Digitised legacies opened by Kurt W. Rothschild and Josef Steindl

09.11.2018

The digitised legacies of the two former WIFO researchers Kurt W. Rothschild and Josef Steindl were opened at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.

Kurt W. Rothschild and Josef Steindl were both long-standing researchers and supporting pillars at WIFO – as Gunther Tichy, Emeritus Consultant at WIFO, pointed out in his laudation on the occasion of the opening of the digitised legacies of the two economists. Alois Guger, also an Emeritus Consultant at WIFO and the legator of the works of Josef Steindl, praised Josef Steindl's importance for stagnation theory.

For WIFO, the two scientists, who are among the most important economists in Austria and have had a lasting influence on Austrian economic research, have a special significance: Rothschild (1914 to 2010) worked at WIFO from 1947 to 1966 after his return from exile and remained associated with the institute as a consultant until his death in 2010. Steindl (1912 to 1993) already worked at WIFO between 1935 and 1938 (with interruptions). Dismissed as a critic of National Socialism in March 1938, Steindl returned to WIFO in 1950 after many years of emigration and worked there until he retired in 1978.

As early as 2012, the library of the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration received the private libraries of the two great Austrian economists as gifts from the owners of the legacies, WU Professor Wilfried Altzinger and WIFO Emeritus Consultant Alois Guger. The extensive materials also included letters, manuscripts, typoscripts, notebooks, life documents, special magazine prints as well as newspaper clippings by the two economists. With the support of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank's Jubilee Fund, the WU Library has now been able to make accessible all the materials of the legacies and archive them as digital collections. The approximately 1,300 works from the Rothschild Collection and around 700 works from the Steindl Collection are housed in glass showcases in the Library Centre. They are available to all users of the WU Library.

Interested users have the opportunity to actively participate in the digitisation process. With the help of a crowdsourcing module, they can transcribe manuscripts, make annotations, and comment on contents.

Link: http://www.kurt-rothschild.at/eroffnung_digitalisierter_nachlass/

Please contact

Dr. Margit Schratzenstaller-Altzinger, MA

Function: Senior Economist, Deputy of the Equal Opportunities Officer
Alois Guger (© Raimund Appel)
Alois Guger (© Raimund Appel)