The book project examines interplay between everyday concerns of ordinary party members and the reconstitution of party organization in the context of party functionaries’ efforts to restore Vienna’s interwar reputation as a model for municipal socialism and to promote a distinctly social democratic form of Austrian identity. Issues investigated include denunciation of former Nazis who evaded registration under denazification legislation; labor service for registered Nazis; rehabilitation petitions for Social Democrats who had become Nazis; party patronage; housing requests; social welfare for returning émigrés, concentration camp inmates, and POWs; and reestablishment of a democratically oriented municipal school system.

Matthew Berg is Professor of History at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he teaches courses in 20th century Central European history, the Cold War, and human rights. His research focus is the founding years of the Austrian Second Republic, between 1945-1955. His publications include studies of Austrian social democracy, urban history with a focus on Vienna, and memory and Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Austria since 1945. He is a four-time recipient of Fulbright Fellowships to Austria and Germany. Outside of university work he has served as election observer to Azerbaijan, Kosovo, and Ukraine for the OSCE. He earned his PhD and MA in History from the University of Chicago in 1993 and 1985, respectively, and his BA in History from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1984.