Austrian History

While I was talking to Andrea, a student came to us and showed a questionnaire, which was about the ethnic issues of the Island. I observed from Andrea's face that she was keen to know what it was all about.
The questionnaire was supposed to have been circulated among people to get their opinion. Some of the questionnaires were very tricky and sensitive.

I was reading each questionnaire and looked at Andrea's face. She was intent on what my answer was going to be.

When I gave my answers, she took it with much enthusiasm, giving them serious analysis.

Andrea narrated in between our discussion about the experience of her last visit to Sri Lanka with her parents.

Austrians are really international-minded. Former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, an Austrian, had made some lasting impact in the recent past about Austria to the world though he was identified with the Nazis. I had heard about his friendly approach from Dr. Gamani Corea, who served as Secretary - General of UNCTAD, when Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the UN.

Andrea had traveled vastly in Europe and covered a number of sporting events for the PRESS in Austria. When I asked her about the Austrian economy, she said with a sense of pride that it was a very rich country amongst the European Union. She said after the Second World War, there was a steady growth in the economy. She mentioned that recurrent flooding was a major catastrophe in the history of Austria. Her deep love towards her motherland was reflected in her facial expressions when describing various historical issues of Austria.

The territory of Austria, originally known as the Celtic kingdom of Noricum, was a long time ally of Rome. It was occupied rather than conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus and made the province Noricum in 16 BC.

Later it was conquered by Huns, Rugii, Lombards, Ostrogoths, Slavs, Bavarii, Avars and Franks. Finally, after 48 years of Hungarian rule (907 to 955), the core territory of Austria was awarded to Leopold of Babenberg in 976 after the revolt of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria. Being part of the Holy Roman Empire the Babenbergs ruled and expanded Austria from the 10th to the 13th century.

After Frederick II, Duke of Austria died in 1246 and left no successor, Rudolf I of Habsburg gave the lands to his sons marking the beginning of the line of the Habsburgs, who continued to govern Austria until the 20th century.

With the short exception of Charles VII Albert of Bavaria, Austrian Habsburgs held the position of German Emperor beginning in 1438 with Albert II of Habsburg until the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

During the 14th and 15th century Austria continued to expand its territory until it reached the position of a European imperial power at the end of the 15th century.

Modern Austria's history started on the eve of the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire.
Just two years before the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Empire of Austria was founded, which was transformed in 1867 into a dual-monarchy Austria-Hungary. The empire was split into several independent states in 1918, after the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, with most of the German-speaking parts becoming a republic.

Between 1918 and 1919 it was officially known as the Republic of German Austria (Republik Deutschosterreich). After the Entente Powers forbade German Austria to unite with Germany, they also forbade the name, and then it was changed to simply Republic of Austria. This democratic republic, the First Austrian Republic, lasted until 1933 when the chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß established an autocratic regime oriented towards Italian fascism (Austrofascism).

Austria became part of Germany in 1938 through the Anschluss and remained under Nazi rule until the end of World War II. After the defeat of the Axis Powers, the Allies occupied Austria until 1955. Austria became a fully independent republic under the condition that it would remain neutral in the growing conflict between the Communist East Block and the non-Communist West.

Though Austria is a small country, its historical power-centered position in Europe and its cultural environment have made a great contribution to art and science. It has been the birthplace of many famous personalities such as composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven.and was home to psychologist Sigmund Freud, Management Guru Peter Drucker and engineer Ferdinand Porsche.

German Bavaria - The Economic Miracle

The Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel, though it is located in the sleepy western coastal town of Marawila has got a superb Internet and communication facility, which connects the visiting German Praktikum (Internship) students to Germany and rest of the world. Information & Communication Technology leads the modern world in every field.


One internship student has given me some facts with just a few numbers that will speak louder than words about Germany and especially Bavaria's success in Information & Communication Technology.
I was surprised that the foremost communications site in Germany has more than 100,000 employees and 1,800 companies of which 586 are U.S. companies, all of which are in Bavaria. In fact, Bavaria shares the number one primacy with London for all of Europe and it ranks number four worldwide. How did this happen you may wonder. While there is no single answer, there are numerous contributing factors why so many companies in any imaginable industry felt they needed a base here. Certainly, it has a lot to do with the Bavarian government's tremendous initiative and support through financial incentives and action programs.

