Austrian historian Florian Traussnig has been exploring the activities of Austrians in US war institutions during World War II for several years. He has systematically explored a crucial aspect of emigration and exile research, which had been neglected following the pioneering work done by the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance (DÖW) in the mid-1990s. Published in 2016, his study on military deployments in the narrower sense—Militärischer Widerstand von außen: Österreicher in US-Armee und Kriegsgeheimdienst im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Vienna, 2016)—has now been complemented by this monograph on the Austrians’ activities in the propaganda departments of the US government—the Office of War Information (OWI), the wartime intelligence agency Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and the US army. In Geistiger Widerstand von außen, Traussnig has largely retained both the leading questions and the method of his previous work. He is particularly interested in the Austrians who actively put themselves in the service of American warfare against Nazi Germany. What was their concrete contribution to the military and propagandistic struggle against the Nazi regime? What was the impact of their cultural and biographical backgrounds and their experiences and skills gained in their country of origin on their operations?

In his research, Traussnig elicited the names of 180 individuals referred to as “exiled Austrian US propagandists”—especially from the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park and the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. He estimates the total of these propagandists at three hundred to four hundred. These individuals have been analytically complied with three criteria set by the author: first, they did not leave Austria by their own choice, but rather because of political and/or antisemitic persecution—either as exemplified by Julius Deutsch, a Socialist who had already gone into exile in 1934 during the period of Austrofascism, or by most others following the Anschluss in March 1938. These individuals were complemented by a small group of Wehrmacht deserters who had joined forces with the United States in Italy. Second, they were proven to have had an influence on the contents of propaganda materials, such as radio broadcasts, fliers, and posters. Third, they belonged to the staff of one of the state propaganda institutions.

The book is structured along the lines of the three institutions in which Austrians were active: the OWI, the OSS, and the US Army. Following concise reviews of the divergent tasks and methods applied in the propaganda departments, Traussnig introduces three to four Austrian figures, providing both biographical overviews and information about their propagandistic involvement. Finally, he analyzes the contents, language, and esthetics of the propaganda materials applied. Understandably, Traussnig refuses to become involved with analyses about effectiveness in terms of measurable results on the part of the propaganda recipients. Rather, he concentrates on the production processes and inherent tensions between the American propaganda planners’ intentions and the creative implementation of those intentions by Austrian journalists, artists, politicians, and soldiers. The detailed illustration of such processes of implementation is one of the strongest points in Traussnig's studies.

Focusing on the OWI, Traussnig explores the vernacular satirical broadcast of 1944 by Arthur Steiner, a star reporter for the Austrian Kronen Zeitung. In this connection, he coins the populist term of Gemütlichkeitspropaganda (“coziness propaganda”; 38), geared especially toward emphasizing the distinctions between Austrians and Germans by passionately applying anti-Prussian resentment, together with the Viennese dialect and clichés attached to the Heurigen (wine tavern) culture, while evoking those differences among listeners in Austria. To this end, Steiner felicitously exploited his experience as a tabloid journalist in Vienna. Here, Traussnig addresses an important point in the discussion surrounding the origins and intention of the Moscow Declaration on Austria issued by the Allies. According to Canadian historian Robert Keyserlingk, the chief motive underlying the Declaration was to fuel active resistance in this country. However, Gemütlichkeitspropaganda contradicts this assessment, which may likely be challenged in other aspects. According to Traussnig, its Behäbigkeitsmotiv (“ponderousness motive”; 69) chiefly served to both collectively exculpate Austrians in terms of Nazi crimes and to stylize Austria as the “first victim.” The second actor commented on in this connection is Henry Koerner. Among others, the graphic designer learned his trade with Viktor Slama, who had drawn up election posters for the Communist Party of Germany in the 1920s. Koerner's posters addressed the American people in an attempt to accustom their consumer behavior to the requirements of warfare. Traussnig provides a detailed linguistic image analysis to the designer's “Save waste fats for explosives” poster, his most noted and prizewinning piece of workmanship. A key result is that Koerner successfully introduced “magical realism,” along with its both attractive and realistic imagery, in the methodical dispute between advocates of the capitalist advertising industry and representatives of a more strongly progressive approach. This was not least due to his Viennese educational background.

As to the OSS, Traussnig investigates the producers of black propaganda directed at the Wehrmacht soldiers in the field—intended not to convince, but rather deceive and/or mislead its recipients. He focuses on Eddie Linder, a Viennese journalist who produced fliers, songs, and erotic pictures in the Italian war theater framework of “Operation Sauerkraut.” These materials were placed behind the frontline in an effort to undermine the Wehrmacht soldiers’ fighting morale. Traussnig's discursive analytical case study provides fascinating insight into the mind-set of the psycho-warrior. However, he clearly formulates doubts concerning the effectiveness and moral dimension of black propaganda at the front. The only woman to whom Traussnig dedicates a case study was also active in the OSS. Originating from the town of Melk, singer Vilma Kuerer appeared in the Soldatensender Calais (Soldiers’ Radio Calais), which also broadcast propaganda to Wehrmacht soldiers. In the eyes of the OSS, Kuerer had a seductive radio voice suitable to infatuate the soldiers with siren songs. Correspondingly, the OSS was particularly interested in rather erotic recordings, which were to arouse the enemy soldiers’ attention for the immediately following military news. The news was basically fact based and contained critical information on the Wehrmacht, including information from interviews of prisoners of war. According to Traussnig, the mind behind the “Musac” project was Viennese cabaret artist Lothar Metzl, who also wrote the lyrics to many of Kuerer's songs. In his case, as well, Traussnig assesses a utilization of skills that Kuerer had already cultivated in Vienna in the 1930s under the Austrofascist regime, especially in terms of “writing between the lines” (245) and playing with ambiguities.

In the final chapter of the book, Traussnig follows the traces of Jacob Tennenbaum, a Viennese businessman and intelligence officer with the Psychological Warfare Division of the US Army. Unlike the propagandists referred to previously, Tennenbaum worked with the enemy directly. He acquired both data on the efficacy of US propaganda and information of use to frontline propaganda obtained from war prisoner interrogations. Based on his work, Tennenbaum may also appear to have been convinced that Austrians among the Wehrmacht soldiers were rather more likely to desert than the Germans. As elaborated by Traussnig, this contemporary opinion is at variance with most recent research on Austrian Wehrmacht soldiers.

As is perceptible in other sections of the book, Traussnig ultimately comes to his protagonists’ defense against potential disbeliefs in the effectiveness of their efforts. This is due to the author's dedicated request to honor the intentional contributions on the part of those expelled from Austria to conquer National Socialism. In some quarters, this attitude may dissimulate a stronger accentuation of critical insights, one of which being that Austria's victimization and Austrians’ exculpation from responsibility for Nazi crimes was not an intention first put forth by the founding fathers of the Second Republic, but rather a joint product already initiated by planners and exiles in the Allied propaganda institutions. Following his work on external military resistance, Traussnig again provides well-researched, methodically ambitious, and fascinating case studies.