ISTANBUL/VIENNA. The Turkish-language analysis by publisher and publicist Birol Kilic from Vienna appeared in an abridged form on 25 August 2024 in the Turkish daily newspaper “Republic” (n.d.: Republik, born 1924), which is published nationwide in Turkey and is considered serious, intellectual and investigative, under the title “Vienna, the capital of balls” prominently on page 2 of the printed newspaper. Eurotopics describes Cumhuriyet as “one of the last opposition newspapers in Turkey
We publish the long version of the text under the title, “Austria and Türkiye with Viennese ball diplomacy!”
The long version of the analysis text translated from Turkish into German is as follows
Austria and Turkey with Viennese ball diplomacy!
Birol Kılıç, Analyses and observations from Vienna, 25.08.2024,
When you think of Vienna, a city that has played an important role in the history of both Austria and Turkey over the last 500 years, you inevitably think of a wonderful ball culture that dates back to the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15, the Vienna Opera, classical music and the Vienna Philharmonic, the best symphony orchestra in the world.
It is not for nothing that the country that produced so many great Austrian artists such as Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I and II, Gustav Mahler and many others has kept this culture alive both materially and today spiritually.
Public Diplomacy-Public Diplomacy
Is there a preparatory meeting for the ball in every city in the world at the beginning of September every year? Yes, only in Vienna! In Vienna, more than 450 balls of all professions, large and small, take place in a short period of time from November to March, bringing the city a surplus of more than 200 million euros through hotels, conferences, catering, restaurants, advertising agencies, taxi revenues, etc.
The ball season begins in about two and a half months, on November 11, 2024, and reaches its peak on 27 February 2025 with the “Vienna Opera Ball”which is affordable for everyone to attend, but is usually subject to strict dress and behavior rules, which have supposedly been relaxed in recent years. Young people in particular who attend these balls want to be sure that they behave in a civilized manner in terms of manners, gestures, politeness, sitting and standing, and also represent this in the best possible way.
The Vienna Opera Ball, the crowning glory of all balls not only in Vienna but in the whole world, is supported by the Republic of Austria and the City of Vienna as an exemplary “cultural diplomacy” with much love and respect as a cultural asset and is de facto also considered the most important stage of “soft power”, “public diplomacy”. The Vienna Opera Ball is the flagship of the city of Vienna, which is also the centre of our lives, with its majestic backdrop, the elegant ball attire, the varied music in various halls, but above all with the wonderful classical music of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the height of the Romantic era.
Ball culture in the Ottoman Empire
The balls, which became a form of public diplomacy for Austria, England and France in the 19th century, attracted the attention of Ottoman bureaucrats and sultans. During the reign of Mahmut II, Ottoman bureaucrats were reluctant to attend the ball after the night prayer organized by the British in Istanbul in 1829 for diplomatic and political reasons and had problems with etiquette. Word seems to have spread that etiquette for attending balls had to be learned and courses were organized in Istanbul.
Hofschneider and the world’s first men’s fashion brand – Knize
In the last KNIZE store in Vienna, then also a court tailor but also known as the first men’s fashion brand of the 19th and 20th centuries, which I personally visited, I learned that Sultan Abdülmecid II and later Sultan Abdülaziz and their bureaucrats attended balls abroad and most likely ordered from Knize. The Viennese men’s store, founded in 1858, the first famous men’s brand in the world, and that even their body measurements were taken and are still kept today. Also from the emperors and car. Knize advertised at that time as “the men’s store where kings, emperors, tsars and sultans were dressed”. And not without reason. Knize in Vienna was the first men’s clothing store in the world with the “KNIZE fashion brand”, which was the most popular fashion brand in its time, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The Ottoman government with its sultans also valued KNIZE from Vienna and promoted the ball culture as cultural diplomacy over time among their bureaucrats and attendees.
Great respect from Vienna
The men’s clothing store PRINCE, which is still located in Vienna’s first district, Graben, was once visited by Atatürk during his visits to Vienna. Last December 2023, we visited KNIZE on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey and presented the current owner, Mr. Rudolf Niedersüß, who is approaching 100, with a specially commissioned Atatürk painting, which he accepted with great respect and hung in the front corner of Knize. The gentle Viennese, whose eyes lit up at the mention of Atatürk and who has remained young at heart, said that Atatürk’s style of clothing in this painting was sold at Knize at the time and emphasized that the Ottoman Sultans were among his customers.
