ABSTRACT
Brigitte Hamann‘s book about the Vienna of Adolf Hitler’s youth has been a great success since its publication, and deservedly so. Hamann’s explanation as to why Hitler chose falsely to project his anti-Semitism back to his time in Vienna, because this way his development would appear more ‘organic’ and hence more acceptable to biologistic and racist German nationalists also is not very convincing. The relative absence of Austrian historiography might be explained by Hamann’s at times strained relationship with academic historians in her adopted country, where she is known mainly as a writer of books about the Habsburgs rather than as a “historical scientist.” Carl Schorske is cited once, on Theodor Herzl, but there are no references to the various works on Viennese Jewry, such as those by Robert Wistrich, nor are there many to the various articles and books published in English which have dealt directly with the issues Hamann addresses.
