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Van Pamel, Rebecca 2019 History Thesis Title Van Pamel, Rebecca 2019 History Thesis Title: "The End is Near, the Turks are Here": Instrumentalized History and the Politics of Siege Commemoration in 1883 Vienna Advisor: Alexander Bevilacqua Advisor is Co-author: None of the above Second Advisor: Released: release now Authenticated User Access: No Contains Copyrighted Material: Yes “THE END IS NEAR, THE TURKS ARE HERE”: INSTRUMENTALIZED HISTORY AND THE POLITICS OF SIEGE COMMEMORATION IN 1883 VIENNA by REBECCA KATE VAN PAMEL Professor Alexander Bevilacqua, Advisor A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in History WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, Massachusetts April 15, 2019 Page | 2 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 INTRODUCTION 5 I. WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED IN THE 1683 SIEGE? 7 II. ATTACKED FROM WITHOUT AND WITHIN 13 III. SOURCE MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY 18 NATIONALIST NARRATIVES: LIBERAL INTERPRETATION IN CONTEXT 22 I. INTRODUCTION 22 II. ORIGINS OF THE LIBERAL PRESS 27 III. LIBERAL NARRATIVES OF THE SIEGE 31 IV. CONCLUSION 48 THE ‘RESCUE OF CHRISTENDOM’: CONSERVATIVE FRAMING OF THE SIEGE 51 I. INTRODUCTION 51 II. REPRESENTATIONS OF GOD 57 III. TOWARD A UNITED CHRISTENDOM 62 IV. BOURGEOIS JEWISH LIBERALS IN THE NEW EQUATION 75 V. CONCLUSION 83 ATTACKERS AND DEFENDERS ONSTAGE AND ON THE PAGE 85 I. INTRODUCTION 85 II. REINVENTING THE FOE: DEPICTIONS OF THE ‘TURKISH’ OTHER 92 III. THEIR MAUSOLEUM IS THE BEAUTIFUL, MAGNIFICENT VIENNA: BÜRGER HEROISM STEALS THE SHOW 103 IV. HENCEFORTH FIGHT FOR HONOR AND GLORY: GREAT SIEGE HEROES AND THE CHRISTIAN OTHER 110 V. CONCLUSION 113 MOVING WITHIN MEMORY: PUBLIC COMMEMORATION IN 1883 VIENNA 115 I. INTRODUCTION 115 II. POLITICAL INTERVENTION IN MONUMENTS AND FESTIVALS 119 III. THE HISTORISCHE AUSSTELLUNG: INTERPRETIVE HISTORY AS PROPERTY AND DECORATION 132 IV. CONCLUSION 141 CONCLUSION 143 BIBLIOGRAPHY 147 Page | 3 Dedicated to the memory of Jim Engelbrecht and Joanie Van Pamel Page | 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Alexander Bevilacqua, for nudging me along through this process with constant encouragement and support, and for always offering me coffee during our meetings—even after I stopped studying coffee. This process would not have been the same without the structure and support you provided. I’d also like to thank Professor Eiko Siniawer for providing guidance to our thesis seminar, and for helping me to rediscover my interest in this subject. Through every change in this project, you remained a positive and helpful resource and made my experience much more manageable and enjoyable. I also want to express my gratitude to: Lori Dubois and the staff of Sawyer Library at Williams College for helping me access my sources; the custodians, dining staff, and others who make this institution and its work possible; Professor Gail Newman for guiding me throughout my time at Williams; Professor Magnús Þorkell Bernharðsson for introducing me to so much of the world; Becky Lee Christenberry for teaching me how to read in German; Carey Christenberry for teaching me how to write in English; Anna Goldelman for reminding me to take care of myself; Rachel, Robin, Jessica, and Mike Van Pamel for showing me what Van Pamels are capable of; my stepdad Steve Ward for always telling me that what I am up to is “so cool”; my twin for giving me the courage to do anything by always doing it first; Helen Bradley for all the great stories; Greg Jackson, Jeremy Chumley, and Greg Thomson for teaching me what hard work looks like; Linda Grandshaw for all that you do for the History Department; Philipp Kirchler for everything; Darby Adams, Michel Castillo, Matthew Jauregui, and Carol Fusaro for being my happy place; Isabel Peña, Chris Waters, and Eiko Siniawer for your thoughtful critiques and comments; and everyone else who has made my time at Williams, and this thesis, possible. Thank you. Page | 5 Page | 6 Introduction When Anders Breivik killed ninety-four people at a Norwegian office complex and nearby summer camp in July 2011, he believed he was carrying out a mission with righteous historical precedents. Breivik claimed to be protecting “European Christendom” from a “Marxist-Islamist alliance” supported by the government of his country, specifically, “a liberal European political establishment he view[ed] as promoting Europe’s destruction.”1 In his manifesto entitled “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” he explained that modern Europeans ought to follow the example of those Christians who had defended Europe during the failed Ottoman 1683 siege of Vienna and “drive out Muslim influence” from Europe.2 Mark Juergensmeyer of the Huffington Post writes that, “in Breivik’s mind he was recreating the historic efforts to save Europe from what he imagined to be the evils of Islam.”3 Nearly eight years later, in March 2019, alleged Australian shooter Brenton Tarrant would enter two Christchurch, New Zealand mosques during Friday prayers and kill fifty people, wounding fifty more using weapons inscribed, among other white nationalist symbols, with the bold white letters “Vienna 1683.”4 Tarrant also incorporated references to the siege in his own manifesto. 