Herbert Steiner

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Herbert Steiner (born February 3, 1923 in Vienna ; † May 26, 2001 there ) was an Austrian historian . He was co-founder and long-time scientific director of the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW). He was also involved in the founding of the International Conference of Historians of the Labor Movement (ITH).

Life

Herbert Steiner was born in 1923 as the son of assimilated Jewish-Austrian parents in the 9th district of Vienna ( Alsergrund ). He grew up in a social democratic environment; his father, who came from Slavonia , was involved in the Republican Protection Association . Initially a member of the Social Democratic Child Friends , Steiner later joined the Red Falcons . In 1937 he became a member of the illegitimate Communist Youth Association of Austria (KJV). As a high school student he took part in anti-fascist work.

From 1933 he attended the Vienna IX high school. After the "Anschluss" of Austria (March 1938) by the National Socialist German Reich , he was expelled from school as a Jew. In November 1938 he was warned of the threat of arrest and then fled via the Netherlands to the United Kingdom , where he was accommodated in the Dovercourtbay Camp. His parents Heinrich and Valerie Steiner, who in the meantime tried in vain to leave the country, were forced to a " Jewish house " in 1941 and deported to occupied Riga in 1942 , died on the transport (father in 1942) or were in the Stutthof concentration camp east of Danzig ( Mother 1944) murdered.

Between 1939 and 1942 he trained as a typesetter and proofreader in a large London printing company and became a member of the London Society of Compositors . In 1940 he was interned briefly at Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man because of his citizenship . From 1941 Steiner was secretary at the Communist-influenced exile youth organization Young Austria in Great Britain . He became the publishing director of the Exiljugendverlag Jugend (called "Publishers for Young Austria and the Austrian World Youth Movement"), who u. a. published an anthology by Erich Fried , and from 1943 worked for German and English language publications. He was also the spokesman for an Austrian youth program on the BBC . In 1945 he was involved in the founding of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WBDJ). During his time in England, Steiner met many German-speaking exiles , including a. the historian Hans Rothfels , who inspired him in his choice of studies.

After the war, Steiner returned to Austria in October 1945 , where he was Federal Secretary of the Free Austrian Youth (FÖJ) together with Otto Brichacek from 1946 to 1952 . He also founded the Austrian Youth Hostel Association , of which he became vice-president. From 1953 to 1959 he was district secretary of the KPÖ in Meidling .

In 1958 he took up a distance learning course in history at the Charles University in Prague , which he finished as a candidate for science (CSc). His doctorate ( Dr. phil. ) Was certified by the University of Vienna in 1971 . In 1963, together with former resistance fighters and victims of National Socialism, he founded the non-partisan Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW), of which he was responsible until 1983; his successor was Wolfgang Neugebauer . In 1982 he completed his habilitation at the University of Vienna and was also authorized to teach modern history , and he supervised several dissertations.

In 1964 he founded the International Conference of Historians of the Labor Movement (ITH), of which he became treasurer. Between 1965 and 1968 Steiner was honorary secretary of the historical commission at the central committee of the KPÖ. He resigned from office after the Prague Spring . The Czechoslovakia forbade him from 1968 to 1989 entry. In 1972 he founded the friendship society Austria-Korean Democratic People's Republic (KVDR), which organized a state visit by Bruno Kreisky to North Korea . He became a project member of the Ministry of Science's "History of the Labor Movement" . Steiner was President of the Jura Soyfer Society (JSG) from 1988 . Due to his initiative, the Käthe Leichter Prize was started in 1991 as the Austrian State Prize. Lectures and conferences took him to the USA, China and Japan.

He was married and the father of two children. His wife came to England in 1939 on a Kindertransport . Steiner's estate is in the documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance and in the Vienna Library in the City Hall .

Awards / honors

Fonts (selection)

  • Where does your way lead The young Austrians abroad and at home. Young Austria, London [1945], DNB 99290191X (available online in the reading room of the DNB in ​​Leipzig and in Frankfurt am Main).
  • Sentenced to death. Austrians against Hitler. A documentation . With a foreword by Friedrich Heer , Europa Verlag , Vienna a. a. 1964.
  • The Austrian Labor Movement 1867–1889. Contributions to their history from the founding of the Viennese workers 'education association to the unification party conference in Hainfeld (= publications of the working group for the history of the workers' movement in Austria . Volume 2) Europa Verlag, Vienna 1964.
  • as editor: Died for Austria. Resistance against Hitler (= Austria profiles ). Europa-Verlag, Vienna a. a. 1968.
  • The Communist Party of Austria from 1918 to 1933. Bibliograph. Remarks (= Marburg treatises on political science . Volume 11). Europa Verlag, Vienna 1968.
  • The Scheu brothers. A biography (= publications of the Working Group for the History of the Workers' Movement in Austria . Volume 5). Europa Verlag, Vienna 1968.
  • Karl Marx in Vienna. The labor movement between revolution and restoration 1848 . Europa Verlag, Vienna a. a. 1978, ISBN 3-203-50665-3 .
  • Died for Austria. [Resistance to Hitler. A documentation] . Löcker, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-85409-243-1 .
  • as editor: Käthe Leichter . Life, work and death of an Austrian social democrat . Ibera / Molden, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-900436-28-2 .

literature

  • Brigitte Bailer , Winfried R. Garscha , Wolfgang Neugebauer : Herbert Steiner and the foundation of the DÖW . In: DÖW yearbook (2013), pp. 43–62.
  • Steiner, Herbert . In: Fritz Fellner , Doris A. Corradini: Austrian History in the 20th Century. A biographical-bibliographical lexicon (= publications of the Commission for Modern History of Austria. Vol. 99). Böhlau, Vienna a. a. 2006, ISBN 978-3-205-77476-1 , pp. 311-312.
  • Winfried R. Garscha: Herbert Steiner (1923-2001) . In: Günter Benser , Michael Schneider (Eds.): "Preserve - Spread - Enlighten". Archivists, librarians and collectors of the sources of the German-speaking labor movement . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung , Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-86872-105-8 , pp. 326–334.
  • Brigitte Halbmayr : Herbert Steiner. In many ways, across borders. A political biography (= Encyclopedia of Viennese Knowledge. Portraits . Volume III). Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz, Weitra 2015, ISBN 978-3-99028-519-0 .
  • Eric Hobsbawm : Herbert Steiner, founder and first director of the DÖW, and the importance of resistance research . In: DÖW-Jahrbuch (2004), pp. 16–21.
  • Helmut Konrad : About Herbert Steiner (1922–2001): Commemorative speech on September 13, 2001 in Linz. In: Yearbook for research on the history of the workers' movement (2002), pp. 69–73.
  • Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century. Volume 3: S – Z, Register. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 1312.
  • Helmut Konrad, Wolfgang Neugebauer (ed.): Workers' Movement - Fascism - National Consciousness. Festschrift for the 20th anniversary of the documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance and the 60th birthday of Herbert Steiner (= publications of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the History of the Labor Movement ). With prefaces by Hertha Firnberg and Bruno Marek , Europaverlag, Vienna a. a. 1983.
  • Anton Pelinka : Herbert Steiner. The energy of the lovable . In: Information from the Society for Political Enlightenment , No. 69, June 2001 (also in: DÖW-Mitteilungen , volume 153).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Herbert, Steiner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian communist and founder of the DÖW
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 2001
Place of death Vienna