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This thesis also fits Austria, but its relevance is minor, given that the
Mi tscherlichs' book is dated 1967. The generation of fascism and recon–
struction is beginning to die out. Now we are confronted with the
problems of the second generation which, among other things, result from
the educational style of the forties and fifties. Today's dominating genera–
tion, which also was the generation of 1968-the children of Marx and
Coca-Cola-grew up under contradictory conditions: the coexistence of
absent parents and authoritarian rituals of education, because it was based
on lies about the past, gave no social stability and was present in the histo–
ry of the families themselves. In descriptions of the mentality of fifties and
sixties youth, one very often finds reflections about skepticism and mis–
trust. The fact that knowledge of the Holocaust had to be acquired against
the resistance of teachers and educational institutions gave tills mistrust a
collective legi timization.
Helm Stierlin, a German-American psychoanalyst, uses the concept of
the "bounded delegate," the youngster who leaves his parents' home but
remains bounded and is unconsciously obliged to fulfill his parents' mis–
sions, and to solve their problems in his own life. This concept describes
the relation of the children of the generation of war and reconstruction
towards the problems inherited from their parents.
The events of 1968 were international in scope: its Austrian version
can be compared to the crisis of 1873. The rebelling generation trans–
formed the mistrust into provocation and social utopianism. Behind the
slogan of "fantasy reaching for power" was hidden a profound disconnect–
edness of Austria's generation of '68 to the special problems of their
country. Even in the following "years of the left" no special Austrian left–
ist strategy developed. Instead, they returned to the past and reconstructed
the classical conflicts of leftists: declared Trotzkyists fought the Stalinists.
Nevertheless, the generation of '68 was successful in its "long march
through the institutions." Its social-political success paralleled the Kreisky
Era. Under the leadership of this charismatic chancellor important steps
were taken in the modernization and normalization of the country. But
two strange phenomena accompanied these advances: the fact that the
country had a "Jewish" chancellor did not produce a discussion about the
past but strengthened the forces of inner repression; the process of mod–
ernization, of an adaptation towards other industrialized countries and the
intellectual opening of the republic was accompanied by the development
of a superior self-image. The republic was vain and defined itself as a model
international country. The pope confirmed this myth by naming Austria
"an island of the blessed."
The Waldheim affair brought Austria down to earth. In the countries
where the thesis of Austria as Hitler's victim had been accepted, things
changed dramatically, and the Austrians were perceived as impostors. The
