2014: Transcending Borders. Herbert Steiner (1923-2001)

The name Herbert Steiner is closely linked to the founding of the Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance (Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes – DÖW) in 1963. This was an important step for collecting and researching testimonies of the National-Socialist past, not only with respect to the resistance put up by Austrians, as the name of the institution suggests, but also with respect to their numerous participation in National-Socialist crimes. From the very beginning, the Documentation Archive was a non-party institution, which is reflected in its priorities as well as in the composition of its executive board and board of trustees.

The name Herbert Steiner is also closely linked with many other activities: the intense political and cultural work of "Young Austria", a youth organisation of Austrians who fled National Socialism to Great Britain – in 1941, Steiner became the Secretary of "Young Austria"; the promotion of the memory of Jura Soyfer, also going back to this period; a lifelong communist conviction, although this became fragile over the decades; an intense exchange with scientific communities studying the labour movements of Western and Eastern Europe; his enormous interest in the Austrian labour movement and the bourgeois revolution in 1848.

All this and much more is addressed in Herbert Steiner’s biography. Other topics include his childhood in the Alsergrund district of Vienna, his politicization, and his flight to England. Another focus of interest was Steiner’s family background: born in Vienna, with ancestors in Croatia, where his father came from, and in Austria as well as Hungary on his mother’s side. The biography finally details the painful efforts of Steiner and his relatives to escape from their National Socialist homeland, which denied Jews the right to live. All relatives were finally able to leave Austria in time – except Steiner’s parents, who both perished in the Holocaust.

Steiner returned from London to Austria in 1945 and worked in the Communist Party, to which he stayed loyal throughout his life while always seeking exchange and collaboration with representatives of other parties, except the extreme right.

He put much of his energy into the DÖW, which he directed for 20 years, and into the International Conference of Historians of the Labour Movement (now: International Conference of Labour and Social History), an institution he co-founded in 1964. In all his fields of interest, Steiner was well known and highly valued for his efficient organization, his talent for networking and his generosity in supporting colleagues or young academics.

To capture the complexity of Steiner’s personality, about thirty interviews were conducted, as Steiner himself did not leave many records of his personal experiences. Interview partners were people who still knew him from London exile, colleagues from his many fields of work, and those who were with him over his last years, among them his wife Rella, who died in July 2013, and his two children Vally and Hans. Further important sources were his estate, which is archived at the DÖW, as well his scientific publications and numerous editorships.

The biography was published in 2015 by Bibliothek der Provinz.