The Search for a Fatherland
Stanley Suval
The destruction of the Habsburg monarchy forced Austrian Germans to make a wholly unforeseen and, with few exceptions, heretofore unthinkable decision about their destiny. rump Austria 1919 was too weak command allegiance all its citizens. Many Austrians, despairing mastering economic and political problems in Vienna, searched for an easier solution: realization forbidden but still anticipated unification conationals German Republic. For it seemed retrospect that only loyalties had separated them from main channel Germanic stream. Often civic virtues have been bought at some rummage sale ideas—the symbols imperial order, Catholicism, collection Francis Joseph's virtues—hardly raw material which build patriotism postwar Austria.
Austrian History Yearbook