erdbeermilch.

First of all: Yes, this is a provocative title, I have to admit. But hey, if you aren't provocative how can you ever discuss about controversial topics? For instance, Austria's attitude towards its past (and present) and its responsibility to talk and discuss about its past (and present). Until 1995 there was no official excuse coming from the mouth of an Austrian official concerning to Holocaust and the genocide against Jews, Sinti/Romas, Homosexuals and other social groups. Although Austria's population was only a tenth of the population of the whole Third Reich, 30% of leading Nazis were Austrian, not to mention people like Hitler himself, Eichmann, who organized the mass murder of the Jewish people or Seyss-Inquart, how introduced a terror regime in the Netherlands. The re-integration of Nazis was executed very quickly in Austria, like the example of 1965 shows, when university teacher Dr. Taras Boradejczewicz denied Auschwitz openly in the Auditoria of the University of Vienna. A number of ministers in Austria had links to the NSDAP, and, of course, a lot of politicians and also chairmen of Austria's right-wing party FPÖ were members of SA or SS and some of them even participated in mass murders. In 1986 Bruno Waldheim, former general secretary of the U.N. and member of the Austrian People's Party (Österreichische Volkspartei/ÖVP) became Austrian president. While the presidential campaign was going on, it was detected the Waldheim took part in a riding echelon of the SA. He denied his memebership in the SA. The socialdemocratic SPÖ (Sozialistische (later Sozialdemokratische) Partei Österreichs) started to dirtycampaign because of that. But this campaign even boosted Waldheim, and in the final phase of the campaign the main slogan was "Jetzt Erst Recht!" ("Now Even More!"). Waldheim won the election and once more the world thought of Austria as this little Nazi country. Waldheim was not allowed to enter countries like the Staates or Israel and Austria was diplomatically isolated for years. In 1986 there was also another incident when Reeder, a war criminal who was imprisoned in Italy for about 40 years, was ceremonially welcomed back by the FPÖ minister of defense Frischenschlager. After this was published, Frischenschlager excused for having done so, while Haider said this was just additional work. From 86 on also another politician, Jörg Haider, gained more and more power. In the 1990es his FPÖ (Freiheitliche Partei Österreich / Freedom Party) achieved constantly over 20% and slogans like "Ausländer raus!" (Foreigners out!) were becoming more and more part of the political culture. Haider, who also got elected as the head of the regional council of Carinthia in 1989, said things, which where directly connected with National socialism, several times and tried to trivialize this dark era by any chance he got. After saying that the NSDAP did execute a "proper employment policy" SPÖ and ÖVP in Carinthia desposed Haider from being head of regional council in 1991. He got re-elected in 1999, the year where FPÖ achieved 27% in the federal election and, by that, became Austria's second strongest party. The christian-democratic ÖVP, under the leadership of former minister of foreign affair Schüssel, formed a government with the FPÖ. The consequences were severe: the EU started to sancionate Austria, because, for the first time (unfortunately not the last time, as we can say in retrospective now) a right-wing populist party was elected into government. The sanction lasted for several months and harmed the image of Austria worldwide effectively. Numerous countries critisized Austria fiercely, Israel's ambassador left the country. Haider, ignorant as always, reacted in his way by making fun about the leaders of other countries. In response to the criticism governmental officials from other countries, he willingly offended foreign politicians personally. Belgians were advised not to make their winter vacation in Austria this February. During the time of FPÖ's participation in the Austrian government (2000-2006) several cases of revisionisms, done by FPÖ politicians, were detected. Known right-wing radicals like the lawyer Stadler or the journalist Mölzer got heaved into leading positions. A high percentage of the FPÖ members of the parliament were (and still are) members of the radical right-wing fraternity "Olympia", which for instance also invited the infamous revisionist David Irving for a discussion in Vienna - right, just out of research reasons. After proving being the most incompetent Austrian government of all time (and after being re-elected in 2002) FPÖ lost most of its political power, and ended up having around 10%. In 2008, the FPÖ could achieve 17%, while a new right wing party, which was founded by Haider and friends, the BZÖ could reach 11%. Counted together the right-wing parties got only 0.2% less than the strongest party, SPÖ. A member of "Olympia", Graf, is now one of the presidents of the parliament, although he made clear that he has no connection to the ideologies of National socialism (Hahaha!) by making a public anouncement, it was only a couple of weeks later that it was detected that some of his employees in the office of the parliament's presidency ordered goods from a nationalist mail-order house, which were clearly revisionist. Like always, the FPÖ claims this whole thing to be a conspiracy of the left-wing parties (which are, obviously, all of Austria's parties except for FPÖ, including ÖVP). Today, revisionsm, racism and a lack of coming to term with the past are problems of Austria. And, I'm sorry to say that, but I think this problem is way bigger in Austria than in other countries. It would be nice to say, that Austria has learned from the past, but the last elections just show that it's the other way. Austria, the Nazi country.