Ernst BruckmÖ¼ller. Nation Ö?sterreich: Kulturelles BewuÖŸtsein und gesellschaftlich-politische ProzeÖŸe. Vienna and Cologne: BÖ¶hlau Verlag, 1996. 465 pp. DM 98.00, cloth, ISBN 978-3-205-98000-1.
Reviewed by Lonnie R. Johnson
Published on HABSBURG (November, 1997)
Ernst Bruckmueller's Nation Oesterreich was Bruckmueller addresses the feudal foundations of initially published in 1984, and a second, revised Austria (from the tenth to the ffteenth centuries); and expanded edition appeared last year, among the imperial ideology and institutions of the Habs‐ many other publications related to Austria's "mil‐ burg empire from the beginning of the sixteenth lennium."[1] Bruckmueller, professor of history at century up to the French revolution; the rise of the University of Vienna, was the research direc‐ German-Austrian nationalism (and other nation‐ tor for "Ostarrichi-Oesterreich: Menschen-- alisms) in the Austrian empire in the nineteenth Mythen--Meilensteine, 996-1996," a split-site exhi‐ century; the problems of German-Austrian identi‐ bition in St. Poelten and Waidhofen an der Ybbs ty from 1918 through 1945; and the development in Lower Austria, that was organized by the Aus‐ of a distinct Austrian national identity since 1945. trian federal provinces to commemorate the mil‐ This book is not an attempt to construe conti‐ lennial anniversary of "Austria." He co-edited, in nuity where there was little or none. For example, this capacity, a 736 page catalogue with Peter Ur‐ Bruckmueller is ironic about the Austrian "discov‐ banitsch to go along with it.[2] ery" of its 950 years of history in 1946, one year In the introduction to Nation Oesterreich, after the demise of Nazi Germany's "1000-year Re‐ Bruckmueller discusses the role of myth and ich," and makes the following observation about memory for group identities and the evolution of the frst national celebration of the Ostarrichi the concept of "nation." In this ambitious and codex: "[Austrian Federal President] Karl Renner well-informed book, he attempts to relate the his‐ took this occasion to demonstrate to the Austrians torically malleable concept of "nation" from the that they were so autonomous and unique that Middle Ages to the present to the equally mal‐ they had the right to constitute themselves as leable territories, institutions, political regimes their own nation" (p. 15). and ideologies that have been associated with the Bruckmueller works like a historical naviga‐ term "Austria" from 996 to the Second Republic. tor who wants to reconstruct the various tacks in H-Net Reviews
Austrian historical discourse about Austria. His tial inroads into the national identities of the "old‐ objective is to relate how the images, vocabulary, er" members of the European Union. context, and primary points of reference in Aus‐ Langer mentions that almost one-third of trian narratives about Austria have shifted in the Austrian seventeen- to nineteen-year-olds sur‐ course of time and ultimately been incorporated veyed lack a feeling of belonging to a nation. He (or not) into what it means to Austrians to be Aus‐ attributes this to the spread of consumerism, and trian today. questions the strength of regional identity and The second chapter of his book (pp. 35-87) ad‐ cultures in Austria: the Bundeslaender as the ter‐ dresses popular and academic controversies ritorial, historical, and constitutional building about the concept of the "Austrian nation" in the blocks for an Austrian national identity. I fnd Second Republic, and provides an overview of the Langer's lack of faith in local or regional Austrian results of empirical social research on the evolu‐ identities striking because Bruckmueller goes to tion of Austrian national consciousness in the past great eforts in his book to illustrate that the thirty years. His survey of the debate that fol‐ "provinces and provincial consciousness"--Laen‐ lowed the publication of Karl Dietrich Erdmann's der and Laenderbewusstsein--represent continu‐ Die Spur Oesterreichs in der deutschen ities in Austrian history, and he posits them as Geschichte: Drei Staaten--zwei Nationen--ein constituent elements out of which Austrian identi‐ Volk? in 1989[3] is a good introduction to the ty or Austrian identities are made: landscapes, problematic relationship of German to Austrian buildings, places of association and remembrance history and national identity as well as to the pre‐ (pp. 87-102), local traditions, and the staendische vailing sentiments in the Austrian historical com‐ institutions of the provinces that not only ante‐ munity. date the Habsburg "conquest" of Austria in the As far as the results of empirical social sur‐ Middle Ages but also provide the historical and in‐ veys go, the numbers look good for Austria: 80 stitutional substrata for today's federal provinces percent of Austrians consider themselves a "na‐ (pp. 155-200).