Today in Turkey? Bad start to 2024 without live Vienna Philharmonic
Today, unfortunately, we cannot see the representatives of the government in Ankara and its alliances at a ball in Vienna or in Turkey. But they are doing many things in Vienna that they have been doing in Turkey for years. …For years! On January 2, 2024, the Turkish press reported: “Anyone who has been used to spending the first day of the new year on January 1, 2024 in Turkey in their living room with the traditional New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has had a bad start to 2024. This is because the concert, which is broadcast live to more than 90 countries, was not included by the government in Ankara in the program of TRT Kanal-2 this year, which of course had been shown live in Turkey since the start of the live broadcast from Vienna. Internet browsers and social media accounts from other countries helped those who wanted to see the New Year’s Concert. Provided they had prepared. The government in Ankara does not even tolerate the New Year’s concert of the Vienna Philharmonic on January 1st live for the lovers of classical music in Turkey, which is and was a matter of course thanks to Atatürk’s modern Turkey.”
Atatürk and the Viennese Waltz
Atatürk cultivated the Viennese ball culture and acted as an ambassador of the Viennese ball. Given that the waltz was the most popular at the time, it became the Turkish statesman’s favorite dance. This passion of Atatürk had a significant influence on the modernization of classical dance music in Turkey, which from 1923 onwards became a model for other Muslim countries around the world. An analysis of the images from 1923 to 1970 from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Tunisia and Algeria makes this clear. From 1960 onwards, a counter-revolution took place in Turkey and other countries on the part of the Americans and the English. They strove for a green, fundamentalist, liberal democracy, which they wanted to establish in Turkey by means of military coups and the support of reactionary sects and parties. NATO was used as an instrument for this. In retrospect, this policy can be identified as a mistake, but it is no longer possible to correct it.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had a passion for dancing and repeatedly encouraged his fellow human beings to indulge in this pleasure.
Mustafa Kemal stated: “A nation without art means that one of its lifelines has been severed.” Dance, especially the various dances of the different regions of Anatolia and the Viennese waltz, were among the arts to which Atatürk attached the greatest importance.
Atatürk used every opportunity he had to encourage people to dance. Balls and dance events were no stranger to him. Ali Fuat Cebesoy reports in his memoirs that Mustafa Kemal quickly learned to dance the Viennese waltz in Thessaloniki, his birthplace. While studying at the military academy, he even taught it to his friends between lectures. It is said that he was an extremely cheerful and dancing person at the dance events in the Cumhurbaskanligi Sarayi Çankaya, which was also built on Atatürk’s orders by the Austrian architect Clemens Holzmeister, and in the Ankara Palace. He spun in circles with his partners, encouraging the young people passing by to dance with the words “We must live, we must stay alive”.
To this day, no comparable example exists. Atatürk, who knew the essence of art and love for people very well and was interested in all fine arts as an expression of his understanding of civilization, organized balls and dance events in many cities in Turkey after 1930, especially in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir. Atatürk had already learned ballroom dances such as polka, mazurka, quadrille and waltz in his childhood and had acquired considerable expert knowledge in this field.
The EU and its irresponsible appeasement policy
The question arises why, of all people, the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey, Atatürk, who was the first, only and last person in a predominantly Muslim country to enshrine secularism in the constitution, still moves the hearts of people around the world and especially in Vienna even after 100 years.
In 2024, in Vienna, which has developed into a multicultural melting pot – whether we like it, accept it or not – the awareness of the importance of laicism and secularism, as enshrined by Atatürk in the Turkish Constitution when he founded the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923, is still present and of even greater importance than it was then.
This is particularly important given that Austria is a country in which Muslims from various countries live who do not know the liberal, democratic, pluralistic and secular constitutional state. The majority of people from Turkey do, however. We must recognize this value and not shrug our shoulders irresponsibly and try to win with the election program “security” against politicized faith even in places where it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Be careful! The arrogance of power can be harmful in Austria.
The question of the separation of state and religion, which is a matter of course for native Austrians but not for Muslims from all countries, will become more important in the future. The government in Ankara, which sees Vienna as its hinterland, like the entire EU, is currently seeking a constitutional amendment, as part of which the following Article 2 of the Turkish Constitution is to be deleted and amended: “The Republic of Turkey is a democratic, secular and social state governed by the rule of law, which is based on the fundamental principles set out in the preamble, respects human rights and lives in the spirit of social peace, national solidarity and justice. This should be an opportunity for the EU to rethink its policy and no longer rely on an irresponsible policy of appeasement towards the government in Ankara, towards its voters in its own countries (Austria and the EU), who will be affected even more now and in the future. We have been warning from Vienna for 35 years, despite threats and slander.
The heart in waltz time?
Think about today’s Turkey and its political leaders that you know and do not say what your heart tells you in waltz time. (Birol Kılıç, Analyses and Observations from Vienna, 25.08.2024)
2024-08-25 09:00:20