Episode 11 - Peter Ruggenthaler

In the eleventh episode, Peter Ruggenthaler discusses his research on Cold War history and Austrian neutrality, as well as his collaboration with Günter Bischof and the significance of these topics in historiography.

Dr. Peter Ruggenthaler was born in 1976 in Klagenfurt, Austria. In terms of his scientific career, Dr. Ruggenthaler graduated in the subjects Russian and History from the University of Graz in 2000. Since 1998, he has been a research assistant at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute in Graz of which he has also been the assistant director since 2018. Incidentally, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute is specializing in the research on the consequences of war such as world wars, the Cold War, and other critical events that occurred in the 20th century. Dr. Ruggenthaler has already published and participated in a plethora of research projects and pieces of writing which predominantly focus on the development of events during the Cold War. Especially topics such as the foreign policy of the Soviet Union regarding the Cold War, history of diplomacy and forced labor in the “Third Reich” number among his prominent research areas.

In the interview, Julian Rauch asks Dr. Ruggenthaler several questions about his profession, the development of the specific research areas he has been concerned with. One crucial aspect hereof is the development of those areas in the past decades as well as their significance in the scientific realm of historiography plus the associated future outlook. Furthermore, the course of the interview features a couple of questions about the relation between Dr. Ruggenthaler and the Austrian-American historian and university professor Günter Josef Bischof, director of the Center Austria at the University of New Orleans.

In the context of Günter Bischof’s upcoming retirement and the History Exchange Podcast project, the University of New Orleans and the University of Innsbruck have arranged a collaboration with the aim to publish podcasts which are dedicated to Günter Bischof and his merits in the historical scientific world.

Therefore, some questions ask about mutual experiences, efforts and achievements regarding the cooperation between Günter Bischof and Peter Ruggenthaler. Lastly, the interview poses some specific questions which are part of the research areas Dr. Ruggenthaler has been dealing with such as the emergence of the Austrian neutrality and the role of Austria in terms of its connection to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. For instance, one question asks whether the reason that the analysis of most Soviet forced labor camps in Austria did not take place until the second half of the 20th century since the emergence of institutes for Slavistics had not occurred before then.

Moreover, further questions ensue which are supposed to ascertain whether, for example, there is a connection between the history of diplomacy between Austria and the Soviet Union and the Russian embassy in Vienna, Austria or whether the Soviet Union was considerably responsible for the development of Austria’s neutrality after World War II. Finally, the interview concludes with the question what Dr. Ruggenthaler’s first notion or image of the United States is that comes to mind, in favor of the transnational collaboration between the University of New Orleans and the University of Innsbruck.

Interviewers:

Julian Rauch is a Master's student at the University of Innsbruck.

Georg Ebster is a Master's student at the University of Innsbruck.