Braunschlag, 'Slumming', and the Great Nostalgia Trip: Why the Misfortunes of Others Are Suddenly Making Us Happy
You know that feeling? When you're strolling through Vienna's city centre in the evening, passing all the trendy bars, and suddenly you think to yourself: Wasn't everything genuinely better in the old days? It's no wonder everyone's talking about Braunschlag right now. Not just because the folk in this fictional backwater near the Czech border have proper problems – like an alleged million-euro find or a bishop tearing around on a motorbike – but because this place suddenly seems to be everywhere.
In a recent episode of a popular Austrian late-night show, the one that reliably serves up the requisite dose of dark humour on Tuesday evenings, the topic was, of course, omnipresent. The two presenters, never ones to mince their words, picked up on exactly what's preoccupying us all: that strange fascination with "slumming it". Back in the day, you might have popped out to Braunschlag for the weekend to see how the "country bumpkins" live. These days, you do the same thing, only you don't have to trek all the way to the Waldviertel anymore – just switching on the telly does the trick.
The Return of Proletarian Poetry
It's becoming an art form in itself: home-grown television has had an incredible run in recent years when it comes to portraying the supposedly "simple" life. But make no mistake, this isn't about taking the mickey. It's a love letter. When the telly covers the Oscars – and a certain Moschen recently reminded us on a current affairs show just how tight the race was this year – we're only half as interested as we are in wondering what the Braunschlag characters will get up to in their next dirndl or lederhosen.
A Viennese city magazine ran a brilliant comment piece last week with the motto "Things Were Better in the Old Days". And that's precisely the point: Braunschlag isn't a place. Braunschlag is a state of mind. It's the longing for a time when the world was still manageable. When the biggest scandal was the neighbour not building the garden fence straight, rather than the next global crisis.
What Exactly is This 'Slumming' Business, Then?
The term slumming originally comes from Victorian England. Wealthy toffs used to venture down into the poor quarters for a bit of amusement and a thrill. Today, we're all doing it, just much more subtly. And in a much more Austrian way. It's about:
- The Aesthetics of Decay: Shabby facades, overgrown gardens – we now find these "authentic" and "quaint".
- Being Strangers to Ourselves: We laugh at the dialects and quirky habits, but it's an affectionate laugh. It's our own reflection, distorted, but recognisable.
- The Search for Simplicity: In a complex world, life in a fictional Braunschlag seems refreshingly simple. Corruption, petty crime, pub brawls – these are problems you can still understand and, perhaps, even solve.
The discussions these series and documentaries spark are immense. Suddenly, you're sitting at the local wine tavern, not arguing about pensions, but debating whether the portrayal of Braunschlag isn't perhaps a tad too clichéd. And that's precisely where the genius lies: by talking about "slumming it" and about how we look down on the provinces, we expose ourselves as the true conformists we sometimes are.
Whether it's Braunschlag, the neighbours-from-hell on various chat shows, or the latest documentary about life in the federal states – the trend is clearly towards self-reflection. And that's a good thing. Because if you can't recognise yourself, you're just not with it. The main thing is we don't judge ourselves too harshly in the process. A bit of a laugh, a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour, has got to be part of it.