As any tourist guide will tell you, Vienna is among the least spoilt of the great European capitals. But that is just an empty phrase that fails to describe the fullness of life and the numberless incarnations cultural, historical, political, social - that Vienna assumes. One can spend endless hours in cafes, listen to music in the concert halls and stroll through a city that still looks very much like it did centuries ago. Still, Vienna is everything else than a backward-looking city, and although the traditional 'Lebenskunst' (art of living) has survived to the present day, the pace of everyday life is just as alert and the spirit as progressive as in any other capital city. Today, Vienna is fighting to preserve its crucial role in European history: once the seat of the Holy Roman Empire, or the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is now a diplomatic center, the seat of the OPEC or the UNO, the old and new bridge between East and West. Similarly, it is fighting to come to terms with its less glorious past as part of NAZI Germany. As specialists in Austro-American Cultural Studies, Dr. Draxlbauer, Prof. Mayer and Prof. Welsh, (see photos) were able to tell us something about what Americans need to know in order to understand Austria and the Austrians. Mr. Mayer, who is teaching a seminar on "Roads in/of American culture and literature" at the University of Vienna, states that cultural roads in America are channeled in different ways. I would not talk so much about differences, however, as I would talk of distinctions. These "distinctions" are also pointed out by Professor Welsh. In his opinion, the biggest difference lies in the burden of history that Austria has and the US doesn't have. US students are very a-historical, they have no sense of a long past. In Austria you can't avoid the presence of the buildings from the Gruenderzeit, you can't avoid the history of a monarchy that lasted till the early part of this century, and, going along with that, the assumption that there is a social order.

Mr. Mayer was the first one to hand in a dissertation to the specifically American section of the English department of the University of Vienna. Mr. Mayer's connection with America goes back to his prep-school days. He later spent two years at an American university. Professor Keith Welsh's experiences of Vienna began as a student at Vienna University. He returned as an Associate Professor of English at Vienna's Webster University. Mr. Draxlbauer is an Associate Professor at the Department of English and American Studies at he University of Vienna, teaching courses on American and Canadian literatures and on American Civilization.

You termed it a 'historical burden', why? Burden is not necessarily negative, but it is an awareness that there is a historical back-ground, an old social order. Americans tend to reject that notion. Although we are a class-based society, we claim that we're not, and I think that Americans don't understand class as well as Austrians. US democracy is considered the first true democracy in the world, postulating the separation of powers. Does the concept of democracy necessarily imply American democracy? Prof. Welsh: The democracies must necessarily be different: Americans are inclined to take their privileges in a democratic society for granted. Many Americans don't vote, they don't feel this responsibility for their society, I suspect that Austrians take their democratic rights more seriously. He adds that Austrian students, I find, much more expect me to tell them what to do. American students want freer rein. Dr. Draxlbauer points out that the Austrian constitution is a much later document than the American and has for more than two hundred years been defined after the American model. From our perspective, the USA was not a democratic country until 1870, when the 15th Amendment recognized the voting rights of Blacks, or until 1920, when the 19th Amendment gave the voting right to women, two years after the Austrian constitution. To understand these two different concepts of democracy one has to considered that, as Dr. Draxlbauer explains that the main difference is that Austria is a federal republic, whereas the USA is a union of states which would rather compare to the European Union. The USA also looks back on a 'historical burden' of racial discrimination against African Americans or American Indians, on phenomena such as the Ku Klux Klan or the Salem witch trials. According to Professor Mayer, most Americans I know would pretend that that burden does not belong to them. The individuals do not see themselves as having participated in the oppression of Blacks. Their hands are clean, even if the nation's hands are not. Self-identification is lacking. In contrast to that, Mr. Mayer stresses the individual and personal dimension of Austria's National-Socialist past and of "coming to terms with the past". He paints a very different picture to that of The Sound of Music: "Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung"in Austria has a lot to do with looking at the skeleton in one's closet; it is an individual, highly specific issue. By 'skeleton in one's closet' I don't mean collective guilt, but everyone's personal inheritance. For instance, one of my grandfathers was an illegal Nazi by 1937 at the latest. That puts a certain burden on me, knowing that he made a lot of money during the war, not illegally, but by exploiting his abilities. He knew just where certain types of wood could be found in the Austrian Alps and as the war made great demands for that special timber, he made money of it. He adds that 'we should not say Austria, as a country has to do something like 'Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung' unless we do it with our own skeletons in our own closets. I think this is precisely what the Austrian politician Joerg Haider plays on; he can say that 'we Austrians' cannot do 'Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung' because he is not doing his own; he ignores his own personal past and its implications. The Austrian politician Joerg Haider has frequently been criticized nationally as well as internationally and even in US newspapers for questionable remarks about the Third Reich. Prof. Mayer, who was born in Carinthia, Joerg Haider's constituency, decided to change his domicile the same day as Joerg Haider won the local elections. Asked whether Haider was a