Alfred Diamant
- Born on: 25.9.1917
- Birthplace: Vienna (Wien),
- Category: Diploma program
- Right of domicile: Wien (Wien),
The English version is based on a translation by artificial intelligence. The authentic version is the German version.
Alfred Diamant was born to the marriage of Ignatz Diamant and Julie (born April 13, 1885, in the Slovak town of Vrbové, maiden name Herzog). The father (born 1864) was the owner of the company Ig. Diamant & Sohn. He passed away on September 17, 1934. According to the death notice in the Neuen Freien Presse the following day, he was buried on September 18 in the Vienna Central Cemetery. Alfred's siblings or half-siblings from his father's first marriage were Liesl, Oskar, and Valerie (called Vally).
After attending the Realgymnasium Vienna XVII (then as now Kalvarienberggasse 28), Alfred enrolled at the University for World Trade. However, he was only registered for the winter semester 1937/38. As a Jew, he was unable to continue his studies after the 'Anschluss'. Although the tuition fee already paid for the summer semester of 1938 was refunded to him, his career as a graduate commercial manager ended, as he noted in his autobiography, abruptly with his expulsion from the university in Währinger Park (Diamant/Diamant 2010, p. 110).
In Vienna, Diamant initially lived with his mother at Brunnengasse 45 (16th district). After the pogrom night of November 9/10, 1938, which heralded a radical intensification of the antisemitic policies of the Nazi state, he did everything possible to leave the 'Greater German Reich'. In April 1939, he was briefly registered at Mariahilfer Straße 167/1/11 (15th district). From here, he emigrated later that month to Great Britain. He stayed for over nine months in the transit camp "Kitchener Camp" (Richborough, Kent County). In January 1940, he then crossed over to the USA.
In the USA, Alfred Diamant initially worked at the textile factory „Diamond Textile Mills“ (Taunton, Massachusetts). One day after the Japanese air forces attacked the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he volunteered for the American armed forces. At „Camp Ritchie“ (Maryland), he was trained as one of 494 Austrian exiles for the interrogation of German prisoners of war. However, during the Allied invasion of Normandy (June 1944), he was captured by German forces as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. He was severely injured by a gunshot to the back and was thereafter considered partially disabled.
This did not prevent him from continuing his studies after the war. He first earned a bachelor’s degree in arts in 1947 at Indiana University (Bloomington), and a year later, he obtained a Master of Arts from the same university. In 1957, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Yale University (New Haven). As a political scientist, he worked at various American universities: between 1950 and 1960 at the University of Florida (Gainesville), from 1960 to 1967 at Haverford College (Haverford), and from 1967 to 1988 at Indiana University Bloomington. There he held the chair for political science and Western European studies. In his academic work, he specialized in political theory and comparative government, but also critically engaged with the history of the country he had to flee from in 1939 in the book Austrian Catholics and the First Republic. Democracy, Capitalism and the Social Order 1918-1934.
In the USA, Diamant became a naturalized citizen. While stationed as a soldier at Fort Benjamin Harrison (Indianapolis), he met Ann Redmon, who worked there as a civilian employee. On March 18, 1943, he married his Protestant bride at the Irvington Methodist Church in Indianapolis. The marriage produced two children (1944 and 1952). Together with his wife, Alfred wrote his memoirs, which were published in 2010 under the title Worlds Apart, Worlds United. A European-American Story.
His wife passed away on February 27, 2003. He himself died on May 11, 2012, at the age of 95. His estate was added to the Lilly Library at Indiana University in 2014.
Author: Johannes Koll
Support in research: Robert Lackner
Source material
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Studierendenkarteikarte.
Ann Redmon Diamant/Alfred Diamant: Worlds Apart, Worlds United. A European-American Story. The Memoirs of Ann & Alfred Diamant, Bloomington 2010.
Robert Lackner: Camp Ritchie und seine Österreicher. Deutschsprachige Verhörsoldaten der US-Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Wien/Köln/Weimar 2020.
Norman Furniss (Indiana University Bloomington, Department of Political Science): Memorial Resolution B8-2014 Alfred („Freddy“) Diamant (September 25, 1917 – May 11, 2012), http://polisci.indiana.edu/faculty/inmemoriam.shtml [18. November 2014].
In Memory of Alfred “Freddy” Diamant, in: Dignity Memorial, http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Alfred-Diamant&lc=7162&pid=157559844&mid=5101736&locale=en-US [12. Oktober 2016].
Brief von Dr. Herbert Posch und Katharina Kniefacz (Universität Wien) an Dr. Johannes Koll (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) vom 13. Februar 2013, in dem die Ergebnisse von Gesprächen zusammengefasst worden sind, die bis 2002 mit Diamant geführt worden sind.