Fritz Keller (historian)

Fritz Keller (born May 19, 1950 in Vienna ) is an Austrian historian and journalist .

Life

At the age of 15, Fritz Keller, who was graduating from a secondary school in Vienna- Simmering , joined the Association of Socialist Middle School Students (VSM). As a functionary of this organization and the Austrian School Newspaper Center , he was one of the driving forces behind the 1968 movement - among other things, he initiated the Austrian anti-armed forces referendum with Wilfried Daim and Günther Nenning .

As a member of the Federal Presidium of the VSM, he managed the separation from the SPÖ, which was actually carried out in 1973 . When the plan he favored to split off the Socialist Youth from the Social Democrats in the same way failed, he withdrew from all day-to-day political activities and began to deal with the history of the radical left in Austria.

Fritz Keller, whose parents were unable to finance his studies for him, had a job since graduating from high school, first in the housing department and then as a food policeman in the city of Vienna's market office. In this department he was involved as an oppositional trade unionist and most recently represented the name list association “Consistent representation of interests” on the central board of the union of community workers . He therefore viewed the commission of the Austrian Commission of Historians to review the history of the Market Office during National Socialism as a project in line with the principle of “dig where you are”.

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In 1971 he published a study on The Workers 'and Soldiers' Councils in Austria 1918–1923 (Vienna 1971, Reprint Vienna 1998), which is still praised by specialist historians for its "remarkable quality", although the author "was never trained as a historian".

Because of his contribution to an anthology published by the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance on right-wing extremism in Austria , Fritz Keller was informed by the FPÖ lawyer Tassilo Broesigke in 1980 on behalf of ten plaintiffs from the right-wing extremist scene (including Helmut Golowitsch from the NPD , Anton Bergermayer from Kameradschaft IV der Waffen-SS , Josef Feldner from the Carinthian Homeland Service ) accused of " defamation ". At the same time the book was confiscated by the court. However, the criminal proceedings against Keller have been dropped.

After the collapse of real socialism , Keller published three volumes of a critical edition of Paul Lafargue's work. Lafargue (1842–1911) was the son-in-law of Karl Marx ; as early as 1883 he extolled the right to be lazy to the European labor movement .

On the occasion of the centenary of the existence of Public Services International (trade union international of public employees), Keller published a critical account of this branch international.

In 2010 he received his doctorate in philosophy from Marcel van der Linden from the Institute for Social History in Amsterdam with a dissertation on “Solidarity of the Austrian Left with the Algerian Resistance Movement”. Later he researched the history of the Austrian and international trade union movement .

Awards

• 1972 Mary and Joseph Buttinger Prize
• 1994 Theodor Körner Prize
• 2002 professional title professor

Publications

Books

• Against the current - factional struggles in the KPÖ - Trotskyists and other groups 1919–1945 . Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1978.
• Into the gulag from east and west. Karl Fischer , worker and revolutionary . International Socialist Publications, Frankfurt am Main 1980.
• Vienna, May 1968 - A hot quarter of an hour . Junius-Verlag, Vienna 1983, 1988.
• A new spring? Socialist youth organizations 1945–1965 . Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1985.
• Paul Lafargue 1842-1911 . Association for the History of the Labor Movement , Vienna 1995.
• The Vienna Market Office 1938 to 1945 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 3486567748 (Volume 12 of the publications of the Austrian Commission of Historians )
• International Public Services - The First 100 Years . Association for the History of the Labor Movement, Vienna 2007.
• Vienna, May 1968 - A hot quarter of an hour . New edition with an afterword by Rolf Schwendter , Mandelbaum-Verlag, Vienna 2008.
• Lived Internationalism - Austrian Left and the Algerian Resistance (1958–1963) . With prefaces by Karl Blecha and Marcel van der Linden . Promedia-Verlag, Vienna 2010. (Arabic translation, published by Dar Khettab Verlag, Algiers 2014, ISBN 9789931429050 )
• The Pölzers. A social democratic family saga . edition les.arten at new academic press, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-99036-004-0 .
• The kitchen in war - food standards 1933 to 1945 , new academic press, Vienna, 2015
• We make history. The Union of Community Employees 1945–2015 - art, media, sport, liberal professions . Publishing house of ÖGB Vienna 2015
• A life on the verge of probability. Si Mustapha alias Winfried Müller: From Wehrmacht deserter to hero of the Algerian liberation struggle , Mandelbaum 2017.
• with Sabine Lichtenberger: The History of Codetermination in Austria (Politics and Current Affairs 14: As of April 2019), Vienna 2019.

(Co-) editorships

• Lobau - The Naked of Vienna . Junius-Verlag, Vienna 1985.
• Paul Lafargue : The Religion of Capital. Monte Verita Verlag, Vienna 1992.
• Paul Lafargue: Gender Relations. Argument-Verlag, Hamburg 1995, with a foreword by Frigga Haug.
• with Bärbel Danneberg , Aly Machalicky: The '68 . A generation and its legacy. Döcker-Verlag, Vienna 1998.
• Paul Lafargue: Essays on History, Culture and Politics. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2002. With a foreword by Iring Fetscher .
• Rosa Luxemburg - Thought and Life of an International Revolutionary . Promedia-Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85371-232-0 .

