Resist the Beginnings
By Eva Menasse
VIENNA. Question: Would it be possible for one of Germany's big daily newspapers to give pride of place to the following poem on April 20: "Fürwahr, ein großer Tag ist heut!_Ich hab mich lang auf ihn gefreut,_es feiern heute Gross und Klein_zumeist daheim im Kämmerlein,_doch manche auf der Straße auch_den unverzichtbar schönen Brauch_bei dem, von Weisen inszeniert, _Gesellschaft zur Gemeinschaft wird._Ihm sei's zur Ehre, uns zum Heil" -- which translates roughly as "The glorious day is here at last_ Months of waiting finally past_Let us rejoice, both great and small_Most at home, but no, not all_Some shout it abroad, what has been done_How we were once many, and now are one_Praise be his name, honor his due..." -- and that on Hitler's birthday?!
The punch-line, of course, is the final line which goes like this: "Taxi Orange, der zweite Teil!" or "Taxi Orange, part two!" This "poem" appeared one week ago in Austria's largest daily newspaper, the Kronenzeitung. Its author was the paper's notorious "poet in residence," who writes under the name Wolf Martin. So, is it all just a harmless encomium to the second series of "Taxi Orange" -- Austria's version of the reality TV show "Big Brother"? Those critics at the paper who noticed how the poem just happened to be published on Hitler's birthday are now shrugging shoulders resignedly and claiming there was no evidence of malicious intent. Yet the truth is, a taboo has been breached. The publication of this poem in that paper and on that day is nothing less than scandalous.
Not without reason has Austrian society long been suspected of being more susceptible to anti-Semitism than are the Germans, for example. A gray area made up of de-rigueur prejudice and tongue-in-cheek racism permeates all echelons of society. This country has never laid down any clear rules on what is appropriate and what ceased to be so a long time ago. Ever since the unmasking of former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim -- who in 1986 was elected Austria's president despite the scandal caused by the revelation that he had been an officer in a German army unit that committed atrocities during World War II -- Austria has instead tried to develop such rules empirically, by trial and error. And it has always been the reactions from abroad which have served as the electric fence needed to give a timely shock to those who stray too far. The worst charge that can be leveled in Austria is not anti-Semitism, but rather the lack of a sense of humor. This phenomenon was once described as the "demonism of good cheer," and complete with its so-called fun and so-called misunderstandings, is very much on the increase at present.
Austria does not have a problem with skinheads and far-right violence. But it does have a never-ending series of "faux-pas" -- even in such venerable institutions as the Kronenzeitung. These blunders are then trivialized with breathtaking impertinence, very much according to that typical Austrian motto "Nur net aufregen" -- or "Chill out!" A high-ranking member of the Freedom Party greeted party veterans with the words "Our honor is our loyalty," supposedly unaware of its being the motto of the SS. He apologized and all was well again. That same man's press spokesman was asked just recently to change the jingle on his mailbox. By some unfortunate coincidence, he had selected precisely that sequence from Franz Liszt's "Preludes" which the Nazis had used to herald reports of their triumphs on the front, or so the news magazine profil reported. The response was typical. "For me," said the spokesman, "it was just another melody. At one point, I used Pink Floyd, too." So Austria is a country full of innocent little lambs who just have the misfortune of putting their foot in it. Strange how that same foot always seems to be wearing a jack-boot.
In a speech to the Freedom Party faithful on Ash Wednesday, Jörg Haider launched into a diatribe against Ariel Muzicant, the President of the Jewish Cultural Community, and wondered how someone capable of such dirty tricks could be called Ariel, the name of a detergent. The audience howled with amusement. Dirty tricks, dirty Jew, Ariel, detergent, cleansing, soap -- yet these evil associations are allegedly dreamed up only by the hysterically sanctimonious. Haider claims his choice of words is "necessary to political discourse." No one, or so he argues, should be forbidden from "criticizing someone who at a difficult time said negative things about Austria when abroad," especially not when that same person was in any case "an immigrant for whom Austria had become a second home." Ah, the wandering Jew! The ungrateful traitor -- it is an almost one-to-one match with the archetypal anti-Semitic stereotype. Yet Haider and his motley crew are laughing too much to realize this, just as there are still some commentators who believe that not even this is strong enough to merit protest. Where, if not here, does anti-Semitism begin, as perceived by the Austrian public? Probably only when Jews are physically assaulted.
Like Germany, Austria has laws under which the "revival of Nazi activity," for example, is a punishable offense. Such laws are problematic enough as it is in a country founded on democratic principles, including that of free speech. Yet if they are deemed necessary, if the perpetrator nations are thought to owe such laws to their victims, then surely they owe it to their victims to apply them, too? Would such a "revival" begin only when the Kronenzeitung appeared on April 20 not with a far-fetched hymn of praise to "Taxi Orange" -- which was in any case only a decoy to deflect the wrath of the politically correct -- but instead with the headline "Happy Birthday Dear Führer" on its front page? Wolf Martin is a case for the courts.