1926) 542

Chapter 28: Newspapers and Radio 547

Erik Born and Richard Lambert

1. Alfred Polgar, Intellectual Life in Vienna (1920) 548

2. Karl Kraus, A Belated Celebration of the Republic (1926) 551

3. Friedrich Austerlitz, The Real Kraus (1926) 553

4. Oscar Pollak, The Problems in the Calm (1929) 555

5. Anonymous, How Der Kuckuck Is Made (1930) 557

6. Anonymous, Freedom of the Airwaves! (1924) 558

xviii  Contents

7. Fritz Rosenfeld, Radio in Good Conscience (1932) 560

8. Anonymous, The RAVAG Listener Survey (1932) 562

9. Eugenie Schwarzwald, The Prophesied RAVAG (1934) 564

Part X. Exchange
Chapter 29: Americanism 569
Rob McFarland

1. Helene Scheu-Riesz, A Culture in the Making (1925) 571

2. Stefan Zweig, The Monotonization of the World (1925) 573

3. Felix Salten, Monotonization of the World? (1925) 576

4. Ann Tizia Leitich, A Word in Defense of America: One More Response to

“The Monotonization of the World” (1925) 578

5. Otto Bauer, Failed Rationalization (1931) 581

6. Anna Nußbaum, Introduction to Africa Sings: A Collection of Recent

African American Poetry (1929) 583

Chapter 30: Global Resonances 587

Werner Michael Schwarz

1. Erwin Zucker, Vienna—Moscow: Two Cities—Two Worlds (1932) 588

2. Günter Hirschel-Protsch, The Municipal Housing Complexes of the City

of Vienna (1926) 590

3. Heinrich Peter, The 1926 International Residential Building and City Planning
Congress in Vienna (1927) 591

4. Hermann Tobler, Learning School or Helping School? A Presentation Given

to the Vienna Teachers Assembly on October 4, 1923 (1924) 592

5. Solita Solano, Vienna—A Capital Without a Nation (1923) 594

6. J. Alexander Mahan, Dark Hours and the Dawn of Today (1928) 596

7. Louis H. Pink, Vienna Excels (1928) 598

8. Anonymous, Europe Revisited. III.—Vienna: The Dawn (1929) 599

 Contents  xix

9. Edward L. Schaub, Vienna’s Socialistic Housing Experiment (1930) 601

10. Charles O. Hardy, The Housing Program of the City of Vienna (1934) 603

11. John Gunther, Danube Blues (from Inside Europe) (1936) 604

Part XI. Reaction

Chapter 31: Anti-Semitism 609
Nicole G. Burgoyne and Vrääth Öhner

1. Joseph Eberle, The Jewish Question (1919) 610

2. Jacques Hannak, Jewry at a Crossroads (1919) 612

3. Anonymous, The Jewish Question in the National Assembly (1920) 614

4. Hugo Bettauer, Have You Already Read? The City Without Jews: A Novel of
the Day After Tomorrow. The Author on His Book (1922) 617

5. Joseph Roth, Ghettos in the West: Vienna (1927) 618

6. Felix Salten, Impossible Choice! Letter to our Editor in Chief (1927) 621

7. Irene Harand, Party or Fatherland? (1933) 623

Chapter 32: Black Vienna 627

Wolfgang Fichna and Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani

1. Karl Renner, The Christian Social Party and How Its Character Has
Changed (1923) 629

2. Ignaz Seipel, The Great Trajectory of Spiritual Development in Our

Time (1926) 631

3. Joseph Eberle, De Profundis: The Paris Peace from the Perspective of Culture
and History; An Appeal to the Christian Conscience Worldwide (1921) 634

4. Othmar Spann, A Summary of Observations of the Inward Direction of

Our Time and Its Political Ideology (from The True State) (1931) 636

5. Max Adler, In Critique of the Sociology of Othmar Spann (1927) 638

6. Alfred Missong, The World of the Proletariat: Psychological Reflections

(1931)640
xx  Contents

7. Heinrich Srbik, The Historical Content of the Austrian Portrait Exhibition

(1927)642

8. Anton Kuh, Petty Heroism (1922) 644

Chapter 33: Brown Vienna 649

Vrääth Öhner

1. Walter Riehl, National or International Socialism? (1923) 651

2. Anonymous, Remarque Forbidden Once and For All in Austria! A Victory

for German Ideology! (1931) 653

3. Fritz Brügel, National Socialist Ideology (1931) 655

4. Alfred Eduard Frauenfeld, The People Want It! (1932) 659

5. Otto Bauer, April 24 (1932) 662

6. Dr. Otto, The Psychopathology of National Socialism (1933) 664

Part XII. Power

Chapter 34: Campaigns and Elections 671
Werner Michael Schwarz

1. Anonymous, The Picture Gallery on the Street (1919) 673

2. Rallying Cry of Vienna’s Intellectuals (1927) 674

3. Anonymous, To All Working Jews! Jewish Voters! (1927) 676

4. Robert Danneberg, The Party (1928) 678

5. Joh. H., Who Should We Vote For? The Social Democratic Campaign Has
Begun (1930) 680

6. Anonymous, An Election Appeal in Stone! (1930) 682

7. Alois Jalkotzy, Women Matter! (1932) 684

8. Anonymous, Wear Three Arrows! The New Fighting Symbol (1932) 685

9. Anonymous, Wear the Blue Shirt of the Socialist Youth Front! (1932) 686

10. Stal, Three out of a Thousand Pioneers: A Report from the World of Wall
Newspapers (1932) 686
 Contents  xxi

Chapter 35: Communication and Propaganda 689

Alicia Roy

1. Anonymous, Ten Years of the New Vienna (1929) 691

2. Leopold Thaller, Educational Resources and Propaganda in Campaigns

(1930)693

3. Otto Neurath, Youth Front Agitation and the Task of Education (1932) 695

4. Paula Nowotny, Mail Correspondence between City and Country (1931) 697

5. Anton Kuh, The Mass Mobilization of Work (1923) 698

6. Otto Felix Kanitz and Stephanie Endres, Educational Tasks of the Workers
Federations of Sports (1932) 699

7. M. N., Cinema for the Tens of Thousands (1923) 703

8. Anonymous, Social-Fascist Deception Films (1930) 704

Chapter 36: Political Violence 707

Ingo Zechner

1. Anonymous, Republic Day: Bloody Disruption of the Mass Demonstration

(1918)709

2. Georg Lukács, The State as a Weapon (from Lenin: A Study on the Unity of
His Thought) (1924) 711

3. Zsigmond Kunfi, Lessons of July 15 (1927) 713

4. Walter Heinrich, Korneuburg Oath (1930) 717

5. Otto Bauer, The Rebellion of the Austrian Workers: Its Causes and Its Effects
(1934)718

6. Hans Kelsen, Defense of Democracy (1932) 722

Chronology725

References739

Contributors749

Index of Subjects  753

Index of Persons 765

 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T he editors of The Red Vienna Sourcebook wish to emphasize the vast group effort
that has culminated in the publication of this volume. The initial impulse for our
project came from the Viennese historian and public intellectual Siegfried Mattl, who
brought his passion and expertise for the Red Vienna period to various venues and incor-
porated them into his discussions with students and colleagues. Over the years, Mattl’s
careful and generous mentoring influenced a generation of scholars. We dedicate this
volume to his memory.
One of the venues where Siegfried Mattl encouraged discussions of the Red Vienna
period were the conferences and group discussions of the International Research Network
BTWH (Berkeley/Tübingen/Vienna/Harvard). Most of the editors, chapter editors, and
translators of this sourcebook are active members of this international collaboration. We
would like to thank all BTWH members from across the globe who helped us to imagine
and to develop this project from a fanciful idea into a real collection of historic texts. This
process would not have been possible without the guidance and expertise of Anton Kaes,
professor of German and Film and Media at the University of California at Berkeley, who
shared with us his insights into historiography and archival research. He also enlightened
us about the political, aesthetic, and ethical tasks of the sourcebook editor.
We would also like to thank the many different institutions and individuals who gen-
erously provided us with the necessary funding for the planning, research, organization,
translation, editing, and publication of The Red Vienna Sourcebook.
Michael Häupl, long-term mayor of the city of Vienna, convinced other city officials
and the Vienna Municipal Council that our endeavor of recovering and exploring the dis-
courses of an era would provide a worthy honor for the 100th anniversary of the found-
ing of Red Vienna. His deep appreciation of independent scholarship is quite rare today.
We owe a debt of gratitude to him, to his office staff, to the Cultural Department of the
City of Vienna (MA 7), and especially to the Office of Scientific and Research Funding.
Personal thanks go to Franz Oberndorfer, Elisabeth Mayerhofer, and Daniel Löcker. The
Vienna Municipal Council unanimously approved the funding of this project. We con-
sider that act as a late acknowledgment of Red Vienna, which had been bitterly embattled
during the 1920s and 1930s.
Logistical support for this project was provided by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute
for History and Society (LBIGG), which in 2019 was transformed into the Ludwig
Boltzmann Institute for Digital History (LBIDH). Joachim Schätz and Heinz Berger
deserve special thanks for their contribution in this regard. Much of the actual work of
gathering, selecting, and arguing about the texts and chapters happened at the Austrian
Labor History Society (Verein für Geschichte der ArbeiterInnenbewegung, VGA) in the
spectacular historical Vorwärts-Haus in Vienna’s Fifth District, Margareten. The edi-
tors owe a debt of gratitude to the staff of the VGA, especially to the managing direc-
tor Michaela Maier, who fought with great commitment for the financing of the project
and provided many staff hours. The University of California at Berkeley’s Doreen B.
xxiv  Acknowledgments

Townsend Center for the Humanities provided generous funding for travel and meetings.
Michelle Stott James of the Sophie Digital Library and the Brigham Young University
College of Humanities provided a team of student researchers for the project, includ-
ing Christopher Taylor, Jacob Benfell, Kemery Dunn Anderson, Gina Fowler, Madeline
McFarland, Brock Mildon, Joshua Savage, Elisabeth Allred, and Blake Taylor.
Publishing this book in the United States would not have been possible without the
constant advice and support of Edward Dimendberg and Anton Kaes. Our special thanks
go to Jim Walker, Julia Cook, and Michael Koch of Camden House for their invaluable
editing and advice. Jim Walker believed in this project right from the beginning and
encouraged us to proceed despite all logistical challenges and a very tight schedule. Big
thanks go to Julia Teresa Friehs for her efforts to coordinate the English and the German
versions of this sourcebook and for her work on the index.
Finally, we thank the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies in
Vienna for hosting a conference of international experts on Red Vienna in 2016 that
helped us to conceptualize and aim our project. Malachi Hacohen helped us to shape
our understanding of Red Vienna as a revolutionary model for a “Vienna Republic” in a
workshop series on “Empire, Socialism, and Jews,” jointly hosted by the Duke University,
the IFK, the VGA, and the LBIGG. Michael Loebenstein and the Austrian Film Museum
provided rare opportunities for screenings and discussions of films from and about Red
Vienna.
We would also like to thank the following for their valuable suggestions: Lilli and
Werner T. Bauer, Eve Blau, Tatjana Buklijas, Matti Bunzl, Christopher Burke, Ann
Cotten, Christian Dewald, Gudrun Exner, Karl Fallend, Walter Famler, Alys X. George,
Marcus Gräser, Sonja Maria Gruber, Bernhard Hachleitner, Gerhard Halusa, Gabriella
Hauch, Deborah Holmes, Jenna Ingalls, Helmut Konrad, Marion Krammer, Sabine
Lichtenberger, Wolfgang Maderthaner, Matthias Marschik, Alfred Pfoser, Barbara Philipp,
Sabrina Rahman, Christian Reder, Günther Sandner, Karin Schaden, Walter Schübler,
Lisa Silverman, Thomas Soxberger, Friedrich Stadler, Christian H. Stifter, Margarethe
Szeless, Klaus Taschwer, Andreas Weigl, Helmut Weihsmann, Paul Weindling, and Susana
Zapke.
 PERMISSIONS AND CREDITS

T he editors have made every possible effort to determine the copyright status all of
the source texts that appear in this book. The majority of these texts are in the public
domain. We put great time and effort into contacting those people and entities who hold
the rights to all of the other texts. That was not always possible. If we have inadvertently
missed any copyright holders, we ask for your assistance: please contact the publisher.

