In 1933 Engelbert Dolfuss seized power in the name of Austrofascism, which gave way to Nazi fascism in 1938 with the Anschluss. Hitler, who moved to Vienna from Linz in upper Austria, had been transfixed by Schoenerer and, particularly, Lueger. He hungrily absorbed all his hero’s complaints about the Jews and the mixing of “races”; he called the Viennese a “repulsive bunch”. Thus liberal Vienna had produced its exact opposite: militant nationalism and anti-Semitism. During the interwar years these forces gradually took hold of the new Austria and from the 1920s onwards many began to flee abroad. One of the last out, in 1938, was Freud.

Source: Vienna: How Vienna produced ideas that shaped the West | The Economist – 12/24/2016

Magnificent article on Vienna’s most glorious days and its lasting contributions to western art and culture.  As this is BackChannels, the note, however, picks up on the irony of developing a liberal state only to find it encouraging a transformation in the direction of fascist enterprise.

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