Introduction: Austria and Modernity

Summary

The Monarchy is regarded as an anachronistic, irrelevant empire, yet it was central to modern culture and modern European history. It was full of paradoxes. For centuries it was Europe’s “indispensable power”. In the nineteenth century its sphere of interest was severely diminished, confined to the Balkans, but it still functioned as an indispensable balance in the international system, and the best way to manage the complex population of Central Europe from that system’s perspective—until the First World War destroyed the basis for these assumptions. The Monarchy has been seen in three ways: the black legend viewed the Habsburg power as oppressive; the Habsburg myth, in contrast, saw the Monarchy as protective, devout and nurturing; the Austrian idea saw the Monarchy as exemplifying the concept of diversity in unity. All three of these views have partial validity. The Monarchy was a land of possibilities, of many alternatives, with little decisive certainty. It operated not so much on the binary logic of the Law of the Excluded Middle, of either/or, but rather on the Law of the Included Middle, of both/and. This condition was both its tragic fate, and its great cultural gift.