Don't you think it had something to do with the fact that Austria was absorbed, albeit more or less voluntairily, into Germany? I mean Austria wasn't on par with Germany, not a constituent part of the third reich. Furthermore, the re-establishment of a very small, and rather insignificant, powerless country that was almost unrecognizable to the citizens, perhaps also played a role in the construction of a modern national identity. I know that if I was Austrian, I would be proud of the imperial pre-1914 history; I wouldn't see it a catastrophical, historical Other like the Germans would see the third reich.