A lot of people seem to suspect a loss of genuine Austrian cultural identity. But in a country where American pop-culture is more important than any tradition, what is it they want to defend? Thinking about the Austrian cultural identity one soon comes to the conclusion that there is no such thing. At least not in a one-dimensional, easily describable way. It's been long since traditional Austrian folklore, like wearing leather-trousers ("Lederhosen"), playing house-music (the old style), or handicraft were the most important forms of cultural expression.Still, the Austrian Freedom Party has attracted a lot of voters with its slogan "Stopp der Ueberfremdung" (Stop Austria's Over-Alienation) during the last parliamentary elections. Obviously, people are afraid of foreign cultural influences. This is strange, if you look at Austria as it is today, as Terezija Stoisits, member of the Austrian National Congress and the Green Party's speaker for minority-rights points out: "Different language-groups have developed what we call the 'Austrian cultural identity'. A long process of cultural communication has been shaping our society ever since.". Next to German there are five other languages officially mentioned in the Austrian Constitution: Croat, Slovene, Romanez, Hungarian, and Czech. Each of these groups added their cultural influences to the Austrian self. In addition to that, people from other countries make up 13 % of Austria's population. In Vienna even 18% of all the inhabitants are so-called foreigners, most of them being refugees or immigrants from ex-Yugoslavia and Turkey. And it's they who pose a problem in the eyes of the right-wing-party FPOE. Hilmar Kabas, chief of the party's Viennese section, especially blames the government for encouraging the immigrants not to assimilate: "The official policy in Austria is going the wrong direction in trying to tear down the walls between the cultures. They take as many foreigners as possible to our country and don't ask the Austrians if they want that. They just put minorities in front of them. That's not democratic. That's dictatorship!" He thinks that the biggest threat at the moment is the teaching of immigrant languages in Viennese primary schools. This is an exaggeration because in the school-book he mentions, there are just a few phrases taught in Serbo-Croat and Turkish, like "Hello, how are you?" and other basics.
	Hamburgers and American Pop-Music
	The most common outfit is Jeans and a T-Shirt - not quite traditional, as Bernhard Fuchs, Professor for European Ethnology at the University of Vienna, explains: "Our culture is very much international. Jeans, Hamburger, Pizza and English-language pop-music are more important than genuine Austrian culture." And he is right: the most popular radio-station in Austria is Radio OE3, which is part of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation and plays popular music from the USA and Great Britain most of the time. There's hardly ever Austrian music on air, not even Austrian pop-songs. A good example for the internationalism of present Austrian culture is food. Fuchs already mentioned "trendy" habits like eating Pizza or going to MacDonalds. But including foreign food 'sneeking' into our kitchen. Austrian food has a long tradition, reaching way back to the times of the monarchy. Two of the most typical Austrian dishes are the Hungarian "Gulas" (goulash) or Czech "Palatschinken" (a kind of sweet pancakes). "And it's not just that we accept them next to our 'Wiener Schnitzel' and 'Apfelstrudel' - we are even very proud of them!", says Therezija Stoisits. Stoisits is sure that "soon, the Turkish Kebab and the Yugoslav Cevapcici will contribute to our cultural identity as well". And whoever is looking for good and cheap food will also find thousands of Chinese Restaurants all over the country. Hilmar Kabas thinks that these recently "imported" dishes should not become part of the Austrian kitchen: "Here things are mixed that should be kept apart. The Gulas comes from Hungary, which was part of Austria. But Turkey and China have totally different cultures than ours! They are not part of Central Europe. We don't need a so called 'enrichment' of our cultural identity.
	Totalitarism Upheld by Force
	Bernhard Fuchs disagrees. He feels that any identity always has to be flexible. "A rigid identity means totalitarianism and can only be upheld by force, force against oneself and against others. Every identity has to be capable of dealing with extrinsic influences." According to Fuchs, the best proof of how interesting it can be to interact with strangers is our travel-habit. A lot of Austrians go to Turkey for their holidays, although many of them wouldn't want to have Turkish families as neighbours.Another important landmark in Austrian identity was religion. Our country was a strong bastion of Catholicism until the Second World War. Especially throughout the last 20 years there was also a severe decrease of churchgoers. Churches with only 10 people attending mass on a Sunday are common nowadays. In Vienna, Islam already is the second most popular religion after Catholicism. However if hardly anybody attends church and hardly anybody gives a damn about tradition (at least if no American or Japanese tourists are nearby), what is the problem, then? Bernhard Fuchs has the answer: "Our cultural identity really is in danger - if awful words like Ueberfremdung (Alienation) are getting about."

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