This HSR Supplement starts with an autobiographical essay. At first, Josef Ehmer describes his upbringing in a proletarian milieu in Upper Austria, the influences of his (political) parental home, and his school and academic career. While the scientific topics of his early academic career were strongly influenced by his working-class background and his political (communist) convictions, his range of topics gradually expanded – encouraged by mentors like Michael Mitterauer – eventually encompassing the history of the family, workers and craftsmen, migration, ageing, population history, and historical demography. Interdisciplinarity, international comparison, and social relevance always remained the cornerstones of his research.
The second part of this HSR Supplement also documents this thematic breadth. It provides ten publications curated by Ehmer himself, which he considered to be central to his oeuvre. We gain an insight into research from four decades, for example on the Viennese labour movement, comparative European marriage behaviour, the modern expansion of labour markets, and the changing discourses on work and images of age.
Josef Ehmer was one of Austria’s most internationally influential social historians. “Josef Ehmer made significant contributions to central debates in international economic and social history with his research focusing on a wide range of topics across time and space. His main interest was long-term socio-economic change in modern times in a European comparison.”
Josef Ehmer died unexpectedly on 10 May 2023, so this volume can also be seen as a record of his academic career and work.
