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Exhibiting a War in progress: Entertainment and Propaganda in Vienna, 1914–1918

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Maureen Healy
Maureen Healy
Affiliation:
Doctoral candidate in modern European history at the University of Chicago.
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Extract

On the morning of July 1, 1916, prominent members of Viennese high society gathered in a large imperial park not far from the center of Vienna. This park, the Prater, had been the site of many fairs, exhibits, and festivals in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It accommodated the World's Fair in 1873 and since then had housed circuses, variety shows, children's exhibits, and the Luna Park amusement complex. The Prater was a favorite destination of Viennese of all classes in search of recreation and entertainment. On this particular morning, those in attendance were more notable than usual; they included Archduke Franz Salvator, War Minister Alexander Krobatin, Education Minister Max von Hussarek, the Austrian defense minister, ambassadors of several allied countries, and local and regional government officials. They were on hand to celebrate the grand opening of what sponsors promised would be an exhibition unlike any Vienna had ever seen. At eleven o'clock, the prestigious entourage entered the first hall of the grandest entertainment spectacle of the wartime home front: the Vienna War Exhibition.

Type
Articles
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 31 , January 2000 , pp. 57 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2000

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References

1 Like other European powers in the late nineteenth century, Austria had staged imperial exhibitions. Paul Greenhalgh concludes that Austria and Russia could not compete with Britain and France, the leading sponsors of such exhibitions, because “the nature of their respective empires rendered them generally unsuitable for most exhibitions.” In other words, they could not produce the “exotic,” non-European material that drew crowds. See , Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions, and World's Fairs, 1851–1939 (Manchester, 1988), 73–74.Google Scholar

2 On propaganda, see Jeffrey, Verhey, “Some Lessons of the War: The Discourse on Propaganda and Public Opinion in Germany in the 1920's” in War, Violence, and the Modem Condition, ed.Bernd, Hüppauf (Berlin, 1997), 99–118Google Scholar. On entertainment and popular culture in World War I, see Jahn, Hubertus F., Patriotic Culture in Russia during World War I (Ithaca, N.Y., 1995)Google Scholar; Charles, Rearick, The French in Love and War: Popular Culture in the Era of the World Wars (New Haven,Conn., 1997)Google Scholar; and Stark, Gary D., “All Quiet on the Homefront: Popular Entertainments, Censorship, and Civilian Morale in Germany, 1914–1918,” in Authority, Identity, and the Social History of the Great War, ed.Frans, Coetzee, Marilyn, Shevin-Coetzee (Providence, R.I., 1995), quoted at 76Google Scholar. See also Mosse, George L., Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (New York, 1990), chap. 7.Google Scholar

3 Kinematographische Rundschau, August 2, 1914.

4 See John, Home, ed., State, Society, and Mobilization in Europe during the First World War (Cambridge, 1997)Google Scholar. Belinda, Davis moves away from limited focus on civilian contribution to the “war effort” in “Home Fires Burning: Politics, Identity, and Food in World War I Berlin” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1992).Google Scholar

5 Jay, Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge, 1995), 78.Google Scholar

6 Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek, Zeitungsausschnitt-Sammlung (WSLB ZAS), Ausstellung I, Österr Volkszeitung, May 25, 1916.

7 Mitton, G. E., Austria-Hungary (London, 1914), 100.Google Scholar

8 Niederösterreichisches Landesarchiv (NÖLA) Präs 1914 2730 XII/162–85, letter from women's groups to k.k. Polizeipräs., Nov. 26, 1914.

9 Ibid.

10 NÖLA Präs “P” 1914, 389P, order from Militär- und Landwehrstationskommando concerning misuse of autos in military service, Sep. 10, 1914.

