Today was the last day of class at the Austria-America Institute. In this last session, we covered the last century of Austrian history. In 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian crown, was assassinated and in response Emperor Franz Joseph declared war on Serbia, which unfortunately dragged the rest of Europe into World War One. Franz Joseph died in 1916 and was succeeded by Charles I, who would become the last emperor of Austria. In 1918 Charles I abdicated, effectively ending 640 years of Habsburg rule. He would later die in exile in 1922. Austria was declared a republic, led by its first chancellor Dr. Karl Renner. Renner was a moderate socialist and took precautions against any resurgence of a monarchy in Austria by issuing the Habsburg Law, which forced the Habsburg family members to swear allegiance to the republic or face banishment. The fledgling republic also outlawed the use of aristocratic titles, such as the use of “von” in someone’s name. The peace treaty that concluded WWI forced heavy reparations onto the citizens and crippled the new republic. Inflation and shortages of food and resources also helped bring the state to its knees. During this time, political parties had their own militias. This was the era of the so-called “Red Vienna,” when socialists had control of the city government. One monument from this era are the public housing buildings on the Karl Marx Platz. In 1933 Rudolf Dollfuss, a Christian Socialist, was elected as chancellor. He implemented an austro-fascist regime and even dissolved Parliament. In 1934 civil war broke out when the socialist Schutzband resisted orders to disband, and fighting ensued between the social democrat and Christian socialist militias. After this incident, the social democratic party was banned and the era known as Red Vienna came to an end. A 1934 political coup attempt left Dollfuss murdered, whom Kurt Schuschnigg succeeded. In the face of Germany’s rise to power, Schuschnigg organized a plebiscite which would decide whether Austria should remain independent or if it should join Germany. Hitler stopped this from happening with a threat of invasion and shortly after Schuschnigg resigned. Hitler invaded anyways in 1938 and annexed Austria in the Anschluss of March 11. He received a jubilant welcome in Linz and on the 15th of March he reached Vienna, where he gave a resounding speech at the neue Hofburg. Hitler organized his own plebiscite on the issue of whether or not the people of Austria wanted to join Germany, meaning that he fixed the election to favor himself. According to his polls, 99.7 per cent of Austrians favored annexation, with the remaining 0.3 per cent attributed to the Jews. Within the first few days of his rule, 20,000 people were arrested and only 16 days after his speech in Vienna, April 1st, his first dissidents were on their way to Dachau. 18 per cent of Vienna’s population was not allowed to vote, and many of Vienna’s Jewish intellectuals like Freud and Schoenberg immigrated. In total, 2/3 of Vienna’s 185,000 Jews emigrated and in 1942 the Nazis declared Vienna free of Jews. In April 1945 at the Battle for Vienna the Russians liberated the city. This was not the end of the Viennese people’s troubles, though, because at the end of the war many mass rapes occurred in liberated territories. Kathy herself told us several personal stories about several close calls her mother and grandmother faced in the Russian sector of Berlin. It was interesting to hear a firsthand account of this time period. The stories made it a much more real issue to me than it would have had if I had just read it out of a book. After its liberation, Karl Renner once again headed the provisional government. Austria became its own state again in 1955 with the signing of the Staatsvertrag in the Belvedere. Austria became a neutral state in return for Russia lifting its occupation of the city.
After class we visited the Kaisergruft at the Kapuzinerkirche. This crypt contains the bodies of the Habsburgs; their hearts are in the Hofburg and their entrails are in the catacombs at St. Stephens' Cathedral. I thought the contrast between Maria Theresia's and Joseph II's graves was really interesting. As a ruler during the Baroque style, Maria Theresia's coffin is very large and extravagantly decorated. Joseph II's coffin, however, is quite plain and decorated only with a plaque with his name. This reflects his position as an enlightened monarch and his rejection of showiness and superfluous decor. Many tombs were also decorated with skulls wearing either the Habsburg family crown or the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. I am not quite sure what the significance of this is, but I think it shows the mortality of the Habsburgs and their humility. Beller references this, saying that in death the Church was more powerful than the state. He references a story, in which an emperor's coffin is escorted to the Church to be blessed. The coffin's attendant announces the emperor's arrival and lists his accomplishments. The Church then refuses to let him in, saying "we don't know him." After this rejection, the attendant presents the emperor as "an old sinner seeking redemption." Events like these kept the Habsburgs humble.
Today I finally had the chance to go up into Karlskirche. Construction of this church began in 1716 to commemorate the last plague epidemic of 1713. On top of being a plague memorial, the church also showcases Habsburgs’ claims to power. The two pillars at the front, according to Parsons, “allude to Charles VI’s enduring but thwarted claim to Spain, lost to the dynasty when the Spanish Habsburg line died out in 1700.” Other symbols of the church contain biblical references that are supposed to stress the legitimacy of Habsburg power. Inside the church itself, we took a rickety elevator about halfway up into the church, and then climbed several levels of rickety scaffolding into the dome itself.
After risking our lives in the Karlskirche, we went to the Wien museum, which stands just next to it. This museum tells the history of Vienna as a city, rather than a seat of power for the Habsburgs. Before the Romans, hunter-gatherers were present in Vienna around 40,000 BC. Around 6,000 BC early agriculture developed. The Roman settlement of Vindobona comprised roughly 30,000 people, consisting of native Celts and immigrants from other parts of the empire. The Roman empire fell around 476 AD because of Germanic tribal invasions, which ushered in the Dark Ages, a period from about 476 to 900 AD. This period saw a decrease in literacy and a revert to local governments under bishops, because during these times the Church provided stability in a war-torn world. Medieval Vienna’s economy centered on trade and wine making. In 1143 the Babenbergs took up residence in Vienna, and in 1200 the city walls were erected, which would stand until 1857. The Vienna University was founded in 1365, and in 1469 Vienna was elevated to a diocese. The Viennese school system was further developed under the reign of Maria Theresia, who mandated that all children were required to attend school. Over time, Vienna was transformed from a court-based feudal society to a bourgeois society over time. Some notable events of this transition include: the reorganization of the guild system, the abolition of the torture and death penalties, the introduction of primary education, increased toleration towards Jews and non-catholics, and the founding of public institutions like the general hospital and Prater Park. The enlightened reforms of Joseph II also aided in this transition. In the last quarter of the 18th century, the number of people in Vienna and its suburbs exceeded 200,000 for the first time.
Later that day we went to the Burgkino to see the film-noir classic The Third Man. Filmed in 1949, it contains many scenes of locations from Vienna that were damaged during World War Two. In the film, an American western writer Holly Martins arrives in Vienna in search of his friend Harry Lime. When he gets there, however, he is told that Harry is dead, killed in an accident with a truck. Holly doubts that his death was an accident, and begins his own investigation into Harry’s death. I won’t spoil the ending for you if you haven’t seen it, but it is a very good movie. I liked seeing the parts of Vienna we had visited, like the Riesenrad or the statue of Joseph II in front of the Hofburg, where the “accident” occurs.
Deutsches Tagewort: 'Fußball.' Auf Englisch heißt Fußball Soccer. Wir haben einen Fußballspiel zwischen zwei Fussballklubs aus Wien und England gesehen.
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