by
Max Riedlsperger (Cal Poly State University SLO) Prepared for the the 1999 meeting of the German Studies Association Atlanta, Ga. 8. October 1999 Introduction
The title of this paper and the question posed by this magazine cover refer to FPÖ-Chairman Jörg Haider's claim that he should be elected head of government (Landeshauptmann) in Carinthia if his party were to capture a relative majority in the 7. March Landtagswahl. Simply the fact that Austria's leading newsmagazine would pose the question indicates the controversy surrounding his person. For most of Austria's literati, artists and intellectuals, the answer to the question on the cover of profil was clearly no! As Jennifer Michaels will note in her paper to follow, "there is little love lost between contemporary Austrian writers and Jörg Haider," and, I might add, the feeling is mutual. The reasons are too complex to be explored in any depth here, but some of them lie in deep and contentious differences over history and the way in which Austrian identity is perceived. The observations of the Trieste Germanist Claudio Magris are to the point. Writers, according to Magris, have embraced the idea of a "hinternational" Central Europe, "nowadays idealized as the harmony between different peoples
of the Habsburg Empire, a tolerant association of peoples understandably lamented when it was over ." While recognizing a certain legitimacy in this view, he notes that it was rooted in myth:
in some measure a makeshift ideology, arising from the failures of Austrian policy in Germany. Incapable of bringing about the unity of Germany, the Austria of the Habsburgs sought a new mission and a new identity in the supra-national empire, the crucible of peoples and of cultures --- the "hinternational Danube basin." Writers almost always, tend to see only the "hinternational Danube," while historians also take account of the German-ness of Danubian Austria, with the Rheingold often gleaming in the blue Danube. The Austro-German outlook does not simply mean German nationalism: at certain moments in history -- it has indicated identification with the culture, which appeared likely to bring progress.
This latter view, of itself, is not racist, but it does see German culture as central to the integration, civilization and perpetuation of ethics and values for Central Europe. Following the collapse of the old Habsburg Empire in 1918, virtually all the political and cultural elites saw Austria as a part of the cultural German nation even if the victorious Allies prohibited the realization of a true, "greater German" nation-state. Even the Nazi take-over of Germany did not end this view. Some simply saw Austria as the „better" German state, while others longed for inclusion in the „greater German Reich." The experiences between the Anschluss in 1938 and 1945 ended any illusions or desires for unity within a political German nation, but as late as 1956, the first poll on the question of identity showed 46 per cent identifying Austrians as part of the German ethnic, linguistic and cultural cultural community.
The general ideological conflict described by Magris describes one of the fundamental reasons for the antipathy between the contemporary Austrian literary community and Haider. For writers, the "hinternational" is now the multicultural view while those of Haider and his FPÖ are contemporary iterations of the Austro-German outlook. Many of today’s literary elite are of the student generation that revolted against the "Establishment" represented by the government of ÖVP-Chancellor Josef Klaus (1966-1979). To be Left and radical was chic, and the 68-er reveled in their " anti-Establishment" status as a kind of political "Other." In 1970, however, came a major transition, when Socialist Party-Chairman Bruno Kreisky became Chancellor. Kreisky was a darling of the 68-ers. To be sure, he was not of their generation, but as a Jew, even if one who had declared this inconsequential, and as a fighter against the "clerical-fascist" government of the 1930's and then a refugee from Nazism, Kreisky personified "the Other," both ethnically and politically. Under Kreisky, some of the 68-er became apprentice politicians while their friends took up junior positions in the schools, universities and the media and began their "march through the institutions" of the society. This was the "golden Age" of the Second Republic with a prosperity that afforded social-welfare benefits for everyone, including a rich and heavily subsidized cultural life. Many of the writers, artists and intellectuals who benefited, extrapolated, from what Magris describes as the "idealized harmony" of the Habsburg Empire, a model for the Second Republic that would be elevated and enriched by the contributions of the new "Other" who immigrated into what had been a largely German Austria. This pedagogic goal is described in an article in this year's Contemporary Austrian Studies as a manifestation of the motives of Kreisky and the Linksintellektuellen who rose to prominence under his leadership and the unbroken string of Socialist Chancellors who have succeeded him. Expressing the Austro-Marxist concepts of the 1930's,
, the intellectuals first designed a leading role for themselves: only they provided the allegedly "scientific world view ." Fom this knowledge and the circumstances of the general unawareness and unpreparedness of the proletariat for their historical role resulted the second role of intellecturals: the position of educators .. In the concept of the left intellectuals the attempt to create a synthesis between the intellectuals and moral leadership was realized: the intellectuals as educators acted no longer as mere articulators of the conflict, but also as the political "solution."
One of the goals of these writers-as-pedagogs was to end the myth of Austria as the victim of "Hitlerite aggression" as proclaimed by the expedient 1943 Moscow Declaration of the Allies and to force Austrians to acknowledge the factors that had led them into enthusiastic support for National Socialism and made them its willing agents. Without question, one of the most important factors had been the goal of Anschluß as a means of completing German national unification. While no one any longer expressed this hope, there were those who still insisted that they were part of the German ethnic, linguistic and cultural community. These problematic Austrians have been portrayed by modern writers as reactionary provincials, nostalgic Nazis and neo-fascist right-wing extremists. A recent example of this attitude that has now become known as "antifa" is Wiener Blut, chosen by Burgtheater Director Claus Peymann as one of his last shots against the philistines of Vienna. In the words of the playwrite Johann Kresnik: "Just a bunch of murderers, suicides and people in despair who don't know what they are supposed to do. That is Austria. That is Wiener Blut."
For the Linksintellektuellen, whether in politics, academia, the media, literature or the arts, Haider is a right-extremist whose success is rooted in his successful appeal to the kind of society that is portrayed by Kresnik and others. Some of the reasons are: * The Nazi background of Haider's parents, his own early enthusiasm for German cultural nationalism and his purported nostalgia for National Socialism. * Haider’s support for traditional (read German-Austrian) values, his antipathy towards multiculturalism and his view that immigration is one of the major causes of the decline in the civility of modern society. * Haider’s drive to reduce the social-welfare state along with its generous subsidies to the press, literature and the performing arts, particularly the Burgtheater of Claus Peymann and the contemporary writers whose works he promoted.
In contrast, in a number of papers at GSA meetings, published articles and chapters in books, I have argued that the „Haider Phenomenon" was made possible by the erosion of the old Weltanschuung- or Lager-based political appeal with which Austrian parties had traditionally mobilized their electorates. Haider has understood how to exploit these changes and has transformed the FPÖ from a tiny German-national Lager-party that his predecessors Friedrich Peter and Norbert Steger had been trying to return to its liberal roots into a modern, radical, right-populist party at virtual numerical parity with the traditional parties that have dominated Austria since 1945. http://www.multimedia.calpoly.edu/libarts/mriedlsp/Publications/GSA99/GSA99. html