[4] tion" and a somewhat more cautious 12 percent Local, regional, or provincial identity never feel that Austria is in the process of becoming one. appear to have been part of the Austrian identity Sections in the third chapter of this book that also problem, insofar as the inhabitants of Styria or rely on empirical surveys (pp. 114-54) seem to in‐ Tyrol, for example, do have a sound sense of place dicate that the Austrians have a relatively stable and tradition: a combination of common sense repertoire of positive as well as negative self-im‐ and established local narratives. However, prob‐ ages and that the neighboring countries' percep‐ lems have arisen in the past when the inhabitants tions of Austria and the Austrians are relatively of the Laender were confronted with being some‐ stable and predictable, too. As far as the statistics thing more than provincial, such as "Austrian." go, Austrian identity is not an empirical problem. From this perspective, the problem of Austrian Unlike Josef Langer in his recent HABSBURG identity emerges when one moves from funda‐ review of Austrian Historical Memory and Na‐ mentally intact local or regional forms of identity tional Identity, Bruckmueller seems to have a bit onto higher levels of generalization, abstraction, more faith in these "hard fgures." He is not espe‐ or institutionalization: how the parts of Austria cially concerned about the process of European are related to a larger Austrian whole which, in integration as potentially detrimental to the de‐ turn, has frequently assumed an intermediate po‐ velopment of the Austrian national identity be‐ sition between the constituent parts of Austria cause it does not seem to have made any substan‐ and broader institutions or concepts, such as the
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"House of Austria," "the Holy Roman Empire of German-Austria, the ambiguous relationship of the German Nation," "Germany," or "German cul‐ "cultural and linguistic" Germans in Austria to ture." (Protestant-Hohenzollern) Germany as well as Austrian identity, Bruckmueller argues, was (Catholic-Habsburg) Austria, and the development not such a problem as long as the most abstract of Pan-Germanism in Austria. "community" to which the Austrians belonged The problem of Austrian identity for German- was articulated or dictated by Austrian institu‐ speakers shifted in the course of the nineteenth tions, such as the relationship of the historical century due to the rise of German nationalism Laender to the dynasty, the Habsburg court and and Pan-Germanism. Concepts such as deutsche its ancillary aristocracy, the Roman Catholic Wissenschaft und Kultur or a deutsche Sprach- Church, the military, and Josephinian bureaucra‐ und Kulturnation provided a larger and more cy (pp. 200-25). This "Austria" worked just fne "universal" community to which German-speak‐ from the top down, so to speak. It was a pre-mod‐ ing Austrians, in particular elites, could belong, ern success story, whose subsequent lack of just as Germany, as an imperial political reality af‐ prospects was dictated by a series of "failed revo‐ ter 1871, reinterpreted what the concepts of "em‐ lutions." pire" and "German" and "German empire" meant. Bruckmueller identifes the origins of the fail‐ Although Bruckmueller does not use this ure of "old" Austria in the course of the nine‐ term, he describes well what I would call the "Aus‐ teenth century with its inability to develop institu‐ trian identity-exclusion double-bind": "The Austri‐ tions providing the inhabitants of the monarchy an Germans were 'the Germans' for Magyars, with an opportunity to develop modes of partici‐ Czechs, and Slovenes (and immediate opponents pation and identifcation that worked from the in national confrontations), but the Germans in bottom up. A.J.P. Taylor once observed that 1848 'the empire' referred to themselves as 'the Ger‐ was a year in which "German history reached a mans'" (p. 292). In the course of the nineteenth turning-point and failed to turn," and this is true century, German-Austrians participated in the of Austria history, too. The belated liberalism and rise of German nationalism and defned them‐ dualism of the Compromise of 1867 failed to re‐ selves increasingly in terms belonging to a Ger‐ solve the "nationalities question," and liberal and man "linguistic and cultural nation" that depreci‐ national demands for more popular and "nation‐ ated the cultures of non-Germanic "others." How‐ al" sovereignty in Austria-Hungary fed upon each ever, after 1871, imperial Germany politically ex‐ other. cluded German-Austrians from being truly "impe‐ Bruckmueller devotes two sections of his rial Germans" (Reichsdeutsche). In this respect, book to the rise of nationalism in Austria. Under German-Austrians had to fnd new modes of relat‐ "identity problem one," he discusses nation-build‐ ing to a "German nation" that excluded them, and ing among the non-Germanic nations in the Bruckmueller describes how two "German na‐ monarchy from 1848 through 1918 (pp. 237-76). tions" constituted themselves in the course of the "Identity problem two" is in some regards more nineteenth century. provocative: "German Austrians from the 'Holy' to One of the characteristics of the "second" Ger‐ the 'Greater German' Empire" addresses the ca‐ man, or German-Austrian, nation was its ambigui‐ reer and the problems of "linguistic nationalism" ty. The idea of one German nation did not corre‐ in Austria (pp. 276-317). This section provides an spond to the reality of two political empires, and informative analysis of the relationship of Ger‐ Austria, as part of the "second" German yet multi‐ man culture to Austrian culture, the concept of national empire, had trouble politically legitimiz‐
