Assoz. Prof. DDr. Werner Suppanz

Werner Suppanz researches on the history of remembrance and memory, the cultural history of politics along with identity politics, especially nationalism. In recent years, his work has focused on the First World War and the cultural history of memory and remembrance of the war.

He studied law (PhD 1984) and history (PhD 1994), writing his diploma thesis (1989) on “Anarchismus in der II. Republik Spaniens (1931‒1939)” [Anarchism in the Second Spanish Republic (1931‒1939)] and his dissertation (1993) on “Arbeitslosigkeit als Thema der Sozialpolitik im ‚Ständestaat’” (Unemployment as a topic of social policy in the 'corporate state’). From 1994 to 1996, he carried out a research project for the Ministry of Science and Research, which resulted in the monograph “Österreichische Geschichtsbilder. Historische Legitimationen in Ständestaat und Zweiter Republik” (Austrian Images of History. Historical Legitimations in the Corporate State and the Second Republic; 1998). From 1996 to 2004, Suppanz worked for the special research area “Moderne – Wien und Zentraleuropa um 1900” (Modernism – Vienna and Central Europe around 1900) in the sub-project on contemporary history. His research project “Der Erste Weltkrieg im kollektiven Gedächtnis – Repräsentationen, Inszenierungen und politische Diskurse in Österreich (1918–1938)” (The First World War in Collective Memory – Representations, Stagings and Political Discourses in Austria (1918–1938); duration 2007–2011), funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), resulted in the habilitation thesis “Erinnerungslandschaften. Der Erste Weltkrieg in Diskursen und Topographien der 1920er Jahre” (Remembrance Landscapes. The First World War in Discourses and Topographies of the 1920s). In 2011/2012, he was part of a cooperation project “Architektur – Identität – Politik. Der Verein für Heimatschutz in Steiermark” (Architecture – Identity – Politics. The Association for Homeland Security in Styria) between the Section for Contemporary History and the Institute for Architectural Theory (Graz University of Technology).

From 1997 to 2003, Suppanz was a lecturer for the Section of Contemporary History. Since 2007, he has worked as an assistant professor, and since his habilitation in 2017, as an associated professor at the Institute of History/Contemporary History at the University of Graz.

Related links:

Current courses

University of Graz research portal (publications, projects)