Sociology in Austria has been frequently affected by political developments in the country. This first history of sociology in Austria examines the impact of the break-up of the Habsburg Empire and of two consecutive dictatorships, which destroyed academic freedom by means of forced migration and imprisonment. Even after 1945 the re-established Second Republic did not dismiss professors promoted during the Nazi period, and failed to invite exiled academics to return home. The author argues that the result has been a continuation of favouritism and conformism, with compliance to political regimes sanctioned at the expense of meritocracy and that in the light of this chequered past we should celebrate instances of de-institutionalization.