The texts are printed with the kind permission of:

Theodor W. Adorno: Suhrkamp Verlag

August Aichhorn: Thomas Aichhorn
Otto Bauer (1897–1986): Bob Bauer and the Bauer Family
Siegfried Bernfeld: Peter Paret
Julius Braunthal: Julia Barry-Braunthal
Hermann Broch: Suhrkamp Verlag
Fritz Brügel: Dan Kuper
Rudolf Brunngraber: Milena Verlag
Karl Bühler: Velbrück Wissenschaft
Fritz Czuczka: George Czuczka
Marie Deutsch-Kramer: Ellie Horwitz
Stephanie Endres: Karin-Birgit Molinari
Ernst Fischer: Marina Fischer-Kowalski
Josef Frank: Susanne Eisenkolb, Tano Bojankin
Bruno Frei: Stephan Pröll
Bettina Hirsch: Anni Rehin and Donald Hirsch
Eugen Höflich: National Library of Israel
Hugo Huppert: Helmut Pawlik
Marie Jahoda (dissertation): StudienVerlag
Marie Jahoda (Marienthal study): Allensbach Institute
Gina Kaus: Mickey and Stephan Kaus
Karl Kautsky, Jr: Juliet Calabi
Hans Kelsen: Hans Kelsen-Institut, Vienna
Franz Kleinhans: ÖTK
Stella Kramrich: Archives of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Paul F. Lazarsfeld: Suhrkamp Verlag
Josef Löwenherz: Annette Jacobs, Dan Jacobs, David Jacobs, Janet Smarr
xxvi  Permissions and Credits

Willy Meisl: Dorrit Coch, Andreas Hafer, Wolfgang Hafer

Hermynia zur Mühlen: Patrick von zur Mühlen
Otto Pächt: Micheal Pächt and Viola Pächt Dávila
Paul Amadeus Pisk: Camille Donoghue
Melech Ravitch: Thomas Soxberger
Wilhelm Reich: Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust
Lothar Rübelt: Christian Rübelt
Helene Scheu-Riesz: Veronica Kothbauer
Franz Schuster: University of Applied Arts Vienna
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky: Luzie Lahtinen-Stransky
Moshe Silburg: Thomas Soxberger
Hans Tietze: Ben Tietze, Filiz Tietze
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Suhrkamp Verlag

We would also like to thank the following people and institutions for their patient support and
their friendly assistance as we worked our way through the very complex process of copyright status
research and obtaining permissions:

AKM
Evelyn Adunka
Elisabeth Attlmayr
Marcel Atze (Wienbibliothek im Rathaus)
Michael Baiculescu (Mandelbaum Verlag)
Bestattung Wien
Mark Blazis
Alexandra Caruso
Heidi Chewning (Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University)
Felix Dahm (Suhrkamp Verlag)
Peter Deutsch
Droschl-Verlag
Reinhold Eckhardt
Anita Eichinger (Wienbibliothek im Rathaus)
Ulrike Eilers (Seemann Henschel Verlagsgruppe)
Alexander Emanuely (Theodor-Kramer-Gesellschaft)
Anke Engelhardt (Allensbach Institute)
Alice Essenpreis (Springer-Verlag)
Christian Fastl
Nathalie Feitsch (University of Applied Arts Vienna)
Ralph Fishkin (Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia)
Christian Fleck
Christian Flierl (Psychosozial-Verlag)
Rainald Franz (MAK)
 Permissions and Credits  xxvii

Janette Friedrich
Eva Ganzer (StudienVerlag)
Lionel Gossmann
Richard Hacken (Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University)
Andreas Handler (Austrian National Library, ÖNB, Literaturarchiv)
Michael Hansel (Austrian National Library, ÖNB)
Dieter Hecht (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Sylvia Herkt (University of Applied Arts Vienna)
Gerald Holton (Harvard University)
International Institute of Social History (IISG), Amsterdam
Alexander Jalkotzy
Sigrid Jalkotzy-Deger
Birgit Johler
Toni Kaus
Peter Kautsky
Brigitte Kreitmeyr (VG Wort)
Sabine Lichtenberger (Institut für AK und ÖGB Geschichte)
Literar Mechana
Literaturhaus Wien
Herwig Mackinger (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna)
Christine Möller (Akademie der Künste, Berlin)
Manfred Mugrauer (Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft)
Reinhard Müller (Archiv für die Geschichte der Soziologie in Österreich)
Thomas Olechowski (Hans Kelsen-Institut, Vienna)
Wolfgang Pallaver
Michaela Pfundner (Austrian National Library, ÖNB, Bildarchiv)
Friedrich Polleross (Archiv des Instituts für Kunstgeschichte, University of Vienna)
Herbert Posch
Katharina Prager (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History)
Manfried Rauchensteiner
Franz Richard Reiter
Philipp Rohrbach (Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies)
Michael Rosecker (Karl-Renner-Institut)
Stephan Roth (Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance, DÖW)
Christine Schindler (Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance, DÖW)
Gerhard Schirmer (ÖTK Bibliothek)
Susanne Schönwiese
Rivka Shveiky (National Library of Israel)
Friedrich Stadler
Hildegard Steger-Mauerhofer
Julius Stieber
Markus Stumpf (Institut für Zeitgeschichte, University of Vienna)
xxviii  Permissions and Credits

Edith Stumpf-Fischer
Manuel Swatek (Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna)
Marietta Thien (Velbrück Verlag)
Katharina Walser
Heinz Weiss
Vanessa Wieser (Milena Verlag)
 A NOTE ON THE STRUCTURE
OF THIS BOOK

T his book is organized into chapters on a wide variety of topics, as can be seen from
the table of contents. The bulk of the book is of course made up of contemporary
texts from the Red Vienna period: the sources. In addition to the overall editing by the
volume editors, each chapter was edited by one (or more than one) chapter editor, who
also wrote the introduction to the chapter as well as the shorter introductions to each
text. These chapter editors are acknowledged in the bylines at the beginning of each
chapter. The translations of texts originally in German (i.e., the great majority of them)
were done by a pool of translators, each of whom is also acknowledged at the end of the
publication information that precedes each text.
The chapter editors have carefully shortened longer texts and excerpted passages
from book-length treatises. In the process of shortening, we oriented ourselves around
several principles: first and foremost, we did not want to cut content that would turn texts
against their original spirit and intent. We only left out passages that were not immedi-
ately relevant, and we indicated omissions with bracketed ellipses: [. . .]. Also, the original
texts often used typographic conventions that we have simplified and homogenized in
the book. We replaced the occurrences of Sperrschrift (letter spacing within a word for
emphasis) and bold lettering in the original documents with italic script (at the expense
of rare uses of italics in the originals that no longer stand out). In addition, several texts
are annotated with notes to facilitate comprehension of people, organizations, events,
concepts, and historical references.
In our translations of the many different kinds of original texts collected here, we
have tried to maintain a sense of the original flavor and register of the text without making
the translation draw undue attention to itself. We have opted to use colloquial American
English, which does not have the same capacity as Austrian German to keep track of
multiple clauses in long and complex sentences. Therefore, we have taken the liberty of
breaking down complex constructions into shorter and simpler sentences and phrases
that are more accessible to readers of English. We have tried to include the German origi-
nal titles of as many texts and organizations as possible, and to provide original German
terms in passages that demand special scrutiny. Our hope is that the translated texts will
not only build a case for the importance of Red Vienna as a cultural, historical, and sci-
entific phenomenon but also convey the fresh, lively, and spirited language used by the
authors of the texts.
Film still from the Social Democratic election film Die vom 17er Haus (The people from house no. 17,
1932, dir. Artur Berger), a utopian vision of Vienna in 2032. (Courtesy of Filmarchiv Austria/
Allianz Film-Fabrikations- und Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH i.L.)
 INTRODUCTION

Rob McFarland, Georg Spitaler, and Ingo Zechner

O n the front page of the April 20, 1927, morning edition of the Social Democratic
Arbeiter-Zeitung (Worker’s newspaper), underneath a reminder to vote in the
upcoming election, was a proclamation titled “A Rallying Cry of Vienna’s Intellectuals:
A Testimony to the Great Social and Cultural Achievements of the Municipality of
Vienna.”1 Even though the authors agree that intellectually engaged people cannot bow
to a particular political dogma, the declaration states: “It would be true neglect if, in the
battle against tax burdens, we were to overlook the great social and cultural achievements
of Vienna’s leaders. It is this great and prolific achievement that cares for the needy, edu-
cates and develops young people on the basis of the best possible principles. [. . .] [W] e
want to be assured that this achievement transcending political considerations will be
maintained and promoted.” The declaration is followed by a long alphabetical list of sup-
porters, including great Viennese names from the fields of psychology (Sigmund Freud,
Karl Bühler, Alfred Adler), law (Hans Kelsen), literature (Robert Musil, Franz Werfel,
Alfred Polgar), music (Alma Mahler, Anton Webern), art (Franz Čižek, Anton Hanak),
and architecture (Ernst Lichtblau, Oskar Strnad), as well as economists, theater directors,
professors, leaders of the women’s movement, and other luminaries in the Viennese intel-
lectual and artistic firmament.
When this declaration of Vienna’s intellectuals appeared in 1927 congratulating the
Vienna city administration (Stadtverwaltung) and calling for people of many different
political persuasions to overlook their differences and to support such “great achieve-
ments,” the city’s Social Democratic leadership was nearly a decade into a one-of-a-kind
experiment in democratic socialism. While other German-speaking cities and states man-
aged to elect social democratic leaders for short periods during the 1920s and 1930s, the
Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SDAP) held constant control of the city that came to
be known—derisively at first, and then with pride—as “Red Vienna.”
After Germany’s and Austria’s defeat at the end of World War I, the Entente’s Allied
powers oversaw the creation of a democratic German nation. Many Austrians of all politi-
cal stripes hoped that the German-speaking “rump state” left over from the dismembered
Habsburg empire would be allowed to join the new German Republic as a southeastern
state, “German Austria” (Deutsch-Österreich). The Allies forbade the so-called Anschluss,
however, fearing the power of such a unified pan-German state. Instead, they only accepted
a tiny country made up of small cities, rural districts, and the huge, polyglot imperial capi-
tal Vienna, now severed from its Hungarian, Czech, Galician, and Italian provinces. The
Republic of German Austria even had to drop the German in its name.

