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Österreichische Geschichte
Das Gebiet der heutigen Republik Österreich bildete bis 1806 einen Bestandteil des Heiligen Römischen Reiches. Ist die Geschichte Österreichs daher eine der Landesgeschichten der seit dem späten Mittelalter immer klarer erkennbaren Territorien des Reiches? Drei wesentliche Faktoren unterscheiden die Entwicklung Österreichs von der anderer Länder des Reiches. Zum Ersten war dieses Gebiet die «Hausmacht» der habsburgischen Dynastie, die von 1438 bis 1806 mit einer kurzen Ausnahme den Herrscher des Heiligen Römischen Reiches stellte. Zweitens kam es schon vor der habsburgischen Herrschaft durch die spezifische Randlage und die besondere Rechtsstellung der Mark Österreich zu einem Phänomen, das man als «Hinauswachsen aus dem Reich» bezeichnet, und drittens bildete dieses Österreich nach 1918 einen eigenen Staat, der zwar um seine Identität rang, aber realpolitisch ein souveräner Staat war. Wie sich die Geschichte Österreichs von den Anfängen bis zum Beitritt zur EU gestaltete, wo seine Grenzen im Laufe von mehr als eintausend Jahren verliefen, welche Bedeutung die Religion für das Land hatte, welche kulturelle Blüte es hervorbrachte, aber auch wie es zum Niedergang der politischen Kultur in der Zeit des Austrofaschismus und des Nationalsozialismus beitrug, schildert Karl Vocelka in eindrucksvoller Klarheit und Anschaulichkeit in diesem kleinen Band.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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October 3, 2024First Vocelka asks the question if there is an Austrian history, or at least prior to 1918. The correct answer to this question is obviously NO!, in which case you can move on. It would have been possible, and maybe even interesting to read a history like this that began in 1918 which could then have focused as much on social and cultural history as on political history but that is not the book that Vocelka choose to write.
At one hundred and twenty-four pages this, is a crisp and concise political history that follows the history of the places that constitute modern Austria as they coalesced. This took quite some time, I think the process was more or less complete by 1918, but this means that the book is as much concerned with who was ruling over the region and what their political concerns were as much as the lives and opinions of the people who were being ruled over.
Despite this Vocelka offered me some interesting perspectives. It is a common view, and one which I have repeated myself in several reviews, that the Hapsburgs won the inheritance lottery, that through marriages and children they gained the Burgungian inheritance, Spain and it's territories in the old and new worlds, & Hungary and the Czech lands, and that this was a positive. Vocelka turns this round, by pointing out that this dragged them into conflicts which consumed the resources of their territories and demanded the attentions of their rulers. These conflicts would rumble on and off in to the eighteenth century.
A benefit of Vocelka's approach is his stress on political continuities. For example, I read recently the opinion that the FPO was a grouping founded by ex-Nazi's for ex-Nazis. For Vocelka this would be a very short sighted perspective. For him the FPO dirives from the tradition of old German Nationalist parties under the Hapsburgs (p.114), the Nazi period itself and the proceeding Austro-fascist regime (apparently still a tabu theme in Austrian public life (p.107))were not aberrations, however might one might wish that that they were, but were broadly supported by the population because they drew upon long-standing political tendencies such as defining Austria in relation to opposition to 'others', principally Protestants and the Ottoman Turks (p.50). Here we might note that during the early sixteenth century Protestantism was very successful in the highland regions of Austria until stamped out by vigorous co-operation between Church and State through the Counter-Reformation, and that the Turks were presumably not just the inspiration for the croissant but also the immediate inspiration for Viennese coffee and cafe culture.
On which note I was very interested by the discussion of the period from 1815 to 1848. Vocelka describes how the Church, bureaucracy, and army were the three pillars that supported the state. There was a strict system of censorship and spying, prisons were filled with political prisoners, political activity was severely restricted. This led to a turning inwards towards the household and to cultural activities, this is the era in which the Vienna philharmonic was founded. I had the sense of artistic and cultural activity being two faced, it's a refuge but as such also a turning away from politics and social questions. The idealisation of country dances in music like the waltz, is not simply sweet, but also sinister. Music goers can day dream about jolly rustic people dancing in their copious free time, without asking what life was really like in those villages after the long period of war against Napoleon and France can to an end in 1815. I can imagine how this creates an idealised picture of the past too and shapes a conservative social consensus; police controls and censorship meant that nobody could publicly express social criticism comes to be understood as meaning that those good old days were in fact good old days for everyone. Perhaps this left the population ill prepared for democracy in 1918.
