1933: Commemoration of 1683

The Battle of Vienna is not forgotten. For future generations, the victory over the Ottomans brought about and continues to instigate identity and strengthen the “we feeling” of many Austrians. To this day populist politics and xenophobic activists commemorate the second Siege of Vienna and the “Turkish victory” of September 12, 1683. This conquest of the “Turkish danger” has always given hope for defeating new, even greater dangers, be it in the onslaught of National Socialism or – as in the Cold War – communism. After “9/11” in 2001, the 1683 commemoration served to re-establish Islam as enemy image.

The 250th anniversary of the victorious Battle of Vienna, which was celebrated in 1933 and coincided with the German Catholic Congress, gave rise to the political reorganisation of Austria. In the so-called Trabrennplatz speech on September 11, 1933, Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss declared the goal of creating a “social, Christian, German state of Austria based on corporative principles with a strong authoritarian leadership”. President Wilhelm Miklas also emphasised Austria’s “German mission” and its role as the “border bastion of Western Christianity” in his speech at the official celebration of liberation from the Turks (Türkenbefreiungsfeier) on September 12, 1933 on the Heldenplatz.

Since the 300th anniversary of the Siege of Vienna in 1983, Turkish Siege and “Turkish victory” are once again on everyone’s lips: Pope John Paul II visited Vienna for the first time on the occasion of the Austrian Catholic Day, which coincided with anniversary of the Second Relief. On the Kahlenberg, the pope recalled Jan Sobieski’s victory, giving his Polish compatriots hope for a Europe “united by the Christian faith”, i.e., freed from communism, “from the Atlantic to the Urals”. Already at that point, the commemoration of 1683 legitimised the incitement of hatred against foreigners: Spotted in public spaces around Vienna was a notation of “1683–1983” attached to the inscription “Save your people – foreigners out”. Letter bombs that were sent in 1993 were accompanied by a sentence referring to the defender of Vienna in 1683: “We resist. Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg.” The identitarian (right-wing) platform of “Commemorate 1683” recently organised memorial processions on the Kahlenberg in order to mobilise “against mass immigration, Islamisation and the policies responsible for it”.

External Resources:

Die Trabrennplatzrede – Ansprache von Bundeskanzler Engelbert Dollfuß mit Prinzipienerklärung des autoritären Regimes am 11. September 1933:
https://www.mediathek.at/atom/015C5D1D-222-002CE-00000D00-015B7F64

Predigt Papst Johannes Paul II.:
https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/de/homilies/1983/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19830910_celebrazione-vespri.html

ÖAW-Internetportal Türkengedächtnis:
https://www.tuerkengedaechtnis.oeaw.ac.at/