The library in Vienna’s Rathaus–the city’s famous Town Hall–is currently hosting an exhibition on the history of the Vienna Circle, which is not only fascinating, but was an inspiration for my novel, THE EXPERT OF SUBTLE REVISIONS. The Vienna Circle, known for its scientific world view, met on Thursdays at the University of Vienna until antisemitism and fascist ideologies brought the discussions to an abrupt end.
I couldn’t visit the show in person, but photographer Elisabeth Preininger sent photographs, which capture the chilling effect Austrofascism had on intellectual life. As the exhibition copy notes (excerpted here in translation): “Austrofascism marked a major first break, and the Anschluss almost completely expelled the Vienna Circle.”
In the photograph below, we can see when members of the Vienna Circle, including my grandfather, Karl Menger, left the country:
My grandfather came to the United States not long after Moritz Schick was murdered in 1936. He was in the United States when he formally resigned from the university. His resignation letter to the University of Vienna is included in the exhibition:
The murder of Moritz Schlick and the subsequent exodus of intellectuals became a focus of my novel, which also captures the rise of Austrofascism and the antisemitism prevalent at the university. The exhibition copy notes “Reactionary and anti-Semitic currents made the university a precarious place for the Vienna Circle from the very beginning.” I read about this in my grandfather’s memoir, Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and the Mathematical Colloquium, as well. My grandfather talks about how students paraded through the campus beating Jewish and socialist students, and how the university had to close for long periods of time in response to the violence.
The exhibition includes a quote from my grandfather: “In 1933/34, the university was closed for extended periods of time, Both Schlick’s Circle and my Colloquium, however, met regularly though Schlick, Hahn, and I, being the only members with keys to the deserted buildings, had let the others in. Upon entering one had the feeling of having reached a quiet oasis.”
German Nationalists, who were prevalent in the faculty, blocked Jewish and socialist hires. One professor, Johannes Sauter, under the pseudonym ‘Prof. Autriacus’ even went so far as to (grotesquely) blame Schlick himself for his own murder. For a Catholic weekly, he claimed that “with his anti-metaphysical philosophy, [Schlick] had violated Christian-German values and stirred up the student youth.”
I wish I could visit the exhibit in person! But I was grateful for a chance to see my grandfather and the Vienna Circle in the photographs:
The exhibition runs until September 19, 2025, with guided tours led by the curators (see the website for dates and times). [One of the exhibition curators, Friedrich Stadler, is the author of The Vienna Circle: Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism, which I used while researching my novel!]
Wien und die Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung: Orte des Wiener Kreises
Wienbibliothek im Rathaus, Ausstellungskabinett
1010 Wien, Rathaus, Eingang Felderstraße, Stiege 6, Glaslift, 1. Stock