Things worth knowing about Austria
Shades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire?
Yes and no. During the monarchy, Graz was known as 'pensionopolis', where many high-ranking civil cervants went for their retirement: while the city has preserved most green and open spaces, and some villas and institutional buildings from before 1918, it has become a very young city over the last 50 years - about one in five people are students, at one of three universities, or at one of three other institutions of higher learning.
The Austrian Empire is still present, in a sense, in many hamlets and towns in western Hungary and in Slovenia, which are only 60 to 80 kilometres east and south of Graz - in the Austrian historicist style of puplic or private buildings; they are still being used every day. However, business contacts and professional or personal ties of present-day Austrians have grown enormously, over the last few decades - in part, starting before the big political changes of 1989 and the 1990s.
A land of castles, and of high tech
The traditional view was (sometimes still is) that over many centuries, Austria - and the whole Roman Empire of the German Nation - needed to be defended against incursions and would-be invasions from the east and south-east. For very good reasons, the Turks where Austria's enemy no. 1, and tales of the Turks' valour, and some of their conquests and their atrocities, are still alive.
Graz, in Austria's southeast, was the German Reich's centre of defensive action, over many centuries; a series of more than 30 castles were built, many of which still stand, are in good repair, and open to the public. -
In the twentieth century, Austrian engineering (with some installations to be seen and around Graz) developed or perfected high-tech inventions such as water turbines for electricity production (Kaplan); solar energy (with whole villages in Styria now adding to the puplic company grid, not depending on it); and many others.
Here's riches - material and cultural wealth
Austria is one of the world's richest countries, in terms of income, quality of life, professional training, and incorruptibility.
The preservation of the environment; how best to restore or adapt historical buildings in ways that got beyond merely reproducing old features; music making both at the level of internationally renowned great artists (such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, a native of Graz), and at the level of Hausmusik; the Roman Catholic church (and other churches to some extent) that commissioned many works of contemporary art - those are some of the issues and successes that come to mind. Other aspects of Austria's cultural wealth need no introduction here.
Austria is also one of the biggest investors in Centrope - Central and East Europe - (regardless of the country's small size); successfull Austrian entrepreneurship has led to a new take on neighbouring countries and what they can offer.
A new take on Central Europe
The Iron Curtain (as was) ran some 60 km east and south of Graz, along the borders of Styria and Burgenland. From Riegersburg and other ventage points, huge rolls of barbed wire and high watchtowers could early be seen; that was also where Austrians welcomed tens of thousands of Hungarian refugees with open arms, after uprising (1956); and where Soviet Jews found a safe haven before moving on to Israel (in the nineteen-seventies and eighties).
Today both those border regions, and the open borders to Slovakia and the Czech Republic further north-east and north, are of course part of the European Union; they can be freely visited by other EU citizens. They are very attractive destinations, particularly for young or unconventional tourists, sportspeople, sociologists, linguists.... - anyone interested in exploring what the borders of Europe were for about half a century, and how they have changed.
A question of heritage - which heritage?
The splendour, decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy; the two decades of an uncertain First Austrian Republic (1918-38); the heavy (and much worse) of the Third Reich, and World War II; and slow but sure democratic beginnings after 1945, during Austria's Second Republic (which is ongoing)... Those are easily enough dramatic changes for three countries, not one; with many remains - physical, architectural, cultural and (very few) ideological - that can be seen and experienced today; that have been explored in many studies, and continue to fan discussions and inspire research.
Austrians' awareness of the country's role under Hitler
A very clear, conscientious one. Years ago, Mr. Franz Vranitzky (then Austria's head of government) apologized to all victims of persecution and mass murder for the part that Austrian henchman played in the carnage.
For individual Austrians, coming to terms with what happened about half a century ago it is still an ongoing activity in many people's minds - fraught as it is with suffering, and with thoughts of moral questioning and stock-taking. - It is fair to say also that there was organised resistance on the part of Austrians, in the totalitarian state that was Nazi Germay - some Catholic or otherwise Christian, some communist or socialist, some anarchist, some being 'simply' objectors of moral grounds. Very vew survived; all are remembered.
Many books and articles (historical studies, school and university textbooks, and many half fictional treatments) that would fill half a library-cum-archive have appeared on the subject, in Austria; they are widely read and debated.
Compensation for Hitler's victims
The newly coined German term 'Restitution' denotes the returning of objects of value or making material compensation to victims of fascism. Much of the real estate, money and valuables unlawfully taken from Jewish Austrians and other non-'Aryans' in the late thirties has now been given back; or else, victims (or their extented families) have received another form of compensation. Some claims are still being considered.
There is a high degree of identification with such action in Austria. Several other projects and programmes exist, e. g. one that invites survivors now living abroad to visit Vienna, or whichever Austrian town or region used to be their pre-war home.
Austrian teachers, and young people: in the forefront of 'Vergangenheitsbewältigung'
It is due in good part to teacher's work, and pupil's response (at Austrian secondary schools) that a very great majority of young Austrian adults have come to terms with the darkest part of the country's past; and have a clear grasp of the ideological and moral issues involved.
Many Austrians pupils and students have met 'Zeitzeugen', men and women who survived Buchenwald or Mauthausen; an association called Jugend gegen Rassismus und Gewalt is active at Graz and elsewhere, organised and supported entirely by young people; deep-felt debates were and are held, e. g. after the (now well known) German Army Exhibition - the 'Wehrmachtsausstellung' of the German Reichsmacht Foundation - was shown in Graz.
New perspectives, and a now well-established role...
For many years now - even before the Great Change ('die Wende') of 1989 - Austria has been a valued, trusted partner in business, and in many cultural and educational ventures and undertakings, of a number of countries in what is now called the Centrope region (Central and Eastern Europe) - countries that may have memories of Austro-Hungary, and certainly of communist rule.
Central and Eastern Europe - a strong presence at CUCE Graz
Over decades, eastern and south-eastern European countries have been present (in a sense) at this College - either as intellectual or spiritual influences (including music and music-making, readings of literary texts, and other cultural exchanges), or because the College invited (and still invites) students from those countries to come and study at Catholic University College of Edudation Graz for a term or a year.