Ben Hall writes that one theory why Austria is now marching to the far right is that the country presents itself “as the first foreign victim of National Socialism”, and therefore “lacks the same culture of remembrance and . . . resistance to the far-right as Germany” (Instant Insight, October 1).
One might go a step further and suggest this notion of victimhood is a national myth, belied by the fact that Austrians wildly welcomed the Anschluss. Hitler came from Linz, and he was thus welcomed as a homeboy returning in glory. Or to put it another way, Hitler was perceived to have solved the hitherto intractable problem of German nationalism via the so-called Groß-Deutsch solution, which Bismarck had rejected.
I recall visiting Kahlenberg mountain (site of the 1683 battle which saved Europe from the Ottomans). There I found a commemorative bust of a mayor of Vienna, post-Anschluss, with a swastika engraved in its base. Why, I wondered, was this bust still on display, on a site for tourists no less? The answer may be that Austrians, far from suffering from a failure of collective memory, may actually remember all too well. The FPÖ’s victory may simply signify chickens coming home to roost.
Emeritus Professor Albion M Urdank
University of California, Los Angeles, US
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