Balancing Victimhood and Complicity in Austrian History Textbooks. Visual and Verbal Strategies of Representing the Past in Post-Waldheim Austria

Abstract

This article focuses on the impact of images on reconstructions of the past. In order to analyze the function of images in history textbooks, image-discourse-analysis is applied to a case study of Austrian post-war memory. The analysis of recent Austrian history textbooks provides insight into strategies by which notions of Austria as both “victim” and “perpetrator” of the National Socialist regime are held in balance. The article also focuses on the intentional framing of iconic depictions of two central Austrian sites of memory, Heroes’ Square (Heldenplatz) and the State Treaty (Staatsvertrag).