Florian Schmidlechner – Media Historian

About Me

I am a media historian at the University of Vienna and have been studying the history of animation since 2007. My focus is on making previously overlooked aspects of Austrian film history visible, particularly animation in an international context.

Research

Animation History
Ongoing, University of Vienna

Research on the cultural, political, and aesthetic development of international animation.

Publications

Book cover: Animation in Austria by Florian Schmidlechner

Opinions on Animation in Austria:

"an excellent work"(Jan Křipač, NFA)

"a professionally very in-depth work"(Dr. Christian Riml, Tyrolean Film Archive)

"very exciting"(Waltraud Grausgruber, Founder Tricky Women)

"such an interesting and valuable project"(Adrian Smykowski, Filmoteka Narodowa)

"great work"(Michael K. Epstein, Founder CINE Cartoon)

"Congratulations on this monumental work ... impressive"(René Perraudin, Film Director)

"Within this series, I am sure, your work will find attention."(Rolf Giesen, Series Editor of Animation in Europe)

"very profound, a very meritorious undertaking"(Thomas Bogner, Film Producer)

"an important contribution to the history of Austrian animation"(Katharina Mracek-Gabalier, Graz City Museum)

"at the end of the book, the title [An Almost Invisible Art] is no longer true"(Michael H. Thomas McLaughlin, Pennsylvania State University)

"a dense wealth of insights into a little-known subject area"(Dr. Ingo Zechner, Head Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History)

"A great comprehensive work!"(Benjamin Swiczinsky, SWICZ Animation e.U.)

"Very worth reading!"(Anne Zwiener, Multimedia artist)

Schmidlechner, F. (2025) Animation in Austria: An Almost Invisible Art. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Preview

Schmidlechner, F. (2012) Animation for Victory – International Animated Film Propaganda in the Second World War. (Catalog text.) In: ITFS12 Catalog, pp. 154–155.

Schmidlechner, F. (2011) „Der Jude mit der roten Badehose": Jüdische Helden, Stereotypen und Antisemitismus im Trickfilm bis 1945 ["The Jew With the Red Swimming Trunks": Jewish Heroes, Stereotypes and Antisemitism in Animation Films Until 1945]. In: Eder, B., Klar, E. & Reichert, R. (eds.) Theorien des Comics: Ein Reader. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, pp. 303–320.

Preview | Review 1 | Review 2

Cited in:

Giesen, R. (2024) Animation in Germany. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Franken, A. U. (2023) Schreiben als Medium des Lernens [Writing as a Medium of Learning]. (Teaching concepts.) Soest: QUA-LiS NRW.
Haukamp, I. (2021) A Foreigner's Cinematic Dream of Japan: Representational Politics and Shadows of War in the Japanese-German Coproduction New Earth (1937). New York: Bloomsbury Academic & Professional.
Giesen, R. (2020) Bienenstich und Hakenkreuz: Zeichentrick aus Dachau – die Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH [Bee Sting and Swastika: Animation from Dachau – the Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH]. Frankenthal: Mühlbeyer Filmbuchverlag.
Willms, J. (2018) Jüdische Aspekte in Will Eisners Graphic Novels [Jewish Aspects in Will Eisner's Graphic Novels]. (Dissertation.) Koblenz & Landau: University of Koblenz-Landau.
Haukamp, I. (2017) Early Transcontinental Film Relations: Japan, Germany and the Compromises of Co-Production, 1926–1933. In: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 174–202.
Czapla, R. G. (2016) Goebbels’ vergeblicher Traum von Disney: Heinz Tischmeyers Animationsfilm „Vom Bäumlein, das andere Blätter hat gewollt" nach einem Märchen von Friedrich Rückert [Goebbels' Futile Dream of Disney: Heinz Tischmeyer's Animated Film "Of the Little Tree Which Wished for Different Leaves," Based on a Fairy Tale by Friedrich Rückert]. In: Ernst, T. & Mein, G. (eds.) Literatur als Interdiskurs. Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, pp. 603–612.
Ürkemz, C. (2016) Interkulturelle Bezüge in ausgewählten Artikeln der Comic- und Mangaforschung [Intercultural References in Selected Articles on Comics and Manga Research]. (Essay.) Braunschweig: Braunschweig University of Technology.
Zelnhefer, A. C. (2013) Animationsfilm im Aufbruch – Der Paradigmenwechsel des populären Animationsfilms ab dem Jahr 2008 [Animation in Transition – The Paradigm Shift in Popular Animation from 2008]. (Master's thesis.) Vienna: University of Vienna.

Schmidlechner, F. (2010) „Von einem, der auszog, das Gruseln zu lernen": Die Unterrichtsfilme der Gebrüder Diehl im Schatten des Dritten Reichs ["Of One That Went Forth to Learn to be Afraid": The Educational Films of the Diehl Brothers in the Shadow of the Third Reich]. In: KJK, No. 123–3/2010, pp. 56–57.

Projects & Presentations

Animation in Österreich [Animation in Austria] (2025): Expert interview on OKTO in the series OKTOFOKUS on October 1 (first broadcast on December 12).

Animation in Austria (2025): Book presentation at Animation Austria on July 31.

Review

Krieg der Zeichner [War of the Animators] (2015): Consultant for ZDF documentary (first broadcast on June 14).

More Cartoons for Victory! (2012): Contribution to a US DVD project (incl. liner notes).

Review 1 | Review 2

Animation for Victory (2012): Lecture at ITFS (International Animated Film Festival Stuttgart) on May 12.

Review

Wer hat Angst vorm bösen Juden? [Who's Afraid of the Evil Jew?] (2011): Interview partner for FALTER article.

Photo: Florian Schmidlechner at Animation Austria

Memberships

Contact

Florian Schmidlechner
Department of Contemporary History
E-mail: see Legal Notice

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