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Vienna, City of Dreams

At the turn of the 20th century, Vienna was one of the cultural capitals of Europe and the center of Austria-Hungary, one of the imperial powers ruling the continent. Led by John Deak, Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame, this lecture covers the geopolitical context of the 20th century’s first 50 years and Vienna’s role in those decades’ momentous events.

Lecturer

John Deak

Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame

John Deak is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. His first book, Forging a Multinational State: State Making in Imperial Austria from the Enlightenment to the First World War (Stanford University Press, 2015), was awarded the Austrian State Prize for Social Science History in 2018. His recent work on the First World War has been published in the Journal of Modern History and (with Jonathan Gumz) in the American Historical Review and Contemporary Austrian Studies. Broadly interested in European history since the Enlightenment, he teaches courses on German History, the First World War, Nazi Germany, and his specialty, the History of the Habsburg Empire. He currently lives on campus as faculty-in-residence with his wife and Sieglinde-the-mini-schnauzer in Dunne Hall, a men’s dorm. When not working in the archives of the former Habsburg Empire and researching his next book, you can find him drinking a double espresso in Café Prückel in Vienna or hiking the former battlefields of the First World War in Slovenia.

Leopoldstadt

Jun 4, 2026 - Jul 19, 2026

Leopoldstadt

Jun 4, 2026 - Jul 19, 2026