1 “EineKundgebung des geistigen Wien: Ein Zeugnis für die große soziale und kulturelle Leistung
der Wiener Gemeinde,” Arbeiter-Zeitung, April 20, 1927, 1. See chapter 34.
2  Introduction

The official history of Red Vienna begins with the municipal election of May
4, 1919. It brought the SDAP an absolute majority in the Vienna Municipal Council
(Gemeinderat) in the first election to have been held with universal male and female suf-
frage.2 The unofficial history of Red Vienna began with the declaration of the Republic
of German Austria on November 12, 1918. During the ceremony on the ramp in front
of the Parliament, revolutionary Marxists forced their way up, took down the Austrian
flag and tore the white middle stripe out of it, leaving only the two red stripes. Filmed
footage—created by the Federal Film Office on assignment from the State Council
(Staatsrat)—shows a flag flattering high above the heads of the parliamentarians, a flag
made up of two torn fabric pieces that had been knotted together. In the middle of the
assembled crowds, a banner reads: “Long Live the Socialist Republic!” This slogan cel-
ebrated a republic that was never declared.
The torn and hastily knotted flag simultaneously represents two revolutions that
would determine the history of Austrian Social Democracy until its defeat in the civil
war of 1934: the accomplished revolution and the deferred revolution. The first revolu-
tion had taken place within the Parliament building, even before the ceremony, as the
Provisional National Assembly (Provisorische Nationalversammlung) adopted the laws
that outlined the new government and state of German Austria. Justifiably, the Social
Democrats never tired of emphasizing that this legal accomplishment should be consid-
ered as a revolutionary act, a radical break with the constitution of the monarchy. The
never-realized second revolution would have consisted of a socialist seizure of power, a
fact that was pointed out by the sorely disappointed revolutionary Marxists and by mem-
bers of the reactionary opposition, who lived in constant dread of a full-fledged dictator-
ship of the proletariat. The Social Democrats tried repeatedly to reassure their critics from
the Right and from the Left that the revolution either had already happened or had only
been delayed. However, they made it unmistakably clear to both sides that any revolution
had to be, above all else, a democratic revolution, and that violence was to be considered
as a last resort, only to be used when the democratic process was truly in danger.
In terms of its form and its content, the revolution of 1918 was a genuinely bour-
geois revolution, borne by an alliance of convenience between the workers and the Social
Democratic intellectual elites. In his foundational study of the history of Social Democracy
in Red Vienna, Anson Rabinbach rightfully categorizes the Austrian SDAP—with its ideals
of education and its struggle to form a constitutional state even in the time of the mon-
archy—as the realization of a long-overdue Enlightenment and as the final catalyst of
Austrian liberalism (Rabinbach 1983, 7). Since the events of 1776, 1789, 1830, and 1848
had left the old imperial order intact, the architects of the November 1918 revolution had
much catching up to do. Resisting violence from the Left and from the Right, the Social
Democratic proponents imagined an exceptionalist version of Marxism, a dedicated social-
ist movement based firmly within the democratic institutions of the bourgeois state. The
leading Austro-Marxist theorist Otto Bauer did not rely on a soviet republic (Räterepublik)
like the one that had enjoyed temporary success in postwar Munich or Hungary. Instead, in
order to overcome the “balance of class forces” that he had diagnosed, Bauer relied upon
a victory at the ballot box to garner the “three hundred thousand votes that we must pry
away from the bourgeoisie” and thus to take control of the institutions of the state.3

2 The Vienna Municipal Council (Gemeinderat) is an elected legislative body. The executive power
was with the Vienna City Council (Stadtrat, until 1920) and City Senate (Stadtsenat, from 1920)
and consisted of the mayor and a number of elected city councillors (Stadträte).
3 Protokoll des Parteitages 1923, in Otto Bauer, Werkausgabe, vol. 5 (Vienna: Europaverlag 1978), 304.
 Introduction  3

The Social Democrats all too quickly lost their majority on the federal level of
the new country of German Austria. After 1920, the rest of the country was ruled by
Christian conservative forces, but the SDAP held on to a firm majority in the old imperial
capital of Vienna, buoyed up by the burgeoning working class. Thus, Red Vienna became
the model of a republic which stood for the ultimate completion of both revolutions of
the year 1918. In spite of runaway inflation, harsh austerity measures from the League
of Nations, and fierce opposition by their political adversaries, the Social Democrats
crystallized their political vision and took control of the city of Vienna, relying on an
urban constituency that made up a large part of the total population of Austria. The
high point of the Viennese voting public’s support for the SDAP came in 1927, when
the party won 60.3 percent of the votes in the state and municipal election. In this elec-
tion, the political opponents had unified themselves into an anti-Marxist coalition led by
the Christian Socials and also including National Socialist candidates. At that moment,
Vienna’s intellectuals wrote their “rallying cry.” The intellectuals were not bound by their
unconditional support of the Social Democrats but by their rejection of their opponents’
reactionary politics, which were buoyed up by anti-Semitism, aggression, and resentment.
The Social Democrats maintained a high level of voter support right up to the last
free state and municipal election in 1932, when the party held 59 percent of the vote in
spite of disruptive gains by the National Socialists. The Social Democrats also enjoyed
an enormously broad party base. In 1930, when the population of Vienna was about
1,900,000, the party bragged about having 400,000 members (Holtmann 1996, 150).
The SDAP also could rely on many educational and recreational party organizations
such as the Friends of Nature (Naturfreunde) or the Workers’ Association for Sports and
Physical Culture (Arbeiterbund für Sport und Körperkultur in Österreich, ASKÖ). The
SDAP never actually lost its majority while democracy remained intact. It was the anti-
democratic chicanery and the violent tactics of the reactionary opposition that brought
Social Democratic rule to an end in 1933 and 1934.
As a political project, Red Vienna stands at the intersection of models of enlight-
enment, on the one hand, with discursive strategies that manifest themselves through
the kinds of political emotions and political-cultural aesthetics that accompany a political
mass movement (Maderthaner 2006, 24–25).4 The articulation of political antagonisms
tended toward a left-wing populist flavor. A good example of this tendency is the creation
of the tax laws, which were made possible by Vienna’s change in status from mere capital
city to its own state, a change that was introduced in 1920 and went into effect in 1922.
Ironically, Red Vienna’s legal and financial foundation was made possible by Austria’s fed-
eralist structure and not by the Social Democrats’ preferred model of a centralized state.
The “Breitnersteuern,” a new bundle of municipal taxes named after the city councillor
of finance Hugo Breitner, aimed for a “redistribution of tax burdens from taxation of the
masses to the taxation of property” (Eigner 2019, 47–48). These taxes were important
not only in their symbolic significance but also as real sources of income. This is especially
true of Red Vienna’s luxury and entertainment taxes that were levied on patrons of the-
aters, concerts, the cinema, and sporting events. It is also true for the dedicated progres-
sive housing construction tax (Wohnbausteuer), introduced in 1923, which was collected
from the tenants. This tax covered about 40 percent of the costs of the housing construc-
tion projects of the city (45). The decisive factor of the housing construction tax was its

4 For a recent history of emotions and the German labor movement, see Hake (2017); for a reading

of Red Vienna’s Social Democratic women’s magazine Die Unzufriedene (The dissatisfied woman)
informed by a theory of affect, see Bargetz (2019).
4  Introduction

progressive nature: whereas smaller apartments had a low tax rate, the most expensive 5
percent of rental properties made up nearly half of the entire tax revenue. Both luxury
and housing construction taxes became political points of contention in the city’s bit-
terly fought election battles. For the Social Democrats, the taxes also served as proof of
Red Vienna’s fight against the forces of big capital and the old imperial order. In spite
of the ways opponents portrayed the Breitner taxes in polemical debates, the tax burden
in Vienna was not higher than it had been before the war. Thus, where the taxation of
the landowning classes was concerned, “radical rhetoric obscured a milder reality” (48).
The innovative economic approach of Red Vienna consisted of the deliberate taxation of
luxury items rather than the destruction of luxury as prescribed by orthodox Marxism.
Wealth thus became the source of welfare for the masses. The city lost much of its finan-
cial margin of error after the world economic crisis of 1929 and after the passage of a
federally mandated financial adjustment law that curtailed Red Vienna’s access to federal
funds in 1931. The economic depression underscored the interdependence of the Social
Democratic model and the very financial and economic systems of capitalism which it
publicly opposed. Contemporary leftist criticism made much of the SDAP’s dependence
upon the dominant means of production, seeing it as a manifestation of a revolution that
had not been carried through to its necessary end.
In addition to their absolute insistence on democracy as the basis for the new social-
ist order, the leaders of Red Vienna were convinced that all policy should be based upon
carefully documented scientific fact. To this end, the Social Democrats fostered institu-
tions that connected political engagement to cutting-edge scientific achievements, from
Käthe Leichter’s Female Labor Unit of the Chamber of Labor (Referat für Frauenarbeit
der Arbeiterkammer) and Paul F. Lazarsfeld’s Austrian Research Center for Economic
Psychology (Österreichische Wirtschaftspsychologische Forschungsstelle) to Otto
Neurath’s Social and Economic Museum and its Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics—
later known as Isotype. Otto Glöckel worked to apply democratizing educational reforms
in Vienna, while Käthe Leichter, Marie Jahoda, and Paul F. Lazarsfeld expanded the
methodology of sociological studies. These efforts made for a productive intellectual cli-
mate driven by a common interest in different forms of modern rationality. This common
interest was shared by many different political, scientific, and cultural arbiters, bound in
groups and movements that were unified by much more than their geographic proximity
in Vienna.

Red Vienna as the Second Wiener Moderne

When Vienna’s intellectuals declared their support of the city government of Red Vienna
in 1927, it was not because they were outspoken Austro-Marxists. Most of the names
on that list represent the quintessence of Vienna’s Bürgertum. In fact, many of these
same people—Sigmund Freud, Alma Mahler, Alfred Adler, and architect Otto Wagner’s
student Ernst Lichtblau—had once been at the center of Vienna’s bourgeois heyday, the
often-mythologized and much-commercialized Viennese fin de siècle (to use Carl E.
Schorske’s [1980] now-ubiquitous name for the era). This era has also been dubbed as
the “Wiener Moderne,” a prolific, creative confluence that rose with the buildings of the
Ringstrasse in the late 1800s and came to an apocalyptic close with the end of the mon-
archy (see Wunberg and Braakenburg 1981). Even though Otto Wagner passed away
before the official end of the monarchy, along with Emperor Franz Joseph, and although
others—including the feuilletonist Peter Altenberg and the painters Gustav Klimt and
Egon Schiele—died before the actual beginning of Red Vienna, many of the driving
 Introduction  5

forces of the classic Wiener Moderne continued to create, disrupt, experiment, and imag-
ine under entirely new conditions. As the postwar era unfolded into the twenties and
early thirties, the philosophers of the Vienna Circle coalesced into a movement. Sigmund
Freud published some of his most influential work, including The Uncanny, Beyond the
Pleasure Principle, Mass Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, The Ego and the Id, The
Future of an Illusion, and Civilization and Its Discontents. Arthur Schnitzler published
Fräulein Else and Traumnovelle in 1924 and 1925, respectively. Red Vienna’s scientific
milestones were not lost on the old guard from the first Wiener Moderne. Although
Schnitzler’s iconic Traumnovelle—with it carriages and fetishes for nobility and clerical
order—is often counted as a late outpost of fin-de-siècle culture, the protagonist is a doc-
tor in a modern hospital that very much resonates with the hygiene and welfare projects
of the Social Democrats, the same projects touted in the 1927 Rallying Cry of Vienna’s
Intellectuals.
In The Red Vienna Sourcebook we demonstrate that these transformative ideas that
came about in Vienna from 1919 to 1934 were not just the echo of an earlier golden
age but new answers to new questions in a world that had been radically changed. These
new ideas, methods, and works were all part of a new intellectual, political, and aesthetic
laboratory that was created and safeguarded by the politics of Red Vienna. Thus, Red
Vienna is much more than a synonym for the Social Democratic city government; it is an
epoch in which an entire intellectual system reoriented itself, shifting its focus from the
individual to society, from the individual psyche to the psychology of the masses, from
the individual body to the social body, from desires to needs, from a vertical hierarchical
order to a horizontal egalitarian order. It is in this sense that we refer to Red Vienna as
the epoch of the second Wiener Moderne.5
This second Wiener Moderne, we argue, is more than a list of aesthetic masterpieces
and scientific breakthroughs. Because of the unique political and humanist underpinnings
of the era, Red Vienna also has the potential to be considered a model for strategies of
urban economic crisis management, the re-democratization of urban space, or the poli-
tics of housing construction and urban planning. It ponders how to build a city without
slums and ghettos, how to ensure health care for all, and how to create a socially trans-
parent system of education. These questions remain pertinent today, although they are
audible as distant echoes from a time when the political will to change and the forces of
enlightenment entered into a fragile alliance with one another.
Otto Wagner’s architectural heirs turned the power of their craft toward the problem
of healthy public housing. In the visual arts, Franz Čižek led his school of artists to develop
the movement of Viennese Kineticism, but his passion and resources focused mainly on
developing an art education movement that could transform working-class children into
talented, creative artists who could change the world around them. Anton Webern still
worked to create the basis for avant-garde music in the twentieth century, but he spent
many of his evenings conducting the Workers’ Symphony Concerts (Arbeiter-Sinfonie-
Konzerte), making the music of Mahler and Schoenberg accessible to the masses. Alfred
Adler turned psychology’s interest toward the power of the community. Alice Rühle-
Gerstel and Siegfried Bernfeld turned Freudian psychology into an instrument of Marxist
philosophy. Wilhelm Reich was one of many other acolytes who first flocked to Freud in
Vienna and then went on to found their own schools of psychological thought.

