Botstiber Austrian-American Podcast

Special guest host Jacqueline Vansant, professor emerita of German at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, discusses different research perspectives examining Austrian-Jewish Child Migration during WWII. In "Epistolary Rescue in Austrian Children and Youth Fleeing Nazi Austria" with Kirsten Krick-Aigner, adolescent agency is featured as well as the diversity of archival resources available in the record of Marianne Winter and her family's migration.

Special guest host Jacqueline Vansant, professor emerita of German at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, discusses different research perspectives examining Austrian-Jewish Child Migration during WWII. Recollection is a defining aspect of Vansant's conversation with Tim Corbett whose work exploring the vast collection of memoirs and personal testimonies contained in the Austrian Heritage Collection at the Leo Baeck Institute New York focuses on how social categorizations like age, gender, class, and more shaped the migration experience.

Special guest host Jacqueline Vansant, professor emerita of German at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, discusses different research perspectives examining Austrian-Jewish Child Migration during WWII. In Early Refugee Studies in Austrian Children and Youth Fleeing Nazi Austria with Swen Steinberg, the conversation features the research questionnaires from Ernst Papanek's graduate work. Papanek rescued almost 300 children during WWII, and he further sought to understand their experiences in a manner unmitigated by adult intervention, time, and experience.

In this podcast, Thomas Antonic discusses the life and work of Austrian-American Beat poet ruth weiss. His film about ruth weiss, "One More Step West Is the Sea," won New York Independent Cinema's 2021 Best International Documentary Feature Award.

Lilly Maier is the author of the recent biography of Ernst Papanek, "Auf Wiedersehen, Kinder!: Ernst Papanek. Revolutionär, Reformpädagoge und Retter jüdischer Kinder." In this podcast, she discusses the remarkable life of the Viennese-born socialist and educator who saved the lives of almost 300 children from the Nazis.

Prof. Alison J. Clarke discusses her new book, "Victor Papanek: Designer for the Real World," a biography of social design's Austrian-American trailblazer. Victor Papanek wrote "Design for the Real World," a book that augured the ascent of socially and ecologically sustainable design movements many years later. Published in 1971, the impact and relevance of his book persists globally. Prof. Clarke argues that Papanek's Austrian and émigré experiences are significant for understanding the designer and his theories.

Dr. Christiane Tewinkel discusses her musicology research as related to Theodor Leschetizky and his American students. Born in Galicia in 1830, Theodor Leschetizky, a pianist and composer himself, became internationally famous as a piano teacher with over 1,000 students. Of these, 350-400 were American. Although Leschetizky had enormous influence during his time, his personal records had never been studied. That is, until now. Christiane Tewinkel traveled to the Leschetizky Association in New York to see their special collection for herself. Her findings are fascinating, revealing so much about a man, his "Method," students, transatlantic relations, musicology, and more.

In this second part of her podcast, Dr. Katherine Sorrels elaborates on specific elements of the Camphill Movement: anthroposophy, counterculture, approaches to disability, and Hans Asperger and more.

The Camphill Movement is a global network of intentional communities for abled and intellectually disabled people. With over 100 communities today, Camphill began in 1939 after Dr. Karl Koenig, his wife Tilla, and a group of volunteers—all having fled Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938—rejoined in Aberdeen, Scotland. There they undertook the care of Austrian- and German-Jewish refugee children, as well as British children with disabilities. From that first Camphill Special School, a fusion of Jewish diasporas with Austrian and German spiritual movements and the U.S. counterculture all developed Camphill's extraordinary approach to disability.

Clemens von Pirquet, an Austrian pediatrician and scientist, held a prominent role in the international post-WWI humanitarian relief efforts during Austria’s hunger crisis. Pirquet directed his unique, scientific-based system of nutrition (no cocoa here, please) with the support of the American Relief Administration. As a result of this transatlantic partnership, hundreds of thousands of Austrian children were saved from starvation. Pirquet is primarily remembered today for his eponymous tuberculin skin test and for imparting the term “allergy” to represent the body’s heightened responses to a foreign substance. In this podcast with Dr. Michael Burri, we appreciate Pirquet’s significant achievements as an early global public health figure.

