Talk:Karl Lueger
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I think Karl Lueger is something of a tragic figure. On one hand, he brought new ideas and innovations to Vienna that the city desparately needed. On the other, he obtained his power by pandering to the prejudices and ignorance of his times when he himself seems to have known better. By "lowering the bar" politically, he paved the way for man like Dolfuss and Hitler. Cranston Lamont 00:36, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Well...
I think you are certainly right about him not being the knight in shining armour, at least in historical perspective.
But during his terms of office the majority of Viennese in all probability did not perceive him as someone who compromised on any ideals by doing what he did, since such views were not universally frowned upon as they are today. He pretty certainly would not have been seen as a tragic figure who was *forced* to do anything, especially since radical political views were not as uncommon then as they are now.
And one can see it the other way round as well: he did get to realise his dream of improving the city he lived in - few mayors gave so much back to the community in terms of infrastructure and organisational improvements as Lueger.
That he ostracised a sizeable portion of the population in the process of obtaining and holding onto power - well, not having lived then and not being a professional historian I cannot be sure of this (and I am not certain how sure even the professionals can be on something like that), but my guess is that he would have viewed that more as case of "collateral damage" than as a blemish on his record.
As others have pointed out he was also mostly someone who just talked rough, and actually (to my knowledge, at least) never did anything that actually directly harmed any racial or religious minority.
Through his belligerent rhetoric he later on gave a lot of highly undesirable people ideas they should never have had, though, and thus can of course still be considered implicated by proxy in the hideous things that happened several decades after his death.
[edit] Sorry
Sorry about deleting that paragraph I thought that it was referencing another wikipedia article, only later did I notice it was actually a book, sorry about that my mistake.- Moshe Constantine Hassan Al-Silverburg | Talk 06:20, 23 April 2006 (UTC)
