KNOWLEDGE FROM THE EMPIRE IS BACK TEXT: JEANNETTE GODDAR The Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire are long gone – but in many European cities, they are still very much alive. 58 In Vienna, for example, remem- brance of the times when the city was besieged by the Turks is fostered, while the tens of thou- ment park. To put it another way: in liberation from the Turks. Today, the sands of Viennese citizens of most cases, it is not the capital of place is marked by a plaque, with the Turkish origin are ignored. At the Austria that people are shown in their following inscription in Latin: “Once, Max Planck Institute for the first encounter with this city, but the Maria came to save us from suffering Study of Religious and Ethnic hub of the Habsburg dynasty, which at the hands of the Turks. Proud stone came to an end just over a hundred figures expressed the gratitude of Diversity in Goettingen, a team years ago. However, such city tours their city.” led by Jeremy F. Walton is studying also take them past reminders – some the way in which former empires of them more visible, some less – of There is more to this story: a number of are treated today. the two sieges of Vienna by the Otto- buildings in Vienna are decorated man Empire. In 1529 and 1683, Otto- with shimmering golden “Turkish man troops stood on the outskirts of cannonballs” that symbolize the the capital of the Danube Monarchy. Ottoman bombardment of the city. Visitors to Vienna are keen to tour the They were unsuccessful in their There are stone sculptures showing city in one of the many traditional and attempts to seize the city, but to this Ottoman horsemen, a park called comfortable horse-drawn carriages day, the story is firmly anchored in “Tuerkenschanzpark” (Turkish that solicit customers all day long Austrian historiography. Even the entrenchment park), and of course, a throughout the city center. The most important church bell in the plethora of monuments showing “Fiaker” (coach drivers), some of Stephansdom – which is something of proud Habsburg victors. Even the whom still address their passengers in a sacred national symbol for the Aus- roof design of the Belvedere Palace, old-fashioned parlance like “Gnae’ trian people – was cast mostly from the construction of which began in Frau” (“Ma’am”) and “die the metal of Ottoman cannons in 1711. 1712, was inspired by the Ottoman Herrschaften” (“sirs”), take their In 1945, a fire caused the first bell to tents that were once erected there. As fares to the Stephansdom cathedral crash into the nave at the foot of the Annika Kirbis explains: “Once you and the Hofburg former imperial South Tower, coincidentally destroy- start looking for the traces of the ‘first residence, Schönbrunn and Belve- ing the “Tuerkenbefreiungsdenkmal”, and second Turkish siege’ as it is dere palaces, and the Prater amuse- the monument commemorating the known here, it soon becomes clear Max Planck Research · 1 | 2021 CULTURE & SOCIETY A resurrected hero: Ban Josip Jelačić, a Habsburg military commander, is now revered again in some parts of Croatia. During the Soccer World Cup in 2018, fans draped his statue in Zagreb with the colors of the Croatian coat of arms. 59 PHOTO: DREAMSTIMEPHOTO: Max Planck Research · 1 | 2021 KNOWLEDGE FROM that there are countless numbers of Kurds, for example – noted wryly that them! There are more than a hundred Grandchildren “It was a good thing that the Viennese sites in Vienna alone that serve as a of the Ottomans kicked them out.” The longer Kirbis reminder of these events. And there studied the issue, the more frag- are many, many more throughout the But what is it like for people whose roots mented people’s memories seemed to rest of Austria.” Kirbis, a social and lie in the former Ottoman Empire to be. At the same time, one thing cultural anthropologist from Ger- be surrounded by all this symbolism? became clear: “History continues to many, who is conducting her doctoral To find out, Annika Kirbis inter- be negotiated in debates about immi- research at the Max Planck Institute viewed Viennese citizens with Turk- gration, in speeches about integration, for the Study of Religious and Ethnic ish roots, often during walks around as well as in discriminatory remarks. Diversity in Goettingen, initially the city. Their responses to her ques- Often, it is also due to the use of a kind moved to Vienna to work on her mas- tions varied widely. Some had of siege rhetoric, which everyone ter’s thesis. Her original plan was to remained unaware of all the monu- growing up in Vienna is familiar with.” study the present-day experiences of ments over the decades, while others Turkish immigrants to the city. How- felt insulted by the images of It’s also not hard to find tangible exam- ever, initially every database and saber-wielding