Austria and the Hungarian uprising in 1956: Neutrality being tested, or Neutrality on the Test Stand

Abstract

The following essay will show that dealing with the Hungarian refugees unmasks the popular stereotypes of the response to the uprising of 1956 as a myth of Austrian national scholarship. There was neither the unrestricted willingness of Austrians nor the boundless gratitude of the Hungarian refugees. The initial sympathies were soon followed by disillusionment and disappointment. Austrians as well as Hungarians were confronted with a reality in which the Austrian cliché of the Hungarian freedom fighter was no more appropriate than the ideas of the Hungarians about the Golden West.