Austria’s Imperial Presidency

Austria’s Imperial Presidency (Source thetrumpet.com)

For more than 1,000 years, Europe has been home to emperors who claimed to be the successors of Roman emperors. Each pursued the same goal of uniting Europe under the imperial crown. From the mid-16th century until around 1800, the seat of these emperors was Vienna, Austria. One of the earliest emperors of the Holy Roman Empire was Charlemagne. His empire included much of what is now France, Germany and Austria. Under threat from the east, Charlemagne founded the “Ostmark,” a region where the Alps form a natural, defensive line against the eastern Slavic people. The Ostmark formed the core of modern Austria and is where it gets its name. This modest beginning laid the groundwork for Vienna to rise as the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. “Charlemagne endeavored to bring unity and peace to his empire—whose borders corresponded roughly to what today is Central Europe—that was established through crusades and interest-driven politics,” Vienna’s Imperial Treasury wrote at the start of Austria’s presidency of the Council. “As such, he may be regarded as the father of Europe, as is recalled annually in Aachen by the award of the city’s International Charlemagne Prize”. One of the EU’s founders, Otto von Habsburg, said, “The [European] Community is living largely by the heritage of the Holy Roman Empire, though the great majority of the people who live by it don’t know by what heritage they live.”

Under Chancellor Kurz, this Holy Roman Empire heritage is again gaining emphasis.

Correlating with Austria’s presidency, the Imperial Treasury in Vienna is offering tours between July 1 and December 31. The tours were advertised throughout Vienna with a large picture of the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. Vienna’s Imperial Treasury explained:

In July Austria assumes the presidency of the Council of the European Union. This is the occasion for lively debate about what Europe is, and what it should be in the future. The Imperial Treasury in the Vienna Hofburg is well suited as a forum for this discourse, for many of the objects preserved here are directly related to Europe’s past.

Today’s EU citizens face some of the same concerns as the Habsburg dynasty faced. During the Habsburg dynasty, Europe faced the greatest threat of an Islamic invasion in its history. Many Europeans today fear much the same. Vienna at the time was the center of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Islamists aimed to conquer it. What concerned the Holy Roman Empire anciently concerns the European Union today.

On the 333rd anniversary of the Battle of Vienna, Archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schönborn warned that “a third attempt at an Islamic conquest of Europe” could happen if Europeans don’t return to their “Christian roots.”

 

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