Guilty Victim – Austria from the Holocaust to Haider

Citation

Taylor, J. (2001), "Guilty Victim – Austria from the Holocaust to Haider", European Business Review, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 197-201. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.2001.13.3.197.1

Austria, a member of the European Union since 1994, still remains relatively unknown in this country – except, of course, for its prominent exiles, Sigmund Freud being the most outstanding example, or as a land offering the tourist the delights of landscape, music and confectionery. The two books under review will help to redress the balance and provide business people with valuable information on this important trading partner in Central Europe.

Hella Pick’s work offers a highly readable and workmanlike survey of developments in post‐war Austria, from 1945 until the present day, with its worrying resurgence of right‐wing sentiment.

As the title indicates, Pick traces the origins of the Second Republic to the Moscow Declaration of 1943, from which time the Allies regarded Austria as an occupied country rather than the eastern region (Ostmark) of Hitler’s Germany. The author’s own biography – she herself was a refugee from Hitler – indicates one aspect of Pick’s approach. However, the book is not solely apologetic or condemnatory, but rather attempts a narrative history framed according to the disciplines imposed by her work as a journalist and diplomatic correspondent. For example, the contribution of Franz Ko¨nig, the Archbishop of Vienna, to the development of Austria’s Ostpolitik during the Cold War is followed in detail, and there is a chapter on Chancellor Kreisky’s involvement in the Middle East.

Pick gives an outline of Austria’s post‐Second World War history from the occupation to the restoration of national sovereignty in 1955, showing how the consequent neutrality was severely tested by the Hungarian uprising the following year (1956). She then surveys the 40 or so years of the Second Republic under Chancellors Kreisky and Vranitzsky, including the scandal of Waldheim’s election as President, and culminating in the rise of the far right under Jo¨rg Haider. As no study of Austria could be complete without reference to its culture, there is a chapter on the arts in Austria, evocatively entitled “From the Mozartkugel to Klimt and Schiele”.

The work is particularly strong when dealing with the later years, which we must suppose coincide with the author’s career. Her command of the Waldheim material in the chapter entitled “Austria in the dock” is particularly impressive. Less so the coverage of the early years. It would have been good to learn more about the tactics used to persuade the Russians and the Western Allies to grant Austria its independence at a considerably earlier date than the two German states. The omission of any reference to the Habsburgs seems strange, to say the least. However, it can be argued that the strength of this book lies in its readability. Although the bibliography contains an extensive list of sources, the author does not overload her readers with scholarly detail, confining herself to a few endnotes after each chapter.

If Pick’s book would be good to take on the plane to Austria, the volume edited by Gu¨nter Bischof, Anton Pelinka and Ferdinand Karlhofer will provide fuller information for those whose interest has been aroused. Consisting of a collection of essays by distinguished academics from Austria, Germany and the USA, it covers selected topics of Austrian history. Essays and book reviews deal with Austrian attitudes to the past – the way the Holocaust is viewed in Austrian schools, for example, and the debate over looted art. Additionally, seven topical essays examine the period of Vranitzsky’s chancellorship, which lasted from 1986 to 1996. Economic and social policy is examined, as is the country’s legacy of Social Democracy, and there is a comparison of the leadership styles of Kreisky and Vranitzsky. But the essay which will possibly be of most interest to readers is the study of the rise of the new radical right.

Hella Pick’s conclusion is optimistic. The Waldheim affair, she considered, enabled the Second Republic to come of age and to admit the mistakes of the past, a process that will stand Austria in good stead when dealing with the new challenge of Jo¨rg Haider. Sonja Puntscher Rieckmann, the author of The Politics of Ausgrenzung, offers no such comforting conclusion. She sees Haider in the context of the new, post‐Communist order in Europe and the challenges to the Continent posed by globalisation. This is altogether a much bleaker vision of Austria’s place in the Europe of the twenty‐first century.