Exploring Austria: Vienna and Beyond

By Adrea Mach

The book presents Austria as a contemporary Shangri-la for all seasons in the midst of an economically challenged, war-torn world. Starting with its historical background of imperial legacy and developed over the past six centuries, readers are then taken on an exploratory tour of modern-day
Austria where they experience Vienna and its environs, as well as exploring Austria farther afield and including must-see Austrian sights. Then the books premise is illustrated through twelve vignettespersonalized, off-the-beaten-track experienceseach of which captures unique features of Austrias nine provinces (including Vienna) during all four seasons of the yearcontrasting places, times and individual adventures. A complementary concept profiles experiences of different kindssports, culture,
customs and traditions, along with Austrian culinary and wine specialties.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781450278065

Adrea Mach

A professional and globally published writer, journalist and photographer since 1989, Adrea Mach’s initial work was done under the auspices of the United Nations Department of Public Information where she specialized in people-oriented issues, especially vulnerable population groups (e.g. women, children, the disabled and elderly) health, economics, environment and human rights. Within the UN system, she has worked with the UN Secretariat, WHO, UNAIDS, UNICEF, IAEA, the World Bank and ILO. In 1998, Adrea branched out into creative non-fiction, poetry and photography. Since then, she has published articles and poems, often accompanied by her own photography, on diverse subjects ranging from travel to wellness lifestyles and mountain climbing to sailing.

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Contents

1. INTRODUCING AUSTRIA: AN IMPERIAL LEGACY

2. EXPLORING VIENNA AND ITS ENVIRONS

3. FARTHER AFIELD: EXPLORING AUSTRIA

4. A YEAR OF SEASONS: AUSTRIAN VIGNETTES AND LOCAL RECIPES

1. INTRODUCING AUSTRIA: AN IMPERIAL LEGACY

This book is about adventures you are encouraged to experience directly, not just dry history. Still, in order to get the most out of them, a little background helps. Especially now, embarking on the 21st century, in which the country could be personified as a ‘sleeping beauty,’ just re-awakening from almost a century of shadowed slumber that began with World War I and the loss of her illustrious empire. Before that, in her prime, Austria dazzled the hearts of a vibrant empire upon which the sun never set. Politically powerful and culturally alluring, Austria wielded influence over most of Europe. At the same time, her Viennese capital, home of the waltz, exuded a beguilingly feminine charm.

This short introduction will take us back in time to witness Austria’s birth and trace how she arrived at where she is today, plus some bright promises for the future. There’ll be cross references to each vignette included so that if you want to jump ahead, you can just skip to the adventure of your choice!

Austria: Odyssey of a Life Unfolding

From resources to Romans. If appearance is everything, as some say, then Austria is especially fortunate, having inherited some of the best resources, in the form of splendid scenery that Europe has to offer: voluptuous snow-capped mountains to the west; verdant, fertile plains in the east. The lay of the land contributes to every country’s history and just as the Alps provided protection against invaders (as well as strategic passes connecting north and south), so the welcoming Danube Valley opened its arms eastwards to embrace the rolling wooded hills and fertile plains of Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary that proved inviting to both invaders and settlers from the Stone Age onwards.

So inviting, in fact, that in the first century BC, the Romans came, saw and conquered, founding the province of Noricum and establishing close links with contemporary Italy that flourish to this day. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius even put Vindobona (today’s Vienna) on the map by succumbing to pneumonia in this remote Roman outpost in 180AD while his troops sought to beat back tribal invaders.

The Danube is another treasured resource. Europe’s second longest waterway, emerging in Donaueschingen (today’s Germany) and emptying into the Black Sea, almost 1,800 km away, and part of the continent’s circulatory system, it has been a river that not only connects, but also protects.

Serving a similar purpose as the Limes (path), the fortified frontier of the Roman Empire in Europe, the Danube and the towns that grew up along it, like Vienna, marked the outermost north/eastern boundary of security, the last bastion between civilization and the invading hordes.

For three centuries, the emerging Hapsburg empire was bounded by this virtual demarcation line, a 750-mile autonomous military frontier zone, mostly along the Danube, which depended less upon borders or fortifications than on the multi-ethnic wild and warlike folk that, for generations, successfully beat back waves of would-be invaders, and owed fealty only to the Emperor himself.

From christening to positioning. Austria’s original name was Ostarrichi, meaning the Eastern Realm. A church document shows that Austria was thus christened only in the late 10th century as a child of the Babenberger family that ruled (after the Bavarians, Charlemagne and the Magyars), and brought several centuries (976-1246) of relative peace and prosperity—prerequisites for sound early development—to the area.

From the beginning, young Austria was not only well-proportioned but also well-positioned, sitting astride two strategic intersections. While alpine passes like the Brenner served as prime trading and military crossroads between north and south, the Danube linked up west with east.

