Austria
, officially the
Republic of Austria
(German:
Republik Osterreich
), is a
country
in the
central
European Union
. It borders
Germany
, the
Czech Republic
,
Slovakia
,
Hungary
,
Slovenia
,
Italy
,
Liechtenstein
and
Switzerland
. It comprises 9 federated
states
. Its capital, largest city and one of the nine states is
Vienna
. It hosts the headquarters of the
OSCE
and
OPEC
. Its current head of state is President
Alexander Van der Bellen
, and its current head of government is
Karl Nehammer
.
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- The second cardinal tragedy [of
World War I
] was the complete break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by the Treaties of St. Germain and Trianon. For centuries this surviving embodiment of the
Holy Roman Empire
had afforded a common life, with advantages in
trade
and
security
, to a large number of peoples, none of whom in our own time had the strength or vitality to stand by themselves in the face of pressure from a revivified
Germany
or
Russia
. All these races wished to break away from the federal or
imperial structure
, and to encourage their desires was deemed a
liberal
policy. The Balkanisation of
Southeastern Europe
proceeded apace, with the consequent relative aggrandisement of
Prussia
and the
German Reich
, which, though tired and war-scarred, was intact and locally overwhelming. There is not one of the peoples or provinces that constituted the Empire of the Hapsburgs to whom gaining their independence has not brought the tortures which ancient
poets
and
theologians
had reserved for the damned. The noble capital of
Vienna
, the home of so much long-defended
culture
and
tradition
, the centre of so many
roads
,
rivers
, and
railways
, was left stark and starving, like a great emporium in an impoverished district whose inhabitants have mostly departed.
- Our difficulties with the
Russians
increased, but I never really blamed
Konev
. He obviously was merely carrying out instructions. He even had a sense of
humor
about it occasionally. Once when we were discussing Austrian
politics
, the name of the
Communist party
leader,
Ernst Fischer
, was mentioned. Jokingly, I said: "Well, I don't like him because he is a
Communist
." Konev grunted. "That's fine," he said. "I don't like him either because he's an Austrian Communist."
- Long live
Germany
. Long live
Argentina
. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family and my friends. I am ready. We'll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in
God
.
- Is the Austrian government pursuing some sort of ‘
enlightenment
from above’ at the expense of a free and open inquiry? Do Austrian
taxpayers
need an
Orwellian
‘Ministry of Truth’ to present them with a selection of trustworthy
media
reports and a public list of
heretics
,
dissenters
, and scapegoats?
- Well, the break-up of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
, the whole problem faced by this was probably one of the causes which made me shift my interest from pure
natural science
to political problems. It meant observing the collapse of the society and more especially, the collapse of the
intellectual
society of
Vienna
. The Vienna was, as you said and remained for a number of decades one of the great
intellectual
centers of the world. Nothing could be more exciting than Vienna of the 1920s and early '30s.
- Americans reflexively believe that 'Had
Germany
occupied
the
United States
, nearly all of us would have joined an
armed resistance
to the
Nazis
. That's what I thought, too, when I was 16. But that reflects a hopelessly naive view, both of what the world looked like to most people after the Nazis had conquered Austria,
Poland
,
Czechoslovakia
,
Holland
,
Belgium
,
Luxembourg
,
Denmark
,
Norway
and
France
, and of what it actually meant to take up arms against an occupying power'.
- Austria’s amnesia was even more striking. In the
decades after World War II
, it managed, very successfully, to portray itself as the first victim of
Nazism
. In a 1945 ceremony in Vienna for a memorial to fallen
Soviet soldiers
,
Leopold Figl
, who was shortly to become the country’s chancellor, mourned that “the
people of Austria
have spent seven years languishing under Hitler’s barbarity.” Austrians comforted themselves for the next decades with such assurances. They were a happy, gentle people who had never wanted to be joined with the likes of Nazi Germany; Hitler had forced the
Anschluss
on them. They had never wanted war and if their soldiers had fought, it was only to defend their homeland. And they had suffered hugely, it must be said, at the hands of the
Allies
. Who, after all, had destroyed the magnificent Opera House in Vienna? The fact that many of the most fervent Nazis, including Hitler himself, were Austrian; the wildly enthusiastic crowds who greeted his triumphal march to Vienna in 1938; and the willing collaboration of many Austrians in the
persecution and destruction of the Jews
?all that was simply brushed under the carpet. The few brave
liberals
who tried to celebrate both the small
Austrian resistance to Nazism
and memorialize the destruction of the
Jews
found themselves isolated and accused of being
Communists
. It was only in the
1960s
, with new generations appearing on the scene and
Germany
’s own examination of its Nazi past, that questions about Austria’s role began to surface.
- The decay of the
Soviet
experiment should come as no surprise to us. Wherever the comparisons have been made between free and closed societies --
West Germany
and
East Germany
, Austria and
Czechoslovakia
,
Malaysia
and
Vietnam
-- it is the
democratic
countries what are prosperous and responsive to the needs of their people. And one of the simple but overwhelming facts of our time is this: Of all the millions of
refugees
we've seen in the modern world, their flight is always away from, not toward the Communist world. Today on the
NATO
line, our military forces face east to prevent a possible invasion. On the other side of the line, the
Soviet forces
also face east to prevent their people from leaving.
- There is no question of ever accepting Nazi representatives in the Austrian cabinet. An absolute abyss separates Austria from
Nazism
. We do not like arbitrary power, we want
law to rule our freedom
. We reject uniformity and
centralization
. . . .
Christendom
is anchored in our very soil, and we know but one
God
: and that is not the
State
, or the
Nation
, or that elusive thing,
Race
.
Our children
are
God
’s
children
, not to be abused by the State. We abhor terror; Austria has always been a humanitarian state. As a people, we are tolerant by predisposition. Any change now, in our "status quo", could only be for the worse.
- Kurt Schuschnigg
, "Morning Telegraph" of London (January 5, 1938), reprinted in "Let the Record Speak", Dorothy Thompson, Boston: MA, Houghton Mifflin Company (1939) p. 135
- I was born in Vienna, I grew up in Vienna, I went to school in Vienna, I graduated in Vienna, I studied in Vienna, I started my career in Vienna, I did theatre for the first time in Vienna, I did film for the first time in Vienna. There are also a few other Viennese details... But how much more Austrian can you get?
- I'm not German, I'm Austrian and
Austrians
have a wonderful sense of humour, Germans, not so much.
- The situation is hopeless, but it isn't serious
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