1925: Murder of Hugo Bettauer

The murder of Austrian journalist and author Hugo Bettauer (1872–1925) cast a spotlight on the tense public mood of the First Republic. Bettauer was a celebrated author in the immediate postwar years and, as a result of his confrontational socio-critical attitude, was declared an enemy in (not only) radical right-wing circles. In his most famous novel, The City Without Jews (Die Stadt ohne Juden), the author openly opposed Austria’s antisemitic tendencies, thereby initially triggering great public agitation. With the publication of his two periodicals Er und Sie (1924) and Bettauers Wochenschrift (1924–1927), hostilities grew even stronger and led to inflammatory proportions. In both of his periodicals, Bettauer dealt with erotic as well as “morally offensive” vilified topics, which also earned him a charge of disrupting the public order and enabling sexual acts among third parties. His acquittal was followed by a media hate campaign and overt calls for his assassination.

In the end, on March 10, 1925, the Nazi Otto Rothstock fired five shots at Bettauer, who succumbed to his injuries on March 26. The perpetrator was declared of unsound mind in the course of a one-sided trial and was already discharged from the psychiatric clinic in 1927. Hugo Bettauer was also defamed after his death by the Nazis who portrayed him as the prototype “Jewish corruptor of morality”.