Blog Post One: National Identity in Austria

National Identity, Defined
The term “national identity” has recently become quite a strong term. It’s so easy to confuse it with “stereotype”, a dangerous idea considering the two are so different. If someone tells you they’re British, German, French, etc, you’ll immediately find you have predisposed ideas about that person, just from learning their nationality. I’d like to explore this idea, explore what it is that makes up these ideals. Are there common threads between different national identities, or a factor that all national identities have? Is a national identity an acceptable way to generalize a country? These are questions I will hopefully try to answer in not only this post, but also in my future posts on this blog.
In this post, we will be taking a dive into the national identity of Austria. First however, we should define national identity. A national identity is the combination of aspects and attributes that give a national population a distinctly unique identity. Single attributes can be shared among multiple nations, however each national identity is unique in the attributes it contains. Now, this definition is built upon stereotypes and generalizations and for that reason its very important to keep in mind that a national identity is in fact a generalization and doesn't define everyone who identifies with a country. In countries that cover large areas, with different populations, especially somewhat isolated populations, it becomes increasingly difficult to create a single national identity. The United States for example, falls into this category of extremely hard to create a national identity for. The stereotypical person from Alabama is going to be extremely from that your typical Oregonian. The same is true for almost every nation in the world. No generalization is going to be completely accurate. Knowing and understanding that, we can look better understand the national identities explored on this blog.

Austrian National Identity


Now that we’ve defined national identity, we can use that definition to piece together a national identity for the country of Austria. Austria’s population is very concentrated, more than two-thirds of its population lives in the capital city of Vienna and its surrounding suburbs. The rest of the population is distributed fairly thinly over the rest of the country (Fellner & Wagnleitner, 2019). According to the Central Intelligence Agency (2019), the vast majority of Australians are religious, with almost 74% being catholic. Only 12% of Austrians consider themselves to be secular. Ethically, the population is fairly homogeneous. A vast 84% of the population is Austrian, with the second highest minority group of German coming in second place at a tiny 2.1% of the population. Also calling Austria home are populations of Turkish, Serbian, and Croatian (Central Intelligence Agency, 2019). These others are an important part of Austrian identity, so important in fact, that they’ll get their own section later in this post. According to Wodak (pp 52, 2009), the Austrian national identity is quite defined. It’s been shaped by history, especially by major time periods and events such as the Habsburg empire and the second World War. In the Moscow Declaration of 1946, the Allied powers of World War II declared that the German occupation of Austria was to be no more. They desired Austria to be its own independent and free nation. After 1945, the name Austria was being used primarily to differentiate the recently freed country from its former oppressor, but the name ended up sticking.

Austria’s current identity is widely believed to be rooted in its former socialist oppression, or rather against it. Their current identity was born from a desire to separate themselves from the grasp of their Nazi rulers and establish themselves as a separate entity in post war Europe. Wodak (pp. 53, 2009) also highlights that much of the resentment held by Austrians towards the National Socialist regime was due to the famine and poverty suffered during their time in power, increasing even more the Austrian’s desire to establish their own country and with it own national identity. Today, Austrians are seen as happy, friendly people who are comfortable in their lives. They enjoy eating and drinking, and love the natural beauty that their country has to offer. On the other hand they are also described as having some more undesirable traits. Wodak (2009, pp. 55)  said they also have less desirable characteristics such as, “... a lack of diligence, sluggishness or sloppiness.” However possibly the worst aspect of their national identity was bred from their desire to have create and maintain their own country and national identity, seperate from anyone else, brought on by their freedom from the Nazi reign. These characteristics are best classified as xenophobic and chauvinistic, and still hold true today. The implications of these characteristics are most dangerous to the others found in Austria.

Othering in Austria

The internal and external others experienced by Austria have also heavily shaped their national identity. The first major other is an external other, Germany, who Austria shares a border with. The Austrians have a strong desire to separate themselves from the Germans, stemming from World War II. The two share many things, such as general geography (Central Europe), religion (Catholicism), and language (German). The Germans are also an internal other, as 2.1% of the Austrian population is in fact German (Central Intelligence Agency, 2019). The two groups are fairly homogeneous, and share many similarities. The next important other is an internal other, and is the Turkish population within Austria. The biggest difference between the Turkish and Austrians is their main religion, the Turkish being generally Muslim and the Austrians are generally Catholic. The religious difference causes some tension between the groups, but interactions between the two groups are generally peaceful. The final major other in Austria is the Serbians. Another internal other, their biggest difference from the Austrians also being religion. They are generally practicing Orthodox Christians, and speak the slavic language Serbian. These others further intensify the Austrian’s desire to have their own national identity. Generally a peaceful country, the Austrian’s aren’t hostile towards their others, but instead just want to maintain their own, individual and uniquely Austrian national identity.

 Word Count: 1021



Works Cited



Brookes, R. (1999). Newspapers and national identity: the BSE/CJD crisis and the British press. Media, Culture & Society, 21(2), 247–263 Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/016344399021002007

Central Intelligence Agency. (2019). Austria. The World Factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/au.html

Fellner, F., Wagnleitner, R. (2019). Austria. In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Austria

Wodak, R. (2009). The discursive construction of national identity (2nd ed., Critical discourse analysis). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

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