Modern Vienna: A History

This book provides a concise history of the capital city of Vienna in modern times. It includes a comprehensive outlook on the development of the city in social, economic and cultural terms.

Modern Vienna has a special focus on the period between the Austro-Hungarian settlement in 1867 and the end of the Second World War, and in particular the fin-de-siecle around 1900. The book combines approaches to the cultural and social history of Vienna with its political history, and presents a reliable introduction to students of the Habsburg Empire and its successor states. In addition, it provides an important case study for readers interested in urban history more generally.

Where possible, the development of the city of Vienna is compared with other major cities in the Habsburg Empire and Germany, and to other key Western cities that have been depicted as centres of modernity and modernism. This comparative perspective allows Egbert Klautke to deliver a fascinating re-assessment of the established view that Vienna circa-1900 was the ‘birthplace of modernity’.

It is an important volume for all students of modern Viennese, Austrian and Central European history.