more dangerous phenomenon in Austria than elsewhere, Mr. Mayer's comment was that he is dangerous enough as he is here period. Keith Welsh's simple answer is that the American understanding of European reality is very simplistic, to the extent to which Americans still think of themselves as the winners of WWII, so anything that might look like National Socialism they regard as a 'manifest destiny' to extinguish. On the political level, the absoluteness of freedom of speech is an unquestioned ideal. On the cultural level, however, both Austrians and Americans live with taboos: Americans can be very provincial and conservative, prudish even. Austrians have laws to forbid former SS-officers the access to official positions a measure that, according to Mr. Welsh, would certainly go against the American spirit and the idea of individuals being allowed unlimited freedom. We asked Mr. Draxlbauer what is behind these contradictions: The First Amendment (freedom of speech/ of the press) is central to an understanding of the American political identity. We may be surprised to see Ku Klux Klan or Aryan supremacist meetings on TV, but such phenomena are in accordance with the American Bill of Rights. Such political demonstrations would be illegal in Austria, due to the 'Verbotsgesetz'. The problem with freedom of speech being such a cherished right is that it opens a platform for political demagogues. Is Joerg Haider a 'Nazi' when he praises the employment policies in the Third Reich? Such political statements come out of Haider's socialization in the political culture of the NSDAP. His public discourse on National Socialism must be seen as a strategy that focuses primarily on the young, lower middle class protest voters, and not so much on the geriatric German-national block. Too many Austrians are still insensitive to the atrocities of Haider's language. In Dr. Draxlbauer's opinion, Haider's xenophobia-fest is hip.' After WWII, the Allies initiated a re-education program, the so-called de-Nazification-process. However, this did not really result in a policy of 'Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung', i.e. 'coming to terms with the past'. The mystification of Austria as the first victim of NAZI Germany (Austria was considered as such in the Moscow Treaty) was still common in the late 1980's and still lingers in people's minds. 'Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung', i.e. 'coming to terms with the past' through a personal and public acknowledgement of Austria's negative role in WWII and its responsibility for war crimes is a late development. What about the reactions of the media? Mr. Draxlbauer: The media in Austria, especially the nationalized radio and television have always been on pretty intimate terms with the various political parties. Therefore, the Austrian press and TV are still less critical of politicians' statements, whereas traditionally the US quality papers (not the tabloids) are independent. US media, however, is much more advanced than the Austrian in the creation of what is commonly known as hype. The Clinton-Lewinsky affair is a prime example of this kind of commercialization of news. Is the star cult, like infotainment, more pronounced in America than it is here? Would a Schwarzenegger success story have been possible in Austria the way it was in the USA? Mr. Mayer terms Schwarzenegger's story an old cliché of the bourgeois dishwasher-to-millionaire. He is one who made it, but you don't get the millions of others who did not. It is more than commercialization; it is exploitation, Hollywoodization. Moreover, he seems to prove that Hollywood myth is right. By the Hollywood myth I don't mean the big movies, but that all life is interpreted in the ways and means of a Hollywood movie. According to Mr. Draxlbauer, Arnold's success story is a twofold one. The first is an Austrian one, i.e. his career as a body-builder. He was the Austrian Arnold who became Mr. Universe and won the title, I think, thirteen times. His second success story is a purely American one, in that Hollywood with its image and hero-making industry turned Mr. Universe into the 'international star' of the 1990s. Also, he married into the Kennedy family, which helped his status. That Schwarzenegger, the so-called 'Styrian oak', has used his popularity and visibility to support charitable causes is, to my mind, is another American feature of his career. Keith Welsh agrees with Dr. Draxlbauer in that a Schwarzenegger-success-story would have been impossible in Austria because the economy is not big enough. The film industry in the US relies on an enormous economy to support itself and on large audiences. One might talk about it in terms of a cultural economy. A state policy that sustains the film industry by subventions wouldn't be feasible in America? Welsh: No, because it's so commercial-driven. That is another social distinction: the Austrian government truly makes a commitment to the support of the arts: state opera, state theatre, and so forth. Unfortunately, we would never have things like that. There's a notion in the States that all of that is to be based on individual desires. What's more democratic: Austria's artificial support of cultural heritage, or America's commercialization of the arts? Welsh: That would depend on how one defines democracy. What I admire here is that the government is seen as the conservator of the national heritage, in art, music, literature, etc. We don't have that kind of ethos in the States. It would be the democracy of capitalism, but the problem with that is that it tends to sink to the lowest common denominator. There's a real frustration among artists of all kinds in the States because there is not strong support for the arts. The USA has always been a melting pot of different nations and cultures. Can this term be applied to Austria, too? Mr. Draxlbauer draws attention to the fact that Austria has had a long history of Habsburg imperialism. The demographic makeup of Austria is therefore very different from that of the US, the classic immigration country of the last two hundred years. In addition to this, the settlement of the US territories and states has resulted in a pioneer mentality that permeates American social customs and the language. Austria is as much of a melting pot as the US, with a similar history of nativism, xenophobia and forced assimilation. Austria, however, does not have the aggressive