Österreich (1945–2000). Das Land der Satire by Jeanne Benay, Gerald Stieg

Abstract

AUSTRIAN STUDIES, 12, 2OO4 299 While the contours of this argument are familiar, not least thanks to thework of Klaus Amann, Danielczyk's example of Ortner is less known than those ofMax Mell and Friedrich Schreyvogl, and thus adds to our understanding of the so-called 'Br?ckenbauer' phenomenon of writers seeking to curry favour in both Germany and Austria. Compared with those ofMell and Schreyvogl, Ortner's Nazi sympa thies are shown to have been considerably less opaque, a fact reflected by his plays StefanFadinger (1933; reissued as Der Bauernhauptmann, 1941) and Isabella vonSpanien (1939), and by his subsequendy swiftrise within the SA. However, Ortner's very malleability appears to have been his undoing. With abundant reference to hitherto unpublished archival sources, Danielczyk shows how Ortner's 'Vielseitigkeit' was cited as the reason for his expulsion from the SA in 1943, after a series of trials that had begun in 1940.Having campaigned successfully for his reinstatement in 1944, Ortner was then compelled tomake a political volte-face as the tide ofwar turned, and attempted to achieve thisby claiming leadership of a resistance movement in Upper Austria. The laterperiod ofOrtner's career is surveyedmore briefly, concentrating on his attempts to carve out a role in the altered landscape of Austrian cultural politics after 1945, and his struggles to overcome a reputation more tarnished by association with National Socialism than those ofmany contemporaries. A detailed account of Ortner's unsuccessful attempt to found an 'Internationale Musikolympiade' in Salzburg provides an illuminating case-study of cultural politics in the early years of the Second Republic. Danielczyk concludes thatmillions of Schillings of taxpayers' money were wasted on the project, which was designed solely to underscore Austria's image as a nation defined by cultural endeavour. The fact that the incident has effectivelybeen written out of history is instructive, and exposes the prevalent concern with Austria's external image and the impact of negative news on tourism,which arguably persists to the present day. Danielczyk's account of the 'Musikolympiade' raises more questions than it answers about Ortner's involvement: inparticular, how an author with supposedly so tarnished a reputation managed to get as far as he did with planning the project, which involved such illustrious names as Sir Georg Solti and Karl B?hm when it collapsed in 1953.Also, a brief section on Ortner's threemarriages could perhaps have been integrated into the chronological survey given elsewhere, rather than interpolated between the account of his career pre- and post-1945. As examples of his expediency in private as well as public contexts, however, the sketch comple ments Danielczyk's lucid and scrupulously documented appraisal of an otherwise overlooked but, forhis time, sadly exemplary Austrian 'Wanderbursch des Lebens'. Magdalen College, Oxford Robert Pyrah ?sterreich(ig4$-2000). Das Land derSatire. Ed. byJeanne Benay and Gerald Stieg. Bern: Lang. 2002. xiv + 388 pp. SFr 99; 59,50 (excl.VAT). isbn 3-906768 76-7. This volume attempts to assess the role of satire as an element ofAustrian culture in the second half of the twentieth century. It comprises papers originally given at a symposium held inParis, the thirdpart of a four-stage research project on satire in Austria, conducted joindy by the universities ofMetz, Paris III and Rouen. Das Land 3?? Reviews derSatire,with its ironical allusion to theAustrian national anthem, deals with mani festations of satire inAustria from 1945 to 2000? covering a period inwhich the arts, liberated from the repression ofNazism, were gradually also emancipated from the constraints of political and moral censorship. Like most collections of conference papers, it is something of a mixed bag, but among the nineteen contributions from scholars in France, Austria and Switzerland are several essays of outstanding interest. Satire is something of an Austrian prerogative: in a keynote essay which intro duces the volume, Gerald Stieg establishes the credentials of Austrian satire by invoking the tradition ofNestroy, Kraus and Bernhard, that 'trio of satiristswhich is unique in the literaryhistory of theGerman-speaking countries'. Stieg identifies as the common denominator between them the essentially aggressive, even destruc tive nature of satire. He quotes, with relish, Hebbel's bitter aphorism: 'Wenn Nestroy an eine Rose riecht, dann stinkt...