3 H-Net Reviews ing itself in linguistic and cultural terms. In other logical terms. Then the Austrians spend seven words, for German-Austrians, the linguistic and years as "Germans" in the Third Reich. cultural criteria of national inclusion ran counter In 1945, Austrians had a second chance to to the historical arguments German-Austrians have a "republican" history based on the lessons could muster for the sake of "national" diferenti‐ learned from the failure of the First Republic in ation. Furthermore, the drawing power of the 1934 and their experience as "Germans" in the Habsburgs' old program of multinational patrio‐ German Reich from 1938 to 1945. The historio‐ tism based on a allegiance to divinely ordained graphical framework for the Second Republic was dynasty and a multinational community of inter‐ also determined to a great extent by Allied policy ests (Gott, Kaiser, Vaterland) increasingly lost its toward Austria: the Moscow Declaration of 1943 drawing power in the course of the nineteenth that formulated the reestablishment of a free and century. independent Austria as an Allied war objective, in The German-Austrian confrontation with "the addition to granting Austria the status of being German" as the "self" and the "other" in the nine‐ the "frst free country to fall victim to Hitlerite ag‐ teenth century played a much more important gression," and the negotiation of the Austrian role in the development of the Austrian national state treaty from 1947 through 1955, the conclu‐ identity in the twentieth century than the Ger‐ sion of which was the prerequisite for the Aus‐ man-Austrian confrontation with the non-German tria's unilateral declaration of permanent neutral‐ nationalities of the monarchy. After 1918, Austri‐ ity on October 26, 1955 after the evacuation of Al‐ an national identity was, to a large extent, based lied occupational forces. on the desire for inclusion: wanting to be "Ger‐ If one of the peculiarities of Austrian history man." After 1945, Austrian identity and nation- has been the great extent to which Austria was building was followed by a process of dissocia‐ aussengesteuert or "externally determined," as tion: not wanting to be "German." Friedrich Heer maintained in his classic on the The lack of continuity in what perhaps could Austrian identity,[5] then the big dates in Austrian be called an Austrian "national narrative" in the history in the past 150 years have been almost co‐ twentieth century is striking. Inside of thirty years extensive with the big dates in German history: in the frst half of this century, Austrians were ex‐ 1848, 1866, 1871, 1918, 1933 (1934 for Austria), posed to fve diferent stories about Austria. There 1938 (1939 for Europe), 1945, 1949 (for Germany), was the multinational Habsburg, yet German-Aus‐ 1955 (when the Federal Republic joined NATO six trian story before 1918. This was followed by the days before the Austrian State Treaty was signed (frst) republican story about German-Austria that on May 15), 1989. Austrian historiography has had lacked credibility, not only because of the wide‐ a fundamentally reactive relationship to German spread doubts in the economic, political, and na‐ historiography, because each time "the Germans" tional viability of the state that culminated in var‐ have redefned what German history means, "the ious Anschluss schemes, but also because the Aus‐ Austrians" as German-Austrians have had to rede‐ trian left and right were committed more to their fne themselves by reinterpreting their relation‐ own ideologies than to the institutions of "bour‐ ship to Germany and the German past. geois democracy." After a "civil war" in 1934, the In particular, Austrian historiography had to Austrians had a German-Austrian "Christian Cor‐ react to the imperial kleindeutsch "Prussifcation" porative State"--"Austro-fascist" in some people's of Germany after 1871, the "Nazifcation" of Ger‐ diction--for four years that was explicitly anti- many after 1933, and the "Federal Republicaniza‐ Pan-German and anti-National Socialist in ideo‐ tion" of Nazism and Germany after 1949. Bruck‐