5 The subtitle of the German edition of the Red Vienna Sourcebook —Das Rote Wien: Schlüsseltexte

der zweiten Wiener Moderne, or “Red Vienna: Key texts of the second Wiener Moderne” (Berlin:
De Gruyter, 2020)—reflects our claim.
6  Introduction

Thus, in the cultural paradigm of Red Vienna, it was not the exceptional painting,
daring piece of literature, or extravagant avant-garde ballet that was meant to serve as
the measure of artistic or intellectual greatness. Instead, the highest goal became access
to education and culture for everyone. Yes, Red Vienna saw some manifestations of the
dreary dogmatism that can be brought about by socialist cultural politics (Kulturpolitik).
But there was a profound difference in the wider effect of Red Vienna—beyond the stilted
agitprop speaking choruses, mosaics of factory workers, and pedagogic films—because art
was no longer considered to be a specific form of expression but an integral part of social
life. A perpetual conflict arose between adherence to bourgeois ideals of education, the
promises of a rising consumer culture, and the avant-garde break from both of these other
forces. The ultimate goal of Social Democratic Kulturpolitik—to conquer bourgeois cul-
tural institutions for the working class—ran up against the power of the cinema, the dance
hall, and other spaces of popular culture that had long conquered the hearts of the masses.
Because Red Vienna—often to its own detriment—defended and promoted a vigor-
ous democratic pluralism, funded a wide variety of experimental projects, and supported
the genius of so many fascinating people, the city succeeded in attracting a milling crowd
of interesting personalities that came and went throughout the period: young Theodor
Adorno came to study composition with Alban Berg; Max Reinhardt and his ensemble
relocated from Berlin to Vienna’s Theater in der Josefstadt in 1924, where he stayed until
1933; Marlene Dietrich and Hedy Lamarr got their breakthrough roles in films made in
Viennese studios; Fritz Lang, who originally was from Vienna, made an appearance at the
Cinema Reform Conference (Kinoreformtagung) to give a talk on the artistic structure
of film drama.
As a result, Red Vienna is not an era without landmark masterpieces, going beyond
the old guard of the first Wiener Moderne: Robert Musil’s Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The
Man without Qualities) changed the landscape of modern literature; Oskar Kokoschka
created a monument to the iconic educational and health institutions of Red Vienna in
his 1931 painting Wien, vom Wilhelminenberg gesehen; Ödön von Horváth’s 1931 drama
Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald (Tales from the Vienna Woods) serves as a sobering real-
ity check for any hopes of social progress; the film Die vom 17er Haus (The people from
house no. 17; 1932) provides a utopian counterbalance to the dystopian skyscrapers at
the heart of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927), and the famous Moloch scenes in Lang’s
film, filmed on Rehberge in Berlin’s Wedding District, owe much to the teeming throngs
in Sodom and Gomorrha filmed on the Laaer Berg in the south of Vienna; Gina Kaus’s
drama Toni: Eine Schulmädchenkomödie (1927) explores women’s limited choices with
modern, wicked humor; and in particular, as Eve Blau (1999) has so convincingly argued,
the vast municipal housing complexes of Red Vienna deserve to be counted among the
greatest works of twentieth-century architecture, fascinating in their multitude of differ-
ent forms. Often criticized for their use of traditional materials and forms, the complexes
remain to be discovered as expressions of a radical functionalism that does not limit itself
to symbolic forms.
And one more aspect of Red Vienna differentiates its masterpieces from other eras—
many of the greatest works of art, science, journalism, literature, ethnography, psychology,
and political theory were created by women. Indeed, many of the era’s greatest impulses
emanate from active women inside and outside of the SDAP, from politician Therese
Schlesinger to artist Erika Giovanna Klien to educational reformer Eugenie Schwarzwald
to psychological researcher Charlotte Bühler. As a continuation of the Wiener Moderne
of the fin de siècle, shot through the prism of Social Democratic ideals, Red Vienna
stands as a uniquely productive and compelling moment in history.
 Introduction  7

Red Vienna’s Political and Scholarly Reception

Although the efforts of institutions such as the Austrian Studies Association have long
supported and facilitated the study of Red Vienna, English-speaking Germanists are
often unaware of the important legacy of the era and the different ways that the Social
Democratic experiments of the early twentieth century have influenced Austria’s image
of itself. In spite of its apparent electoral strength and despite (or perhaps because of)
its devotion to democracy, Red Vienna’s vibrant creative community was cut short,
leaving its potential unrealized. Red Vienna ended with the failed 1934 Worker’s Revolt
against the authoritarian Dollfuß government that had dissolved the Austrian Parliament
in 1933. After the traumatic ruptures of Austrofascism and—above all else—after the
National Socialist terror of 1938–1945, the Socialist Party of Austria (Sozialistische
Partei Österreichs, SPÖ) took over the city and state governments of Vienna as the heir
of the old SDAP. Although the concept of Red Vienna remained anchored inside the
party circles (see Berg 2014), it did not surface in broader discussions until the 1970s.
Red Vienna was rediscovered by a new generation of Austrian researchers, driven by
members and sympathizers of the New Left movement (see, for example, Hautmann
and Hautmann 1980; Maimann 1981; Maimann and Mattl 1984; Novy and Förster
1985; Weihsmann 2019 [1985]).
The historic legacy of Red Vienna from 1919 to 1934 served as a foil for contempo-
rary realities during the administration of the Socialist chancellor Bruno Kreisky (1970–
1983) and the “red” city administration of that era. When left-wing critics decried the
disconnect between the promise of revolutionary ideals and the realities of bureaucratic
paternalism and half-hearted reforms, they were describing the past but aiming toward
the present. Well-versed in the writings of Michel Foucault, these critics considered Red
Vienna’s housing and welfare policies in the context of public discipline and biopolitical
population control (see Sieder 2019). At the same time, international interest in Red
Vienna had been developing since the 1980s, and a number of foundational works were
published about the era’s political and cultural landscapes (see Tafuri 1980; Rabinbach
1983; Gruber 1991; Lewis 1991; Blau 1999). In the new millennium, we have witnessed
a renewed interest in Red Vienna and its broader parameters, including studies about its
political opponents (Wasserman 2014). The one-hundredth anniversary of the municipal
election of 1919 brought with it a series of publications and events that addressed Red
Vienna (see Konrad and Hauch 2019; Schwarz, Spitaler, and Wikidal 2019; Weihsmann
2019).
A large array of scholars have reminded readers that the Vienna of the interwar
period served as the springboard for a series of intellectual projects whose relevance is still
felt today. Red Vienna also serves as the locus of controversies that reach into our own
present context. In the field of political economics, for example, the young Karl Polanyi
argued with Otto Neurath and Ludwig von Mises about questions of centrally planned
economies and socialization (see Peck 2008). While Mises and his pupil Friedrich A.
Hayek—the latter an outspoken critic of Red Vienna—swore by the self-regulatory power
of the market even in the heyday of democratic socialism, Polanyi (with his guild-socialist
models) remained close to Otto Bauer’s theoretical ideas about the socialization of indus-
tries and services (Dale 2016, 101–5; Bockman, Fischer, and Woodruff 2016). Whereas
Polanyi, looking back in The Great Transformation, claimed that “Vienna achieved one of
the most spectacular cultural triumphs of Western history,”6 Hayek wrote articles in the

6 Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1944), 298.
8  Introduction

1920s criticizing the Social Democrats’ bitterly defended achievement of rent control,
considering it economically counterproductive to let cheap rents affect the amount of
privately offered housing.7
The core works of Austro-Marxism, which form the intellectual basis of Red Vienna,
are currently being rediscovered internationally as a “golden age” (Krätke 2015, 31)
in the development of Marxist theory, and have again been made available in English-
language editions (Blum and Smaldone 2016, 2017; Bauer 2020). This applies to early
classic texts from the time of the Habsburg monarchy which intervened in political con-
flicts that seem like trial laboratories for current populist ethnopolitics (Beneš 2017),
and is also the case for many works from the Red Vienna period, such as Otto Bauer’s
concept of the “balance of class forces” which provides many connections to critical theo-
ries of hegemony, resonating productively with the internationally much better-known
texts written by Antonio Gramsci.8 In addition, the experiences of Red Vienna have been
memorialized in the works of many thinkers who continued their careers after 1934 in
other countries: Hungarian emigrants such as Georg Lukács or Béla Balázs, Freudo-
Marxists such as Wilhelm Reich, or pioneers of social science such as Marie Jahoda and
Paul F. Lazarsfeld. Even Karl Popper’s antitotalitarian polemic The Open Society and Its
Enemies can be understood as an attempt to process the trauma of the downfall of Red
Vienna and the victory of fascism (Hacohen 2000).
Precisely in these times, when it is hard to imagine a future that exists beyond capi-
talism and neoliberalism, the lost future of Red Vienna has a strong appeal for critical
thinkers of many different theoretical directions. Axel Honneth (2017), for one, cel-
ebrates the policies of Vienna’s city government in the years between 1919 and 1934 as
an example of the kind of “spirit of socialist experimentation” that he would like to see
implemented, an experimentation that looks for starting points for societal change in the
here-and-now, using pragmatic and innovative possibilities that exist in real space: “every
opportunity that presents itself, be it through previously existing laws, instruments of
taxation, skilled professionals who are ready to act, currently existing but easily sub-
verted social facilities or intellectual allies” (180). From another perspective, Red Vienna
can function as a critical point of orientation for cutting-edge emancipatory municipal
policies, especially considering the possibilities of communal action as it runs up against
questions of housing policies, international austerity politics, the “right to the city,”
and strategies against right-wing populist movements (Duma and Lichtenberger 2016;
Holm 2019).
If we succeed in bringing Red Vienna some of the attention that has been show-
ered on Weimar Berlin over the last decades,9 we hope to avoid some of the traps that
have befallen the studies of that fascinating period of German history. As recent popular
television series, detective novels, comics, and movies have shown, the downfall of the
Weimar Republic has become bogged down in a particular historical fatalism that is also
prevalent in some contemporary scholarship, a melodramatic and tired interplay between

7 Friedrich A. Hayek, Das Mieterschutzproblem: Nationalökonomische Betrachtungen (Vienna:

Steyrermühl-Verlag, 1928).
8 Otto Bauer, Die österreichische Revolution (Vienna: Wiener Volksbuchhandlung, 1923), 196–213.

