Nazism and the working class in Austria

by Tim Kirk

The image of Hitler as a demagogic 'pied piper' leading astray the 'little people' of Austria is as misleading as it is powerful. Nazism and the Working Class in Austria is a case study of the ambiguous relationship between state and society under the Nazis. It places the experience of Austrian industrial workers in the Third Reich in a broader historical context, from the origins of the earliest 'national socialist' movements in the backwaters of the Habsburg empire to the end of the Second World War. Workers did not seriously expect or even attempt to overthrow the Nazi regime in the face of unprecedented surveillance and terror; but neither were they won over, and their oppositional strategies and disgruntled political opinions reveal a truculent workforce, rather than one which was contented and converted.