Quote:
Originally Posted by Lutiferre
That is understandable. I would compare that to the example that in Denmark, Germans are very stigmatized, being German is stigmatized. Our word for German can even be used as a curse word, and the worst thing a Swede can call a Dane is "halvtysker" (half German).
But history must have something to say about this. The similarity/identicalness between Germany and Austria can hardly be a coincidence.
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Interesting. Is it due to the Second World War or to the Schleswig-Holstein controversy?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnist
Deutschland I associate historically with Otto von Bismarck's unifying effort of Deutsche; a result of Prussian magnitude among other things.
Österreich I associate historically with the Hapsburgian monarchy.
From that point of view, they are two nations, not one.
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Austria, ruled by Hapsburgs (hence the "Hapsburg Monarchy"), was for centuries part of the of the German Empire (Deutsches Reich), called also
Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Then in 1815, the German Empire having been abolished nine years earlier, it became part of the German Union (
Deutscher Bund), whereas the notion of the empire became restricted only to the "Austrian Empire", now only one among the many constituent parts of the
Deutscher Bund. Austria was thrown out of the Bund in 1866, by Prussia, following Austria's defeat in the Austro-Prussian war which happened in the same year. After that date the Hapsburgs became more focused on the non-German lands they ruled (Hungary, Croatia, Transylvania), lands that were never part neither of the Holy Roman Empire, nor of
Deustcher Bund. Thus Austro-Hungarian Monarchy came into being (1867), while the rest of the former German Union was united in a new Bismarck's, Prussia-centered German Empire. It was called little German solution (
kleindeutsche Loesung), while the
grossdeutsche Loesung would have been a German Empire including Austria as well.
After the First World War and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Austrian part of the former imperial parliament voted unification with Germany, but the winners of the First World War did not allow it to happen because they thought it would strengthen Germany too much. The rest of the story with Hitler's
Anschluss, the subsequent war and the second (imposed by the victorious Allies) Austrian Republic is all too well known.
Historically, culturally and spiritually it seems to me that Austria is German (what else, as I already asked a rhetorical asked question?) The new identity forged by the post-war Austrian state is another matter.