Austrians still proud of ‘the Arnold’

GRAZ, Austria – On the plane from Geneva to Vienna, the blond-haired, blued-eyed woman sitting next to me (with her two Nordic children, nonetheless) talked endlessly, in an accent I could hardly understand, about the “Schwarz-Nager” in Austria.

After 27 hours of traveling, my brain heard only “schwarz” – the German word for “black.” I was clueless.

I soon learned what she was talking about. In flight, it had not occurred to me where I was heading. I thought I was going to Austria to study German, and perhaps have a few beers along the way. But alas, it would be the land of the “Schwarz-Nager” – Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A self-proclaimed film guru (if Bollywood and chick flicks count), I am yet an Arnold virgin. Barely making it through “Kindergarten Cop” when it was in syndication on the movie channel, I knew little about “the Arnold” before coming to his homeland. Adults and my 2-year-old host sister in Austria know more about his political career than Fox or CNN combined.

When I asked my host father if Austria (not a large country) made many of its own movies, he replied, “Of course we do! We are home to the most famous film star in the world.”

As far as I or anyone else in Austria can tell, however, Schwarzenegger was never in an Austrian film. His true fame and career in film and politics came only after his move to the United States. This transformation came after his bodybuilding career, which no Austrian cares to remember (perhaps because of the steroid allegations that surround him to this day).

Austrians are in amazement, though, of his ability to make it big not only in Hollywood, but also in politics.

“That would never happen in Austria,” my host father told me. “You cannot just decide to be a politician.”

That got me wondering, how did that happen in America? To many around the world, the USA is the land of milk and honey, the land where opportunity is in the air and where I was raised thinking I could be anything I wanted to be when I grew up.
 
And yet, it is not often that we as Americans see lawyers jumping the fence to become movie stars or burger flippers becoming CEOs as easily as Schwarzenegger jumped from bodybuilding to moviemaking to politics. Maybe the Austrians do have something to be proud of after all, if their main claim to fame has so easily done what none of them could ever dream of.

When I talked about Schwarzenegger with some proud Austrians, I myself was filled with pride. After seeing the humble town where Schwarzenegger was raised, I am proud that the United States welcomed Schwarzenegger as graciously as I have been welcomed in this foreign land.

While I did not come to Austria to become a famous film star or politician, there is still a sense that perhaps anything is possible in a place far from home, in the land of the Terminator.