horsemen in harem ples of conscious efforts to keep his- Internet search yielded only events pants. A few of them told her that tory alive. For example, in September that took place hundreds of years ago, visitors from Turkey like to visit the 2020, to mark the anniversary of the even though between 200,000 and sites of decisive battles, and rather victory of the Habsburgs, the right- 300,000 people of Turkish origin have than seeing the campaigns as a failure, wing populist FPÖ party invited citi- been living in Austria for decades. they felt a certain sense of pride that zens to a “liberation celebration”, Many of them came as so-called the Ottoman forces had advanced as which in the words of the deputy “guest workers” or followed their fam- far as Vienna. Others, who are labeled mayor of Vienna was intended “to ilies to the country, and hold Austrian as being Turkish but who do not nec- demonstrate that we do not tolerate citizenship by now. essarily identify themselves as such – parallel Islamist societies (...).” On the other hand, in 2014, during a visit to Vienna just before the Turkish elec- 60 tions, the Turkish president Recep The culture of remembrance Tayyip Erdoğan appealed to his sup- th in the 19 century: people porters in the city, calling them all in Carinthia and South Tirol “grandchildren of Sultan Suleiman used to decorate their village fountains with these and Kara Mustafa,” the two men who “Turk heads”. Today, these had led the first and second Turkish heads are displayed in the sieges. As anthropologist Jeremy F. Austrian Museum of Folk Walton explains, this emphasis on Life and Folk Art in Vienna. collective strength and the securing of political power in the service of a national narrative are “typical moti- vations for ‘re-imperializing’ history.” However, it would be inaccurate to generalize here. Religion and aesthe- tics also play a role, as does everyday culture. “Even in the fashion world, designers are drawing inspiration from empires that have long ceased to exist.” Walton is Head of the Max Planck Research Group, “Empires of Memory. The Cultural Politics of Historicity in Former Habsburg and Ottoman Cities”, in which Kirbis conducts her doctoral research. It is striking that, like Annika Kirbis, Walton more or less stumbled into this area of research. Walton is a U.S. citizen who moved to Turkey around fifteen years ago to write his doctoral PHOTO: ANNIKA KIRBIS/MPI FOR THE STUDY RELIGIOUS OF AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY thesis on Muslim civil society. “At Max Planck Research · 1 | 2021 CULTURE & SOCIETY PHOTO: PICHLER KLAUS / WIEN MUSEUM 61 Culture of remembrance in the year 1983: contrary to what the plaque suggests, this Viennese house was not destroyed by the Ottomans, but by the Viennese themselves. They set fire to the suburbs in order to rob the enemy of the opportunity to hide within them. first, the Ottoman Empire was not on the Habsburg Monarchy and/or the tion from Turkish soil in the early 20th my radar. But everywhere I went, it Ottoman Empire, and are now located century have left deep scars, and Italy, was being re-negotiated and brought in eight different countries. Walton which very consciously insists that to people’s attention. In some cases, loosely divides the cities into pairs. the South Tirol and Trentino regions, smaller Islamic organizations were First, there are Vienna and Istanbul, along with the strips of land along the even paying for monuments to be ren- the former centers of the empires, north-eastern Adriatic coast, are ovated,” he explains. To recap: at that then Budapest and Sarajevo, which incontestably Italian territory. Walton time, Erdoğan, who has been posing came under both Habsburg and Otto- himself has his research base in the as a post-modern sultan for several man rule, and where the two empires former Habsburg city of Zagreb, now years now, had just entered office, and still exert an influence over public life in Croatia, which forms the fourth Turkey as a secular state was still far and political debate. Third, there are pair, together with Belgrade, formerly more focused on the founder of the Thessaloniki and Trieste, which used a part of the Ottoman Empire and Republic, Kemal Atatürk than it is to be important port cities, and which now in Serbia. “Observing how today. are both located in countries that cer- the recent socialist past is dealt with tainly do not regard themselves as in these two cities as well as Sarajevo, This is, in short, what led to the creation successors to the empire of which in tandem with their imperial past, of the research group, which exam- they were once part: Greece, where adds another fascinating layer to our ines eight cities that once belonged to the expulsions of the Greek popula- research,” he explains.