I was mildly amused to read that it was a matter of some controversy to allow the empress Zita - the widow of the last Emperor, and his sons, to return to Austria. Were there fears that they would overthrow the second republic and restore the monarchy? Apparently once she died, there was however no doubt about what to do with her body - and she now lies sweetly with the Hapsburgs and their spouses safely interred in the Imperial crypt.
At one hundred and twenty-four pages this, is a crisp and concise political history that follows the history of the places that constitute modern Austria as they coalesced. This took quite some time, I think the process was more or less complete by 1918, but this means that the book is as much concerned with who was ruling over the region and what their political concerns were as much as the lives and opinions of the people who were being ruled over.
Despite this Vocelka offered me some interesting perspectives. It is a common view, and one which I have repeated myself in several reviews, that the Hapsburgs won the inheritance lottery, that through marriages and children they gained the Burgungian inheritance, Spain and it's territories in the old and new worlds, & Hungary and the Czech lands, and that this was a positive. Vocelka turns this round, by pointing out that this dragged them into conflicts which consumed the resources of their territories and demanded the attentions of their rulers. These conflicts would rumble on and off in to the eighteenth century.
A benefit of Vocelka's approach is his stress on political continuities. For example, I read recently the opinion that the FPO was a grouping founded by ex-Nazi's for ex-Nazis. For Vocelka this would be a very short sighted perspective. For him the FPO dirives from the tradition of old German Nationalist parties under the Hapsburgs (p.114), the Nazi period itself and the proceeding Austro-fascist regime (apparently still a tabu theme in Austrian public life (p.107))were not aberrations, however might one might wish that that they were, but were broadly supported by the population because they drew upon long-standing political tendencies such as defining Austria in relation to opposition to 'others', principally Protestants and the Ottoman Turks (p.50). Here we might note that during the early sixteenth century Protestantism was very successful in the highland regions of Austria until stamped out by vigorous co-operation between Church and State through the Counter-Reformation, and that the Turks were presumably not just the inspiration for the croissant but also the immediate inspiration for Viennese coffee and cafe culture.
On which note I was very interested by the discussion of the period from 1815 to 1848. Vocelka describes how the Church, bureaucracy, and army were the three pillars that supported the state. There was a strict system of censorship and spying, prisons were filled with political prisoners, political activity was severely restricted. This led to a turning inwards towards the household and to cultural activities, this is the era in which the Vienna philharmonic was founded. I had the sense of artistic and cultural activity being two faced, it's a refuge but as such also a turning away from politics and social questions. The idealisation of country dances in music like the waltz, is not simply sweet, but also sinister. Music goers can day dream about jolly rustic people dancing in their copious free time, without asking what life was really like in those villages after the long period of war against Napoleon and France can to an end in 1815. I can imagine how this creates an idealised picture of the past too and shapes a conservative social consensus; police controls and censorship meant that nobody could publicly express social criticism comes to be understood as meaning that those good old days were in fact good old days for everyone. Perhaps this left the population ill prepared for democracy in 1918.
I was mildly amused to read that it was a matter of some controversy to allow the empress Zita - the widow of the last Emperor, and his sons, to return to Austria. Were there fears that they would overthrow the second republic and restore the monarchy? Apparently once she died, there was however no doubt about what to do with her body - and she now lies sweetly with the Hapsburgs and their spouses safely interred in the Imperial crypt.
March 5, 2023
Gute übersichtliche Abhandlung, mit der man alle verprügeln sollte, die sich nach einem "Österreich wie früher" sehnen. Lernen Sie Geschichte.
December 12, 2025
Die Bibel der österreichischen Geschichte Studis
January 23, 2017
Gut geschrieben, komplett, differenziert.
April 15, 2025
Das Buch gibt einen guten Überblick. Der Autor bleibt dabei aber auch kritisch und zeigt gerade für das 20. Jahrhundert Aufarbeitungspotenzial auf.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews