ABSTRACT
The publication of the memoirs of Egon and Heinrich Berger Waldenegg presents the critical reader with the hope for insight into the history of the late First Republic, even as that hope must be tempered by knowledge of the aforementioned weaknesses. Egon was a minister in the cabinets of Dollfuss and Schuschnigg and was later demoted to Austrian ambassador to Italy, while Heinrich—his son—experienced life as an Austrian exile during the war. As the title indicates the book is also part biography and includes substantial descriptive elements regarding the lives of both men. Biographie im Spiegel: Die Memoiren zweier Generationen is of mild interest to the historian. Its most notable aspect, Egon Berger-Waldenegg's truthful admission that in his opinion Austria could only secure herself against Nazi Germany through closely Italian-oriented politics, which he tried to advance, could also be gleaned through archival research.