An early foray into Internet communications also ensured a rapid dissemination of information and communication technology. Their "Software Initiative" aimed at developing and marketing software sees a close cooperation between research and industry. Last but not least, there are 20 municipal and 9 technology-based incubator centers providing excellent infrastructure close to wherever you may want to locate your company.



Bavaria has its own merits to be proud of its economic achievements. If Germany could be proud as one of the major components, making the European economic-power base, Bavaria could also be proud of its vital role in making Germany a powerful economic nation in Europe. The motorcycle and automobile makers BMW, Bayerische Motoren-Werke or Bavarian Motor Works and Audi, the consumer electronics Grundig, the electricity, telephones, informatics and medical instruments Siemens, Adidas and Puma have or had a Bavarian industrial base to give Bavaria economic super status.


Some students are proud that Bavaria is the only state renowned for its spectacular vistas and unparalleled beauty and comprises more than a third of all German employees in the aeronautics and space technology sectors. They further said that no other single state could make this claim. Furthermore, they pointed out that that is because the state government recognizes the importance of fostering new developments and encouraging the enhancement of existing technologies.


They once again proudly pointed out that it is no surprise that, DASA, Germany's equivalent of NASA, is located in Bavaria. The students went on to say that since 1990 Bavaria has spent about 200 million DM for the promotion of aeronautics and space technology projects called TETRA to develop new materials for reusable space transport systems with an additional 50 million DM spent for research projects.


Now the sky is their limit.

German Memories in Asia - The War-Ravaged Germany

The Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel in Marawila, a sleepy western coastal town of Sri Lanka is always a fascinating place to me.

The beach-end restaurant of the resort facing the scenic Indian Ocean will become at times a forum for various international issues.

I had a good discussion with Marita Kantar at the beach-end restaurant of the Aquarius Hotel. The sun had started to go further and further towards the deep-end of the Indian Ocean's horizon. The evening sunlight shone on Marita's face as she was seated facing the ocean directly and I asked her whether she would like to seat opposite the ocean at the rectangular table. She smiled and opted to stay where she was enjoying the glorious sunset in the Indian Ocean.

While I was talking to her on various issues, I asked her how she felt about the massacre of Jews by Adolf Hitler. She said, "They are only the victims for a person who was mad and power-hungry." She further continued, "He managed to brain-wash many for his unjustified cruelty on Jews and others in the Germany and neighbouring nations." She burst out at one point by saying that the act of one lunatic had the effect of giving a bad image of them.

I placated her saying the act of one megalomaniac does not necessarily tarnish all Germans. I told her not only in Germany even in other countries by the act of some of the reckless leaders, their nation and people have become untouchables or villains for other communities and nationalities.

In our recent past, we have seen many like them. Saddam Hussein in Iraq for his marginalization of Kurds and Shi'ite Muslims and some of the leaders from then Yugoslavia for their violation of Bosnian Muslims and Croatians are too the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in their own way. Some of the culprits had been prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for War-Crimes, but others escaped. Still there are many war criminals around the world at large.

I told her, "These culprits are either hiding or not punished yet or still the law is not strong enough or its enforcement is too weak".

As Marita was a Diploma student and doing her field of studies in managing social science, I asked about the unification of Germany which created a lot of unemployment problems in Germany and some Germans in the former West German part are uncomfortable about it. I knew as she is from the former East German part, she might feel uncomfortable at my question. Her eyes had gone really blurred over my question and answered with a sobbing emotion, "the Germans won't like them to be seen as East Germans and West Germans."

She further went on that she had been all over the Germany and saw minor changes in their dialects and couldn't identify any major differences.

What she said is correct. Even East Germany is only a creation after the Second World War when the major allied forces divided Germany into two parts. East Germany had been left out with the communist USSR and their puppet East German administration. But when the cold war came to an end and the demise of the Berlin wall in 1989, the new united Germany had made East Germany part of the existing federal system in other parts of the Germany as a new territory. The capital of the new unified Germany was shifted from the then West German capital Bonn to the then East German capital Berlin.