4 H-Net Reviews mueller is fully aware of how prevalent Pan-Ger‐ achievements, traditions, and institutions that manism was among Austrian historians in the in‐ provided criteria for national diferentiation. terwar period, and he is interested in pointing out If the standard formula for a nation is a peo‐ those exceptional cases of anti-Pan-Germanic the‐ ple that shares a common territory, language, cul‐ oreticians of the Austrian nation between 1918 ture, and history, the importance of the Bun‐ and 1938, who, since 1945, have assumed an im‐ deslaender as a territorial and a historical unit is portant position in Austrian historiography be‐ obvious. The problems of a linguistic justifcation cause they built their theories of an autonomous for the Austrian nation also are evident, although Austrian nation on the "otherness" of Germany in the idea of German as a "pluricentric" language its second and third imperial manifestations, not has encouraged some Austrian philologists to ar‐ on the unity of the "German nation" as a histori‐ gue that Austrian-German (das oesterreichische cal, linguistic, cultural, or political entity. Deutsch or Oesterreichisch) should be viewed as Until 1945, attempts to defne Austrian na‐ an autonomous variant of German.[6] The ab‐ tional identity relied on describing Austrians' re‐ sence of a widely accepted linguistic justifcation lationships to the various Germanys (as diferent for the Austrian nation makes it exceptionally im‐ historical, linguistic-cultural, and/or political com‐ portant to come up with criteria of cultural difer‐ munities) or, to put it simply, how Austria ft into entiation: one language, two cultures. In the some kind of larger narrative about the German- realm of literature, the distinction between "liter‐ speaking world. After 1945, Austrian national dis‐ ature in German" and "German literature" has po‐ course about being Austrian has been dictated to litical implications. The medium for Austrian lit‐ a much greater extent by the desire to get out of erature is German; the authors and the literature, German history than to be included in it. however, are Austrian. Austrian traditions, one As Bruckmueller documents, the Third Reich could argue, were always substantially diferent did a very good job of eliminating most Pan-Ger‐ from German ones. What the Austrians had to manism in Austria, and it helped, in this respect, learn to do--and obviously have done--is to "na‐ to create the preconditions for the development of tionalize" the diferences in a manner that afrms a much more autonomous and "smaller" Austrian Austrian autonomy. national identity that sought distinctly Austrian However, it is equally important to recognize points of reference. For example, after 1945 Aus‐ that the Allies, by granting Austria the status of trian historians "discovered" that the Laender of the frst victim of Nazi aggression in the Moscow the Habsburgs at the end of the ffteenth century Declaration of 1943, released Austria and the Aus‐ formed a unit that corresponded roughly to the trians from being part of eight years of Nazi-Ger‐ Bundeslaender of the Republic of Austria. man history after 1945, and I would have appreci‐ The three imperial points of reference in Aus‐ ated it if Bruckmueller had devoted a bit more at‐ trian history--Habsburg, Hohenzollern, and tention to the problems of memory, myth, and Hitler--suddenly recede at this point, and the Bun‐ amnesia with reference to the Anschluss era and deslaender provide a new federal point of refer‐ to what extent they, too, have been constituent el‐ ence that is neither imperial nor Pan-German. As ements of the Austrian national identity building the historical building blocks of the Republic of process. While discussing the roles of emigration, Austria, the Bundeslaender defne the limits of na‐ resistance, and de-Nazifcation (pp. 348-57) and tional frontiers, and after 1945 discourse on the the development of a "republican national con‐ Austrian national identity increasingly began to sciousness" (pp. 384-96), he could have devoted rely on those specifcally Austrian cultural more attention to the implications of the "victim
5 H-Net Reviews theory" of National Socialism in Austria and the apeutic consequence of confronting Austrians role it has played in the development of Austrian with the "victim theory" as a historically unten‐ national identity as well as the manner in which able national interpretation of National Socialism. Austrians have coped, or failed to cope, with the The end of the Cold War in 1989 completely de‐ Nazi era.