The proletarian lifeworld consisted of three distinct but related milieus, the
political party,the labor unions, and the variousGenossenschaften(associations,
cooperatives), with therelationships among these“threepillars”of socialism
subjecttoongoingnegotiations and competingcritical assessments. As expect-
ed, these assessments include the contested role of emotionsand can be used
on the remainingpages to establish political emotionsasanintegralpart even
of the history of Social Democratic organizations and institutions. Historical ac-
counts especiallyfrom the post-WorldWarIIperiod tend to reproducethe dispar-
agement of emotional socialism that,since the 1890s, had been closelytied to
the question of masculinity–first by definingaspace for the expression of
male suffering and indignation and,later,asaliability in the pursuit of more
heroic and militant scenarios of classstruggle.Herethe recollections byAustri-
an-AmericanJoseph Buttinger (1906–1992) offeragood summary of the prevail-
ing patterns of interpretation emerging duringthe ColdWar. Implying that polit-
ical emotions are inseparable from totalitariantendencies, the formerSPÖ
politician in exile assumedasentimental and slightlycondescending tone as
he recalled his own political past in 1951:
Fortens of thousands [i.e., of socialists], party work wasaself-evidentduty,gladl yper-
formed. Thevery annoyance attachedto all social activities seemed to tie themto it.Often–
in choir singing,atgiantrallies of the party,inadmiringtheir leaders,and under the magic
spell of the great incantationsoftheirworld struggle for freedom–they had lost their own
sense of insignificance.Awonderful, self-surrenderingmood seized them and lent them a
greater dignity,moreself-assurance, morecourage,and astrongersocialist faith. Those
werethe hours of their ultimatebliss–and of the knowledge that all beauty in their
livescame fromthe bettersentiments that had broughtthemto the socialist movement.
There,bytheir unselfish, satisfyingendeavors,theywere tied up with greaterends–
with the harmonythe party preached between their dailypolitical activities andahigher
destination of man.To lose the party was nothingless to them than to lose home, father-
land, and religion.³⁶AccordingtoButtinger’sdescription, associational life providedasocial context,
alifeworld, and aboveall, an emotional community held together by a“wonder-
ful, self-surrenderingmood.”Promising“awhole wayoflife,”³⁷to useWilliams’s
famousformulation, culturefunctioned as an important building block in the
Joseph Buttinger,In theTwilight of Socialism:AHistoryofthe RevolutionarySocialists ofAus-
tria,trans. E. B. Ashton (NewYork: Praeger,1953),67.Some of these characterizations maybe
moretypical ofAustrian than German Social Democracy, apoint that cannot be pursued any
further in this context.
RaymondWilliams,“Cu lture,”inKeywords:AVocabulary of Cultureand Society,rev.ed.
(NewYork: OxfordUniversity Press, 1983), 87 – 93.
82 Chapter 3