The proclamation of the Austrian Republic in November 1918, with the consequent collapse of the Habsburg monarchy, not only deprived the Church of its role, but also brought about the advent of a national identitarian debate in the newly-formed state, bitterly renamed as the "state that nobody wanted". Thus, the image of Austria started a process of reshaping from its former imperial multiethnic identity to a "never-ending" search for a national "Austrian" identity; the sense of being Austrian soon turned into an element of class and political division, undermining the foundations of...