586. How Does the Lost World of Vienna Still Shape Our Lives? | Freakonomics Radio

From politics and economics to psychology and the arts, many of the modern ideas we take for granted emerged a century ago from a single European capital. In this episode of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, the historian Richard Cockett explores all those ideas - and how the arrival of fascism can ruin in a few years what took generations to build.
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[@languagepool-germanusingli9902]

This is a super interesting podcast. I can highly represent Stefan Zweig's autobiography. Equally tomorrow I will buy Richard's book. I'm excited to read it. During covid I rode my bicycle from Berlin to Vienna in search of what I might find there. In fact, the place was deserted and what is left is only an echo of the past. If I could go back in time I would go to Vienna in 1905 and experience it for myself. Indeed amazing how for a flicker of time a city may emerge as a beacon of enlightenment surrounded by a deeply conservative, rule bound, fascist land. Thank you so much for this.

[@reginamontana942]

I enjoyed this podcast. I was 20 years old when I chose Vienna to live in from 1967 to 1968. I was a German major and my teacher thought this would be the best city so off we went. It was life changing and I had no idea how much this city of wine, women and song impacted my life. To this day I will never be the same. I kind of remember seeing an indoor mall for the first time and this podcast reminded me that Austria invented them. I also had the experience years later of working briefly for Ernest Dichter who lived in my town, Croton on Hudson, New York. Unbelievable.

[@mikhailfranco]

Come on, they were _all_ Jewish. Every single name you mention was Jewish (except Schumpeter - Catholic, and maybe Klimt). You even name New York as a second Vienna: NY is the biggest Jewish city on earth.
They both had/have a minority % of Jews, which completely dominate(d) all valuable and creative industries.
Up to 12% in Vienna, but 15% (2023) - 25% (1950) in New York,
yet they comprise(d) 30-40-50-60% of doctors, lawyers, bankers, ...
had almost total control over many creative industries (music, theatre, art, writing, publishing,...)
as well as various academic disciplines (economics, philosophy, math, ...)
You mention Dichter for marketing, but not Bernays (Freud's nephew), who invented PR and propaganda. The _Vienna Circle_ of philosophers originated with Frank, Neurath and Hahn, but encompassed Wittgenstein, Popper, Tarski, Feigl, Bergmann, Menger, Kaufmann, Kraft, Waismann, Rand, Schächter, Zilsel and 'the other' von Mises. The Vienna Circle was contemporary with the _Frankfurt School._
I'm not saying it's bad, it is (was) certainly a bright flourishing of the intellect, and very positive for the US when many of them emigrated from Vienna. But the fact they were _all_ Jewish is a curious question that needs addressing, rather than avoiding. A second question might be what benefit did the US gain from all European migration caused by WWII, including pre-war exiles and post-war recruitment, like Werner von Braun. It might be tricky, but interesting, to disentangle the migration of the persecuted, motivated and gifted, from the pure economic expansion of the war effort, destruction of almost all other industry on the planet, and far-sighted polices like the Marshall Plan and the GI Bill. Then, perhaps compare WWII period with today - are the East and South Asian migrants as productive? (my hunch is enormously beneficial for the US, but not quite as significant as the WWII period). Finally, what would happen if that migration benefit was ever switched off (by US policy or foreign preferences) - hard to imagine at the current moment, but still interesting. Does the US actually have a dynamic population, _sans_ immigration? (e.g. some large % of startups have at least one foreign-born founder, and many more 2nd generation immigrants).
Meanwhile, Austria ducks out of the defense of western civilization, as a free-rider, enclosed by, but not in, NATO. No wonder they are rich. Can you name a world-dominating Austrian company??? No, but they bank all their gains while the rest of us defend their perimeter.