11 NÖLA Präs 1914 2730 XII/162–85, letter from k.k. Statthalterei to k.k. Polizeidirektion Wien, Aug. 9, 1915. By Sep. 1914, there were between 60,000 and 70,000 refugees from Galicia already in Vienna, with more expected with the evacuation of Cracow. Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (WSLA) B23/73 Gemeinderat, protocol of the Obmänner-Konferenz, Sep. 29, 1914.

12 WSLB ZAS, Rechtsleben und polizeiliche Maßnahmen I, Neues Wiener Tagblatt, December 13,1914. See also NÖLA Präs. 1914 2730 XII/162–85.

13 Der Kinobesitzer, a trade journal for cinema owners, claimed that by 1917, 50 percent of cinema owners had been conscripted into the military or were performing other war service (Kriegsdienstleistung).

14 NÖLA Präs “P” XVIII, 396, letter to Statthalterei, via the Polizei-Direktion Wien (hereafter Pol Dir Wien), early September 1915.

15 Archiv der Bundespolizei-Direktion Wien (ABDW) 1915 V/12 37/15336, letter to Pol Dir Wien, September 20, 1915.

16 NÖLA Präs 1914 2730 XII/162–85, letter from k.k. Statthalterei to Pol Dir Wien, August 9, 1915.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid., letter from k.k. Stadtkommandant in Wien to Pol Dir Wien, November 22, 1914.

19 On state-regulated prostitution in Austria, see Karin, Jusek, Auf der Suche nach der Verlorenen. Die Prostitutionsdebatten im Wien der Jahrhundertwende (Vienna, 1994).Google Scholar

20 NÖLA Präs 1914 2730 XII/162–85, announcement from the Polizeidirektion Wien.

21 Neue Freie Presse, October 12, 1916, 11.

22 ABDW 1916 St/13 34578, letter to Polizeikommissariat I. District, October 11,1916.

23 “Aus dem Gerichtssaale,” Neue Freie Presse, October 12, 1916, 11. Anna, S. and her lawyer made the interesting decision to base the suit not on an “insult to honor” (Ehrenbeleidigung), but on “denial of access to necessary foodstuffs” (§482, Strafgesetz).Google Scholar

24 ABDW St/16 (no doc. no.), police report, September 21, 1916.

25 ABDW 1915 V/23 7516, police report on anonymous letter, March 15, 1915.

26 Bernhard, Denscher, Gold gab ich für Eisen. Österreichische Kriegsplakate 1914–1918 (Vienna, 1987), 13.Google Scholar

27 Kinematographische Rundschau, August 23, 1914, 1.

28 Kinematographische Rundschau, September 6, 1914, 1.

29 Der Kinobesitzer, April 15, 1918, 5. In comparison, Gary Stark estimates that Germany had 2,400 cinemas during World War I, 200 to 350 of them in Berlin (Stark, “All Quiet,” 58). Arthur Marwick puts the number of cinemas in England in 1914 at 3,000 (, Marwick, The Deluge: British Society and the First World War [London, 1965], 140).Google Scholar

30 Reichspost, February 23, 1918, 3.

31 Richard, Guttmann, Die Kinomenschheit. Versuch einer prinzipiellen Analyse (Vienna, 1916), 5–6.Google Scholar

32 Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (ÖStA), Archiv der Republik, k.k. Min. für soziale Verwaltung und Volksgesundheit 1918, carton 1590, 1702–18, Groβe Kommission des Kaiser-Jubiläumsfondes für Kinderschutz und ]ugendfürsorge. Tätigkeitsbericht des Erziehungsrates, 1915, “Kino und Krieg,” 3.

33 Ministerialverordnung, September 18, 1912, Reichsgesetzblatt (RGB1) 191, §17. The Viennese police published a weekly report of their findings, broken into three categories: films totally banned, films that would be approved with changes (offensive scenes removed), and films that were appropriate for children.

34 “Zensurergebnisse,” August 21, 1917, in Der Kinobesitzer, September 8, 1917, 25.

