ABSTRACT
The Erinnerungen offer the greatest promise as a supplement to primary documentation. A wide range of new sources on the history of social democracy during Austria’s Second Republic has become available for primary research, and for historians and political scientists engaged in study they represent an important, indeed vital, addition to the documentary record. These materials include impressive collections of archival documentation, housed primarily in Vienna, but also the publication of memoirs by Socialist Party (SPO) leaders such as Bruno Kreisky and Karl Mark. Memoirs, of course, are a genre that must be approached with a degree of care when considered as primary sources. That being said, Franz Olah’s Erinnerungen might later contribute to a critical rethinking of institutional histories of the SPO, and if this proves to be the case, Olah’s memoirs will indeed have proven themselves a welcome addition to this literature.
