Uh. That has not been the case for many years now. Austria has had this attitude right after the war but things have changed a lot in the last 60 years.
As someone who went through Austrian education I can tell you that Austria's view as it being a victim was controversially discussed throughout our history education and ultimately dismissed.
There are probably still some that think Austria was a victim in this, but I doubt that this would be the majority.
//EDIT: Just to be clear. I'm not saying there are not some people that believe that, but it has been taught differently in schools for a long time, Austria's official position for the last 30 years is that it was not a victim. If you talk to old people, sure, but the last two generations? I doubt it.
"After its convention in early 2011 mid-way between general elections, the FPÖ had a support in opinion polls of around 24-29%—at par with the SPÖ and ÖVP, and above the BZÖ. Among people under 30 years of age, the FPÖ had the support of 42%.[61][62] In June 2015 the main part of the federal party section of Salzburg split of and formed the Free Party Salzburg. [63]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Party_of_Austria
Presumably a fair chunk of those voters would describe the situation as the GP quoted. Not hard to believe at all.
(And 'under 30' is definitely not 'old people')
Painting yourself as the victim is a tried and true strategy of nationalist parties. After all, someone else has to be blamed for whatever is wrong it would not do to seek fault with yourself. I'm sure they were taught different in school but that won't stop people to believe whatever it is that supports their desired outcomes most, even if that goes contrary to their education.
I don't like the generalization to all Austrians, that makes absolutely no sense. But some Austrians, quite probably and with 30% voting for right wing nationalists quite a few of those would be under 30.
We have a similar dumb thing going on here in NL with a guy called Wilders. He's managed to enlist the young people with his brand of scapegoating and populism and most of what those people believe would leave a student of the run-up to WWII horrified. That doesn't mean all Dutch people are Wilders followers or fans but I would not rule out any demographic from being his supporters.
However if you look at present day FPOe they are attracting votes because they are the only party which promises a solution for the refugee crisis and problem that badly managed immigration in Austria causes.
Aside: Nationalist parties are pretty good at finding ways to gain a foothold using single-issue scapegoating games. What you get once they're in power is a totally different kettle of fish.
Sure, but I did not dispute that. There are people with questionable ideologies in all countries. However if you look at the population as a whole the question is how large that percentage is (among people who were not actively involved in the war).
The reason why I object to the concept that Austria is particularly problematic in that regard (which is what international opinion appears to be) is because we can have a direct comparison to Germany. You can basically divide a German statistic by 10 and then compare it to Austria to see how the countries are doing. And with regards to most things with regards to national socialism we are doing significantly better than Germany these days.
No, but the presence or a large right wing means that old ideas are not totally eliminated now from a totally un-nazified enlightened modern populace, including the idea that Austria has been a victim.
Its so striking to hear it as a statement that it has become very much expected whenever I make a new acquaintance and the topic of discussion gets around to Austrian culture. There is so much affinity for the cliché of it, that I think it still persists as a meme. Austrians seem to love their wry, ironic, cliché .. and to excuse the current madness with a brush of "oh, its normal for Austria to have such politics.."
Boy, that's a hard thing to say about an entire country. You sure you don't want to get some sources for that one?
There's also a Wikipedia entry about the Victim theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_theory. As you can read there official Austria confessed the role of Austria during WWII in 1991. That's late, I know. But also, that was nearly 30 years ago. That's what I would call "modern".
Going by your time scale, WWII was still on three days ago. Then again, there are people who might come onto this forum and in all honesty say that 1943 was only yesterday to them, and that you mistakenly said that this morning was yesterday afternoon. Do we revise our comments yet again, in light of this fact?
By many measures, 24 years are scarcely any. Which measure do you want to make use of, and what consequences does it have? You haven't said anything.
I realize that for lots of people on HN the early 1990's seem like forever ago, and probably quite a few of them weren't even born back then but for me personally it's an eyeblink.
Yes, there are some who remember WWII vividly, I'm not one of them because I was born well after that but I can see how what you determine to be a 'long time' very much depends on your own personal time-line and that was the full extent of the meaning of that comment.
To me it means yes, that they have just changed their official position, and they definitely should not be left off just yet, not because it took them that long but mostly because of developments in Austria since then. The legacy of Haider is alive and well.
Just like NL should not be let off the hook either, we have our own version of that problem to contend with. (And, for that matter, our own version of the Anschluss even though you'll never hear about it outside of NL, we had a very large chunk of the Dutch openly collaborating with the invaders and a political party (NSB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Movement_in...) with substantial following.)
while 30% of the population vote far right, there is also a strong left tradition in Austria, as exemplified by Red Vienna (Das Rote Wien), with its revolutionary social housing and socialist Mayor (re-elected, again).
Economically they are probably not as much right. They are rather opportunistically interventionist, corrupt, and just plain stupid.
> and having the largest amount of neo-nazis
Most likely, but I doubt we have more neo nazis in general than other countries. But I would love to see statistics on that. We're one of the few countries that have strong punishments on this sort of stuff.
> Most likely, but I doubt we have more neo nazis in general than other countries.
Yes, probably not. I'm just guessing, but it looks like the former DDR has the most issues. Then there's also Greece.
No Austrian wants to admit the long-standing cultural roots of imperialism and fascism that took hold of their country - and still reflect in its darker depths. Authoritarianism is still the mode of the day; group-think and the mob mind very much still grips the Austrian zeitgeist, as it has for centuries.