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This article focuses on the impact of images on reconstructions of the past. In order to analyze the function of images in history textbooks, image-discourse analysis is applied to a case study of Austrian postwar memory. The analysis of recent Austrian history textbooks provides insight into strategies by which notions of Austria as both "victim" and "perpetrator" of the National Socialist regime are held in balance. The article also focuses on the intentional framing of iconic depictions of two central Austrian sites of memory, Heroes' Square (Heldenplatz) and the State Treaty (Staatsvertrag).

This paper discusses the over-focalisation on the Mediterranean area of historians of the early modern Euro-Ottoman relationship and it offers a critical assessment of the numerous studies conducted by historians of the Habsburg Monarchy over thirty years. It shows that the histories of the Austrian monarchy and of the Ottoman Empire were interdependent and that war is a marginal element in their relationship. This paper emphasises the political use of the Ottoman history by Austrian scholars from Hammer-Purgstall's essential enterprise to the violent contestation of Samuel Huntington and his civilizational pattern. Cultural history, trade and diplomacy appear as the three ways of the Austrian historiographical shift, which nevertheless calls nowadays for a more pragmatic approach.

Purpose: On the occasion of its one hundredth birthday, the Republic of Austria has opened a history museum in November 2018 called the House of Austrian History. The considerations towards this are almost as old as the republic itself. This article shall analyze why political parties could not agree on a specific project for so long and illustrate the decision-making process and its implementation before ultimately categorizing the didactical-museographical concept of the exhibition from a historical-didactical perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The basis for the analysis is provided by Austrian daily newspaper coverage of the House of Austrian History. The body of sources limits itself to the period between January 2008 and January 2019 and has been evaluated based on the analysis of its content. Findings: In the course of the discussion, which preceded the opening of the House of Austrian History, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) debated bitterly for decades about how to best interpret Austrian contemporary history and were unable to find common ground. Eventually, both the SPÖ and the ÖVP were able to agree on a concept whereby the museum would focus upon the controversial, politically influenced metanarratives of the Austrian interwar period themselves. With the SPÖ having departed from the government, however, the museum's future remains uncertain.

When discussing "wartime ephemera", of the kind that has been passed down through families since the Second World War, Germany and Austria could be considered as a counterexample to Britain. In German and Austrian historical memory, "wartime" cannot be separated from pre-war Nazi society (beginning in 1933 and 1938, respectively). Moreover, what we might loosely call the "Antiques Roadshow experience"—discussing family objects from the Second World War in a sympathetic public forum—has never been open to the majority of Germans and Austrians, who were rather inclined to hide and forget such objects in the family home. Even so, mundane Nazi-era objects survived in their millions and this essay discusses their display in German and Austrian history museums. There, they serve to illustrate a history of mentalities during and after the Nazi regime. Austrian museums are currently playing a proactive role in the transfer of objects from the private, family archive to public, cultural memory. This article considers how notions of "family" are constructed in museum discourse and asks how the millions of German and Austrian citizens and residents with no family connection to the Second World War can be included in a form of national family storytelling that arguably "re-ethnicizes" memory.

This article presents the results of an analysis of different sources concerned with the workers' revolt of July 15, 1927 (also known as the Vienna Palace of Justice fire). The author pays special attention to the socio-historical and source-critical evaluation of more than 100 photographs illustrating this fire on July 15, 1927 by using the shadows on buildings in order to establish an exact dating of the documented acts of violence. This "shadow method" he developed himself allows to clarify the motivations and social composition of the protesters and reveal the role of the police in escalating the violence. He is able to establish an exact chronology of the events and an explanation of the social dynamics leading to a death toll of 85 demonstrators and 4 police men.