For a current international reception of Bauer, see Baier (2008); for a discussion of Austro-Marxist
state theory, see Fisahn, Scholle, and Ciftci (2018).
9 See, for example, the Weimar Republic Sourcebook (Kaes, Jay, and Dimendberg 1994), a fas-
cinating monument of cultural historiography that has informed our own approach to the Red
Vienna Sourcebook.
 Introduction  9

glamour (Glanz) and demise (Untergang). Red Vienna was also brought to a violent end
in the civil war of February 1934. Instead of considering all of the era’s breakthroughs
as doomed from the beginning, it is important to look at the many different possibilities
that Red Vienna opened up.

Why a Sourcebook?
There are many productive ways to approach the historical periods and political and
aesthetic movements that make up the Red Vienna era. The choice to create a large
sourcebook of primary texts arose from a unique international collaboration between
researchers, philosophers, and historians that has come to be known as the International
Research Network BTWH (Berkeley/Tübingen/Vienna/Harvard). For the past twenty-
three years, students, alumni, and professors from these four institutions (and several
others) have met to discuss the possibilities of cultural history as methods to analyze
and understand the emergence of modernity in German-speaking countries. The theo-
retical project and methodology of The Red Vienna Sourcebook evolved over the span
of a decade in discussions among members of BTWH in collaboration with the his-
torian Siegfried Mattl and the film historian Anton Kaes. Whereas narrative histories
and case studies provide specific linear analyses of people, texts, events, and practices, a
sourcebook eschews the central narrative analysis, providing instead a carefully curated
series of texts, each analyzed and introduced in their own right and in their relation to
other texts. The texts in the Red Vienna Sourcebook are arranged in thirty-six chapters
corresponding to as many discursive fields. All texts were part of a discourse that took
place in, around, or about Red Vienna. Even though these texts have been curated
and introduced in a way that recreates specific discourses, the form of the sourcebook
also allows the texts—even excerpted, translated texts—to retain some of the odd,
excessive, resistant elements that make them hard to categorize and to instrumentalize
in the service of a neat, teleological history.
As it turns out, many of the texts in The Red Vienna Sourcebook do not easily fit
into the discourses and chapters in which they are embedded. These texts often invite
counter-readings and unprescribed connections to different discursive fields. A source-
book can thus be more than just a well-ordered mini archive. It can also function as a
provocative collection of compelling texts that invites debates, controversies, and unset-
tling discoveries. A sourcebook can also demonstrate how different social and political
milieus are crisscrossed by specific key debates and experimental approaches: discussions
of the right way to approach housing for the masses, for example, are not only found in
the three chapters of our sourcebook dedicated to urban planning, architecture, and inte-
rior design, but also in the chapters about finances and taxes, empirical social research,
post-empire, demography, the New Woman and women’s rights, sexuality, health care
and social hygiene, welfare, labor and free time, nature, Americanism, global resonances,
and campaigns and elections. The same can be said for Red Vienna’s discourses of gender
roles and the concept of the New Woman, which can be found in many of the chapters of
our sourcebook. And the many Jewish voices and ideas in Red Vienna cannot possibly be
contained in our chapter about Jewish life and culture.
The question of Jewish identity plays an implicit role in every chapter of our source-
book. A large percentage of the authors of the texts share Jewish heritage in its widest
sense, including many political and intellectual figureheads. Many of them were with-
out religious confession, some had converted to Protestantism and some to Catholicism,
sometimes further switching between all three or converting back to Judaism. Regardless
10  Introduction

of their own beliefs, one thing became increasingly certain: in an era when Jewishness
became increasingly identified as a nationality, then as an ethnicity, and finally as a race,
it was no longer enough to claim or to refuse a religious confession in order to establish
your own identity. These citizens of Red Vienna also shared the experience of enduring
increasingly obsessive attacks by anti-Semitic forces as “Jews.” In 1938 and the following
years of the National Socialist regime and the Holocaust, many of them became victims
of National Socialist persecution, losing their property, their homes, and their lives. A
book about Red Vienna is, by definition, a book about Jewish Vienna.
In order to create a sourcebook, it is first necessary to make fundamental decisions
about the scope of the project and the kinds of texts to be included. For The Red Vienna
Sourcebook, we decided to only include texts that had been a part of contemporary dis-
cussions in Vienna between 1919 and 1934, meaning texts that had been published and
reached a broad audience of readers. We thus have omitted secondary literature, as well
as personal letters and other unpublished archivalia. In terms of geographic scope, the
sourcebook includes texts that were written in Vienna or texts that participated in discus-
sions about the specific events and ideas that were happening in the city or in the wider
Austrian context. Early on, we decided that in addition to texts by SDAP functionar-
ies, intellectuals, and Austro-Marxist leaders such as Otto Bauer, Julius Tandler, Käthe
Leichter, Julius Deutsch, and Otto Neurath, we would also include a wide range of other
authors and the voices of the clerical-conservative and fascist opposition movements in
Red Vienna.
As a result, The Red Vienna Sourcebook contains texts that represent many differ-
ent facets of the First Austrian Republic, including ethnographic sketches of unemployed
textile workers, lesbian erotica from a pro-Nazi novelist, a behind-the-scenes visit to an
illustrated magazine, and travel reports from Zionist settlements in Palestine. Readers
of the sourcebook will find texts written by familiar Viennese authors such as Sigmund
Freud, Arthur Schnitzler, Joseph Roth, Karl Kraus, Robert Musil, and Gina Kaus, as well
as texts by famous visitors to the city. Besides these texts from the pantheon of Viennese
history, readers of the Red Vienna Sourcebook will also become acquainted with fascinat-
ing texts by an intriguing group of lesser-known authors: Austro-Marxist science fiction
by Max Winter; a fascinating essay on the “Psychopathology of National Socialism” by a
Freudo-Marxist hiding behind the pseudonym “Dr. Otto”; thoughts about the athletic
socialist body by Stephanie Endres; and the original text of the decree abolishing nobility
and aristocratic titles.
Above all, as Anton Kaes has passionately argued, a sourcebook has the oppor-
tunity to break out of the idea that history had no choice but to develop along the
lines that we have come to know. The bold social experiments and ideas that came
out of Red Vienna cannot be reduced to “the interwar years,” an inevitable progres-
sion that marches hopelessly from the disaster of the post–World War I years through
a moment of brilliance and hope and into the inevitable dark rise of fascism, World
War II, and the Holocaust. Things did not necessarily have to turn out the way they
did. Many decisions were made along the way. The further a reader goes back, the
more potentialities there were for combatting violence, for eradicating poverty, for
revolutionizing urban planning, science, art, or music. As ideas mature, like a child,
the potentialities are narrowed. People create a form of thinking (Denkform), and
then it is slowly filled with reality, squeezing out the potential. A sourcebook is a
snapshot of this process, showing an alternative history, presenting texts in which
writers are proposing alternatives that have been thought, are thinkable, but have not
been fulfilled (Kaes 2015).
 Introduction  11

In fact, Walter Benjamin (1991, 701) teaches us that a sourcebook—like any col-
lection of rubble from the past, is filled with the Jetztzeit, the present moment. The
texts of Red Vienna—coping as they do with refugees, poverty, wealth inequality, the
threats of a globalizing economy, and craven populist strongmen—form an alternative
history that speaks to the present moment. They should not only be regarded as failed
ideas from a distant time, but as possibly viable ideas that did not have a chance to be
fully implemented. Having the documents collected and annotated in a sourcebook
allows readers to see what was possible but did not happen. It also allows readers to
see that even though the emerging threats were recognized by farsighted observers,
they still could not be stopped. The threats seemed to be beyond all reason, and yet
they still came to pass. Rather than simply forgetting the promises of the past, The Red
Vienna Sourcebook investigates the meaning of these promises in the past and present:
What do they tell us about historical possibilities, political struggles, and the continu-
ities and discontinuities of history, as well as its fulfilled or unfulfilled emancipatory
hopes?
We hope that like those intellectuals who signed the Rallying Cry of Vienna’s
Intellectuals in 1927, twenty-first-century historians, philosophers, scientists, and cultural
critics will be provoked by the fascinating texts that the chapter editors have gathered in
The Red Vienna Sourcebook. Above all else, we hope that these texts will not only warp
and refine the way we think about the history, art, and literature of the early twenti-
eth century but also reanimate discourses of equality, health, and prosperity that were
once possible in the era of Red Vienna—and may once again find new possibilities of
expression.
 Part I

Foundations
Crowds in front of the Parliament building in Vienna at the proclamation of the Republic on
November 12, 1918. Photo by Richard Hauffe. (Courtesy of VGA.)
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 — haukkuu hallikoira linnan lukki luksuttelee, hiistää ensin
hiljemmältä, harviammalta murahtaa, perän lyöen
pientarehan, hännän maahan torkutellen.

Sen on niin turvaisa haukkua nyt, kun se tietää kaikkein valvovan

ja kun tuon tuostakin aina joku pistäytyy ulkona. Toista on, kun kaikki
käyvät makuulle tuvassa. Silloin sen turkin alla tahtoo kylmä karmia,
sillä toisen talon koiran ääni ei penikulmien päästä kuulu.

Keväinen luonto nukkuu. Nukkuvat myös

pyhät pihlajat pihalla, pyhät oksat pihlajissa.

Päivänkoiton ensimäiset häivät leikkivät taivaalla. Pihan poikki

kiiruhtaa nuori tyttö. Se on

Annikki, hyvänimikko,
yön tytti, hämärän neiti,

talon tyttäristä nuorin. Hän kiiruhtaa kapeaa metsäpolkua rannalle

päin. Käpy rasahtaa paljaan jalan alla. Käki havahtuu, kukahtaa. Se
löytää vastakaiun Annikin aamunvirkeässä mielessä. Hän alkaa
hyräillä:

Siinä kukkuos käkönen, helkyttele hietarinta, hoiloa

hopearinta, tinarinta riukuttele; kuku illoin, kuku aamuin,
kerran keskipäivälläki ihanoiksi ilmojani, mieluisiksi metsiäni.

Käet yltyvät herättyään kilpaa kukkumaan, laululinnut laulamaan.

Ja
Annikki tuntee selvästi:
 kun käki kukahtelevi, niin syän sykähtelevi, itku silmähän
tulevi.

Tosia mahtavat olla vanhojen sanat:

kyynärän ikä kuluvi, vaaksan varsi vanhenevi kuultua

kevätkäkösen.

Mutta eipä tässä jouda käkiä kukuttelemaan, sillä kiire on

päähän portahan punaisen, laajan laiturin laelle pitkän

niemyen nenähän.

Ja kohta hän siellä

rannalla vesikivellä huntujahan huuhtelevi.

Iloista onkin työtä tehdä, sillä

ylähällä päivyt paistaa, alahalla aallot välkkyy.

Mutta kuta ylemmäs taivaalle kohoaa päivän kehrä, sitä

kiivaammin pärskyy vesi ympärille pestessä, sillä kiireesti olisi kotiin
jouduttava, etteivät muut luulisi hänen jouten

kuvoansa katselevan,
itseään ihastelevan,
verevyyttänsä vetehen.

Annikin palatessa rannasta kuuluu läävästä lehmänkellojen

kalkatus.
Vanha emäntä laitumelle laskee. Laskiessaan pyytelee
 varjele vakainen luoja,
varjele vahingon tieltä.

Ell'ei emännän omat paimenet olisi kyllin tarkkoja, niin:

paju pannos paimeneksi, leppä lehmän katsojaksi, pihlaja

pitelijäksi, tuomi tuojaksi kotihin!

Sitten emäntä kääntyy loitsussaan Mielikin, »karjan eukon»,

Tellervon, »karjan kaitsijan», ja muitten metsän haltijoitten puoleen
pyydellen suojaamaan karjaansa

soista soiluvista, lähtehistä läilyvistä

ja antamaan karjalle hyvät ruokamaat, että se heruisi. Suvetarta

hän pyytää erityisen hellää huolta karjasta pitämään:

heitä hienot helmuksesi, esiliinasi levitä karjalleni

katteheksi, pienilleni peitteheksi, vihoin tuulen tuulematta,
vihoin saamatta satehen.

Vihdoin hän puhuttelee karhua, metsän kuningasta, mitä

kauneimmin, mielittelevimmin nimityksin,

otsonen, metsän omena,

mesikämmen käyretyinen,

ja neuvoo häntä välttämään syömisen kiusauksen, jonka karjan

näkeminen synnyttää:

konsa karja kankahalla,

sinä suolle soiverraite.
 Ja ellei karhu mairitteluista talttuisi, koettaa emäntä pilkaten häntä
karaista:

en mä noissa noin asuisi aina akkojen jaloissa; onpa maata

muuallakin, tarhoa taempanakin juosta miehen joutilahan,
virattoman viiletellä.

Kuippanaa, Tapiota, pyytää emäntä lopuksi pitämään petojansa

tarkasti silmällä.

Lehmät laukkaavat vapauteen päästyään huimasti metsään päin.

Ne mölähtelevät iloisesti polkien kavioillaan ja huiskien hännällään
ilmaa. Emäntä

panee paimenen perähän, orjan lehmien ajohon.

Iloinen on mieli paimenenkin kontti selässä lehmien perässä

tarpoessaan ja tuon tuostakin torveensa törähytellessään. Hän

ajoi lehmät suota myöten,

itse kangasta kapusi.

Mutta päivän mittaan alkaa jo väsymyskin tulla ja tuntuu aivan kuin

lintunen laulaisi lehdossa:

jos ois aika orjan syöä, isottoman illastella.

Paimen ajaa karjansa levolle kankaalle,

itse istuu mättähälle, vihannalle turpehelle.

Hän päästelee kontin selästään, ottaa leivän laukustaan ja veitsen

tupestaan. Silloin valtaa hänet taas tuo tavallinen apea mieli, joka
koko päivän on ollut poissa, sillä
 paimen parka kuivan leivän, kuivan kuoren karskuttavi,

Ja ainiaaksi särpimekseen

veen lipillä luikkoavi märän mättähän nenästä.

Mieleen johtuu talonväen paremmat ruuat. Ehkäpä sieltä orjallekin

jokunen parempi siru annettaisi. Siksipä pyyteleekin hän päivää
jouduttamaan aikaa kotiin päästäkseen:

kule päivä kuusikolle, viere vehnä vitsikölle, karkoa

katajikolle, lennä leppien tasalle, päästä paimenta kotihin
voivatia vuolemahan, rieskoa repäsemähän, kakkaroita
kaivamahan.

Karja on tuskin kerinnyt hävitä ensimäisen harjun taakse, kun

talonväki unohtaa sekä karjan että paimenen. Naisväen on lampaat
saatava kerityiksi ennen suurusta, että suuruksen jälkeen kerittäisiin
miesten mukana kaskelle ja saataisiin lampaat viereiselle pellolle
mukaan. Vanha emäntä, joka aina askareen kulkua valvoo, käskee
nytkin muistaen lampaat juottamattomiksi erästä miniöistään:

ota korvonen olalle, vesikappa kainalohon, ala astua

ve'elle!

Muistaen kiireen huutaa hän vielä miniän jälkeen:

tule tuulena takaisin, astuos ahavan lailla viikon veellä

viipymättä!

Kohta ovatkin lampaat kerityt. Naiset keräytyvät kaivolle

pestäkseen ihviset kätensä puhtaiksi. Miesväki, josta useimmat
olivat olleet aivan lähettyvillä valmistellen peltokaluja ja tahkoten
kirveitä

Kuutehen kovasimehen
seitsemähän sieran päähän,

saapuu samassa suurukselle. Mutta vanhaa isäntää ei näy.

Aamulla hän, kertoo Annikki,

otti ongen taskuhunsa, väkärauan väskyhynsä

ja läksi ensi kertaa tänä kevännä melomaan tutuille luodoilleen,

sillä ukon mielestä piti särenkudun kohtapuoleen alkaa. Varmaan
hän kokee verkot samalla. Jos ukko nyt saisi kaloja, päättelevät
nuoret miehet, niin kyllä sitten kohta »talkapohjat» taas työnnetään
vesille ja ukon kutomalla »sulkkunuotalla» lähdetään vetelemään

vienoja vesiä, lohiluotojen lomia, synkkiä syväntehiä, suuria

selän napoja.

Lyhyet unet otettua lähdetään palolle, lampaat ja niitten paimen

otetaan mukaan. Viime kesänä jo oli kaski kaadettu, pari päivää
sitten

pohjaistuuli kasken poltti, koillinen kovin porotti, poltti kaikki

puut poroksi, kypeniksi kyyätteli.

Tämä kaski oli täytynyt näin aikaiseen tehdä, sillä miesten

mielestä oli viereinen pelto kevätkauraksi liian pieni, siementä kun
oli. Naisväki määrätään kohta perille tultua pellolle turpeita
pienentelemään. Miehistä taas toiset menevät uutta paloa
aitaamaan, keskimäinen pojista alkaa kyntää eilen kesken jäänyttä
sarkaa. Mutta talon vanhin poika, joka isänsä jälkeen tulee perimään
isännyyden talossa, hankkiutuu kylvämään jo muokatulle pellolle nyt,
kun ukko niin kauvaksi aikaa oli kalalle jäänyt. Vakavana hän astuu
askeleen kerrallaan ja heittää oikealla kädellään kauroja vasemmalle
ja oikealle, vasen kannattaa tuohinauhalla olkapään ja selän ympäri
kiinnitettyä tuohikopsaa. Kylväessään hän lausuu:

minä kylvän kyyhättelen luojan sormien lomitse; käen

kautta kaikkivallan tälle maalle kasvavalle, ahollen ylenevälle.

Sitten pyytää hän maan haltioita kasvattamaan hyvin viljaa.

Lopuksi kääntyen Ukon puoleen hän anoo:

iätä iästä pilvi, nosta lonka luotehesta, toiset lännestä

lähetä, etelästä ennättele, vihmo vettä taivosesta, mettä
pilvistä pirota orahille nouseville, touoille tohiseville.

Ja ikäänkuin suopeana vastauksena kyntömiehen pyyntöön

paistavi Jumalan päivä

ja siihen ympärille ovat keräytyneet

linnut puuhun laulamahan, rastahat iloitsemahan, käki

päälle kukkumahan.

Vaikka suurin osa väkeä on ulkotöihin lähtenyt, niin ei talo silti

tyhjäksi jäänyt. Lapset leikkivät pihassa. Tytöt taputtelevat savileipiä
ja kulettavat kivilehmiään laitumelle ja kotiin. Pojat hevosina hirnuvat.
Mutta tuvassa helähtelee ahkera pirta. Talon kaunein tytär on siellä
aamusta varhain

pukehissa puhtahissa, valkehissa vaattehissa

kultakangasta kutonut, hopeista huolittanut kultaisesta
 sukkulasta pirralla hopeisella.

Hän, kuuluisa kudonnastaan, jolla

suihki sukkula piossa, käämi käessä kääperöitsi, niiet

vaskiset vatisi, hopeinen pirta piukki,

oli nyt vihdoin lupautunut naapuriheimon miehelle

mesileivän leipojaksi, oluen osoajaksi, joka lautsan

laulajaksi, ikkunan iloitsijaksi.

Siksi hänellä on kiire, kun eivät kapiot ole vielä aivan valmiit. Ja
loimien väliin kutoutuu samalla monta toivorikasta ajatusta, sillä hän
on itse saanut sulhonsa valita, ei tarvinnut tyytyä isän ja veljien
valitsemiin.

Toivoa sykkii toinenkin rinta, sepon, nuorimman veljen, joka oli

lähtenyt rannalle

nenähän utuisen niemen, päähän saaren terhenisen.

Siellä hän rauhassa yksinään

veistävi venoista uutta purtta puuhoavi,

sillä hänellä on mieli

lähtä neittä kosjomahan, impeä anelemahan.

Vene on juuri valmistumaisillaan. Vielä tänään se työnnetään

vesille ja huomisaamuna varahin kantaisi se tekijänsä kauvas pois.
 Siksipä olikin seppo jo aamulla pyytänyt Annikki-siskonsa
valmistamaan erityisellä huolella sulhassaunan. Annikki,
»hyvänimikko», sen mielellään tekee. Jo aamupäivällä hän lähtee

— luutoa lehosta, vastaksia varvikosta

ja sitoo veljelleen »lempivastasen». Kotiin tultuaan hän lämmittää

saunan ja hakee

veet lemmen lähtehestä,

heraisesta hettehestä.

Kun kaikki on valmiiksi varustettu, menee Annikki veljensä luo

kertomaan, että sauna on jo valmis, kehoittaen häntä:

kylve veikko kyllältäsi, valeleite vallaltasi, pese pääsi

pellavaksi, silmäsi lumisiruiksi.

Seppo menee saunaan, pesee itsensä siskonsa neuvon mukaan

ja tulee takaisin tupaan

— tuntemattomana, kasvot vallan kaunihina, poskipäät

punertavina.

Annikki tuo hänelle sulhasvaatteet, puhtaan palttinapaidan, äidin

tyttönä kutomat sukat ja ulkomaalta tuodut kengät. Näitten lisäksi

haki haljakan sinisen, alta maksankarvallisen, siihen

sarkakauhtanaisen, veroin neljin vieritetyn.

Hän varustaa vielä

tuhatnyplän uuen turkin, saoin kaunoin kaunistetun,

 sekä kauniisti kirjaillun vyön, »kultasuiset» kintaat ja isän
sulhasmiehenä ostaman pystyisen kypärin.

Talon muu väki alkaa jo palailla ulkotöiltään, ukkokin tulee kalasta.

