One of my favorite readers just sent me a personal email in regards to the thoughts my blog and other expats have inspired in him. I’ve posted his thoughts in the past on my blog because I think he makes really good points. Also, I think it is fair to post an Austrian view point. Below you’ll see his comments.
Helimax, his user name, is making a reference to my first ever blog post Fashion – Or the Lack Thereof The rest of his thoughts seem to be something he just wanted to share with us.
Hi Britta!
I was just talking to a friend about Austrians and I thought I should write my thoughts down for you. Maybe you can use them in your blog.
One of the major differences to eg. France or the US is that thereare no ‘ghettos’ – of course there some neighborhoods with more immigrants from ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, etc.. and some with more poorpeople and some with less and so on, but it is still mixed up. And people don’t stay in their neighborhood. Poor people got to Kärtnertstrasse and native Austrians go to Brunnenmarkt for fresh vegetables etc..
This leads to some points you mentioned in your blog. eg. bad-dressed people. Lower educated or poor people usually dress differently (may call it ‘not so good’). but eg. in Paris you will not see them – they stay in their banlieue. Dress code and knowing how to dress is mainly depending on the social status. So of course in Vienna’s 1st or 19th district the people are generally better dressed, but there are a lot of non-good-dressed people because there are no social- or other barriers for the people with lower status to enter these areas.
Another – for me – big difference between US and Austria is the definition of social-status. In the US money is a big status-factor. In Austria people with money are always ‘suspicious’ – ‘where do theyhave the money from?’ ‘is it legal?’ or if you borne with money -everybody thinks you got no problems and anything comes to you without work. In general money is only accepted if someone works really hard for it and is known for doing so – anything else is socially not accepted. that’s why only few people drive really expensive cars. The real rich don’t do it, because the don’t want to be recognized and don’twant to be socially unaccepted. Only the ‘Neureiche’ show their wealthand got therefor a really bad reputation.
On the other side in Austria, reputation is defined by titles, that’s why they are so important. But there are also differences. ‘Real’ titles from universities esp. Mag.,Dipl.Ing. and Dr. have a high reputation because you had to work for some years to earn it. Bachelor, FH-titles, etc.. got quite low reputation. Honorary titles are seen in the mid-range, because you must have done something to get them.
To get back to clothing: if you got a title you don’t have to dress good to show your status. That’s another reason why dressing is considered not so important in Austria.
Some – maybe confusing – thoughts collected from my chat with a non-Austrian friend.
Greetings from the snowy mountains 
and a happy new year!
Helimax
Or in other words: Dress yourself up when you don’t have anything else to show. That’s probably not just an Austrian phenomenon. Just have a look at Bill Gates — trousers too short etc. I don’t think he cares.
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This is a great post.
Hi Mike,
I can’t really take credit for it, can I =)
A friend of mine wrote me an email in reponse to reading this post
Hi Brit!
I just wanted to comment on the blog post.
I found it interesting and very much in agreement with my impressions of Viennese history. Especially that bit about the mixing of classes (it used to be done on the Ringstrasse where everyone went to be seen and at the Oper), I just never applied that to clothes and the way people dress. It makes sense though.
I also recognize the Austrians are reserved about wealth, but I never knew they were suspicious of it. I’ll be thinking about that for a while and perhaps tying it into the lack of a monarchy and the collapse of the empire less than a century ago.
I knew they were very much attached to the idea of ranks and titles, but the idea that they are important because they signify a solid, hard working citizen hadn’t occurred to me. Here in the US, I feel that those titles are prestigious because they represent earning power or that someone has come from a wealthy background (if you’ve spent 12 years in school and not working, the money has to come from somewhere).
I rather like the Austrian perception better and I think that’s how it used to be in the US before our now perverse fascination with rich people behaving badly. There used to be a solid Protestant Work Ethic, meaning that hard work produces a reward both in physical comfort and spiritual well being. Wealth was to be enjoyed then, as it was seen as a blessing from god as well. However, there was also a strong philanthropic streak to that way of thinking (Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller) that has now been lost since the “Me” generation of the 1980′s and the financial cowboy wizards of the 2000′s.
Anyway, those are just some random thoughts. Your reader still didn’t explain why the shopping in Vienna is not the same as it is in Munich (or Berlin, or Paris) though. Or is it just that the Viennese wouldn’t visit an upscale (but not haute) store?
Sociologist Max Weber writes about this in “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.”