1 Scott Shane, “Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S.,” New York Times, July 24, 2011, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/us/25debate.html; Johan Ahlander and Patrick Lannin, “Norway’s Mass Killer Pursuing Anti-Islam Crusade,” Reuters, July 24, 2011, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway- manifesto/norways-mass-killer-pursuing-anti-islam-crusade-idUSTRE76N0X820110724; Ali Wajahat, “The Roots of the Christchurch Massacre,” New York Times, March 15, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/opinion/new-zealand-mosque-shooting.html. 2 Shane, “Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in the U.S.”; 2083 is a reference to the 400th anniversary of the siege of Vienna. 3 Mark Juergensmeyer, “Why the Year 2083 is the Title of Norwegian Terrorist Andres Breivik’s Manifesto,” Huffington Post, September 27, 2011, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anders-breivik-manifesto_b_910229. 4 Nicole Chavez, Helen Regan, Sandi Sidhu, and Ray Sanchez, “Suspect in New Zealand Mosque Shootings was Prepared ‘to Continue Attack,’ PM says,” CNN, March 16, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/15/asia/christchurch-mosque-shooting-intl/index.html; Jon Gambrell, “Mosque Shooter Brandished White Supremacist Iconography,” Associated Press, March 15, 2019, https://www.apnews.com/597933f5d8454f448db02d1fc077730d; “The Islamophobic Signs that Defined the Christchurch Terrorist,” TRT World, March 15, 2019, https://www.trtworld.com/asia/the-islamophobic-signs-that- defined-the-christchurch-terrorist-24982. Page | 7 Wajahat Ali of the New York Times writes that, “if [Tarrant’s] 74-page manifesto and social media posts are to be believed, he was inspired by a thriving online ideological structure that recruits and radicalizes mostly men to save ‘Western civilization’ from a foreign ‘invasion.’”5 The image Ali describes, of an imminent foreign invasion posing an existential threat to the West, has permeated commemorations of the siege for centuries. Before his attack in Norway, Breivik had been active on a white nationalist forum called “Gates of Vienna,” a site whose main page features the subtitle “at the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to take over Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war.”6 The site regularly invokes the notion of a current-day “jihad” against European Christendom and documents the efforts of white nationalist so-called “counterjihadists.”7 Like other white nationalist forums frequented by anti-Islamic terrorists and like-minded individuals, “Gates of Vienna” frames its resistance of growing Muslim populations in Europe by comparing the present day growth of immigration and refugee crises to the deadly threat posed by invading Ottoman forces during the 1683 siege of Vienna, attacking Muslims and pro-immigration political parties with the understanding that doing so fulfills a time-honored imperative. The contemporary white-nationalist interest in commemorating the 1683 siege, or even using it as a model for future action, represents a blatant manipulation of a historical moment for immediate political purposes. Manipulation along these lines would not be possible with just any of the numerous battles fought between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires during their 5 Shane, “Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S.” 6 “Homepage,” Gates of Vienna, Accessed February 12, 2019, https://gatesofvienna.net/; Shane, “Killing in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in the U.S.” 7 “Counterjihad Archive,” Gates of Vienna, Accessed February 12, 2019, https://gatesofvienna.net/category/counterjihad/; “History of the Counterjihad,” Gates of Vienna, Accessed February 12, 2019, https://gatesofvienna.net/notable/history-of-the-counterjihad/. Page | 8 centuries-long struggles over the Balkan borderlands. Would-be “counterjihadists” dwell on the legend of the 1683 siege of Vienna in particular because the 1683 siege, in fact the second and final Ottoman siege of the Habsburg capital city, holds a special place in the minds of not just Austrians and Europeans, but also, as the example of Tarrant shows, in the minds of white nationalists worldwide. Beyond mere historical curiosity, the story of the siege presents an attractive opportunity for retrospective observers to express contemporary frustrations through the convenient example of a plain binary “us” versus “them” that appears at a
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