Kaikki käyvät halusta saunaan. Mutta kun paraillaan

sauna täynnä neitosia

vasta käessä vastoavat,

niin silloin

— haukkui linnan häkki, peni julma juhmutteli, saaren vartio

valitti, perän peltohon sysäten, hännän kääten käppyrähän,

Mennään katsomaan, kun luullaan vieraan tulevan. Mutta halli

erehtyikin tällä kertaa haukkumaan kotiväkeä. Tulija onkin vain
paimen, joka

lujahutti luikullansa, toitahutti torvellansa kolmasti

kotimäellä, kuuesti kujoisten suussa.
KALEVALAN MIEHET

Esittänyt O.A. Kallio

Kalevalan, samoinkuin muidenkin suurten kansanrunoelmain,

pääsisällyksenä on kertomus mahtavien, tavallisia ihmisiä
etevämpien sankarien toimista ja luonteista, mikäli nämä heidän
teoistaan kuvastuvat. Joko toimivat sankarit kukin erikseen tai myös
esiintyvät useat yhdessä ja rinnakkain, siis »yhteistoiminnassa».
Kansan runollinen ja luova mielikuvitus on varustanut sankarinsa
erityisillä avuilla ja ominaisuuksilla, jotka ovat omiansa antamaan
selvän kuvan asianomaisen kansan luonteesta ja
maailmankatsomuksesta. Kansa näkee runojensa sankareissa
juurikuin oman perikuvansa yksilöityneenä. Joko ovat nämä
kansanrunon sankarit alkuperältään todella historiallisia tai myös
jumalaistarullisia tai ainoasti pelkkiä mielikuvituksen hiomia, aina on
kansan luova mielikuvitus runoissa muodostellut heitä johonkin
määrättyyn suuntaan, ikäänkuin edustamaan eri puolia
asianomaisen kansan olemuksessa. Mikä on »jumalallinen» soturi,
mikä taas »neuvoissa viisas», kuten esim. kreikkalaisen
kansanrunon pääsankarit Akilles ja Odysseus; mikä mahtava
tietomies tai taitava takoja tai myös huimapäinen seikkailija ja
naisten naurattaja, kuten Kalevalan pääsankarit Väinämöinen,
Ilmarinen ja Lemminkäinen — aina sen mukaan mitä ominaisuuksia
kansanruno on tahtonut heissä etusijassa kuvata. Päähenkilöjen
rinnalle ja täydennykseksi luo kansan mielikuvitus muita vähempiä
uroita, kuten ovat esim. Kalevalan Kullervo, Joukahainen ja Tiera. Ja
jotta runojen antama elämän- ja maailmankuvaus olisi
mahdollisimman täydellinen, asetetaan niissä miesten rinnalle suuri
joukko naisia, taululle eloa ja väriä antamaan. Niinpä ne ovatkin juuri
naiset, jotka kansanrunoissa, samoinkuin tavallisessa
tosielämässäkin, saavat miehet toimintaan ja muodostuvat tapausten
keskustaksi. Niinpä Kalevalassakin kaunis Pohjolan neito on
sellainen keskus, johon Kalevalan uroitten työt ja toimet enimmälti
kohdistuvat. — Ihmisten rinnalla tuodaan kansanrunoissa myös
esille runsas jumala- ja tarumaailma jumalineen, haltioineen ja
taruolentoineen, antamaan kuvan kansan uskonnollisista käsitteistä.
Siten laajenee kansanrunoelma suureksi maailmankuvaksi.

*****

Kalevalan miessankarit, joihin seuraavassa tahdomme lyhyesti

tutustua, ovat etusijassa runollisen mielikuvituksen luomia ja
nykyisessä muodossaan usean eri runohenkilön teoista ja
luonnepiirteistä pitkän kehityksen kautta muodostuneita
kokonaiskuvia, joissa pakanalliset ja kristillisperäiset henkilöt ja
aiheet ovat toisiinsa kutoutuneet; mutta niin hyvin on sekä itse
kansanruno että sen johdolla vihdoin Kalevalan kokoonpanija nuo eri
piirteet toisiinsa sovitellut, että sankarit, kukin erikseen, yleensä
esiintyvät eheinä henkilökuvina, ja kaikki yhdessä antavat hyvän
kokonaiskuvan Suomen kansan miestyypeistä eli perikuvista, sekä
hyvistä että hylättävistä. Kansanruno näet ei yksistään ihannoi, vaan
pysyy samalla todellisuuden piirissä.
 Kalevalan ylin pääuros, jonka työt ja toimet muodostavat
Kalevalan pääsisällyksen, on »vaka, vanha Väinämöinen, tietäjä
iänikuinen». Alkuaan hän näyttää olleen vedenhaltia, mihin
ominaisuuteen hänen nimensä (väinä = virran leveä ja tyyni suu) ja
toisintonimensä Suvantolainen viittaavat. Meri ja välkeät vedet vielä
Kalevalassakin ovat hänen mielitiensä; meritse hän tavallisimmin
liikuskelee. Kansanruno on hänestä kuitenkin monimutkaisen
kehityskulun kautta lopuksi luonut ihmissankarin, jonka ylempänä
mainitut seisovat mainesanat jo selvästi osottavat, mitä ihanteitaan
Suomen kansa on tahtonut Väinämöiskuvassa tuoda ilmi. Vanhuus,
vakavuus, viisaus, henkinen voima, tieto ja taito — siinä ne ovatkin
Väinämöisen persoonan pääominaisuudet. Ja niillehän kansamme
näyttääkin jo muinoin suurimman arvon antaneen, mikäli sen
runsaista runoista, saduista, sananlaskuista ja arvoituksista voimme
päättää. Väinämöisen mahtava tietäjä-olemus, joka aniharvoin
turvautuu miekkaan, vaikkapa kyllä osaa sitäkin hyvin käyttää,
edustaa siis kansamme henkistä voimaa; hän on juurikuin Suomen
kansan arvokas juhla- eli sunnuntaikuva. Vaan samalla hän on perin
havainnollinen ja selväpiirteinen ihminen, jolla on useita inhimillisiä
heikkouksiakin, jopa sellaisia, jotka tuntuvat hänen arvoiselleen
hengenuroolle vallan sopimattomilta. Mutta suomalainen kansanruno
ei kaunistelekkaan henkilökuviaan, vaan esittää ne todellisina
ansioineen ja vikoineen.

Kalevalan mukaan on Väinämöinen vanha jo syntyessään, sillä

hän vietti äitinsä, ilman immen, veden emosen, kohdussa satoja
vuosia, kunnes kyllästyi »ahtaaseen asuntoonsa» ja syntyi »uros
aaltojen sekahan». Meressä hän vielä uiskenteli 8 vuotta, kunnekka
kohosi sieltä »manterelle puuttomalle», jonka hänen äitinsä oli
luonut, ja asuskeli sitten »saaressa sanattomassa» monta vuotta
mitään merkillistä tekemättä. Vihdoin hän, vanhentuneena ja
viisastuneena, ryhtyy toimimaan ja hankkii ensin Sampsa
Pellervoisen avulla paljaalle maalle rehevän metsäpeitteen sekä
sitten panee alkuun maanviljelyksen, kylvämällä löytämänsä
ohransiemenet suureen kaskimaahan. Siten hänestä tulee
maanviljelyksen isä. Samalla hän kehittyy mahtavaksi laulajaksi ja
tietomieheksi, joka »päivät pääksytysten» laulelee »syntyjä syviä».
Sellaisena maankuuluna tietäjänä hän esiintyy kilpalaulannassa ja
voittaa siinä helposti kateellisen, kerskailevan Joukahaisen. Tämä
lappalaissukuinen nuori laulaja tietääkin tosin yhtä ja toista
tietämisen arvoista, mutta ei lähimainkaan riitä Väinämöiselle, jonka
laulaessa »järvet läikkyi, maa järisi, vuoret vaskiset vapisi, kalliot
kaheksi lenti». Joukahaiselle valheineen käy surkeasti.

Kilpalaulannalla Kalevala juurikuin tahtoo osottaa, kuinka paljoa

ylempänä arvossa todellinen oppi, nerous ja taito on tyhmänkorkeaa
tiedoilla rehentelemistä, mutta samalla se tahtoo näyttää, kuinka
mahtavinkin hengensankari pohjaltaan on vain heikko ihminen.
Väinämöinen näet kompastuu Joukahaisen asettamaan ansaan,
joka hänelle, vanhalle ja yksinäiselle miehelle, näkyy Joukahaisen
nuoren ja kauniin sisaren Ainon muodossa. Hän juurikuin unohtaa
kutsumuksensa ja korkeat tehtävänsä, jopa omat suuret tietonsa ja
taitonsakin, ja puuhailee nyt ankarasti pelkissä kosimahommissa,
välittämättä ollenkaan kosittavien estelyistä ja kujeista. Sankarimme
toimii aivankuin joku todellinen naimisasioissa hassahtanut
vanhapoika. Hän ahdistelee Joukahaisen sisarta naimatarjouksillaan
niin kovasti, että Ainon täytyy mennä meren omaksi, pelastuakseen
tuosta tungettelevasta, vanhahkosta kosijasta ja vanhempiensa
pakotuksista. Tosin hän joskus, kuten esim. hänen oman
tyhmyytensä ja hätiköimisensä vuoksi epäonnistuneen Ainon
merestä onginnan jälkeen, itsekin älyää, että häneltä »kaikki on mieli
melkeässä», s.o. nurinpäin, mutta yhä uudestaan hän ryhtyy
kosimahommiin, jopa niissä todellisia aikeita salatakseen helposti
livahuttaa suustaan valheenkin.

Pohjolan neito, »maan kuulu, ve'en valio», se nyt täyttää hänen

mielensä, ja Pohjolaan, vieraan heimon maahan, hän tekee
kosimamatkoja. Tosin ensimäisen matkan käy perin nolosti, kun
Joukahainen matkan varrella kostoksi ampuu häneltä hevosen, ja
hän saa uida merta, niin että »ei ole kynttä varpahissa, eikä
sormissa niveliä», ennenkuin kurjassa tilassa pelastuu Pohjolan
rantaan. Eipä noin nolosti perille tullut kosija edes rohkene imaista
asiatansakaan, hän vain voivottelee koti-ikäväänsä ja pyrkii päästä
jälleen kotimailleen, vaikkapa Pohjolan emäntä itsestään lupaa
hänelle tyttärensä, jos hän ihmeellisen taikamyllyn, sammon, takoisi.
Oman päänsä päästimiksi hän lupaa lähettää seppo Ilmarisen
sampoa takomaan ja neidon ansaitsemaan. Kuitenkin hän taas
kömmeltyy neitosiin kotimatkalla, kun näkee omin silmin Pohjolan
kauniin immen taivaan kaarella kultakangasta kutomassa. Neidon
käskystä hän, kuten rakastunut hupakko ainakin, tekee jos jotakin
neidon suosion voittamiseksi. Hän halkaisee jouhen »veitsellä
kärettömällä», hän vetää munan solmuun ja solmun
tuntumattomaksi, hän kiskoo kivestä tuohta ja särkee jäästä aidaksia
»pilkkehen pirahtamatta», jopa lopuksi ryhtyy veistämään venettä
neidon kehrävarren (värttinän) muruista. Mutta siinä hän kiireessä
iskee kirveellä ison haavan polveensa eikä edes, lemmestä
hömmelöitynyt kun on, muista verensulkusanoja, tukkiakseen
hirmuisen verentulvan.

Veren tukkijaa hänen, suuren tietäjän, täytyy etsiä ympäri kyliä.

Näissä puuhissa häneltä jälleen vähäksi aikaa unohtuu Pohjan neito,
ja viekkaasti hän toimittaa rehellisen, yksivakaisen Ilmarisen
Pohjolaan sampoa takomaan, kuten oli luvannut. Mutta kun
Ilmarinen ei vielä saanutkaan neitoa palkakseen, pälkähtää
Väinämöiselle päähän lähteä uudelleen Pohjolaan onneaan
koettamaan. Monien vaikeuksien jälkeen, matkattuaan urheasti
Tuonelan kamalat maat ja tietoviisaan jättiläisen, Antero Vipusen
vatsat hakemassa veneen teossa tarvittavia kolmea syntysanaa, hän
vihdoin tiedon ja laulun voimalla valmistaa itselleen komean
kosiopurren ja lähtee sillä viilettämään Pohjolaan.