American melting-pot ideology. Mr. Mayer: Vienna in 1900 was not so different from New York in 1900. There were several hundred thousands Bohemians, Slovakians, Moravians, Hungarians, Jews who were forced, perhaps not by brute force, but by cultural force, to subsume under the system. I think the term "melting pot", especially for the time of the turn of the century was an ideological concept, nothing but "You Europeans who come here, you better assimilate!" It was basically WASP culture: White Anglo-Saxon- Protestant-Male-(Upper)Middle-Class. Mr. Welsh's impression is, however, that Americans tend to homogenize things more: the McDonald's version of the world. Some of the states have tried to pass laws mandating English as the state language, and there is a kind of hostility to for example the large Spanish-speaking community. On the other hand, Mr. Welsh thinks that institutions such as Blue Danube Radio, a station run mostly in English by and for the international community of Vienna, are not conducive to integration, but tend to keep the English speaking population within their communities. Mr. Mayer, on the other hand, views Blue Danube Radio as something positive because it supplies some forty thousand English-speaking internationals, and also opens the horizons of the Viennese towards English-speaking culture. The common assumption is that through a higher awareness of their past, Austrians should have more of a national ethos. Many Austrians see Hollywood-Americanism as cultural colonization. Is Americanization a threat for Europe? Mayer: It is a fact. There's no use in demonizing American culture. The question is how to face it. There is, of course, a tendency in America towards homogenization, but that is old. What the Europeans tend to ignore because they only see it in a watered-down version, is that at the same time that America tends towards a uniform culture, it also has a counter-development towards regional forms. For instance, the Pacific North-West is probably far more advanced than most European countries in terms of ecological awareness, of seeking harmonization with nature. We tend to regard this as something specifically European. American cultural colonization is as much a fact as European colonization. Mr. Welsh, however, states that it is very sad to come here and see American words and signs all over the main streets. I am appalled at the way we McDonaldize the world. Asked about Austro-American historical intersections, Mr. Draxlbauer explains that after WWII, American culture began to be the perceived global standard. But historically, Austria has had closer cultural links to the UK and a greater interest in British Studies. The re-education program after 1945 was run by British authorities. Incidentally, the first European chair in American Cultural Studies was founded in Berlin by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who learned in 1917 that his 'Feindstudieninstitut' (Enemy Studies Institute) did not cover the US. Thus, American Studies were from the beginning tied to military confrontations. American Studies helped bring American values to Austria after WWII, under the slogans of 'our fighting faith' or 'the fighting democracy'. At the same time, this explains why American Studies have met some opposition over the years. Ironically, it is since the end of the Cold War and Pax Americana, or really since Vietnam, that Austrian students (and European in general) have become interested in American Studies as a paradigmatic field of multi-ethnic and multicultural discourse. Prof. Mayer adds that there is one big study about Austria and America up to World War I called Die Antipoden, (The Opposites). Although it was written by a former secretary of education, it is a book full of hatred. In what way has that situation changed in more recent years? Prof. Mayer: I am not so sure if it has changed. One thing that strikes me in Austria is that whenever I am asked what I am doing, and I say I'm teaching American culture, what I get in reply is that America does not have any culture, 'they don't have any writers'. The Nobel-prizes in the 20th century tell a different story, although that may partly be due to America's political power. What about Americans who come to Vienna? As Prof. Mayer states, when they come to Europe, Americans want to find their own projection of Europe, an extension of their own culture; they perceive it as a little older than America, a little more than a museum, a different kind of museum because it is not heritage, but disheritage, something that they have left behind, something quaint. For Mr. Welsh from an American perspective, Vienna offers students both a gateway into a large part of western history and a gateway into the very interesting parts of the world. I've been thinking a lot about St. Louis, which we call the gateway into the American West, and Vienna really is the gateway to the European East, so that there are some striking similarities. The wonderful thing is that there is so much to see because it has been a crossroads for so long. It's different enough still from London or some of the German cities. In Vienna, students have to confront that otherness.' So what is so Very Vienna? Opera balls and rave parties, the jumble of festivals and the tranquility of everyday life, the old and new, the big and the small, the national and the international - all held together by both the myth and the reality of Vienna. For the Austrian and American, a culture with innumerable facets, a giant wheel of Viennese coffee and American coke.

AUSTRIA: German 'Österreich', republic in central Europe, somewhat larger than South Carolina: Austria is about 580 km (360 mi) long and has an area of 83,859 sq km (32,378 sq mi). Vienna is the country's capital and largest city. St.Stephen's cathedral, the city's landmark http://www.club.innet.be/~phk/aboutme.htm VIENNA was for many centuries the political and economic center of the Austrian Empire and the capital of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy between 1867 and 1918. After WWI Austria was greatly reduced in size and Vienna's importance declined. Heavily damaged in WWII, Vienna nevertheless regained considerable importance as a commercial center after the signing of the State Treaty in 1955, which guaranteed neutrality for Austria. Today the city dominates the economic

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