BOOK PRESENTATION & TALK | A COLD WAR OVER AUSTRIA
In their publication, A Cold War Over Austria: The Struggle for the State Treaty, Neutrality, and the End of East-West Occupation, 1945-1955 (Lexington Books, 2018) the renowned Austrian historian Gerald Stourzh and Wolfgang Mueller analyze post-WW-II Austria before independence and neutrality.
After World War II ended, the four victorious powers occupied Austria for another ten years before they could agree on a treaty about withdrawing from the country.
Based on US, Soviet, British, French, and Austrian documents, “A Cold War Over Austria” retraces the winding and highly complex process of international negotiations—a process full of risks, pitfalls and blockades—after which Austria could finally regain its full independence and be reconstructed.
On October 28, the authors will present their publication and will be joined in conversation by Presidential Historian Professor Timothy Naftali (NYU). Introduction by Kurt Scholz, Future Fund of the Republic of Austria.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Wolfgang Mueller is a Professor of Russian History at the University of Vienna and a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His books include Die sowjetische Besatzung in Österreich 1945–1955 und ihre politische Mission (Vienna: Böhlau, 2005); The Austrian State Treaty of 1955: International Strategy, Legal Relevance, National Identity (ed. with A. Suppan and G. Stourzh, Vienna: ÖAW, 2005); A Good Example of Peaceful Coexistence? The Soviet Union, Austria, and Neutrality, 1955–1991 (Vienna: ÖAW, 2011); The Revolutions of 1989 (ed. with M. Gehler and A. Suppan, Vienna: ÖAW, 2014).
With a joint appointment in History and at Wagner, Timothy Naftali, a Clinical Associate Professor of Public Service and a Clinical Associate Professor of History, is director of NYU’s undergraduate Public Policy Major. A native of Montreal and a graduate of Yale with a doctorate in history from Harvard, Naftali writes on national security and intelligence policy, international history and presidential history.
Gerald Stourzh is Professor emeritus of Modern History at the University of Vienna and a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His book includes Benjamin Franklin and American Foreign Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1954); Alexander Hamilton and the Idea of Republican Government (Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1970); Die Gleichberechtigung der Nationalitäten in der Verfassung und Verwaltung Österreichs 1848-1918 (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1985), Wege zur Grundrechtsdemokratie (Vienna: Böhlau, 1989); Um Einheit und Freiheit: Staatsvertrag, Neutralität und das Ende der Ost-West-Besetzung Österreichs; (revised edition with a bibliographical epilogue, Vienna: Böhlau 2005); From Vienna to Chicago and Back. Essays on Intellectual History and Political Thought in Europe and America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007); Die moderne Isonomie. Menschenrechtsschutz und demokratische Teilhabe als Gleichberechtigungsordnung (Vienna: Böhlau, 2015).
The event is kindly sponsored by the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria.