Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies

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Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies Conclusion In terms of cultural and national identity the relations between Austria and its south- Slavic neighbours followed a centre-periphery model, as part of a broader European international division of labour in which Austria fulfilled the role of a semi-periphery. Nation building, as well as the search for cultural identity, was at the beginning an attempt by the respective elite, or parts of it, to link with the Austrian core. Austria was establishing criteria defining who belonged to “us”, who was considered worthy and able to be adopted or civilized, and who was regarded as “the other” – the opposition or enemy. Multi-ethnicity and cultural diversity went hand in hand with establishing divisions and hierarchies along ethnic, religious and social lines according to the interests of the core. Close ties with Vienna seemed to be helpful for identity construction. A broadening of national identification followed later, opening the way for a de-linking of the Austrian core. In the Serbian case, identity construction was a means to overcome Ottoman rule in the 18th and 19th centuries (Konfin, Vienna as centre of Serbian culture, Serbian state). In the Croatian case, it was to underline the historical Catholic, dynastic and later national ties with Vienna and, respectively, Berlin during the Second World War ( Jelačić, Church and Ustashi). In the Bosnian case, occupation and annexation were accepted as the price for modernization of the society. This model failed in all cases and provoked a reaction of de-linking in cultural, political and economic terms (Princip’s attack on Franz Ferdinand, Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia, and socialist Yugoslavia). During the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s the reinvention of national identities was a means to define one’s nation’s position vis-à-vis the new order in Europe (Croatian, Slovene, Bosnian, Kosovo-Albanian elites), again hoping that close ties with Vienna would help to overcome social and economic problems and stabilize the new nations. It failed again, leading the nations into civil wars, mass killings and expulsions, which legitimized foreign military intervention that Austria could neither prevent nor stop. Austria’s role as an external reference was soon replaced by NATO, the United States and the European Union, who nowadays intervene in the process of identity construction by discrediting ethnic nationalism, which they had fuelled before, for not being compatible with “European” standards. Also on the Austrian side, the sense of being Balkan was a constitutive factor for identity construction. As the south-Slavic regions geopolitically formed a contested field of territorial expansion, economically a hopeful territory and culturally a field to modernize along the concepts of the core, the Austrian perception of the Balkan idea served as a means to strengthen Austria’s self-assertion in military, political and cultural terms. It characterized Austrianness from imperial to constitutional and democratic times, helping to compensate for Austria’s weakness and dependency on the European West, including Nazi occupation. This self-assertion was built on feeling superior to the Balkan peoples who had to face structural racism. They were attributed orientalizing or balkanizing terms 28
Identity construction in the Balkan region - Austrian interests and involvement in a historical perspective like “wild” or “uncivilized” and Austria’s mission was argued and justified by the necessity to civilize and modernize people and regions. Benjamin von Kállay, Austrian-Hungarian finance minister (1882-1903), stated in an interview in 1895: “Austria is a great Occidental Empire (…) charged with the mission of carrying civilization to Oriental peoples” (Daily Chronicle, 3 October 1895, cited in: Donia, 1981: 14). Racist attitudes always accompanied the Austrian approach: from the dictum during the First World War (“Serbien muss sterben; Serbia has to die”) to the T-shirts worn by SFOR-soldiers in Bosnia in the middle of the 1990s (Neues Deutschland, 10 November 2004) (“Jeder Tschusch schweigt still, wenn mein starker Arm es will; every Tschusch (pejorative word for Slavic foreigner) will be silenced by the force of my strong arm”), a continuity of expressing chauvinism and superiority towards the Balkans and its people can be observed. It has served as a factor of Austrian identity construction throughout history. References Donia, R. (1981) Islam under the Double Eagle. The Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegowina, 1878- 1918, New York: Columbia University Press. Feichtinger, J. et al. (2003) Habsburg postcolonial, Innsbruck: Studienverlag. Geier, W. (2006) Südosteuropa-Wahrnehmungen, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. Haas, H. and Stuhlpfarrer, K. (1977) Österreich und seine Slowenen, Wien: Löcker und Wögenstein. Hárs, E. et al. (2006) Zentren, Peripherien und kollektive Identitäten in Österreich-Ungarn, Tübingen-Basel: A. Francke Verlag. Hautmann, H. (1986) “Fragen des Strafvollzugs in der Endphase des Habsburgerreiches (1872- 1918)”, in Weinzierl E. and Stadler K. (ed.) Justiz und Zeitgeschichte V, Salzburg: 35-78. Hofbauer, H. (1992) Westwärts. Österreichs Wirtschaft im Wiederaufbau, Wien: Promedia Verlag. Hofbauer, H. (2001) Balkankrieg. 10 Jahre Zerstörung Jugoslawiens, Wien: Promedia Verlag. Hösch, E. (1993) Geschichte der Balkanländer. Von der Frühzeit bis zur Gegenwart, München: C. H. Beck Verlag. Komlosy, A. (2006) “Innere Peripherien als Ersatz für Kolonien Zentrenbildung und Peripherisierung in der Habsburgermonarchie”, in: Hárs E. et al. (ed.), Zentren, Peripherien und kollektive Identitäten in Österreich-Ungarn, Tübingen-Basel: 55-78. Ruthner, C. (2006) “Kakaniens kleiner Orient. Post/Koloniale Lesarten der Peripherie Bosnien- Herzegowinas (1878-1918)”, in: Hárs E. et al. (ed.), Zentren, Peripherien und kollektive Identitäten in Österreich-Ungarn, Tübingen-Basel: 255-284. 29
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