ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that 1, 000 years of Austrian history have contributed extremely little to creating an Austrian identity, and have tended to hinder such an identity from being created. In 1945, Austria experienced something which seems so vital for the creation of national identity, but which the country had never experienced before:16 the liberation from a suppressive regime that it had finally learned to hate. Like the constant references to Austria’s long history, the attempts to define the typical Austrian have had two negative consequences. First, they have preoccupied our minds to the extent that we have too little time for reflecting about other, more reasonable and more promising possibilities for defining Austrian identity. Second, since such attempts are bound to fail and are always open to debate, they have aroused and kept alive the discussion about the existence of such an identity and, by doing this, have been as counterproductive as the recollection of Austria’s glorious past.
