Introducing the Masses VIENNA, 15 JULY 1927

• Published in: Crowds and Democracy pp. 1 - 50
• Main Author: Jonsson, Stefan
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United States Columbia University Press 01.10.2013
• Subjects: Animals; Applied arts; Architecture; Arts; Authoritarianism; Behavioral sciences; Biological sciences; Biology; Buildings; Cognitive psychology; Communications; Communications media; Democratic theory; Dwellings; Emotion; Emotional states; European history; Fascism; Government; Government services; Human societies; Humans; Law enforcement; Mammals; Palaces; Passion; Philosophy: aesthetics; Police; Political ideologies; Political organizations; Political parties; Political philosophy; Political representation; Political science; Political science & theory; Primates; Psychology; Residential buildings; Social activism; Social protests; Social psychology; Social sciences; Sociology; Visual materials; Zoology
• ISBN: 0231164785; 9780231164788
• DOI: 10.7312/jons16478-002

At eight o’clock in the morning of the fifteenth of July, 1927, Vienna’s electricity workers switched off the gas and electricity supply to the city.¹ Public transportation, communication, and production came to a complete halt. It was a signal: People left their work places and living quarters and began marching toward the parliament. Joining them halfway was Elias Canetti, later to become one of Austria’s most distinguished writers and a Nobel laureate: “During that brightly illuminated, dreadful day,” he wrote, “I gained the true picture of what, as a crowd, fills our century.”² The march was sparked by a court