Vic Huber is an American Honorary Consul in Vienna and the Programme Director of the Austro-American Society in Vienna. He shares his own personal story about growing up in post-war Vienna and his lifelong journey with American culture with Jonathan Singerton.

In his book, The Paper War between the United States and Austria-Hungary, historian Kurt Bednar looks at the final years of the Habsburg Monarchy through an American lens. He discusses the research for his book, his findings, and his views on one of the most pivotal chapters in Austrian-American relations with Jonathan Singerton.

Marion Romberg discusses how the image of America (with feather crowns, parrots, and crocodiles) was popularized in early modern times with Jonathan Singerton. Marion Romberg is a research associate at the Department of Habsburg and Balkan Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna, Austria), the network editor of the Habsburg Discussion Network, and a Member of the Board of Directors for the Austrian Society for 18th Century Studies. Relevant links: 1) Marion Romberg: https://marionromberg.eu 2) Department of Habsburg and Balkan Studies: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/inz/ 3) Habsburg Discussion Network: http://www.h-net.org/~habsweb/ 4) Austrian Society for 18th Century Studies: https://oege18.org

William O’Reilly, senior lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Cambridge and full-time fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Central European University, discusses his research for his forthcoming book, Selling Souls, with Jonathan Singerton. Early human traffickers, soul-sellers (Seelenverkäufer) were in the business of enlisting and conveying German-speaking migrants to North America and Central and Eastern Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The first of three podcasts dedicated to exploring the history of the mass migration from Austria-Hungary to the United States. In this three-part series on their book entitled "From a Multiethnic Empire to a Nation of Nations: Austro-Hungarian Migrants in the US, 1870 to 1940", authors Wladimir Fischer-Nebmaier, James Oberly, and Annemarie Steidl discuss the unique findings of their collaborative, multi-disciplinary study in which they uncovered new information regarding the migration between the Habsburg Monarchy and the United States—among the most significant migrations in history. Their work challenges commonly held immigration theories regarding assimilation while documenting the diversity of ethnic and religious groups during the two waves of migration from Austro-Hungary.

The third of three podcasts dedicated to exploring the history of the mass migration from Austria-Hungary to the United States. In this three-part series on their book entitled "From a Multiethnic Empire to a Nation of Nations: Austro-Hungarian Migrants in the US, 1870 to 1940", authors Wladimir Fischer-Nebmaier, James Oberly, and Annemarie Steidl discuss the unique findings of their collaborative, multi-disciplinary study in which they uncovered new information regarding the migration between the Habsburg Monarchy and the United States—among the most significant migrations in history. Their work challenges commonly held immigration theories regarding assimilation while documenting the diversity of ethnic and religious groups during the two waves of migration from Austro-Hungary.

The second of three podcasts dedicated to exploring the history of the mass migration from Austria-Hungary to the United States. In this three-part series on their book entitled "From a Multiethnic Empire to a Nation of Nations: Austro-Hungarian Migrants in the US, 1870 to 1940", authors Wladimir Fischer-Nebmaier, James Oberly, and Annemarie Steidl discuss the unique findings of their collaborative, multi-disciplinary study in which they uncovered new information regarding the migration between the Habsburg Monarchy and the United States—among the most significant migrations in history. Their work challenges commonly held immigration theories regarding assimilation while documenting the diversity of ethnic and religious groups during the two waves of migration from Austro-Hungary.

Austrian novelist Theodora Bauer discusses her 2017 book, "Chikago."

Historian Alison Orton examines how central European immigrants impacted American beer culture.

Dr. Kristina Poznan, Associate Director of the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies, discusses the experiences of early 20th century Austro-Hungarian migrants to the United States.