To position herself optimally, Austria also opened another hidden treasure chest: her Salzkammergut. As early as 1,800 BC Bronze Age settlers discovered salt—the equivalent of today’s diamonds—in the region around Hallstatt that gave its name to an entire age. Later the Romans, Slavs and Bavarians began to exploit this treasure, in 1460 creating the official Crown Salt Lands with their underground salt mines. The income created a substantial dowry for young Austria.

A precocious early bloomer, Austria began to emerge from obscurity when her 13th century adolescent self passed into the hands of one Rudolph von Hapsburg after the key Battle of Marchfeld (1276). Thus, this Swiss-born Hapsburg eloped with Austria, embarking upon a marriage that was to last for more than six centuries (1276–1918), bringing Austria into full flower at the height of her power. And it was much more than just flower power.

For over 600 years, this Austrian domain acted as Europe’s bulwark, not only between the Germanic and Latin worlds, but also against territorial and religious expansion, especially from the Muslim Turks to the east. Twice—in 1527 and then again in 1683—the Turks besieged Vienna. Had they succeeded, they would have changed the course of European history—indeed, even Western civilization.

To underscore how aware Europe was of its vulnerability, Prince Metternich coined the phrase, Asia begins at the Landstrasse, which meant literally the country road that then stretched away from its city ramparts towards Hungary. Still, with crucial help from Hapsburg allies (e.g. 17th century Polish forces led by Jan Sobieski), Vienna withstood these sieges and Europe’s eastern frontier was not breached.

On the contrary, an emboldened Austria went on the offensive, expanding in all directions to the very brink of achieving its aim of universal dominion, both secular and sacred.

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Austria’s Debut: All the world’s a stage: Beholding Austria’s spectacular debut on the world stage, we can see in retrospect that it owed its emergence as a world power, not only to the House of Hapsburg, a rather dour, dutiful family with Swiss roots, but also to some very special qualities all leaders must embody—audacious vision, bold yet practical actions, and unshakable self-confidence. These enabled young Austria to expand its modest Eastern Realm into a far-flung imperial dynasty through centuries of wars, military and marital alliances, and purported divine sanctions.

Commitment to this vision, plus the religious fervor of the day, played a pivotal role. Thus, the 1452 crowning of Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor by none less than the Pope himself legitimized the Hapsburg’s claims to preside by divine right as God’s chosen dynasty over the entire civilized (Christian) world. The ambitious, far-sighted (and clearly megalomaniacal) Frederick III coined the Latin phrase that has been compressed into the vowel-list acronym AEIOU, which translates into: It is for Austria to rule the entire world.

Again, the rise and fall of nations is not unlike the rise and fall of rulers or, indeed, normal mortals. Austria in the 15th century was on her way up; similar to America on the eve of the 20th century. Today our sense of history-in-the-making turns prophetically towards the People’s Republic of China, whose ascension on the world stage seems unstoppable, full of fervor and confidence. Perhaps even such contemporary superpowers could benefit from some lessons that Austrian history has to offer.

One of the lessons lies in the cultivation of a sophisticated sense of diplomacy. In the centuries following Austria’s ascendance on the world stage, the Hapsburgs enhanced their repertoire of war, developing a unique diplomatic ability to preclude territorial battles by instead arranging politically astute marriages. Austria proved so good at this that it was crowned with the following epithet:

The first such auspicious marital alliance took place in the late 15th century (1477) between Emperor Maximilian I and Maria of Burgundy. Austria’s acquisition of the cultural pearl of Europe—Alsace, Lorraine and the Netherlands—laid the foundation for the Hapsburgs to become the continent’s unrivalled dynasty. The next generation of Hapsburgs negotiated similar dynastic marriages. For example, Maximilian’s son, Philip the Handsome, married the Spanish Infanta, Joanna the Mad, splitting the Hapsburg family tree into two strong branches, one Austrian, the other Spanish.

Thus, the Hapsburgs managed to achieve hegemony over much of Europe with minimum bloodshed and maximum matrimonial alliances. Behold, in the sequence of their acquisition, the list of sovereignties in the Hapsburgs’ marriage records between 1415 and 1740: Portugal, Burgundy, Brittany, Bavaria, Castile, Aragon, Savoy, France, Denmark, Bohemia, Hungary, Mantua, Austria, Poland, Ferrara, the Netherlands, Tyrol, Palatinate-Neuburg, Lorraine, Brunswick, Saxony, Tuscany, Parma, Saxe-Teschen, Spain Naples, Cologne, Württemberg, Sicily, Nassau-Weilburg, Salerno, Sardinia, Belgium, Braganza, Liechtenstein, Saxe-Meiningen, Mecklenburg, England.

Pride Goeth before the Fall. Charles V, Maximilian and Joanna’s son, ruled for almost 40 years (1519-56) over an empire that included much of today’s Spain, Austria, Burgundy (France), the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, parts of the Caribbean and Mexico. Crowned in 1530 as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII, Charles was figuratively on top of the world. In addition to this secular empire upon which the sun never set, the staunchly Catholic Charles also sought to unite all Christendom under one scepter from his El Escorial Palace in Spain. Hubris.