Mutta kesken kaikkea hän tälläkin matkalla jo ohimennen

hätävaraksi kosaisee Ilmarisen vireää siskoa, Annikkia, tietysti
saaden rukkaset, juurikuin palkaksi valheista, joita Annikille oli
lasketellut. Joutuupa siitä Annikin ajamana vihdoin hidas
Ilmarinenkin kilpakosijaksi, ja hän se voittaakin neidon sydämen.
Väinämöinen, joka ei suinkaan ole tahtonut väkisin neitoa viedä,
silloin vihdoin huomaa, ettei ole vanhan, vaikkapa olisikin kuuluisa
tietäjä ja mahtimies, hyvä lähteä kosimisessa kilpasille nuorten kera.
Hän juurikuin herää huumauksestaan, ottaa ylimpänä vieraana osaa
Ilmarisen komeihin hääjuhliin ja pysyy täst'edes visusti poissa
naimistuumista. Kauan harhailtuaan itsekkäissä puuhissa, hän nyt
ikäänkuin jälleen löytää oman itsensä ja oikean kutsumuksensa,
kohoo heimonsa ensimäiseksi mieheksi, johtajaksi ja puolustajaksi ja
asettaa kokonaisedun, yhteishyvän, omien pikkupyrintöjen sijalle.
Hänen olemuksensa täst'edes kasvaa piirre piirteeltä kansan
johtajaksi ja pääsankariksi, jonka rinnalla toiset Kalevalan uroot
jäävät kokonaan varjoon.

Kun Ilmarisen vaimon kuoltua Kullervon koston uhrina välit

Kalevalan ja Pohjolan heimojen kesken ovat rikkuneet, panee
Väinämöinen rohkeasti toimeen sammonryöstöretken, saattaakseen
tuon Pohjolalle paljon onnea ja rikkautta tuottaneen, Kalevalan
sepän takoman ihmekapineen Kalevalaan onnea antamaan.
Epäröivä Ilmarinen ja urhea Lemminkäinen tulevat osallisiksi tähän
suureen kansalliseen yritykseen, jonka Väinämöinen, kalevalaisten
johtajana, meritse tekee Pohjolaan. Tällä retkellä hän osottaa m.m.
ihmeellistä soittotaitoaan, kun hän hauen leukaluusta tekemällään
kanteleella hurmaa sekä ihmiset että maan, ilman ja veden eläimet
jopa jumalat ja haltiatkin. Väinämöisen lumoavassa
kanteleensoitossa Kalevala tahtoo kuvata Suomen kansan suurta
mieltymystä sävelten tenhovoimaan. — Väinämöinen se
samporetkellä esiintyy kaikista pulista päästäjänä. Hän yksin jaksaa
irroittaa veneen jättiläishauen hartioilta; hän vaatii Pohjolassa
rohkeasti sampoa, nukuttaa taikakeinoillaan Pohjolan soturit ja avaa
laulunsa mahdilla vaskivuoren, jonne Sampo oli kätkettynä. Ja
hänpä se, kun meritaistelussa kalevalaisten ja takaa-ajavain
pohjolaisten välillä Sampo särkyi pirstaleiksi, huolekkaasti kokosi
rantamilta Sammon murut ja saattoi ne Kalevalaan »onnen aluksi» ja
»siemenen sikiöksi». Kokonaista onnea ei näet kansa enemmän
kuin yksityinenkään koskaan saavuta — hyväpä kun saa osakseen
onnen murujakin.

Pohjolan vihastunut emäntä lähettää Kalevalan turmioksi tauteja

— ne parantaa Väinämöinen; hän nostaa karhun kaatamaan
Kalevalan karjaa — sen Väinämöinen surmaa; hän varastaa
Kalevalasta kuun, auringon ja tulenkin — ne kaikki hankkii
neuvokkaasti Väinämöinen, vähäksi osaksi tosin Ilmarisen avulla,
takaisin Kalevalaan. Hän on nyt pitkin matkaa kansansa suuri
hyväntekijä. Ja kun vihdoin uusi usko Kristuslapsen mukana
tunkeutuu Kalevalan maille, silloin hän vapaaehtoisesti, vanhan
suomalaisen maailmankatsomuksen edustajana, väistyy
näyttämöltä, jättäen toki kansallensa perinnöksi henkensä aarteet
ynnä soiton ja laulun tenhoisat taidot. Merestä hän oli noussut, ja
merelle hän vaskiveneessään katoaa.
 Kalevalan toinen pääuros on kuuluisa seppä Ilmarinen, »veli
seppo Ilmarinen», kuten Väinämöinen häntä nimittää. Alkujaan hän
on ollut ilman jumala ja epäilemättä vanhimpia jollei vanhin
muinaissuomalaisten jumalista. Mutta ilman piiristä on kansanruno
vähitellen vetänyt hänet alas maan päälle ja muodostellut luovan
mielikuvituksensa avulla ihmesepäksi, »taitavaksi takojaksi»,
jollaisena hän kauttaaltansa Kalevalassa esiintyy. Ja ilmielävänä
yksilönä hän astuu Kalevalassa eteemme, edustaen Väinämöisen,
hengen sankarin rinnalla ja vastakohtana suomalaisen
kansanluonteen käytännöllistä, aineellista puolta. Hän on kansamme
ilmehikäs arkikuva, ahkera, hidas, epäröivä, saamaton ja hieman
yksinkertainen seppä, mutta omassa ammatissaan perin taitava.
Hänellä ei ole Väinämöisen runollista mieltä eikä rohkeaa
päättäväisyyttä; toisten täytyy häntä juurikuin ajaa edellään; mutta
mitä hän ottaa tehtäväkseen, sen hän, vaikeuksia väistymättä,
kunnollisesti suorittaa. Väinämöiseen verraten on hänellä yksi
ulkonainen etu, joka tuottaa hänelle voiton kilpakosinnassa; se on
hänen nuorekas ja muhkea muotonsa, jota ei edes »kyynärä kyventä
päässä, syli syttä hartioilla» kykene hävittämään. Hän näet, kuten
kunnon sepän tuleekin, on ahkera saunassa-kylpijä ja sen kautta
suomalaisen saunaharrastuksen edustaja. Kaikessa
epärunollisuudessaankin Ilmarisen olemus herättää vilpitöntä
myötätuntoa, sekin kun osaltaan tuntuu niin perin suomalaiselta.

Kalevalan mukaan Ilmarinen »syntyikin sysimäellä, kasvoi

hiilikankahalla, vaskinen vasara käessä, pihet pikkuiset piossa», ja
ryhtyi heti laatimaan itselleen pajaa sekä rautaa ahjossaan
muovailemaan. Hän elää sitten aikojansa Kalevalan kuuluisana
seppänä, joka tilaajilleen takoo kaikenlaisia tarviskaluja, taidokkaita
koristeita, vahvoja varuksia, loistavia sota-aseita, jopa kerran laatii
itselleen jonkinmoisen lentokoneenkin (vaakalinnun) ja toisella
kertaa esiintyy taidokkaana kuvanveistäjänä takoessaan
kultaneidon. Sanotaanpa hänestä että hän on myös »taivoa takonut,
ilman kantta kalkutellut» juurikuin muistona hänen ilman
jumaluudestaan. Kerran hän koettaa laatia kullasta kuuta ja
hopeasta aurinkoa, mutta ei siinä oikein onnistu enemmän kuin
muissakaan yrityksissä, joihin hän nenäänsä pitemmälle
ajattelematta ryhtyy. Ilmarisen taidokkain ja ihmeellisin tuote on
kuitenkin ihmemylly sampo.

Muistamme edellisestä Väinämöisen luvanneen lähettää Ilmarisen

Pohjolaan sampoa takomaan. Tuntien Ilmarisen haluttoman mutta
samalla herkkäuskoisen luonteen hän, kun ei saa seppää Pohjolan
neidon kauneuden kuvaamisella liikkeelle, houkuttelee tämän
pajasta katsomaan kuusen latvaan laulamaansa kuuta ja Otavaa.
Utelias seppä menee ansaan, vieläpä herkkäuskoisena kiipeää
kuuseen kuuta ja Otavaa käsin tavoittamaan. Silloinpa Väinämöinen
loitsii ankaran myrskyn, joka kiidättää sepän ilmojen lävitse
Pohjolaan. Täällä Ilmarinen esiintyy taidostaan ylpeänä ja
itsetietoisena, jopa ihastuu koreaan Pohjan neitoonkin, niin että
neitoa saadakseen ryhtyy rohkeasti aivan mahdottomista
alkuaineista takomaan sampoa. Monien vaikeuksien jälkeen, joissa
kaikissa hän esiintyy kylläkin neuvokkaana miehenä, ne kun
koskevat hänen omaa ammattialaansa, hän, käyttämällä apuna itse
luonnon voimia, saakin valmiiksi sammon, ihmemyllyn sellaisen, joka
Pohjolalle jauhaa viljaa, suoloja ja rahoja ja jollaista ahnas ja äveriäs
Pohjolan emäntä oli niin hartaasti himoinnut. Mutta tyttöpä ei vielä
halunnutkaan vaihtaa neitiyden vapaita päiviä emännän huoliin, ja
»alla päin, pahoilla mielin» Ilmarinen palajaa kotipajalleen, edes
vaatimatta sampoa myötänsä.
 Hän elelee jälleen uutterana seppänä kotikylässä, kunnekka saa
sisareltaan Annikilta kuulla, että Väinämöinen on komealla
kosiopurrella menossa Pohjolaan kosiin. Silloinpa »tunkihe sepolle
tuska, vasara käestä vaipui» — Pohjan neidon kaunis kuva ei siis
ollut vielä kokonaan haihtunut hänen sydämestään pajan nokeen. Ja
oikeinpa hänelle kerrankin tulee kiire joutua matkaan. Hän
valmistautuu kuin sulhasmies konsanaankin: kylpee saunassa noet
pois ruumiistaan, niin että on »kasvot vallan kaunihina, poskipäät
punertavina», pukeutuu parhaasen juhlapukuunsa ja lähtee
paraimmalla oriillaan ja komeimmalla reellään tavoittamaan
Väinämöistä. Luulisipa nyt vähintäin syntyvän neidosta kilpakosijain
välillä kaksintaistelun, mutta Ilmarisen mieli on jo ennättänyt
rauhoittua. Vaikka taitava miekkain takoja, hän muuten ei ole mikään
miekkamies. Niinpä hän nytkin itse ehdottaa Väinämöiselle sovintoa,
jotta neito saisi vapaasti valita. Ja neito valitseekin hänet vastoin
äitinsä tahtoa komean ulkomuodon ja sammon takomisen vuoksi.
Mutta monta vaarallista ansiotyötä hän saa vielä suorittaa,
ennenkuin Pohjan-akka suo hänelle tyttärensä. Näissä hän aluksi
esiintyy saamattomana ja avuttomana, mutta kun morsian »kädestä
pitäen» neuvoo, miten hänen tulee kussakin tapauksessa menetellä,
niin hän ne pelottomasti ja taitavasti suorittaa. Hän kyntää kyisen
pellon, kahlehtii Tuonen karhun ja pyytää Tuonelan joesta suuren
jättiläishauen. Kaikissa näissä ansiotöissä tulee hänen
sepäntaitonsa hyvään tarpeeseen.

Komeain häitten jälkeen Ilmarinen vie nuorikkonsa kotiinsa

Kalevalaan ja elelee siellä vaimoineen rauhaisaa perhe-elämää,
kunnekka paimen orja Kullervo pedoilla revittää emännän
kappaleiksi. Silloin seppo synkeässä surussaan, kun ei ollut »mieli
tervoa parempi, syän syttä valkeampi», ryhtyy, kuukauden
toimettomana jopa syömättömänäkin surtuaan, takomaan itselleen