Contributions to anthologies (selection)

• Right-wing extremism in the 1st Republic - Heimwehr, National Socialism, corporate state. In: DÖW (Hrsg.): Right-wing extremism in Austria after 1945 . Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1979
• The split in the KPÖ 1969–1970. In: Jürgen Baumgarten (Ed.): Left Socialists in Europe - Alternatives to Social Democracy and Communism . Junius-Verlag, Hamburg 1982
• The New Left in Vienna. In: Fantasy, Power and Pack Ice - Youth Movements in Austria since 1968. Kulturverband Favoriten, Vienna 1982
• The wigwams of the Lobau Indians. In: Ali Gronner / Elisabeth Hirt (ed.): This Vienna . Junius-Verlag, Vienna 1986
• Stalinist populism - the National League. In: Anton Pelinka (Ed.): Populism in Austria . Junius-Verlag, Vienna 1987
• But the dog flower blooms even in the rain puddle - politics and culture in 1968. In Uwe Hirschfeld (Hrsg.): Gramsci Perspektiven. Argument special volume new episode 256, Hamburg 1998
• Keyword: hedonism. In: Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism - Volume 5 , ed. By Wolfgang Fritz Haug, Hamburg 2001
• 10 reasons for the general strike. In: Michael Rosecker / Bernhard Müller (ed.): Solidarity - Society, Community and Individual in the Past, Present and Future . Alltags-Verlag, Wiener Neustadt 2004
• The Vienna Market Office in the service of the war economy. In: Studies on Viennese History - Yearbook of the Association for the History of the City of Vienna. Volume 59 (2003)
• The Vienna Market Office 1938–1945. In: Fritz Mayrhofer / Ferdinand Opll (eds.): City and National Socialism , Contributions to the History of the Cities of Central Europe, Volume 21 (Linz 2008)
• May 1968 or brass band hype. In: Wolfgang Maderthaner / Michaela Maier (ed.): Eight hours but we want to be human - May 1st. History and stories . edition rot, Vienna 2010

Articles in scientific journals (selection)

• The national question. In: Austrian Journal for Political Science . No. 2/1977
• The European labor movement and the Second World War. In: International Conference of Historians of the Labor Movement - Conference Reports. Volume 20/1985
• Continuity and rupture in Russian policy on Germany. In: Archives for the history of resistance and work. No 12/1992
• The KPÖ 1945–1955. In: Yearbook for historical communism research. 1993
• Walter Rafelsberger. In: Wiener Geschichtsblätter , issue 1/2003
• Official restrictions on the peddler trade from 1848 to the "economic miracle". In: Wiener Geschichtsblätter , issue 1/2003
• Against Hunger and Schleich - The Vienna Market Office 1945–1947. In: Viennese history sheets. Issue 1/2005
• Hello service man! A socio-historical sketch. In: Viennese history sheets. Issue 4/2007
• How the "Ostmark sweet tooth" learned to love the stew. In: Contemporary History. Issue 5 / September – October 2007
• The right to be lazy - Censored? In: Archives for the history of resistance and work. No. 18, Bochum 2008

Non-German-language publications (selection)

• Le Trotskysme en Autriche de 1934 a 1945. In: Cahier Leon Trotsky No. 5, Paris Janivier-Mars 1980
• Dr. Heinrich Schüller (1901–1962) - From resistance struggle to the war of liberation. In: Revolutionary History. Volume 8, no 1, London 2000
• Paul Lafargue and the flowering of French Socialism. In: International Review of Social History. volume 45, part 2, Amsterdam August 2000
• Fighting for Public Services. Public Services International , Ferney 2007
• Lutter pour les services publics. L'Internationale des Services Publics , Ferney 2007
• La lucha por los servicios públicos, Internacional de Servicios Publicos , Ferney 2007
• Eintopf for the Austrian Gourmet: How even the Spoiled Austrians Learned to love German Hotchpotch; in: Contemporary Austrian Studies, vol. 17, New Orleans 2009
• Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ): http://www.leksikon.org/art.php?n=4978 (Danish), Oct. 2009
• Solidarity action in Austria; in: European Revolutionaries and Algerian Independence 1954–1962 - Revolutionary History Volume 10, Number 4 / London 2012
• Solidarité en Action - Soutien européen à la résitance algérienne 1954–1963, Algiers 2013 (together with Kader Benamara)
• Friedrich Engels: Correspondence October 1889 to November 1890. Vol. 30 of Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels: Complete edition (review); in: Socialism and Democracy Volume 29, Number 1 / New York 2015
• Otto Rudolf Schatz: Un peintre viennois et la cause algérienne. In: L'ivr EscQ . No 45, March – April 2016, Algeria 2016 (together with Kader Benamara)

CD-ROM

• Red. The Austrian Social Democracy - Political History, Culture. Renner Institute, Vienna 1994 (collaboration)

Exhibitions

• The cold of February. Stadtbahn-Remise Wien-Meidling February 12th - May 1st 1984 (supervision as scientific secretary)
• Fantasy, power and pack ice - youth movement in Austria since 1968. Kulturverband Wien-Favoriten, May 1982 (curator)
• May 1st - demonstration, tradition, representation. Austrian Museum of Folklore (Vienna) May 1 to September 12, 2012 (curator)

Literature about Fritz Keller

• Wilhelm Svoboda : Revolt and Establishment. The history of the Association of Socialist Middle School Students 1953–1973. Böhlau, Vienna et al. 1986, ISBN 3-205-05038-X .
• Matthias Dusini: I'm not in the middle - Fritz Keller as the archivist of the 1968 movement. In: Falter city newspaper for Vienna. No. 23/2008 v. June 4, 2008, p. 72.
• Fritz Keller. In the Chamber of Terror of the Province of Austria. In: Lutz Schulenburg (ed.): Change life, change the world! - 1968 documents and reports. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 1998.
• Fritz Keller / Selim Nadi: L'Algérie, “fusée porteuse” du socialisme démocratique ?, In: Contretemps. Revue de Critique Communiste.

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Keller in the catalog of the German National Library

Footnotes

1. ↑ Mario Keßler: Ruth Fischer. A life with and against communists (1895–1961) . Böhlau, Cologne-Weimar-Vienna 2013. ISBN 978-3-412-21014-4 . P. 45.
2. ↑ Dissertation in full text