URBS 234 - Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Crisis, Politics, and Culture in a Modern City

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as HIST 234) At the turn of the nineteenth century, the composer Gustav Mahler is rumored to have said: “If the world comes to an end, then I’ll move to Vienna, because there everything happens fifty years later.” Mahler’s opinion of Vienna was shared by many of his contemporaries, yet in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the city seemed anything but impervious to historical transformation. The seat of a sweeping multiethnic empire, Vienna emblemized the promises and discontents of modern life. It underwent a process of rapid urbanization, gave new form to mass politics, produced avant-garde artistic and intellectual movements, and navigated novel questions about imperial expansion, sovereignty, and multiculturalism. In this seminar, we examine Vienna during this period of profound transition. We begin by contextualizing this era within the longer history of the Hapsburg Empire after the revolutions of 1848, and end by linking it to the rise of Austrofascism in 1934. Throughout the course, we explore different approaches to studying urban history and work with a wide range of primary source materials including city maps, architectural blueprints, works of visual art, fiction, and film. Anna Solovy.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS