Austria (personification)
The figure of Austria was in the Habsburg monarchy as a personification of the multinational state Austria . Later it became an allegory for the Austrian nation-state. Your name corresponds to the Latin name for Austria .
Significance at the time of the monarchy
The embodiment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by a female figure was often used as an artistic motif, especially in the middle of the 19th century . Several statues and pictures of allegory were created . Among other things, the Austriabrunnen on the Freyung in the city center of Vienna became known . Austria statues were also designed and manufactured for numerous buildings that were being built in Vienna at the time, such as the parliament building or the State Opera . Originally a representation of Austria was planned in front of the parliament building, but this idea was rejected in favor of Pallas Athene, who was more neutral for the multi-ethnic monarchy.
The pair of words " Felix Austria " originally referred to the Habsburg dynasty , the so-called House of Austria. Foreign policy was written to them according to the motto Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube! ("Others may wage wars, you, happy Austria, get married!") And meant the marriage policy of the Habsburgs , which, while sparing resources, led to an increase in power just like the wars waged by other monarchs. Felix Austria was later associated with the assumed happy way of life of the peoples of Old Austria .
Change in meaning after 1918
After 1918 the allegory was only used for the Republic of Austria. It can be found, for example, on drafts for schilling notes that were not printed. However, Austria did not establish itself as a symbol of identification in republican Austria.
Erich Kästner addressed the Austrian victim myth in a mocking song in which he had the National Allegory Austria sung:
“I gave myself up, but only because I had to.
I only screamed out of fear and not out of love and lust.
And that Hitler was a Nazi - I didn't know that! "
In the 1960s, the illustrator Erich Sokol resorted to Austria representing the country for caricatures in the Wiener Arbeiter-Zeitung : with a bitterly angry Austria with a Hitler mustache and neo-Nazi armband or with Miss Austria as a slim young lady or as a child playing.
See also
- Tyrolia (personification of Tyrol)
literature
- Selma Krasa-Florian: The Allegory of Austria. The emergence of the overall concept of the state in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the fine arts . Böhlau, Vienna et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77580-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ 120 years of parliament building . Parliamentary Directorate-House Printing , 2003, ISBN 3-901991-07-7 , p. 33 ( Online [PDF; 249 kB ; accessed on December 7, 2014]).
- ^ Elisabeth Klecker: Bella gerant alii. Tu, felix Austria, nube! A search for clues. In: Austria in history and literature 41 (1997), pp. 30–44. Alphons Lhotsky also mentions an unknown author from the Baroque era : Source studies on the medieval history of Austria. (Communications from the Institute for Austrian History, Supplementary Volume 19), Graz 1963, p. 71.
- ↑ Klaus Liebscher (Ed.): From the Schilling to the Euro - Continuity and Stability , self-published by the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Austrian National Bank et al., Vienna et al. 2002, ISBN 3-85497-039-0 , p. 218.
- ↑ Cf. Walter Simon: More heat than light. P. 32. In: Academia , pp. 32-34.
- ↑ Examples: AZ -Karikaturen 62 , Sozialistischer Verlag, Vienna undated [1963].