Here’s what each of them was up to at the time:
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
- What he was doing: Freud was living and working in Vienna as a well-established psychoanalyst and medical doctor.
- Details: By 1913, Freud was 57 years old and at the height of his career. He had published Totem and Taboo (1913), was leading the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and teaching his theory of the unconscious and dream interpretation. He lived at Berggasse 19, where his famous consulting room still exists as a museum today.
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
- What he was doing: Hitler was a failed art student living in poverty.
- Details: He lived in Vienna from 1908 to 1913, mostly in men’s hostels like the one at Meldemannstraße. He tried and failed twice to get into the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. By 1913 he had moved to Munich, but he had spent the previous five years in Vienna, forming much of his worldview. So, around 1913 he was leaving Vienna for Germany.
Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
- What he was doing: Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary and journalist in exile.
- Details: He lived in Vienna from 1907 to 1914 after being exiled from Russia. There, he edited the Pravda newspaper (unrelated to the later Soviet one) for Russian workers abroad. He often wrote from Viennese cafés and was part of the émigré intellectual community. When WWI began in 1914, he was expelled from Austria as an enemy alien and moved to Switzerland.
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)
- What he was doing: Stalin was looking at how the Empire should deal with Ethnic minorities.
- Details: While in Vienna Stalin wrote Marxism and the National Question. Later in 1913 Stalin left Vienna to return to Russia and was arrested in Saint Petersburg and exiled to Siberia.
Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830–1916)
- What he was doing: Franz Joseph was the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, ruling from the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.
- Details: In 1913–14, the 83-year-old emperor was still actively ruling the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The assassination of his nephew, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in June 1914 would soon plunge his empire into World War I.
Other people also in Vienna at that time:
Politics & Society
- Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980) – Metalworker and trade union activist in Vienna (Simmering district), later leader of Yugoslavia.
- Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863–1914) – Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne; lived in Vienna and at his Konopiště estate; assassinated in June 1914.
- Victor Adler (1852–1918) – Founder of the Austrian Social Democratic Party.
- Otto Bauer (1881–1938) – Austro-Marxist theorist and socialist leader.
- Karl Renner (1870–1950) – Socialist politician; later first Chancellor of the Austrian Republic.
- Josef Redlich (1869–1936) – Liberal politician and historian; member of the Austrian parliament.
- Karl Lueger (1844–1910) – Former mayor of Vienna (deceased but still influential in local politics).
- Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) – Founder of modern Zionism (deceased, but the Zionist movement remained centered in Vienna).
Art & Literature
- Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) – Symbolist painter; leader of the Vienna Secession movement.
- Egon Schiele (1890–1918) – Expressionist painter and Klimt’s protégé.
- Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) – Avant-garde painter and playwright, central to the Expressionist movement.
- Alma Mahler (1879–1964) – Composer, socialite, and muse to several major artists.
- Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) – Author and playwright; one of the most widely read writers in Europe.
- Robert Musil (1880–1942) – Novelist and essayist, later author of The Man Without Qualities.
- Karl Kraus (1874–1936) – Satirist and editor of Die Fackel, a leading critic of Viennese society.
Music
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) – Composer and pioneer of atonal music; head of the “Second Viennese School.”
- Alban Berg (1885–1935) – Composer; student of Schoenberg.
- Anton Webern (1883–1945) – Composer; student of Schoenberg.
- Franz Lehár (1870–1948) – Popular composer of operettas, including The Merry Widow.
Philosophy & Science
- Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) – Philosopher from a wealthy Viennese family; future author of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
- Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) – Philosopher and founder of phenomenology; lectured in Vienna.
- Alfred Adler (1870–1937) – Psychologist; founder of individual psychology after splitting from Freud.
- Otto Rank (1884–1939) – Psychoanalyst; close collaborator of Freud.
- Paul Ehrenfest (1880–1933) – Theoretical physicist; associated with Vienna’s scientific circles before moving to Leiden.
Learn more about pre-war Vienna from the following books:
Leave a Reply