Austria II

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Austria II is a historical documentary film series about the history of Austria after 1945, designed by Hugo Portisch and Sepp Riff for ORF from 1981 to 1995. A revision of the series, as it was already carried out with Austria I , started on October 26, 2013 as Austria II - New edition 2013 .

prehistory

In June 1981, the general director of ORF , Gerd Bacher , presented the journalist and TV commentator Hugo Portisch with the proposal to present the history of the Second Republic between 1945 and 1955 in a series of TV documentaries.

The project threatened to fail in the initial phase, as large parts of the filmic evidence of the Austrian past expected in local archives had either already been destroyed or could no longer be found. Only through research in the archives of the former occupation powers could historically important holdings be rediscovered. The historical archive of the ORF was set up under the direction of Peter Dusek to index the collected audiovisual materials .

In addition to interviews with people from contemporary history, the methods of oral history were also used during the preparation of the TV series . Apart from political history, ordinary people also described the everyday history of the post-war years. Access to the Austrian state archives was mostly denied to Portisch and his staff, as the sovereign files from the period after 1945 were still subject to the 70-year archive lock.

In order to present scientifically proven findings, Portisch consulted among others the university professors Erika Weinzierl , Gerald Stourzh , Norbert Schausberger , Gerhard Jagschitz , Manfried Rauchsteiner and the head of the documentation archive of the Austrian resistance , Herbert Steiner .

layout

Portisch, known to the TV audience as a commentator on current affairs, acted as the presenter of the documentary series. His introductions, summaries and analyzes framed the documentaries consisting of eyewitness interviews and historical film material. The visual design was the responsibility of the cameraman Sepp Riff. Historical film material was specially restored for broadcasting, while silent scenes were underlaid with background noise to improve their effect on the viewer. The voice of Otto Clemens led through the broadcasts from the off based on the text written by Portisch.

Charisma

Austria II was produced in three seasons. The first episode was broadcast on ORF on May 20, 1982. The first eight episodes of the series dealt with the immediate postwar period, beginning with the invasion of the Red Army on March 29, 1945. The second season offered a look back at the end of the First Republic, continued with the history of Austria under Nazi rule continues to then in 1985, in time for the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Austrian State Treaty , to tell the story of its origins. The last episode of the second season, broadcast in 1986, dealt with 1956, the first year of complete independence.

After an interruption due to the production of the documentary series Austria I about the history of the First Republic by Hugo Portisch and his team, which was completed in 1989, the seven episodes of the third season ran the history of Austria in 1995, the year Austria joined the EU continued until the end of the reign of Bruno Kreisky in 1983.

In 2005, Portisch designed the four-part documentary series “The Second Republic - An Unbelievable Story”, which presented Austrian history from 1945 to 1955 to the television audience once again.

From 2013 the documentary series by Hugo Portisch in cooperation with ORF III and Oliver Rathkolb was revised in terms of content, technically updated and the interim moderation was re-recorded. The newly added 32nd episode spans from Kreisky's resignation in 1983 to Austria's accession to the European Union in 1995.

reception

The documentaries were a great success for ORF. The journalistic portrayal of contemporary history made the emergence of the Second Republic a public topic apart from official commemorative events. An average of 1.5 million viewers followed the broadcast of the first two seasons on TV. Hugo Portisch and Sepp Riff received the Golden Camera in 1983 for the design of Austria II .

The success of the TV series was followed by three richly illustrated books written by Portisch. These were based on a previously published transcript of the narration that the Austrian State Printing Office had published in special editions of the ORF nachlese magazine sponsored by the Austrian Ministry of Education . The video edition of the series has been approved as an official teaching tool in schools .

Austria II shaped the historical image of Austrian youth in the 1980s and 1990s. Historians criticized the event-oriented approach to the storytelling of the TV series, which focused on politicians as decision-makers. Economic and social interrelationships as the causes of historical developments were not dealt with analytically enough by Portisch.

Another object of criticism was the allegedly harmonizing depiction of the past, which tried to avoid breaks, contradictions and zones of conflict as much as possible. Austria II was seen here in the tradition of “coalition historiography”, which is more committed to balancing the interests of the two parties dominating the republic, the ÖVP and the SPÖ, than to historical truth. Under the pretext of an objective representation of history, the series also pursues the self-assurance of an Austrian nation, which is represented by it as a unified collective.

Portisch defended himself against these allegations with a reference to his purely journalistic approach to history; In addition, a television broadcast does not have the options to differentiate as they are possible for a historical work.

consequences

  • Austria II (1) - In the beginning was the end
  • Austria II (2) - The Battle of Vienna
  • Austria II (3) - Departure from the chaos
  • Austria II (4) - The end of the Alpine fortress
  • Austria II (5) - Race of the Armies
  • Austria II (6) - The Legacy of War
  • Austria II (7) - The first steps
  • Austria II (8) - The overcrowded country
  • Austria II (9) - The divided country
  • Austria II (10) - A united people
  • Austria II (11) - The time of the generals
  • Austria II (12) - decision for Austria
  • Austria II (13) - What to do with Austria?
  • Austria II (14) - The rest was Austria
  • Austria II (15) - One people, one empire - no Austria
  • Austria II (16) - Home from the Reich
  • Austria II (17) - No time for South Tyrol
  • Austria II (18) - special case Austria
  • Austria II (19) - weather lights
  • Austria II (20) - thunderstorm
  • Austria II (21) - A day like no other, part 1
  • Austria II (22) - A day like no other, part 2
  • Austria II (23) - A day like no other, part 3
  • Austria II (24) - year of probation
  • Austria II (25) - The reunification of Austria
  • Austria II (26) - Austria's way into the world
  • Austria II (27) - crisis years
  • Austria II (28) - 1968: year of change - year of change
  • Austria II (29) - Austria and the Cold War
  • Austria II (30) - The Kreisky era 1 - The reforms
  • Austria II (31) - The Kreisky era 2 - The conflicts
  • Austria II (32) - On the way to Europe (new edition 2013)

literature

  • Susanne Eybl: The picture of history in the Austrian media. The historical documentary series Austria II and Austria I by Hugo Portisch and Sepp Riff as a paradigm of medially processed historiography, Diss. University of Vienna 1993.
  • Siegfried Göllner: The rebirth of our state. The TV documentaries Austria II and Austria I by Hugo Portisch as identity-creating stories about and for the Austrian nation, Dipl. Arb. Universität Salzburg 2003.
  • Hugo Portisch, Sepp Riff: Austria II. The rebirth of our state Vol. 1, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-218-00422-5
  • Hugo Portisch, Sepp Riff: Austria II. The long way to freedom Vol. 2, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-218-00442-X
  • Hugo Portisch: Austria II. Years of Awakening, Years of Upheaval Vol. 3, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-218-00611-2
  • Vrääth Öhner: Perspective 1982? Twelve comments on “The Second Republic” by Hugo Portisch, in: Martin Wassermair: Rebranding images. A contentious reader on the politics of history and culture of remembrance in Austria: Studien-Verl., Innsbruck 2006, ISBN 978-3-7065-4317-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Press release of the ORF from October 17, 2013, http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20131017_OTS0111/neuauflage-von-hugo-portischs-oesterreich-ii-in-orf-iii
  2. ↑ Alexander Nützenadel , Wolfgang Schieder : Contemporary history as a problem. National traditions and perspectives of research in Europe. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, ISBN 978-3-525-36420-8 , p. 63