"With God for Kaiser and Fatherland" : the commemoration of the Great War in the First Austrian Republic, 1918-1934

Abstract

In recent years ground-breaking research on the legacy of the Great War has provided new insights into the aftermath of the conflict. This new approach has had little impact on the history of the Great War in Austria to date. Yet the conflict had a profound effect on the country, leading not only to death and injury for soldiers but also great hardships and bereavement for the civilian population along with defeat and the loss of the vast majority of the territory of the Habsburg Empire. Based on a range of sources including official records and cultural products this thesis examines the commemoration of the First World War in the new Austrian state. Despite contemporary claims to the contrary, a very large number of tributes to the fallen were produced during the First Republic. By participating in commemorative activities Austrians remembered the sacrifices of the fallen but also sought to comprehend the experiences of war. However, the enormity of the conflict and the disunity of the new state meant that no single, dominant narrative on the experience of war could emerge. Rather a range of sometimes competing and sometimes complementary interpretations of the conflict were in evidence throughout the period of the First Republic. By examining these interpretations this thesis makes a contribution to the cultural history of the Great War and the complex history of Austria during the First Republic.

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