The Collapse of Interwar Vienna: Oskar Morgenstern's Community, 1925–50

Abstract

law and economics; the theory of general equilibrium; the field of economic development; and the theory of games.Intellectual life in Vienna in the early 20 th century was intensely "social". This is not to say that there prevailed an atmosphere of harmonious cooperation -far from it -but, rather, that intellectuals and academics, and artists too, depended upon one other for stimulus and affirmation. A pervasive feeling of anxiety; the close geographical confinement; the lack of anonymity; the presence of a cultivated elite; and existence of a lively public sphere in which politics, science and culture were objects of serious attention; all of these features made for a setting in which intellectual and artistic circles flourished. Because of the cultivation and curiosity of those involved, these groups often overlapped, with individuals participating in several at a time. While some of the gatherings were devoted to one particular discipline, discussion in many others ranged across several fields. In many such circles, even the scientific ones, discussion was not the purview of academics alone: whether at the café, the formal seminar or the public lecture, educated laymen mixed freely with university teachers. Thus, for example, when, in the mid -1930's, mathematician Karl Menger twice raised money for his impecunious students by organising short series of public lectures, on subjects including physics, biology and the social sciences, he did so in the knowledge that the Viennese would pay to come hear Werner Heisenberg and others speak.