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Wednesday 14 December 2022
He is already gone, as the prince of German politics “KT”, who likes to trade like von und zu Guttenberg, but whose real name according to personal right is Karl-Theodor Buhl. The suffix von und zu Guttenberg is added with a dash, he also has Austrian citizenship (in addition to that of the Federal Republic of Germany). And another impostor with – only – an Austrian passport, also in the USA, escaped: the prince regent of Alpine politics Sebastian Kurz. But somehow both remained. Dr Counsel has quit cheating his second (British) educational path dissertation and is now speaking publicly with chief buffoon Thomas Gottschalk. And in the case of Sebastian (“I am Sebastian”) of the Vienna Hofburg, you realize that the spirit of him continues to take effect, he’s somehow still there. The Austrian Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who has been in office since St. Nicholas Day in 2021, is responsible for this.
When one wonders how political decisions are made, realizing that certain mentalities inherent in a person and a people are decisive often leads to the target. They are not recognizable at first glance, but remain a profound source of perception. This is especially true for politicians, especially those who want to be something. And the Habsburgs are a source of mentality for Austria. The imperial insignia of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which fell in 1806 (at the instigation of Napoleon), can be found in the Hofburg in Vienna. For a country that once belonged to the great powers of Europe as a royal-imperial monarchy, shrinking Austria to the size of the Alps is a mentality that is still on the verge of extinction. And of course: Hitler was German and Beethoven was Austrian and most of the people from the Alps were part of the Nazi resistance – so the legend goes.
The extent of the Habsburg Empire of the Sun was immense, encompassing not only Galicia, where Putin has now invaded to annihilate, but also Banat and Transylvania, which has been part of Romania since the last world wars. Those who travel to Sibiu, the “capital” of Transylvania, meet the Habsburgs everywhere in the urban landscape, for example in the palace of Samuel von Brukental (a courtier and governor of the Empress Maria Theresa), in the Catholic parish church, overlooking the Most of the Mediterranean market square includes. The soft image of Transylvanian and Banat sights and villages has a Habsburg look and a cheerful warmth that attracts – this is what characterizes the perception of Romania as an ancient crown land for some in Vienna, of which one can “tell” from time to time.
There are formulations in Salzburg, Graz and Vienna that seem Habsburg. When an Austrian says “Schauma let’s see if it works”, one thinks that he trusts the “it”, the course of things, against which nothing can be done. But the indefinite “It” is a camouflage. Because the “it” is oneself, and this is combined with the claim to be in the know and to regulate things in a certain way, in one’s own way. So did Federal Chancellor Kurz, who led the “Balkan route” in the field of political controversy in 2015, as a kind of savior of the West – as a noble knight and prince once saved from the “Turks outside Vienna” – with the friendly support of the Polish Army.
And that is how Chancellor Nehammer works. The concern that Austria would not be able to deal with the suspected illegal immigration from the Balkans, that hundreds of thousands would arrive if, yes, if Romania were allowed the freedom to open the internal borders of the EU, is like something that came out from the arsenal of the Hofburg. As everyone knows: the Schengen area makes Europe a tangible experience, even Switzerland, as a non-EU, can be there. But not Romania, which the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Austria rejected on December 8, 2022 in Brussels. Horror in Bucharest, but also in Berlin. The Romanian ambassador in Vienna, Emil Hurezeanu, has been invited to travel to Bucharest for advice. The Austrian ambassador was even “summoned” to the Romanian capital. Romania is heartbroken. And then also from Austria, where about 350,000 Romanians go on holiday every year. Vienna’s veto comes during the war, when Moscow’s greatest general of all time not only covers Ukraine with war and destruction, but also terrorizes all EU states. And it is then that Nehammer thinks about the state elections of January 2023 and snubs 25 EU countries and above all Bulgaria and Romania.
Of course, the EU’s external borders must be protected. And many states should help Romania in this. This is the consequence. It’s a good thing the German government doesn’t leave Bucharest in the rain. However, threats to boycott tourism are misplaced. Austria is not the supreme authority on European behavior, nor is Romania. The EU family needs to get back on its feet, we have no other. Probing national mentalities and continuously researching them, the image of self and the image of others by peoples and states should finally gain momentum in the scientific discipline of imagology.
In the historic Tomis on the Black Sea, today’s Constance, the Roman poet Ovid found refuge and there in the writing of immortal verses, which make it clear to us that the longing for home determines the soul. Romania is also an Ovid country. He speaks to us through poetry. Sebastian in a dream? This applies to Austria, but not to the former chancellor Charming, but to Georg Trakl, whose poem “Sebastian im Traum” can illuminate our inner being, but not the politics of Sebastian Kurz.