[7] preciated the importance of Austrian neutrality Bruckmueller focuses more attention on an‐ and facilitated the access of Austria (and other other important institutional element in the de‐ "neutrals," such as Sweden and Finland) to the Eu‐ velopment of an autonomous Austrian national ropean Union in 1995, although Austrians them‐ identity: the Austrian State Treaty of 1955 and the selves are having a tough time giving up the idea subsequent role of Austrian neutrality as a new of neutrality. Is anyone left to be "neutral against" mode of national identifcation that not only pro‐ or is there something called "permanent neutrali‐ vided the Second Republic with a new "national" ty for the time being"? and "international" mission but also gave Austria Ernst Bruckmueller's book illustrates how a role to play in Cold War Europe. The Austrian complex the evolution of the Austrian identity, public at large may not really have understood and identities, has been on various levels up to the complexities of neutrality in terms of interna‐ the present. Looking back, we can see how auspi‐ tional law, just as the Republic of Austria has nev‐ cious and stable conditions were for the develop‐ er really taken its obligations to defend itself as a ment of a modern Austrian national identity be‐ neutral state as seriously as other European neu‐ tween 1955 and 1989. In his conclusion, Bruck‐ trals--if one is willing to take Swiss, Swedish, or mueller points out the "power of the factual": that Finnish defense spending per capita as a standard the great majority of Austrians born since 1945 of resoluteness. But Austrians, justifably or not only have a fundamentally unproblematic re‐ not,identify neutrality as one of the sources of lationship to Austria, but also are exceptionally their personal security and prosperity. proud to be Austrian. At the same time, he appre‐ Indeed, neutrality, which was the price Aus‐ ciates the challenge European integration repre‐ tria judiciously and pragmatically paid to get the sents for regional and national identities, and Allies out of Austria in 1955, became a national, hopes it will be possible to maintain an Austrian moral virtue in the course of the Cold War. Bruno national identity in a positive and integrative Kreisky, Austrian Federal Chancellor from 1970 to "non-nationalistic" manner, as opposed to a nega‐ 1983, did an exceptional job of implying that the tive, exclusive, and "nationalist" one. idea of the "old Austria" had something to do with Bruckmueller convincingly demonstrates that the role that modern Austria had assumed as neu‐ pan-Germanism was part of an identity problem tral state with the function of being a "bridge" or that Austrians have long [since] overcome. Never‐ "mediator" between "East" and the "West." theless, the xenophobic potential inherent in Aus‐ Kreisky was an exception for a Social Democrat, trian and in other, well established forms of West‐ insofar as he understood the implication and the ern European nationalism appears to be one of benefts of Austria's imperial history and he knew his concerns. how to use them diplomatically.[8] Notes: If the "victim thesis" and "neutrality" have [1]. The most ambitious publishing project is provided substantial parts of the framework for being edited by Herwig Wolfram, a ten volume, articulating the modern Austrian national identi‐ 5,500 page Oesterreichische Geschichte published ty, things certainly have changed in the past by Verlag Carl Ueberreuter that covers 1,500 years decade or so. The "Waldheim afair" had the ther‐ of history. Six volumes have appeared to date. The
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Austrian Academy of Sciences published a collec‐ and 1988. Bruckmueller, however, does not ad‐ tion of articles, Richard G. Plaschka, Gerald dress this work. Stourzh, and Jan Paul Niederkon, ed., Was heisst [8]. It is worth noting that Christian democrat‐ Oesterreich (Vienna: Verlag der Oesterreichischen ic politicians, such as Erhard Busek, who are Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996). More levity more comfortable with the Catholicism (and and irony is to be found in the essays in Gernot catholicity) of the "old Austrian" concept of Mit‐ Heiss and Konrad Paul Liessmann, ed., Das Mil‐ teleuropa tend to deal with the Habsburg-multi‐ lennium, (Vienna: Sonderzahl, 1996). national dimensions of Austria with greater com‐ [2]. Ernst Bruckmueller and Peter Urbanitsch, fort and ease. As a rule, Social Democrats have a ed., Ostarrichi-Oesterreich: Menschen-Mythen- problem with pre-1918 Austria because it does not Meilensteine, 996-1996 (Horn: Verlag Berger, ft into the social democratic categories of "repub‐ 1996). licanism" or "modernization." [3]. Zuerich: Manesse-Verlag, 1989. Copyright (c) 1996 by H-Net, all rights re‐ [4]. It is worth noting, in this context, that the served. This work may be copied for non-proft historical "newcomers" among the Austrian feder‐ educational use if proper credit is given to the re‐ al provinces, Vienna and Burgenland, were both viewer and to HABSBURG. For other permission, established after World War I. According to the please contact
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Citation: Lonnie R. Johnson. Review of BruckmÖ¼ller, Ernst. Nation Ö?sterreich: Kulturelles BewuÖŸtsein und gesellschaftlich-politische ProzeÖŸe. HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews. November, 1997.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=1478
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