HERITO, No. 44: Austria

The latest winter issue of the Herito quarterly is dedicated to Austria, its culture, art, and social issues. Although Poland and Austria no longer share a border, we are still connected by the memory of the common past of the Imperial-Royal Monarchy.

We look at Austria through rose-coloured glasses, as a country where everyone loves waltzes, Mozart, Sacher cake, coffee, schnitzel and beer, albeit in a different order. Meanwhile, we are forgetting how varied the country is in terms of its geography, culture, and identity, stretched between two lakes – Neusiedl and Constance. The landscape diversity is enriched by mountainous Carinthia and lowland Burgenland, regions with a large percentage of national minorities. Austria did not emerge ready-made on the map of Europe, but gradually built its identity and shaped its image. In the 20th century, the Austrian had to shed the skin of a “man without qualities” and, as it were, reinvent himself.