Ambivalence of Identity: The Austrian Experience of Nation-Building in a Modern Society

1. Nation-Building and Postwar Austria: An Introduction

1 Nation-Building and Postwar Austria An Introduction he crucial role of elites in the formation of national identity is a recurring topic in recent scholarship. The historical experience of the Republic of Austria casts new light on this important subject. Situated in a twentieth-century Western European societal environment, Austrian nation-building initially appears to reinforce established theoretical interpretations but ultimately transcends them. The Ambivalence of Identity examines nation-building in Austria and uses the Austrian experience to explore the conceptual foundations of nationhood. There are convincing reasons for this dual focus. Austria is a small country, so the concrete circumstances of its genesis might seem of limited interest outside its borders. But Austrian historical developments have long inspired the theoretical debate of nationhood, and many central contributions to this debate were informed by the nationality con¶ict in Austrian lands.1 Traditionally, Habsburg Austria has provided the background for these works. In the course of this study it should become clear that republican Austria is as valuable in understanding national identity as was its monarchic predecessor. The instrumentalist school of nationalism provides the most promising theoretical approach for analyzing nation-building in Austria.2 Focusing on the mythical superstructure that frequently surrounds the national self-image, it describes nations as social constructs developed T 2 The Ambivalence of Identity by nationalist elites.3 In its traditional form, this scholarly interpretation clari¤es the role of elites in creating a new sense of cohesion within a potential nation still fragmented along premodern lines; it explains a qualitative difference within a given entity. However, nation-building in postwar Austria is different in that it occurred at a later stage of societal development. The Austrian population had already experienced the in¶uence of modern nationalism; this earlier experience had centered on German cultural images.4 In order to achieve their national goals, the postwar Austrian elites had to transform the existing national consciousness of an already politicized modern population, that is, they had to change the reference group while maintaining the existing level of consciousness. Centralized decision making in the Second Austrian Republic supported these ambitious objectives. United in a grand coalition government throughout most of the postwar period, the two major parties decisively in¶uenced appointments to positions of political and cultural leadership. The prominent role of nationalized industries in Austrian economic life and the intertwining of political and economic decision making in Austria’s system of social partnership included much of the economic leadership in this interconnected elite structure. This high degree of political integration secured administrative support for the new national conception. Austrian nation-building relied pivotally on historical images and their careful reinforcement by civic institutions. The signi¤cant contribution of historians and historical interpretations to Austrian nationbuilding gives the Austrian experience special relevance for the larger debate about the nature of history. The impact of public institutions on national consciousness, for its part, casts new light on the crystallization of public opinion in modern mass societies and on the popular legitimization of new national concepts. The role of consciousness in a process of nation-building that challenged an embedded alternative represents one of the theoretically most signi¤cant aspects of postwar Austrian identity. The Austrian case is not only intriguing from a theoretical point of view, however. Questions about nationalism and national identity have resurfaced conspicuously in Central and Eastern Europe, expressing themselves in the uni¤cation of East and West Germany as well as in the disintegration of Czechoslovakia , Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. History and geography locate the Republic of Austria centrally between national developments in Germany and in the Habsburg successor states of East Central Europe. Nation-Building and Postwar Austria 3 Indeed, the analysis of Austria’s postwar experience shows that the country’s own national question continues to be interconnected with the national question in neighboring countries. In the aftermath of World War II, divergent political identities began to form in Germanspeaking Central Europe, and the attempts to create transnational Yugoslav and Czechoslovak identities were resumed after their initial failures in the interwar years. In Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia , the national environment of the postwar era has come to an end. By contrast, Austria’s national foundations appear intact, even if the country’s new membership in the European Union and the end of the Cold War have begun to question fundamental symbols of Austria’s postwar identity, such...