When the Hapsburg monarchy disintegrated after World War I,
Austria was not considered to be a viable entity. In a vacuum of
national identity the hapless country drifted toward a larger
Germany. After World War II, Austrian elites constructed a new
identity based on being a "victim" of Nazi Germany. Cold war
Austria, however, envisioned herself as a neutral "island of the
blessed" between and separate from both superpower blocs. Now, with
her membership in the European Union secured, Austria is
reconstructing her painful historical memory and national identity.
In 1996 she celebrates her 1000-year anniversary.
In this volume of Contemporary Austrian Studies, Franz Mathis
and Brigitte Mazohl-Wallnig argue that regional identities in
Austria have deeper historical roots than the many artificial and
ineffective attempts to construct a national identity. Heidemarie
Uhl, Anton Pelinka, and Brigitte Bailer discuss the post-World War
II construction of the victim mythology. Robert Herzstein analyses
the crucial impact of the 1986 Waldheim election imploding
Austria's comforting historical memory as a "nation of victims."
Wolfram Kaiser shows Austria's difficult adjustments to the
European Union and the larger challenges of constructing a new
"European identity." Chad Berry's analysis of American World War II
memory establishes a useful counterpoint to construction of
historical memory in a different national context.
A special forum on Austrian intelligence studies presents a
fascinating reconstruction by Timothy Naftali of the investigation
by Anglo-American counterintelligence into the retreat of Hitler's
troops into the Alps during World War II. Rudiger Overmans'
"research note" presents statistics on lower death rates of
Austrian soldiers in the German army. Review essays by Gunther
Kronenbitter and Gunter Bischof, book reviews, and a 1995 survey of
Austrian politics round out the volume. Austrian Historical Memory
and National Identity will be of intense interest to foreign policy
analysts, historians, and scholars concerned with the unique
elements of identity and nationality in Central European
politics.
General
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