{"id":602,"date":"2012-10-15T08:30:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T13:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicebyrd.com\/?p=602"},"modified":"2012-11-15T22:09:05","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T03:09:05","slug":"austria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/austria\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria: Edelweiss and Anschluss"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Janice Byrd<\/em><\/p>\n

I suppose any American over the age of thirty, associates the European country of Austria with the 1962 movie The Sound of Music.\u00a0 The song \u201cEdelweiss\u201d (the Austrian state flower), the talk of the 1938 German \u201cAnschluss\u201d (literally, \u201cjoining\u201d, but understood in Austria as a take-over), and the breath-taking beauty of the Alps were hallmarks of the movie, and still epitomize Austrian culture today.<\/p>\n

The Austria-Hungarian Empire was vast and very Catholic.\u00a0 Even after the Protestant Reformation, the ruling Hapsburg dynasty (1273-1913) prevented Protestants from becoming politically influential.\u00a0 Although as much as two-thirds of the population sympathized with the new ideas of the Reformation, ruthless persecution by the Hapsburgs forced most of these would-be Protestants to emigrate or revert to Catholicism.<\/p>\n

Much later in the nineteenth century, the Austria-Hungarian constitution officially gave religious freedom to twelve religious groups.\u00a0 (Baptists were not one of the recognized groups.)\u00a0 In fact, the main Protestant churches (Lutherans from Germany and Reformed from Switzerland) were \u201cCatholicized\u201d to the extent that they kept infant baptism, failed to teach personal conversion, and became quite liberal and socialistic.\u00a0 However, small groups of Evangelical Christians, like the Baptist in the nineteenth century and the Pentecostals in the twentieth century, formed and met throughout Austria.<\/p>\n

After WWI, the great Austria-Hungarian Empire was broken up and Austria was arbitrarily divided into a small country of 7,000,000 people with little patriotism or pride of country.\u00a0 As a German speaking country that had fought and lost with Germany in the Great War, the Austrians struggled to find their own identity.\u00a0 So, when Hitler came along in the 1930\u2019s suggesting that the two countries be joined together, the Austrians willingly went along with the Anschluss\u2014except for a few like Captain Von Trapp (Sound of Music).\u00a0 Today Austrians consider themselves the first Nazi victims.<\/p>\n

Austria\u2019s large population Jews is gone now, except for the recent immigrants. Foreign workers, of all religions, continue to come to Austria from the former East Germany, Turkey, Serbia, Romania, and other Central Asian countries because the economy of Austria is one of the strongest in Western Europe.<\/p>\n

Austria prides itself on maintaining its neutral position during the Cold War.\u00a0 Vienna was often the only meeting point between the USSR and the West.\u00a0 The few who were actually allowed to leave Russia (mostly Jews) before 1989 were taken to Vienna.\u00a0 Now Austria sees herself as a diplomat between the Middle East and the West.<\/p>\n

Baptists consider themselves Protestants, part of the \u201cfree churches,\u201d meaning they are not subsidized by the government as are the Lutherans and the Reformed.\u00a0 Baptists are seen as a Bible-oriented movement, more political than the Charismatics, and open to liberal thought.\u00a0 The average Austrian\u2019s perception of Baptists is that it is \u201can American church-like religion.\u201d\u00a0 Baptists are interesting, exotic, but not connected to Austrian culture.\u00a0 There are only twenty Baptist churches in all of Austria.<\/p>\n

Most Catholics and main-line Protestants are nominal, if that.\u00a0 Religious affiliation is lower in the cities, especially in Vienna.\u00a0 After WWII, socialism secularized the country, and even Catholics now practice what they call \u201cbaptismal certificate Catholicism.\u201d\u00a0 Because the government taxes anyone from a recognized religion, many people have withdrawn their names from church roles ceasing to be even nominal Christians.<\/p>\n

Scandals within the Catholic Church during the 1990\u2019s (one involving the Archbishop of Vienna) have caused thousands to abandon their traditional faith in resentment and cynicism. Socialism is on the decline, as well, after thirty years of corruption and greed.\u00a0 Many Austrians are looking for something and\/or someone to trust.\u00a0 One of the political parties took as their slogan, \u201cLederhosen and laptops.\u201d\u00a0 They seem to be caught between tradition and technology.<\/p>\n

All of Austria has something of the Baroque (17th century) about it\u2014from the custom of hand-kissing, the old-world coffee shops, the waltz, the oversized sculptures, and the architecture of spires and steeples.\u00a0 Even the cuisine has changed very little for hundreds of years.<\/p>\n

Homemade pastries (like apple strudel), Hungarian goulash, Wienerschnitzel (Vienna breaded escalope of veal) dumplings from the Czechs, pasta from the Italian, and kasspatzle, an Austrian cross between dumplings and pasta, sweet and savory pancakes, and are heavy and rich befitting a cold, woodsy, outdoors lifestyle, as are the ubiquitous beer \u201cgardens\u201d.\u00a0 The Austrians love game meat, fish and pheasant, soup, marzipan (deserts made with almond paste) and chocolate.\u00a0 In fact, the world-famous Sachertorte is named for the Viennese Sacher Hotel where it was invented.<\/p>\n

The Arts are a very large source of pride for the Austrians.\u00a0 Musicians like Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Haydn, artists such as Gustov Klimt, doctors (Freud) and scientists from the past are still celebrated.\u00a0 Alpine athletes, Olympians, and soccer players (Austria hosted the European Championship in 2008) seem to be the greatest source of pride and national identity today. \u00a0Austrians love nature, hiking, and the outdoors.<\/p>\n

As a people they value courtesy, humility, family, gratitude, loyalty and security.\u00a0 They are sophisticated and diplomatic, made so by their geography and by the diverse ideologies that surround them.\u00a0 They are both artistic and logical.\u00a0 They\u2019re not afraid of emotions or facts, which makes them the epitome of post-modern thinkers. It is their nature to keep a low profile.\u00a0 An old Austrian adage says that \u201chappiness is in a quiet corner.\u201d\u00a0 For centuries, Austria has been crossed by foreign tribes, soldiers and traders.\u00a0 Many of them stayed to make their home.\u00a0 Austrians have always had a reputation for being a hospitable people, and that remains a part of their new national identity.<\/p>\n

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by Janice Byrd I suppose any American over the age of thirty, associates the European country of Austria with the 1962 movie The Sound of Music.\u00a0 The song \u201cEdelweiss\u201d (the Austrian state flower), the talk of the 1938 German \u201cAnschluss\u201d (literally, \u201cjoining\u201d, but understood in Austria as a take-over), and the breath-taking beauty of the […] Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}