Durham E-Theses The press reception of Austrian works of Vergangenheitsbewältigung Firth, Catriona How to cite: Firth, Catriona (2006) The press reception of Austrian works of Vergangenheitsbewältigung, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2370/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk The Press Reception of Austrian Works of Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung Catriona Firth Master of Arts University of Durham Department of German 2006 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from it, or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. - 7 AUG 2007 Catriona Firth Master of Arts by Research: The Press Reception of Austrian Works of Vergangenheitsbewii.ltigung Submitted September 2006 This thesis explores the relationship between literature and historical memory in Austria through five case studies of literary press reception, examining the validity of common conceptions of Austrian Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung. The introduction provides an overview and explanation ofthe historico-political context of the thesis, considering cultural narratives on Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung, the position ofthe Austrian press and its relationship with contemporary, socially critical literature. Chapters One and Two compare the press reception of Hans Lebert's Die Wolfshaut and Gerhard Fritsch's Fasching to the widely held view of a failed Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung in 1960s Austria. Chapter Three considers the reception ofElfriede Jelinek's Die Ausgesperrten in the context of the Sozialpartnerschaft and the politics of memory associated with this period of forced political harmony. Chapter Four deals with the most extreme case, Thomas Bernhard's Heldenplatz,, questioning the common assumption that the late 1980s marked a turning point in Austria's troubled relationship with its past. This is developed in Chapter Five, which examines the reception ofRobert Schindel's Geburtig and considers the extent to which Austrian Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung can be viewed as a completed process. In the Conclusion the findings of the previous five chapters are brought together and compared with the grand cultural narrative on Austrian historical memory in a consideration of the validity of a linear conceptualisation of Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung. Table of Contents Page 1. Introduction 1 -Austrian Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung 1 - The Austrian Press 4 - Methodology - 8 2. Hans Lebert: Die Wolfshaut 10 -The Novel 10 - Continuity and Fascism 11 - The Mythological 14 - Press Reception 17 -Negative Press 17 - Positive Press 23 - Die Volksstimme 27 - Breaking the Trend 28 - Conclusion 30 3. Gerhard Fritsch: Fasching 31 -The Novel 31 - Continuity and Repetition 32 - Absence of a Hero 33 - Carnival and Transvestism 35 - Fasching in Context 39 - Press Reception 40 - Legitimisation and Abstraction 40 -Negative Press 46 - Conclusion 50 4. Elfriede Jelinek: Die Ausgesperrten 52 -The Novel 52 - Family and Fascism 53 Page - Class Hierarchy 58 - Absence of Alternatives 60 - Press Reception 63 -Excessive Brevity 64 - Sidelining 65 -Real-Life Crime 69 - Personalisation 72 - Conclusion 74 5. Thomas Bernhard: Heldenplatz 76 - Historio-political Context 76 - Heldenplatz: The Text 77 - Press Reception 82 - Pre-premiere Debate 82 - The Premiere 95 - The Aftermath 97 - Reviews of Heldenplatz 98 - Conclusion 102 6. Robert Schindel: Gebii:rtig 104 -The Novel 104 - Holocaust Survivors 104 - Opferkinder 105 - Tiiterkinder 108 -Writing and Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung 110 - Press Reception 116 - Distancing 116 - Personalisation 118 - Miscomprehension 119 - Tiroler Tageszeitung 122 - Conclusion 124 Page 7. Conclusion 126 - Personalisation, Sensationalism and Depoliticisation 126 -Die Volksstimme 128 - Providing a Counter-narrative 128 -Repression and Amnesia? 129 - A "New" Austria? 130 Bibliography 132 Appendix 1: Overview of Publications Analysed - 1 - Introduction Recent research has revealed Austria's most read newspaper, the Kronen Zeitung, to have attained one of the highest readership percentages in the world, surpassing many internationally renowned publications and thus confirming further media analyses which accorded the Austrian press with the highest circulation figures in Europe. 1 The unique status of the press in Austrian public consciousness suggested by these findings renders possible an analysis of public attitudes towards Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung through a consideration of the press reception of Austro­ criticalliterary works, providing an alternative to the established cultural narratives of Austrian Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung. Used to describe the process in Germany and Austria of coming to terms with their role in the Nazi atrocities~ Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung has been subjected to lengthy examination in both countries. For the purposes of this thesis we will concentrate on Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich's analysis of Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung,2 which argues that failure to work through the past responsibly inevitably results in a "Wiederholungszwang",3 which can only be broken "wo historische Ereignisse eine BewuBtseinsveranderung hervorrufen". 4 This introduction will provide an overview ofthe cultural narrative of Austrian Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung and an examination of the political and historical factors which shaped the Austrian press landscape, finally outlining the methodological means by which the two will be combined. Austrian Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung The specificity of Austrian Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung and the differences between Austrian and German attitudes to their role in National Socialism are commonly attributed to Austria's self-created identity as the first victim ofNazi aggression, as an occupied land with no real affiliation with National Socialism. The foundation of this "victim thesis" can be traced back to the Moscow Treaty of 1943, whereby the Allies officially recognised Austria as "das erste freie Land, das der Hitlerschen Aggression zum Opfer gefallen ist". 5 Whilst the Treaty qualified this status with the recognition 1 For more information on circulation figures and readership see Appendix I. 2 Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich, Die Unflihigkeit zu trauern: Grundlagen kol/ektiven Verhaltens (Munich: Piper, 1967). 3 Ibid, p. 64. 4 Ibid. 5 Quoted in JosefHaslinger, Politik der Gefiihle (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1995), p. 60. - 2- that Austria must still accept responsibility for her role in the war, the Moscow Declaration was regarded by post-war Austrian politicians as an absolution of guilt and was later incorporated into the Staatsvertrag when Austria gained her independence in 1955. Thus the Second Austrian Republic is seen to be based on a series of"historische Notltigen",6 as "for the founding fathers of the Second Republic, the official view of the Nazi era was less a matter of revealing historical truth than of following the dictates of political reason and accepting the status ofvictim".7 The widespread incorporation of the victim myth into Austria's post-war historical identity can be seen to have two concrete consequences for Austrian Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung: the widespread failure of the denazification process in Austria and the externalisation of guilt. Due to the widely propagated victim-thesis and Austria's subsequent rejection of guilt, the process of denazification in Austria appeared doomed from the outset. After initial efforts by the Allies to "cleanse" Austria of its Nazis and to bring Nazi perpetrators to justice, a series of legislation separating "belastete" Nazis from the "Minderbelastete" resulted in a situation where almost nobody was "belastet",8 leading Haslinger to describe Austrian denazification as a"Mini-Sauberung".9 Thus ·denazification in Austria took on a new meaning, "er bedeutet nun: Reinigung der Nationalsozialisten vonjedem Schuldvorwurf', 10 with the result that by 1951 only 54 ofthe 13,000 Austrians convicted of war crimes were still incarcerated, with this figure dropping to fourteen by 1955. 11 This failed denazification and the efforts made to reintegrate former Nazis into society evidently demonstrate an unwillingness of the post-war Austrian State to deal responsibly with the Nazi era, as political pragmatism triumphed over attempts at Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung. The second consequence of the "staatstragende Selbstinfantilisierung"12 corresponds directly to the Mitscherlichs' theory on Vergangenheitsbewii.ltigung, which suggests that identification with the victim in place of an acceptance of guilt 6 Menasse, Das Land ohne Eigenschaften (Vienna: Sonderzahl, 1992), p. 17. 7 Heidemarie Uhl, 'Politics ofMemory', in Austrian Historical Memory and National Identity, ed.