Rabble, Masses or Humanity: Kraus and Canetti Responding to the July Revolt of 1927

Abstract

The Justice Palace Fire in Vienna on the 15th July 1927 was a pivotal moment in the trajectory of the young First Austrian Republic. Also known as the July Revolt, it was an eruption of a long-standing partisan conflict. The resulting political deadlock left no ground for reconciliation and gave way to Austrofascism in the 1930s. The July Revolt was also a crucial episode in the evolution of crowd theory. The response of the Austrian government and the Viennese Press to this tragedy rested on the foundations of mass psychology and framed it as a struggle between Authority and Chaos. The Viennese Publicist Karl Kraus picked this account of ‘rabble’ apart in his periodical Die Fackel and emphasised the individual humanity of its victims. Author Elias Canetti witnessed the incidents of the 15th July himself. His book Crowds and Power (1960) admittedly drew many insights from that day’s memory. In contrast to mass psychology, Canetti’s crowd theory gave agency to the people who became masses. Kraus’ stress on humanity aided the transition from contempt-driven mass psychology to a fast anthropological and value-neutral crowd theory. This article examines the evolution of crowd theory catalysed by the July Revolt.

Keywords

• crowds
• mass psychology
• Elias Canetti
• Karl Kraus
• Vienna

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