The immensity of Charles V’s dominions was matched only by the immensity of his pretensions to world hegemony. Yet both were dashed by one single man—Martin Luther, who audaciously nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the wooden door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg (Germany) in 1517.

That single act unleashed the Protestant Reformation, whose concept of a personal god threatened the legitimacy of an Emperor divinely sanctioned and crowned by God’s earthly interlocutor, the Pope. The Catholic Church rushed to retaliate. The brutal backlash of the Counter-Reformation found its low points in the draconian Inquisition and the decimating Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).

In the end, the Hapsburgs could not prevail against two consecutive threats: religious conflicts on the one hand, and territorial conflicts on the other. The latter culminated in a second devastating siege laid by the Turks in 1683 when all of Europe held its breath that Vienna would not fall. She didn’t, but Austria was exhausted. This was the high point of her territorial trajectory.

Enlightened—and unenlightened—Despots. Despite a series of military setbacks, politically and socially, Hapsburg Austria was still maturing. The 18th century produced two both beloved and memorable Hapsburg rulers: Empress Maria Theresa, who as a female had to fight for her right to rule at all but then did so, and very ably, for 40 years (1740-1780), defending Austria against the rising power of Prussia. She was joined and then succeeded by her idealistic son Joseph II (1780-1790), who came to embody the image of the enlightened despot by placing the welfare of his subjects uppermost. Vienna was also aglow with enlightenment, intellectual and cultural vitality, emerging as an unmatched musical Mecca, with such composers as Gluck, Haydn and Mozart.

Ominously, the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 reverberated throughout the Hapsburg Empire. Austria lost much territory, not to mention prestige, when Maria Theresa’s grandson, Franz II, was forced to abdicate his role as Holy Roman Emperor. A few years later, the situation was further exacerbated by the throes of the Napoleonic Wars during which much of Austria was occupied and the victor’s ‘spoils’ bespotted its enemies in an intentionally degrading way by such acts as stabling French cavalry horses in magnificent Melk Abbey and obliging Hapsburg Archduchess Marie Louisa of Austria to be his second wife (after Josephine). She bore him a son, Napoleon II, King of Rome (1811-1832), who however died young of tuberculosis. .

Only after Napoleon’s defeat and definitive exile could the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), orchestrated by Austrian Foreign Minister Prince Metternich, move to redraw the map of Europe. And at last there was a brief respite during this heady period when the Congress danced for two years to the waltzes of Strauss, father and son—while Austria produced an unprecedented crop of illegitimate children—and Vienna once again occupied the Western world’s centre stage.

An Empire Past its Prime. Still, very fundamentally, the European balance of power had shifted. Austria struggled with the reality that the Hapsburg Empire had passed its prime and nothing would ever be the same again. The ideas of the Enlightenment, which had spurred the French Revolution, which, in turn, had spilled over into the Napoleonic Wars, had forever changed the Weltanschauung of Europe. Divine right was a thing of the past.

In 1848, a wave of proletariat revolutions swept Europe, with the people rising up against absolute rule of any kind … although this was the very kind of rule upon which the Hapsburgs had built their empire. When 18-year-old Franz Josef ascended the throne in that same year and re-introduced absolutist rule, the stage was set for drama. Even though he ruled an incredibly long 68 years and, over time, became much loved by his subjects, Austria was sliding down the slippery slope.

Forgetting—except for Franz Josef and Sisi—her magic formula of weddings instead of wars, Austria became embroiled in a half-century of conflicts and fragmentation, losing in 1859 and again in 1866 against Prussia. Then, under pressure from the Hungarians and with energetic support from Empress Elizabeth, the once haughty Empire conceded to re-create itself as the Dual Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1867.

As the 20th century dawned, a series of secret alliances were being formed—Austria signing the Triple Alliance treaty with Germany and Italy while the future Allies—Britain, France and Russia—signed the Triple Entente. These two polarizing alliances laid the groundwork for the outbreak of the Great War that ensued in 1914. .

Living on Borrowed Time. Fin de siècle Austria lived in a surrealistic state of nervous splendor, according to author Frederick Morton. The coup de grace for the 600-year-old empire was the inevitable decline and fall of a dynastic supranational state unable to resist the tide of nationalism sweeping Europe.

Thus, even against the audacious backdrop of avant-garde art by Klimt, Kokoschka and Shiele, and lulled by Mahler’s mystical Resurrection Symphony, back in the real world, the Empire was fragmenting and falling apart. Like Humpty-Dumpty riding for a fall, once it did, even the Emperor could not put the pieces back together again.

Stoically, the aging Franz Joseph tried to keep the Empire alive through attention to detail and dogged perseverance (the good Emperor began his administrative day before