German Hamlet of Asia

The silent waves of Gulf of Mannar towards the sandy shores of Marawila, a western coastal town of Sri Lanka was creating a symphony of ecstasy, made by mind often in a state of standstill.

Watching the horizon of the shiny blue sky, above the Indian Ocean, while sipping blended coffee is always an unforgettable experience at the beach-end restaurant of Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel, which is surrounded by greeneries of scenic view, which is unique only to this Island-paradise.

More than enjoying the taste of the nature's gifts around there, conversing on the issues of world affairs focusing Germany and rest of the Europe will become always a hot topic in the restaurant and will make at times, the environment into a German hamlet of Asia.

The Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel, which hosts the Asian-German Sports Exchange Program (AGSEP), a Non-Governmental Organisation, operating in the development political sector with a partner office is in Essen, Germany.

The Resort also accommodates the Sri Lanka division of the International Institute for Ratings and Consultancy (IIRC), a German based Think-Tank, which facilitates surveys and consultancy and currently carrying out a survey on the tsunami devastations for presenting donors around the world.

My association with these institutions after the tsunami disaster has made me to visit often there and gave me a chance to know more about the German history, economy and cultural issues through my conversation with students of leading German universities who are in their exchange programs and doing their undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the fields of economics, political science, social science, engineering and other disciplines.

Dietmar Doring, the founder/director of the AGSEP and the country director of the IIRC was an amateur national coach for the table tennis team of Sri Lanka and could be proud of his decision to use the sports events as a medium for encouraging peace in this island, has gone a long way.

He has salvaged his personal trauma of the war-torn experience by the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka and beyond that by the lasting trauma caused by the destructions in Germany in the major world - wars.

The dedication of Dietmar Doring and his AGSEP students who have done a memorable service to this Island in the tsunami period and thereafter, by importing goods and medicines directly from Germany which is worth more than US$ 5 Million cannot be forgotten by Sri Lankans forever.

Their kind and caring nature has prompted me to associate with AGSEP in number of ways and it is an unforgettable experience in associating with them.

Recently we had a joint event of the AGSEP and the PDIP: A Think-Tank on Post Conflict, Economic and Gender issues at the restaurant of the Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel, the "Night of a Thousand Dinners", an initiative of Adopt-A-Minefield, a program of the United Nations Association of the USA and the Canadian Landmine Foundation that began as an opportunity for people and institutions globally to come together on a single night, enjoy a meal and help solve the global landmine crisis with discussions on world affairs.

The event was observed a couple of years ago first time in Sri Lanka by the PDIP with the participation of its Patron Dr. James W. Spain, a former US Ambassador for Sri Lanka and the UN with a global participation of the US State Department and its embassies, the Canadian Foreign Ministry and its consulates, the American Chambers of Commerce and Rotary International.

The event has given me an opportunity to address and share various international issues with German students and others and has taken me back to the Second World Era of Germany.

Even in Germany there had been acts of resistance against the Nazis by individuals or resistance groups throughout the years. They came from all walks of life. A bomb attack initiated by Graf Stauffenberg and other resistance fighters on July 20, 1944 failed: Hitler survived and had more than 4,000 people executed in retaliation. The war continued, claiming huge casualties on both sides, until the Allies occupied the entire German Reich. Hilter committed suicide on April 30, 1945 and a week later the darkest chapter in the history of Germany was brought to an end with the country's unconditional capitulation.

The hardship, which German people suffered and underwent thereafter, has left them into a lasting trauma, which is so difficult to overcome even in the next centuries.

When I was quoting in my brief speech at the dinner that the tragedy where by March, 1945 as the advancing Soviets under the slogan, "There will be no pity. They have sown the wind and now they are harvesting the whirlwind" tortured at east two million German women in an undisciplined advance that is now acknowledged as the largest case of mass violation against women in history, I too experienced the horror of many decades back in Germany through the eyes of those young female German students who were participating in the event.

Now the search for inner-peace by finding peace in other countries and helping others who are affected by the war and natural disaster, is the only objective for these young Germans.

Consequently achieving a positive contribution to the re-establishment of peace in the war-ravaged country with the help of sporting events the AGSEP aims to help the divided ethnic groups to become closer together and to give an impulse towards peace and spread the message beyond the shores of this Island.