Nazism and the Working Class in Austria

The image of Hitler as a demagogic 'pied piper' leading astray the 'little people' of Austria is as misleading as it is powerful. Nazism and the Working Class in Austria is a case study of the ambiguous relationship between state and society in Austria under the Nazis. It places the experience of Austrian industrial workers in the Third Reich in a broader historical context, from the origins of the earliest 'national socialist' movements in the backwaters of the Habsburg empire to the end of the Second World War. Workers did not seriously attempt or even expect to overthrow the Nazi regime in the face of unprecedented surveillance and terror; but neither were they converted, and their oppositional strategies and disgruntled political opinions reveal a truculent workforce, rather than one that was contented and converted.

• One of the first studies of Austria under the Nazis which corrects the Sound of Music image of wartime Austria
• The book shows that most of the Austrian workforce was disgruntled under the Nazis, rather than converted by the new dogma
• Of topical interest in the context of neo-fascist German nationalism in present-day Germany and Austria