Nazism and the Working Class in Austria, Industrial Unrest and Political Dissent in the ’National Community’.pdf

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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

attempt or even expect 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.

Nazism and the working class in Austria

Nazism and the working class

in Austria

Industrial unrest and political dissent in the

'national community'

Tim Kirk

University of Northumbria, Newcastle

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UNIVERSITY PRESS