35 Cited in Walter, Fritz, Kino in Österreich, 1896–1930 Der Stummfilm (Vienna, 1980), 70.Google Scholar

36 Groβe Kommission, “Kino und Krieg,” 4.

37 NÖLA Präs “P” 1914, 841, letter from Pol Dir Wien to n.ö. Statthalterpräs., September 16, 1914.

38 ABDW 1915 St/15 4361, report from Johann Pewner (also Pöwner) to k.k. Bezirkspolizei-Kommissariat Margareten, January 1915.

39 ABDW 1918 St/17 58677, letter from Franz Nückerl to Pol Dir Wien, July 25, 1918.

40 WSLB ZAS, Ausstellung II, Neues Wiener Tagblatt, September 1, 1916.

41 Police tried to catch violators, but they did not have the manpower to monitor cinema entrances. In “Kino Besuch der Kinder,” the trade journal Kinematographische Rundschau reported on October 11, 1914, that a veteran cinema operator had been fined K 200 when a policeman caught him admitting two children, ages six and seven, to a show after 8:00 P.m. Protesting moves to further restrict youth access to the cinema, owners wrote, “Unsere Besucher sind heute nur die Frauen, die Kinder und die Jugend. Wenn wir nicht zusammenbrechen sollen, dann muß die Jugend unbehindert ins Kino gehen können.” Kinematographische Rundschau, September 20, 1914.

42 “Der Kampf gegen das Kino,” Kinematographische Rundschau, June 18, 1918, 1.

43 “Dummheit oder Bosheit? ” Der Kinobesitzer, April 15, 1918, 5–6.

44 Bericht über die Tätigkeit des Kriegsfürsorgeamtes während der Zeit von seiner Errichtung bis zum 31. März 1917 (Vienna, 1917).

45 ABDW 1918 V / l 33/278, letter from owners of Hölle to k.k. Ministerium für öffentliche Arbeiten.

46 Groβe Kommission, “Kino und Krieg,” 7.

47 “Kriegsinvalide als Kino-Angestellte,” Kinematographische Rundschau, January 2, 1916, 14.

48 WSLB Kriegssammlung 67052C, Konvolut 7.

49 New Encyclopaedia Britannica: Micropaedia (Chicago, 1987), 9:728–29. In The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917–1929 (Cambridge, 1985), Peter, Kenez cautions that we have no. definition of propaganda “that would be value free and valid regardless of time or political culture,” but offers the general definition, “[P]ropaganda often means telling less than the truth, misleading people, and lying.” For full treatment of the historical development of the term “propaganda”Google Scholar; in Germany, see Wolfgang, Schieder and Christof, Dipper, “Propaganda”, in Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe, ed. Otto, Brunner, Werner, Conze, and Reinhart, Koselleck (Stuttgart, 1984), 5:69–112Google Scholar; see also , Verhey, “Some Lessons of the War.” For an interesting early examination of World War I propaganda (which does not treat Austria)Google Scholar, see Lasswell, Harold D., Propaganda Technique in the World War (New York, 1927.Google Scholar

50 Offizieller Katalog der Kriegsausstellung (Vienna, 1916), 3–4. This is one of the few statements that I have been able to locate on the visions of exhibition organizers.

51 Cited in Denscher, Gold gab ich für Eisen, 75.

52 , Mitton, Austria-Hungary, 99–100.Google Scholar

53 Von, Bukovic, quoted in the Illustrierte Kronenzeitung, July 2, 1916, 3.Google Scholar

54 WSLB ZAS, Ausstellung I, Österr Volkszeitung, June 9, 1916.

55 This design recalls the severity and austerity of commemorative war memorials from the immediate postwar period. See , Winter, Site of Memory, chap. 4.Google Scholar

56 Arbeiterzeitung, June 29, 1916, 7.

57 Neues Wiener Tagblatt, July 2, 1918. Estimates of the number of visitors on opening day varied wildly. The Österreichische Volkszeitung put the number at 61,000.

