Professionalism and Brutality: The Viennese Police and the Public in Extraordinary Times, 1918–1955

Using the Vienna Police Directorate as a case study, this dissertation illuminates the relationship between Nazism, the Holocaust, and twentieth-century ideals of professional policing. To do so, it takes a longer view and examine the Vienna Police Directorate under four regimes: the Austrian First Republic, the Austrofascist dictatorship, Nazi Austria, and Allied-occupied Austria. I primarily focus on the decisions, policies, and attitudes of Viennese policemen, but also pay close attention to the perspective of those whom they policed. Oral histories, memoirs, court testimonies, and newspapers reveal that many Viennese had strong opinions and memorable interactions with policemen. My inclusion and prioritization of their stories reflects my goal, inspired by Saul Friedländer’s work on the Holocaust, of writing an “integrated history” of the Vienna Police Directorate that understands interactions between the police and the public as causal. In the midst of instability and regime change, professionalism became the metric by which both the Vienna Police Directorate and the Viennese public judged police conduct. Police claimed authority based on their status as neutral professionals, while the public accused the police of brutality and bias. These discourses shaped the Viennese-police relationship throughout the 1918 to 1955 period, transcending Austria’s democratic, dictatorial and Nazi regimes. My dissertation thus calls into question standard associations between police professionalism, brutality, politicization, and democracy.