A legal battle is fought and at the end of the day... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be declared either a German or an Austrian composer.
He won’t be “both,” he won’t be “neither,” he won’t be “Salsburgian”... oh no. He’s either going to be ruled 100 percent a German achiever and master achiever of Germany... or the equivalent in Austria. There’s no sharing.
The court of NSG shall weigh in on the ruling.
Here are the facts (subject to edits if I messed up)
1. He was born in Salzburg. Salzburg was part of the German-speaking Holy Roman Empire but independent at the time.
2. There was no state called Germany at the time.
3. Salzburg is part of modern day Austria, it was never annexed by either Prussia or Germany.
4. Mozart had strong connections to Vienna and had a huge part of his career there, Vienna is the modern capital of Austria; it was then the capital of the Hapsburg Empire (later, the Austrian Empire).
5. Mozart spoke German and considered himself German in an ethnic and cultural sense in his letters
6. His birthplace Salzburg has been called “the German Rome”
You must choose.
If the court must choose, should they declare Mozart German or Austrian? Which facts are the decisive ones?