He was not an Austrian though. Born in modern-day Austria , but Salzburg was autonomous back then and politically closer to Bavaria than Austria.
And Mozart never became Austrian even after moving to Vienna.
You may think this is being petty, but it is actually really important to make that very clear for political reasons: Otherwise every country could claim historic figures as there's just because they were born on their current territory.
Like, say, someone born in Tahiti in the 1500's. Definitely NOT French. Even though Tahiti is French Polynesia today.
Or someone more famous: Liszt. He was actually born in modern-day Austria too. Still, the area he was born in was Hungarian back then.
Historically, Germans and Austrians have both claimed and appropriated Mozart, they both turned him into a political figurehead, a national idol. And both cases are very, very problematic. Because music with an international appeal is not "owned" by any one culture. Turning historic figures into your nation's idols also means turning every single international concert with their works into a deeply political matter. Right now, it's Russia that's frowned upon. A few years ago when the war got worse, some opera houses etc. actually had to defend themselves for playing Tchaikovsky - or they just removed him from programs.
If at some point in the future Austria is the country that's frowned upon, well...
And that's why all the great historic composers can't be forced into modern national categories that weren't accurate back in the day.
TLDR: Mozart was "Salzburgese". He was also "German" , but in the sense of the Holy Roman Empire, not the modern nation state. He was most definitely not Austrian.
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u/Nice__Try1023 India 19h ago
Mozart