The author provides a basic overview of the development and an analysis of the state of research on the topic of fin de siecle Vienna within the framework of professional historiography. In doing so, it is noted that the topic has gradually developed since the 1960s, evolving from the initial synthetic studies of the history of the Habsburg Monarchy seen as a whole. At the time, various transformations in American historiography were also reflected in a different conceptualization of fin de siecle Vienna, linking artistic and intellectual elites with urban and state policies in a variety of methodologically dictated approaches, ranging from political history to social, intellectual and cultural history. The significant contributions of several generations of American (and British) historians are compared to different approaches within Austrian historiography, analysing perspectives, arguments and critiques of key conceptions. In addition to the important multidisciplinary influences of prominent American historians like William M. Johnston, Carl E. Schorske, Allan Janik or Steven Beller between the 1970s and early 2000s, it is notable that several different parallel complexes of problems were opened that had not initially been directly considered as crucial to the topic (the role of Jews in Vienna at the turn of the century, marginal groups, critical modernism, etc.). In doing so, several research paradigms were developed that brought the methodologies of certain historical sub-disciplines closer and further refined them, but also interpretive models that were complementary or critically deconstructed. At the same time, there was a need for comparative analysis, which William Johnston had already begun, covering both Prague and Budapest in his book The Austrian Mind. In contrast, more contemporary approaches attempted to reconstruct and deconstruct fin de siecle Vienna as a model, suggesting an entire range of parallel multiple modernities in other Habsburg urban centres at around 1900. The paper introduces a systemization of individual approaches, contributions and methodological innovations related to the topic and offers an evaluation and presentation the state of research in American and Austrian historiography.
