Ernst HanischLandschaft und Identität: Versuch einer österreichischen Erfahrungsgeschichte

Abstract

Reviews 173 as an occasion for the contributors to study other problems that interest them, with a, sometimes very slight, connection to the novel by, perhaps, Salten. Quite a few of these contributions are nevertheless well worth reading. Sigurd Paul Scheichl University of Innsbruck Ernst Hanisch, Landschaft und Identität: Versuch einer österreichischen Erfahrungsgeschichte. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2019. 401 pp. €35. ISBN 978–3205 –20860–0. Landscape and nature are a core facet of Austrian identity and self-stylization. This finding is underpinned not only by surveys in which its landscape, and the Alpine mountainscape in particular, are perceived as ‘typically Austrian’ or by the imagery of tourism marketing or political campaigns; it is also the subject of research in a variety of disciplines. Cultural historian Anthony Bushell and historian Oliver Rathkolb are among those who recognize its key role in the construction of Austrian identity. Landschaft und Identität by historian Ernst Hanisch is a valuable addition to the body of work examining the close links between Austria’s landscape and the identity of the nation and its inhabitants. Hanisch expands the ongoing discourse centred on the interconnection of identities and landscapes by approaching the issue from an unusual angle. Writing what he refers to in the volume’s title as an attempt at ‘Erfahrungsgeschichte’, he collects documents from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries encapsulating the landscape experiences of a variety of protagonists. These sources are then brought into conversation with each other and with prominent narratives surrounding the perception of landscapes in the Alpine republic, from its positive portrayal in tourism marketing to the negative connotations prominent in discourses of nature conservation. Grouped according to the characteristics of specific landscapes — in chapters focusing on the mountains, the river (i.e. the Danube), the forest, industrial landscapes, and the plains (‘das flache Land’ p. 297) respectively — the material is presented in a topical structure that brings the properties and impact of specific types of landscape to the fore and that includes landscapes often overlooked or deliberately omitted when discussing Austria. These glimpses into the multifaceted reactions, perceptions and experiences evoked by different facets of the Austrian landscape follow an insightful introduction to Hanisch’s methodology and his understanding of landscapes, identities and mentalities. The relevance of his particular source material, which he terms ‘Ego-Dokumente’ (p. 12), to an approach that puts human experience centre stage is also set out in more detail, and core concerns that shape the discourse of landscapes in the Austrian context are acknowledged. Here Hanisch addresses, among other issues, the irresolvable tension between the demands of tourism on the one hand and those of nature conservation on the other, thus touching on a controversy that is both long-standing and, in an era of climate crisis, increasingly urgent. Reviews 174 Hanisch’s book, however, does not only prove to be timely in the context of domestic debates. Many of the core questions he is concerned with, be they political, economic or ecological, place his work in the nexus of wider discourses of the twenty-first century, such as the Anthropocene and eco-criticism. In understanding landscape as a form of nature that has been shaped by the humans inhabiting it, and by examining the close interconnectedness of human experience with diverse landscapes, the author broaches issues at the heart of these discourses from an Austrian angle. He explores individual experiences of the impact humans can have on nature and vice versa, approaching questions regarding the myth of pristine nature and similarly romanticized perceptions, and revealing how strongly the identities conveyed in his source material are influenced and shaped by the landscapes perambulated by its authors. Through a skilful selection of sources Hanisch is able to draw a picture of experiences and identities emerging from the context of the Austrian landscape in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that is, although not exhaustive, multifarious, detailed and well substantiated. This is where a strength of his methodology comes into focus: its transferability and value for other disciplines and areas of research. The findings presented in Landschaft und Identität and the methodology upon which they rely could be fruitfully extended by examining further source material. This...