Return from exile

The tremendous loss to the humanities and social sciences in the 20th century resulting from the expulsion of thousands of scholars and artists from Austria and Central Europe has been well documented. The present collection of articles deals with a related but under-researched aspect. It combines analyses of the complex bureaucratic and the ideological obstacles which exiled scholars from a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and creative artists faced when they were willing to return and specific essays documenting the varying opportunities for individual returnees to influence the development of their different disciplines after the end of the Nazi tyranny. The 27 essays highlight the roles of a number of returnees as generous mentors for younger scholars and their encouragement of modernization and internationalization in an atmosphere of stagnation and provincialism in the universities.