Crises and their interpretations

Crises are interpreted facts. Thus the sociological term crisis implies that a certain period of economic and political development has been in practice already interpreted as a crisis. Therefore the comparison between the crises 1929 ff. (the beginning of the first world economic crisis and the beginning of the destruction of the first Austrian Republic) and 1974 (the first oilprizeshock and the end of full employment in Western Europe) in Austria must consider two dimensions. First, the authors compare some key-data of the economic and political development. Second, they compare interpretations of the crises by analyzing articles from two Austrian newspapers in each period. The comparison shows-as expected-important differences between the two crises. But it also draws the attention to some unexpected similarities.