Though the Alps may appear to be a peaceful place, the famed
mountains once provided the backdrop for a political,
environmental, and cultural battle as Germany and Austria struggled
to modernize. Tait Keller examines the mountains' threefold role in
transforming the two countries, as people sought respite in the
mountains, transformed and shaped them according to their needs,
and over time began to view them as national symbols and icons of
individualism.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Alps were regarded as a place of
solace from industrial development and the stresses of urban life.
Soon, however, mountaineers, or the so-called apostles of the Alps,
began carving the crags to suit their whims, altering the natural
landscape with trails and lodges, and seeking to modernize and
nationalize the high frontier. Disagreements over the meaning of
modernization opened the mountains to competing agendas and hostile
ambitions. Keller examines the ways in which these opposing
approaches corresponded to the political battles, social conflicts,
culture wars, and environmental crusades that shaped modern Germany
and Austria, placing the Alpine borderlands at the heart of the
German question of nationhood.