Die Zeitschrift "PLAN": Österreichischer Identitätskurs, individuelles und kollektives Gedächtnis in der Nachkriegszeit by Desiree Hebenstreit

Abstract

Reviewed by: Die Zeitschrift "PLAN": Österreichischer Identitätskurs, individuelles und kollektives Gedächtnis in der Nachkriegszeit by Desiree Hebenstreit Alois Kernbauer Desiree Hebenstreit, Die Zeitschrift "PLAN": Österreichischer Identitätskurs, individuelles und kollektives Gedächtnis in der Nachkriegszeit. Schriften der Wiener Germanistik 7. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2022. 261 pp. It was a long way from the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918 and the onset of the first Austrian Republic, dubbed as the "state which no one wanted," as Hellmut Andics titled his book on the first Austrian Republic, to the last decades of the twentieth century, when a solid national Austrian consciousness existed, one not shaken by the crumbling of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and its consequences for Austria, which lost its highly appreciated role as "neutral" mediator between the former blocs of East and West and found itself as merely one among many small European states. Nothing illustrates the delicate situation of the new beginning in 1945 more than the activities of Karl Renner in the days before and after the end of World War II in reestablishing Austria, seven years after he had declared to vote for the Anschluss on April 10, 1938. It was probably thanks to his experience as politician that the turbulent weeks of late spring and early summer 1945 ended in a comparatively smooth outcome securing a new beginning. Otto Basil, inspired by Karl Kraus's Fackel, had edited three issues of his newly founded literary journal PLAN in 1938. When he revived the venture in October 1945—despite all the difficult circumstances—PLAN became one of the most important journals during its brief existence until early 1948. It contained articles of artists who had not been allowed to publish during the Nazi period and literary texts of young writers who only two decades later belonged to the best known in the German-speaking world. Basil made certain that the contributions were innovatively future-oriented, on the one hand, and that many of them discussed the tormenting question of how to deal with the horrible past, on the other. Desiree Hebenstreit's investigation of the journal PLAN focuses on its role as a platform for the discourse on Austrian identity. It is based on her thesis, published in 2015. Some chapters of the introduction are simply too short to take into consideration all the necessary aspects, such as the one on the discourse about an "Austrian identity and an Austrian nation," which aroused controversy (not only among historians) in the middle of the nineteenth century that never vanished until 1938 and was resumed after World War II. Nonetheless, these sections of the book are well-written overviews. [End Page 131] The main part, however, is simply perfect. Hebenstreit thoroughly looks through all the issues concerning the central problem, starting with the editor Otto Basil, the members of the editorial department, including the indispensable editors Rudolf Geist and Theodor Kramer. Although Basil was most interested in the verbal form of literature and valued expressionism and surrealism above all, he included political topics as well. Questions were also raised about such issues as whether there were such things as specific aesthetic aspects or formal characteristics in "Austrian" literature. In the first years of the reestablished republic, politicians as well as intellectuals from many different cultural circles felt an urgent need to create and promote a consciousness about the Austrian state and its culture on which partisans of the different political parties could agree. There were the agonizing problems of the status of those who had found a way to coexist with the National Socialist dictatorship during the previous seven years as well as the denazification of the numerous members of the former NSDAP. In 1946 the Austrian government decided to support celebrations on the anniversary of the first mentioning of "Österreich," which had been used 970 years earlier for the first time to denote a small territory located in today's Lower Austria. In five of PLAN's issues, contributions to the ongoing social-political discussions were published in a separate category entitled "Austriaca." In the following chapters of her book, Hebenstreit looks into the discussions about complicity with National Socialism, specifically...