58 ÖStA, Kriegsarchiv (KA), Gemeinsames Zentralnachweisbüro 1917 carton 3749, 4588, censor's report on the mood of the people, March 1917. Civilian morale was a concern of state authorities across Europe. For comparison of civilians' loss of interest in the macropolitical aspects of the war in France, see Jean-Jacques, Becker, The Great War and the French People, trans.Arnold, Pomerans (New York, 1986).Google Scholar

59 WSLB ZAS, Ausstellungen I and II.

60 ABDW 1915 V/25 11445, letter from the Kriegs-Hilfs-Bureau (KHB) of the Ministerium des Inneres to Pol Dir Wien, May 21, 1915.

61 WSLB ZAS, Hilfsaktionen II, Fremdenblatt, May 16, 1916.

62 Arbeiterzeitung, September 12, 1914, 7.

63 WSLB ZAS, Ausstellung I, Fremdenblatt, November 21, 1915, preview of the planned exhibition.

64 Arbeiterzeitung, June 29, 1916, 7.

65 Ibid.

66 Kriegsausstellung Wien 1917 (exhibition catalog), 30–31.

67 For a similarly optimistic approach to treating newly crippled men in Britain, see Seth, Koven, “Remembering and Dismemberment: Crippled Children, Wounded Soldiers, and the Great War in Great Britain,” American Historical Review 99, no. 4 (October 1994): 1167–1202.Google Scholar

68 WSLB ZAS, Ausstellung II, Neues Wiener Tagblatt, August 23, 1916.

69 Kriegsausstellung Wien 1917, 72.

70 WSLB ZAS, Ausstellung I, Neues Wiener Tagblatt, May 17, 1916.

71 ABDW, report on the mood of the people, July 19, 1917.

72 WSLB ZAS, Ausstellung I, Die Zeit, July 2, 1916.

73 A heavily quantitative focus is the one disappointment of the otherwise superb essays in Jay, Winter and Jean-Louis, Robert, eds., Capital Cities at War: London, Paris, Berlin, 1914–1919 (Cambridge, 1997).Google Scholar

74 Bericht über die Tätigkeit. These figures include donations to the Weihnachten im Felde program.

75 ABDW 1914 St/14 Rotes Kreuz, letter from Kriegsministerium to Pol Dir Wien, October 21, 1914. The War Relief Office sent notices to businesses that displayed the tins, requesting that they secure them “not with string or ribbon, but wire or chain.”

76 WSLB Kriegssammlung 67052C, Konvolut 5.

77 ÖStA, Allgemeine Verwaltungsarchiv, Ministerium des Inneren Varia carton 71, 1914–1918 Kriegshilfsbüro, no. 783, letter from the Society of the Austrian Silver Cross to the Kriegshilfsbüro, September 19,1914.

78 For discussion of the symbolism of women donating wedding rings to the state, see Victoria, De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922–1945 (Berkeley, 1992), chap. 4.Google Scholar

79 These figures combine Liebesgaben donations and donations to the Weihnachten im Felde 1914–1916 program Bericht über die Tätigkeit, 58, 61.

80 NÖLA Präs “P” 1917, XIX, 2554.

81 KA, Militärkanzlei Seiner Majestät 1915 69–8/10; and AVA, Mdl Varia carton 71, 1914–1918 KHB, no. 1659.

82 ABDW 1914 St/6, Kriegsbeutestücke.

83 Ibid., letter from Mdl to Pol Dir Wien, May 7,1915.

84 Ibid., circulating notice, November 27, 1914.

85 In 1917 and 1918, Viennese police received a flood of food denunciations, reporting petty violations of ration laws.

86 Österreichisches Filmarchiv, Alltag in der Öst.-urg. Monarchie, roll 6, “Das Kinderelend in Wien,” 1919.

87 WSLB ZAS, Ausstellungen II, Arbeiterzeitung, June 23, 1918.