In 1904 an Austrian legal intern began an ambitious, though unsettled career as an ethnic Czech and radical German nationalist in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. He became the leader of the Austrian National Socialists in 1919, Hitler’s teacher, a star Nazi attorney, and was an agitator until his political downfall, after repeated expulsions from the National Socialist party between 1938 and 1945, having been branded a mere dance organizer who was unimportant for the war effort. He ended his career as a card in the Ministry of the Interior’s file of suspicious persons: Dr. Walther Riehl, attorney, Stefansplatz 5, 1010 Vienna.
A personal look at Austria’s history between the 1910s and 1940s and its effects on the present.
