'Universitaet Innsbruck - Innsbruck University Press'
Abstract
At least since the sixteenth century the position of Austria on the geopolitical map of Europe has always been a consequence of its position and self-definition as either a German or a Central European power. But until the rise of ethnic political legitimization in the nineteenth century, the Habsburg Empire with its growing territorial reach in eastern and southeastern Europe had little need to make decisions between a leading political role in the German-speaking area and its growing role a..