Discussions about hymns are always a hot topic in Austria, although no one cares about the “daughters” anymore. In an open letter to the provincial governors of Upper and Lower Austria, Carinthia and Salzburg, the IG authors are now demanding changes to the respective state songs because they are historically taxed. While in Salzburg a completely new version of text and music is needed, in Upper Austria and Lower Austria you only need a different text, in Carinthia the deletion of a stanza would suffice, the letter says.
On April 20, which was also historically charged, a committee of persons with numerous well-known authors – including Robert Menasse, Doron Rabinovici, Thomas Sautner and Gerhard Ruiss – had already contacted the governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP). The state then announced a scientific review. Now the IG authors are following suit. She also sees the state songs of Upper Austria, Carinthia and Salzburg as loaded. All four would “require thorough reconsideration or reformulation,” says a letter to provincial governors Mikl-Leitner, Thomas Stelzer, Wilfried Haslauer (all ÖVP) and Peter Kaiser (SPÖ).
New text and new music for Salzburg
The most pressing problem arises with the national anthem in Salzburg, where “there is no other solution than the completely new version”. After the National Socialists seized power in Austria, the composer Ernst Sompeks boasted that he was an illegal Austrian Nazi party member. “Text author Anton Pichler, on the other hand, was a war-glorifying priest”, his text partly grammatically unsuccessful “cheesy-pathetic clod bombast”.
Upper Austrian copywriter a “radical anti-Semite”
In Upper Austria, the focus is on the author of the text, Franz Stelzhamer, as a “radical anti-Semite” who even advocated the genocide of the Jews. In addition, the rule that one loves the “Hoamatland” “wiar a dog is his master” is characterized by a “subject mentality of absolutism”. The IG proposes to write a new text based on the existing music of the – historically unencumbered – composer Hans Schnopfhagen. “The position of the official side in defense of the hymn text, the oo. Due to the author’s anti-Semitic outbursts, the anthem is a constant incentive to keep alive the memory of the shadows of our history, but we do not share it,” said the letter.
Also in Lower Austria it is about the person of the author, in this case Franz Karl Ginzkey: “He was a supporter of book burnings, one of the authors of the confession book of Austrian poets for the connection with Nazi Germany and joined at the NSDAP in the middle of the war,” the IG criticized. The lyrics themselves – albeit “historically bombastic-pathetic” – are unproblematic, “However, Ginzkey is wholly unfit as the author of the national anthem of a country with a democratic constitution”. A new test of the “flawless” music written by Ludwig van Beethoven is therefore deemed necessary.
Carinthia should delete the fourth stanza
In Carinthia, the problem could be solved more easily. According to the IG, only the fourth stanza, later written by Agnes Millonig, “an early (since 1933) illegal National Socialist”, should be deleted.
Because the last line (“this is my beautiful homeland”) originally said “this is my German homeland”, which “indirectly denies the Slovene Carinthians the right to regard Carinthia as their homeland”, according to the criticism.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
