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Entry: Farewell, Dear Readers! Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/farewell_dear_readers#13139 Post contents: Dear F.J.: My best wishes accompany you on your trip back to the roots of America's majority population and culture. I also enjoy your patriotism for the old Austria-Hungary as expressed with the national anthem. Now just one question to you once you sing that anthem: Is your allegiance to the Kaiser, i.e. the Habsburgs, or to the Vaterland? Which leads to the next question: For the majority of Austrians (including that nefarious Austrian Adolf Hitler - may his name live in infamy) at the time of the expiration of the Kaiser's rule, that Vaterland was Germany, with Austria being a part of it; as a matter of fact this sentiment was feared so much, that the victors at Versailles felt necessary to outlaw such a unification. However, if you don’t share that view and see Oesterreich as your “Vaterland”, how is it that nearly 1,000 years of being part of the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation” are being tossed aside in favor of adherence to that short lived construct “Austria-Hungary”? And, are “Austrians” Germans like “Bavarians” and “Lipper” and “Prussians”, or do you consider them a different breed altogether? Just thought I’d ask. Sent at: 2008 11 23