Austria: A Nice Place to Visit (1952 photo album)

     H. Breidenstein et al, eds. Österreich: Landschaft, Menschen, Kultur (1952) (Austria: Landscape, People, Culture) A photo album, with an introduction by K. H. Waggerl and a preface by Dr. Eduard Widmoser, an academic. Heavy on landscape (especially mountains covered in snow), light on people and culture. I suspect that many of the photos are prewar, since the city and town images show no war damage, which in 1952 was still extensive. It took Austria a long time to rebuild. The selection creates the impression that Austria is a country of wilderness and farmland. In fact it’s one of the most urbanised nations on the planet.
     Which raises the question, who is the intended audience? The photo captions, in German, English, and French, suggest the book was aimed at tourists. The hard cover, and the excellent printing on very good paper imply a high price, higher than most Austrians could afford at the time. The book aims to make Austria out to be a very nice place inhabited by very nice people creating very nice cultural artifacts.
     An interesting socio-political document, I think it’s part of the campaign to deny Austria’s complicity in the rise of Naziism. **