Karl Lueger

Book excerpt: A biography of the Christian Social mayor of Vienna (1897-1910). Ch. 5 (p. 171-207), "Running with the Hares, Hunting with the Hounds", discusses Lueger's antisemitism, which many historians have tended to discount. While leaving open the question of Lueger's personal convictions, argues that his antisemitic remarks and those of his party associates exerted an extremely harmful influence which continued through the First Republic and is still felt today, and that only the limitations imposed on him by the Emperor prevented drastic measures against the Jews. Reviews the position of Lueger and the Christian Socialists in the debate over Jews at the university (especially the medical school), the antisemitic productions of Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn's Kaiserjubiläums-Stadttheater (the "Aryan Theater"), and demands for segregation in the public schools.