Austria and Germany were incredibly hard hit by the depression. The trauma was made worse because of the catastrophic defeat and dismemberment of both the Austrian and German Empires. In 1931, sociologists visited a small industrial town called Marienthal, an hour outside of Vienna, to report on the psychological and physical condition of the hundreds of families left penniless by the closing of the textile mills.

The father was sitting on a low stool with a pile of worn-out children’s shoes in front of him that he was trying to mend with roofing felt. The children were sitting together motionless on a box, in stockinged feet, waiting for their shoes to be finished. The father explained with embarrassment, “ . . . On Sundays I have to patch the shoes up a bit so that the children can go to school again on Monday.” He held up the completely dilapidated shoes of the eldest boy. “I just don’t know what I can do with these. On holidays he can’t go out of the house any more. . . .”

The youngest child caught our attention. His face was feverish and puffy and swollen around the nose. He breathed heavily with his mouth open. The mother explained: “He always has a cold. He ought to have his tonsils and adenoids out, but we can’t afford the trip to the hospital. . . .” The father told us that things had been going terribly badly these last few days. All they had been able to buy was bread, and not enough of that. The children kept coming into the kitchen asking for another piece; they were always hungry. His wife sat in the kitchen crying.

Source: Marie Jahoda et al., eds., Marienthal: The Sociography of an Unemployed Community, trans. John Reginall and Thomas Elsaesser (1933; repr. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1971), 87–88.

Question to Consider

How does the situation of this Austrian family illustrate why Europeans might have willingly followed Nazi and Fascist politicians in the 1930s?