Abstract
Reviewed by: Katharina Scharf, University of Salzburg, Austria
The Alps are associated with beautiful natural scenery, with conservation, and with potential hazards, avalanches and environmental destruction. They attract lone hikers and mountaineers, as well as large numbers of tourists. Since the reinterpretation of the Alps as a place of interest and a national symbol, the mountains and valleys have been and remain a setting of contradictions. Tait Keller opens his book with a quotation from the German Jewish author Arnold Zweig: ‘European history in great outlines seems to be shaped by fights for the Alps or against them’ (1). This motif runs through the whole book. One central theme that pervades Apostles of the Alps is the term ‘contradiction’, in all its aspects, which determines the history of the Alps and mountaineering. The focal point in Keller’s research is the interplay between mountaineering and nation-building struggles in Germany and Austria from the second half of the nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century. The author examines ‘how Alpinism changed the borderlands’ and illustrates the Alps as ‘meaningful places of historical changes’, which ‘staged the struggles that fundamentally shaped Germany and Austria’ (14). Keller scrutinizes ‘the paradox that Europe’s seemingly peaceful “playgrounds” were battlegrounds where competing visions of Germany and Austria clashed’ (3). Two main parts, ‘Opening the Alps, 1860–1918’ and ‘Dominating the Alps, 1919–1939’, include various aspects and approaches. Keller combines political, cultural, institutional, gender- or class-related and environmental concepts with the significance of the conquering of peaks and the struggle for control over the mountains. Environmental issues such as the devastation of the alpine landscape during the First World War, nature conservation efforts, or the profound change of landscape due to infrastructural development, complement, for instance, subtle ideological changes. The Alps, the alpine landscape and its interpretation have all been profoundly shaped by both conflict and cooperation. The Alps as a natural border, as a connection, as a living space and an area of danger have formed the basis for all these physical and mental changes.
Using well-documented sources, the author shows how the Alps are characterized by many and varied struggles for the right to use and interpret them. Mountaineers (‘alpinists’) included apolitical sportsmen as well as political and ideological promoters of nationhood and patriotic morale. Amongst these ‘apostles’, progressive perceptions competed against antimodernist ones, ideas of Germanhood (Deutschtum) were pitted against Austrian patriotism, and apolitical liberal open-mindedness competed with narrow-minded elitism, chauvinism and anti-Semitism. There was continuous conflict between the alleged ‘real’, hard-core mountaineers – who insisted on the necessity of the tough physical experience of the ascent – and tourists with ‘flabby bodies’ (181), who enjoyed the comfort of facilities such as mountain railways, and tourism promoters, who demanded infrastructural developments and progress. This divergence illustrates the competing claims and interests. The Alps themselves, as well as the predominant actors, were, and maybe still are, characterized by inherent ambiguities. Are the mountains a national symbol or an ‘apolitical “national landscape”’ (5), a ‘substitute for war’ (215) or a ‘haven of peace’ (215), a place of tourist consumption or of nature conservation, a scene of individual (men’s) self-improvement or the scenery for the ‘democratization of mountaineering’ (181), the battle of the sexes and ‘emasculation’ (179)? This all illustrates the broad spectrum of issues and approaches Keller has chosen to capture the impacts of mountaineering and alpinists on national and transnational developments and progress in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Unfortunately, the subtle facets and different levels on which mountaineering and nation-building are interdependent are not focused and elaborated upon as consistently as the book’s title promises. Questions and aspects related to nation-building take second place to an account of the history of the German and Austrian Alpine Association. This is not necessarily a shortcoming, but the title is a bit misleading. One could argue that the Alpine Association – which was undoubtedly of immense importance – serves as a guiding thread through an eventful period of wars and radical social and political change in a transnational region. These structural changes were reflected in the development of the Association, which in turn was itself a transformative power and an important actor during those years.
It has to be mentioned that some basic literature is missing, especially regional, German-language literature, which would be necessary for a complete portrayal of the topic. Therefore, some assumptions that seem innovative have already been discussed and published elsewhere. The author concentrates on archival work and primary sources, but thereby slightly neglects already existing literature and research. Nevertheless, due to the excellent and detailed investigation and use of primary sources, the author provides a broad picture with occasional keen insights and specific examples.