When studying Vienna, one could learn quite a bit of world history based on the peoples who have settled, left, or attempted to conquer this part of the Danube valley. Austria and its capital developed an identity as a dividing line between barbarians and Roman civilization, Pagans and Christians, Slavs and Germans, East and West. Compared to what developed in Paris and London, the six centuries of Hapsburg rulers lacked any profound bond with the lands they ruled. Therefore, any sense of patriotism in Vienna is civic pride. Austrian autocrats thought of God as the source of their power through the state Church. With a paternalistic mentality, they used increasingly invasive policing, censorship, and an, “informer society” in order to create what they believed to be the ideal civilization. Ideals from the Reformation, Enlightenment, and finally nationalism locked the people of Vienna in turmoil climaxing with the collapse of the monarchy and then the bewildered remnant’s absorption into Nazi Germany.
The affects of outward compliance have led many like Erwin Ringel, famous Austrian psychoanalyst and social critic, to describe Austria as a land of neuroses. This oppressive state also points to Austria’s surprising suicide rate, fear of risk, and fixation with death. Vienna has emerged from collapse after World War II to rediscover the assets of a multi-national identity and location, leading Vienna to success as a global center of commerce and diplomacy. Nevertheless, despite the fact that Vienna consistently ranks among the top cities in the world for quality of life, a typical response to hearing about a suicide is, “He's so lucky, he has left everything behind.” While there are spiritual implications that the wealth of the ciity is not enough to counter balance Vienna’s “desert” of spirituality, the history of oppression also reminds us that the Austrian culture has still not fully embraced freedom, thereby maintaining this place as a desert. The Viennese honor-shame social system remains with an ambivalence toward the individual over social norms.
